Budding artist

"Mommy, can you draw Caillou"?Caillou is Morgan's favorite cartoon. The main character is a four year old boy. Morgan asked me to draw him on the chalkboard. How could I resist that face!
So, I drew him (on the left) and then Morgan took the chalk and drew his sister. I was so thrilled! She had never tried to draw a person before! Nevermind that it is a head with arms and legs, but no body. I think she did a very good job.

Tweet tweet

It is always nice to see that some birds have actually managed to stay out of reach of our cat, Cinder. I love watching them come to the porch to eat. This coming spring, I am going to get more feeders for a larger variety of birds.

Just hanging out

I guess Sandy didn't get enough of us yesterday. Morgan and I went over to visit because her granddaughters spent the night and Morgan wanted to see them.
For some odd reason, I think she mainly wanted to play with Sandy's antique doll and her animals.

Sandy and Madison were busy making a quilt for Madison.

Sandy has a cat, Frosty, who has red pupils. I swear, this is not from the flash. This cat's pupils always look red. Pretty cool, huh?

We had a nice visit and headed back home.

Thanksgiving 2008

I lucked out this year and was off the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving day. Jim wasn't so lucky, he had to work. Since I was off on Wednesday, I was able to prep and get a lot of things done the day before, like the pecan pies.

But, since Jim was working, I had to load everything to take to Sandy's house on my own. Sandy and I always do Thanksgiving at her house since it is much larger than our house.

I made the turkey, gravy, stuffing, royal yams, green beans slow cooked with bacon, roasted vegetables, and pecan pies.

I usually make more side dishes, but Sandy and her daughter, Paula, made more than enough. Sandy made a ham, so we had plenty of meat.

As usual, I couldn't get Morgan to eat anything, not even mashed potatoes. She had a great time though. For the first time, she didn't cling to me at Thanksgiving and I was able to eat my food.

Morgan kept busy playing with the dog and cats and stealing the cat toys. Here she is showing me a toy mouse, or "cat rat" as Sandy's husband called it.

Here she is running away with the cat's toys.

She enjoyed hanging out with Sandy's grandkids. Here she is with Madison.

She finally wore down.

As for the rest of us, we enjoyed our feast! All of the food was great, (as usual)! Jim didn't miss out though. I packed several containers of food for him and took it to him at work.

Wonderful pie

I have a sweet tooth and usually when something is too sweet for others, I love it. But, pecan pies have always seemed sickingly sweet to me. A lady I work with told me she found a recipe for a pecan pie that used oatmeal to cut down on the sweetness. I decided to give it a try for Thanksgiving.

My best friend, Sandy, and I always have Thanksgiving at her house with her family and mine. We split the cooking up. Since she was making pumpkin pies, I decided to bring a pecan pie. I ended up making two. I used the Oatmeal Pecan Pie recipe and a pecan pie recipe that didn't use any corn syrup.

Here is the recipe for the Oatmeal Pecan Pie:

Ingredients:
1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
Cooking spray
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup regular oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°.
Roll dough into an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under; flute.

Combine brown sugar and remaining ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on a wire rack.



I was all ready to make the pie when I noticed that the recipe called for regular oats. I had bought the Quaker quick oats. I hoped that it would turn out okay. I also added to few pecan halves on top of the pie to make it look prettier. BTW, this is the first time I fluted the edges of a pie like that. Not too bad for a beginner!

The pie was absolutely delicious! It was a hit and has now been added to my Thanksgiving recipe collection. The pie was sweet, but not too sweet.

The pecan pie without the corn syrup was also very good, but the other one was much better.

Proud artist

I retrieved this chalk board that the neighbors were going to throw out and Morgan loves it. Here is her drawing of Mickey Mouse. Not bad for a three year old.

Polish Luncheon

Today we held our monthly luncheon at Cheryl's house for the first time. The theme this month was the Republic of Poland (or Polska).

Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north.

Polish cuisine is a mixture of Slavic culinary traditions. It is rich in meat, especially chicken and pork, winter vegetables, and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the pierogi.

Pierogi have long been a traditional Polish food staple. Dough filled with cheese, potatoes, onions, cabbage, mushrooms, meat (or almost any other ingredient, savory or sweet, that you can think of), pierogi are served steaming hot boiled or fried and are accompanied by sour cream.

Our original menu was much smaller than at past luncheons. Here was the menu:

Polish Cucumber and Sour Cream Salad

Cauliflower A La Polonaise (Kalafior po Polsku)

Golombki (Stuffed Cabbage) Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogi
Cheese and Potato Pierogi
Polish Eggs

Polish Quick Cake With Fruit (Placek Z Owocami)

Three of our regulars were unable to come due to sickness and other reasons, so we didn't get to try the Polish cucumber and sour cream salad or the Cauliflower A La Polonaise.

Sandy tackled the task of making the Polish eggs.

The eggs are served in the shells, so if you've never done it before, it can be quite tricky trying to cut the egg shells without damaging them.

The eggs were boiled in water with a TBSP of vinegar added to the water. I don't know what the vinegar accomplishes, but that was in the instructions. The the shell is cut lengthwise and the eggs carefully scooped out.

The eggs are then mashed and mixed with sour cream, horseradish, dill, salt & pepper. Then the filling is placed into the shells.

The eggs are gently pressed into seasoned breadcrumbs, then placed face down into a pan of melted butter and cooked a minute or two until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

The eggs were pretty good, but I think it was a lot of trouble for the end result. (Sorry Sandy). There was nothing about them that wowed me.

Cheryl made the Golombki (Stuffed Cabbage) with Polish sausage.

The filling had:

1 Tbs Salt
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
1 lb. Chopped Beef
1/2 Lb. Chopped Pork
1/2 Lb. Chopped Veal
1 med. onion, chopped
6 oz. tomato paste

I liked the cabbage rolls, but they didn't have much seasoning to them. I don't know if this is normal for Polish cabbage rolls, or if that was just the recipe that was found, but they were plain and I would have liked to have had more flavor to the rolls.

I made the pierogi.

The dough was a standard egg noodle or dumpling dough. I should have used my pasta maker, but I rolled out the dough by hand.

The first filling I made was the mushroom and sauerkraut one. The sauerkraut was rinsed and drained, then sauteed in butter. I used baby portabellas and some wild mushrooms, minced them, and sauteed them in butter as well as some onions. Then I mixed the onions, mushrooms, and sauerkraut together and seasoned them with pepper.

The other filling I made was for the cheese and potato pierogi. Farmer's cheese is used for this dish traditionally, but I couldn't find any at my local stores, so I used cottage cheese which is also used a lot for a substitute. First I drained the cottage cheese for a few hours in cheese cloth. The result did not resemble cottage cheese, but rather it looked like a ball of soft cheese.

I boiled potatoes and mashed them with the cheese. Then I mixed in a raw egg, sauteed onions, salt and pepper.

The fillings were cooled before I put together the pierogi. Once I put them together, I placed them in a pot of boiling water and cooked them until they rose to the top of the pan. I made them the night before the luncheon and froze them afterwards.

After I arrived at Cheryl's house, I took my thawed perogi and browned them in a pan of butter. To serve, they were topped with onions that had been sauteed in butter, and sour cream.

It was a lot of work, but the end result was worth it because they were a big hit. I am a huge potato fan, but my favorites were the mushroom and sauerkraut stuffed pierogi.

Sandy made the Polish Quick Cake With Fruit (Placek Z Owocami). Here is the cake recipe:

3 eggs
1/3 lb unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
fruit, any type (apples, peaches, plums, etc.)

Beat butter and sugar until smooth an creamy. Add 1 egg at a time, alternating with flour and beat well until blended. Pour batter into grease 9 x 13 pan. Arrange fruit such as sliced peaches, apples dusted with cinnamon or plums sliced in half on top of cake so it's well distributed. Bake at 350°F 30 - 40 minutes until cake is golden. Cool and dust with icing sugar.

Sandy used peaches for her cake. I liked the cake. It was a nice finish to our little meal.

We called Paula, looking for her. She mixed up the date and thought the luncheon was next week! We told her to come on over anyway. So, we waited for her to arrive before we ate.

Lori was at the luncheon as well.

Debi, Susanne, and Sharon were sorely missed. But, we had a nice lunch anyway. The next luncheon is at Debi's house. We will be discarding our usual theme of making food from one country, and will be bringing family favorites for a Christmas luncheon.

EMS Banquet

Our last class ended at 5 p.m. today, and the awards banquet started at 6:30 p.m. Since we were staying at another hotel, we skipped our last class. This gave us plenty of time to get ready for the banquet.

I wish that I had gotten Jim or someone to get a picture of my whole dress (and red high heels), but I didn't ask anyone.

We found seats at a table with one of Jim's old coworkers. The tables were set and the desserts were already at the table. The menu was a Caeser salad, steak (medium rare), grilled chicken breast, broccoli, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and cheese cake.

I have found that as I've been getting older, I try foods that I would have never eaten in the past. For example, two years ago I said I would never eat sushi. I have since eaten sushi many times and really like it (as an appetizer). Tonight, I ate the medium rare steak. I never liked my steak to have any pink before because it tasted like blood to me. But, I found that I really liked the steak tonight. I didn't even put any steak sauce on it. So, I am expanding my horizons

and my love of food.

I was excited about the guest speaker tonight and was looking forward to seeing him. It was John C. McGinley who plays Dr. Perry Cox on "Scrubs". That is my favorite character on that show. He was also in "Platoon", "Sweet Liberty", "Wall Street", "Talk Radio", and "Wild Hogs" to name a few.

He started out with a funny story that involved Alan Alda and the movie "Sweet Liberty". I enjoyed that story, but it was downhill from there. He would start a story and would ramble. Then he was pretty much pushing a book that he wrote about listening the rest of the time. He didn't say we should buy it, but he kept mentioning the title, and it got old after a while. After his speech, he did take questions from the audience. Just a handful of questions were asked and then he hightailed it out of the building. I had hoped he would hang around for a while.

I did hear that the previous evening he hung out in the lobby of the hotel for some time.

Usually when there is a speaker at these banquets, they try to mention the EMS providers that they came to honor, or they try to relate in some way. The only time that he mentioned EMS was when someone specifically asked him if he had any experience with EMS providers. Even when he was asked directly, he didn't give a direct answer.

But, all in all I enjoyed the evening. I had decent food and good company. Jim and I didn't stay for the dance afterwards. He is not much of a dancer. That's okay, I saved my feet from a lot of pain from dancing in heels!

I is educated

We arrived at our hotel last night, which was about seven miles from the hotel where the EMS symposium is held. I liked our room because it was a suite. We had a seperate living room and a mini kitchen. There were two televisions in our room which was great since Jim and I watch different shows. I picked that hotel because they served a full breakfast that was included.

This morning, Jim and I had two classes together. But, those are the only classes we will have together. Each of my classes are 1 1/2 hours long. There is a half hour break between each class and a 1 1/2 hour lunch break.

After lunch, I had an IV class. There were several instructors at different stations. I got the instructor that had all of the problems. First, she had problems hooking up the fake blood to the mannequin's fake veins. She made a huge mess.

Then, the poor baby mannequin lost an arm, a leg, and finally its head. We were able to get some practice in, but I noticed the instructors at the other stations were a lot more informative than mine was. It figures.

Dress up

Every November, Jim and I go to Norfolk, VA to the annual EMS Symposium. It is the second week of November and lasts from Wednesday through Sunday. We spend every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in classes earning continuing education hours. When we get the required amount of credits, we can recertify our EMT-I and Paramedic.

On Saturday, they always hold an awards banquet. Most of the people dress up for the banquet. I went shopping yesterday for a black cocktail dress to wear to the banquet.

This evening, I modeled the dress for Morgan, along with some shoes I bought. When Morgan saw me dressed up, she decided that she wanted to dress up as well. She told me that I looked like a dancer and she wanted to wear a dancer dress too.

I went into her closet and dug out last year's Christmas dress, which probably fits her better this year than last. She twirled around and danced.

Then she wanted to try on a pair of my shoes. I let her try on the low heels. The funny thing is, it was not very long ago that Morgan did not want to wear dresses. We had to tell her a dress was a "long shirt" in order to get her to wear it. I am thrilled that she wants to wear dresses now!

We had a fun evening, dressing up and dancing. But, then it was time for Jim and I to leave for Norfolk. Morgan was staying at our home with her Godparents.

I think I can

Tonight, when it was time to get ready for bed, Morgan decided that she wanted to button her pajamas all by herself.

She tried
and tried

and tried

Finally, she let her Daddy help her.

Poor girl, she looks defeated, doesn't she? She did manage to get two buttons done by herself!

Morgan's First Time at the Movies

Morgan came to me this morning, held out her arm, then said, "Smell me. I'm stinky." She always tells me she is stinky when she wants to take a bath. Of course, she smelled just fine. But, I agreed with her and said, "Phew! You ARE stinky! You need to take a bath!

After her long bubble bath with her tub toys (that number about 30), she wanted her hair in a towel like Mommy does her hair after a shower.
After she got dressed, she wanted to paint. I was thinking, "Oh great! She should have painted before she took a bath!" But, she did not get one drop of paint on her. She painted six pictures because she has six colors of paint and only paints one color per page.

You'll notice she now has two temporary tattoos on. One with Dora the Explorer, and one with a toothbrush and a dentist ad. Morgan's Daddy hates temporary tattoos, but hey, they are only temporary!

By the time she was done painting, Jim woke up. He had worked overtime last night. We had planned on taking Morgan to see a movie at a theater for the first time. "Madagascar Escape 2 Africa" opened yesterday. Morgan has the first movie that came out in 2005 and loves it, so I figured the sequel would be the perfect movie to take her to.

Morgan wanted to bring Bert and Ernie with her. On the way out, she pointed out that the moon was out.

We went to McDonald's first. We didn't have time before the movie to go to a regular restaurant. I wanted to see if McDonald's had the Madagascar toys in the Happy Meals yet anyway. They did and Morgan got the giraffe character (Melman).

After a quick dinner, we headed to the movie theater. I had purchased the tickets in advance so we didn't have to wait in line, but, there was a long line for the snack bar. Morgan and I went and got seats while Jim bought the popcorn.

I thought that when Morgan saw the huge movie screen that she would be in awe. But, she just looked at it and asked when Madagascar was coming. You would have thought that she had been to the movies before. She was pretty nonchalant about everything, except sitting next to another girl about her age.

When we sat down, she told me she wanted to say hi to the little girl next to her. She said, "Hi!" and the girl just looked at her. She looked kind of shy. So, Morgan said hi to her again. After that, the girl switched seats and sat on the other side of her Mom. I don't know if she was just shy or if Morgan gave her the creeps (like a stalker would). I am hoping she was just shy. I didn't think that Morgan was acting creepy.

Anyway, we all liked the movie. I haven't decided if I like it more than the first one yet. But, I did like it. When it was over, Morgan looked at me and asked, "Can we see it again?" I explained that the movie was over, but we will more than likely take her again. Jim was pleasantly surprised that Morgan (and the rest of the audience) was well behaved.