My Little Iron Chef

I haven't posted in a bit because it would seem that I'm just not that into blogging right now. The Little Goat is highly mobile and between keeping her out of things and keeping the (more annoying by the moment) cats out of her face, plus whatever else might be going on, I just don't feel that much like blogging. I'm not quitting, just posting less for now which means good things for you guys - go read other blogs that are less....drivelly! There are lots of options over there in the sidebar.

Last Saturday we were supposed to have four free hours of babysitting thanks to a planned event for kids at church. Sadly that all fell through really at the last minute and once again reaffirmed to me that Northern Mainers (or maybe it's just New Englanders in general) cannot be counted upon for anything, despite what the crazy lady on the radio commercial tells us about Mainers knowing "they can depend upon each othuh." I was more than a little annoyed because what was supposed to be a quiet child-free afternoon of Christmas shopping and going for coffee, turned into a rather disorganized evening of quite child-full Christmas shopping, definitely not quiet coffee, and late dinner. *sigh* I'm mostly over it now though and happy that we now have almost all the shopping done with one or two exceptions.

Yesterday was Mr. J.'s birthday! We had (sadly lacking) crab cakes for dinner along with a very lovely halibut fillet and BLT salad mix. The dessert he picked this year isn't a recipe I can link to, but it comes from the Company's Coming Everything Chocolate cookbook. If you're American, you've probably never heard of Company's Coming which is a series of cookbooks that I grew up with, the brainchild of Saskatchewan native, Jean If-I-have-to-strain-a -fake-smile-any-more-my-face-will-crack Pare. If you live in Canada and you don't own a Company's Coming cookbook, what is wrong with you!? Really, what kind of Canadian cook are you? Perhaps my favourite thing about the C.C. Everything Chocolate book is that when she talks about pie, she always tells you how many "wedges" it cuts into. Not 'slices' but wedges. (I don't know why but I just can't stand the word 'slices.' Ugh.)

Anyway, it was Caramel Truffle Pie and it was disgustingly rich but so incredibly tasty and here is a picture so you can all commence with the drooling. We each had a piece last night and the rest went into the freezer today for some future occasion.

It looks like half the pie is gone, but I assure you it was only two "wedges."

Also, the LG helped me make the birthday pie! She helped crush the chocolate cookies to make crumbs, dumped them in the bowl, dumped in the pecans, stirred the caramels (and snuck one before they were melted too) and sit and watch things melt in the microwave. It was great. I can't wait till she's a little older and can do a little more helping too. We did try again today when we made bread, but it resulted in a rather sizeable yeast mishap, so maybe we'll wait a while before we bake together again. It does give us something to do in the mornings though....

She's getting really great at immitating. The other day when I put on my exercise DVD, she got all excited and started walking in place just like on the TV. Then yesterday afternoon, she was playing with this little chicken she has. She put it in this candle she's been playing with that comes in a little tin and proceeded to immitate seasoning the chicken. Hah! It was brilliant! I wish I had a picture. Watch out, Bobby Flay! If you're still around in 20 years, she might be ready to challenge you in Kitchen Stadium.

Action shot of the LG pounding the chocolate crumbs.
Okay, tapping, TAPPING the chocolate crumbs.