I know. I know. I'm a day late posting but I ended up working yesterday -- holiday pay, baby! -- and getting today off. So this week, the Thursday Homemaker is coming to you on Friday. Anyway, our cafeteria operates on limited hours on holidays so those of us that work usually coordinate a potluck of some kind. We appropriately had a ton of food and today I share my contribution.
I discovered peppermint bark this year and am completely addicted. I've been buying the Dove dark chocolate version of it and decided that it can't be that difficult to make. I started by looking it up on my favorite cooking website and then just chose the simplest version of it to try. (And believe me...it was good but I will be experimenting with it!) The recipes is as follows...
2 packages of semisweet chocolate chips
Candy canes (I bought "soft" peppermint sticks at Walmart.)
Put 4-5 candy canes (5-6 peppermint sticks) in a zip-top bag and crush the hell out of them. I have cheap bags so I ended up with holes in them which works well in a little while.
Using a double boiler melt the chocolate chips over medium heat. (Be careful not to get any moisture in your chocolate or it will seize up and be useless.) While it's melting line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Once your chocolate is melted, take your bag of crushed candy and shake out the tiny particles of "peppermint dust." If you mix it into the chocolate it kind of infuses the minty goodness throughout the whole candy.
Spread chocolate on the wax papers -- two bags takes up most of the sheet. You don't want it too thin.
Sprinkle the rest of your peppermint chunks across the the top. I kind of lightly patted the peppermint chips down into the chocolate so that when it firmed up they stuck better.
Place the whole tray in the refrigerator or freezer until the chocolate is solid again -- about an hour in the fridge.
Break into pieces.
Enjoy.
Most of the bark was gone before I left work. The rest was inhaled by my family rather quickly.
TACO SOUP!! All I've really been able to work on recently is Christmas presents. Being that I don't want to post pictures of them yet -- lest some unsuspecting family member come across my blog and spoil their Christmas surprise! -- all I can really come up with for today's blog is my dinner recipe.
I discovered taco soup on allrecipes about 4 years ago and fell in love with it. It's easy and so, so good. Tony actually calls it one of my specialties. I've altered the recipes and don't actually follow one anymore but here are the basics...
Taco Soup
1 lb ground turkey
1 can diced tomatos -- I use the ones with green chiles
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 "can" of water
onion -- I use 1/2 of one cuz my husband doesn't like much onion
1 package taco seasoning
cilantro
salt/pepper/garlic to taste
Brown the ground turkey (you can also use beef if you prefer)
Dump tomatos, rinsed beans, drained corn, and diced onion into a crock pot. Fill one of your cans with water and add it. Stir in the package of seasoning. Once your meat is cooked at it too. Allow to heat for a few hours for the flavors to mingle.
Add your chopped cilantro and salt/pepper/garlic to taste.
Serve with cheese, salsa, sour cream, chips...or just eat it as is. Enjoy!
Okay...So we spent the weekend at the beach and I did a lot of knitting -- on the road and at the coast. I finished my first adult hat. When I started I originally intended it to be for my son and since I was using smaller needles than the pattern called for and my son has a big head I added some extra stitches. Well, I added too many and it's way, way, way too big for him! It fits me great and I had fun making it.
I've decided that I absolutely LOVE Halloween. Having a child has totally brought it out in me. I snagged a little magazine at work yesterday that had a ton of recipes and decorating ideas. I figured I'd stow it away for a few years from now and break it out for some fun with Simon. Being that Simon isn't even six months old, we didn't really do anything this year. Well, I made pumpkin pie -- a tradition I intend to keep -- and I handed out candy to the two kids that happened to come by. I also dressed Simon up and took some adorable pics of him in his Bobcat outfit. Here's a few of them that I edited with picnik.
So the "Lol Cats" website inspired me for this. I have a whole album of them on my facebook page and clearly have far to much fun coming up with my captions. The sooner Simon accepts the fact that his mommy is a huge dork the happier he will be... Enjoy!
My husband came across the bog Ikea Hacker and found a lot of really interesting things. It got us thinking of things that we could "hack." I was inspired for the candle I "hacked" below by something I saw on the site. Here's how I did it...
This is what you need...
...A pillar candle, some tea lights, and one of those rectangular vases. All are found in the "home decor" section.
I decided that I wanted my candle "layered" with different shades of the same color. But you could totally do it all one color. That's what Tony thought I was going to do. Anyway...
Next, take your tea lights -- I started with the light red ones -- and cut them in half to get them out of their holder and easily get the wick out. I used 4 of them for each layer. After getting them out, I chopped them into small chunks and put it all in the microwave to melt. The first layers, I melted directly in the vase but subsequent ones I used a microwave safe bowl and just poured the wax into the vase
Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I'm no Suzy-homemaker. My house is often in disarray and always has been. (I'm striving to clean, purge, and re-organize. Really, I am!) But for once...I'm proud to say that I have a cleaning tip! And one that I came up with!
Powell's City of Books is my absolute favorite place in Portland. I'd been having a hard time tracking down a copy of our next book club book -- Girl of the Limberlost -- so I got to make a trip downtown to visit Powell's. Plus, I've been really excited to take Simon with me. So what better day than Thursday (or "Mommy Day" as I like to call it) to do it? And of course I had to document this monumental occasion!
Simon was so anxious to leave...
And he was the hit of the trainride down! He just kept making this low "uuuuhhhh" noise. I think he liked how the vibrations make his voice sound. He does it in the car too.
Once we arrived we made our way to the children's section. 
Might I say that Powell's is kind of a pain to navigate with a stroller. There's just so many stairs that the only way you can get around is to take the elevator and the elevators are so slow there! But it's really a moot point because, let's face it, YOU'RE AT POWELL'S!!!!
By the time we left, Simon was pretty tired out...
Overall it was a successful trip! I stayed within my budget and got a a few books for Simon, a few books for me, and found a new author for Tony. Here's the haul:
And I finally got one of these too...
I took a few photography classes back in college and found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I worked with film back then and now I primarily use a digital camera and an excellent photo editing website called picnik.
So...here are some of my photos of my favorite subject: Simon, of course!
The raw image... (1 month old)
The edited one...
The raw image... (3 months)
The edited one...
The raw image... (Just shy of 4 months)
The edited one...
Yes...I know. Post #2 is yet another cake but I'd been dying to try this one out ever since I first saw a picture in my stumblings across the web. I give you: Spaghetti and Meatballs...Cake Style!
I started by baking a 9 inch round cake in two layers. Chocolate, of course!
Just fill and stack. I put the cake on a big, rounded dinner plate and kind of carved a little divot into the top so the meatballs could nestle in a little.
Next, I applied a thin layer of frosting. No need to worry about it being "crumb free" since you'll be covering it with a bunch of piped noodles.
Using a pastry bag and #5 tip -- it's a round, writing tip -- I piped tons and tons of "noodles" across the cake. I built up the edges and sides more than the middle.
I made my meatballs out of fondant. I had some leftover from a previous cake so I turned it brown using Wilton coloring -- a lot of brown and a little black. After they were a satisfactory color I rolled them into little lumpy balls. Then arrange them on top of the cake. (Sorry the 1st image is so bright!)
The original directions said to use truffles for the meatballs. I didn't have any chocolate so I just used fondant.
Now for the sauce... I combined some strawberry jelly with a bit of blackberry jelly and heated it up in the microwave for about a minute so it would pour/spread easily. I then spooned it on top of and between the meatballs. You mostly just want to cover the middle of the cake. so that the finished product looks like this...
I took it to a family dinner on Labor Day... My relative got a kick out of it and I had a blast making it!
I was inspired to start a new blog after creating this...
My department at work recently had a "Fiesta Style" birthday potluck and, as usual, I volunteered to bring cake. I didn't have just any cake in mind... I wanted a fiesta inspired cake. Thus the "Burrito Cake" was born.
I attempted to make it a jelly roll cake to begin with but my practice cake was a huge fail! (It split in about 8 different places when I tried to unroll it in order to add the filling.) So I used a cookie sheet as my cake pan, split it into thirds, then stacked and carved it to give a rounded look to the cake. Instead of just using plain old frosting I covered the cake in fondant. (I tinted the fondant using a little yellow and brown Wilton cake decorating coloring. Tortillas aren't stark white!) After covering the cake I made a crescent of sort and attached it as the "seam" of the burrito.
The final touches are "salsa" -- strawberry jelly -- and "sour cream" -- extra frosting. If you attempt to make this, it's a good idea to garnish your burrito right before serving it... The jelly and frosting didn't want to stay on top during transport. 
