The Mom Card Revoke

Let me start with a little story.

Last spring I signed Little Girl up for soccer.  She is 5 so she plays on the U5 team.

On the first day of soccer it is cold, rainy, and yucky; she is not 100% she wants to be there anymore –but we persevere. 

We check in and are told to go to a specific spot – there are 4 fields where 8 different teams are going to be playing / practicing – some of the teams are U5 and some are U6.

 

So I work my Mom magic (complete with placebo magic soccer pills that help calm her nerves) and we have our first practice / game.

But at the end of the game we find out we are on the wrong team – she has been playing on one of the U6 teams!  Well damn it! That would explain why so many of the other kids were so much better than her.

So off we go to join our team and the rest of the season is hunky dory. 

 

Blue Jersey = Wrong Team

 

Red Jersey = Right Team

 

Let’s fast forward to last night.

Last night was Little Girl’s first skating lesson and it also happened to be preschool registration night for Little Boy.

So again I work my Mom Magic and Hubby goes to stand in line for preschool registration, I wrangle the kids with a multitude of food / snacks and Little Boy’s LeapPad to keep him happy (didn’t quite work – I ran out of food).

But anyway, we get to the arena yesterday straight from day home and Little Girl’s name is not on the list.

So I pull up my handy receipt on my email – and voila – she is registered in the Wednesday class!

So we missed the first class already.

 

Well a huge thank you to the City’s recreation department because they let her join a class last night and next week we will go on the CORRECT night for skating lessons.

 

But really, I am surprised my Sports Mom Card doesn’t get revoked.

 

We are taking both kids for skiing lessons tomorrow morning – but Hubby booked them so we should be okay?!

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies

A long time ago I stumbled onto a blog a woman was writing where she was baking her way through a cookie cook book.

And then there was Julie Powell who cooked her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and not only blogged about it, but got a book and movie deal out of it too.

Now I am not looking to become famous, write a book or even have a movie made about me (however I would like to say that if this does happen, I want Jennifer Garner to play me), but I just love the concept of cooking through a cookbook or baking with a specific reason / target in mind.

So after years and years of thinking about it, I am taking the plunge.

I am not going to bake through a cookbook, but I am going to take on a 52 Cookie Challenge.

My goal is to bake 52 different types of cookies and blog about it over the course of a year, and since it is already the middle of January I have some catching up to do.

But here is what I am doing:

I am not getting my recipes from one specific cookbook.
I will be making cookie recipes that somewhat appeal to me and also recipes that I don’t normally make.
I will be getting a panel to judge each cookie each week, give me their thought and a rating out of 5.
I will be blogging this whole process and sharing the recipes with you all.

I will be making the cookies on Sunday, having my home panel give me their thoughts and then bringing cookies into work on Monday and Monday morning my work panel will give me their thoughts.

I haven’t quite worked out what day I will get each post up but I do know I will be working one week ahead – this will give me time to put together the post not have to kill myself on Monday nights.

But the first post will be up Monday January 21st, but here is a sneak peek for you...

 

 

The Anti-Bucket List

Hubby and I were watching comedian John Pinette on TV the a little while ago; he had a brilliant idea that I thought I would share with you all, because I am in love with it.

He called it his Anti-Bucket List – or his F*&k-it List!

This is a list you keep of all the things you never want to do in your life.

I honestly can’t remember what his was, probably an extreme sport or something, but I laughed and love this list.

Fast forward a few days later and Hubby and I are watching the news.  There was story about a woman who was walking across Antarctica; I turned to hubby and instantly said – “That is on my F*&k-it List!”

Another thing on my list is climbing a mountain.  I don’t mean one of those hills they have in Ontario they call a mountain – I mean I never want to have to use ropes, carabiners or any special equipment to climb up a hill let alone a mountain.

Yup, not for me thanks!

I admire anyone that does want to do these things, but they are just not ever going to be on my must do bucket list.

What about you?  What is on your ‘I have no desire what-so-ever to do it’ list?  Or F*&k-it List as I like to call it.

Nuts and Bolts

Isn’t it funny how the things you did as a child at Christmas often dictate what traditions you do as an adult too?

My Mom used to make Nuts & Bolts every Christmas, and although I haven’t made them for a few year, this year I knew I needed them.

 

I posted a picture on Facebook and Instagram (MrsJennyHill if you'd like to follow me) on Saturday and very soon after I had a few requests for my recipe.

So here you go:  it is in my opinion the perfect balance, not too much sauce, but with enough flavour to bring back a million Christmas memories.

Nuts & Bolts

1 box Shreddies (550g)
1 box Cherrios (500g)
1 box Crispix (350g)
1 package pretzels (400g)
1 package roasted & salted peanuts (600g)
Additional nuts if you want

2 cups butter

1 cup Worcestershire sauce
7 garlic cloves, pressed
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
5 dashes Tabasco sauce

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Using a few large bowls, mix the Shreddies, Cherrios, Crispix, pretzels and peanuts until evenly combined.
Melt the butter in a sauce pan.  Once melted, add the Worcestershire sauce, salt, onion powder and Tabasco sauce.  Mix until well combined and salt is dissolved.
Pour on to cereal mixture and stir well to coat.
Spread into large roasting pans and bake for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
Once cooled store in Ziplok bags or air tight containers in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Rainbow Cupcakes and a Birthday

In my blogging absence I missed sharing with you all Little Boy’s birthday.  He is now 4!

We kept it simple this year and just had family over for dinner and cake.

 

He asked for a rainbow cake, so off I go to Google and Pinterest stalk I went.  I came across this recipe and made a few changes, the main one being cupcakes instead of a cake.

The kids both LOVED these and now I am making rainbow cupcakes for Little Girls birthday too.

These are actually just a white cake, you can cheat and use a box mix but that is like swearing in my house – I am a firm believer of cake from scratch vs. cake from box.

 

Rainbow Cupcakes 

These are a bit painstaking to make, but it's worth it. Everyone loves them (young and old), but I am not saying anyone in particular is old.3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/3 cups white sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Line 24 cupcake tins with papers, set aside.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and mix until well incorporated.   Add the flour and milk in alternating additions, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk.  Mix until well combined, scraping down the sides as needed.

Divide the cake batter evenly between 6 bowls.

Add food colouring and then spoon 1-2 tablespoons of each colour into the cupcake tins, spreading out each colour evenly as much as possible.

Rainbow food colouring chart: (I used the cheap food colouring you can buy in the grocery store for this and it worked great.)

• Purple: 9 red and 6 blue drops
• Blue: 12 drops
• Green: 12 drops
• Yellow: 12 drops
• Orange: 12 yellow and 4 red drops
• Red: 18 drops

Bake for 20-25 minutes until cake tester comes out clean.

Once cooled ice with your favourite icing.  My first batch (the one pictured) I used a cooked icing – it tastes great but is a bitch to work with in a piping bag, I strongly recommend a nice butter cream, much easier to work with and pipe.

Yield: 24 cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Kindergarten Photos

"Wow, your daughter looks so much like you!"
I hear this statement a lot!!

So I thought I would show you all - side-by-side - here is my Kindergarten photo with her Kindergarten photo.

What do you think?  Do we look a like?

Spiderman & Barbie

Happy Halloween! 
Or should I say happy candy hangover day!

We had a great Halloween this year, there was snow on the ground and it was cold, but we live in Canada, we are tough and this is what memories are made of.

This kids are well layered under their costumes - 3 layers each!  And they did great.  Lasted way longer than I thought they would last - I was prepared to bring them home to warm up and then go back out, but after they warmed up they wanted to go and see Anna (out old day home lady).  So I threw them in the van and off we went for a little Halloween visit.

Over all a great night - lots of kids still in our neighborhood in spite of the weather.  How was your Halloween?  Lots of kids?