Yummy Eats and Long Nights

Two weeks ago Paisley started walking. We captured it on video and posted it below. We also captured her lovely moments of enjoying her meals this week. She sure does love my cooking if you can't tell. She licks her plates, licks her fingers and cries for more. It's a dangerous addiction if you can't tell from the pictures. Dinner time always brings out her inner beast. She seems to have no memory of her actions once it is all over. Also, I was able to give her pigtails and I was so proud.

Gabe was really sick this week. It started Wednesday night when he cried all night of tummy pains then threw up all over our bed. Then for 2 days straight he was fine and exactly 48 hours later the same thing. The next day he got bad diarrhea and a soar throat and cough. He's had every flu symptom other than a fever. Now Manuel has it. At least we got in a fun night of tennis and Popsicles before the madness began.

On the menu this week I created a yummy french entree. I made homemade crepes and stuffed them with zucchini, cheese, omelet egg and mushrooms and smothered it in creamy hollandaise sauce. I wanted to use sliced breakfast sausage and asparagus but forgot to buy it. It was still really good. The next morning we smeared berry cream cheese and blackberry jelly on them and rolled them up with powdered sugar. The kids inhaled them. But the best thing I made this week was the cookies. It was just the weight watchers recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies but Walmart was out of canned pumpkin so I improvised with a can of yams. I figured sweet potato pie, candied yams...it should work. And yes, it did!! Because the yams are sweeter than canned pumpkin the cookies tasted better. I pureed a 30 ounce can of yams, added it to a boxed spice cake mix and then dumped in a bag of chocolate chips. No other ingredients but those three. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes. The best cookies I've ever had and my kids were getting their yams. Way better than pumpkin for sure!!

A girl I visit teach who is Chinese gave me and my companion a Chinese Thanksgiving traditional cake. It was very pretty but very nasty. The center tasted like mashed garbanzo beans with sugar. I'm not a picky eater either. I'm grateful for her kind gesture but not a fan of that desert. Of course I had to take a picture though.

I have to apologize as I have no control over inserting pictures and text where I want them on my blog so that's why everything is always all over the place and my text is all broken up and in weird places. Because of this I can't really add subtitles to my pictures and post recipes under my food pictures. But that's always my intentions.

Jordanelle

This weekend we went up to Jordanelle by Park City. My dad (grandpa Roger) invited us to go boating with him and my sister Crista's family. It was fun. It was the last warm weekend of the year and we wanted summer to go out with a bang. My dad brought homemade slow cooked sweet pork, grandma Candice brought strawberries and chocolate sauce, fruit and veggies/dip and chips and potato salad and we brought drinks and candy apples that we made. Crista brought yummy peanut butter brownies and cake. I water skied and knee boarded. Manuel didn't want to get cold or wet so he just came along for the boat ride. Gabe loved being on the boat. He sat at the front and giggled every time the boat jumped over the waves. Paisley however hated the boat. The minute it started she cried and screamed and began to shake. She was terrified. So we gave her to grandma Candice. The water was cold but after getting in it became warm. We had storm clouds hovering over us but we somehow dodged all the storms and managed to get a bit of sunshine. I was sunburned. The scenery was beautiful and the leaves had turned red all over the mountains. Gabe said the air smelled like "camping smells". Now that Fall is almost here we are excited for the colder weather.

Oh, and of course what blog entry would be complete without some food pictures. We enjoyed homemade butternut squash soup from the garden, mozzarella ball salad and sushi. Yes, our kids love sushi.

Happy Birthday Opa!

We just want to say Happy Birthday to Manuel's Dad and let everyone know what a great person he truly is. Walter is the kindest, sweetest, most patient man I have ever known. He gives all he has even when he doesn't have very much. He loves his kids and grand kids and it shows. Thanks and we love you!

Here is our birthday tribute to Opa