Mint Chocolate Chip Meringues

I remember making these with my mom a few times for something or other. They are light and delicious!


You'll need:
3 egg whites
1/2tsp cream of tarter
pinch of salt
3/4C sugar
4 drops each of green food coloring and mint extract
1 (6oz) package mini chocolate chips

You'll need to plan ahead for these. You have to leave them in an unopened oven for 8-12 hours. It's best to whip these up right before bed so they're ready when you get up in the morning. They're a wonderful breakfast. That's ok, right?

You're also going to want a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Mom and I used a hand mixer but you have to stand there forever. With a stand mixer you can do something else while you're whipping!

Preheat oven to 375. Grease and lightly flour 2 large cookie sheets(I use Baker's Ease). Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar, 2 tsp at a time and beat until soft peaks form. Add in food coloring and mint extract. Gently fold in chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls 1 inch apart onto pans. Place in preheated oven then turn off oven and let stand in closed oven for 8-12 hours.

They're addictive but I think they have to be better to get my sugar fix than brownies. Right?

Oreo Cookies Cheesecake

I got this out of a Southern Living chocolate recipe book. I had to give it a try. I'm not a huge lover of cheesecake but The Guy is. But I do love oreos so this seemed like a good idea.

Go ahead and get a bag of regular oreos. You'll use pretty much all of them. Dump 2 1/2 rows in a very large bag and take out your aggression against THE MAN with something heavy. I used a play hammer trying to let the kids participate. When that didn't go as planned I busted out the rolling pin and went to town. It was very cathartic.
On to the rest of the ingredients:
Crust
2C of crushed oreos
2tbsp butter, melted
1/4C packed brown sugar
Filling
4 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4C sugar
1/3C whipping cream
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2C oreo crumbs
Topping
1 (16oz) container sour cream
1/4C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ganache
1/3C whipping cream
1 1/4C semisweet chocolate morsels
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl; firmly press mixture into bottom and up sides of a 10 inch springform pan. Bake at 325 for 12 minutes. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Do not eat this with a spoon. You're going to need it. Add whipping cream, flour, and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Pour 3 1/2 cups of the batter into prepared crust. Top with the 2 cups of cookies. Pour in remaining batter. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Combine topping list and spread over cheesecake. Bake at 325 for 7 minutes. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in the oven with door closed for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill for 8 hours(or overnight).

Take out of fridge and remove sides of pan. YUM!


Combine cream and morsels in a saucepan; Stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in vanilla. Remove from heat. Carefully spread mixture over cheesecake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Ohhhhh yeaaahhhhhhh


You can garnish with more oreos but I didn't even try that. The ganache on top made this for me. I'm not sure why, probably because ganache is a gift from heaven and I love love love it.

Let me know if you try this!

Use me!

Since I have had my computer back(the whole 5 hours in been back in my arms) I've been exploring some sites I had written down to check out. Which lead to more sites to check out. Most of these have been blogs. They're all blogs that have been nominated for a blogger award from nickjr.

Something many of these sites have in common? They review products on their blog. They get sent something for free and the do a review with witty comments and pictures and such as. ME! Pick me! I want to do that. I think I could.

So, advertisers, or whoever is in charge of these things, I know you're reading my blog. Who doesn't? Send me some stuff to review. It can be kid, pet, cooking, household, whatever you want related.

Ok, thanks!

My mac is back!

My computer is back! It's been at the Apple store since Monday and I haven't been able to get on it since Sat. when the power ran out. The power cord broke off in the power port. And when I took the part that broke off out, it took a part of the inside with it. Boooooo. And THEN, crazy Apple had their new iphone launch and couldn't be bothered with calling me to let me know it was done or fix it if it wasn't ready. They were too busy. You know, b/c it's the IPHONE LAUNCH! I think I'll write a nasty letter.

Anyway, life has been insane. Brock seems to be teething. Riley is THREE. Three is kicking my ass. Seriously. The Guy is working non stop in his new position so we see each other for 2 minutes and 15 seconds when he leaves for work and then about 30 minutes of eating and tv watching when he gets home...right before I pass out.

We did manage a date for our anniversary and it was great. Dinner and a movie. And the kids did great with Lauren, our new babysitter. I'm hoping we can start dating again, once or twice a month. How awesome would that be?

Trouble is really really fat. He's so fat that he can't clean his own butt. He's using the floor for that. BARF. I am systematically cleaning our carpets. I'm not particularly sure what to do about all of this. Any suggestions are welcome, except for The Guy's suggestion of tossing him over our back fence into the woods and letting him live out his life as he was meant to. That's a no go. And kids love him so much I want him around for much longer.

Oh yea, and it's hot here. HOT HOT HOT. Painful to breathe hot. Send plane tickets to somewhere cool, please.

Riley cuteness

Having a three year old can be trying at times. To take my mind off of the defiant demon child that has taken over my son these days, I'll post some recent cuteness.

A boy and his cat.


He's so awesome at potty training(NOT) he's got to wear shades.


Watching a little tv on his pedestal.


Enjoying his sick tent. This was during his second bout with the flu this year.

Beans!

I have some amazing Mommy friends who are super smart. They told me about sensory buckets. You fill containers with all kinds of stuff and the kids play with it. I have one with pasta, one with beans, and one with rice for each boy. So far we've only played with pasta and beans since they make a big enough mess as it is. I'm scared of the clean up after we play with rice!

They both love scooping and filling and transferring from bowl to bowl. Brock especially loves to dump all his beans out, sit down in them, and kick and push the beans all. over. the. place. I usually just go a little berserk and clean all that up instead of taking a picture of it.

Here's a picture of each boy playing with his beans. It buys me about 10 minutes of quiet before I have to intervene. Perfect time to get the dishes unloaded!

Notice he only has on one slipper. We can't find the other one but he still wants to wear the one.



Here's a link for you that has a ton of sensory bucket ideas.

Easter

I decided to let the boys dye Easter eggs. It was not a good choice.


The amount of scrubbing I had to do to get the color off of them was painful. For all of us.


Brock turned a whole 'nother color.

We headed over to Meridian for church and lunch and an egg hunt.

Flowering the cross.


The flowers did not survive to make it to the cross.


The boys did very well in the nursery and then in church.


Overload of the egg hunt and BeBe's house.






Riley did really well finding eggs.


Brock didn't want to find so much as open them.


They had a great time and it was a fun Easter!

Out back

We're spending more and more time outside these days since the weather is nice. This is a combo of a few times of playing outside. There will be mud. There is always mud.

Dirt is fun! Riley is much less likely to get muddy than Brock is. He doesn't like to have dirty hands.


Look at that path of destruction.


Here's the mud. This is among my very favorite pictures of Brock. It's just so Brock.


Riley will occasionally get nasty--but usually only his bottom half.


More dirty Brock.


Re-purposed train table. They love this thing.


Cute kid.


Sneaker.


Ok, so now I'm feeling kinda bad that there are so many pictures of Brock and not nearly as many as Riley. But if you know another 3 year old, you know that they careen between loving and hating you; running around laughing to sobbing over a perceived slight; being a ham and running away from the camera.....I'm going to try to console myself with that and not feel too much mommy guilt over Brock being heavily featured here.

So. More Brock.
I wanna be like Daddy!


I had taken some piece of dog mangled toy and thrown it over the fence. Brock decided to try that with all the toys.


He doesn't have a good arm yet so all the toys stayed in the yard.

Making treats

My talented friend, Dana, made Riley and I some aprons.
Me


Riley


Before we got these, Riley would put a shopping bag around his neck and declare himself "Chef" from Curious George. (Oh, cloth shopping bag, not plastic. We only let the boys play with the plastic ones if they've been especially bad.) (Stop gasping, I'm only kidding. Promise.)

We had to make Daddy a treat.


Riley is a wonderful helper when he's not stirring the batter straight out of the bowl.

I made some sugar cookies a while back for the boys. I think it was on Riley's actual birthday so he'd have something special that day since cake day wasn't for a few more days.
Riley approved.


Look how dainty Brock looks with his cookie!

Apologies

Between sickness(it's made the rounds of everyone) and traveling and life, I've been a horrible blogger. Again.
My bad.
Once the kids go to bed for the night, I will try to get a new post or two up. I promise to include pictures.

For now I will share with you what I just witnessed on my living room floor. There was much chasing and laughing and then Riley tackled Brock. Brock laughed. This resulted in much rolling and pushing along the floor with some sitting on and pulling thrown in. Brock just laughed and laughed. I am sure that this is the beginning of the wrestling death matches that will take place in just a few short years. I can only hope that the boys are evenly matched and there is still lots of laughter. Don't dash my dreams. Thank you.