Trevor's Turkey

Yesterday Trevor was coloring with some Crayola markers. He saw there was a website on the back of the box and said "we need to go online and see what this is." So we go to http://www.crayola.com/ and they have all kinds of projects on their website. I walk out of the room and he gets all excited and tells me to come back and see what he found. So he makes me sit down and watch this 11 minute video about how to make a turkey out of the Crayola model magic fusion dough. He leaves while I watch the video to go make his turkey and this is what he came up with. He even included the 2 eyes and the beak. He was a little bent that we did not have brown dough but he managed. On the video they use a 2-liter bottle under the turkey so he went and found his own water bottle to use.

A Recipe

Tonight for dinner I made one of my favorite soups. I am a huge homemade soup fan but since I have a picky husband and all soups any shape or form will not be consumed by him have to be made when he is at work. He left tonight at 5pm to work his 15th and final graveyard in a row. Anyhow since it is one of my favorites I thought I would share. Oh, and I got the recipe from my sister Kerri who got it from a cook book but I don't know which one.

Also, for those who don't like coconut (not sure how anyone could not like coconut???) it doesn't taste like coconut at all.

Pumpkin-Coconut Bisque

2 Tablespoons butter
1 Cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Cups canned solid pack pumpkin
2 Cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper
1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk (can be found by the Asian foods)

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute until golden, about 10 minutes. Add pumpkin, broth, sugar, allspice and crushed red pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer until flavors blend, about 30 minutes. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth (I just use one of those Braun hand blenders and put it right in the pot). Return soup to pot. Bring soup to simmer, thinning with coconut milk to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm soup before continuing.) Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve.

It is good served with creme fraiche (recipe below) or I just put a blob of sour cream in it.

Makes 6 servings.

Creme fraiche

Combine 1 Cup whipping cream and 2 Tablespoons buttermilk in a glass container. Cover and let stand at room temperature from 8 to 24 hours, or until very thick. Stir well before covering and refrigerate up to 10 days.

So there you go. If you don't like soup or pumpkin than that is just too bad! For everyone else who decides to make this soup...enjoy!!

My Sweet Connor

Today we went to the library and they have movies you can check out. Well I usually don't like to check out the movies because they are due in 1 week and there is a $1.00 late fee for each day they are late. So it is rare that I let the boys get a movie. But tonight I was feeling like a nice mom so I let them get a Bionicle movie. The boys were watching it this evening. Trevor got board with it like usual so he wanted to play a game on the computer. I came in to help him and went back out a little while later to check on Connor. Well, Connor was watching the movie laying on the couch crying. I was in shock that he was crying. I asked him why and he said the movie made him sad. He was starting to get hysterical so I tried to calm him down. I asked him if he wanted to talk about it but he said no and wanted to keep watching. So I let him finish the movie. I have no idea what it was that made him sad but I just thought it was sweet that my 6 year old was crying during a movie. I told him that it was okay to cry and that mom does it all the time.

9/11

As it is the 7th anniversary of 9/11 I decided to put out our flag on our house today. Connor did not notice it but Trevor did. Usually when there is a flag day and we put out our flag they ask why. We have a book all about 9/11 that my mother-in-law gave us. The boys especially Connor love looking in the book and asking all kinds of questions. I am sure the book will come out of the book shelve today after school. Anyhow, the question came up today why the flag was out. So I started by reminding them of the book that we have where the plane's crashed into the tall buildings in New York City. Every time they pull the book out or we talk about it I get teary eyed. We all know what a sad tragedy it was and still is, but I am thankful to be able to teach my children about history.

Dustin

So my poor husband is TIRED!!! He has been working lots of 12 hour graveyards. When done it will be 15 in a row. Tonight he is on #8. Well Connor had a field trip to the zoo yesterday and Dustin insisted on going. He worked a graveyard the night before the field trip...he said he was able to get a cat nap in at work but who knows how long he slept? He came home by 6:30am the next morning, laid down until 7:15am, took Connor to school by 7:45am, went on the field trip came home at 3:30pm, laid down until 4:55pm and left for work at 5pm. He did not get any cat naps in last night at work. I was so worried about him the whole night especially the drive home this morning. He made it home fine and is now in bed. I think I will keep the kids...well at least try to keep the kids quiet today so he can sleep as long as he needs to before heading out again at 5pm. My poor husband!

Knitting

When I was a child my Oma taught me how to knit. Years went by and I forgot how. So a few years ago I decided that I was going to relearn. I bought a book that had step by step instructions and I was able to pick it up again quickly. That winter all I made were scarfs. I gave a bunch of them away but I have a lot in my closet. I must have made 25 scarfs that winter. Well, since we are having a baby girl in February I found a pattern for a crochet blanket. I had never really crochet anything before so with the help of my mother-in-law I was able to learn how to crochet and I made my first blanket.

My next baby projects are another crochet blanket and a little knitted sweater.

My paper bag books

So I love paper! I have hundreds of sheets of scrapbook paper. It all started when I got this great idea (which I seem to have a lot of) and decided that since I love to scrapbook I will buy all my paper wholesale since I already had a resale permit and sell the extra on eBay. Well I sold a ton of it but not all of it. It was hard to keep up because with scrapbooking they release new items and paper about 3 to 4 times a year and I just never sold all my supply to be able to buy more. So after about a year I closed my eBay store (once I hit power seller status) and found other ways to use up my supply. Well needless to say I still have a huge stash. Each one of these paper holders has about 200 to 300 sheets of paper in them.

It is my sister Kerri's birthday today. We celebrated last night at her house. After church I realized that I did not buy her a gift so of course one of my brilliant ideas...I'm going to make her a paper bag book. And of course I only had 2 hours until we are due at the celebration. I didn't have time to take pictures of her book that I made but I did make a huge mess as I always do. So this morning in the process of cleaning up my mess I realized that I had another paper bag book I had started a few months ago and never finished so while I cleaned I finished the paper bag book. I like it in person but not sure I like it pictured. I also made one a while ago with the same paper that I sold to someone.

Blogging

So after much contemplation I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. My mom has tried to get me to blog and so many of my friends have blogs. The thing is I don't like to write...Talk, yeah I know I can talk your ear off but write, I'm not that great at it so lets see how this goes.

Kim