50's Friday Food Day!

First, check out Elle's new bike! Now she doesn't hit her knees on the bars when she rides (Yes--she can ride!)
All the first graders in school did a 50's dance to "Rock around the clock." Kristen was awesome (and cool and cute) and made Elle's skirt for me! THANKS AGAIN, KRISTEN!
The twirl-ability was great!
Elle's parter was very cute too! (He's playing the "air guitar" in the picture)


What's more 50's than greasy food?! So, for today's 50's Friday Food Day, my recipe is
Greasy Chicken Flautas

2 c. shredded chicken
2/3-3/4 c. salsa
1/4 c. green onion slices
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 c. shredded monterey jack cheese
Vegetable oil
32 flour tortillas (I like it best with the kind you have to cook)
Guacamole
sour cream

Preheat oven to 400. Combine the first five ingredients, mix well. Heat the tortillas and keep warm. Spoon about 1 TBS chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll tightly. Place seem down on baking sheet. Brush with vegetable oil. Bake for about 18 min. or until crisp. Serve with Guacamole and sour cream then dance.



Ta da!

Friday food day and Disneyland pics

First, the recipe:
Baked Manicotti

2 cups spaghetti sauce
1 egg lightly beaten
1 3/4 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
(I usually don't put in this much cheese--I just do what looks good and what I've got on hand at the time:)
12 manicotti shells, cooked, rinsed in cold water--it also works well (sometimes better) with those giant shell pasta things.

Preheat oven to 350. Spread 3/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce on the bottom of 13x9 in baking dish. Mix egg, cheeses until well blended. Spoon cheese mixture into large resealable bag. Using scissors, cut off a small hole from one of the bottom corners of the bag.

Fill manicotti shells one at a time, squeezing cheese mixture into both sides of each shell.
(OK, this is NOT as easy as it sounds. I usually end up using a spoon and breaking every single shell) Place manicotti over sauce in dish. Pour remaining 1 1/4 cups spaghetti sauce over manicotti. Cover with foil.

Bake 40 min or until heated through.

Makes 6 servings. 2 manicotti each!

Now, for some pictures of our day "out of the office"



Chris' head was cut off, so I thought I'd do it over.





And I didn't know if you could properly see that I had a glowing baseball hat bestowed upon me ;)

Out of the office

Take your child to work day

The other week, Elle got to go to Dreamworks with Chris for "take your child to work day"
I helped he type up a little synopsis of her day so she could share her experience with her class:

First, I watched Dad work on the computer. He was looking at the girl from Monsters vs. Aliens to help them make her look better.
Then we had breakfast—I had a boiled egg and a biscuit. Dad had cereal.
Then we went into groups
There were 17 kids in my group ages 6-8. I was in group “Po”

They told us some Sound effects secrets:
Madagascar-- when they drink and spit out salt water—they really did spit apple juice!
Over the Hedge—in the kitchen, when things fell and broke—they really stood on a bench and dropped glass bottles of wine!

They let us be in one of the scenes and they filmed us saying “GO PO!” because they didn't have enough people. So, I might be in the movie!

I drew a few characters from Kung Fu Panda-- Po, Viper, Mantis, Tigress and Crane,

They showed us the Game Room and some kids were playing the X-box games with Kung Fu Panda characters in it.

We watched clips from the movies. Some of them you can see at the web site, but some are clips nobody has seen before.
Then we had pizza and ice cream for lunch and someone dressed as a big Po down by the lake—he couldn't move his arms!
They gave us a bag of stuff and a t-shirt.

Kung Fu Panda comes out June 6th!!

Web site: http://www.kungfupanda.com/

Happy Mother's Day!

For my Mom who has always been there for me through my good times and especially during all my many rocky times:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
For now and forever, my mommy you'll be.
I love you, Mom! Happy Mother's Day!

And for my second mom who has also been a constant support and help to me:
Thank you for wrapping me in your arms and making me one of your own.
I love you, Nola! Happy Mother's day!

For Elle who made me a mom and brings joy to me every day:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
For now and forever, my baby you'll be.
I love you, Elle!

Happy Mother's day to everyone!!
Love, Nan

Good Food Friday--does candy count as food?

I've been meaning to make some mints, but I want to get a cute little rubber mold first. My best friend growing up had a leaf-shaped mold. ( I know, I know, mold envy) You don't REALLY need a mold to make these though. I used to just roll them into little balls. I also use to use the fresh mint from the side of our house--I felt all woodsy that way :)
But, in case I don't get around to making them, here's the recipe!

Easy Mints

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cube margarine
one 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 tsp. mint flavoring
a few drops of food coloring (green, of course:)

Mix all ingredients. Cut in the margarine and cream cheese. Knead with hands (Not me, though--I'm all about using my Kitchen aid). Add more powdered sugar if needed (I usually did need it). Make small balls and press with fork. (nah, little shapes would be MUCH cuter, don't you think?) Chill and serve. (I could never wait for them to chill, so I always chilled them in the freezer until they got hard). I love mints!

I'm sure you chocolate lovers out there could somehow get chocolate into this recipe. Let me know if you have any good suggestions.

Girl stuff

I decided to begin Elle's introduction to the list of must see chick flicks by borrowing Anne of Green Gables from Kristen. So far, she loves it. (We're not quite done with the first DVD yet--lousy homework and bedtime!)
I'm not sure when she'll be ready for P&P, but I can hardly wait!



















Today, I was doing laundry and I decided to finally do all those items that have to be hand washed. This, of course, included my bras. Since I was planning to exercise with Kristen and Hannah and wear my trusty jogging bra, I thought this would be a good time to wash it. I put a little bleach in the water to make it nice and white, but I decided it was too much for one little (ya, like AAA) bra. So, I thought (stupidly), I'm SURE my bras will be PLENTY dry by the time I'm done exercising and need to wear it. (Ha!) Well, after three hours, they were still soaking wet. It was getting uncomfortably close to the time I needed to go pick up Elle, so I had to break out the hair dryer. That took a really long time. I was sick of fanning the thing, plus it was time to go, so I just decided to put it on--it seemed dry enough. Unfortunately, it was still a bit damp and I smelled like I just stepped out of the pool. Next time, I'll be smarter and do one bra washing at a time like I usually do!