Wowie Maui Chicken - Slow Cooker FAIL

I thought I would try to be really on the ball and have supper ready on time tonight. It has been a while since we had Wowie Maui Chicken, a recipe from the Looneyspoons cookbook, so I thought I'd give it a whirl in the slow cooker. Basically, it's chicken and rice with pineapple and peppers in a sweet and sour sauce. Usually it goes over well with the kids, who are pineapple junkies, and Matt and I usually dig it too. I got everything in the crockpot before noon and had it simmering away all afternoon. 5:30 rolls around and I serve up supper, only to find that the rice is still crunchy and the sauce is still very much liquid-y and not very saucy at all. It was completely inedible. I tried throwing it into a pot on the stove to see if the rice would soften up. Instead, the rice just glued to the bottom of the pot and burned on.

\So, what did we eat for supper??

Apple pie and ice cream.

Good thing I made dessert.

The breast cinnamon bun dough ever!

After church, Miss C had a snooze on daddy. Check out that outfit! That's what happens when a cute little 3 year old pics out her own clothes!!

I felt like baking today. Of course it had to be the hottest day of the summer when I felt the urge to whip out the Bosch. I asked Matt what he felt like and he said cinnamon buns. Miss A and I got to work. We put the wet ingredients into the mixer with the yeast and a couple of cups of flour and let it sit for a few minutes to proof the dough. When we came back, Autumn sat up on the counter and put 2 cups of flour into the mixer and suddenly exclaimed, pointing into the mixer bowl, "Mommy, You have two just like that!!!"
I looked into the mixer to see this:

I couldn't help but laugh. Hope you all had a fabulous Sunday!

Family and Food & Dancing

We had such a great evening last night. My sister and brother-in-law came over with their 3 little boys and Auntie Leah came over too. I invited my sisters family over last minute and hadn't marinated enough pork tenderloin for everyone, so when they offered to bring some crab over for supper, we were excited. Well, maybe all of us weren't excited. Auntie Leah doesn't eat seafood. I don't know if there is a term for that. Maybe anti-pescatarian?? Anyway, we had plenty of pork tenderloin for her!
We made our own salad rolls with rice paper wrappers, matchstick carrots, cucumbers, bean thread noodles, green onions, crab (Mmmm...) fresh basil from the garden (the mint isn't ready yet) and sesame oil. They were good. We made a dip with rice vinegar, brown sugar, grated gingerroot, minced garlic, cornstarch, soya sauce, and red pepper flakes.
We played Just Dance for a bit on the Wii. We were introduced to the game while we were at a family reunion a few weeks ago. Since we got it the girls have been loving it. Matt and I get some dancing in too...

For a 4 year old, A is pretty good at it! Maybe it's from hanging out with me at Zumba class!
It is just too fun! Who would be up for a girls Just Dance night?
Anyway, it was a fabulous Sunday afternoon. Thanks for coming, everyone!

The Cookie Monsters

It wasn't raining when I woke up this morning so I got the kids set up in front of the TV with our new Wii game called Just Dance and ran out to mow the lawn. It's been cool and rainy the past week, so I wanted to take care of the lawn before the heavens opened up yet again. I couldn't believe how many mosquitoes there were! They were huge and hungry, like a flock of ravenous seagulls out for blood. I'm not wishing for snow, but the one really good thing about winter is the lack of mosquitoes. Somebody remind me of that when I'm shoveling through mountainous snow banks. On the other hand, never mind, I'd probably just get irritated by a comment like that!

This afternoon we made a batch of Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies. I found the recipe years ago on Allrecipes and it's been my go to cookie recipe since then. I usually only put in a scant 1/2 c. of butterscotch chips and the same with chocolate chips. The best of both worlds. I don't like cookies that ooze all over the place.

All of the kids "helped" today. The girls rolled all the cookies into balls. They did a great job! Quinn mostly ate little bits of dough and chips. This is the look of right before the cry that I am taking too long getting him his next bite. See the big mosquito welt on his forehead!

"Here sis, let me help you shove that cookie in a little further. It seems to be hanging out of your mouth!"

We had spinach and black bean quesadillas for supper tonight. I even ventured out into the muck hole that was once a garden to get the spinach. Mmmm....

Curls

I was looking at Pinterest last night and saw a link to this tutorial on how to get fabulous curls with no heat. I tried it out and here's how it came out this morning...

What do you think? I was worried it would be too uncomfortable to sleep with my hair all twisted up, but it was fine. It was quite easy once I figured out the technique. .I just had to use a few bobby pins, since my hair is a lot shorter (and straighter) than the lady in the video.

I had 3 ripe bananas on my counter this morning, so the kids and I made some yummy Banana Crumb Muffins. Mmmm... these are so good. They take about 18 minutes to bake and by about 13 minutes my mouth always starts watering.

The crumb crust is amazing. I could eat it plain. Are you going to try them?

I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Just ask my kids.
I just love how C wears her princess dress backwards, because she can do it up herself with the zipper in the front.