Rachael Ray always says

that if you get your kids in the kitchen cooking, they will eat whatever they made and they won't be so picky. So Scott and Amy helped with dinner last night. We made tri-berry muffins (minus the blueberries so really it was a duo) and Scott did half the work. It was really cute, actually. Then we sat down to dinner and he picked one apart and asked if next time I could leave out the berries. Clearly parenting advice from someone who has never had children is a lot like marriage advice from someone who has never been married.

The muffins were okay; they actually needed more berries than what I added, but Amy and I made an omelet for 2, that actually feeds 4 and it was so yummy. It even got a "Wow, this is really good" from Marshall, which is praise indeed. I really think you should try it.

The Kirsten/Barefoot project

Okay, it doesn't have the same ring as Julie/Julia, and I don't really want to cook gross stuff just because it's in a cookbook I happen to like. But, I really did like the movie, because I like to try out new recipes, and I thought since I own all 6 of the Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks, why not cook more out of them. I started with the first one, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. So far, it's mostly been a success. Like I said, if it's something I don't like, I won't bother making it, or if the ingredients are just too expensive, then it will have to wait until the economy picks up. What have I done so far? Eggplant spread, cheddar corn chowder, split pea soup, ham, brownies, coconut cupcakes (i've made them before), blueberry muffins (i've made those before too) and spaghetti and meatballs from Barefoot Contessa at home, and fish and chips, though I made hush puppies instead of chips. Other than the split pea soup, I've been happy with everything. That doesn't mean that I haven't made things from other cookbooks though. I made the Ultimate fish tacos last night from Tyler Florence that were so good I wish I had leftovers for lunch, and I made chicken with mushrooms and garlic from The Comfort Table: Everyday occassions. This week I'm trying lemon chicken, indonesian ginger chicken and basil tomato soup.
Does that make me a nerd? The better question is, do I care? It is what I enjoy doing and I'm having a lot of fun, plus my family eats well.

Random Pics

Scott watching cartoons before school and Amy reading.

The Fish Bowl Classic

was over the weekend. It's a swim meet. All three kids swam. Samantha got a state qualifying time in the 100 breast. Her time was a 1:21.86. She was so excited. The whole reason we went to this meet was so she could go for it. At their first meet she missed it by a second and really wanted to get it. She also swam the 200 free, 200 IM and 50 free. It was fun to watch her chase the girls down on the breaststroke portion of the IM.


Amy swam the 50 breast, 100 free, 200 free and 200 IM. She had a great 50 breast and dropped 2 more seconds to win her heat, the the 200's were a little much for her at this point and really wore her out. It was hard for her to end on a bad note, but she forgets it's been a year since they last swam and she needs time to build her endurance.Scott swam the 50 breast and the 100 free. A 100 is 4 laps. There was a 9 year old next to him (Scott was the youngest there) and after the first 2 laps he hung on to the wall and cried. Scott just kept swimming. Finally the 9 year old started swimming again and he caught up to Scott. When Scott saw him he started moving those little arms and raced him to the finish and was able to beat him! Because I was timing for most of the meet, I didn't get a lot of pictures. Next time I will get some video and post it. It's pretty cool to see how well they can swim. In fact, last week at Scott's practice a guy and girl, between 16-20 I'm guessing, we're in the way of Scott's group and the coach had to ask them to move to the other side. They started to swim away and it was embarrasing to see the little 6 and 7 year olds able to swim better.

A Child's Prayer...

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for us to be here.
Please bless my mom that she can go to the store today and get more chocolate milk.
Bless the food.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Guess I'm going to the store today!