Not Your Average Bear

Emma is not your average kid. She just proved it all over again. Monday night she threw up five times. She was so happy and chipper it was weird. She would throw up and then smile and happily ask if it was time to brush her teeth. Then skip off to bed. In the morning she sat on the couch smiling and laughed when I told her I saw her teacher when I took Justin to school. She was so happy that her teacher knew she had thrown up. What is wrong with this kid?! Today she is doing better, but not all the way yet. I hope she gets over it quick because we are going on a trip with friends tomorrow, and I really could use some serious sleep too.

This is Emma yesterday morning. Whenever Justin thinks Emma might throw up he plugs his ears.

Caribbean Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 habanero, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons fennel seed
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons allspice
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 7 pounds chicken wings

Directions

In a food processor, blend together all the ingredients but the chicken until smooth. Reserve 1 cup of marinade. Place chicken wings into a large resealable plastic bag and pour remaining marinade over them. Seal and marinate in the refrigerator 4 to 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 sheet trays with parchment. Remove chicken from bag and place on the baking sheets. Bake 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan bring reserved marinade to a boil. Reduce by 1/3 until it thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove chicken from oven. Brush chicken with the glaze. Raise the heat to 400 degrees F and cook chicken until cooked through, another 20 minutes. Recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com

This recipe is a bit different than what we usually eat, but I really liked it. The more I ate it the more I liked it. (I made sandwiches with it for lunch for two days.) When Charlie ate it I asked what he thought and he said he wasn't sure. I took some to my neighbors to get their opinions and they really liked it too. (Or at least that is what they said. They are pretty nice, so they might not want to hurt my feelings.) I doubled the marinade and cut the chicken to 4 lbs. I used chicken breast with bones and skin. We don't really like bones on our meat and we don't eat the skin, so next time I will use boneless skinless ckn. breasts. I took the chicken off the bone and kind of shredded the chicken into big pieces and drizzled the glaze over it. I cut the habanero pepper to 1/2 pepper for a doubled recipe. It was still pretty spicy, but not too bad. I also left out the fennel seeds because I hate them. Be careful with the habanero pepper because I seeded and washed it with my hands and then later touched my face. My face stung so bad the rest of the day. I was close to crying.

Recipes

Heather recently posted on her blog and asked for people to post recipes they like. I thought it was a great idea. I have been trying a lot of new recipes lately, some good some not so good. I usually find new recipes at allrecipes.com and check most helpful reviews or from foodnetwork.com. I am trying a Caribbean Chicken recipe tonight. If it is good I will post that one too.

Chicken Tortilla Soup (allrecipes)

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup chunky salsa
• 8 ounces corn tortilla chips
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot over medium heat, saute the chicken in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin and mix well. Then add the broth, corn, onion, chili powder, lemon juice and salsa. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Break up some tortilla chips into individual bowls and pour soup over chips. Top with the Monterrey Jack cheese and a little sour cream.

MY CHANGES: I boiled the chicken in chicken broth, shredded it, then sauteed it with the garlic. I also added a can of drained pinto beans. I really liked it.

Kelly's Sirloin Burgers (my own recipe)
1/2 lb. ground sirloin
1/2 lb. ground beef
Kosher salt, pepper, and granulated garlic to taste
1 Tablespoon A1
1Tablespoon Famous Dave's sweet and zesty BBQ sauce

Mix in bowl and form burgers. Heat grill. I use a charcoal grill and put the coals on one side. On a gas grill it would be like having half the grill set to high and the other half set to low. I put the burgers on the hot side for a couple minutes making sure not to burn. Then flip burgers over onto the low side of BBQ and put down lid. After a minute or two Put a dollop of BBQ sauce on each burger topped with a mild green chili. Put down lid for another couple minutes. Cover the chilies with Jack cheese and put down lid again. When burgers are cooked and cheese is bubbly remove. I serve on a bun with only BBQ sauce. These are our favorite burgers. Charlie doesn't like the chilies so he has his with avocado, tomato and lettuce. If you make the burger really thick just be aware that the different meats cook at different temperatures so mix really well and make sure it is cooked all the way through. Medium to thin burgers don't really have a problem.

Obama

Okay, I really like Obama. I am not delusional. Well that is not true, but I don't think he is perfect, nor does he have all the right answers or even the all the same values that I have. I just think he is intelligent and has so much potential. I'm sure I won't agree with everything he does, but so what. I don't agree with anyone all of the time. I must say it is nice to have a president that speaks well again. No offense, I think Bush is a good guy, he just doesn't come across as brilliant.
I watched the inauguration online and made the kids watch clips and some analysis about it. Justin said he is soooo excited to have a black president and said it was so important for our country, blah, blah, blah, don't you agree, Mom? I said yeah, it's great, but I don't think him being black is the most important part. I just want him to do a good job. Emma walks up to the T.V. and says Obama is not black. He is more light brown, but totally not black.

This Week...

Ever since I saw Ginger's post about making parachutes out of sheets on a windy day I have been wanting to try it. Whenever it is windy it always seems to die down when the kids get home from school. Monday was pretty windy so I told the kids we would finally try it. It did die down, but there were still some decent gusts. I took the kids to the park and we tried it. Justin thought they looked lame since there wasn't enough wind and took off his sheet right when a huge gust came. Emma couldn't seem to get it right and ended up tying it around her head. Mia wrapped up and laid down on my lap.

Tuesday I went to court to fight a ticket. This was my first traffic ticket. It was really lame and the officer wrote a bunch of incorrect things on the ticket like it was raining, there was traffic and I should have been going 0 mph. It was at the end of my street (a cul-de-sac) and I turned left as he came around the corner next to my street. Anyway, I was all ready to fight it with the weather report for that day, pictures and maps. I got to court and the officer stood up and asked to have the ticket dismissed. Woo Hoo!! I was really happy.

Thursday I took the kids to the Skirball Museum's Noah's Ark Exhibit. It was really fun, except Emma was upset to leave school early. The animals are all made out of old household items. It is really cool. Justin got bored after about an hour, but they all really enjoyed it.




















































































This morning I got out the margarine. Does anyone else think this looks like little finger marks? Gag.

AI

I watched American Idol tonight. By far my favorite part was at the very end when Ryan Seacrest tried to high five a blind man. It was hilarious, what was Ryan thinking? Oh, that's right, he wasn't.

See it on youtube here. Okay, Fox made them take down the clip, but other people keep posting it so if you go to youtube you can search Ryan Seacrest high five and it will bring some up.

You Make Me Want To Vomit

Today I was walking home from school with my girls. I was holding Mia and she was facing me with her hands around my neck. We were looking into each others' eyes and I thought about how nice and sweet this mother-daughter moment was... until she says "Mom, let's both stick out our tongues and put them together." I drop her to the ground and hold her hand instead.

Christmas 2008

This year has been great. I love the Christmas season. There is so much to do and I rarely fit all that I want into our schedule.

First, my kids think that frost on the house and grass in the morning is snow. Only in southern California would this count as "snow."

Next, what would Christmas be without a holiday program at school and time with some friends? My favorite thing this year was Emma going around the house singing "Hanukkah, Hanukkah, happy happy Hanukkah." It just makes me laugh.

Charlie is always telling me that we can never move, our neighbors are just too great. I love our neighbors too, but would like more house. Our neighbors watch out for each other and our kids. They give us presents, see us working on our house and grab their tools without being asked and spend their Saturday working with us, they practice being grandparents on our children, they bring in each others trashcans, they give Charlie a hard time when I do yard work, they check to make sure I'm not having an affair if they see a man stop by during the day, they close our car doors if we leave them open, and we have each other over for dinners. Then this year one of our neighbors knocked on our door and came in to visit our kids. He was dressed as Santa. Mia ran to the door and peeked through the curtain to see who it was. When she saw Santa she ran and hid. It took a few minutes to find her. Mia has a fear of Santa, last year she hid under her bed for the week leading up to Christmas. When I would get her up in the morning she would ask in a terrified voice if Santa had come. Emma and Justin were excited to see him, especially Emma. She even chased him down the street to give him a candy cane.

Christmas Eve with family, food, and presents.

Christmas morning for our family.

Christmas evening with more family, food and presents.

Princess or Turkey

A few weeks ago I decided to put a little effort into doing my hair. I usually just brush my hair out of the shower then wait for it to dry, then brush again. I know, pretty sad, but it is true. My hair doesn't curl, but every few years I try to make it wavy or have a little body, usually with no success. I bought big curlers and tried again. Emma came in and said "Oh, Mom, you look like a princess." Then Mia came in and said "Mom, you look like a turkey." By the way, my hair just ended up looking fuzzy.