Circus

Not long ago we took Ella-Ka-Bean-Ka-Bob to the circus!





It was the mini-circus, only one ring, some of the animals and no real clowns, much to Ella's dismay.



She lasted until the lion show, which was a bit ?sad? - there was a lot of whip action...



Anyhow, it was fun, and the $10 cotton candy came with a free hat which provided a majority of the entertainment for the evening, to be honest. She asked me a couple days ago when it will be back, she's ready for another.

Cookie Bar Update

Nevermind on those. Maybe I should have cooked them on parchment paper, or made the oven cooler since I used a glass pan, but they came out WRONG! I call them the "Teeth Crackers." Seriously. And finagling a plate-full of decent looking bars for Josh to take was difficult, taking two different offset spatulas, a knife and a cake server. For reals.

But- I also made cheese soup last night. I have in the past given out another recipe, one my MIL passed on to me, but I kind of like this one for the simple fact that I tend to always have the ingredients on hand. (Which never includes chicken bouillon, but it's still good)

Garden Cheese Soup (thanks, Allrecipes!)

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons margarine
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups water
1 cup chopped carrots
1 large potato, peeled and diced
6 cubes chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3 cups milk

1. In a 6-quart pot, saute celery, onion, and garlic in butter or margarine until soft.
2. Stir in flour. Gradually add water, and then vegetables, bouillon cubes, and chives. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat.
3. Cover the soup, and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in cheese and milk, and stir until melted. Do not boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I just dump in however much vegetables I have on hand, and to make it really awesome you can add a cup of sour cream right before it's done and stir it in. YUM!

OK I have a mountain of clothes to fold. I figure if I fold while watching all the TV shows I like on the laptop, I can make it take all day and not feel guilty :) I'm still cleaning all day, I mean, dang.

Hello darkness my old friend

I'll just let you know now there are no pictures in this post. You can go ahead and click away now. Now that that's out of the way- I am sitting in the kitchen at midnight waiting for the cookie bars Josh suddenly remembered he needs for work tomorrow (today?) to bake. Although I am proud that I came up with the cookie bar idea, which are a one time bake, as opposed to the requested cookies, which take at least an hour and a half to make and then bake in batches. Plus, the dough has no eggs in it, so I scooped out a tiny bit- Okay, a big girl bite- and had a late night sneaky snack.

The recipe is really easy, and kid friendly- in case you want to give it a shot: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I have been feeling a little funky this week so far, you know- fever, snot, crabby - the whole nine. But I have high hopes for tomorrow and even promised my friend (and myself) I would be at the gym at an ungodly hour tomorrow. And I will. I will. I will.

Let's see, what else can I cover.. hmm.. We had a fun weekend going to some friends house a little ways out of town. The drive was really nice and the people were really fun. I love getting away for super fun get-togethers like that. I hadn't laughed that hard or been that goofy in a long time. I even lost a tiny bit of coin in a bean-bag tourney. My partner and I participated in a match that might possibly qualify for the Guinness Book of Records in that it lasted longer than any game has ever lasted before. Mostly because we were all so terrible, nobody could score a point. It would have been wise for us to start awarding points for "closest to the board" - I would have said "hole," but same difference for us...

Anyhow- My timer just went off, so I can go make a cookie plate and hit the sack! Yay! I wanna be on top of my game for the early morning butt-whoopin' I'll be getting tomorrow. :)

Much Love