The good, the bad, and the ugly....

The Good:
1) It is over 65* here, even as I type!! It is beautiful outside and it's giving me the itch to do something productive.  That's always a good thing.

2) I baked a chocolate truffle pie with a homemade pie crust and homemade whipped cream, as well as delicious au gratin potatoes to take to a church teachers' meeting this evening. (don't worry, starving people, recipes will follow)

3) Ruby has been working on cleaning her room (with daddy's help) for about 2 hours now, with NO WHINING! VICTORY!!

4) Looking forward to hanging out with some of my favorite women this evening :)

The Bad:
1) Sam is sick. Again :( For those of you who don't know, Sam has a pretty weak respiratory system and we've been in the hospital twice in the last few months and back & forth to the pediatrician more times than I can count.  He is so prone to pneumonia & bronchitis, always has been, but it seems to have gotten worse over the last year. 
He started coughing and wheezing some on Monday night. I bumped all of his breathing treatments back up to what the Dr. ordered when we came home from the hospital the last time; pulmicort 2x a day, albuterol every 6hrs as needed for wheezing.  He's also taking Singulair every morning.  After three days of full treatment, he was still not feeling well and was still wheezing, so I took him in on Friday.  I was told to keep doing the same breathing treatments, but now to also give him oral steroids every morning for 6 days.  Hopefully that's not long enough to start having some of the side effects, although at his age, I think I'd have a hard time distinguishing between steroid-induced mood swings and his regular mood swings ;)
He still isn't feeling much better and last night his ear started hurting. DANG! Can't this kid catch a break?? Seriously?  We were up and down all night and then this morning he started running a fever. BOO!  I hate this for him.  I'm going to give it a day or two and see what develops once the steroids kick in.

2) I just found out my dad has another month or so to work in New Orleans on this movie.  I'm a little bummed; I'm really missing him lately and so are the kids.

3) Money is still beyond 'tight.' Eric is working on building a table for my aunt and it really is turning out nice, but it's not finished yet.  This is the longest we've gone without 'steady' work for Eric (since October).  He has often thought of just starting to build cabinets and furniture full time, and this might be as good a time as any, I reckon.

The ugly:
1) The pile of laundry in the corner of my bedroom. That's all I'm going to say about that.

2) My homemade piecrust. It tastes pretty stinking good, but boy is it ugly!

3) My hair; it looks like I combed it with a pork chop right about now.  I think everyone would appreciate it if I finished this up and took a shower sooner than later.

That about sums it all up.  Now for a picture of the aforementioned truffle pie with an ugly (but tasty!) crust:

I don't know why my mad crimping skills failed me today, but they obviously did.  Also, I think I need to work on my 'food' pictures.  They never look nearly as appetizing as they do in real life.  Here's the recipe:

Your favorite pastry crust recipe for 1 pie crust

Filling:

12oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped,

     or 1 (11.5oz) bag bittersweet chocolate chips

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 lg. eggs

3/4 c. heavy cream

1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Follow instructions for your pie crust (or use refrigerated--GASP!!)

Heat oven to 350*

Transfer crust to 9" pie plate.  Crimp edges

Prick bottom of pie dough all over with a fork.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Line dough with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights (HINT FOR BIRTHDAY GIFT FOR ME! FEB 29!!) or with dried beans, which is what I do.
Bake until crust is firm, about 15 min.
Remove foil and pie weights (or beans), return crust to oven and bake until golden brown, about 15-20 min.
Let cool completely

Meanwhile....
Melt butter and chocolate in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth
Remove from heat and let cool 5 min.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Add the chocolate mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
Scrape into cooled crust and bake until filling is puffed and set, but still slightly trembles, 30-35 min.
Let cool completely and serve with (homemade!) whipped cream. 
If you use Cool Whip on this, I probably won't talk to you ever again.  You've been warned.

Let me just mention that this is VERY rich.  Even the most devoted dark chocolate lover will only need a small sliver.... or two ;)

Ok, now for the Au Gratin potatoes:
These are really easy and so very good.  The ultimate comfort food.
3 lb. potatoes, peeled and sliced in about 1/4 slices
5 Tb butter
6 Tb flour
4 c. milk
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp salt
dash (or two) of cayenne pepper
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 c. grated parmesan
+ enough cheese to sprinkle on top
*I also like to use some smoked cheese when I have it on hand.  This time I used smoked gouda that I had left over from my potato soup.

Preheat oven to 350*
Boil potatoes until just tender.
Drain and rinse with cool water
In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat
Whisk in flour and continue to whisk for 1-2 min.
Whisk in milk and add garlic
Season with salt and cayenne
*Trade in your whisk for a spoon or this could get messy!
Stir in cheeses
Add potatoes to sauce and stir to mix evenly
Pour into a 9x13
Sprinkle cheese on top
Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly on a foil lined baking sheet (do yourself and your oven a favor and don't skip this part, just in case!)
Let stand 5 min. before serving

Now for the crazy kid quote of the day.....

me, looking for something to nibble on in the kitchen: "I'm a hungry, hungry hippo!"
ruby: "No you're not, you're the goodness hippo!  You just take all the goodness and give it to everbody else and what do we have left to eat here, huh? You're the goodness hippo!"

hmmmm. Do I really walk around gobbling up all the goodness?  I need to work on that, I guess.



Snow Day, Round 2

Ok, I realize I just posted a blog but right after I posted it I went outside to check on everyone & this is what I saw:

Eric actually MADE the kids a sled :) He waxed it so it would go fast and the kids are having the best time! Well, truth be told, so is Eric:



I love this man :) This is something the kids will remember forever.

Round 2 is over and I've got 6 kids at the table with a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and jellly, a bag of chips, a basket of clementines, and a box of capri suns fixing their own lunches while their clothes dry. Again. Thinking now that there's a sled involved, round 3 is a definite possibility.  I may even get out there on it, although there will be NO pictures to prove it.

Snow Day!

You know, snow days aren't so exciting for homeschoolers.... unless there's actually snow! Today, there is snow! Ok, so it's actually more like white ice. Horrible (and painful) for snow balls, but the kids are having a blast. 
The three of them woke me up at 6:30 to tell me to look outside. I told them it was just ice and proceeded to pull the blanket over my head.  They apparently went out into the living room and went back to sleep waiting for me, the poor things.  So, at 9am I got them all ready to head outside.  Keep in mind, we are in Louisiana.  It doesn't snow much here & we're not entirely prepared for it when it does.  Eric grew up outside of Buffalo and I grew up in KY, so we've both had our share of snow days, dressed like the poor kid in A Christmas Story.  We had snow boots and waterproof gloves and snow suits.  My kids have hoodies and flip flops.  The each had on 2 pair of socks, 2 pair of pants, various layers of tshirts, long sleeve shirts and hoodies on the top, and hat & gloves.  Eli was outside for all of 10 minutes before he asked me to 'warm his gloves up.'  HA.
I called them in about 30 minutes later & had everyone strip down to a dry layer at the door (including various neighbor kids).  I put everyone's wet clothes, shoes, gloves, etc. in the dryer and fixed oatmeal, cinnamon toast & hot chocolate for all.  By the time breakfast had settled and toes had thawed, warm clothes were coming out of the dryer, ready to be donned again for round 2 of 'The Snow Day.'
As I type, there are 9 kids with Eric 2 doors down at my daddy's trying to rig up some sort of 'sled.'  And by 'sled,' I mean something flat to tie a rope to that they can pull eachother down the street on.  We have no hills to speak of here.  Louisiana, remember?
I'm waiting for them to all tumble through the door with bright red cheeks and noses, icy fingers and toes, and soaking wet everything  giggling about who fell off the 'sled' the most.  I'll strip 'em all down and fix some soup while their clothes dry again.  Maybe we'll do a round 3 if they're up to it.  They might be over it by then; they are southerners, you know.
I am enjoying a quiet house while it lasts, with a fire going and a dog curled up next to me.  I think I only have a few more minutes of bliss left before the aforementioned 'tumbling through the door.'
Here are some pictures from round 1: