Cookie Monster

This is a bit of Fifield family history. We have a tradition of a "Cookie Monster Cake" for birthdays. It was my Dad's birthday while we were out visiting, and by special request we had a Cookie Monster Cake again. It's been several years since this guy has graced our kitchen table (I guess we thought we out grew him, but never!). It's a German Chocolate Cake a la Cookie Monster. Of course the birthday boy/girl gets to distribute the eyes and cookie according to personal pleasure. I always fought for an eye - marshmallow and raisin on a toothpick. He looks a bit fearsome with all those candles!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Halloween!

We spent Halloween visiting family out of town. We dressed Ben up as a monkey and trick-or-treated at one house (Grandpa Great). He was a good sport and didn't seem to mind his costume much!

Four Generations

Ben is the first great grand child with the last name Espenschied. Doug's grandparents have 35 other great's, but Ben is the first one to carry the Espenschied name.

It was a special experience for us to get all four generations of Espenschied men together. Ben was a pretty good sport for having been 3 hours in church with no nap!

Feeling very domestic

I spent Labor Day laboring around the house. I did 4 batches of laundry, cleaned, cooked (including 3 batches of baby food) and of course, cared for the baby. One of my big projects was grinding some rice flour. I put the grain mill out on the patio so I wouldn't have a fine layer of rice dust all over my house, which worked great. I now have about 20 cups of rice flour (which will last a long while).



The next day I was able to bake gluten free crumpets using my fresh rice flour. They were so tasty! I tried hard not to scarf them, but they didn't last long.



I was inspired by my bread to really step out of my comfort zone and make jam. When strawberries went on sale for $.88/pound, I took the plunge. I've now got several containers of strawberry jam in the freezer, but I'll have to make more crumpets, because they were gone before the jam was ready!



Good times...tasty times :)

OCMCO CD Sale

I'm in a church/community orchestra and we recently finished working on a professionally recorded CD. It is sacred Easter music and titled "That Easter Morn." It was tons of hard work, but really fun and exciting at the same time.

They are doing a pre-sale right now and CD's are $15 each.

If any of you would like a CD as a birthday/Christmas/Mother's or Father's Day gift (and don't mind not being surprised), let me know--I'd love to give you one! If you would like the CD but think it's lame for me to give you a CD of myself and would instead prefer to purchase one, let me know and I'll get one for you (and give you a much cooler birthday etc. gift). They aren't shipping for this pre-sale, so it's probably easier for me to buy, get it to you and have you pay me back.

The CD's are supposed to be out in time for Thanksgiving.

I <3 Crockpot Mom!

I recently discovered a new cooking blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. The blog owner, Stephanie, spent all of 2008 putting up a new crock pot recipe every day! That's over 300 recipes tried, reviewed, and best of all . . . GLUTEN FREE!!! She's my new hero.

I seriously started several conversations yesterday with: "The crock pot lady says..." Then I wondered out loud if she knows she's become a household name. Doug pointed out that she's only an "our household" name. But, she did get featured on Rachel Ray, and is publishing a cook book. I think that is so rad. Did I mention all her stuff is gluten free? She has a child with celiac. I'm a total fan.

I've tried two of her recipes so far and both were delicious. We had the sweet and sour chicken with mango last night and a black bean soup week or two ago.

I've not been a big crock pot girl. When we got married, Doug owned a crock pot - I did not. Usually my crock pot recipes end up dried out and in need of "rescuing" (which Doug has become quite good at, by the way). So it is a victory for me to make something that tastes really good, and we both go back for seconds of! Hurray!

I just love blog cooking. Some of my favorite blogs are recipe blogs. I'm not sure if it's because there is such a great Celiac/Gluten Free community out there in the blogosphere always posting about tasty new GF foods, or if every housewife feels the same pressure to come up with new things to cook that we've all bonded together via blog. I know it works much better for me than that email chain letter I get every few months - put a recipe on here and forward it to 5 of your closest friends! Yeah, that doesn't work for me --> deletED.

It's just so great to find recipes that someone else has experimented with. They take the first fall if it turns out gross and either warn you away, or offer tips for how to fix it.

I want a kitchen laptop. Doug said I could have one. He said we could maybe even get one with a touch screen that we can put a protector on so I can wipe it off if I splatter on it! How cool would THAT be?!

Yeay for food blogs!

Family Reunion

My family had a blast spending a few days together in July. The weather was gorgeous and we all spent as much time as possible lounging on Grandpa's lawn. It was so nice to get caught up and reaquainted, and even meet some of the newest family members. Thanks for hosting a fabulous event, Grandpa and Grandma!



Cousins

Grandpa and Grandma

Ben looking adorable as always :)

The whole crew!