Pi(e) Night!

We had Pi(e) Night again for 3.14 (March 14th)/my birthday this year! Thanks again to everyone for coming and for bringing your wonderful pies! I made a chicken pot pie so people wouldn't have to worry about dinner, and 5 dessert pies (. . .though I only served 4). That was a downsized number from 2 years ago when I made 9 pies and had about 5-6 leftover pies if you combined them all!! 

I love getting together with friends and eating food! Those who stayed around for long enough got to play a party game with us too! (Games are another favorite of mine!)

Here are the dessert pies I made this year. 

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake Pie

Banana Pudding Cheesecake

Ice Cream Pie (I just spread a layer of Breyers Heath bar ice cream on a graham cracker crust, followed by crushed up chocolate covered pretzels, followed by homemade hot fudge, followed by softened vanilla ice cream, followed by more hot fudge. . .mmmm!)

Pecan Brownie Pie (which I overbaked, so I didn't actually serve it. . .brownies are meant to be gooey or not eaten at all :)

Key Lime Pie (it's from my Betty Crocker cookbook, but for some reason I can't find that exact recipe online, so here it is:

Ingredients

Pastry for one-crust pie, or graham cracker pie crust

3 large eggs

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon grated lime or lemon peel

1/2 cup key lime juice or regular lime juice

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Beat eggs, milk, lime peel, and lime juice in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed
    for about 1 minute or until well blended. Pour into pie crust. 

3) Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is set. Cool on wire rack 15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate at
    least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream if desired. 

Drawing Board Fun!

This is Leila's first picture of a person! The arms and legs are floating and he/she has no body,
but look at that well-formed head and well-placed eyes and mouth! . . .I was impressed :)

Just before this, she brought me the drawing board and said
"Mom, spell my name!"
To which I responded: "OK. What does your name start with?"
Not surprisingly she said "L!" (She's had that one nailed for months).
Me: "What's next?"
L: "I dunno, can you tell me?"
Me: "Yep. It's "e", then . . .what's the letter that has a dot on top?
L: "i!"
Me: "That's right! Then another 'l', then 'a' (all the while I was writing the letters on the board)

That was it! We didn't go over and over it. I just showed her once.

Then the next day my little 2 1/2 year old girl comes to me with the drawing board and says "Mom, can you write my name? It's L-e-i-l-a!"

This girl is such a sponge! She picks things up so quickly! She's known her alphabet for awhile, so I guess this is the logical next step, but still! I love seeing her assimilate knew pieces of knowledge into what she already knows. It's sure fun to watch her learn!

Leila-isms

Leila is a precocious, outspoken, silly little girl! There is really never a dull moment with her. That makes life both exciting . . .and exhausting! But I do love the element of fun she adds to our lives! Here are six of the cute/silly things she's said lately:


1) "I'm gonna eat my HAIR!. . .I'm gonna eat my SHOES!. . .I'm gonna eat HEIDI! . . .No. . .I'm not gonna eat Heidi, cuz then I wouldn't see her anymore! . . .I'm going to eat the scriptures! . . .No. . .I'm not gonna eat the scriptures. . .cuz then God would be so sad!"

2) "No. . .I don't wanna go to bed! How about YOU lie in MY bed and I'll sing YOU songs! . . .Is that a plan?"

3) "Mama, can you buckle her in too?" (The dolly also sat beside her in the cart at Costco, as per Leila's request)

4) During her prayers lately:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for God, thank you for Jesus, thank you for Santa Claus . . ."

5) Leila: Where are we going?
Me: To Smiths
Leila: What are we going to get there?
Me: Mommy's going to get some pills
Leila: Pills? . . .or pillows? The things you eat?. . . Or the things you put on the bed?

That reminds me of something I said as a kid:

Little Courtney: Mom, where are you going?
Mom: Downstairs
Little Courtney: Why?
Mom: I'm going to get some flour
Little Courtney: What kind of flour? The pretty kind? or . . .the lump?

6) Here are a few on the words Leila has for things that I think are cute

Restaurant= Restronk
Quesadilla= Quesa-tortilla
Who else?= Whobody else?

Those last two have started sounding so normal to me. . .I might just start using them by mistake :)

BIG Powder

This week I went in to get Leila after her "nap". A lot of the time now she just has "quiet time" and doesn't sleep at all. This was one of those days. I say "quiet time" because it's not really quiet at all. It usually consists of her singing songs like "I am a Child of God" or "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" at the top of her lungs. She has a way of making us crack a smile even when she's not in our direct presence. So I guess her quiet times are really quiet times for me. And I'm glad she's content to play and be by herself in her room. 

Except, this time she was content playing with the wrong thing. It was time to get the little girl out of her room. I opened the door and she look a little pale and her hat, dress, tights, face, blanket, and the floor were covered in powder! Not just a mere sprinkling either! I shook her blanket out, thinking that would do the trick and that I could just throw it back onto her bed. Doing do sent a flurry of smelly powder all over my black shirt and fuzzy corduroy pants. The strong perfumey smell shot up my nose and attacked my eyes. It was so strong that my eyes started to water as though I had just cut open a nice juicy onion. She looked at me with the uh-oh-I've-just-been-caught-red-handed stare. Following with her expectation, I said "Leila! What did you do!?!" She responded "I can't clean it up, but you can if you want to!" My response? "Um. . .no. Time to learn how to use the vacuum!" She helped vacuum and seemed to even have fund doing it! . . .Apparently too much fun! I opened the door to a similar scene the following day after nap! Stinker! 

This is the collection container of the vacuum after cleaning up both days! I'd say there's at least a cup's worth of powder!

**update**

Lately Leila has been having this thing about not wanting to be a baby anymore, and wanting to be a big girl. I tell her that she's getting bigger, but that she will be a big girl when she wears panties and not diapers. A few days after this incident I was changing Leila's diaper. I told her to wait there while I went and found some baby powder. She said "Nooooo! Not baby powder!" (In her "silly mama!" tone). "I'm not a baaaaby! I'm a biiiiig girl! . . .Go get the BIG powder!

Nana's Birthday

Every year, Nana's birthday party is a memorable occasion. But this time was the first time it became memorable for Leila. It took place in late December (so almost two months ago) and she still can't stop talking about it! She talks about the cookies we decorated there, she talks about going ice skating, but most of all she talks about her family. In response to her question of who would be at the party, we must have said "our family" cuz now, she often says "My family were the people at the ice skating party". At that point we have to chime in and tell her that she has other family members (like the ones in Canada) who weren't there.

Leila talks about the ice skating party to herself when she is in her room after we have put her to bed. We kept water bottles in the car that we had gotten from the party. She would point to them weeks after and say where we got them. My favorite reference was after we had watched the movie "The Letter Factory". It has really simple songs for each letter of the alphabet (too simple to the point of boring if you ask me). They'll sing "the A says a, the A says a, every letter makes a sound, the A says a!" So we were in the car and singing the letter I. So we sang "the I says i (soft sound) the I says i, every letter makes a sound, the I says i!" Then I told her that even though the song says that the I says i (soft sound), it also makes another sound! The I also says 'I'(hard sound). Then Leila said "the I says 'I'. . .like ICE SKATING PARTY! Yep! Good call Leila!

Double Chocolate Chip/Mint Cazookie with Courtney's "Famous" Hot Fudge Sauce

A few years ago, my sister-in-law introduced me to the beautiful hot/cold paradox of a cazookie. I love to freeze cookie dough and make these when people come over for dinner/games/family night. That way I always have something yummy and more impressive than rice crispy squares. I made these the other night and one friend asked for the cookie recipe, so I thought, why not blog about it?

Ice cream and hot fudge? Mmm. . .yes! But there's more! This is a cazookie! Underneath that creamy/fudgey,
melty goodness is a double chocolate cookie with a chocolate mint filling. What makes a cazookie?
Cookie dough baked in a ramekin, with ice cream overtop! It's a simple principle, but the fact that you
eat it hot makes it a delightfully indulgent dessert :)

And the hot fudge. . .it might not be famous past my friends and family, but that's enough for me!

The truth is, you're pretty lucky to be getting this cookie recipe! (The original doesn't include the mints and has 1 cup of regular chocolate chips). I had lost if for several years (maybe seven). Then I found it hidden away in some of my stuff in my Mom's basement just a year before the fateful flooding that all but washed away my hometown. There were many casualties among my stuff.

For the Double Chocolate Chip/Mint Cookie

1 1/4 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
About 24 mint chocolates

Nana brought these for Heidi's baby blessing dinner, which inspired putting them in cookies. Thanks Nana!

Preparation

1) Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2) Add eggs and vanilla and beat well
3) In separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt
4) Blend into creamed mixture
5) Stir in chocolate chips
6) Roll into 1" balls, then squish the ball in your hand to form a cookie dough pancake. place the mint in the middle of the circle. fold the cookie dough around the mint until it is covered. Squeeze the ball lightly in your hand to seal the edges
7) Place in greased ramekin dishes
Cook in oven at 350 for 12 minutes. remove from oven, place ramekin onto a hot pad. Immediately spoon ice cream and hot fudge over cookie.


For The Hot Fudge

1 1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 12oz. can of evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

*This recipe makes a TON, like 4 cups which I would say is about 30 servings. It does keep in the fridge for about a month (I couldn't tell you past that--it hasn't survived longer than that before); so you've got time to use it up. But if you want, you can halve the recipe and use a mini 5 fl. oz can of evaporated milk (I get Kroger brand from Smiths). Don't worry that it's slightly less than half the size of a regular can. Just halve all of the other ingredients and it'll turn out great!

Preparation

Melt chocolate chips and butter over medium heat. Add sugar, salt, and evaporated milk. Bring to a slow boil and cook for 5-10 minutes, until thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

This recipe can be refrigerated and reheated. In fact, it seems to be thicker this way (which I like!)

A Visit from Grandpa Dixon and Uncle Logan!

Yesterday I said goodbye to my Dad and Brother, who I won't see again for another year. It was a short visit--only 3 days, and it went by way too fast! They came for Heidi's baby blessing! We waited until she was 4 months to bless her, knowing that they would be coming to town. Leila sure loved being the center of their attention!

We had a lovely family dinner following the blessing. We had 22 people in addition to the baby in our small apartment. We all had so much fun mingling, eating, and watching Leila and her cousin show off with singing, dancing, and somersaults!

*pictures from the family dinner will go here :) *

We went to The Museum of Natural Curiosity (My dad, brother, Leila, and Heidi, along with my cousin and her daughter) at Thanksgiving Point and had a blast! Wearing kids out like that is great fodder for a good nap! My favorite part about this particular visit was having Leila and Heidi play together in the baby water table in the WaterWorks wing! It was so cute seeing them play together and to have Heidi interact with her environment!

Whenever my Dad is in town, it's a tradition for us to go to one of the all-you-can-eat buffets, since the only buffets in Canada are Chinese food only (. . .which is good. . .unless you don't want Chinese). So we pigged out at Golden Corral and it was actually good this time! My favorite were the tacos. . .mmm. . .I want one now!

And because my Dad and Brother were in town for such a short period, we lived it up by going to the aquarium the next day! Unfortunately, Leila girl was in a sour mood, so we had to do our best to enjoy the aquarium despite her mood, rather than feeding off of her contagious enthusiasm. To her credit, by the time I got everything in order and everyone out the door, it was a little late and she was probably itching for a nap by the time we got there :P It was a pretty amazing place though! I loved the penguins, otters, and sharks!

That night we went out for Sushi--it's great (and pretty amazing) that all of us love sushi! Then our plan was to go to Applebee's for Karaoke, but to my horror I found out that they stopped holding karaoke on Tuesday nights! LAME! I was so looking forward to my Dad and husband singing Garth Brooks together! SERIOUSLY!! So we went home and played King of Tokyo (a boardgame) which Logan got us for Christmas. So fun! Especially because I won 3 out of the 4 times we all played together :)

With all of the good times we had, I think my favorite part was just having them come to church with us on Sunday. Even after they drove through the night and arrived at our place sometime around 9am, they still stuck it out for all three hours of church! Sitting with them in the pew in sacrament meeting felt so natural, like that's just what we did together every Sunday! I sure liked having them around! I wish I could have kept them here, but more importantly, I'd really like to keep them for . . .forever.