Need a laugh?

I double dog dare you to watch this video without a smile spreading across your lips. Silly Kaden & Uncle Brian!

U-G-L-Y, this cake ain't got no alibi

My family got together over the weekend to celebrate Jen's 28th birthday. Ryan baked Ugly Duckling Cake, an O'Toole family favorite. It's great with vanilla bean ice cream.







Ugly Duckling Cake
1 package yellow cake mix
1 (16-ounce) can of fruit cocktail
2 1/3 C coconut, divided use
2 eggs
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C butter
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C evaporated milk
**
Combine cake mix, fruit cocktail with syrup, 1 C coconut and eggs. Blend and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into greased 9-by-13 pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, or until cake springs back lightly when touched.

Bring butter, granulated sugar and milk to a boil in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in remaining coconut. Spoon over hot cake in pan.

What the?!?!?!

If I were smart ...

... I'd take a cue from this and invent a puppy eggroll treat.

Weekend welcome

Can you tell that Dakota was needing a weekend?

Playing with the big dogs

Today is Jen's birthday, so Kaden & I hung out while she & Ryan went to dinner and a movie to celebrate.

Kaden has a special toy that stays at my house: a squeaky stuffed golden retriever that looks a little like Dakota & Lilly. It's quite amusing because the pups want to play with the toy so badly:



You've got to give this to her: Lilly is one patient and persistent little pup.


But keep in mind that I have a very intelligent little nephew. And I'm pretty sure that this is baby for "nanny-nanny-boo-boo, you can't have my toy":

Wrapped up in love

This week I finished my latest quilting project using a piece of fabric that I bought a year or two ago on eBay. (The Web site actually is a great place to buy quilting supplies and fabric, especially unique items like this, which I've never before seen in a bricks-and-mortar quilt store.) I love it because it looks like newspaper personals, perfect for a romantic kind of newsie.

I paired it with some Valentine's Day fat quarters a Quilt Guild friend gave and sewed this top, inspired by a pattern Mom gave me for Christmas: 5 & Dime by All Washed Up. (I adjusted it quite a bit in order to use as much of my eBay fabric as possible.) The pattern is a good one if you have a focus fabric you're wanting to feature.


I like to name my quilts, and I'm thinking of dubbing this one "Black, White, Pink and Read All Over."

Word!

Brian & I have played seven games of Scrabble in the past week. We used to play it all the time, but the game has been tucked away for months. We dusted it off and started a series of tournaments. I won two games. He won two. I won two. He one another. (Not that I'm keeping track.) I took the above picture on Valentine's Day and swear that I didn't intentionally place the word "mine" at the top of the board in a so-sweet-it's-disgusting homage to the "Be mine" holiday. Honest!

A few related thoughts:

1. Brian admitted to me while we were playing that his handsome new glasses have earned him the nickname "Brian Palin" at work. Ha. Do I think it's a fitting moniker for my cutie? You betcha!


2. I was glad that, in the midst of our Scrabble babble, another guy stopped by our house unexpectedly to ask me to be his Valentine. I accepted his offer -- and his chocolate. (The guy was my father-in-law. How lucky can a girl get on Feb. 14?!)




3. Meow Meow always loves to hang out in the Scrabble box when we have the game out. I wonder if she realizes that's not the front of the line to take a ride on our rockin' Scrabble Deluxe Turntable Edition ...

Love is in the air

Brian & I had a great Valentine's Day weekend. It's the first in several weekends in which we've both felt well enough to run errands or meet friends for lunch. We started the weekend with brunch Saturday (Brian cooked). We had a gorgeous spread and enjoyed the morning and the food. (See the recipe below for the delicious pancakes he whipped up.)

Also, the photo below cracks me up. When I took it, I didn't realize Dakota was chilling underneath the table. Can you spot him?



Rich Raspberry Sour Cream Pancakes
1 C flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 C sour cream
3 T milk
3 C raspberries, rinsed and well-drained
Powdered sugar
Raspberry Maple Syrup (see accompanying recipe)
***
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, sour cream and milk until blended.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and carefully fold together; the batter will be thick.

Heat a large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium-high heat until hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. For each pancake, pour a scant 1/4 cup batter onto griddle or skillet. Adjust the heat to medium-low. As bubbles appear on the surface, top each pancake with 4 or 5 berries, pressing them down into the batter. Carefully turn and cook the other side until lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter. Garnish with the remaining 1/2 pint raspberries, if using, and sprinkle with powered sugar. Serve with Raspberry Maple Syrup.

Makes about 12 4-inch pancakes.

Raspberry Maple Syrup Combine 1 C maple syrup and 1/2 C fresh raspberries in a small saucepan. Heat until the mixture begins to boil. Cool slightly. Press through a sieve to puree the berries into the syrup. Serve warm.

Source: "Pancakes A to Z" by Marie Simmons

Scrap happy

Tuesday night was the February quilt guild meeting, and Mom & I enjoyed the speaker, an Emporia fabric designer. During the meeting, we saw several beautiful quilts made with scraps. I'm motivated to try a raw-edge block, which I've never done before:




This scrap quilt was from a member's grandmother:


Mom & I also each picked out a kit to make a charity baby blanket. Another project we'll be working on together in the coming months. Our time together is a blessing.

New book club: Chapter one

On Monday, a new book club I'm leading with young ladies from Aldersgate's youth group met for the first time. We're kicking off the new group by reading "The Shack" by William Paul Young. The book comes highly recommended, so I'm looking forward to diving in soon. Even more, I'm looking forward to our future meetings and discussions. These girls always blow me away, so I'm curious to see how they react and interpret the novel.

Enjoying my 20s ... while they last

In one short month, I will be celebrating my 30th birthday. I'll only be a little sad to say goodbye to my 20s. They've been a blast. But I know amazing things will happen in my 30s. Thirty, flirty and thriving, indeed!

I am a little frightened about what my (ahem) 31-year-old husband and my 30-something friends may have in store to welcome me to this point in my life. If anything, it certainly won't pass unnoticed. Case in point:


Brian stocked up on a few "30" items at Rick's Bakery in Arkansas last month. Thanks a lot, babe ...

It's great to feel good on a weekend

Now nearly recovered from my cold (I'm still a bit tired and have a mild headache), I've been able this weekend to do some of my favorite things. On Saturday, I went to Turbo Kick at the Y. I love that class, a combination of kick boxing and aerobics. (If you ever want to work up a serious sweat on a Saturday morning, give me a call!) Then I piled the pups in the car and headed out to treat myself to a cup of strawberry deliciousness at Smoothie King. (Dakota seemed bummed that I didn't share.)


Then I headed over to Mom's, where we both worked on quilting projects. We had a date to do so last weekend, another thing I had to cancel because of my nasty cold. We are working on a new block-of-the-month sampler through Picket Fence Quilt Co., and these are the blocks for January:


We took breaks to admire the unseasonably warm day. Lucy, Mom's kitty, was doing the same, napping underneath the picnic table on the deck:


Before joining my parents for prime rib dinner at Cy's Place in Sedgwick (an out-of-the-way small-town Kansas favorite with impressively good food), I snapped this photo of the gorgeous sky:

It's February!

Of course, most of humanity has known it's been February for about a week now, but this weekend is the first time in more than a week that I haven't been completed beaten down by a super nasty cold. I slept all last weekend and missed a fabulous Super Bowl party, among other social events. I've not had the energy to exercise or do anything besides work, really. Sometimes it's just necessary to hunker down and heal. This household knows: As soon as I started feeling better, Brian started feeling worse. Now it's my turn to play nurse. The opportunity did lead me today to invent a new soup recipe using random ingredients we had on hand. I'm calling it Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Vegetable Soup.

Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Vegetable Soup
1 celery stalk
1 carrot (I used about eight baby carrots)
1/2 yellow onion
1 jar sliced mushrooms
1/2 can fiesta corn
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 can condensed mushroom soup
3 fresh sage leaves
4 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup egg noodles
**
Chop aromatics. Add them, mushrooms (don't drain), corn (do drain), pepper, sage, soups and one can of water in a soup pot. Heat on medium-high heat until boiling. Add chicken and noodles (uncooked). Reduce heat to medium and cook 10 minutes or until noodles are tender. Remove sage leaves before serving.