October 5th Catch up time---Aaah!

Okay, I am pretty far behind, considering it is October 5, when I am writing this post and the last one was August 30th I think. That's pathetic. I don't know if I should even try to justify this with my lame excuses , but I will anyway. The two weeks prior to our leaving for our trip were pretty busy and then we were in Ireland (JJ had to go for work and I had to go because ... well it's IRELAND !! I couldn't let him have all the fun this time) the last two Sundays of September. We got back a week ago and I have been in a funk ever since trying to adjust to life as the cook and maid. I had forgotten how nice it was to have someone bring you wonderful meals all prepared. Meals with which I didn't have to help or feel guilty for not helping. For example, every morning I merely had to happily bounce (and I did bounce) down the stairs to a wonderful breakfast of freshly cut fruit and eggs benedict. Or how wonderful it was to leave the bed messy and come back to clean crisp sheets all neatly tucked in – it was magical. Now it’s back to reality. Cold cereal for breakfast and I can finally see the floor in my room as of this morning. But I am finally back to it and excited to play with the kids on their fall break over the next two weeks. With much will power I have ignored the temptation to skip the last four weeks and start fresh. This is for my posterity's sake and I can't just pretend those weeks didn't happen so, I am doing a super post with all of them together. Without further adieu.. the last four weeks in a very large nutshell.

Week 4 Sunday September 6, 2009

Chicken Courdon Bleu, Apple Crisp

After the Carmel Apple Cheesecake incident we decided to try Apple struesal part with something more suited to her attention span-- Apple Crisp. There she is hard at work.

Laney --stealing apple slices.

It's pretty hard to get after a kid for sneaking apples.

Jordon pounding the Chicken

You can imagine how much he loved that

--Being handed a large blunt object and

encouraged to use it to hit something very hard--

He was in heaven.

Kids were so happy to have their dad back to cook with in the kitchen.
I was too since he did the work

and I spent the time documenting it.






What they were doing while cooking...
Taking turns jumping off the bench shouting nonsense on the way down.
How do they come up with this stuff?

I have a couple cute videos of them doing this but it kept loading the video at the bottom and it was too much of a pain to move them up so look for them at the bottom of the post.


This was so good. It got very enthusiastic thumbs up!

JJ and I loved the apple crisp it was perfect.

The kids didn't however, not appreciating the slimy texture of the cooked apple. They discovered Apple Crisp is a misnomer,

which takes a crispy apple slice and turns it soggy.

That didn't prevent them from licking up the icecream and crumb mixture.

So much for a dessert with food value.

Week 5 Sunday September 13, 2009

Cafe Rio Pork Salad, German Chocolate Cake

This was a special Sunday. It was Isabel's 8th birthday and baptism day! She really enjoyed being surrounded with loving family and friends on her special day. We had Cafe Rio Pork salad from our ward cook book (and yes I will eventually post the recipes) I have been wanting to try this for a long time but alas it requires thinking ahead. The meat slow cooks over night. I can barely remember to start dinner by 4, no who am I kidding, 5 let alone the night before. But since it was a birthday dinner and I was feeding the masses, I pulled through. The kids weren't much help with this one, there was too much going on. But Isabel wanted German Chocolate Cake with white chocolate chips and she did cook the frosting. That is until she burned her fingers tasting it while it was cooking. I would have had more sympathy for her except that I learned she burned herself on about the 7th or 8th time sticking her fingers in. How thick can you get?

I had new helpers this time.

My Mom

JJ's Mom

It was a good thing too, because this is what JJ was doing.

The Spread
After dinner we went to Isabel's Baptism

She looked like an angel

Celebrating her birthday with family

It's hard to believe she is 8. I still remember rocking her when she was a couple weeks old and wondering what she would be like when she got older. I know I am going to blink and she will be 18. Then I will be nosalgic remembering when she was 8. As the kids get older the more I realize the importance of enjoying each and every moment--even the shrieking ones.

Week 6 Sunday, Sepember 20, 2009 (Kerry, Ireland)

Had I been more prepared I would have taken pictures of the food we ate. But instead I can only offer documentation of what we were doing during the hours we would have been cooking at home. Actually, to be honest the thought did occur to me to take pictures of our meals but I am more inhibited about pulling out my camera in populated places, I am pretty sure photographing my food would score highest on the shameful tourist meter.

This was a big day for Kerry county. There was the championship gaelic football game between Kerry and Cork at 3:30 that day. It's akin to being in the state of one of the teams playing in the superbowl the day of the superbowl. I might even venture to say possibly even the superbowl can't compare. There were flags hanging from just about every residence with the Kerry colors of Green and Yellow. Every where we went we overheard conversations about the getting ready to watch the game. In fact, the first thing the hotel receptionist said to us when we checked in on Friday night was "get yurself to a pub on Sunday at half tree (they can't say "th" sound it's really rather adorable. ) tere will be the big game, Kerry v.s. Cork at tree tirty." Then Pat our bed and breakfast host from Saturday night spent all Sunday morning during our breakfast telling us about the players and who to watch for as he reinacted some great moments in football history. (I'm serious, it was a riot) His sons had gone to Dublin to the game and he was so excited for them. We quickly realized watching the game in Kerry was not an experience to be missed. So, we stayed in the area before we headed on our 3 hour drive north to Galway, where JJ would be working during the week. Per suggestion of our new friend Pat, we had enough time to explore the incredible grounds of the Muckross House and Muckross lake in Killarney National Park. There was a trail that followed around the lake in a large loop. We had a wonderful time meandering through various paths and some trails less traveled through densely wooded areas that pictures can't even do justice to their beauty. We walked for hours and I think we calculated it must have been about 8 miles or so. We had worked up quite an appetite just in time to watch the game while we grabbed some grub. Unfortunately the more lively places weren't serving food--everyone was standing packed around a small TV suspended in the corner. So we ate at a more tame resturaunt with an older crowd, large flat screens, and not nerely enough spunk. After our meal of the best burger and fries (meat and potatoes are the bulk of Irish meals) I have ever had, we then moved to another pub to watch the end with the true excitement of the local pride.

Muckross House

This is Our new Dream House

Spacious Lawn for Kids, 10 orphans (or so) and myself to frolick on to our hearts content.

I have a bit of a grass fetish. (JJ makes fun of me) I admit it took some effort to suppress the urge to toss my shoes and run through the grass with my arms out like a bird flying in the wind. Okay that's confessing too much, cheeks are reddening now. Back to the dream.

Georgous Lake with which to build a private dock to go sailing (with the kids and orphans). Okay JJ wasn't too keen on the orphans part of the dream--a bit too altruistic for him. I say, come on with a house like this and servants there is plenty of time and room for homeless children, plus more hands on deck right?

Beautiful Muckross Lake

This pictures doesn't do justice to the blanket of Green covering the mountains around the lake. It was so pretty I almost couldn't stand it. It's as though you just want to bottle it up and bring it home to share becuase a two dimmensional replica just isn't enough.

Sample from some wooded area around the lake.

Everything coverd in Green!

On our walk-- see I'm wearing the Kerry colors.

It was the perfect shirt for the day!

Torc Waterfall

We ran up to this waterfall vista as a small detour of our trail.




Video -- Kerry Wins-- Celebration!

Week 7 Sunday September, 27 2009 (County Clare Ireland)

So I don't have pictures of the food again. But this is what we were doing about the time we would have been cooking. ...... Sailing on Lough (lock) Derg

JJ with his extrasensory sail boat honing skills, steered us to this little place where they rent sailboats on the lake. It turned out to be the perfect way to spend our last (sigh) afternoon in Ireland. We've discovered on our recent trips we really have a knack for "flying by the seat of our pants" when it comes to sightseeing. as JJ says in his great Irish brogue, "You've got to move your feet and keep your wits about you and good tings will happen."

JJ in his element. This was the highlight of the trip for him I would wager! All that boy needs is water and a boat to make him happy. (me too, actually )

So...what are we doing in arizona?......

"I am Sailing"
I think I'm wearing 4 layers to stay warm. It was a wonderful blustery day!

Now to Give you an idea of what we are used to-- meet Lake Pleasant, AZ
A pretty little oasis in the desert valley, and we enjoy escaping there to sail as often as we can.

BUT.....

It's not this....

or this....

Or this (sigh).

This, by the way, is a picnic spot we sailed to. We ate some really yummy Camembert Cheese and french bread we bought at a local grocery store. We had a great time "putting into port" here and another place that had a little pub where we ate some soup. All afternoon, we kept thinking how much the kids would have enjoyed having a lake like this to explore on our weekends. Ah (sigh again).


Now I am caught up --whew- I will have this week's post done before Sunday and all will be well. I am so glad we are doing this. It really has been a great experience so far. The kids reminded us when we got back that we hadn't done our cooking days while we were gone. I was happy that they missed having them. Maybe someday we'll be cooking together in Ireland....

I can dream can't I?

This is the Video from Week 4 it's pretty funny



Those sillies