June 30

From as far back as I can remember, mom would let Sister and me lick the mixer beaters.

Mother made wedding cakes, and catered weddings.

She got me hooked on cake batter.

And now, sometimes I make a cake just so I can eat the batter.

Confession.

It is good for the soul.

So, Internet, believe me when I say I know cake batter.

And this cake batter…it is fabulous.

FABULOUS!

I showed great restraint in only licking the beater for this cake.

Only because it was for the boy.

Normally, the chips get a choice of what kind of cake they are going to get, but this time, I pulled out my TWD cook book, pointed to the recipe and said “This is the cake your getting for your birthday.”

He only requested that I make cream cheese icing for it, instead of the butter cream.

Who am I to refuse cream cheese icing?

I heart cream cheese icing.

And because I love cream cheese icing that boy so much, I doubled the recipe.

This cake was so good, I could have eaten the entire thing all by myself.

Instead, we had a party…and I had to share that glorious cake with 4 men, and one woman.

I was lucky to even get a piece.

But that didn’t matter, because I had a bowl of cream cheese icing left over…muahahahahahha

If you want to make this Perfect Party Cake that Carol of Mix, Mix…stir, stir picked for today’s TWD, then go to her blog.

Get the recipe.

Make this cake.

Add only half the amount of lemon extract and use some vanilla bean paste.

Lick the beater.

Lick the spoon.

Leave some batter in the bowl and eat that too.

Double the cream cheese icing.

Use strawberry jam.

And have a party.

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June 29

A word to the wise.

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Carpets get cleaner when you vacuum in a dress, apron and heels.

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June 28

Well Internet, I got this front loader washing machine for $489.

Yes.

$489.

The sale is on till July 6th or 8th.

It is a Consumer Reports recommended model too.

Delivery to take place on the 7th of July.

Yeah me.

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June 27

Hey Internet.

Running out the door, waving good bye.

A friend told me about an Amana 3.5 cf. front loader for $500 at Home Depot.

We’re going to check them out.

Hope I don’t melt in this heat.

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June 26

Hey Internet!

It is Friday and I am nosy.

Actually today I am begging for advice.

I have 2 vacuum cleaners.

The downstairs one is a Kerby.   I’ll be using that till the day I die.

The upstairs one, however, is the third that we have purchased in the last 6 years.

Yesterday it blew up in a blaze of sparks, smoke and stench that took 3 hours to dissipate.

So, I need some advice for a small vacuum.

Preferably light weight, and cheap inexpensive frugal…and I have to be able to find it at Stuffmart, because that is the only store in town…sigh.

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June 25

From the day he was born, I always wondered what he would look like when he got older.

Who would he be?

What would he want to be when he grew up?

I am so proud of the man you are becoming, I could burst…but I won’t because that would be an awful mess to have to clean up.

Happy Birthday, Sunshine.

I’m so very glad to be your mom.

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June 24

We all know that I can take some freaky pictures.

Freak. E.!

Seriously.

Who, when having their picture taken has squinched up eyes?

He doesn’t.

Neither does she.

Maybe you just have to love pink, and chocolate and home school.

That’s it.

It has made me all kinds of crazy.

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June 23

Friday at our local ridiculously expensive grocery store, there was a one day produce sale.

I went, namely for one thing.

Pineapple.

They were on sale for $1.89.

Each.

Score!

I bought 2.

I also bought 4 pounds of strawberries for $3.89, and some other produce that they had for a song.

Brought everything home.

Chopped everything up and stuck it in the fridge.

Friday evening when the men got home, I told them all about my wonderful buys.

There reply….

“Pineapple.   You got pineapple!   I love fresh pineapple.”

I didn’t think much of it because the men rarely eat fresh fruit.

Rarely.

Not this time.

Saturday morning when I got up, and went to the fridge for some breakfast…low and behold my 8 quart bowl full of pineapple had about ½ cup left in it.

You’d have thought I sprinkled it with crack or something.

The 4 pounds of strawberries sitting beside it…remained untouched.

So today…instead of making the lovely Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise for TWD…

I made strawberry shortcakes.

If you want to see what I should have made, go check out Andrea’s Blog.  She picked this lovely recipe for today.

Next time I’ll hide the pineapples.

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June 22

Last week…or was it 2 weeks ago…I don’t know.

Time, it flies away so fast.

Regardless…some time ago, I was IM’ing with a friend and was telling her what I was fixing for supper.

She said to me “Blog about it.  It sounds so good.”

So, here you go.

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Many people don’t use their crock pot because

1. Everything tastes the same
2. It is all ugly
3. I don’t like using it.

To them I say…Pish~posh!

Well, they might have a point on the ugly.

Basic ingredients.

*inserting picture of velveta cheese~~as I had the boy run to the store to get some, because I realized AFTER I began that I had none*

Turn your crock pot on high and plop in some butter.

Let it melt whilst you are chopping your onion.

Toss in the onion.

Put your chicken on top.

Sprinkle the ranch dressing over top.

Then the mushrooms.

Put your lid on.

Go about your business.

About a half an hour before it is time to eat~~and the boy has returned with said no-name brand equivalent of velveta~~add that to the mix.

Start cooking your pasta.

It doesn’t matter what kind.

Add some parmesean cheese.

Dump in your pasta.

Et voila!

Supper.

Regardless of the ugly factor, this is fabulous.

You could add some bell pepper to the mix to give it some color if you don’t like the ugly.

Cheesy Ranch Chicken Stroganoff

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ~~I used thighs, they have more flavor
• 1 pkg. dry ranch dressing
• 2 tbs. butter
• ½ c. onion, chopped
• 1 sm. can mushrooms~~I didn’t drain mine, but I sure wish I had
  
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 ½ c. velveta, cubed
• ¼ c. Parmesan cheese

In your crockpot, place butter and onion.   Put chicken on top of onion, and sprinkle with salt.  Sprinkle ranch dressing over top of chicken, then mushrooms.

Cook on low for 8 hours or high fo r4.  Open lid and pour soup over chicken, then toss on velveta.  Put the lid back on and cook for another 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Stir everything up, breaking chicken up a little as you stir.

Add Parmesan and stir well.

Serve over noodles. Or you can dump the noodles in.

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June 21

For all the men that have been there for their children.

For all the men that have stood in the place where the real father’s should have.

For all the men that have adopted children so that they could be a father.

Happy Father’s Day.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy.

Happy Father’s Day, Superman.

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June 20

Yesterday I received a large white envelope in the mail.

It was from my Aunt M….my dad’s youngest sister.

I haven’t seen her in years….I mean years!

Like 15-18 years.

So, I thought that I’d have the girl take a picture of me with my wee gifty….cause I love wee gifties…to show everyone how much I love it, and how cute it is.

“Mom!   You can do better than that!  Smile!”

Ok, fine!

Doesn’t this sweet girl realize I abhor having my picture taken?

“Moooooom!   You look insane!”

So, I roll my eyes and say…Ok, one more.

Thanks Aunt M.   I love it.

I truly do.

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June 19

It is Friday, Internet, and I’m nosy.

Do you eat cereal?

If you do, when you get to the bottom of the bowl, do you drink your milk…or spoon it?

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June 18

When 2 girls get together and stay up all night.

Strange things happen.

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June 17

I had this wonderful post all planned in my mind, but instead I’m gonna talk about a little addiciton I have.

It didn’t start out as an addiction.

No…it actually started out as just something to do in my spare time.

Something to mess around with.

Then I began utilizing it for other things.

Important things.

Necessary things.

Now I can not get away from it.

What am I so desperately addicted to?

My computer.

So this morning when my mouse died.   I began to twitch.

Uncontrollably.

The boy was in the shower and I almost dragged him out to see if he could fix it.

Instead I made him go to Stuffmart and get me a brand new mouse instead of him going to the library like he wanted.

I am now in posession of a brand new mouse and the twitching has all but subsided.

The mouse isn’t exactly what I wanted.

It is just a bit to small, but it doesn’t matter.

It is making my computer work, and that is all I care about.

I am a sad, sad, woman.

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June 16

For the last 3 months or so, when asked a question and the girl doesn’t want to say something negative, or she just doesn’t want to answer,  she’ll answer with “just peachy”, and we all know she is fibbing.

“Punkin’, how was school today?”

“Just peachy.”

“Mornin’ Sweetpea, how did you sleep last night?”

“Just peachy.”

“Sweetheart, how was youth tonight?”

“Just peachy.”

“Honey, how are you feeling today?”

“Just peachy.”

“What do you think of my new shirt?”

“Just peachy”

“Chocolatechic, what do you think of the Honey Peach Ice cream that Tommi of Brown Interior picked out for us to make for today’s TWD?”

“Just peachy.”

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June 15

A couple of weeks ago, a company called MojaMix contacted me and asked if I’d like to try some of their product.

MojaMix.

What in the world is that?

A new age juice mix?

So I went to their site, and low and behold…

It is cereal.

But not just any cereal.

It is a customized cereal.

First you choose a base cereal.

They have granola, healthy grains, and plain old oats.

Then you get to pick dried fruits.

Cranberries, blueberries, goji berries( what is a goji berry~~never heard of the thing), mango, raisins, figs, pineapple, you name it, they have it.

After that, you can pick nuts and seeds.

Chia seeds?

Is that what they use for chia pets?

Then you get to name it.

They even have cute little sayings you can put on it.

It was fabulous.

Just fabulous.

The best part of it all…it isn’t that expensive.   It is actually cheaper than some cereals you find in the grocery store.

Go check them out.

Mix some cereal.

Buy some cereal.

Eat some cereal.

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June 14

Dear Firefox,

I would sincerely appreciate it if you would fix your operating system, and thereby make my computer stop crashing.  Life for me would be much more pleasant.

Life for those around me would be much more pleasant as well.

Children would not jump in surprise when I yell “argh…not again” and pound my desk.

They would not hear me utter the awful word “crap” when I have lost valuable paragraphs that I have already typed out.

They would not see me resisting the urge to return back to the dreaded Internet Explorer.

Sincerely,

a frustrated Chocolatechic

P.S.  Your silly little message of  “Firefox has crashed, we are sorry for the inconvenience.  Please report this to Firefox.”

If you could amend this to “It has happened again.   You deserve another piece of chocolate on us.   We will be sending it out right away with our apologies.”  I would be very grateful.

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June 12

Hey Internet!

It is Friday, and I am nosy.

It is barbecue season, and I want to know out of hamburgers or hot dogs, which do you prefer?

How do you like to eat them?

Piled high with toppings, or plain Jane?

For the vegetarians amongst us, what do you eat at a barbecue?

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June 11

Hey Internet.

Today I am supposed to be posting pictures of Curried Couscous, for the BB’s.

Guess what I don’t have?

Yep.

Why?   you ask.

Well, I was going to make it for supper last night, but Chefboy decided he was going to invite a few friends over, aaaaand he was going to make supper.

Who refuses that?

He made some fabulous Sweet potato fries with a Burbon glaze.

I don’t have pictures because…well, I was just way to busy eating them.

Want to know how to make such a wonderful concoction?

On low heat, melt ½ c butter.   Add ½ c. brown sugar, stirring till sugar has melted.   Do not boil.   Add a shot of Whiskey or Bourbon stir to combine.

Put into a squeeze bottle.

Fry your sweet potatoes.

Salt.

Plate.

Squeeze bourbon sauce on top.

Eat.

Eat some more.

Pass out from deliciousness.

Make the boy make some more.

Forget all about couscous.

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June 10

I gotta tell you a little bit about my girl.

She has a cute little cleft in her chin.

She gets that from Superman.

She also hates touching raw meat.

This is the first time I’ve seen her do it, and actually smile.

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