Thursday December 16, 2010
It’s snowing! Aside from a hair-raising, sweat-producing, tire-spinning drive back into the mountains to transport school children, I am overjoyed about this snow. It feels Christmas-y and cozy and happy. Funny though that we seem to be the only school for miles around that didn’t cancel and we are located furthest back in the mountains where snowplows are rarely seen and guard rails haven’t been invented yet. Funny. Very funny. Or not. I suspect the school program tomorrow night may be the significant factor in this equation. At any rate, my drive for the day is history and I am happily staying inside until it’s time to build snowmen.
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(Liam’s salad … every now and then we fudge the rules and let him have a little bit of grated cheese. It makes him supremely happy and gives me fragments of hope for the future.)
What makes your salad happy? We are enormous salad fans around here. Tossed Salad. Cashew Pear Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Throw whatever you have together salad, Greek Salad, Caesar Salad, just don’t give me seven layer salad ever. Please and thank you. What’s the salad topping you least like to do without or your favorite specialty salad? 
Last night we were having leftovers so I thought I’d spruce our meal up with salads and apple pie and ice cream. The salads turned out to be so big and delightful we ate almost no leftovers and left the frig in its same overcrowded state. Sad. But the salads were happy. Lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, red onion, avocado slices, hard boiled egg, fresh mushrooms, cheese, and croutons and topped with a Red Wine Vinaigrette dressing you really should try. It’s delightful and so easy.
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
Cook until sugar is dissolved. Add:
1 t pepper
1/2 t salt seasoning
Slowly add
1/2 c. oil
while blending.
If only there were cherry tomatoes outside in the garden …
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Tuesday night we seriously fudged the boys 8 o’clock bedtime because I wanted to make gingerbread with them. I had visions of delicious gingerbread but that would have meant making a regular version and a gluten / dairy / everything else free version for Liam and it looked like too much work. So we opted for a Liam-friendly version only. I’d never tried the recipe and in spite of adding lots more rice flour than the recipe called for, it was too runny. We couldn’t cut out shapes at all.
I tried to form a gingerbread man and two snowmen but they started spreading before they ever hit the oven and came out shaped like nonsensical blobs. The two snowmen even turned into siamese twins joined from head to rounded bottom. We re-shaped them with a knife, made one kind of glaze for each boy and let them have fun. And did they have fun. See for yourself.
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This is one of the boys’ favorite activities in the winter. I think I learned this game from Amber. It’s great fun … especially when you go down belly first or sit on a blanket to make yourself slide three times faster. They also like to prop it on pillows to make a ramp for their cars. Who knew table boards had so many purposes?
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Last year Adam and I made a paper chain to count off the days til Christmas. It was so much fun I made one for him again this year while he was in school. David said I am a cool mom. I said cool moms would not have thought it was more fun making it by themselves. I wrote a note inside each one and extended it til New Years Day and he loves it!
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Dove chocolates. There are only three left. I try not to think about that.
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Monday night the boys wanted fruit after they were done with their supper. I looked at Adam in his red pajamas with the green pear he chose and then I looked at Liam in his green pajamas with the red apple he chose and a deeply embedded coordinated gene inside of me jumped up and down for joy. Some days it doesn’t take much.
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What made you feel happy recently?
Love the fun post!!!! Merry Christmas to you!!!
I am such a baby driving in the snow..one flake from the sky and I don’t want to drive. I was nervous for you driving.
I am still laughing at the picture of your son licking the frosting..too funny!
My favorite thing to add to a salad…(but it’s not healthy!) cinnamon pecans! I roast them with brown sugar, cinnamon and butter…bake them at 350 for around 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. They are so good…but like I said, not very healthy! Oh, and feta cheese…love feta on a salad…especially the pecans and feta together! Salad bliss! =)
Your kitchen is so very pretty. =)
Hope you have a great day! =)
One more thing..I forgot.
My boys used to use the table board for a diving board and a plank when they would be pirates.
Glad you’re getting the snow—I was hoping we’d get in on it, too, but we’re just a little too far north this time! 🙁 I LOVE the table board idea…..my kiddos are having a blast playing with it right now!! Thanks!! 🙂
@MaeIBeSunny –
Merry Christmas to you, too!
@Elizabethmarie_1 –
Cinnamon pecans? YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will definitely have to try that (once I buy more pecans).
@junebugs26 –
And there is never anything like the first time for a game! Wishing you a few snowflakes to go with the cookie baking!
Amen sister!!! 7 layer salad:((ugggg!!! And I hate peas as a salad topping, GAG!!!!
Such a fun and happy post! I got a kick out of the green shirt/red apple and red shirt/green pear thing. You’re too funny!
Salads…yumm…I LOVE salads. The problem is, I seldom take the time to make them for myself because the rest of the family would not eat the kind of salads I would like…with ALL kinds of various ingredients and toppings like you mentioned. So sometimes that is what I get to eat when Jeremy and I go on dates. And its wonderful!
Too bad your gingerbread guys didn’t turn out, but it def. looked like your boys still enjoyed them!
Merry Christmas to you!
Love the pics of the boys decorating their gingerbread. I know Kaelin would love it, but I dread the mess. 🙁 Your salads look scrumptious. Ranch is my all time fave dressing. Specialty salad – not really anything original with me, but I love to add grilled/fried chicken and pecans or cashews to a regular lettuce salad. So with you on the 7 layer salad…cannot stand the peas and who wants plain Miracle Whip on top?
Oh my word! The table board fun!! I declare I completely forgot about that! We used to have so much fun doing that as kids! One time after we were done my Mom said to take them and put them away. So my brother was dragging one behind him and I was following him with another one. He stopped abruptly and I ran into the table board with my big toe – I lost me entire big toe nail over it! PAINFUL! But my oh my what fun!
Hold the onions and tomatoes on salads. Don’t care for either of them. Love craisens, nuts, bacon, and the newest was pineapple. Delish. Sorry, disagree about the 7-layer. If they are made without onions, I love, love them. =) I agree with David, you are a cool mom. Still trying to decide what to do to redeem myself in the “cool mom” department.
@appalolly –
Let me guess, you have one of those families who likes salad with lettuce, cheese, and croutons. 🙂 You’ll have to get them hooked on caesar salad without the tomatoes. 😉 Actually I think Adam got started b/c I fixed a plate of different little piles of vegetables and grilled chicken in tiny bites and let him dip them in Ranch one night when we had Ranch. He totally surprised me and ate it!
@r4valilswitz –
@Lenni724 –
So happy for the No Seven Layer Salad support group. 😀
@Becuz_of_Jesus –
OUCH!
@Esther_lynn –
I’ll eat all your onions and tomtoes if you let me sneak my bacon onto yours. Shivers. 😉 Pineapple? Sounds yummy. On a regular tossed salad or something else? Oh, and you don’t have to redeem yourself. You already are a cool mom. I know that.
What makes me happy? Hearing my kiddos in a giggling fit (most of the time!!), Looking up to catch my wonderful hubby eyeing me..:D (sorry if that’s TMI!!!), listening to Christmas music!!!!, being inside in a cozy warm, wonderful smelling, cleaned up house while it’s blowing up a storm outside(normally only hit 2 out of 3 there..). There’s much more, of course, but I’ll quit. 🙂
Things that make me happy… staying home. having someone cook for me. a happy baby. Christmas music. coffee. fuzzy slippers. no hot flashes right now :). good friends. family. lots and lots of things. a little less stress would make really happy.
My favorite salad began as a broccoli salad which my Mom introduced to me a couple of years ago. I’ve tweaked the recipe to make it more colorful, and inadvertently made it festively perfect for the holidays. Broccoli, cauliflower, red & yellow peppers, sunflower seeds, crushed Ramen noodles, green onions…can’t recall anything else but I may be forgetting something…all drizzled with an incredible red wine/oil/seasoning dressing. I’d love to make it again this year and add dried cranberries to the mix.
I love salads SO much, I have been known to eat a salad for breakfast/brunch at restaurants which open their salad bars early. The more ingredients, the better—and as little iceberg lettuce as possible! I like pickled red beets on mine…LOVE tomatoes…cucumbers…hard-boiled eggs…sunflower seeds…NO onions, please (green onions are ok in moderation)…chick peas…green peas…baby spinach…bean sprouts…cottage cheese on the side. MmmmmHmmmm.
Oh, and I used to HATE 7-layer salad. Then I had to make several pans of it one time, and I have to admit that I like it—but only if I make it. 😀 I omit onions, change up the pepper colors, and mix sugar w/ the mayo.
My boys would love to have you for a mom. You really are a cool one. I’m battling guilt because I know that they would be SO excited to make cut-out cookies, but I am just d.r.e.a.d.i.n.g. the mess and the cleanup afterwards. *sigh*
Such a great post. Your pics brightened my day!
Salads. Yum. But, I’m lazy sometimes. Do you cut up your lettuce ahead or as you need it? I’m so so so thrilled that my lil Elyse is starting to like salad too! Ravi has been such a picky eater and doesn’t like most things that are healthy for a boy.
The gingerbread making is adorable. Love the way they are so engrossed. I’m sure they wouldn’t know if the stuff was too runny or whatever. It’s all about special times!
I’ll have to let them try the table board fun. thanx.
Glad you are getting some snow during this time of the year! What fun. I too am the pokiest driver in the county on snowy roads. I just don’t trust myself . at . all!
Merry Christmas Michelle…and yes, you are such a good mommy!
My family likes salad, mostly. But one kind especially that gets shrieks and squeals is Ramen Noodle salad- lettuce, cheese, ramen noodles fried in butter and a vinegar oil based dressing with the seasoning packet from the noodles. It really is good and so easy. I don’t despise 7 layer salad, but its not at the top of my favorite list either.
You are a cool mommy! Right now I feel like one of the most un-coolest moms ever. They are beeeeeeggggiinnngg for cutout cookies. I am so not in the mood, but maybe if I make them they will think of me as a cool mommy again?
The table board game would be a huge hit here. I’ll have to suggest it. It would rank right up there with their other favorite game right now- sliding down the steps in sleeping bags. They LOVE it!
love the cookie pictures and Liam licking his 😉 Yeah some days you just gotta throw out bedtime and just have fun 🙂
My fun thing lately has been having fun with the kids I babysit outside and lots of sunny days
I love salad-eat ’em almost every day, but my family prefers only eggs, carrots, bacon and cheese. So I’m not as creative with it as i could be…and everyone is a Ranch freak in this house. I love it, too, but I am willing to try and enjoy other kinds, like oil and vinegar stuff.
Oooooh, your salad pictures have my stomach rumbling!! We LOVE salads here too, and love to try all kinds of things in them. Last night we had a romaine/red leaf/apple/cheese/green pepper/cilantro salad – kind of crazy combination but it was actually really good. Sometimes the most interesting ones come from cleaning out the frig. Not necessarily the best, just the most interesting. 🙂 I would love to know about some of the other salads you make – any new salad ideas are great! We love feta cheese, but not blue cheese. NO PEAS, please, and no seven-layer either. 🙂
Such a happy post. I think I smiled most of the way through it. Such darling pictures of pure delight of your sons! It really doesn’t take much to make them happy! And I liked that you included pictures of the gingerbread even if they didn’t turn out how you wanted them to. And that your kitchen didn’t have to be perfect either. I like you, girl. 🙂
@madisonsmom2 –
When you get that person who cooks for you, send their identical twin to me. 😉
@itsayoderworld –
dressing recipe, pretty please? And I forgot about chick peas, or garbanzo beans as we call them. I love those! You are an adventurous salad lover! I’ll leave the peas for you. 🙂
@fortheloveofblogging –
thanks!
@clearlyhis –
We just cut it up as we use it although it does make it a lot easier (and stores longer) to wash it and keep it in one of the tupperware frig mates. I’m lazy, too. I buy baby carrots. 🙂 And actually, David cuts up the salad 90% of the time while I finish up the rest of the food. I just happened to do them last night.
@ma_an_pa –
Ouch. That hurts my belly (or bottom) just thinking about it! Oh, wait. I bet your stairs are carpeted, right? I used to do that, too w/o the sleeping bag and it always gave me a terrible stomachache. 🙂
@itsayoderworld –
@ma_an_pa –
I really dread cut out cookies, too, so it was kind of nice to just make three big shapes and be done with them. The one time I stopped dreading them (I don’t even like to eat them!) was when I used Shannon’s (madisonsmom) recipe at Valentines and it just made this teeny tiny little batch. That was actually kind of fun. I think the times I dread stuff is when I overestimate how much to do. They’re just as happy w/ two dozen cookies as six and the mess is over in an hour.
@redladybug18 –
I want some of your warm sunshine!!!
@lwstutz –
Make the dressing recipe and just keep it in the frig for yourself. 😉 Easier yet, buy a balsamic vinaigrette.
@lifeisadance –
Ha! I’m letting go more and more all the time. I keep rolling my eyes and fearing that I’ll happily live like a slob and stop caring one of these days. 🙂 But seriously, I don’t know what is wrong w/ me, but I canNOT keep up with the mess around here! And I really like you, too! 🙂
Ah fun times! I like your pictures. Everything looks cozy and happy. And I have a sudden craving for a big ol’ salad!
Oh! Oh! the gingerbread boys look like SSSOOOO much fun!!!
Yum,I’m getting hungry reading all those different salad recipes!One of our favorites is called Crunchy Tossed Salad.It has toasted sesame seeds,toasted almonds and chow mein noodles and a”homemade”dressing.I also like to add blue cheese crumbles instead of shredded cheese to a”ordinary”tossed salad to give it more zip.
my mind is just seconds behind you and Christy–yesterday i was thinking c-mas cards and different display ideas and voila! she posts about it. Today i was thinking of facbookinga post about people’s favorite toppings on salads and yep, Michelle hands over the tips!! Let me think up something really juicy and see who follows thru tomorrow!:)
i love red onions, blue cheese, red cabbage, avocado slices and raisins, to name a few. and love love toasted pecans. i cannot explain my love affair with toasted pecans. I could eat them on EVERYTHING!
what makes me happy? watching Eden. i cannot get enough of her at this stage. oh, and my clean living room. and seeing cute pictures of happy times such as here…
I’ll join the No Seven Layer Salad Support Group too!
Things that made me happy this morning:
Many cardinals flitting back and forth right outside my window.
Sparkles in the snow.
A little girl’s cheerful chatter.
Michelle—the dressing recipe is as follows: 1/2 c. sugar (or less, to taste); 1/3 c. olive oil; 1/3 c. apple cider vinegar OR red wine vinegar; 2 pkg. of seasoning from Chicken-Oriental (or just plain Chicken) Ramen noodles. Just stir together & pour over the salad. (Btw, the only salad ingredient I missed in my comment above was slivered almonds.)
Mmmmmm, now I am soooooo hungry for this salad!
@smilesbymiles – I had it in Poland. Called Hawaiian salad. Calls for lettuce but my sister used cabbage. Think I would prefer the cabbage. So good. I made my own version of it since i am home since i forgot to get the recipe. Hers was layered cabbage, pineapple tidbits, dressing, ham, and cheese. I did bacon =) (am sure you would stick with ham! ) instead of the ham and added toasted almonds to the top. Yum!
ah. just a feel good, deep breath kind of post.
the salads look amazing. i love salads, but seem to be the only one in my house who does…so…sometimes it feels like a bother to do something just for me. but, then when i do make salads just for me, i wonder why i don’t do it more often.
i like your little coordinated-fruit-eating tidbit. ‘ a deeply embedded coordinated gene inside of me jumped up and down for joy’
that’s a great line. :O)
happy weekend to you dear girl!
@lin789 –
I am slowly getting brave enough to taste bleu cheese dressing now and then. Are you telling me you like the real stuff? I wish I was that grownup.
@itsayoderworld –
Thanks! That looks awesome!
@Esther_lynn –
Thanks. That sounds like the pineapple salad I grew up with except for the bacon. Ours was lettuce, pineapple tidbits, dressing, shredded cheese, and maraschino cherries on top. 🙂 It used to be one of my favorite salads growing up. Funny I forgot about it.
@foreveranoatneygirl –
Sounds like you and Audrey need to live closer so y’all can take turns making salad for each other. 🙂 Or wait, why don’t you just live closer to me and I’ll fix a plate and stick it in the frig for you to pick up. 😉
Thanks. You inspired me to do paper chains at our house to count down to Christmas, even though it is the 11th hour. The children loved it.
I love the pear and apple pictures. And this is nosy, but do you usually eat pears that green? 🙂
Happy things recently? Hearing Handel’s Messiah. Trying creme de menthe for the first time in my kitchen. The children performing beautifully at their piano recital. Dan putting wood in the stove on a cold morning.
All this talk of salad is giving me one huge craving for Ruby Tuesdays Salad Bar (and I haven’t even had breakfast yet). I’ll pretty much eat any salad as long as it doesn’t have mushrooms or fruit.
What makes me happy today? My car hasn’t been shoveled out yet from our Sunday snow, so I get to stay inside today. Not even walking anywhere. I’m usually not a homebody, but on blustery cold days like today I’m content in my house.
I LOVE colors . . . I know I always did a little bit when I was younger . . . but I love them ever so much more now that I am older. Maybe because I have more freedom to experiment with colors and color combos? I get happy just going into a fabric shop and indulging in all the colors with my EYES.
I call it “Eye Candy” because it makes me so happy . . .