And the moral of the story is...

Jim and I went to the Opera tonight. I am surprised to say that Jim was the one who was excited about the production and found I was the one who was dragging the feet. Don't get me wrong, I like opera have been found on occasion, listening to opera music. In fact I played it quite a bit for Jackie when she was a baby (It was about the only thing that could drown out her colic and get her to stop screaming.) But tonight I was tired and just wanted to climb into bed. I was also afraid I would not understand the story, thus leaving me bored and fighting to stay awake. But when we arrived I was happily surprised to see they had subtitles! It made it very enjoyable!
We watched the production "Carmen". I always find myself surprised at the twists and morals at the end of any old story. In the beginning I'm always in awe at the idea that I'm watching a story that has been told and performed for thousands of people have for over a hundred years and then at the end I seem to find myself turning my head and going, "huh. That was, huh." So I guess too sum up what I learned from Carmen I will have to borrow the wise, wise lyrics of Jimmy Soul:
"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife!
As for my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you!"

Sprite and Koolaid don't mix!

Jackie was rummaging around in my cupboards while I made lunch and found a package of red koolaid. She really wanted to try some and insisted she had never had it before. I explained that I didn't have anymore empty pitchers to make it in. As I began to argue with her about it my eye caught the 3 full bottles of sprite on my counter that were left over from a party we had earlier in the week. Trying to be a fun and inventive mom I suggested we mix it in one of those. I figured if I'm gonna let her drink pure sugar water, which is all koolaid is, what's another 20 grams of sugar, right?! As I opened the lid of the 2 liter the question raised in my mind- how am I going to mix this? Hmmm...oh, well, I'll figure it out! As I poured in the koolaid the soda began to fiz. "oh cool!" I thought, "The carbonation is going to mix it for me! Awesome! This is going to be revolutionary and yummy!" I visualize showing my husband (who is a soda as well as koolaid fan) when he got home of our new creation and being praised for my ingenius idea that would quickly spread to all our friends. Being a woman, this all quickly ran through my head in the 2 seconds I thought that life was good. As I came to, I quickly realized that the fizzing was building much to fast to be just mixing the drink. The soda was going to explode! And fast! Now why is it whenever I get in panic mode the stupid cells take over? If my brain is really moving that fast I should be able to come up with a smart solution right? I guess not. Because instead of simply pointing the soda down the drain, which is right next to me, my brain said, "Quick! Stop it before it goes everywhere! Put you thumb over it! You can stop the explosion with your thumb!" Ha! Right. We all know what happens to a hose when you put your thumb over it. So instead of the soda pouring out of the bottle it sprays ALL OVER my kitchen! I don't think I emphasized the ALL OVER enough. ALL OVER! After 2 seconds of chaos the smart cells decide to FINALLY show up, "Put it down the sink!" Thanks alot smart cells! Where we you 4 SECONDS ago?!!! When the soda was done with it's tantrum I scanned the room at the damage. Red Koolaid was all over my walls, counter, appliances, oh crap, AND Jackie. Somehow, I miraculously stayed clean, except for my hands of course. Unbelieveable. In four seconds I had made my kitchen look like location of the chain saw massacre. All Jackie could say was, "That was a bad idea Mom."

Tomboys:1, Girly-girls: 0

The other day Jackie was running around with a T-square that she had found. I noticed that she was pretending it was a gun and she was on the hunt shooting something. So, I asked, "Jackie was are you shooting?"
"Princesses!"
"Princesses! Why?"
"Because they wear PINK! And I HATE pink!"
"But Jackie your cousin Kaite wears pink and she likes to dress up like a princess- Are you going to shoot her?"
"....no.. But I am going to shoot all the princesses!"

We're all in this togetheeEERRrr!! AAAWWWWwww!

So I just finished watching High School Musical 3. It it is the most cheesy, unbelievably exaggerated (but sometimes remarkably accurate)...AWESOME show. Yes. Yes. I know what I am saying because it is a trendy teeny-bop movie. But if you truly embrace the awesomeness, you will find that you find it awesome too. (okay, a little too much Jack Black there) I find The High School Musicals to be just such feel good shows. If you've never seen High School Musical, I have to warn you that it is the cheesiest thing you will ever watch- so they have to be watched almost as a comedy in a sense. Just like real high school- don't take it too seriously. I love watching movies when after it's over you're so sad that it over :( and inside you make secret wishes that you could cut loose and dance just like the dancers up on screen (and still look good- I should add that, since, because, if I suddenly decided to cut loose and dance in the middle of a cafeteria I would very soon find myself in an empty cafeteria or all my friends would suddenly forget my name.) My only regret in watching this movie is that my dear, dear Mary was not here to watch it with me *sniff* (I suddenly realized I made it sound like she passed on. No, no, she's just in Canada) Mary would have made me BURST out to the floor with her and sing and dance and make a complete fool of myself during the musical numbers. *sigh* She's my hero. We could use more cheesy musicals like this. I think we would all be much happier people- Look what it did to me!

Distractions are genetic

Whenever Jim and I get into a tickling war, which is pretty much everyday, eventually one of us gets the upper hand. Before "the attacked" begins to fold the all to well known "Kiss-distraction method" is put into play. This method hardly needs any explaination due to its well discriptive name. The attackee attempts to distract it's attacker with kisses in hopes that the attacker will either let down his/her gaurd or forget that they were tickling all together. When we were first married this method worked quite well, but now it just depends on how close the attackee is to peeing his/her pants- in which case they are tickled even harder.

On this note I always assumed that this statigey was a learned behavior. My one year old, Dorothy, quickly put and end to that hypothesis today. While I was putting her jammies on tonight I couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity to "eat" her ribs while there was bare skin showing. I would take my time in approaching her sides in which the suspense was about as bad and the tickling for her. After a few times of belly laughter from rib eating, Dorothy began wrapping her arms around my face and pulling me in for kisses. Unable to resist the love I gave in. I received probabley 20 kisses in under thirty seconds time. Dorothy has always been a little kissy monster but then it dawned on me! I had been "Kiss-dristracted"! What a stinker! It was a really sweet.

Does your brain have a curfew?

Short and sweet: Does your brain have a curfew? A strange question I know, so perhaps I should elaborate just a touch. As a woman (If you are a man and are reading this, you maybe hearing this insight to the female mind for the first time) we all know and recognise the little voice inside us that makes us crazy. It's the voice that rings self doubt, it causes us to over analyze trivial things, and makes us overly emotional and sentimental- just to name a few. How often and frequently you listen to this voice determines how truly..how do I put this..psycho you are. (If you're a woman and have no idea what in the world I am talking about, you might want to have an honest conversation with yourself, but make sure the voice doesn't know where you're meeting.) Something I've noticed about myself personally is that my inner psycho comes out after midnight- which is why I have to go to bed before 12:00. If I don't, I've noticed that the longer I stay up, the more the voice takes over (just ask my husband, he doesn't talk to me after midnight anymore). So if you are ever in dire need of personal advice- it will have to wait until morning because who knows what I'll say!

Latest Creations

I made two new recipes this last week which I'm pretty proud of and they were super yummy. So I thought I would pass them along. The first is a fruit tart I made for Easter. It was pretty extensive (well, at least for me) but it was a crowd pleaser. What I liked most about this recipe is that it can be done in steps- which is optimal when you have kids.

Fruit Tart

Sweet Pastry Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
  
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside. Place the butter in your mixer and beat until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated. Don't over mix or the butter will separate and lighten in color. Add flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Don't overwork or pastry will be hard when baked.

Flatten dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.

Have ready an 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) tart pan with removable bottom. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into an 11 - 12 inch (28 - 30 cm) circle that is about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). To make sure it is the right size, take your tart pan, flip it over, and place it on the rolled out pastry. The pastry should be about an inch larger than pan.

When the pastry is rolled to the desired size, lightly roll pastry around your rolling pin, dusting off any excess flour as you roll. Unroll onto top of tart pan. Never pull pastry or you will get shrinkage (shrinkage is caused by too much pulling of the pastry when placing it in the pan). Gently lay in pan and with a small floured piece of pastry, lightly press pastry into bottom and up sides of pan. Roll your rolling pin over top of pan to get rid of excess pastry. With a thumb up movement, again press dough into pan. Roll rolling pin over top again to get rid of any extra pastry. Prick bottom of dough (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to chill the butter and to rest the gluten.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Fill tart pan with pie weights, rice or beans, making sure the weights are to the top of the pan and evenly distributed over the entire surface. Bake crust for 20 to 25 minutes until crust is dry and lightly golden brown. Remove weights and cool crust on wire rack before filling.

Pastry Cream:

• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
• 3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, brandy, Kirsch) (optional)

In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch (corn flour) together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor. This sugar can then be used in baking where you would like a vanilla-flavored sugar, e.g. pies, cakes, cookies.)

Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Topping:

• 2 - 3 cups mixed fruit, such as raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, kiwifruit, bananas, plums, pineapple, melon, etc.(*I used frozen peaches and they tasted great)
  

Apricot Glaze: (optional)

• 1/2 cup (125 grams) apricot jam or preserves
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or water or combination of the two (can also use other liqueurs)

Apricot Glaze: Heat the apricot jam or preserves and water (if using) in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted). Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps. (If using, add the liqueur at this point.) Let cool until it is only slightly warm.

Variation: If glazing strawberries, raspberries or any other red fruit you can make a red currant glaze. Gently whisk 1/2 cup (125 grams) of red currant jelly over medium heat until melted. Let cool slightly and then lightly glaze the fruit using a pastry brush.

The second is a copycat recipe. I went to The cheesecake factory in January and split a salad with my sister-in-law and have been craving it ever since. So I tried to recreate it last night. I didn't have all the ingredients, but that's what I love about salad- what you don't have, substitute! and it turns out just as yummy every time. I included the original ingredients along with the extra ones I through in. I also fried the chicken instead of grilling it to same on time and mess.

BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad

Photo from the Cheesecake Factory

• Vegetable Oil
• Onion, sliced thin
• Flour
• water or egg
• Chicken tenders, thawed
• Avocado, sliced
• Tomato, chopped
• Grilled or canned Corn
• Black Beans
• Cucumber
• Mushrooms, sliced
• Romaine or spinach
• Ranch dressing
• BBQ sauce
  

Put a 1/4- 1/2 " of oil into pan over medium heat. While your oil is heating, dip onion slices in water or egg then coat in flour. When oil is hot (should sizzle when you sprits water on it) cook the onions until golden brown, turning as needed. While onion is cooking salt and pepper the chicken and coat in flour. When onions are done, remove from pan onto a plate lined with paper towel. Place chicken into the same pan you cooked the onions in. Cook until golden.

Layer salad ingredients so that its pleasing to the eye.

To make dressing mix 1 part BBQ sauce to 2 parts ranch dressing.