Good Riddance

January is my least-favorite month of the year and I have never been happier to be at the end of it! Aside from New Years day and a couple of family birthdays, it is just a cold and bitter month, especially here in Iowa. February, while only 3 days shorter, always seems to fly by much faster. So goodbye January, and good riddance!

Here's Ryan cleaning off the windshield of our car after it had been heating up for over 20 minutes. Is it any wonder why I'm glad to say farewell to the past 31 days?

Thai Chicken Pizza

This is a recipe I got over a year ago from my friend, Trieste (who got it from Rachel Ray's 30 min. meals), and I wish I hadn't taken so long to try it! If your like us and you like Thai food, you'll probably love this. We made it last week and we sure did.

Ingredients

1 pizza dough, any brand--I use this fast and easy recipe.

1/2 cup duck sauce or plum sauce (both can be found in the international section at Walmart)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 package (2 cups) shredded provolone or Monterey Jack cheese (we used Mozzarella)

1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 rounded tablespoonful peanut butter

2 teaspoons hot sauce (any kind)

2 teaspoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning) eyeball it

4 chicken breast cutlets, 1/2 pound (my sister used shrimp instead and said it was amazing--we are going to try that next time we make it)

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar

1/4 seedless cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks

4 scallions, chopped

1 cup bean spouts, a couple of handfuls

Palm full cilantro leaves, chopped

1/4 cup chopped peanuts, 2 ounces

lime wedges

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Form pizza crust on pizza pan or cookie sheet. Top with duck or plum sauce - spread it around like you would pizza sauce. Sprinkle the pizza with some crushed red pepper flakes then top with cheese and peppers (omit this step if you don't want much spice). Bake until golden and bubbly, 15 to 17 minutes.

Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Combine vegetable oil, soy sauce and peanut butter with hot sauce and grill seasoning. Use the microwave to loosen up peanut butter if it is too cold to blend into sauce, 10 seconds ought to do it. Add chicken and coat evenly with mixture. Let stand 10 minutes (or more) then grill chicken cutlets 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until firm. Slice chicken into very thin strips.

While chicken cooks, mix honey and vinegar and add the cucumber. Turn to coat evenly.

Top the hot, cooked pizza with chicken, scallions, sprouts and cilantro. Drain cucumbers and scatter over the pizza. Garnish pizza with peanuts and lime wedges, cut into slices and serve.

When Rain is Worse than Snow

Alas, another post about the weather in Iowa.

Rain is worse than snow when it freezes upon hitting the ground. And this is what happens to your windshield when you try to chip the 1/2 thick sheet off ice off of it:

It's a little hard to succeed. Anyone have a chisel we can borrow?

Our entire city is a skating rink right now. Since we don't own any ice skakes, we are staying inside.

Please tell me your children do this, too.

Isaac eating breakfast this morning, insisting that his favorite inanimate objects need breakfast as well so they don't go hungry.

On Teaching My Fearless Toddler...

This little girl is crazy about animals, and she gets a little loca every time she sees one. She is particularly fascinated with my friend Robyn's cat, Lizzy. The other day she started squealing "Gato!! Gato!! Gato!!" over and over upon seeing poor Lizzy, and then proceeded to chase her everywhere while trying to prod and poke her.

Needless to say, Lizzy doesn't exactly reciprocate these loving feelings towards Maddie, and even though she will try to nip at her fingers and even scratch her leg (see above picture), it hasn't seemed to minimize Maddie's excitement and affection for her.

I was reading an article titled Teaching your Fearless Toddler to be more Cautious and the advice it gave was basically "They'll never believe that the stove is hot until they get burned." In other words, they have to suffer the natural consequences (within reason--don't let them hurt themselves too much) in order to understand how to be more cautious. I guess she'll eventually learn that if she tries to poke the cat's eyes out, the feline is going to get angry and fight back.

Judging from the fact that Maddie has fallen down the Parkinson's wooden stairs 3 times in the last month because she insists on walking down them instead of sliding on her little bottom, this probably isn't the last cat scratch she'll ever receive.

(Disclaimer: I promise I am not a neglectful mother--my daughter just moves much faster than I do these days and she's hard to keep up with. And I was hoping for a cuddly cat picture above, but Lizzy didn't feel the same way and let it be known right as the picture was being snapped.)

Lime and Cilantro Chicken Salad

A couple of years ago my dear friend Kelly gave me this salad recipe, and I have been deeply indebted to her ever since. It is my favorite meal. In the summer, we eat it about once a week. In the winter, at leas once a month. The salad dressing is, of course, what makes it so amazing. Ryan puts it on tons of stuff and Isaac calls it "Special Sauce" because it makes everything taste better. Below is the recipe, with a couple changes to help simplify it.

Salad Dressing

1/2 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 teaspoons puréed chipoltle chiles in adobo sauce (I use what I need and freeze the rest)
2 tablespoons of honey
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro stems and leaves

Mix the first 6 ingredients in the blender. After well blended, add cilantro and pulse until desired consistency. Set aside.

Salad

1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded chicken
1/2 cup chopped red peppers and/or chopped tomatoes
4 cups of mixed greens ( I usually use romaine and spinach if I've got it)
3/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1 cup grated Jack cheese (or whatever cheese you have on hand)
1 chopped avocado

Mix all the ingredients together. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and toss gently with tongs.

Splish Splash

A few days ago my kids and I sat down and looked through all the blog posts of the past year. We had such a good time! There were so many things that happened that I had forgotten about. It made me resolved to blog more about the everyday activities that go on in our home. So, for my own and posterity's benefit more than anyone else, I am going to try and do just that. Here are a few pictures from the other night when the kids had an especially good time in the bathtub.

Isaac loves taking baths some days (like today), and other days it's like pulling teeth to get him clean. Maddie, on the other hand, is always up for playing in the water. Lately she will even ask to take a bath. I found some Dora bubble bath for her and some Lightning Mcqueen bubble bath for Isaac (a total slave to commercialism) and she is completely obsessed with these bottles of soap. Many times, the first words out of her mouth when I get her up in the morning are "Bano! Jabon! Dora! Lightning!" (Translation: bath! Soap! Dora! Lightning!). I have to keep the bathroom door shut at all times or she will sneak in there during the day and reek havoc with her bubble bath. She would rather play with that "toy" than anything in their toy box.

Lately Maddie has been speaking in more complete phrases every once in awhile. Here are a few of her most common sayings:

• "I NEED my cars!"
• "Watch Dora peas (please) mama!"
• "I NO want it!" (this one is usually said at the dinner table)
• "Here you go, Isaac!"
• "What ya doin' Mama?"
• "Papa at school?"
• "Read a book!?!!"
  
• "Bess you!" (whenever anyone sneezes or coughs)
  
• "I NEED my blanket peas (please) mama!" 
• "Boots a monkey! Boots a monkeeeeeeeey!"
  
• Loves to try and sing the lyrics to the songs Life is a Highway and Book of Mormon Stories (such diverse taste in music)
• She loves to count (thanks to Dora and Ryan for practicing with her) and she can count to 10 in English (minus the number 5--she always skips the number 5)
  

Today I was talking to Isaac after church and I told him that I had heard from a friend that he did a great job during singing time and that he knew the words to all the songs. He looked at me, proud as a peacock, and without saying a word, put both hands behind my neck and gave me a great big smooch on the lips. I'm guessing he liked the compliment!

And to think...

a month ago, I thought this was a lot of snow...

Until we woke up to this amount of snow yesterday. You know it's cold when you get excited about a high of 25 degrees in next week's forecast. Today's high was -1 with a windchill of -20 to -30. Even preschool was canceled today. The only place I've taken the kids all week was to playgroup and the grocery store this past Wednesday because we hit a heat wave and temps reached as high as 12 degrees.

Needless to say, we have a little cabin fever around here. But we have all managed to stay healthy this winter and we have a warm place to stay, so I'm trying to focus on the positive. Spring will be here before we know it, right? And Spring in Iowa is absolutely fantastic, so I can survive, right? Right?

While housebound this week, I tried a new muffin recipe and it's a winner. I got the recipe here, but made a few changes to it, so below is the recipe I ended up using:

makes 12 muffins

For the Batter:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

For the filling:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

1 1/2teaspoons cinnamon

First, to prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar and whip until smooth. Form into a log on greased plastic wrap , making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly firm, 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Mix well and set aside. In another large bowl combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease muffin tins or add paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well 1/3 of the way with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 12 slices. Place a slice on top of the batter in each muffin well and gently press (don't press all the way to the bottom). Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes. Best if served at room temperature.

Happy New Year!

(Not sure what I'm doing by waving my hand in this picture, but it's the only family one we capture last night so it will have to do...)

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2010!

Happy New Year!