Coconut Curry Chicken

For dinner tonight I made Coconut Chicken Curry from the September issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. It was similar to the Five Spice Coconut Chicken that I made last month as both recipes use coconut milk and Five Spice powder, but this recipe was heavier on the coconut milk and had the addition of curry powder.


I thought it was really good. Way to use up some of the Five Spice powder that I've had sitting in the cupboard for a while!

It's Coming!

It's about 30 degrees outside right now and it has started snowing. Nothing is realling sticking so far, but I'm sure that won't last for long. There was snow in the forcast for tomorrow and it looks like it is coming a little early.

Next week it is supposed to be cold with highs not even reaching 20 degrees. Now even for Yakima, that is COLD!

Dinner And A Show

Last night I made a new simple recipe for Chicken and Rice Soup. The recipe is from the Quick Cooking 2008 Annual and is basically a box of Chicken flavored Rice-a-Roni with extra broth, chicken, carrots, and celery added. The recipe is here. I poached a chicken breast and shredded it earlier in the day. I also chopped the veggies ahead of time, so I was able to have the dinner on the table in a quick 30 minutes.

Timing was key since we were planning to take Tyler to the Elmo makes Music show at 7:00 p.m. I didn't buy tickets ahead of time, so we had to leave the house by 6:00 in order to drive all the way across town and allow for enough time to stand in line at the box office. We actually found someone outside the theater who needed to get rid of some of their tickets, so we scored 3 tickets at a reduced rate minus all the fees that TicketsWest charges. Hey, I guess it pays to wait until the last minute to buy tickets.

I thought it was a really cute show, but Tyler only made it to intermission before he started throwing a fit. It was partly due to the fact that they brought out a huge mass of Elmo face balloons to sell during the intermission and we didn't buy one for him. What can I say, I can come up with a few better ways to spend $8. The family sitting next to us were some major Sesame Street fans and knew the words to every song, while I was going, "Who the heck is that bear"? They must have added a few characters to Sesame Street since I was a kid! No pictures either. I didn't even bring my camera as they are supposedly not allowed. That little rule didn't stop anyone else though....there were a ton of people taking pictures.

Stuffed Shells

For dinner tonight I made a new recipe for Stuffed Shells from the January issue of Ladies Home Journal. It has Italian sausage, onion, mushrooms, cheese, and a small amount of spinach (not even enough to detour Tyler). For the sauce, the recipe called for chopped eggplant mixed with a vegetable style spaghetti sauce. I skipped all that and just seasoned up a small can of tomato sauce. I'm sure the eggplant sauce would have been nice, but I just didn't feel like dealing with or paying for an eggplant.

I thought they were great and Tyler cleaned his plate, spinach and all. Even Max hollered for a bite of one of the shells, plain cooked pasta is one of his all time favorite foods. Rick, however, didn't even enter the kitchen as his belly is still "anti-food".

Today's Festivities

I took Tyler over to Russell's Nursery today to get a picture with Santa and to make a pine cone bird feeder. Things were going well, he sat with Santa and asked for a yo-yo. He was rewarded with a candy cane and a santa ornament. Next we made the pine cone bird feeder.

We were having a great time until.....Tyler decided to play in a little log playhouse. He was playing by himself for a few minutes and then 3 older children (2 girls and a boy) went inside with him. After a while, the girls came out and the next thing I know I hear Tyler wailing and one of the girls on the outside says, "his finger is stuck in the door"! The playhouse is outside and the wooden door must be a little swollen because it was really hard to open up. I was trying to pull the door open, but was afraid to pull too hard and hurt his finger even more. The other boy was inside with Tyler and just stood there dumbfounded. I didn't know if the door was locked from the inside or what. Finally a worker came and yanked the door open. Poor Tyler, his middle finger was torn up on both sides...it was terrible, it hurt just to look at it. He got a little first-aid treatment, but we went straight home after that....he was miserable.

We had big plans to go to the Holiday Light Parade tonight, but with Tyler's finger, I thought that he and Rick would both be out for the count. Rick was already done for, staying at home with a case of food poisoning...apparently he ate some food last night that had been out at room temperature for too long. As for Tyler, after a few hours of recuperation he decided to go with me and brave the 40 degree weather to watch the parade.

It was fun, but can I just say....Brrrr!! Usually it is snowing by this time of year, so I guess I can be glad that we didn't have to stand there in the snow for an hour!

Holiday Ornaments

It's the first Saturday of the month, so I took Tyler over to Ace Hardware for the Kid's Club Craft. Today the kids were painting ornaments, their choice of wooden or ceramic shapes. Tyler chose a ceramic stocking ornament. First he painted it pink, then covered that with a layer of green, but changed his mind and went with purple instead.

He was so proud of his beautiful ornament that he hung it right up on the Christmas tree inside the store, he couldn't even wait to get it home. I had to convince him that it would look much better on our own tree at home.

We've also been putting together some Santa ornaments that came in Tyler's monthly craft kit. It makes a set of three, but we've only finished one so far.

While I was out today I got a little more of my Christmas shopping done, I'm almost all finished. I also picked up a 2 inch square punch from Michael's that will come in handy as I try and scraplift layouts from the newest Scrapbooks, Etc magazine...but first I have to finish up the calendar I'm working on. I should really head upstairs and wrap a few presents. Oh yes, did I mention how much I love cats? One of our *very well behaved* cats tore into one of the presents that was sitting under the tree, so I moved all the presents to the guest bedroom upstairs...festive, right?

Easy, Peasy!

I bought a little Basic Grey 8x8 calendar kit from Michael's the other day that is super cute. I printed some 4x6 photos at Costco and I've been busy putting the first few pages together. The backgrounds are pre-printed on the calendar, but the kit comes with chipboard pieces, rub- ons and cardstock punch-outs to make the pages more dimensional.

I love it...and the best part is that I end up with a great finished product without having to put any thought into the design element... it's all laid out for you with step by step instructions.

I finally twisted Tyler's arm hard enough so that he would go with me to see the movie BOLT. Actually, it wasn't that hard, I just had to set a date so he could look forward to it for a few days. I thought the movie was great, but Tyler (as always) thought it was too long. The only bummer was that the movie was in 3D, so in order to get a pair of glasses for Tyler, I would have to pay the $6 fee, whereas he normally gets in free of charge. I decided to pass on the glasses for Tyler because I wasn't sure if he would actually wear them. I tried to share my glasses with him, but he wouldn't wear them for more than two seconds at a time. Now he's all geared up and ready to watch Madagascar, but we'll see...I wasn't too interested in that one.