Alexa's pretty pink dress

Alexa saw me with the camera and wanted her picture taken, so of course I complied - her eyes are even open, and what a goofy smile.

Pear Custard Pie

So I made a Pear Custard Pie today and it was so pretty I took a picture. It was really easy too - here's the recipe.

1/4 C butter melted

3 ripe but firm Comice or Bartlett pears, peeled, halved and cored

1/3 C granulated sugar

1/3 C all purpose flour

2 t vanilla

3 large eggs

3/4 C milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for dusting

Preaheat the oven to 350 F, butter a 9" pie dish. Slice the pears 1/4" thick lengthwise and arrange overlapping slightly in dish. I a blender process the melted butter, granulated sugar, flour, vanilla, eggs, milk and salt until smooth. (I recommend pouring the butter in last because mine cooled and coagulated on the side of the blender when I put it in before the eggs and milk) Pour the batter over the pears and bake 40-45 minutes until golden and firm to the touch. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioner's sugar. I hadn't done the sugar yet when I took the picture. Also it collapses a bit as it cools, but it is still very pretty and yummy.

A fun Saturday

Alexa is very excited to be drinking out of a glass, she doesn't seem to mind that it is currently empty, maybe she is showing off?

It was a beautiful sunny day today so Alexa and Daddy went outside to play. They went to the park until Alexa's hands got too cold to play anymore.

I am in a cooking mood lately so we had curried carrot soup for supper, this went over big with vegetable girl. I made these molten chocolate cakes for dessert that I have seen offered at various fancy restaurants - and I have to say they were the the chocolatiest thing I have ever eaten. To give you an idea, the recipe calls for 1/3 C sugar, 1/3 C flour, 3 eggs and 8 oz of bittersweet chocolate. This makes four muffin tin size "cakes" This just about puts you through the roof. I don't think I love chocolate quite that much - but for you chocolate fiends it would be just what the doctor ordered!

The vegetable kid

Alexa has the strangest food preferences. Last night we had a black bean casserole dish and I had chopped green onions to put on top. Alexa loved them - here she is eating the remainder of the onion topping. She loves peas, corn, carrots and other vegetables, but when I gave her a bite of chocolate cake the other day she spit it out in disgust. When we go to Baja Fresh she eats the pico de gallo with a spoon. I am not complaining about this - I am glad she likes veggies, it is just a bit unusual.
Another note of explanation. I have added a couple of websites to my list of favorites. One is called Uncommon Goods and is just a fun site to look at - they have all sort of dishes, art, games - just fun stuff, most of which is a little pricy, but neat to look at. I am also adding Penzey's Spices, they sell a lot of really good stuff for those of you who like to cook and eat like me!! I love their double strength vanilla because I love vanilla as a flavor and most extract doesn't give a good enough vanilla taste for me. The other one I am adding is the Think Geek website. I think this is a company run by a bunch of well - geeks, and other geeks like me think they have fun stuff.

Nerd News

I know this may not excite many of you but I just found the cooolest thing. MIT offers something called open coursework. They have put most of their courses online and they are free to anyone who is interested. Of course you are not actually enrolled, nor do you get credit, but I think this is really awesome. The website is http://ocw.mit.edu

A grumpy mommy day

No new pictures today. Had a bit of a challenging day Thursday. Alexa was having one of those days where she was into everything. Pulling mommy's books off the bookshelf, turning the lights on and off, getting too close to the stove, pulling things out of the cupboard, dumping things in the toilet and splashing the water out of the toilet, getting on top of the table, culminating in an incident of leaky diarrhea that got all over her bed, her floor, her body, and her changing table. I managed not to vomit or cry, but it was a close thing there for a while. I just woke up from a dream that she had another leaky poop in a toy store and I didn't have any diapers or wipes. A new mommy nightmare. By the way, if anyone is reading this blog, you can comment on specific posts by clicking on the little comments option at the bottom of each post. Usually it reads 0 comments.

David's birthday dinner

Here we have David and Alexa ready to dig in to the birthday pancakes. Unfortunately Alexa will not eat pancakes, even when we tried to cover it up with applesauce she refused to take even one bite. Stubborn girl.