Porter House

White Chocolate & Sour Cherry Scones

I had to mention this awesome recipe I got from David Lebovitz's blog. I was excited when I saw the buckwheat flour and cornmeal.... but it was the white chocolate and sour cherries that sealed the deal. I had to make them. They were crazy good. I ate two immediately and I am contemplating a third. I love any recipe that throws in whole grains, and the cornmeal adds great texture.

I especially loved the crispy brown edges. You need to get to a health food store and pick up the buckwheat flour. You can also use it to make these fantastic buckwheat pancakes. Hopefully you already have some whole grain cornmeal on hand. Pick up some dried sour cherries from the raisin section of your grocery store, and some Callebaut or Lindt white chocolate there, too.

Are they worth all the running around? Yes! Buy extra ingredients...  You will want to make them again.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________


I missed doing Ryan's height/weight chart while we were in Disney, so here it is. (This pic was taken on his birthday, outside Epcot.)

Ryan's height/weight at age 6: H- 47 1/2 inches W- 42.8 lbs.

Arrival Night at Chef Mickey's

We arrived in Orlando on time. We rented our car (and got a free upgrade), then drove to our hotel. Our Tom Tom was indispensable. We borrowed it from my mother-in-law. I really want one now. The hotel was amazing, it was also huge. I am very glad we had our own car. We brought all our bags to our room, and changed into our swimsuits. We walked over to the Dig Site pool. The kids had an great time on the slide. After a couple of hours we went back to our room and changed. Then we drove over to the Contemporary Hotel.

We had reservations at Chef Mickey's that we were really looking forward to. You get to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy. The food was average buffet quality, but they had a lot of variety. We secretly ordered Ryan a My Mini Cake Surprise in anticipation of his 6th birthday. It was a small cake that came in a Pirate chest along with a few toys.

The kids got all their autographs in their book from last trip. It was a lot of fun. After we made it back to our hotel room, we were all pretty beat. We knew we had an early morning so we went to bed early. It was a wonderful way to start the trip.

It's about time to go...

I made a good home cooked meal tonight. I figure we will be missing them next week. I will not miss cooking though, I am ready to let other people do it for me. I made a lovely cajun meatloaf, smashed potatoes, and biscuits. Yum. It was delicious and hit the spot. Now that the weekend is here, I can concentrate on washing, packing, and planning for our departure. Sunday we are going to have a fish fry at my inlaws house, and then spend the night. That will get us 30 minutes closer to our airport Monday.

I am paranoid that I am going to forget to check-in online for our flight Sunday morning. I actually set an alarm on my phone. I am so looking forward to this trip. I think it will be a bit more relaxing this time since we know what to expect. We might spend a little more time in the pool .

I will likely be writing up a trip report when we get home. I really love reading over my last one. We get back on the 18th, so you will hear from me sometime after that.

Oh, and for dessert tonight I made the strawberry pie out of the new Cook's Country. I think it turned out pretty special.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

I hope you all have a great day. I will be thinking of my Dad and my father-in-law, who both happen to be working in Texas and unable to come home for the holiday. My kids loved their Easter baskets this morning, especially the Blendy pens. Here is their beautiful artwork:

Kacey's Rocket Ship

 
Ryan's Beetle

St. Patrick's Day Recap

St. Patrick's Day ended on a frantic note for us. It worked out fine though, and the meal was great. The guests included: my family of four, my sister Karen/her husband Jason/Ava and Jack, my dad, as well as a later visit from my mother-in-law Paula.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I corned my own corn beef using a Martha Stewart recipe. I am thrilled to be able to tell you that it was totally worth the two-week wait.

I will be using my pink salt to make this again soon. After I removed it from the simmering liquid, I put it in a 400 degree oven. This rendered off some of the fat cap, and it dried/browned the exterior nicely. I simmered two head of cabbage in the remaining liquid, and made up a double batch of turnip mashed potatoes. I had also made a wheat and white loaf of Irish soda bread.

For dessert I made the Gramercy Tavern gingerbread as well as the chocolate stout cake. I made the gingerbread in a loaf form, and made the chocolate stout cake into a bundt cake. I had extra batter though, so I made cupcakes and iced them with leftover whipped caramel ganache.



The very surprising, utterly delicious, star of the night (at least for me and Karen, the boys drank Guinness) were these Green Lanterns. We even kept these virgin and they still made us swoon. They were so refreshing. I had made a double batch. Karen and I, drank it all, without telling the kids about them. I have stocked up on the few ingredients and I am making them again tonight.

 

It is a good thing I kept them virgin. At some point after dinner the kids made up a new game in the play room. Bumper cars. As you can imagine, this didn't end well. Ryan got bumped a bit too hard accidentally and hit his forehead on a bedpost. They all came running into the living room. Ryan's head was pouring blood. He had gashed it pretty good. I didn't go into the medical field for a reason. Unfortunately, no one told me how much blood and broken bones you see as a parent! We quickly changed him into some fresh clothes, held a damp rag/ice to his head, and Justin and I drove him the 20 miles to the er. We were dreading the wait, but luckily they have implemented a new fast track program. We got in and out in less than two hours. He is so good  in these situations. He stayed perfectly still and answered all the doctor's questions. The last of the numbing and stitching started to really hurt him, but he still didn't move or cry. By the time, he received his orange popsicle, he was all better.

My sister is building her dream house...

...and I am jealous. That will not stop me from thoroughly enjoying the process though. I am so happy for her. I am also happy for myself, because I plan on spending a lot of quality time there! Justin and I dropped the kids off at school and then made the hours drive to my sister's house.

Driving up and seeing that house going up was incredible. We grew up running around that wild land and now it is being tamed. Crazy! I managed to stop by her current house first and get a cup of coffee before we ran over there.

It was really good to be able to see the house in person, and get a feel for it to scale. It feels a lot larger when you are standing in it. We walked around the lower level. I got to stand in the kitchen for the first time. I found out just how big the amazing porches would be, and be amazed by all the huge windows. We left the builders to build and went and ate a quick lunch.

We ran back over there while they were eating their lunch. We got to visit with them for a minute, and then we climbed the scaffolding to the second level. That was awesome. The place is going to have great views, and I (I mean) the kids have amazing bedrooms.

I managed to take a of couple pictures. Even one or two with Karen in them. Oops. They are not as good as Karen's, but my battery was dying and I had to take them when Karen wasn't paying attention.

 

My girl got braces today. She was excited to pick out her colors, and so far she doesn't have any pain. The braces make her look more like a teenager and less like a young girl. Very scary. After these braces come off, she is really gonna be gorgeous.

My plans in May...

I want to tell you about what I have been planning for a couple months now, but first I have to explain how it came about. I am going to a conference in Orlando in May. It is FORCE's annual conference for people with BRCA1/BRCA2 or people who are otherwise at high-risk for hereditary breast or ovarian cancer. Breast, ovarian, prostate and other cancers have been rampant in my Dad's family for years. It has affected pretty much every member of a certain age range. When my cousin was diagnosed in her early thirties with breast cancer, she took the step of getting tested for the gene. She was positive for BRCA1. A few years later my Dad got tested in the hopes of eliminating the risk for his three daughters. He had a 50/50 chance, but he was positive as well. So a few years ago I finally got tested myself. I also came back positive. This gene mutation carries with it up to an 85% chance of getting breast cancer in my lifetime. These hereditary cancers also tend to strike earlier and be more aggressive.  It also increases the ovarian cancer risk, which is notoriously hard to find early.

Everyone has BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. They are breast and ovary tumor suppressant genes. If you have the mutation, one copy of the gene is inactive. This means that you do not have the defense against developing cancer that people without the mutation have. (This is how I understand all the information. I do not claim to have a perfect grasp on it all. This is where the conference will help a bunch.)

I am excited about this conference. It will provide tons of information, straight from the people who really understand it all. It will give me a clearer picture of maintaining my frequent screenings, as well as discuss my preventative options. I am still secretly hoping Christina Applegate will pop up at the conference ;). She is also BRCA1 or BRCA2 positive...

A lot of people have mentioned to me that they would not want to know if they had the gene. I certainly can see their point of view. However, I feel much safer knowing my risk, and having my breast MRI and mammograms every year. I am a mother. I feel I need to do what ever I can to assure that I will be here for them.

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

Now! On to the lighter side of this post. I could not fly all the way to Orlando without visiting Disney World. Originally Justin and I were going to fly down together, and tack on a couple of days there alone. I have never been good at leaving my kids for any length of time though. Poor Ryan (at age 5 1/2), has still only spent like 2 nights away from me. Besides it was Disney World, right? I decided after talking to Ryan's teacher that I probably could pull them out of school. (I am pretty relaxed on this subject anyway.)

So, in only three months the four of us are flying to Florida for 7 nights. Two of the days, they will do their own thing in the parks while I am at the conference. The conference happens to be on Disney Resort property, so it works perfectly. We are staying at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. They have an awesome Mayan Pyramid themed pool with a water slide, that the kids are going to love!

The other exciting thing is that we will be there over Ryan's 6th birthday. This ties in perfectly with Disney's What will You Celebrate campaign. We cannot wait for this trip. It is going to be even more fun because we learned so much two years ago when we went.

Why I haven't posted...

Updated Below.

I think my family has been saving up their sick days, and then finally decided to use them all at the same time. It started with a small cold over a week ago, we all got it but it was perfectly bearable. Then last Wednesday, came the night I had been dreading for quite a while. Ryan caught a stomach virus from school. I really hate stomach viruses. Ryan was sick for about 18-24 hours. The first twelve were the worst though. Then I got it. Luckily we did have some Phenergan. It helped a lot. Right when I was able to think about moving again, it hit Kacey. The whole time Justin is working 12-hour nights, and we are worried he will get it and miss work. Luckily, while he is nauseous and weak for a couple of days he seems to have the mildest version.

During all this, my newest wisdom tooth starts hurting. It gets so bad that I can't go to sleep without caking on Oragel and taking Advil. It hurts to chew, brush my teeth, talk. I assume it is infected.

During my bout with the stomach virus, Justin notices that Ryan has two quite large bumps on the back of his neck. I tell him that is sounds like swollen lymph nodes and not to worry too much. Yesterday though, Ryan woke up saying they were hurting him. I took him to his doctor. We get to wait for hours in a room packed with sick children. We finally see the doctor. Apparently, if lymph nodes are painful when they are swollen it indicates infection rather than something more serious. He tested negative for mono and is given an antibiotic.

Yesterday, is also when my throat started to hurt. When we got home from the doctor I realized I was feverish. I took Advil and rested on the couch. By this morning, my throat hurts worse than I believe it ever has in my life. I am still feverish. I have a doctor's appointment in an hour and half. I just want to go back to bed but the pain in my throat won't let me. Thanks for listening to all this whining, blame the rambling on my fever. I will keep you updated.

Strep. I have strep. I do not even know who I could have gotten from. I had forgotten how bad a strep throat hurt. I had a nice shot of penicillin, and a prescription antibiotic, so hopefully I will start getting better soon. Thank you for the comments, they mean a lot. Karen, aren't you glad we haven't seen each other in a while? Now, talk Justin into making this soup for me tonight. Do you add a whole box of wild rice as well as the brown?

Sugar and Cocoa

We spent last Sunday at my husband's grandmother's house in the country. His aunt and uncle were in town from Tennessee. His grandmother is what I hope to be in 45-50 years. Justin's grandfather died after a long illness over 15 years ago. I can't imagine how hard it must be to take care of your loved one like that for years, and then to be without him. The mixture of emotions must be incredibly hard to deal with.

We call her Sugar. I believe she got that name the same way my grandfather is called Honey. I guess it is fairly common. When young children grow up hearing pet names instead of real ones, occasionally they stick. Too funny.

Sugar is incredible. She is a steady member of her church and extremely active. She owns a  big motor home and used to travel around the country constantly. She has been everywhere. A few years ago though, she married an extremely nice man from her church and has "settled down".

Her husband Charlie raises some cows a few miles from his home. The other day he was heading out to bottle feed a baby calf named Cocoa. Apparently her mother had her a couple days after she had her twin. Once she showed up her mother wouldn't nurse her. So Charlie drives out there a couple times a day to feed her. Justin and I followed him out there with five of the children.

I also got the chance to try out my zoom with image stabilization. Now I took this picture from about 50 yards away, and my hands were shaking like crazy. I was impressed with the clarity.

We had a really nice day. The coconut pie I brought got totally consumed, as did the meringue stars with ground unsweetened chocolate. I was surprised how popular those were. I had just made them to use up my extra egg whites from the pie. They are pretty great. They practically taste like chocolate chip cookies only with 0 fat. Sorry no pics....