Culinary Indecision....and a Key Lime Pie Recipe

I'm having a couple of girlfriends over tonight for coffee and dessert.

You know in life sometimes when there are people that you think would be so much fun to get to know better?  Every time you see the person/people, you completely connect and walk away thinking... "I really wish my life wasn't so crazy right now because I'd really like to get to know_____________ better."  Well, that's how I feel about these 3 girls I invited over tonight.  Every time we're around one another we say "Let's get together soon" and then we don't do it.  But we all really mean it too...it's completely genuine, it's just a matter or schedule rearranging and prioritizing.  Anyhow, I just flat decided the other night it needed to happen...so it is.  Tonight.

There was a recipe that I found a few days ago for a Four Layer Blueberry Gingerbread Cake with Mocha Cream that looked interesting.  I thought it sounded like an odd combination... but might be one of those things that after eating it, I'd wonder to myself why I never thought of the genius pairing of blueberries, and gingerbread, and mocha cream?!  I decided to step outside of my own personal don't-ever-make-something-for-company-that-you-haven't-tested-before box and whipped it up today.  By the way, that is a link to the recipe above.  It's from the Foster's Market Cookbook that I adore.  Anywhooo...I made the cake, and I have to be honest and say that it's a fantastic recipe, but I don't really love it.  I will make the cake again and the cream again, but I won't put them together.  I think the blueberry gingerbread cake needs a lemony vanilla cream, and the mocha cream...well, it just doesn't need gingerbread in my opinion.  Feel free to try it and tell me what you think....you may think I'm insane, but you may agree.  Don't get me wrong...it's fine...I just won't make it again as is.

Looks alright though huh?

Since I'm not unbelievably thrilled with this cake, I decided to make something that I DO know is good for my eagerly anticipated company....

Key Lime Pie

And this is a recipe that I like enough to bother typing out for you.  I've had key lime pie all over the place and this tart, creamy, classic is still my favorite.  I've tried variations with fancy additions, but honestly...some oldies but goodies are best when you leave well enough alone.

To make key lime pie you'll need: 

a graham cracker crust (sometimes I buy them, sometimes I make them.)

• Today I made it with 6 Tbsp melted butter, 3 Tbsp sugar, and 2 c. crushed grahams.  Mix together, press into a pan and bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes.  Let cool before filling.)

For the filling:
1 - 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 c. key lime juice

Now you can get all fancy and buy key limes and squeeze and zest them if you want, but I'll have my pie nice and easy thank you, so I just buy the juice in a bottle.

Mix the 3 highly technical ingredients in a bowl til creamy.  Pour into your prepared crust and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Then chill it...several hours (as in no less than 4)... til nice and fabulous.

That is it....and IT is amazing.  A lot of times I even put perhaps 2/3 c. key lime juice to make it extra tart....because that's how I like it.  Oh yeah, my pie pan is super deep dish so I had to double the filling recipe to make a nice full pie.  If you use a standard shallow pie shell though, one recipe should do it.

I was on a roll today too I guess because when i had half a dozen egg whites remaining, I remembered a recipe I saw recently for macaroons and thought I'd just try them as well while I had a mess in the kitchen.  So Tid Bit helped me make a much bigger mess, and in about an hour or so once that mixture is nice and cool, we're going to give them a shot too.

After tonight I'll be farming out leftovers.  Heaven and my thighs know that I don't need all this stuff here!

Now go forth friends and make Fish Tacos and Key Lime Pie....I just helped you rock your next dinner with very minimal effort!

You are welcome.

Friends for Life...

I'm home from Montana.

And let me tell you what a welcome we got... we had to get our car jump-started in the Charlotte airport Sunday night at 11:45pm, got home at almost 2am to a broken upstairs A/C and 83 degrees in all the bedrooms, storms for days that had uprooted a 90ft pine in our backyard and debris everywhere.  I spent the greater part of the day yesterday having to get a new car battery and new tires (the tire part was overdue) and then had to have a heating and air guy come fix the A/C in the afternoon.  Turns out that it had been damaged from a giant tree branch falling on it during the storms while we were gone.  WOW!  All to say...that's why you didn't hear from me yesterday.

So, I'm rapidly back in the swing of things and have a bridal lingerie shower to plan for this coming weekend.  Whew...it'll happen, but I sure do already miss the pace of Montana.

Which brings me to something I've been dying to share about our trip.  First I should say that for our entire family, this was our most favorite vacation we've ever taken all together.  It was perfect for our kids, gorgeous everywhere, and we spent some really special time with extended family and also some old friends.

The friends part though is what I've been thinking about the past few days.

I wish I could find at least one really old picture to share with you.  But they're old and I'm pretty sure that my mom has the bulk of the ones from when I was a little kid.  When we were in Montana we had the chance to get in a couple days visit with a super old friend of mine and his family who live about 4 hours from where we were staying.  The last time we all saw one another was at my wedding almost 8 years ago.  We've kept up... but it's been a long time, and we've never met one another's kids.

My childhood friend, Jeremy, and his amazing wife LB, came to visit along with their 3 adorable children.  They spent Thursday and Friday nights with us in my aunt's cabin, and Saturday night they stayed in Polebridge (in the cute cabin I'd featured on the blog the other day nonetheless) since my family had to leave Sunday morning.  We adventured over to the east side of Glacier on Friday and hiked, and ate, and in general had the best time all together.  Our kids got along so well that they were actually crossing into being really annoying, LB and I could have talked for days and still not run out of subjects, and the guys honestly seemed to have an almost identical sense of humor.

It was just fun.

Here we all are in the rain before we headed out to Polebridge for part of the day on Saturday.  I'm kinda covering up my Hubs' head, but do you know how hard it is to get a decent picture with 9 people (5 of which are all ages 5 and under?!)

And here is perhaps one of my favorite pictures from our whole trip...all 5 of our kids together.

Jeremy and I first met when we were about Little Bit's age (around 17 months old,) and my mom always likes to tell people that he bit me in the nursery at church the first time we met.  What a way to start a friendship huh?!  But the truth is that it must have been, because he was one of my very best friends for as long as I could remember.  We grew up in church together and had the same group of friends all the way through.  A rare group of friends who all loved and respected one another, and still do today.  The kind of friends you know that you were blessed to have had then, and the kind who you know made you into a better person now.  We were all those kind of friends.  We went to one another's weddings, and these days, life and time has spread us all across not just the country, but even the globe.

I got emotional when we left our sweet friends at Polebridge on Saturday....after adventures in the outdoors, and kids playing together, and meals shared, and late nights talking about faith and life and everything in between.  And I've been thinking the past few days about friends like that. About how rare and treasured and few they are.  Friends who have known you before you even really knew yourself...and who are still around...who have grown into the people you always knew they could and probably would be.  The kind who still top your list of people you admire in life.  

To have known a person since I was younger than my own children, and to share time with the families God has blessed us each with, and for each one of us all to feel even more richly blessed in our lives because of our time all together...it's rare.  And that rarity isn't the least bit lost on me.

So... despite the insanity that greeted us on our doorstep when we returned home, I choose to still feel overwhelmed not by the chaos of daily life...but rather overwhelmed by the blessings of a full life, and some of the same treasured friends still swirling around in it.  Jeremy, LB, and kiddos... I love you guys.  It was time well spent and my heart is fuller now because of it.

LB has a blog where she writes about life in Montana, and specifically gardening in the harsh Montana climate.  You can check that out HERE if you're interested.

I Fix...I Dig...Ok, Maybe not so much...

I'm back from DC!  Exhausted as all get out, but it was a great weekend.  Lots of learning, lots of fun, and the company was top notch! 

I'm still playing catch up from last week though.  It was a full week of life, and flubbers, and gearing up for going out of town...all while the Hubs was in Atlanta.  I think tomorrow I'm due for something awesome like a pedicure.  Yeah...that'll probably happen in all my free time.

Don't you love how you can almost guarantee that when your husband is gone, something in the house will inevitably break or go wrong?!

The Hubs and I got married a month before I turned 25, and so that basically meant that I had been out of college and living alone for 3 years before we got hitched. In that 3 years time, I got pretty good at fixing when things needed to be fixed for the most part. When you're on your own, you become pretty accustomed to making things work and fending for yourself.

Then I said "I Do."

I don't know about all of you, but there are just things that my husband does better than me. So, I've pretty much completely abandoned some of those things that I once had a basic knowledge of... in favor of letting him just take care of it. That goes specifically in our household for things like electronics, mechanical moving parts, computer maintenance, anything involving the septic system or sprinklers. I don't know really anything about any of those things anymore.  So around here, it seems that somewhere in "I Do"... actually, "I Don't."

My husband is adamant right now that I note that “anything involving a shovel” is also not my bag. I, however, beg to differ. Recently, I thought it would be a good idea to dig up the concrete mass that had once upon a decade ago held a basketball goal at the end of our driveway. The Hubs had been avoiding it, and about 3 days before our Easter Egg Hunt, I decided while he was out of town that the 1 inch metal remains sticking up (tetanus waiting to happen) needed to come out. I got a shovel and went to work. What I didn't realize until after I'd started digging though was that the concrete mass went down deep enough to practically touch the earth's core. I dug for well over and hour, almost broke one shovel (so naturally I just switched to the snow shovel,) and finally gave up when I couldn't get to the bottom of it. I also realized that the concrete mass had to have weighed well over 300 lbs and there was no way that I was going to be able to get it out.

The Hubs came home to a muddy pit around a concrete safety hazard at the end of our driveway that he says “then HAD to be dealt with regardless of if he had the desire or time to deal with it.” We had to attach the mass to the car to pull it out...it was THAT big.  Sadly, I really thought I'd have surprised him with a job well done instead of a job horrifyingly botched. The point here however though is that I do not entirely avoid shovels.  

Perhaps I should.

This past week while he was gone, the garbage disposal broke.

Insinkerator Evolution Essential

So I, being the wiser for the shovel incident, called a plumber instead of trying to replace it myself. The plumber told me it was going to be $375...I told him to go home. Ok...so not really. I told him to come back the next day so that I could then basically give him the remains of our tax return and to get a new disposal. Really though, he was a super nice guy, but it was more than I thought it'd be. So after I decided that $375 seemed like too much, I called our friend Rick.

When the Hubs has been gone before, Rick has been known to save the day.

 

<---This is Rick.  He might shoot me for introducing you all to the top of his head, and for making you think that it took 2 beers worth of time to do this job.  It didn't.  It took 20 minutes, and one of those little bottles was mine....for moral support.

Rick is an an old friend of ours who lived with us for about a year (he will tell you it was 6 months...we agree...but it was 2 separate stints of 6 months each.) He is engineer who works for BMW, and I just assume that since he knows about cars, he may know about anything else mechanical. Surely if you can engineer a car, you can install a disposal, right?

He and the Hubs talked on the phone about what kind of disposal to get, I went and bought it, and then he installed it, for the hefty price of a McAlister's Deli club sandwich.

I had to clean out underneath the sink so that Rick could get to the disposal. Who knows how long the broken disposal had been leaking...long enough to create mildew, but thankfully not long enough to warp the wood or to attrach roaches. It was nasty though. 

Just look what all I found under my sink!!!

Needless to say, I did some serious “cleaning out” of the cleaning supply.

I have a feeling that I probably need to motivate that cleaning out to other hidden cabinets as well. Maybe next time the Hubs has to be gone, I'll tackle that....with a shovel!

The Dinner Deliverer

I'm gonna be honest.  Today I sort of have writer's block.  And I don't know that I really have it or if I'm just so busy with everything else I'm trying to accomplish today that I shouldn't really even be stopping right now to write this post. 

I took dinner to a friend with a new baby last night.  Tonight I'm taking dinner to another friend who just had a baby last week, and made extra of that meal to actually then take with me to the hospital to a friend who had a baby about 3 hours ago.  Nothing better than good food when you're in the hospital.  I ate so much jello in the hospital with both of my kids, I really thought I'd died and gone to heaven when our friends Stuart and Greta brought me a Subway turkey sandwich.  Who'd have ever thought Subway would leave you in some sort of foodie bliss?!

I want to add here as well that in my humble personal opinion, there is really not much more amazingness that you can do for a friend than to bring them a meal in times of need.  When we have had both of our kids, the meals have been so incredibly appreciated I can't even tell you.  And when I miscarried not one but 2 babies, each time the meals were ways my friends could hug my neck with more than just their arms.  And when someone dies...and you don't know when you'll breathe normally again....to not worry about a grocery list or actually going to the store or preparing a meal....heaven on a plate makes it's way to your door in the form of the grace of a meal prepared.  Or when you've had one of those weeks where everything honestly just wears you out and a friend calls and says "Hey, I made a big pot of soup and we don't need it all...I'm bringing you some"....well you know they did it on purpose and you couldn't be happier!  Anyhow....make someone a meal.  Whether the need is obvious or maybe more subtle....make a meal....take a meal....hug their neck by filling their bellies!  Trust me, it's a good way to love!

So, I just got sidetracked on apparently what is more of a soapbox than I realized it was...all to say...I've been cooking like a mad woman today.   So I cooked Loaded Quiche yesterday and the Fig and Sausage Salad for tonight.  Since Tid Bit was in school this morning I did have time to whip up a couple of those Toasted Coconut Cream Pies I've told you about as well.  I could seriously stick my head in the bowl of that filling and spend hours licking it before coming up for air.  Seriously...it's that good.

Anyhow, I'm thankful that we have a day with no plans tomorrow.  I still have to get my act in gear around this house for our Easter Egg Hunt next weekend.  I've been messing with some things on my dining room table centerpiece lately too.  I'll have to show you that sometime soon.  It doesn't look fully awesome yet because it will depend heavily on the flowers my neighbor said I can pick from her amazing garden next Friday.  Here's to crossing my fingers that her peonies are blooming...fat chance, but you never know!

Ok...I better finish up these salads so I can make a dinner delivery as soon as the littlest one wakes up from nap.  Seems my almost 5 year old has finally over the past 2 weeks truly come to the point of giving up the afternoon nap.  I have to say, I'm pretty bummed about that.  I do enjoy the quiet each afternoon!  Farewell naptime...I do love you and won't mind if you still visit the bigger boy from time to time!

Hope the weather wherever you are is as glorious as it is over my house right now!

A Little Hanky Panky! Things that make you go hmmmm....

Oh yeah...

Admit it, the title caught your attention!  And if it didn't, then this will!

Ok ok... so the Hanky Panky I'm talking about here is a brand...not you know, bowm chicka bow wow!

But for real...aren't they cute?

Half of you are looking at the picture to the left and thinking "YEAH RIGHT!  You'd have to force me to even try and get my fat tookis in a pair of those!"  And some of you are thinking "SO Cute...I already have 4 pairs."  And then there are those of you who'd have used pregnancy as an excuse for hideous underoos, but that excuse is clearly gone for you now since I'm even showing a picture of a pregnant woman sporting them.

I'm not saying now that I'm trying to make you give up your cottony, panty-line-showing, up-to-your-eyeballs underoos for your whole life, but I am saying...forgo them for one day for your honey's sake (or if you're single, then for your own sake!)

Now clearly you know after my post regarding The Jello Jog the other day, the above pictures are clearly not me.  And you may be thinking that just because you may do a jello jog too means that you have no business sporting something so lacy and small....but check this out:

These gals are no emaciated models...look, their thighs even touch.  And without airbrushing, maybe they have a little jello jog too.  But doesn't look as bad as you'd have thought huh?  I do think that we can all remember here for a minute though that the saying is true "Tan fat is better than pale fat." (Thank you to Suzanne Fawsett from high school for that important word of truth.) So I'm thinking a little self tanner in your Valentine's basket o'goodies might not be a bad idea either.

But for real now.  I'm not gonna lie...they're about $18 a pair, but you will love them.  You'll never guess who turned my family on to these gems.  Seriously...you'll die when I tell you.

My DAD!

Ok ok...before you think we're really weird, he read about them in the Wall Street Journal which to him is pretty much like Biblical evidence of truth.  If it's in The Journal, then it must be true as far as he is concerned.  The man doesn't watch a movie without a hearty nod of approval from Joe Morganstern in The Wall Street Journal.

So check this out.  Some quotes from the article published in June of 2004:

What gives? Well, the undergarment itself does. "It's really, really soft and super-stretchy, so it doesn't dig into you like all the other brands," Ms. Horton says. "We call it our starter thong." (Ms. Horton owns a well known lingerie store called Trousseau in Chicago, just fyi.)

Lauren Martin, a 35-year-old Manhattan psychotherapist who spends most of her workday seated: "I have full hips and have tried all the fancy $200 sets, but I can never wear the panties." These days, she says Hanky Panky's lace thong is her only underwear.

Based in a Manhattan loft, Hanky Panky is led by its two 57-year-old founders (And if you were going to use your age as an excuse...give that one up now too!), Gale Epstein and Lida Orzeck. Friends from their college days in the 1960s, the two teamed up as business partners in the late '70s after Ms. Epstein gave Ms. Orzeck a panty and bra set she designed using handkerchiefs as a 30th-birthday present.

" The seeds of 4811 (this is the best selling style) were sown in 1978 when Ms. Epstein, inspired by Rio sunbathers in revealing bikinis, designed Hanky Panky's first G-string. She and Ms. Orzeck felt U.S. women were ready for something more liberating than common underwear.

The secret to 4811 lies in the careful calibration of the garment, which weighs a mere half-ounce, about as much as four cloves of garlic. To keep costs down, Ms. Epstein wanted to design a one-size thong that would fit most women, and she knew stretch lace was a particularly forgiving material. So she scoured New York manufacturers until she found a fabric with the perfect "modulus" - or elasticity - for the crucial hip band. It used enough spandex to stretch but not so much as to bind bare skin.

The final key ingredient was a thin line of super-soft lace around the thong's edge.

The result: "It lays flat on you," says Rebecca Apsan, the owner of La Petite Coquette, which carries some 85 different thong brands. She has given away samples of the 4811 to reluctant thong customers to teach them that not all thongs rub the wrong way.

Ok, so that's enough of the article...but you get the idea.  My dad got them for my mom, who thought they were so fabulous that she got them for my sister and me.  Yes, my mom did give my sister and me thong underwear. (Did I mention to you that my parents have been married 36 years?!  Not saying that thong underwear deserves the credit for that, but probably doesn't hurt huh?)  And now...here I am, a few years later telling you all "YOU MUST BUY JUST ONE PAIR!"

So here's the deal.  Order a pair, or buy them from a dept store.  Your husband won't even be mad (unless you maybe buy lots of pairs) because he'll be so amazed you've given up the Hanes for just one day.

Trust me people.  It's like a good recipe.  And you know I don't share a recipe that isn't worth sharing.

So go out there and get you some....Hanky Panky that is!

*wink* wink*

- Logan

PS. If you are a man who has just semi-suffered through this post...then go out and buy a pair for your wife.  And if she gets mad at your for trying to pry her away from the Hanes...tell her I told you to do it.

Got milk?

For most of you...this phrase may conjure up images of famous people with milk mustaches.

For our family over the past 4 years it has been a source of oftentimes fear. 

When Tid Bit was about 4 months old and had been suffering from severe eczema and then blood in his diaper, our awesome pediatricians recommended that he be tested for food allergies.  To make a long story short, among a laundry list of things, he tested positive for a milk allergy.

"Milk?!  WHAT?!  Milk is in everything," I thought!

So since I was nursing him, I had to either stop nursing or cut it all from my diet.  So I cut it all out.  Which interestingly enough wasn't as awful as I thought once I got used to reading labels and found some things that I could use as good substitutes.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I learned how to cook for the allergy for me, so by the time he was eating solid foods I had a really good handle on things.  (Aside here...If you have a dairy allergic child then email me anytime...I have LOADS of great substitutes I can share with you.  And for starters try this recipe for sugar cookies that I recently posted! You won't even know you don't have real butter in them!)

Anyways...milk/dairy has been a MAJOR no-no in our family.  And it only took one accidental sip of my husband's milk when Tid Bit was not even 2 to show us why.  After about 15 seconds, Tid Bit turned blue, was choking and couldn't breathe, and then after probably a minute of that (which seemed like an eternity) he threw up what had been liquid milk, but then had become a solid mass.  We stayed up most of the night both sleeping on his floor to make sure he was ok.  I've really never been so scared....ever.

So for over 4 years, we've been afraid of dairy.  We have lived in fear of something that seemed so normal to me for pretty much my whole life.

And even though my Little Bit is one now and it's ok to give a one year-old milk...I've been afraid to do it because of the situation with my other fella.

What if, right?

What if he's allergic too.  What if he reacts like Tid Bit did.  What if his body gets it and is poisoned by it too.  What if....what if...what if?!

But check this out....

This may just look like any baby drinking from a sippy cup to you.  But to me....to me, this is a picture of the faithfulness of God to my family.  This is a picture of my baby drinking real dairy milk for the first time, and while you can't tell in this picture at all...he LOVED it.  And, better than that, it seemed to love him back!

I don't know what made me do it beyond a really amazing group of friends around me this morning...but that was enough.  I thought to myself..."What if"...and the answer was "then God."

And so my friends prayed over my baby before I gave it to him.  And we sang happy birthday to our friend's son, and then Little bit drank some milk.  And I knew that the "what if's" were going to be ok because my friends would pray if there was an "if."  And "if" there was a problem, they'd get my other kiddo from school.  And "if" it wasn't good, they'd keep me calm.  And "if" I was scared and Little Bit was too...they'd pray all of heaven down on us.  And "if"... if anything... I could trust God.

So I did.

And my baby can drink milk.

And THAT reality of a blessing may seem small to many of you, but it brought tears to my eyes.  Because you know what.... there is blessing when we KEEP overcoming...

Got milk?

We do!

- Logan


PS. Tid Bit is still dairy allergic, but we believe that God is going to heal him of that some day soon....and that my friends will be a day to really remember too!

The Man Party

Ever since my husband and a band of his buddies decided to have their own "Man Party" for the Super Bowl last night, I've been salivating over a blog post idea.  I can't imagine that I'll do my idea justice because as is often the case with ideas, the execution can fall short indeed.  Like re-telling a funny story where mid-way through you already feel stupid because you've ruined it...I worry that this will be the same.  So if mid-way through I feel like a dolt, you'll understand why I may sound incomplete....just stop while you're ahead you know?!

So the Man party was the first idea thrown out there.  Then another friend sent out an invite for a couples party...to the same group of people.

None of us wanted to reply to either because who wants to pick between awesome people?!  Not us!  I think the overlap was a total case of the accidents, but still....several of us caught in the in between and noone wanting to decide for sure.

Party number 2 conceded to party # Man, and thus the Woman party was birthed.

I think I don't even need to delve into all the reasons that God made Eve.  Seriously, Adam needed some help.  God himself said so..."it is not good for man to be alone."  And I have been giggling inside for a couple of weeks now over what it looks like at a man party where wives make ZERO effort to help out....we had our own party to plan after all.

And check out the spread at our party...I really should have taken more pictures, because this only shows a little bit of it all.  There were 2 tables, and the counter taken up by goodies.  We had bacon and cheddar potato skins, spinach pastry puffs, fried mozarella sticks, veggie trays, fruit trays, hot cheese dip, hummus, chicken salad croissants, boneless hot wings, jalapeno pimento cheese, homemade fruit pizza, cheesecake, homemade brownies, real Spanish sangria, sodas, herbed pita chips...and that's not even all of it.  And notice the lovely serving dishes too?!  It was quite the effort made by about 10 women.  But that's all...just about 10 of us.  This picture really doesn't even do the spread justice.  I promise.

Here's a taste of the men's party below. Yeah...that's what MY man took.  I know you wish you had an airbrushed cookie cake at your Super Bowl party!  Maybe you did...maybe you had a Man Party too.


So when The Hubs got home and I asked him about the Man party, of course they had fun.  They always have fun.  But when I asked him about the food, he laughed and said "there were a lot of chips and salsa."

One guy brought some pizza.  Another brought some frozen wings that they then had to cook there.  (My girlfriend who's husband hosted the party, told me today that the mess she's cleaning up from the wing cooking is unbelievable!)  And there was this amazing cookie cake of course.

The Hubs told me he was getting hungry when I was describing our spread and even conceded a little jealousy.  Apparently the goal for the next man party would be that there is NOT a counter party for the women at the same time so that we can make sure their party is well fed.

HA!

I guess God knows what he's talking about huh?  Not good for man to be alone.  And I think the men will all have the diarrhea over the next couple of days to remind them.

Happy Monday friends!

- Logan

Kudos to....Shannon

I've been thinking...  I know, scary right?! 

Anyways, I've been thinking that I am blessed beyond measure to know a LOT of really neat people.  My husband says I'm a master networker...but really the truth is that I just LOVE people.  Everything about you.  I love that we all have different stories, struggles, joys, talents, pitfalls, personalities, senses of humor, ways of looking at things, pictures, homes...I mean, truly I LOVE people.  I mean, we all have people on occasion who grate our nerves, or people we're closer to, and honestly I think that's how it should be.  You should hold some people closer than others because everyone can't know all your secrets or all your junk, and you should learn to love people who are hard for you to naturally love because in the process you generally learn a lot about yourself.  Anyways, all this to say that I am often overwhelmed when I think of the people who I have the privilege of sowing into and who sow into me.  And so my thinking has been that I want to take a chance here and honor some people I know.  Maybe it won't do a thing for you but make you think that I seemed nice that day.  But what I'd really hope that it'd lead you to do is to think of someone that you could honor by telling them how much they mean to you and how neat you think they are.  I mean, don't you love it when someone unexpectedly gives you kudos...just for being you.  So I'm going to do that today and I hope that maybe you will too.

So today, my first post of "Kudos to" goes to Shannon, my friend and next door neighbor.

First what you should know about Shannon is that she is going to shudder that I'm even giving her public kudos.  She probably doesn't think she deserves it, but let me tell you how much she does.

She is beautiful inside and out.  Her heart is made of gold and she is so thoughtful and kind.  She's so much nicer than me...ALL THE TIME!  She's the friend who knows you're feeling rotten and brings over a Honeybaked Ham for you, because she thought it'd help out...and it does.  The thing that makes it ever better is that she just does it without asking because she knows that's what you need.

She's always apologizing because her kids play all over her house and leave some evidence of it around...but you know what, who cares.  She plays with her kids rather than spending all her time and energy picking up after them.  She does crafts with them even though she doesn't give herself for being crafty, she is silly with them, and the girl loves on those 3 boys like crazy.  Oh, and did I mention that she has 3 boys...2 of which are 3 year old twins.  And I'm just gonna say this here too...if you have twins, then nomatter what you think about yourself, I just need to sit at your feet and soak up some of your wisdom....because oh my goodness...you are amazing!

You know what else is so neat about Shannon...she is super creative.  She thinks she has a silly fettish with fabric and paint, but seriously...the girl has some awesome taste.  She isn't afraid to try new things and figure out how to make it work.  She just painted and antiqued this neat old china cabinet that she found and it is awesome.  And she has about probably 30 other pieces of furniture crammed all over her house that are projects in waiting.  She's a visionary...she has ideas that are awesome and they're just waiting to ooze out and become something tangible.

Shannon I think also has a huge heart for people, but she's shy too.  She doesn't give herself nearly the credit that she should, so it seems fitting to me that I give some to her here...where all of you can see.  So I guess I'm being a little bit of my occasionally forceful self and forcing her into the open where all of you can see her for who she really is...and that's a pretty amazing person.

Oh yeah...she's ridiculously smart too.  She has her JD which means she's a lawyer, but she uses that information to be a helper to other lawyers as a legal librarian.  See what I mean, she helps people...all the time.  I think it's part of her nature...she sees a  need and she fills it.  She's also particularly handy should you ever want to find out if anyone has a police record, or want to know who bought the house across the street, or if they have a police record....truly...she's handy that way! LOL!  So you see...she's a smart one too.  She works 1 day a week doing the legal thing so that she can spend time with her kids the rest of the time.

Anyways, there's way more that I could say about her, but for now I think I just want you to know that I am honored to call her my friend.

Do me a favor...when you read all of that above about Shannon, what do you think in your mind? If I didn't know her, I'd be thinking something like "dang...she's a rockstar"... so, would you honor Shannon in the comments section by just sharing how my words about her stirred you to think about someone you may know, or about her?  Thanks friends!

Now go out and give someone some Kudos today!  PS. Kudos by definition is "acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement."  I KNOW you all have exceptional people in your life too...so tell them!

Homemade Cotton Candy and a time-tested recipe for ravioli!

Listening to a nap-resistant crying baby around here right now, so you'll have to forgive me if the following post is slightly disjointed.  I hate hearing a baby be sad, but the child needs a nap badly!  Oh goodie, he's lying down now...LOVE the totally unnecessary but really fun video monitor!

So, this morning was sort of a crazy one!  Little Bit had a doctor's appointment with an ENT for all these ear infections he keeps having, and my friend L was keeping Tid Bit for me during that appointment at 8:30.  Then, SHE had a doctor's appointment at 10 and was dropping her little man off back over here so she could go to her appointment.  It was a crazy morning of kid switching so that we could actually listen to what the doctors were saying during the appointments!  Imagine that!  Child-free and listening to your physician since you can actually hear them!  Anyways...I'm thankful as all get-out for good friends I can kid swap with!

Little Bit's appointment went about as expected I guess...ear tubes needed, so I guess that's going to now be on our docket of springtime fun! Whatever...as long as it helps him, that makes everyone happy!

But, that's enough healthcare talk for now though.

Now, I just have to tell you about one of my MOST favorite memories as a child!  One we did so much that my siblings, other neighborhood kids, and myself were OFTEN pictured in the local newspaper.

Lemonade stands. 

Our stand wasn't just any old lemonade stand though (which is probably how we made it so frequently to the paper)...we sold cotton candy too!  I wish I could somehow dig up an old newspaper picture to post here, but that would likely involve sorting through my dad's files (remember I told you the other day how he's a pack rat?!) or going to my hometown's newspaper or library and probably having to look through microfiche!  If you don't know what microfiche is, then that just means you're younger than me and now you need to go look it up...I'm sure Wikipedia (which we also didn't have when i was a kid) would be delighted to assist you in your search for a definition.

Anyways...all that lemonade stand talk makes me ready for warmer temperatures.  But that's not what I want to tell you about.

One of the best parts about being the first kid in my family to have kids of my own is that I kinda get first dibs on some of the old stuff we had when I was little.  Most of the great stuff stays at my parents' house because Ninie and Pops want their house to be super fun as any grandparent should.  But the cotton candy maker...well I asked for that one!  And BINGO...guess where it is now!?

If you guessed my kitchen counter since we used it today then you win!

My friend L's little man C told me today "Miss Logan, I just LOVE it when I come to your house!"

I know baby...I know!  But, we'll just keep it between all of us on here that I want my friends kids to love coming here!  I don't break out the big guns for nothing you know! 

So check out this rainy day fun!

This is the part where it gets "spider webby" and the fun begins!  Little C-man was amazed clearly!  Miss Logan makes cotton candy?!?!  Like at the circus?! 

And for you mamas out there who want to spank me for giving 2 already hyper little boys cotton candy at 10:30 in the morning...just know that one whole fluffy cone contains just 1 Tbsp of regular granulated sugar.  Not as bad as you'd think huh?  Plus...if you want your friends' kids to love you, you can do things like this from time to time!

And then, once L came back to get C-man and we did the kid swap back again, I felt a little guilty for the early morning sugar rush so i thought I should do something really great for my 2 little fellas for lunch.  So I whipped up some ravioli from a recipe that I got from a really well known chef.  It's not too hard, I promise.  And as evidenced by my baby's face...it's a real hit around here!

I know you're dying for the recipe now.  The chef though is honestly one that I've loved since I was a kid.  This guy has been around...I'm not kidding you!  The man can make some ravioli!  So without further ado....drum roll please....I bring you.... Chef Extraordinaire....

Eat up kiddos!  Mommy will redeem this morning's real health kick at supper time!

Just having life (and a little cotton candy) for dessert here today....how about you?!

- Logan