Caboodle's

We have been so busy lately with all things dance related.  Extra practices, dad's/daughters dance rehearsal's, on stage rehearsal's, gatherings to bling our Studio 4 jackets, makeup lessons and bedazzling costumes galore.  If I never smell the pungent aroma of E6000 glue, it will be too soon. 

This is Avery's first year in competition.  There are many new experiences for her and so far she is really enjoying it.  One of the biggest things that I remember from my dance days was the prep work that goes into getting "stage" ready.  I had a gigantic caboodle that held all of my makeup, hair spray, safety pins and numerous other necessities for competition.  Since we were having our makeup lesson this Saturday, my friend Gretchen(who's daughter Sophia dances with Avery) and I decided to take the girls together to Target to get them their very own Caboodle.

It was so much fun picking them out, buying the makeup that needs to go inside of them along with a few extras that the girls had to have.  The makeup lesson went fabulous and my worries of how my 5 year old would fare wearing false eyelashes were put to rest when she saw her face all made up. 

Today, we stopped at Target to pick up some stuff to decorate Avery's caboodle.  You know, because plain pink just isn't cool enough :)  We got a few packets of scrap booking stickers and Avery went to town.

Bria was very envious, so I grabbed her little princess caboodle and let her go to town on it.  She had so much fun acting just like Avery and dolling up her very own "boodle."

And lets not forget about darling Bennett.  The boy who has grown up surrounded by women.  He comes rushing down the stairs holding his John Deere tool box and exclaims, "Mommy!  I have a boodle too! Can I bedazzle it?"  How can you say no to that?

Artichoke's

Recently, I was introduced to this fabulous vegetable known as the Artichoke. Yes, of course I had heard of an artichoke before. I had even eaten many artichoke hearts in dips or on pizza's. But, I had never ever bought a whole artichoke before until my neighbor Kristi got me turned on to the idea of actually trying to make one. I bought my first set of artichokes from the grocery store and decided to give making them a try. I read the internet for many ideas on how to prepare them, stuff them, dip them and eat them.  Armed with her personal experience and the wealth of information on the internet I gave it a whirl.  What I ended up with was a delicious side dish that my children and I adored.  I think it is great when my kids love something new and to me, the fact that they love an artichoke is even more fabulous!

I have made plenty of artichokes to date and continue to try to find new and exciting ways to eat them.  I make them at least twice a month and the kids devour them every time.  Our favorite way to make them is by stuffing them, boiling them and dipping the petals into drawn butter or olive oil.  I wanted to share my recipe with you in case any of you dare to venture outside of your "side dish box" and give an artichoke a try. 

4 medium artichokes
1 cup of bread crumbs
2-3 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 lemon
Olive Oil for drizzling

Cut off the top inch and the bottom stem of your artichoke.  If your artichoke has pointy petals be careful that they do not prick you.  I use a kitchen shears to cut off the tips of all of the outside petals.  Wash the artichoke inside and out by gently separating the petals. 

Make the stuffing by combining the bread crumbs, garlic and parmesan cheese.  Use a spoon to stuff the artichoke by pulling out a petal and putting the bread crumb mixture inside.  I try to stuff each petal of the artichoke layer by layer. 

Rotate the artichoke around and around as you stuff, being sure to not miss any petals.  I put about a teaspoon full of mix into each petal.

Avery is officially the artichoke Queen in our house.  She loves to help me make them and she is just as enthusiastic about them as I am.

You can see in this picture that towards the center of the artichoke the leaves look more whitish/green.  I generally do not stuff these as you will discard them to get to the choke and then to the best part of all, the heart.

After they are all stuffed, I place them into boiling water on the stove.  I use a 4 quart stock pot with 1/4 cup of water and a lemon wedge.  Make sure that your water does not go higher than the bottom leaves of your artichoke otherwise you will get soggy stuffing...ewww!

I squeeze fresh lemon juice over the tops of each artichoke and drizzle them all over with olive oil. 

Place the top on your pot and reduce the heat to simmer for an hour.  Check your water level occasionally to be sure that there is still some in the pot.  You will know that the artichoke is done when you can put a fork into the bottom layer easily.

I serve the artichokes with drawn garlic butter.  To eat your artichoke, you will pull out a leaf and dip the bottom part of it(the part that was attached to the center)into the butter and then slide your teeth along the leaf essentially scraping off the stuffing and the very tip of the leaf.  There is not a lot of meat on an artichoke and at first it may seem futile.  Trust me, you will get the hang of it and if you are anything like me you will be addicted to them in no time.

After you have eaten all of the hearty leaves, you will get to some of the lighter colored leaves.  They will definitely have no meat and may have a purplish coloring to them.  Grab them as a whole, twist clockwise(this can be messy) and they should simply pull out exposing the hairy center known as the choke.  Use a spoon to scoop the hairy part off and you will now be at the very best part of the whole artichoke which is the heart.  I cut mine into quarters, dip into the butter and devour it. 

Voila!  That is it!  A delicious new side dish for everyone to try.  I know that this recipe may not be for everyone, so google artichokes and  trust me you will be surprised about all of the awesome information out there.  If you do try it, please let me know what you thought about all of it!  Happy stuffing!



Birthday Party Madness!

Yesterday we had the twins' birthday celebration at Edinborough Park in Edina.  Despite the almost 3 inches of snow that fell between 9am and noon and with the threat of up to 20 inches looming over our heads, we decided to forge ahead with the party and leave it up to the attendees as to whether or not they wanted to venture out.  Everyone came.  We were so excited to see all of our friends and  family arrive safely to celebrate with us. 

Edinborough Park's Adventure Peak has to be one of the best places to take kids(Birthday or not).  They have an amazing indoor climbing structure, a gym filled with rolling, moving, scooting things and a huge bounce house.  There is so much to do there that 2 hours goes by in the blink of an eye.

We had a pizza party, cupcakes and then partied on while the kids played the day away.  We all had so much fun, especially the twins who were so tired by the time we left that they napped until 6pm!  We had left over pizza and cupcakes for dinner and the kids opened up all of their gifts.  We had two very excited kids on our hands.

Thank you to everyone who made the trek in the treacherous weather to be there celebrating with us.  We love you all and you made Benny and Breezy's day so special.