Ramekins

I hosted Bunco a couple of months ago and one of the prizes I picked where little souffle ramekins. A few people had never used them before so I got a couple recipes together for them. Thought I would post them here, too.

The first is Molten Lava Cake. I don't have a picture, but that is probably because I am too excited to eat these that I don't take the time to get one. They are so yummy and I make them a lot. The recipe suggests making them in muffin tins which works well if you are serving a larger group of people, but I like to make them in ramekins. They are so much bigger. ;)

I also like Chocolate Souffle and I think this is a good recipe. I have heard that you should brush the butter up the sides to encourage the cake to rise better while baking.


And then here is one that Damon has been begging me to make. Really easy and fast Chicken Pot Pies. I also like it because it eliminates a lot of the crust. I like to save my fat and calories for dessert. If this was a berry pie I would say the more butter the better.

Here is what I do. Cube some potatoes and boil them with mixed veggies. At the same time in another pan I saute onion and seasoned chicken in a little olive oil. When the chicken is done I make a simple gravy and drain the veggies. Then mix everything together and fill the cups. Top with a round of pie crust and bake at 415 until the crust starts turning brown. This is also great for summer because you don't have to have the oven on for very long heating up your kitchen. Damon loves having his own little personal pie.

Also, if you like fabric napkins, like us, you might like this idea. I got an e-mail about them this morning and it came at a perfect time. Tyler had just filled a bag for the D.I. and there were a few shirts in there I'm excited to use.

Have you ever...

Damon certainly has a mind of his own. He is very inventive and is always wanting to make something. We are in the process of building a play house in the back yard, and every day he tells me what new thing he wants to make in his "work shop, that's what I'm going to call my play house." He is also VERY stubborn! The combination of these 2 traits means that he has either made me so mad I don't know what to do next, or I am so happy to just be with him that I want nothing more. Like when he taught me how to write with a stick on leaves. Never mind that we had a notebook and pen within arms reach. He thought it was so much fun to create his own idea. I loved playing along.

Everyday he amazes me. Sometimes by how stubborn he can be, but always by how much I just can't get enough of him.

Update: After reading this over today I thought I should probably say that Damon & I are happy with each other most of the time. He just argues about everything and it drives me crazy, but the other day I found out he doesn't mind it all that much. Here's what happened. I was explaining something to him, which he had to argue about. He would not let it go so I just left the room. He promptly followed me and said, "We were arguing?" Then after a pause he said, "like 'you were saying' only we were arguing, where were we?" I was a little shocked and said I didn't want to talk about it anymore and he said he did. What? He was enjoying the arguing which was making me mad. One thing I always try to remember when a child has a trait that is a little difficult to deal with. As an adult it will probably serve them well. As long as they can learn to appropriately use it. That's part of what growing up is all about. Right?

Brace yourself, it's a long one!

Together with Tyler's family we rented a cabin by the lake for a few days of fun!


Fun at the pool!

While we were there we had a picture scavenger hunt and I couldn't pass up a picture of Gavin in these floaty wings for my "something hot pink."


We had fun riding the lake trail on these multi-passenger bikes.


Here's Brock in my "picture of a flower."


The lake was great, as always!


Andy tried, unsuccesfully, to keep Alivia from eating sand and just ended up knocking her down. It didn't seem to bother her too much.


Here is Tyler's "picture of someone you don't know." Notice his hand tightly clutching a bag of chocolate covered raspberries.


They are amazing and my "picture of something I love (excluding people.)"


Also on our trip we ordered "Famous Raspberry Shakes."


We ate "Famous Raspberry Shakes."


Andy watched us eat "Famous Raspberry Shakes."


The kids bounced.


Ellie gave it her best shot at blowing up an air mattress, with absolutely no luck at all.



As the weekend wrapped up we had to be a little more inventive with our pictures. Like this one which fullfilled the requirement, "picture with a wild animal," and


this one, "something we're afraid of."

I don't think anyone was more creative than Kaleb. The end of our trip happend so suddenly that we never took an official count, but I am pretty sure he won!

It was a little bit hard to say goodbye to the amazing views,

and our cute cabin (especially since there was a missing wedding ring on the loose, which has since been returned to it's rightful owner, whew.)

But, we went straight to the blessing of baby Maddox, which made it a lot easier to do.

We had a great time. Hope everyone else did, too!