quick recipe for you all

Right, so more birthday party pics to come, but for now, it's Colette's 8th birthday! Das right. Our birthdays are roughly two weeks apart, which makes it a very chaotic month! This morning, we didn't have the ingredients for the normal birthday breakfast recipes-- i.e., pancakes, crepes, , etc, since we just back from our weekend vacation. So here's something that I put together that is based our family's cheese  quesadilla, only a la breakfast. I wouldn't recommend it if you are lactose intolerant, don't like cheese, or dislike eggs, but it's pretty easy to throw together when you're late for something. Pretty filling, too, and everybody liked it.

So our normal cheese quesadilla is basically cheese in between two soft tortillas, microwaved (sometimes we add ham chunks). But this was breakfast for heaven's sake. Breakfast seems to mean eggs in our family a lot.

Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients:

1 soft tortilla
1 egg, fried (go easy on the butter/oil)
1 handful of shredded cheese

Directions:

Spread a handful of cheese over the tortilla. Put the fried egg over the cheese, and sprinkle more cheese over it. Put it in the microwaves so that the cheese can melt. Depends on how good your microwave is, but I found that about 20-30 seconds works for me. It also depends on how melted you want the cheese to be. :) Roll it up burrito style, serve hot (the cheese hardens quickly).


I also mixed up some canned peaches and pears with a mango that I cut, and served it as a side fruit salad. It went over pretty well. Colette was just excited to eat it on her birthday plate that has the words around the side, "You are special today,".

Happy Birthday, my love!

Puifect Birthday Weekend, part 1: Fish and Dinner

So for my birthday, my mom and grandparents threw together a big weekend party, inviting a few of my dear friends. It was super fun! My grandparents let us use their cozy, lovely little cottage! When we got there, the first thing we did was go fishing (even though it was pouring outside!).

This is Maddie. She was the first one to catch a fish!

Dietrich was so sweet the whole time! I don't think he fussed at all. Everybody fawned over him, myself definitely included.

Well, we caught the fish...So we had to clean the fish! Anni (left) and Ruth (your other left) enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps they enjoyed it a lot more than they should have. ;)

The rain made my hair fall over the place, and I couldn't see the fish properly! Here, I think we're laughing about the fact that most of the fish were still alive when we cleaned them. Of course, we put them out of their misery first, but it was still kind of gross. But hey! We had fun.

In case you can't see, this is a fish that Ruth has half-decapitated.

That's me, with a fish head. 

Once we were done with the whole fish thing, we went inside and roasted hot dogs. (Sarah is on the left next to Maddie)

The fire was super toasty and warm. We were really glad that my grandpa had built it, because it got pretty cold and wet outside! It did get a bit warm during the night, though.

My mom decided to take some cool shots of the hotdogs being roasted.

Tearful Reunion (on my part)

Check out this wonderful person here:

http://firstlookthencook.com/tag/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-coffee-cake/

It is a simply fantastic coffee cake that is pretty much my favorite. Somebody gave me the recipe, I made it once, lost the recipe, and then decided (long story short) I wanted it for my birthday (on August 18). So I scoured and searched the internet and found this lovely lady's recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, which I'm 80% sure is the one that was given to me a couple of months ago. I love, love, love it (SO GOOD), and a word of advice (or several); NEVER EAT THIS WHILE YOU ARE PROPERLY HUNGRY. There, I warned you; don't eat this when you are hungry, otherwise you will gain ten pounds in five minutes. It is rather unhealthy.

Note: try swapping the chocolate chips out half-and-half (or whole-and-whole) for butterscotch or vanilla chips. Lends a hand to the whole peanut buttery thing going on.

And another note--there's a million recipes out there called Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, so I'd like to suggest that we rechristen this recipe Babbledoodle Peanut Butter With Very Scrumptious Chocolate Chips and Occasionally Butterscotch or Vanilla Depending On Your Mood Coffee Cake. Hm. Too long. Acronym, perhaps? BPBWVSCCOBVDOYMCC. Try saying that ten times fast. I don't think you can pronounce it as a word, there's only two vowels in the whole thing, I think.

Enjoy, seriously; this is perhaps the best coffee cake on earth.

the midnight air

Welp. My first digital attempt at drawing a moon! Surprisingly easy, as the moon...is...a big white circle. =I 

Seriously, this was a great opportunity for me to brush up on using photoshop. I've been teaching myself, mostly, and I used the smudge and blur tools, especially with the clouds. I'm actually...quite pleased with how it turned out. ^^

Feelin' Groovy

Yes! After months of waiting...I present to you...

Herlock, season two!
*ahem* I mean, Sherlock, season two! Squeeeeee!
I was roaming through my library, scouring the shelves for books (and *cough* movies), and found this hiding from me (not really, the librarians had put it on display, those wonderful people, them)!
See, I watched all of my friends go through anguish and hardship as they attempted to wrap their minds around the fact that they wouldn't see season three for quite a long while (I personally believe that Moffat sits back and laughs at the suffering and pain of the fandom.), and since I wanted to drown myself in anguish and hardship as well, I started watching the series.

Mistake or most wonderful thing that's happened to me in a while?

I still don't know. ;)

So I watched season 2 the other night, and--I shall be brutally honest--loved it! This is why they gave us TV and computers, okay? It's to watch Sherlock.

Guess what else I got?!

Yup! I finished my summer reading program and got to pick out two books. My mom is a fan of Jane Austen and a lot of classics--that's kind of her thing--and so I picked Sense and Sensibility out for her. I found that the library had the Half Blood Prince on the choice shelf, and completed our collection of Harry Potter books! 

I think that this visit to the library has been very productive, indeed.

Yummiest Lemon Bars In The History Of Mannkind

You know you want some! Dessert is served; Lemon Bars à la Betty Crocker.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of butter (or margarine)
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
2 T of lemon juice
*note from Lydia; I also added some lemon extract that really made the whole lemon thing stand out, but do what you wanna do.

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Blend flour, butter, and powdered sugar thoroughly. Press evenly in square pan, 8x8x2''. Bake 20 min. Beat rest of ingredients together. Pour over crust and bake 20 to 25 more minutes. Don't overbake! The filling puffs during baking, but flattens when cooled. According to the recipe, it supposedly makes 16 squares, but we all know that that's a lie and a mess.

I quadrupled this recipe, which would have worked fine if it weren't for the fact that JM decided to decorate it by dumping an entire can of baking powder, therefore making it inedible (trust me, it was; I tried eating it). However, I did get to taste it before the catastrophe occured, and it was (if I may say so myself) quite delicious. Something about our family is that--as a rule-- you always double the recipe, or triple it, and even quadrupling is not unheard of. I was using a jelly roll pan, and I had to keep on making more and more so that there would be enough crust! Even for your average-sized family, you may want to double because they lie about the serving size, and everybody always wants seconds. And sometimes thirds. Even if you screw the recipe up, what little brother or sister doesn't love eating a failed recipe? Crumbly lemon bars--yum! Dip them in whipped cream or something!

My First Illustrated Book!

Ooooh, I got a package in the mail today! Eeep! It's like my birthday all over again. 

Aaaaah! Rip it open, rip it open! 

A...book? When did I order a boo--wait.

Oh, my goooossshhh! Is this what I think it is?

It's the book that my friend wrote through NaNoWriMo!

With my illustrations in there!

Oh, wow.

Biting my lip. She's so sweet!

She put my favorite ones in--I originally made 8, and there are 5 printed.

Aw, my favorite scene.

There's the back!

Wow, too exciting! Eeep!