We have a game that we play with Lily. If I am really honest, it started because I wanted to hear her say, "Love you." Yes, I like that affirmation from my two-year-old and am willing to manipulate to get it. Even though she could say lots of things, she would never tell us that she loves us. Now, I do know that she is only two and that is kind of a lot to expect. I realized that from a young age, she has been able to make different animal noises when we asked her what sound does a _______ make? She mastered kitties first, since we have two of those, but she really has quite the repertoire of animal noises that she could say on command. Which got me thinking . . . .
I bet if I made it a game, I could get her to say, "Love you." Thus, the game was born.
We ask,"What do Mama's say?" Lily says, "Love you."
We ask, "What do Daddy's say?" Lily says, "Get you." (as in, "I'm going to get you!")
That is where it started, and it has turned out to be quite fun. When we were visiting Ellen and Luke, she picked up a couple of new ones that they helped come up with.
"What do Aunties say?" -- "Hold you."
"What does Bella say?" -- "Got milk."
"What does Uncle Luke say?" -- "Cheese." (It is supposed to be "Say Cheese", but she always shortens it to just "cheese.")
Lily loves doing this so much that she will ask me to ask her things. So sweet. She just giggles and giggles when she says the right answer. I have taught her one last one, because I wanted it to be a good reminder to us. And it is.
"What does Jesus say?" -- "Come to me."
I want her to know what we value, and I want to incorporate it into our everyday lives and even into our little game.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Po' Sack and Wing Slap
Well, I realized that most of my posts so far have been about our kiddos or about crafts or food, which is funny, since this blog is called "The John and Carol Show." It is authored by me (though John has said he may post very occasionally), and kids, crafts and food are a lot of what I do. However, John is my favorite person in the world, and I love the time after the kids go down when we get to hang out together.
Last night we decided we would try to recreate one of our all-time favorite desserts. The Chocolate Sack from SO restaurant here in Little Rock. If you know me well or have ever visited us here in the Rock, then you have probably heard mention of or had the opportunity to sample this delicious treat. It is SO good. (Yes, I chuckle to myself every time I say this, since it is the name of the restaurant it comes from. Never gets old. To me.) I regularly think that I can do anything, and I thought making this rather unique dessert would be a snap. And, we had all the ingredients on hand. Sadly, it did not turn out as I had envisioned. We ended up with a bowl full of stuff, instead of the refined Sack, and we dubbed it the Poor Man's Sack, or "Po' Sack" for short.
I started out by trying to paint the chocolate onto a sack, just like they do at the restaurant. (I asked one time, because I wanted to try this very thing.) I did use a bottle dryer to prop it up. Genius husband's idea.
After getting it all painted, I put it into the freezer. It froze well, but when the time came to take the sack out of it, it became a bit of a fiasco. Or an entire fiasco. You be the judge.
Next time I will go out and buy better chocolate that is harder and more conducive to this sort of thing, and make it a much thicker layer of chocolate. It is apparently a learning process. We decided not to let this be the end of the dessert, since we still had all of the ingredients. In fact, when we looked in our pantry, we found that we had multiples of some of the items that we needed.
Why would anyone need this much marshmallow fluff?
The truth is, I kept buying it to possibly make fondant and kept forgetting that I already had some. Also, why do we have this many boxes or different kinds of graham crackers? Another good question.
We added the other ingredients of ice cream, almond slivers, raspberry sauce and whipped cream and enjoyed our very own Po' Sack. Still tasted good, though it didn't look pretty.
Since our kiddos are not really at the age to enjoy the snow yet, we decided to play in it ourselves while they were both tucked soundly into their beds asleep. I had really wanted to make a snowman, but after realizing that the snow was mostly dry powder, I settled for snow angels. Plus, it was cold, and I knew the fire was waiting for us inside. We made our snow angels giving each other a Wing Slap.
I wanted to take a picture of the angels, so John got on the mailbox. Wait, that doesn't seem like the most obvious idea to you, either? I really did appreciate him going the extra mile and reenacting how to make a snow angel.
From this vantage point, he was able to observe that his snow angel was much bigger than mine. I think it was the wing span. Love him.
I will finish off by posting a picture of something I found in the bathroom this morning. I feel like I could do an entire series on the things I find.
Tea party with the hair diffuser and kitty valentines? Yes, please.
Last night we decided we would try to recreate one of our all-time favorite desserts. The Chocolate Sack from SO restaurant here in Little Rock. If you know me well or have ever visited us here in the Rock, then you have probably heard mention of or had the opportunity to sample this delicious treat. It is SO good. (Yes, I chuckle to myself every time I say this, since it is the name of the restaurant it comes from. Never gets old. To me.) I regularly think that I can do anything, and I thought making this rather unique dessert would be a snap. And, we had all the ingredients on hand. Sadly, it did not turn out as I had envisioned. We ended up with a bowl full of stuff, instead of the refined Sack, and we dubbed it the Poor Man's Sack, or "Po' Sack" for short.
I started out by trying to paint the chocolate onto a sack, just like they do at the restaurant. (I asked one time, because I wanted to try this very thing.) I did use a bottle dryer to prop it up. Genius husband's idea.
After getting it all painted, I put it into the freezer. It froze well, but when the time came to take the sack out of it, it became a bit of a fiasco. Or an entire fiasco. You be the judge.
Next time I will go out and buy better chocolate that is harder and more conducive to this sort of thing, and make it a much thicker layer of chocolate. It is apparently a learning process. We decided not to let this be the end of the dessert, since we still had all of the ingredients. In fact, when we looked in our pantry, we found that we had multiples of some of the items that we needed.
Why would anyone need this much marshmallow fluff?
The truth is, I kept buying it to possibly make fondant and kept forgetting that I already had some. Also, why do we have this many boxes or different kinds of graham crackers? Another good question.
We added the other ingredients of ice cream, almond slivers, raspberry sauce and whipped cream and enjoyed our very own Po' Sack. Still tasted good, though it didn't look pretty.
Since our kiddos are not really at the age to enjoy the snow yet, we decided to play in it ourselves while they were both tucked soundly into their beds asleep. I had really wanted to make a snowman, but after realizing that the snow was mostly dry powder, I settled for snow angels. Plus, it was cold, and I knew the fire was waiting for us inside. We made our snow angels giving each other a Wing Slap.
I wanted to take a picture of the angels, so John got on the mailbox. Wait, that doesn't seem like the most obvious idea to you, either? I really did appreciate him going the extra mile and reenacting how to make a snow angel.
From this vantage point, he was able to observe that his snow angel was much bigger than mine. I think it was the wing span. Love him.
I will finish off by posting a picture of something I found in the bathroom this morning. I feel like I could do an entire series on the things I find.
Tea party with the hair diffuser and kitty valentines? Yes, please.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Making Valentine's: Lily Edition
Well, as I type this, there is snow abundantly falling from the sky. Again. Really. I must say, it is gorgeous, and when John gets home, we might even venture out into it. We shall see. The crazy thing is, though we are getting lots here, it does not compare to Northwest Arkansas that is already at close to 2 feet. That is some crazy snow. Moving on.
There are several blogs that I love to read and get inspiration from. One of my favorites is Under the Sycamore, and I saw this post with the cutest little Valentines that she made for her boys' classes. I love her stuff. I thought I might be able to modify it a bit to put onto suckers for Lily's party next week. And so, I present - Making Valentine's: the Lily Edition.
I started by trying to get a cute picture of her to use. This proved challenging, and I probably took close to 100. That is the beauty of digital cameras. I finally got one that I thought might work.
I uploaded it into iPhoto to crop it, turn it to black and white, and clean it up a bit. Which got me to this.
I uploaded it into Flickr and added the text and speech bubble in Picnik, which got me to this. (I did come up with the saying myself, and I think it is cute, but definitely not earth-shattering.)
After I had what I liked, I downloaded the picture back to iPhoto, and then I put it into a Word Document, resized it on the page and put multiple on the page.
Then I printed it out.
I then cut them out and used my corner rounder on three of the edges.
Then, I punched holes through the top and bottom with my smaller hole punch.
I put the sucker stick through the holes.
And, viola! Cute, valentine sucker! Personalized just for us.
There are several blogs that I love to read and get inspiration from. One of my favorites is Under the Sycamore, and I saw this post with the cutest little Valentines that she made for her boys' classes. I love her stuff. I thought I might be able to modify it a bit to put onto suckers for Lily's party next week. And so, I present - Making Valentine's: the Lily Edition.
I started by trying to get a cute picture of her to use. This proved challenging, and I probably took close to 100. That is the beauty of digital cameras. I finally got one that I thought might work.
I uploaded it into iPhoto to crop it, turn it to black and white, and clean it up a bit. Which got me to this.
I uploaded it into Flickr and added the text and speech bubble in Picnik, which got me to this. (I did come up with the saying myself, and I think it is cute, but definitely not earth-shattering.)
After I had what I liked, I downloaded the picture back to iPhoto, and then I put it into a Word Document, resized it on the page and put multiple on the page.
Then I printed it out.
I then cut them out and used my corner rounder on three of the edges.
Then, I punched holes through the top and bottom with my smaller hole punch.
I put the sucker stick through the holes.
And, viola! Cute, valentine sucker! Personalized just for us.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Chicken Florentine Lasagna Recipe: It's good.
Well, the floors are dust bunny free and even Swiffered, which is good. I drank a teeny bit more Diet Coke at dinner than I should have, so I am wide awake now. So, here's the recipe, and it is a good one, though a little bit ingredient intensive, but worth the time and energy. Yum-my. I got it from one of my best buddies, Jenn - thanks, Jenn!
Ingredients:
6 Lasagna noodles
1 - 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 cups cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar
1/3 cup onion (finely chopped)
1/3 t nutmeg
1 T cornstarch
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T soy sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 sm jar mushrooms (sliced/drained)
1/3 cup mayo
4 oz. fresh grated parmesan
Butter Pecan topping:
2 T butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Here's a picture of most of them. At least I warned you.
Cook your noodles.
Drain spinach between paper towels.
Mix together all ingredients, besides the parmesan cheese and the butter and pecans.
Arrange 2 noodles in a lightly greased 11 x 7 dish.
Layer twice.
Make sure your daughter who is nap-dazed doesn't stick her hands in your florentine.
Melt butter over the stove and cooked pecans for about 3 minutes.
Sprinkle the top of your lasagna with parmesan cheese and the butter pecan topping. Make sure you COVER your lasagna before cooking it at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Let is stand for 15 minutes before you cut into it.
Enjoy! I usually double the recipe and make two if I am going through the trouble.
Ingredients:
6 Lasagna noodles
1 - 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 cups cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar
1/3 cup onion (finely chopped)
1/3 t nutmeg
1 T cornstarch
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T soy sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 sm jar mushrooms (sliced/drained)
1/3 cup mayo
4 oz. fresh grated parmesan
Butter Pecan topping:
2 T butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Here's a picture of most of them. At least I warned you.
Cook your noodles.
Drain spinach between paper towels.
Mix together all ingredients, besides the parmesan cheese and the butter and pecans.
Arrange 2 noodles in a lightly greased 11 x 7 dish.
Layer twice.
Make sure your daughter who is nap-dazed doesn't stick her hands in your florentine.
Melt butter over the stove and cooked pecans for about 3 minutes.
Sprinkle the top of your lasagna with parmesan cheese and the butter pecan topping. Make sure you COVER your lasagna before cooking it at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Let is stand for 15 minutes before you cut into it.
Enjoy! I usually double the recipe and make two if I am going through the trouble.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)