Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Oh my god, oh my god oh my GOD!!!!


Yesterday was MY day man. I mean really really my day. Beautiful 32 I think I'm going to really like you. For 1, my friend Sid came over and watched the girls while I ran off to the DMV of all places. I was in and out of there, the bank and the grocery within 1 hour though. I know....amazing right! I also have one of ( says vain me) one of the best drivers liscence photos ever on the face of the planet. Asia watched the girls all night and get ready for it....the best part of the whole night, my husband.......is a full fledged SUSHI convert! OH YES!!!!!!! He's already waiting, plotting even for the next time we can get it. I so meant to get a picture but I felt like kind of an ass clicking away in this nice resturant we went to. Plus I was too excited at the prospect of having my first expertly rolled sushi in 6 YEARS to remember I even had a camera on me. Though having no photographic evidence of the glutony that insued is kinda a good thing. Anyways heres a picture I stole from someone else.

The rest of the night was almost as fantastic as sharing my love of food with my loving husband.

Tomorrow is New years eve, the begining of 2010 and my big sisters Bday. Sout out to Shawn Hayes aka: Nawny! Love you lady and wish you a bright and beautiful year!
It also has me thinking of course....about cooking, what to make for my little family to ring in the new year????
Its to bad pop rocks wouldn't hold up in cupcakes....or frosting. How much would that kick ass, pop rock cupcakes for new years! What I have on hand though is strawberries and for those of you not in the know I am a strawberry cake fanatic. I used to have my dad bake it for my bdays, well that and fried rice. YUM. So I think tomorrow I'll make strawberry cake. Okay the important question is outta the way so that just leaves dinner......I want something that my little family loves and that reminds me of my BIG Family that is easy delish and won't cause any dinner time melt downs at the kiddy table of my life....
The boat may be gone but the memories are loud and clear,
dun dun DUN!!!!
Pork medalions ala wingsong.
salad
and.....
I'll figure something out I'm sure.
I also think I should make evryone some nifty cardboard crowns,
I let the girls make Sean one so he has to wear it. heheheh yes I am that bad but its sooooo good for him!!
Besides there more cardboard from xmas that needs to be used up.
Anyways....heres to you, Hope your having fun and being as beautiful as I know you are. Happy New years people!!!! Happy birthday Shawn na na!
Love big mama whalen

Monday, December 28, 2009

xmas oh my.

Alright Christmas, you kicked my ass!






I spent weeks on these for the ladies down at Darwin's. I'm just glad I got them done. Whew. So is Sean, I don't think anyone has ever been as glad as he was to see beads get put away. Then my wonderful sister sent me a box full of bead and shells for my bday. I um.....accidently opened them on xmas though. I promptly started beading agin inbetween cooking the cakes and the ham and then I took one look at his face and decided to wait until later this week.

Our Christmas eve was kinda shakey emotionally so I decided to course out my bad vibes by making him some Dolmas which he loves! They are divine. Maybe I'll do a dolmas tutorial later on.

the Ginger bread advent calender from laura's family. The girls absolutely adore it.

Cookies for Santa of course. Maybe their why mama didn't lose any weight this week huh?

In my family we always opened up 1 gift on Christmas eve, I carry that tradition on. Sharel suprised us by making these beautiful dolls for the girls. They LOVED them. They took them to bed with them and still had their hands on them when they woke up xmas morning. So super cute.

After I wrapped everything. WOW

Denali's Barbie glamor camper. She squeeled upon opening it and LOVES it sosoooo much!

Boo Boo proudly handing Sean the gift she picked out fro him from all of them. The most elmer fud hat you've ever seen. I love it. The sight of him wearing it is hilarious and wonderful. Good job Boo!

Elsie's fairy mermaid. I had to sew wings on the mermaid doll I found because I could not find a fairy mermaid anywhere for the life of me, but its what she wanted and its what she got. I think its laying in a corner somewhere. Go figure.

Boo's magic Ariel from Auntie Shawn.

Custom hats from Auntie Julia.

Little budding artist and her paint set.
I should post some photos of her drawings because they really are incredible.

Ah, what would my blog be without another picture of food. So heres my ham. It was to die for! The girls', Sean, Big Sid and I scarffed it.

So, thats that. Today is the day before my 32 bday. Amazing. I will be going to work tonight and then tomorrow the beautiful Asia and Juniper are coming over to babysit so Sean and I can go out. We don't really have any money after this month but we do have 2 free movie tickets! Beside fun with your husband is free right! Love Love love you all.
Sarah

Monday, December 21, 2009

The week in pictures.


As I may or may not have said. Last weekend the girls were alittle sick. Well, we decided to go to Seward to our beloved Sea Life Center. In the winter time the place is great because you normally have the whole thing to yourselves. This time was alittle different. There was another little bunch of 3 girls all about the same ages as ours. They had so much fun running around and looking at everything together.

Woody the Stellar sea lions girlfriend

The girlfriend sat and stared at Elsie for a LONG time.

As You all know (probably) I have been obsessed with thepioneerwomancooks
lately. If she has a recipe that I can adapt using what I've got I'll try it.
So butter rosemary rolls

Heeres that beast of a turkey I cooked. For some reason I didn't get the cooked picture. Probably because we were all to buisy devoring it!

Leftover turkey pot pie. Pre cook

after

Okay...imagine if they were wearing monkey costumes.

This was breakfast yesterday. I don't know why I put pics of food on here, except that its my blog and I love food, so bear with me.
Homemade hashbrowns, as we used to call them, dad's grey browns. They get grey in the cast iron pan.
Anyways its covered in onions, green chiles and a bit of diced ham. Then you put chees on it, cook up a egg anyway you like it and plop it on there and drizzle with salsa. Had we had any sour cream you can bet that would have been on there too!
So there, thats our week. This week is xmas. I wish we could be with more family but I am damn grateful for this little life. Love love love
MamaWhalen

Friday, December 18, 2009

anyone....bueller, bueller.......bueller?

Anyone out there reading this? What should I cook tomorrow? Saturday 12/19/09. Is there something you have always wanted to cook? Tres leches cake is mine. Ever since I heard about it I have been dying to cook it. Anyays send me ideas, even if its past saturday send me ideas of something to cook. If I cook one of the ideas ( More like if anyone even reads this) I'll post a picture of whatever I chose. If no one replies well, I'll come up with something and maybe I'll post that.

Enjoy a picture of tres leches cake, and look it up and tell me if it doesn't make your knees buckle!

makes me happy

For the last few days the girls have been sick sick sick, and no, thats not the makes me happy part. They have been puking and emotional and its been full of laundry and cleaning ( not my strong suit). So this is the time I decided to try to brine and cook a 17 # turkey. I have been obsessed with the pioneer woman cooks lately and I was looking up things on the computer for brining a turkey, I didn't even know if I had a stock pot big enough to brine said 17# turkey or where I would put it in my fridge. I was skeptical as well. Anyways I came up with my own brine. I heated up 2 cp of water and mixed in 1 1/2 cp salt, alittle sugar, lemon, garlic and some apple cider vinegar, I let that boil and then let it cool and added more water. The I washed the turkey pulled out the stuff....you know the stuff  and then lowered into the salty mix. Placed a lid on it and put it in my fridge. I didn't touch it again for about 24 hrs. I then preheated my oven to 275 and cooked the bird for 3 hrs tightly seeled up with foil so nothing would escape. ( I realize this is a different font but somehow I couldn't find my way back to the original font) well I'll just keep changing it til I get my font back. Anyways, 3 hrs @ 275. When this is done take out the bird and baste it with about 1/2 cp of butter stick in a meat thermomater and stick the sucker back in the oven @ 375 basting with more butter every 30 min until it reads about 170-175. it is one of the most beautiful things I've seen. A perfectly cooked turkey with crispy skin and moist meat. Amazing. Meanwhile as I write this my 3 kids are running amuck sticking toys all over the house where they don't belong and pelting me with stuffed animals. Hmmmm, but I'll tell you they devored that turkey much like little animals themselves. They are finally starting to get better which is nice. I can't stand to see them in pain, it brings out more patience in me than I ever knew I had. Now we are all laughing again and I am getting ready to make a turkey pot pie but with bacon, potatoes and leeks and cream. Things have been particularly stressful this season. We got hit with a med bill that got sent to credit while we were waiting on all the info from Sean's health insurance company. At the holidays thats $500 out the door. The girls have been all sick sick sick, the beautiful cards I ordered the day after thanksgiving never came and so this yr there will be no cards, and last but not least we won't have the money to send my family anything for xmas. I now they'll understand but damn.....sucks! Oh wait last but not least...the christmas tree is on this day 12/18/09 darn near dead. It stopped taking up water and I've tried everything I can think of to renourish it but to no avail, its dried from the middle up. We are leaving it up and I haave promised Sean I won't be grumpy about it because as he says " the girls don't know its dying" they don't kow the difference so I just have to try to keep them from running into it and making ALL the needle fall off. Sigh.....so Merry @$&Xing Christmas, atleast my bills are paid, my family is happy and for know we are well fed because today I am going to forget about all the things that didn't go right and I am going to go cook and be happy. Lotsa love to you all, I hope your days are bright and beautiful and that you shine through any shadows that maybe in your way.

To close, a picture of Sandia's teddy with Santa because non of the girls would go near him. hahah oh and at the end of the day that turkey was basted with a whole cup of butter, and what isn't going to be good with 1 cup of butter slathered on it? Enjoy.
Mama Sarah

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

.......and the horse you rode in on!

Wow. I have been in the biggest kodak war over my $60 cards I odered the day after thanksgiving that still aren't here yet. They have been giving me the run around big time. I think at this point I just need a refund because it will be to late to get the cards out anyways. I was also veiwing our bank account and realized that GCI overbilled us almost $200! Not what I need on the holidays. I call them up and they say well its credited to your account, no no no, I need it back because did you forget this is christmas? Well that can take up to 7 days. Isn't it amazing people or companies can just lock up your money basically anytime they want. Work has been slow, The girls are sick and I am as usual pulling my hair out in the midst of the holiday joy. I want to scream.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Insurance companies are a bitch


It was a bad bad phone conversastion that I may or may not go into later. Up until that conversation, winter here had been moving along amazingly well. I was making ginger bread men, my husband was stuck in a couple day long period of complete adoration for me and all the kids were healthy.....xmas seanon was looking damn fine. Then I got the call this afternoon from a collections agencies about a med bill that we were in the process of contesting with our insurance company. Now if we don't pay the whole thing off by the end, of the month its going " down on our permant record" Oh yeah. The collections company called Sean before they did me.....woops. So somtime after lunch I got the completely enraged Sean call. I tend to deal with these things in a much more mellow way though and after my intial panic I realize we'll survive and I keep on taking steps. So I kept making cookies, ginger bread men with coffee frosting ( pics later) and then I threw myself into making spicy Italian meatballs covered in homemade marinara which is currently sizzling in the oven and smelling so good. Sandia was complaining about her head hurting and I realized that out of nowhere she had a 101.8 degree temp. Oh what one phone call can do, I will of course keep blaming anything that goes wrong with our week/end on that call cause we were headed to a beautiful place family tempermantly speaking. oh whatever, I'll try to come back and post photos later. Wish us luck dealing with the medical mess Sean's insurance company has created for us. Love and hugs everyone.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

thanksgiving, winter and beyond!


First of all, thanksgiving! Wow. I managed to not take a single picture once all the final cooking was done. Not a poic of our guests, our table or our fat bellies afterward. But here are plenty of pics of the pre cooked fun.

Apple pear pie

Pumpkin made from my own puree and pecan ( my fav)

Homemade cranberry sauce still steaming

the green beans and red pepper that would later be cooked with bacon and garlic. Yum

The prime rib roast. I made ( thanks to my dad) a garlic rosemary salt rub, and this year I added alittle red chile because I can't get enough. I have to say......double fantastically yummers.

The spuds ready to go in the oven. I purchased 3 or 4 packs of butter especially just for this dinner. Ha!

The old style sweet potatoes with the marsh on top.

This is the next day. We were finally almost done digesting from the night before and decided to go out and have some fun. Boo likes to help daddy.

They were attempting to eat my snow fort.

She thinks she's real funny

Our snow man

snow angels

that snow man spontaniously spawned another smaller version of itself. Kinda creepy

Ah Brother and sister, sledding and talking of something very serious I'm sure


Denali blue eye

Cousin Sara. The girls had a blast out sledding with their cousin Sara. We couldn't have asked for a better time unless there was hot cocoa and a flask involved.

Daddy got his work out. I can still hear Elsie yelling "AGAIN"

Then we got our xmas tree. We had to be patient and wait for Denali to get homw to decorate it.

After we did there was of course much dancing.

and hugging, this is a before the decorating tree shot but whatever you get the point.

Our little tree with my mostly handmade decorations. Looking at this I realize I have much more work to do making more.

Our stockings. Yay. Let the madness begin. This is such a crazy holiday. I was getting relly bitter about it before the kids came along and now I am happily back in the christmas spirit of love and insanity. My only wish Is that we could be closer to my side of the family. I miss you all so much. Love and hugs.