Party Time in the Kitchen

Well we nearly blew the roof off with this one. The beverages were flowing, the brownies were disappearing and some serious recipe sharing was going on. We all left with 10 meals and hours worth of memories. I can't wait for January and "South of the Border Month". Here are a couple of photo highlights...

I made sure to count the contents of everyone's basket on the way out after some ''accidental" meal doubling was discovered (You all know who I am talking about).

Here is a full body shot of Allie after her 3rd glass of Diet Coke (Caffeine Free?).


I missed out on a huge video opportunity of Mom describing how we should not freeze the mayo/musterd sauce for the Maddox Turkey Stakes. I tried to get her to re-do it while the camara was rolling but she was in too big of a hurry to get out of there and get to bed.


Anyway, I will let you know which meals turn out...

Stroganoff for my Girlfriends

So Erinne has me representing the family at my sister Allison's Girlfriends Kitchen. Basically it is a bunch of her friends and other various relations getting together to exchange meals and recipes. I am planning on wowing them this month with a little meal I call Stroganoff Surprise. You might be asking yourself why I am stuck planning meals when it is traditionally a womans job....and I would answer you by saying that I am man enough to check in my manhood at the door.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound cubed beef stew meat


• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup


• 1/2 cup chopped onion


• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce


• 1/4 cup water


• 4 ounces cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a slow cooker, combine the meat, soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce and water.
2. Cook on Low setting for 8 hours, or on High setting for about 5 hours. Stir in cream cheese just before serving.

LAUNCH PARTY

WELCOME!

We are now officially connected to the "real" world.

(You know, the world wide web.)

We hope you enjoy!

Learning the Ways of Rock

Jake was jamming on Guitar Hero III in front of a bunch of his friends.

This is my first video post of my kids and I want to dedicate it to my sister Sara.

JAKE'S 9TH BDAY PARTY

Yesterday, Jake and his buddies (and siblings) went to see the "Bee Movie" at the Junction to celebrate his birthday. We followed up the movie with dinner at Wendy's and then presents back at the house. Thanks to everyone who called or emailed on Jake's birthday, or sent cards or gifts. Though he liked all the gifts, I have to say the winner (so far) is Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeff's Harry Potter birthday card. It plays the theme song to the movie when it's opened. Jake and his friends could not stop opening and closing the card. Finally, Jake banned anyone from opening it so the "batteries won't wear out!"


Off the subject, I don't know if I'd highly recommend the "Bee Movie". Definitely, the amount of hype it has received during the past month was a waste of money. It's not great by any means. The kids will probably enjoy it-the older kids got a lot more of the jokes. But for an adult, if you need assistance to get to sleep, this may be the pill to take. I know I dozed off at one point and got a refreshing cat nap in. I'm not sure how often Brian snuck in some "zzzzz"s; I noticed he was out within the first 10 minutes.

AUTUMN IS IN THE AIR!

This is my favorite time of the year!

I went out and about the other day taking pictures of the wonderful array of color. I bet in a week or so they'll be laying on the grass floor-winter is just around the corner.

Autumn Movement
I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf

at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,

the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,

new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,

and the old things go, not one lasts.

-Carl Sandburg-

THE BOO CREW

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween... It's funny how it has changed since I was young. I remember going out with my dad and brothers and sisters, pillow cases in hand, leaving mom behind to pass out the candy. Dad would take us around the whole neighborhood, making sure as we approached the next home, not to walk on the grass, but take the long way around by use of the sidewalk. We'd stay out for hours, Dad pushing us onward to make the most of this once-a-year opportunity to collect as much sweets as humanly possible.

Nowadays, we all meet in a local parking lot and trunk or treat. I do have to admit I do like aspects of this new procedure to gathering candy. It only takes 30 minutes when once it took hours to fill up one's bag and since it is usually done in the early evening, no more coldy toes, noses and finger tips. Yes, it is a tradeoff.

The kids and I went to our neighborhood Trunk or Treat to start the holiday off. We then headed up to Kaysville to eat our first dinner at Grandma Kimmy's. Yummy and very seasonally-appropriate chili and cornbread. We then went out to Jake's teacher's place to trick or treat at her door. His teacher, Ms. Segura, is from Spain and is just in awe with this thing we call "Halloween". She is amazed by the decorations, the costumes, the festivities and most of all the candy. She invited the entire third grade to stop on by. She was super-excited to see us and just kept putting handfuls of candy into the kid's bags. Jake commented, as we left, that we "hit the jackpot!" We definitely did. We headed back to Kaysville, meeting up with Brian, to end our haunting evening at Gram and Gramps Roundy to munch on some pizza, eat some of our treats and watch "Phenomenon" (though a lame show, it kind of fit the holiday, you know, magic and Criss Angel and stuff like that).

Grand Central

Erinne and I are getting rid of our home land line at the end of the year and moving into pure cell phone use. We are trying to figure out how to make the transition and manage the replacement, giving out cell numbers....who gets Erinne's...who gets mine, and I ran into this new idea called GrandCentral. It seems pretty cool and lets you basically have full control over routing and managing your calls and forwarding to a different numbers etc.

Check out their website and let me know if you want an invite (initially the service is invite only but I can hook you up).

Guitar Hero

Well I bought Guitar Hero III a few days ago and me and the kids have been playing it non stop. This is the first of the series that is available for the Wii so it was the first time playing it almost all of us (Jake says he has played it at a friends house before).

There is something about the game that brings out the rock in you and the next thing you know you are doing scissor kicks off of the coffee table. It has also been great for introducing some of the classics to the kids and it warms my heart to hear Olivia humming One around the house. Some of my other favorites include:

• "The Seeker" – The Who
• "Cherub Rock" – The Smashing Pumpkins
• "Knights of Cydonia" – Muse

I caught Erinne trying to get a jam going but she will probably deny it if you ask her.