Winter Wonderland

So, really there is supposed to be a sidewalk in picture number two! It is completely covered under three feet of snow. And the bottom picture? Those bushes that you see are the tops of the fruit trees behind my house. There's about four feet of snow back there.

Oh, and yes, it is snowing right now.

I love it!

It's a show about nothing

The backround info:
Sunday morning Daniel was up at 5. I changed Liza's diaper twice during Sacrament meeting and once again during Nursery in addition to removing her onesy which fell into the toilet when she wanted to go potty like the big kids. I was a sub in primary and shoveled 14 inches of snow off of my driveway. Oh, and did I mention that Brad is out of town?

By 5:30 Sunday night I was doing the dishes while Daniel screamed and clutched onto my leg in an attempt to push me away from the sink. Liza was standing on the step stool beside me and crying as well because she couldn't play with the bubbles in the sink. (Daniel was in the way...) I, of course, was mentally singing Marvin Gaye (Whoa, mercy, mercy me...things ain't what they used to be...no...no...) and wondering how I was going to find my happy place as the older children played/fought downstairs. (No, we never quite reached that state of Sunday reverence that I naively anticipate late on Saturday nights.)

Ok. Enough backround. So I finish the dishes and contemplate dinner. And here is where the joy of Jessica Seinfeld enters my life. I settled on the "pink pancakes" (with beet puree) from Deceptively Delicious and my kids loved them! Yes, I know it's the small things, but it turned my night around. Successful meal times have a way of doing that for me.

So here's the deal. Everyone knows that I like to cook. I love doing the grown up foods with marinades and grills and fresh herbs, etc. But let's face it-sometimes you just need to get some food on the table. And mind you, I don't deceive my kids when it comes to food. They are pretty good at eating their fruits and vegetables. However, Deceptively Delicious has a lot of great recipes that simply fortify some main dishes with more vitamins and minerals that give me a little piece of mind as I rush to put dinner on the table. I told my kids that there were beets in the pancakes and they thought that was cool.
Some of my favorites so far:
pink pancakes, p. 143
tortilla "cigars" p. 144
chicken nuggets p. 75 (very yummy)
yellow cake p.186

Try it out! It's the first cookbook I have been excited about in a while. Who knows...it could even change your day!