Betty Crocker at it again!

Since I get to stay home with Anna and baby #2, I am starting to feel a bit guilty about a bowl of cereal/pop tarts/oatmeal for breakfast.  I think it is the pregnancy hormones; so this may be a short lived guilt.  However with that said I decided that this morning Anna and I were going to bake something fun for breakfast.  Having various items in the kitchen I thought about these yummy Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits that Paula Deen once made.  (I am addict to the Food Network Channel, if only I had a kitchen like some of those hosts!) They are super easy and only take about 25 minutes start to finish.  And Anna was able to assist mommy in the prep, plus she loves to eat them.  Here is a picture of what ours turned out like

Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits

Here is the recipe for those of you who may want to try these out.  As I mentioned they are easy and not very time consuming to make.  They are great as breakfast or an item to add to a brunch menu.  Enjoy!

Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 1 (10-ounce) can crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick butter), at room temperature
• 10 maraschino cherries
• 1 (12-ounce) package refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease 10 cups of a muffin tin. Strain the can of crushed pineapple, save juice for later.

Combine the pineapple, sugar, and butter, and mix well. Divide the pineapple mixture among the muffin cups. Place a cherry in the center of each muffin cup, making sure cherry hits bottom of cup. Place 1 biscuit in each cup on top of sugar and pineapple mixture. Spoon 1 teaspoon reserved pineapple juice over each biscuit. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool for 2 minutes. Invert the pan onto a plate to release the biscuits. Serve warm.

Relay for Life 2011

     
     I had formed a team "Farley's Angels" to participate in the event Relay for Life Evergreen Park/Beverly on Saturday July 16, 2011.  This was not my first Relay for Life but this one meant more to me than any I have participated in the past.  Farley's Angels was to honor our dear Ed Farley who succumb to cancer on March 5, 2011 at the age of 60.  Ed was a special person not only in my life and a part of my family's life but many others too. He had a way of making everyone feel extraordinary.  In our family Ed was more than just a family friend since the beginning of time, he was family.  My daughter Anna knew him as Uncle Ed and she was his "AGB".  All thru my life Ed was always supportive of the many humanitarian tasks I love to do - so back in January when we visited Ed, I thought we could do this walk together.  Sadly that is not what God had in mind.  Being determined to honor Ed and maybe help another family from suffering the way mine and all of Ed's friends have suffered, I decided to form this team.

Team Farley's Angels tent

     As this was our inaugural year, I was so pleased with our turn out!  It made me so proud of our team.  You  could see how many lives Ed touched.  We had a tremendous amount of support in donations and the number of friends that came out to walk with us was amazing.  And not only did people come out and walk they stayed and walked!  And the weather that day only cooperated by not raining and gave us a little breeze; it was HOT!  

Bag from Anna, Izzy and Bubby to Uncle Ed that was lining the track

     
     As I have mentioned we were there to honor Ed but many people on my team also were honoring family members that had suffered from this disease and we also had a survivor join our team.  All in all this event is an experience that people should truly try to experience.  You have families there, friends there and you make friendships with strangers because you have all come together for one main goal -To hopefully some day see an end to cancer.  Some of the stories of other walkers were also sad stories but then there were the few tucked in there of hope and survival.  This was an event I was glad to share with Anna; she loved walking around and then when the Luminiaria ceremony was over and we did a lap in silence to honor all, she in her own way even honored those who had passed.  She told my parents and I that the bags were beautiful.  Even though the walk has only been over for a few days; I look forward to participating in this event for many years to come.  

Fun in Philly 2011

   As the last few weeks of being a family of 3 are coming to an end, we decided to take Anna on a weekend trip.  A trip of just mommy and daddy time because we know that the arrival of her little sister is going to change her life forever.  Not in a bad way but it will be an adjustment to say the least.  Anna's weekend adventure began with her second plane ride; which the last time we took her on one she was only 11 months old.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous, however Anna LOVED the plane ride.  She thought it was so exciting.  And she was a trooper, we had to change planes which meant no nap (we paid for it later) and her main concern was that we got up high above the trees so she could watch Dora.
   After our day of travel and walking a bit around downtown Philadelphia - stayed in a hotel across from city hall - we turned in for our adventures the next day.  Anna has a great love for animals so we decided to go to the Philadelphia Zoo.  This zoo is America's  first zoo, it opened in the 1800s.  We had a great time with our little tour guide Anna Grace.  She had the map and was in charge!  This zoo also has a Children's Zoo in it; you get to see baby chicks and ducklings - right after they hatch, feed and brush goats and sheep and ride ponies.  Well she did it all!  And after she rode the pony, Anna told us how  she wants to ride ponies all the time (good thing we live in the "Horse Capital of the World).  We then had dinner with 2 of our favorite Philly families - the Cornelius' and the Pedicones.  

Tour Guide Anna

   Day 3 in Philly was anything but dull.  Our dear friends the Chatterjees came up from Washington DC to spend some time with us.  So after we all had some breakfast we ventured off to the Please Touch Museum.  And this place was awesome!  There is a transportation/construction/space area, a grocery/deli/bakery, hospital, train area and an entire section dedicated to Alice in Wonderland.  Water tables and a carousel.  The kids had a blast!  And us, parents did too. 

Dr. Anna G. Bennett

   And once we were finished with the museum we had to get a quick nap in because our day was not over yet.  We spent the afternoon and evening at Sesame Place.  If you have children it is a place that you should check out.  It is a theme park all about Sesame Street.  You see characters, and rides and even a show and parade.  It is a mini Disney, but with Elmo.  At first Anna was not too keen on the characters - she cried when we took her picture with Daddy and the Count.  But by the end of the night she was looking for the rest of her friends on "Sunny days" as she calls them to get their picture.   As the night came to an end we had 4 very tired little people and 6 very tired parents.  All in all it was a great time and some memories that we will always remember.  

Anna, Mommy, Zoe, Stacy and Erin

  

Anna, Daddy and the Count

Anna and Erin loved the tea cup ride

I know that Anna enjoyed her trip because on our last night in Philly when getting ready for bed Anna asked me if we can bring Bubby (her name for her sissy-to-be) next year and go to the zoo and Sesame.  She then informed me that Anna will have to hold Bubby when she gets her picture taken with all the characters so  that she will not be scared.  I am going to remind Anna about the love she has for her sister some day when they are fighting!  

Thru the eyes of my 2 year old

     Recently Anna and I were eating dinner at a fast food restaurant before heading out to daddy's softball game.  While we were eating there was a man sitting by himself and he has special needs.  As we were eating he started talking out loud to himself and making some rather interesting noises and Anna asked me, "Who is he talking to mommy?"  Not sure of how to respond I just told her he must be on the phone, thinking this was a good answer.  Nope.  The man turned and Anna saw that he did not have a phone, and she called me out on it.  "Who is he talking to mommy?" she asked again with her big blue eyes rather inquisitive.  So I had to really think about my answer, how do you explain to little people about those with special needs?  
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
     Our local grocery store has many young adults working there that have needs and we see them there.  But they act a bit different than this young man.  You want to shelter and protect your little one but know that is not the way life really is.  And Anna isn't one who likes a random answer, she really wants to know.  She also asked on a different day about a couple who were "little people", Anna thought they were her age and wanted to know if they were with their mommy too.
     
    So I have to ask, do you try to tell a 2 year old about "special" people or make up an answer.  The easy way in parenting would be to just change the subject and/or make up answer.  But that would not be the most effective thing to do, you know that this issue will come up again.  I guess this is just one of the many challenges we face when we are parents.  This one wasn't too bad, just one that I wasn't prepared for.    


Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.
(Proverbs 29:17 ESV)
  

Not Betty Crocker, but...

     As some of you know, I am no "Betty Crocker".  However I do like to try to bake things.  So this past July 4th weekend I saw a segment on the Today show about S'mores Bars.  I decided to give it a whirl.  Now the crust did not turn out the way I wanted it to the first time, but I made another batch the next day and they were sooo yummy!
     I did not add the pepper powder to them due to having a little person eat these.  Plus I am not sure I would be keen on the "heat".  If you care to try them they are not difficult and do not take forever to make.  And as I said I have a little person in the house who loves to help; and they can with spreading the mini marshmallows in the pan.
Here is the recipe and enjoy!

Spicy smoky S'mores
Anne Thornton host of FoodNetwork show Desserts First
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted, plus more, softened, for pan
18 plain graham crackers (about 2 packages)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder, optional
3 1/2 cups mini-marshmallows
Preparation and Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with foil. You want to leave about 4 inches of overhang on the 2 opposite sides. These are going to serve as your handles to remove the bars from the pan in 1 piece, so make sure that there is enough of the overhang for you to have a solid grip. Grease the foil well with the softened butter.
In your food processor, grind the graham crackers into a fine meal (you need 2 cups). In a large bowl, combine your crumbs with the sugar, sea salt and melted butter. The mixture should look and feel like wet sand. Set aside a heaping 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture for the topping. Evenly press the remaining crumb mixture into the bottom the foil-lined pan. Pop your crust into the oven and bake until it is golden brown and your kitchen smells of graham crackers, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool on a rack or on a dishtowel on your counter.
Melt the milk chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until fully melted. Do not turn up the heat to hurry this process, you must keep it on low. Alternately, you can microwave the chocolate on low power, stirring after 2 minutes. Once the chocolate is fully melted, it's time to add the chipotle pepper powder, if using, and stir it in completely.

Preheat the broiler. Pour the melted chocolate over the cooled graham cracker crust. Spread the chocolate evenly over the crust with a butter knife. Sprinkle the marshmallows over the chocolate and press them lightly into the chocolate. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over and in between the marshmallows so that you cannot see the chocolate peaking through the marshmallows. Broil the bars 6 inches from the flame until the marshmallows are golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
Refrigerate the bars until the chocolate is hard, 2 hours or so. Grab the ends of the foil liner and lift the bars out of the pan in 1 piece. Move to a cutting board and cut into 24 squares.
Serving Size
24 servings

Yummy!

31 weeks down...only 7 weeks and 3 days to go!

Well today I had my 31 week check up at the doctor.  
All went well, except that I decided to take Anna with me and NO stroller.  Bad idea.  We waited, which is not unusual but an almost 2 1/2 year was not having fun.  Once we got our turn Anna decided she was going to be the Doctor.  She listened to her sister in the belly with the stethoscope and then took mommy's blood pressure.  After we saw Nurse Kristy we got to see sissy on an ultrasound.  She is growing well and ALL stretched out.  Oh and I forgot to mention Baby #2 is like her sissy, she is breach!  I had a feeling that was going on, but it is fine.  It just explains all the kicks I get on the bottom of my uterus.  Breach or not I am having another c-section with Baby #2.  All will be well, just say a little prayer that the surgery goes well on August 26th. 


During the ultrasound we saw Baby's legs, and her belly.  The tech tried to get a profile but that too like her big sister, did not turn out.  We will have to wait to see who she resembles.  We did see her head and she was moving her mouth  when Anna was talking during the whole thing.  I guess that she is already trying to talk to us! 


As the last weeks approach we have many things to finish on the "list", one of which will be picking out a name for her.  Who would have thought deciding another name would be so hard.  Either way we will welcome her with lots of love and a big sister who can not wait to hold her!