Thursday, March 31, 2011

Pianist

Madison started piano lessons last week. She has been very excited about them and eager to get started. She has been playing around on our keyboard for the last few years and then we brought the piano from Montana at Christmas so she has been having fun with that. Here is our Debut Duet "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". Her fingering and music reading is coming along quite well. She still needs to work on keeping time and an even beat, which makes it tricky for me to accompany her:-)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Recipe Reviews

I am back with my reviews of the cooking week using Our Best Bites cookbook. Overall it was a successful week and I enjoyed being energized to cook in the kitchen using some new recipes. The girls enjoyed the "rating system" we used at the end of each meal to let me know how they liked it. Though I think that created some monsters as Nora started giving things like the sweet potatoes and broccoli a 1 on the 0-10 scale. I had to remind them we were just reviewing the NEW recipes and really their votes don't count too much in what I decide to cook or what they get to eat:-) Here are my reviews. GREEN means it will definitely be made again in the Kimmet Kitchen. ORANGE means it wasn't a big winner but I will try it one more time with modifications. No need for YELLOW this time but that would mean never again. You can still click on the photo to link to the recipe on Our Best Bites.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos - These were very tasty and I can see that it would be easy to do lots of different variations.

Smoky Bean Soup with Ham and Bacon I really enjoyed this soup, Tom was okay with it. I think it needed a bit more flavor to kick it up a bit so I will experiment next time with it.

Hot Fudge Sauce I have made it before and will make it again. Nothing fancy or complicated but for the one chocolate lover in the house (that would be ME!) I enjoy it plenty! The rest of the family can take it or leave it.

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce Really liked this and look forward to trying some of the variations in the cookbook. I also like the fact that it made a pretty big batch and was just as delicous the second day. I am not sure how "guiltless" it is but I don't really care when it tastes good:-)

French Dip Sandwiches Nothing unique about this one but it tasted great and was a easy crock pot meal for those busy days we all have.


Fauxtisserie Chicken Again, nothing new with this recipe but a good basic crock pot recipe and great for when those whole chickens are on sale at a great price. I used the leftovers for the creamy chicken taquitos.

Cadbury Egg Cookies So good I have made them TWICE in the past 10 days!!! Oh, and for the record they are the solid milk chocolate mini-eggs Cadbury makes. NOT the bigger chocolate eggs with the yucky creamy filling;-)

Cheesy Garlic Swirls I was really disappointed in these and expected alot more. We all usually love any homemade bread products but these ones were just lacking something for the amount of effort they took. I am going to try them one more time with a few modifications because I really want to like them but they just didn't work for me, or my family.

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins Didn't get around to making these last week, but I have made them before and will make them again. Personally, I am not a huge blueberry lover but Madison devoured them!! So I will make them for her lunchbox hopefully next week.


Also on the plan are a few new recipes in the book that aren't on their blog:

Stuffed Apple Cinnamon Rolls Made these the last two weekends in a row for a breakfast treat. They are a morning variation on the "Pizza Poppers" that we made for every Seahawk game last year.

Cranberry Orange Chicken Salad Didn't end up making this but do plan to try it soon. I did make the Orange Chicken with Snow Peas and that was delicous and one we will definitely have again.

Pineapple Ginger Flank Steak Pretty disappointed with this one. With steak being one of the few meats the girls will happily eat, we have flank steak usually every week and I was looking forward to a new recipe for it but the marinade didn't quite work for us. I will try to modify it a bit and see if I can make it work.

I really enjoyed focusing on one cookbook for the week and trying new things. I enjoyed it so much that I am going to do it again for next week!! Stay tuned for more details!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Date on a Mountain Top

Almost 18 years ago on our second date ever, we went to the top of a mountain. This was in the summer and our activity was mountain biking in the Hyalite Basin. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned with the keys getting locked in the car 30+ miles from civilization. I wish I had a photo from the event, but I wasn't much into picture taking at that time in my life.

So 17+ years later we are still together and still seeking adventures on top of mountains! On Sunday we were fortunate enough to spend the entire day at Crystal Mountain. Tom has been up so many times this year we have lost count and we have made it up with the girls 4 times but this was my first time getting up for a full day of real skiing without the kids. We had flown in Grandma Margie especially for this reason and we lucked out with amazing weather, great company and good snow. I can't imagine how it could have been better.
I decided that I need to try and keep one step ahead of the girls for as long as possible since I have a feeling in the next year they will be surpassing my skiing skills for the rest of my life. So I pushed myself on some blue runs that have scared me in the past and feel that I passed with flying colors. Now I am sure I wouldn't win any style points but I stayed upright and had a smile on my face so I will take that as a win. With that said, I doubt black runs are in the near future for me (or maybe NEVER) but I am just fine with that.
So thanks to Grandma for being a great babysitter and dealing with late planes on both ends of the trip. And thanks to Tom for hanging back with me on the "bunny slopes" all day while his buddies were off searching for fresh powder in the trees. Can't wait until the next mountain top date!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

February Highlights

Ski Days
New Hair Do
Hooray For Snow Day!

Day in Seattle
Glimpses that spring is on the way
Princess Cinder
Class Parties
Additions to the Family
Princess Pool Party




Ashe

(photo by Madison)