Side Notes Galore

Phew! All 3 children and the dog are asleep...did I mention I had a dog, too? Yes...I do. He's a part Airedale, part Pit Bull mix...if you don't know dog breeds (which I don't and had to learn the hard way), these are 2 of the biggest terrier dogs and terriers are synonymous with high energy! So it's like I have 4 children (unless you want to count my hubby on occassion, too). Nonetheless, he is great with the kids even if he is absolutely not a very good watch dog.

Anyway, I am on my own tonight as my husband is on a 24 hour work day today and therefore, I had the honors of entertaining the kids all day. Getting ready for bed was a little more challenging, though. I decided, against better judgement, to bathe all 3 at the same time in the same tub. Luckily, my eldest has recently started bathing herself. (Speaking of which, when do you think is a good time to let your children become a bit more independent and letting them bathe/shower on their own?) But my 18 month old could not keep his hands off the baby even though I tried separating the two with their big sis. At one point, my middle child turned the shower on and next minute he was trying to press his brother's "button" (South of his belly button). There is never a dull moment in my household.

So in my last post (yesterday) I said I would be back next time to discuss Father's Day gifts. My children only have one grandpa and one great-grandpa. In addition to their Daddy, that makes only 3 gifts that I need to come up with. But for some reason, it is impossible to think of anything to get these men. For Mother's Day (so much easier!) my children have 2 grandmas, 4 great-grandmas and yours truly. This year I bought my own Mother's Day gift :) and my daughter made gifts for 3 of the other wonderful women in their lives leaving me to think of 3 others. Luckily, I am a Mary Kay consultant and sent them some lovely cosmetics I thought they would like. The homemade gifts consisted of 2 ceramic plates that my daughter had painted and pressed hand- and footprints on from all 3 kids as well as potholders that were made from a piece of artwork she had created in school. I added a few odds and ends to each of the Mother's Day gifts, but this was it in general. Everyone seemed to love their gifts. I'm thinking of going the handmade route again for Father's Day. I took a picture of my 3 kids each holding a piece of paper spelling out G-P-A (that's a nickname he got from my daughter's preschool teacher...Grandma is also known as G-ma).

We are supposed to be going to the beach tomorrow, weather permitting, and I was hoping we could find some seashells by the seashore to glue to a simple frame and send that to my dad for his office. He is so very proud of his grandchildren and is always passing photos around his workplace. But that still leaves me 2 more gifts. I can't decide. A search online doesn't produce anything of real substance. There are all kinds of crazy technological products out there and none of the men in our lives are your typical tie-wearing dudes. So I don't know what to do. Any ideas out there?!

Before I go, I wanted to let you all know that I had made the Pan-Roasted Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Green Beans I posted about yesterday, too. It wasn't bad. In fact, my husband went so far as to say it was good. It was perfectly fine for every day dinners and I do recommend it, however, it probably wasn't something that's going to stick out in my mind weeks or months from now. My family was also treated to Mochi (a Japanese food) for dessert.

Recipe for Butter Mochi from T's All Kine Ono Grinds on Facebook.

Ingredients: 1 stick (1/2 c.) unsalted butter, melted; 1 1/2 c. sugar; 1 box mochiko flour; 1 can evaporated milk + 1/2 c. water; 1 can coconut milk; 4 large eggs; 2 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt butter in microwave for 30 seconds. Add sugar until incorporated well. Add vanilla extract, then eggs, one at a time. Mix well. Add mochiko and baking powder and mix. In a separate bowl, whisk together evaporated milk and water. Add to mochiko mixture in two parts, mixing well between parts. Next, add coconut milk and whisk until blended. Pour into 9" x 13" pan and bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Promptly remove from oven and let cool. To serve, cut into bars.

We had leftovers tonight (I was not about to cook for myself and 2 kids that would be perfectly fine eating frozen chicken nuggets or cereal for dinner). But tomorrow we will be having Kalua Pork, a dish from Hawai'i. I will be putting that in the slow cooker tonight so it will be nice and tender for dinner tomorrow. I may also decide to make Potstickers.

Since I didn't cook dinner tonight, I prepared another frozen recipe for Mini Pizza Cups that I baked and threw into the freezer for my daughter's school lunches. I made them heart shaped because I only have holiday cookie cutters...no simple round ones. : P They were super easy and looked pretty good...even the daughter who hates homemade meals said it looked yummy.

Hope you have a great rest of the night and I will be back again very soon!