In The Spirit

We didn't put Christmas lights on our house this year and we're running a little behind on finishing the Christmas shopping, but we're still finding time to squeeze in some fun holiday activities.

Yesterday I took Tyler to the bookstore so he could pick out a new Christmas picture book for his collection. At first we couldn't find the display of holiday books, which is usually at the entrance of the children's section. In the meantime Tyler wandered over to the chapter books and found a couple of Captain Underpants books that he wanted. Suddenly, the Christmas book idea went out the door and instead all the cared about was Captain Underpants.

But then I found the holiday display (way over by the cookbooks) and we got ourselves back on track.

Tyler kept flip-flopping between Merry Christmas, Splat and The Polar Express, but we decided to go with The Polar Express.

And then today I baked some holiday cookies.

I found the recipe in one of my Country Woman Christmas annuals, but it's just a basic sugar cookie dipped in chocolate. Nothing fancy. Hopefully next week Tyler and I can bake a batch of candy cane cookies for Santa. I'm sure he'll like those.

New Ornaments

Every year our tree looks the same. We use the same tree and the same ornaments year after year. Frankly, it's starting to get a little boring.

Thankfully, I can count on Tyler to liven things up. Last year he brought home a star shaped ornament that he made at school out of recycled cardboard tubes and sparkly pipe cleaners. I loved it! And now this year he brought home not one, but two new ornaments to hang on the tree.

The first is a glitter glue embellished snowflake picture frame.

And the other is made of festively colored beads and buttons.

I ♥ our new ornaments.

The Chocolate Verdict

So I finally made them....The Baked Brownie. In case you happen to live under a rock, these are the brownies of that famous New York bakery, also seen on Oprah, every food blog in the universe, and the cookbook I got for my birthday. But before I could make them I had to get my hands on the right chocolate, which is impossible to find here in Yakima. The recipe specifically calls for Scharffen Berger chocolate and Valrhona cocoa powder, which as you know, I recently picked up in Seattle. So I was finally able to taste for myself what everyone else has been raving about.

Here's the verdict: They're good, there's no question about that. The chocolate flavor is deep and more intense than your average brownie and they're fudgy, not cake-like at all. And Tyler's been asking for a piece of brownie at every meal and even for snack. When I asked him why, he said "because they're made with your special chocolate". Then I told him that if we ate them so fast, they'd be gone and that would be it....I didn't have any more special chocolate. That's when he said, "Don't worry mommy, you can make more with regular chocolate because it tastes the same". What?! No it doesn't! And then to break my heart even more, Rick chimed in that he didn't think my special chocolate was worth the price. *sigh* Defeated by the two boys who would just as easily be pleased with a box of brownies from the store.

Luminaria

Finally we made it to the luminaria at the arboretum! We've been meaning to go every year since we moved here, but we always forget. It's only a two night event, always the second Friday and Saturday in December, so it can be easy to miss if you don't have it marked on the calendar. I probably would have forgotten about it again if it hadn't been for the reminder I saw earlier today on Facebook. But then again, Rick drives past the arboretum every day on his way to and from work, so he probably would have reminded us about it. I'm just glad we got to see it....it was beautiful!

They have a pathway that's about a mile long and they line the whole thing with luminarias. There are also plenty of trees along the way that are decorated with Christmas lights. And to make it even more majestic, the bells in the bell tower were ringing Christmas songs.

The weather wasn't too bad. It was cold, but nothing that awful. Most of the snow we got in late November has already melted off, but I hear talk of a new storm coming our way this weekend.

The end of the pathway led right into the main building, where you could warm up with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or fresh pressed apple cider. They also had a room set up for kids to make their own luminaria to bring home. We had a great time, I hope we make it back next year!

Winter Concert

Last night was the annual Winter concert at Tyler's school. The kids were singing six different songs, which were supposed to be a surprise, but Tyler's been practicing so much around the house that I practically knew all the songs myself. I was threatening to go on stage with him and sing with his class, but that didn't embarrass him at all, he thought it was a great idea. So on second thought, I told him it would be better if I stayed in the audience with the rest of the moms and dads.

Tyler's class is always the one on the far left of the stage, but we always sit on the far right side of the auditorium. So as usual, he was kind of hard to spot.

Here the kids were singing "Cel-e-brate" and pumping their fists in the air. It was the end of the 5th song, but what's funny is that all of the kids on the far left of the stage had completely lost interest at that point. No singing. No fist pumps. Nothing. They all had the same look of, "um, can we be done now?".

Here is a little bit of Listen to the Jingles, the last song of the night.

In addition to the concert, the school also held their annual fundraiser last night. It's a silent auction, so the parents donate items to be auctioned off and then you are also expected to bid on some of the items in the auction. This year Rick, or rather Directv, donated a package that included a dish and free service for a year. It was one of the higher valued items in the auction, and so accordingly, it brought in lots of money when it sold. So yay for that! But on the flip side, we were outbid on everything we were bidding on. Boo! No Stampin' Up gift basket or 1-hour massage for me.

In another bummer of the night, Tyler missed out on his chance to get a picture with Santa. We didn't get there early enough before the concert started and by the time the concert was finished, Santa had already left. And Tyler was dressed up so handsome too. He had on a nice dress shirt and a vest. Oh well, maybe we'll catch up with Santa in the mall another time.

Recipe Review

To make things easy this week, I picked out all the dinner recipes from the same cookbook. It's categorized by the type of meat, so I was able to flip through and pick out a recipe or two from each chapter.

Representing the beef chapter is the Beef-Broccoli Lo Mein.

Everybody enjoyed this one, so I'll definitely be making it again. Especially since I had to buy quite a few odd ingredients like peanut oil, oyster sauce, and chili paste (which was super hot and we probably could have done without). I also went with a different cut of meat since flank steak is kind of hard to find.

From the pork chapter I made Buttermilk Brined Pork Chops.

For the brining process, the pork chops sat overnight in a mixture of buttermilk, salt, sugar, rosemary, lemon rind, and sage. And while the meat did come out really flavorful, I'm not sure I cared for the taste all that much. The lemon and rosemary seemed a little strong for me. Maybe I should have taken the meat out of the brine earlier. Who knows.

From the poultry section I made Spiced Chicken with Black-Eyed Peas and Rice.

I thought this was a nice solid (and easy) chicken and rice recipe that we can add to our regular rotation. The chicken is seasoned simply with Old Bay, paprika, and salt and is seared in a pan and then finished off in the oven. The rice was probably my favorite part though and that was just as simple to put together. You just mix precooked rice with sauteed onion, garlic, and black-eyed peas. Yummy!

Mini Village

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we picked up a gingerbread house kit at Bed Bath & Beyond. The had mini villages and train kits to choose from and we decided to go with the mini village kit. Of course Tyler wanted to get started as soon as we brought the kit home, but I told him that we at least had to wait until December.  And now that it's December, he's been asking EVERY day if we can build the houses. So I set aside the afternoon to make our mini village.

I kept telling him that it takes awhile for the frosting to dry, so we'd probably have to wait to decorate the houses. Then he informed me that according to the box, 'it only takes minutes'. And what do you know....it was true. The houses are so small that they set up fairly fast, so you can start decorating them before the frame is completely dry.

The candies that came in the kit are the same old thing that come in every kit, except for the sprinkles. I don't think we've ever seen those before. And another thing I liked about this kit is that it came with red and green frosting, in addition to the standard white.

I was in charge of the frosting since it was kind of hard to squeeze out of the tube and Tyler was in charge of applying the candy.

And in the end we had a fine looking village. That is until somebody ate the roof off the candy shop.