Really I was planning on posting the top 32 Valentine's desserts from Marcia's Trash-Talk Merinques to Magnolia Bakery's Red Velvet cupcakes but that will have to wait for another day. Tonight I will give you a small window into the brain of my preschooler.

Most of you know I have a kid who has a penchant for the scientific. This morning he literally threw himself on the floor and refused to go to preschool until I explained how ribosomes produced the amino acids in conjunction with the endoplasmic retiticulum that result in a protein to be transported to the golgi bodies and, finally, exit via active transport through the cell membrane. No really. He can look at an illustration of chromosomes and tell if it is from a boy or a girl. Our bedtime stories are college biology books.

But maybe all this information is too much for my little man's brain. Tonight as he was fiddling with some simple sewing cards I told him learning to sew would help him be a better doctor. (This is a kid who is all too familiar with stitches.) Just before dosing off, he told me that when he is a doctor he was going to sew kids back together with stitches that were stitched in the pattern of Jesus' face.

"That way, mom, anyone who sees their scar would know that Jesus is real ... forever."
(help!!)

For the Love of all things Mole!

Here it is ... Marcia's ultimate Valentine's treat. It's hot, chocolaty and just right for keeping someone you love warm on a winter's night. It was so pretty to make and I took far too many pictures. Step by step:

1. Toast four different types of nuts.

2. Roast various kinds of dry spices.

3. Saute onions and garlic. (Yum.)

4. Toss in chicken stock, peppers, a can of tomatoes and 18 tortilla chips. (Trust me.)

5. Puree mixture in a blender and add .... CHOCOLATE!

6. Get 24 crayons and a box of raisins for the kid you have been ignoring for the last hour.

7. Stir in melted CHOCOLATE!!! 8. Put half of the mole in a decorative container and give it to a girlfriend who will appreciate it more than any man. :)

9. Serve with roasted chicken from the grocery store and fresh corn tortillas. If making your own tortillas is a deal breaker, go for a nice corn store-bought variety. I added cute little roasted peppers on top in the shape a heart to make it more festive (fer-cute) and served with a healthy bunch of cabbage, carrots, cilantro and LIME.

Here's the recipe:

“Quick” Mole

Heat a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat

Toast in the pan:

1/2 C almonds

¼ C pecans

1 T peanuts

¼ C pine nuts or shelled pepitas

Remove nuts from pan and toast until fragrant:

1 ½ T chili powder

1/8 tsp ground cloves

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cumin

Remove spices from pan, wipe pan with paper towel and add:

¼ C vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

Sautee until onion is translucent and add:

3 garlic cloves, minced

Sautee until fragrant and add:

¼ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp dried thyme

1 canned choptle chile in adobo sauce

1/3 C raisins

1 lb chopped, peeled tomatoes (drained, canned work well here)

toasted nuts from above

toasted spices from above

2 C low-sodium chicken broth

½ C dark brown sugar

18 corn chips which have been softened in hot water

Puree entire mixture in a blender until very smooth.

Return to pan and add:

3 heaping T cocoa powder, a nice chunk of bitter sweet chocolate brick.

Simmer mole, uncovered for 20 minutes to allow flavors to combine. Add extra chicken stock if mixture becomes too thick.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Happy Valentine's!

tag

First and foremost ...  Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Daddio. Feb. 12, 1960 was just a quick 48 years ago, wouldn't you say? Here's to the next 48! You're sitting on top of the world in my book.

And now on the business of being tagged.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged

10 years ago I was:
Engaged to one guy but in love with another. Lucky for me I married the other!

5 things on my 'to do' list today:
1. Get a new Social Security card
2. Make Valentines for 23 preschoolers
3. Start a wildly successful business of shoveling snow.
4. Make Mole!!
5. Spend some quality time with Alex ... Oh wait, that's Cindy #5 on her "to do"! Actually, I could stand a little quality time in London. 

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. Make Marco retire
2. Buy lots of new lenses 
3. Take pictures of the people asking me for money
4. Pretend to be one of the people asking me for money and take a picture of myself.
5. Give $1,000,000.00 to each person who comments on this post.  (I promise not to forget who my friends were before the money.)

3 of my bad habits:
1. Forgetting to start the dishwasher
2. Concocting the "real" story behind the obituaries. (You have to read between the lines.) 
3. Anything with Vanilla.

5 places I've lived
1. Houston (18 years!)
2. Utah
3. DC
4. Utah
5. DC
6. Utah

5 jobs I've had
1. Desert Death Camps (several of them)
2. Children's Museum
3. Dinosaur Museum
4. Dead Animal Museum
5. Slave to the Little People (It's more rigorous than the first job.)

Things most people don't know about me:
1. I once owned and operated my very own dump truck.
2. I hate it when women think I do hair especially if they think I can do their hair. I am not a hair person. Don't ask me for an up-do.

You've been tagged:
1. Kim - because Cindy didn't tag you
2. Erin - because Cindy did tag you and in the mouths of two or three witnesses ...
3. Shaunita - because you are about to have a baby and, therefore, have lots of energy and nothing to do?

4. Your Name Here.

St.George Slays the Dragon

After weeks of depressing-frozen-inversions-of-dragon-like-death-to-my-very-soul, we packed up the car and headed south. We recovered from our winter blues with the care of Aunt Lisa who has the definite gift of healing. Just a few hours of direct sunlight (and adult conversation with another grown-up) and we were good to go. This is Xanny's dance of joy atop a chunk of red earth.


Running and climbing all over the place is what St. George is all about ... in February. My kids cried when we left and made me promise to come back to Aunt Lisa's the very next day.

I have to say one of the VERY best parts of our visit was visiting with the cousins Lauren (who was permattached to some boy with a funny name) and Jessi who loves anything with fur and four legs. Maybe that is why she got along with Xan so well.

Also we loved getting to know Alex. (Everyone say hello to cute Alex.) My kids have adopted her as part of our family and I think we should hire her as our new nanny. She was so good, I would go to St. George in July just to have her around to help out. Thanks again!

Albi the Racist Dragon & Jeffery

Why?

1. Because my children are OBSESSED with two things ... stories about being 5 and getting badly injured and stories about how Jesus has taught us to love one another.

2. Because my husband has been gone for weeks and Jermaine is looking sexier than ever.

3. Because I think the only way to truly prepare for Valentine's Day is with seven days of Flight of the Concords.

4. and now for something completely different .... I give you Jeffery Q. Esquire the Third and his poem of wedding bliss read at the wedding luncheon of Katie and Sam. (I think Jeff would like Albi the Racist Dragon. I know Albi would like Jeff's po-em.)

Guns: Guns are the Answer
A Wedding Poem for Katie and Sam

Katie and Sam are now married, it seems
He had just the right stuff to romance her,
And so for their home I have written a poem
I call, “Guns: Guns are the answer.”

I don’t know all that much about Sam Henderson,
But he seems like a nice-enough fella,
I don’t know what to give them, but lucky for me
They are registered down at Cabela’s.

Shooting’s ideal for a fun thing to do
When you take a girl out for a date,
Why, I myself fell deep in love with my wife
For her prowess with my .38.

To Sam, Rigoletto and Der Fledermaus
Are the loveliest sounds we can hear,
But the bolt slamming sure on an Enfield Mark IV
Is a lovelier sound to my ear.

Katie’s a musical genius, it’s true,
You can hear angels sing when she plays,
But though music’s best to soothe savages’ breasts,
With a gun you can blow them away.
God made all men; Samuel Colt made them equal,
Society’s much more polite,
For peace flows much freer , see, when it is clear
That you’re risking your life if you fight.

A submachine gun makes a great wedding gift
To present to a daughter or son,
For although you may fight
You remain quite polite
When your sure that your wife has a gun.

And after a few years of marital bliss
There’ll be moments it seems to go South,
So Katie, retreat, when your man’s packing heat,
Be reluctant to shoot off your mouth.

And if, in the first years of marriage, you find
That your household has run short of funds,
Remember there’s always more cash to be had
If you have a ski mask and a gun!

12/27/07

Kolkata

We're back!! And India was great. Well, maybe I didn't go to Kolkata with the little people but someone else has been there ...

It's Marco! Today is day 21 of being a single mother while he has been working in India. (That is a really long time -- a painfully long time.) Here are a few pictures of the sights and sounds of Calcutta now Kolkata. Hopefully, he is coming home tomorrow! Next week I will have him write up a few lines about his adventures. Just for the record, I hope he brought me something from this bead guy. (Suddenly I have the urge to paint a door bright blue. Quick, only 32 hours until my husband gets home. Where's the paint?)

Marco says there is a "planned community" of 3 million just outside of Kolkata named Salt Lake City. Below is a groom on the way to his wedding. 

Random tidbits: 

1. Best Indian movie of the year -- Namesake.

2. Zendina had her baby this week! Still no word on a name.

3. Last night Xan asked me if Heavenly Father created prokaryotic bacteria cells that make us sick on accident. What am I suppose to say to that? Kim, any suggestions? He also wants to know if Heavenly Father is perfect, does he have lymph nodes? 

4. Up coming post will include highlights of our recent trip to St. George, Jeff's wedding poem to Katie and a response to Cindy's tag. 

5. Marcia is whipping up a hot and spicy recipe for Valentine's Day and maybe Emily A. will make me some homemade marshmallows for no good reason?

That's all.

Snow is falling all around ...

"Snow is falling all around, on the roof tops on the ground. Snow is falling everywhere, on my nose and der-i-air." (That's for Kim.)
OK, the truth is I really can't handle looking at pictures of politicians anymore. If you are not in Utah, what you don't know is that we are having a Canadian winter of no ending snow death! Enough. Since we were snowed in I grabbed the camera and shot some pictures of bunches of children. Cute kids and politicians kind of go hand in hand. I guess kids are the antidote to politics.




Thanks to Mauri and Jenna for having cute kids.