Waiting...

We've now been waiting 60 days for our LOA or RA as some would call it. We are praying we will hear something next month.

Tasty Tuesday

CHICKEN RIGGIES

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter or margarine
1/2 pint heavy cream
2 cups chicken broth
2 to 3 red and/or green bell peppers, cut into strips
1 to 2 medium onions, diced
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil (as needed)
3/4 cups plain tomato sauce (I use one LARGE can of Hunts sauce)
Hot Cherry peppers (to taste)
1 cup GOOD grated cheese
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup GOOD white wine
2 pounds rigatoni, uncooked

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: In a large pan, melt butter and saute peppers and onions until soft and onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook about 1 minute more. Remove and put aside.

Step 2: Put chicken in pan and cook until lightly brown. You may have to add some olive oil, as there may not be enough butter. Add peppers and all other ingredients (except macaroni) and simmer about 1 hour.

Step 3: Cook rigatoni according to package directions.

Step 4: Pour chicken mixture over cooked pasta and toss.

Happy Birthday Dash!

Happy 11th Birthday to our Dash! What a handsome, sweet young man you are becoming. Keep up the great job at school, we are so proud of you!

Pneumonia

Took Spitfire into the doctor yet again yesterday and he sent us for a chest x-ray. Her lungs sounded fine but he said sometimes it is hard to hear pneumonia in children. Better safe than sorry. Sure enough, he was spot on! I'm glad we didn't wait the weekend to see how she did. She will have to go back in 6 wks for a re-check as the area where the pneumonia is tends to come back.

Thank you for your prayers!

Fall Sports End

Jewel had her last field hockey game last week. Unfortunately her team lost all of their games. They had a very new team with only three girls returning from last year. Most of the girls were not motivated to move and Jewel became very frustrated with her team. She worked very hard and scored two of the three goals of the season. That is right, their team only scored three goals the whole season.

She has been asked by the JV coach to play summer ball and to talk to the varsity coach (her math teacher) about the details. The JV coach told Taylor that she like her "game". Jewel had wished she tried out for JV but I do think this year allowed for her to grow and gave her a lot of playing time. Something she may not have had on the JV team this year. She has turned into a great field hockey player.

Spitfire will be done with soccer next weekend. Last weekend she scored her first two goals of the season! We were so excited. She has really grown this soccer season. Unfortunately she will not be able to play in her game this Saturday as she is actually doing worse. Her fever is getting higher not lower and her cough is non-stop. We are going into the doctor AGAIN today. PTL, no one else seems to be sick in the family.

Sick Kiddo's

I know I've been around much these days but half of my crew has been sick. They all went to school on Monday but Spitfire came home from school that afternoon and you could just tell she did not feel well. One look at her eyes and I knew she was running a fever. Sure enough she was 102.2 and all she wanted to do was go to bed. Jewel complained her throat was hurting and she ran a temp of 100.5.

Our schools have been hit HARD with H1N1, strep and the stomach bug. The school nurses office should have had a revolving door from what I heard. The student parking lot at the high school looked like it does after school with just a few stray cars. Jewel is back at school today and Spitfire is still out and probably will be tomorrow as well. She is still running a fever.

She was just sick a couple of weeks ago with fevers as well as was Twink. Many of you know how nervous we become when Twink has a fever. We were very blessed the last time as she did not have an seizures with her high temps. Normally that would have sent her into one. It seems the medication is working. We are praying that this flu season is easy on her little body and the rest of the children. No more sickness!

Hope the rest of you are staying healthy!

Tasty Tuesday

Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bundt pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-oz can; not pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For glaze:

2 T butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1-3 T cream or milk

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour bundt pan.

Step 2: Combine together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla in another bowl.

Step 3: Beat butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Step 4: Spoon batter into pan. Shake a few times to be sure to remove any bumps then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then turn cake over and let cake cool on rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Step 5: To make glaze, heat butter until melted. Stir in sifted powdered sugar. Mix in cream or milk 1 Tablespoon at a time until desired consistency. Drizzle over cake while it is on a wire rack so excess falls through.

Side note - Cream Cheese Frosting is a great choice as well!