A Big Birthday

My baby sister (S#5, Mims, Mimi, Mairz, Mary, etc) turned 30 yesterday. I remember the day well. My sister woke me up that Saturday morning to let me know Mom went to have the baby. Mrs. Schaffler was going to take me to my soccer game. About halfway through the game, they pulled me out and told me that I had a baby sister. I said something to the effect of, "Great, but you could have yelled it from the sidelines, you didn't have to take me out of the game."

I can't imagine what our lives would be like without our Mims. She wasn't planning on celebrating, just another birthday, just another day. We couldn't let her do that, so we had a birthday dinner for her.

Here she is leaving a message for S#1 thanking her for her chocolates. She is now old enough to get a fancy box of caramels and could deny all children a piece of candy, because they are too precious for children.  She's holding the lamb pillow we gave her. Her nickname as a preschooler was "Mary had a Little Lamb" and she still gets lamb/sheep stuff. Our mother loves collections!


For dinner we made green egg pizza. I decided to pre-roll the dough. I used every single sheet pan I own.


It worked okay for the most part, but I was running low on corn meal and was stingy. It's not good to be stingy with cornmeal when your pre-rolling pizza dough. I learned that lesson and we worked around it. We also learned that the $10 pizza stone from the grocery store won't make it through two sessions of pizza making. At least, the break left about 2/3 of the stone intact and we were still able to finish cooking the pizzas. Now, I know what to get DH for Christmas this year, that and a pizza peel.




Everyone had fun making and eating their pizzas. The kids and DH ate the regular stuff: sausage, pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and cheese. The women had fancy ingredients, prosciutto and arugula. Yum!




I debated making a cake for her. There is another celebration planned for Friday, so I decided, cake for Friday, ice cream for the actual birthday dessert.


It was delicious!

It was a great celebration of 30 years of Mary. Here's to another 30!

Downton Abbey

All last spring I heard my mom & S#5 talking about Downton Abbey.  When the next episode was going to be on, no I can't talk to you right now, I'm watching Downton Abbey, oh, no, I've got to get home and watch Downton Abbey.  I was curious but busy.  Three kids and Sunday nights don't mix well with television.  I'm normally trying to find something to feed them without having to cook and clean the kitchen or buy take out food, finding and washing all uniforms, and convincing children to take a shower and go to bed.

Over the summer I finally found the time to watch Downton Abbey.  Thank you netflix & amazonplus.   I was sucked in quickly and understood what Mom & S#5 were so obsessed about.  I was lucky because I got to watch it all one episode after the other, no waiting.  Until I had to wait for season #2.

S#5 had been counting down the days until she cheated.  Someone she knows downloaded the british version of the show and she watch the whole thing before it started here in the US.  Despite that grevious sin, she was as excited as I was to watch it on Sunday night.  So excited that she threw a tea party.  I got to attend.  There was tea, cucumber sandwiches, mini scones, madeleines, quiche, and cheesy puffs.  Way too much food for 5 people.







Then we watched the show.




I tried to get a picture of "Downton Abbey" logo as it started, instead I got war & bombs but it was an exciting start.  Such a good show.  Thomas & O'Brien are still evil, Edith is still a twit, Mary is still hiding her love, the grandmother is cantankerous as ever.  Oh, and Bates, poor Bates, sacrificing his love to the blackmail of his estranged wife to save the family from scandal.  I can't wait until Sunday night.  Maybe S#5 will throw another tea party.  I don't really need the tea or the food, I'd rather just have the quiet place to watch a show without children interrupting.

soup contest

S#2 & S#5 concocted a plan to use up the leftover chicken from our fajita dinner, a chicken tortilla soup contest.  They decided to hold it on Thursday afternoon during the ND bowl game.  When S#2 told me about it, I had to join in too.

I spent some time trolling the internet for recipes.  I considered this one and this one but in the end, I decided I had to use the cookbook I bought from Homesick Texan.  I've been reading the cookbook like it is a novel since it came in the mail but I still hadn't made any of the recipes.  Finally I found the perfect opportunity.

The recipe is only in the book not on her blog.  It is a smokier soup than usual, and is suppose to be made with dried pasilla peppers.  I couldn't find those and substituted with chipotle peppers.

Unfortunately the ND game wasn't worth watching but the soup competition was on!


the soups


the judges



the tasting



the winner



No, I wasn't the winner. Sort of.

Judge #1, Rachel, picked S#5 first and mine second. Judge #2, Mom, picked S#5 first and mine second. Judge #3, DH, picked mine first and S#2 second. Overall, S#5 got 2 out of three winner votes.  DH said we should use a point system. I got 2 second place (4 points) and 1 first place (3 points). S#5 got 2 first place (6 points) and 1 third place (1 point). We both had a total of 7 points, so a tie. Then a friend stopped by, tried the soups and picked my first. So I unofficially won. I know that deep down, the recipe is a winner.

And so S#2 doesn't feel left out of this post, she won the Kids Choice award. They all liked hers best. J wants me to make that recipe instead.