6th Annual Oscar Party

This was our first party post-baby. I must say it forced me to be more organized that's for sure. I cannot leave things to the last minute because I never know what she's going to need. We also threw in our first long day away from her this weekend. Actually, it was Daddy's first day away from her since he works from home.

This was such a great year for the Oscar's. The top 5 were all real contenders. We were thrilled to see Slumdog Millionaire win so many awards including Best Picture!

We had a wonderful group of friends gather again in our home to watch the event. Our friend Kristi made the gorgeous cake above! We were so thrilled she dreamed this up. Each layer was a different flavor--french vanilla, caramel, red velvet, devil's food/french vanilla marble. So YUMMY! Great job, Kristi! Ralph and I made Heath Bar Dessert for Heath Ledger and Watergate Salad for Frost/Nixon. People were so creative this year! Amanda made this creative display of cupcakes.
Our friends, Dan and Cat, made this creative house out of Rice Krispie treats for the short animated film "La Maison en Petits Cubes." I absolutely love seeing all of our friends creativity and the different ways everyone thinks!

Every year we give away prizes for the person who can guess the most number of winners, the person who guesses the least, brings the most creative food, does the best in movie trivia during commercial breaks, etc. Our reigning champ, Eric, who admittedly sees the least Oscar nominated films, won again with 17 out of 24. Very impressive! He won movie tickets, popcorn and drinks for 2 at a local theater. The second place winners received DVD's, Dark Knight and Wall-E. For the amazing cake, Kristi, took home Kung Fu Panda. Phil took home Blockbuster gift cards for his prowess at movie trivia. We had an amazing 3-way tie for last place this year. They split two Blockbuster gift cards and the movie, The Departed, between the 3 of them.

We had so much fun! Thank you to everyone who came and made our party such a great success!

Dinner Fantastic

I just love it when I stumble across a recipe and it just works! I found this wonderful tilapia recipe while looking for inspiration on Valentine's Day. We just happened to have some tilapia in our freezer so I tucked it away as something to make soon. Last night was that night. Then I started looking for a side dish. Well, I am my mother's daughter. I found a recipe for a stir-fry in my Weight Watchers cookbook but I didn't have everything I needed, didn't like some of it, just used what I had. I LOVED it!! So yummy! We cooked up some rice from Trader Joe's. Then the hunt was on for ooey-gooey chocolate! We found it. I love spontaneous dinners that turn out better than I could have planned. I will share the tilapia and and chocolate recipe. Enjoy! Let me know if you make them and what you think.

Hot Fudge Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 7 tablespoons cocoa, divided
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/4 cups water, hot
• whipped topping

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350'F.
2. In medium bowl stir together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 3 Tbls. cocoa, baking powder and salt. Blend in milk, butter and vanilla, beat until smooth.
3. Pour batter into 8- or 9-inch square baking pan.
4. In separate bowl, stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter.
5. Pour hot water over top; do not stir.
6. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set.
7. Let stand 15 minutes; spoon into dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top.
8. Garnish with whipped topping

Baked Tilapia w/Fondue Sauce and Crab

Ingredients

• 
  

Fondue Sauce

• 1 tablespoon light butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• salt and pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 3/8 cup fat free sharp cheddar cheese or reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 6 1/2 ounces canned crabmeat, drained
• 1/8 cup sherry wine

Fish

• 1 lb tilapia fillet, skinned and boned (or other white fish)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. For the sauce, melt the butter in a pan. Stir in the flour and nutmeg until smooth.
3. Gradually stir in the milk. Cook until smooth and thickens a little.
4. Add the cheese, and stir until melted. Add in the sherry and crab meat, mixing well to coat the crab.
5. Season tilapia with salt and pepper. Place the tilapia in an 8x8 pan.
6. Pour the fondue-crab sauce over the tilapia.
7. Sprinkle with the paprika.
8. Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

Valentine Picnic

Ralph and I take turns planning Valentine's Day. Last year Ralph took me to a great B&B up in Catawba Island Township, OH. It was so relaxing and so much fun. The year I plan is usually something more low key centered around . . . wait for it. . . a really fun meal! Shocking, I know. *grin* This year's inspiration took it's time kicking in. I like to cook by inspiration--this is why shopping the sales and couponing is tough for me. It cramps my style. Well, as Ralph was cooking me Valentine's Day breakfast (a very yummy breakfast pizza!!), inspiration hit! First in the form of dinner--fondue! So fun! We had not had fondue in forever. Then the setting. Hostess with the Mostess had a guest blogger, Julie Mulligan, who had a great idea for an indoor picnic. I set up the picnic in our room. Ralph did the shopping for me. (Seems like Valentine's Day is more of a team effort with an infant in the home.) The fondue was SO good! We skipped the cheese course, usually served as the appetizer, due to Nugget being sensitive to too much dairy. We had Beef Fondue with Dipping Sauces for the main course and the Easy Chocolate Fondue recipe from HWM.

Here are the recipes. Happy fondue-ing!

Easy Chocolate Fondue

Ingredients
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, reserve 1/4 cup to thin if fondue begins to thicken
4 bittersweet chocolate bars, chopped, 3 1/2 ounces each
2 tablespoons Frangelico or Amaretto liqueur, optional
1/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts or almonds, optional

Directions
Heat 1/2 cup cream in a heavy non-reactive saucepot over moderate heat until cream comes to a low boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add chocolate. Let the chocolate stand in hot cream 3 to 5 minutes to soften, then whisk chocolate together with the cream. Stir in liqueur and/or chopped nuts and transfer the fondue to a fondue pot or set the mixing bowl on a rack above a small lit candle. If fondue becomes too thick, stir in reserved cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, to desired consistency.

Beef Fondue with Dipping Sauces

Ingredients

• 2 lbs beef sirloin or top round beef, cut in cubes
• 4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 dash olive oil

horseradish sauce

• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper

bernaise sauce

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

garlic butter

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chives, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions

1. layer onions, beef, onions, drizzle with oil, refrigerate overnight.

2. heat oil to bubbly, keep hot over sterno, dip beef in oil until cooked to your liking.

3. for horseradish sauce, mix all ingredients, refrigerate.

4. for garlic butter, mix all ingredients, refrigerate.

5. for bernaise sauce: combine vinegar, water and pepper in double boiler.

6. add egg yolks, stir constantly.

7. slowly add butter, stirring as it thickens.

8. add lemon juice, tarragon, salt& pepper- if sauce is too thick add a drop of water.

Our Funny Valentine

Funny. Funny the turns your life can take. This time last year Ralph and I were headed to a lovely B&B up in northern OH. McKenna's Inn. We were mainly concerned about relaxing and resting for a weekend. We unplugged--read books, drank coffee and talked. We ate at a fantastic restaurant, Mon Ami Restaurant and Historic Winery. We talked of me going back to school Fall of 2008. Life was simple and fairly straight forward--work, play when we want, do what we want.

Fast forward one year. We have a 10 week old gorgeous, smiley little girl. Now we work, play with our daughter, and try to learn what it means to be parents. What a difference a year makes! Our days are full of little smiles and giggles. She learns to use her voice more and more everyday. She loves to blow "raspberries" all day long. She is by far the best Valentine we have received.

Midnight Malfunctions

Anyone who knows me well, knows I don't really wake up well or easily. I was concerned before we had Nugget that I wouldn't hear her, etc. Typical new mom stuff. I've been pleasantly surprised that I can sleep fairly normally until I hear her grunting. I wake up, I feed her, I change her, I go back to sleep until it's time to do it all again. Last night was fairly typical or so I thought until I woke up this morning. I thought she felt a little damp but dismissed it as being in my head. We've had no leaks while using cloth diapers--the worst thing that has happened is stool in the diaper cover but never on her clothes. Well, I handed her off to Ralph to say good morning. I went to gather up all the things I needed to change her, etc. That's when I found it. Her diaper cover laying where I had changed her last night. I had gotten up, fed her, changed her but neglected to put back on her diaper cover. So I was NOT imagining that she felt a little damp--there was no barrier between her diaper and her clothes! Oh, dear. Her bath jumped up in my priority of things to do for the day. :) Guess I had reason to be concerned about how well I would really wake up. Hee, hee.

Coffee Catastrophe

We had a coffee catastrophe a couple weeks ago. We were having a friend whose wife was out of town for the week over for coffee. There was just enough of our coffee fresh roasted by Ralph's brother, a Christmas present, for an evening of coffee and conversation. As we were grinding this fantastic coffee a horrible grinding noise erupted from the grinder--like the noise when you suck something up into the vacuum that's not supposed to be there. We take apart the grinder and find chunks of plastic have broken off the hopper that holds the beans and funnels them into the burrs. There has been plastic ground into our coffee--the last of our wonderful freshly roasted coffee. You can see our dilemma: friend coming for coffee+no grinder+no ground coffee=disaster! Thankfully, some dear friends live near by so we ran over there to grind some other normal, less than fantastic coffee. PTL for friends who love coffee as much as we do!

So begins the dilemma--to repair or replace. We contacted Cuisinart and ordered a replacement hopper--they even called and asked about this catastrophe. When we got the replacement part, we placed in on the old grinder, filled it with beans, and. NOTHING. HAPPENED. We heard the motor moving but nothing was being ground. Turns out the whole casing around the motor had been cracked. This meant we had no coffee for house church on Sunday! Again, you see our dilemma: House church full of coffee lovers+no grinder+no ground beans=disaster! Thankfully, we are a house church full of people who love coffee so someone brought their blade grinder so we could have coffee. Cuz you know we can't talk about Jesus without coffee--it's impossible. :)

Now the dilemma is to replace with the same model we had, which lasted about 3.5 years or upgrade to one that, according to all the reviews I read, will last us about 10 years. As you might imagine, based on an entire post written around a coffee grinder, we take our coffee very seriously around here. That being said--we upgraded. :) It arrived today. It is a thing of beauty. The Baratza Maestro is amazing! I can forsee years of grinding beans to perfection for years to come and no more coffee catastrophes on our horizon (unless we *gasp* run out!). ;-p