Ice! exhibit in DC

We had plans with Ros to visit National Harbor. It is a newish area with lots of shops including a Peeps! store. This is where they moved the Awakening statue. It was so freezing cold with a biting wind. The original intention had been to iceskate but we couldn't be outside for more than a few minutes. Zoe refused to wear any kind of hat. We will go back when it is not so frigid.

Our main destination was the Gaylord Convention Center with its decorations and inside snowfall and the Ice! Exhibit. The kids really enjoyed this. I would have enjoyed it more if Zoe wasn't so insistent on wandering and running everywhere. It took 3 grown ups and 2 oldish kids to take turns keeping an eye on her. I may break down and buy a leash for this one.

We were jokingly calling it an icecube exhibit (do you think they will have both round AND square cubes??) but it was really neat. Lots to see including a gorgeous angel and nativity scene. The kids' favorite were the iceslides. Max went down several times and even Zoe took a turn.

Afterwards we went drove to the DC waterfront area to Jenny's restaurant for chinese food. This is always a safe bet and they did not disappoint. Even Max and Zoe will eat chinese food- who knew? I tried the Kung Pao tofu and it was pretty darn good.

Lots of fun! A good day spent with some of my favorite people.

Word of the Year- Active

So.. a few folks have asked me what my word of the year is. I've been thinking on it. I want something that inspires me, I want something that motivates me. I want to get going on my many projects. I want to be healthier, I want to lose 15 pounds. I want to walk a 50 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail this year. I want to be organized, I want to be involved with my kids and their schools.

So.. I've been tossing it around and I'm going to pick ACTIVE.

from thesaurus.com (I'm combining two entries from there)
Main Entry: active
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: having movement
Synonyms: agile, alert, alive, animated, astir, at work, bold, brisk, bustling, busy, chipper, daring, dashing, determined, diligent, dynamic, eager, effective, efficacious, energetic, engaged, enlivened, enterprising, enthusiastic, eventful, exertive, fireball, flowing, forceful, fresh, frisky, functioning, going, hard-working, high-spirited, impelling, industrious, in force, in play, in process, inventive, keen, lively, mobile, movable, moving, nimble, on the move, operating, operative, perky, persevering, progressive, purposeful, pushing, quick, rapid, ready, resolute, rolling, running, sharp, simmering, speeding, speedy, sprightly, spry, streaming, swarming, traveling, turning, walking, whiz, working, zealous

Don't I want to be that person?

Here is my pep talk in my head:
Get moving!
Get going!
Go do something good today!

Does anyone else find it ironic that it took me a few days to do this?

peace!
emily

Here's a Tip for Husbands

If your wife really doesn't like to cook so much and has just spent the last 5 hours making a 'from scratch' soup including cooking dry beans, roasting garlic, pureeing in the blender and dirtying pretty much every pan in the house DO NOT walk in an immediately say "What's this goo?"

Just sayin

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms

I thought it might be kind of fun to cook our way through the What's Cooking in Sister's cookbook that Margaret Richins had given me a long time ago. It has some funny recipes (How to Catch A Cowboy, page 98) and some old classics I already know (Strawberry Pretzel Salad page 31). Some of the recipes have funny comments (in a vegetable soup recipe the instructions include "to make this recipe low fat, add less bacon)

We started last night with the first recipe on the first page. One thing you will find about me is I never follow a recipe exactly. I either don't have all the ingredients or I think I can improve it somehow. I'll put the correct recipe first and then my variations to follow.

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms (Funghi Imbotitti) by Steve Prince
6tsp butter or margarine
1/2 C unseasoned bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 tsp onion, finely chopped
2 tsp. parsley, finely chopped
4 tsp parmesan cheese, grated
olive oil
24 fresh mushroom caps

Melt butter in pan. Add bread crumbs and garlic and mix. Transfer to a bowl. Add onion, parsley and cheese; mix. Fill mushroom caps.

Lightly oil bottom of a glass casserole dish. Put in filled mushroom caps. Bake in preheated 325 oven approx. 30 minutes. IF you have put too much oil in dish and they are oily place on paper towel before serving. Will serve 6 people 4 caps apiece.

Buon appetito!

(Emily's variations- I used Pam instead of olive oil and left out the parsley. I didn't do the transfer to a bowl and ended up with maybe 30 mushrooms since some were real small)

We thought this was pretty good! We served them at the New Year's Eve gathering at Brooks house last night. I do have a photo but my card reader isn't working right now so I'll post it later

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread by Jackie Gerland
page 57 What's Cooking In Sisters cookbook

I'm not even going to post the real recipe. It was not a hit for me. It is a yeast bread and involves letting it rise twice. The dough was so sticky I couldn't roll it in sugar so kind of put little parts in the pan and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on it. Results were not nearly sugary enough.

This is the tried and true recipe I've had a zillion times that is so much easier (compliments of the good folks over at Pillsbury)

2 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2c sugar
1t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
3/4 c butter or margarine, melted
1/2 c chopped walnuts and/or raisins if desired

Heat oven to 350. Lightly grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. In large plastic bag mix white sugar and cinnamon. Cut biscuits into quarters, place in bag and shake to coat. Arrange in pan adding raisins and walnuts among biscuit pieces. In small bown, mix brown sugar and butter, pour over all. Bake 28- 32 mintues until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes, turn upside down onto serving plate. Pull apart to serve; serve warm.

Spontaneous House Remodel

In September we came home from church to find a pipe had broken in the upstairs shower and our living room ceiling had fallen to the floor with water pouring out. We had driven separately so I was not present when Nick walked in on that scene. He may or may not have said a few bad words- first hand accounts vary.

After several hours with a wet-vac we called insurance. They sent a water restoration team immediately within an hour. These photos are after they were done with their part of the process (5 days to dry it out and pack out all our items)and when the contractor first got going.





We spent 6 weeks in a hotel and another 2 at my mom's house. There we got to celebrate Max, Abby and Nick's birthdays as well as Halloween. We still speak fondly of Maria who was the woman in charge of the complimentary breakfast buffet every day and the happy hour appetizers M-Th.







We finally arrived home to piles and piles of boxes to be unpacked and everything covered in dust. We had a little bit of identity crisis as we were unsure quite how to spell our name- variations include Willberb, Wilbert, Wilbury, Wilbub






Our spontaneous renovation included:
new flooring in all bathrooms
new carpet upstairs and down
new drywall main floor and basement


A few extra surprises were:
new roof when we figured out it was rotten in the skylight installation
new wiring throughout (several areas damaged by rodents chewing
new fusebox as it was discovered a plant growth throughout the breaker box

Very few of our items were damaged but we did get a new couch. Note the fashionable 'Belva' placement of our table behind the couch. Nick added a few leaves to make the table larger.





Our basement is still packed with boxes to be opened and I need my father-in-law to come for a week or two to finish up some final touches that were left undone when our contractor ran out of money- mostly plaster and paint touch ups. Replace the broken shower head in the basement. Hang new curtains & rod since the workers thought it would be a good idea to put ours out on the deck for the 6 week process. I have a list.

Final cost (close as I can estimate) is
contractor 27K
water restoration 10K
hotel 2K
new pipes, wiring 5K
damaged household items 2K
grand total of: approx 46K

Insurance covered most of it- I can highly recommend USAA