Porter House

because....

Kacey brought her camera to Ryan's baseball practice, I was able to take all these pictures. Thank you Kacey. Ryan is now the catcher for his team because he does not fear the ball.  He loves it! Emily loves all the sunshine at practice.

Emily's 1st Birthday!

We had a very impromptu family gathering for Emily's birthday last night at Justin's parents house.  We were just gonna do cake at our house, but Justin's mother invited us over.  She even ordered pizza! I have mentioned several times that I am not a cake decorator. Emily did get a delicious cake in her favorite flavor though. I made Cook's Illustrated dark chocolate cupcakes with their vanilla bean buttercream. I made Emily a 6-inch cake and the rest of us had cupcakes.

We had a busy morning getting Emily's pictures taken. I don't think I stopped moving all day.  I got some good pictures though. Even though Emily's hair was a little funny. :)

Notice her adorable shoes. They were a birthday present from Justin's mother. They are her first shoes, and she can actually walk in them. They make some good shoes at Robeez.

It took her about 20 minutes to get this far into her cake. In fact, I had to use a fork to break into the chocolate cake to get her eating it. Apparently she didn't want to get messy.

This was what she looked like afterwards though. Ha!

 

Birthday Measurements: 

Weight- 24.6 lbs

Height- 30 1/2 inches

Meet Emily, she's a doll...

Hello everybody! I want to introduce you to my adorable baby girl, Emily Clare Porter. She is on the left, on the right is my sister's baby Maryn. Emily is 7 1/2 months old now.

 

To say she keeps me busy is an understatement. I do not have quite as much time as I use to. Life is getting back to normal now though, she is able to crawl around on her own. I am excited about posting about all my cooking/baking endeavors again. I have missed sharing them all with you.

Tonight, I am baking a cherry pie. Mostly so I can try out my new favorite ingredient. I bought some instant ClearJel from the Baker's Catalog. It is a type of modified corn starch and it is amazing. It does not require heat to thicken like regular cornstarch. You can freeze pies using it with no trouble, and it is the best thickener to use in pies like a fresh strawberry, where you need a thickened glaze without baking.

I used the cherry pie recipe in ATK's Family Baking Book. It has all the flavors I like in a cherry pie like cinnamon and almond. I used the ClearJel one for one in place of the cornstarch. It also comes with instructions for using jarred/canned cherries, which I need. I have never seen fresh sour cherries, and I doubt I will down here in Louisiana.

The pie turned out absolutely gorgeous! I love a lattice pie. I always feel like I should be entering it in a fair somewhere.

 

 

I have a ton of stuff to mention, but I will go into most of it later. However, I did want to tell you that one of the main reasons I started blogging today, was because I am excited about registering with French Fridays With Dorie. I received Dorie's new cookbook this week and I am trying my first recipe from it today. It is oven roasted corn that you roast in the husk, and then shuck afterward. It smells so good while it is roasting. I have lots of recipes flagged and it should be a good time to cook with a virtual group.

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.

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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.