The Marshmallow Adventure

It all started like this...
I wanted to make this chocolate bark from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook my mother had given me. It had toasted cashews, crystallized ginger, and dried cherries. Click here for a video of her making it! We ended up making the bark with the toasted cashews, crystallized ginger, and dried cranberries. I used all semisweet chocolate.

Simple enough, right? It was just perfect because I had a ton of stuff to do! It seemed like just the amount of time I had scheduled in for that project. Because you know I have this whole day job thing going on...

We were going to take the bark and put little smore packs (that would be graham crackers and marshmallows...with the chocolate) together for some of our friends and neighbors.


Then we (when I say we...I really mean Jason) thought let's make the graham crackers. Note to all bakers: I'll link the recipe I used, but I had to modify it a little. The dough seemed really dry. I added more milk.

Then we thought let's make the marshmallows too...why the hell not?. At this point I was in knee-deep anyway.

Long story short (not really at this point, huh?)...Here is our adventure!

 The finished product.

Yep, it says, "Smore Great Memories"

I'm pretty sure having a kid has turned me into a really cheesy person...and maybe I like it! 

Oh the glorious sugar. I don't if you know this, but that is what marshmallow are made of...

Aren't they stinkn' cute!

Sigh! I used the last of my imported vanilla.

Looks like mama will be making a trip to Mexico...

So right...we ate a few too.

They toasted nicely!

(Sorry for the lack of a better picture. Eating smores with a toddler makes your hands a little busy.)

I think I'll begin with the snow...

While I have much to blog about, I'll begin with the snow...

Look at this happy face.

He was shaking excited to be in the SNOW!

Snow tracks

Mostly Lil' J's, some Lushie the dog's

I'm pretty sure they were working on a snowman...

that didn't last long.

At two you tend to move to something else quickly.

I would like to say this picture was after his snow angel, but it wasn't.

He fell and then rolled a little.

Yep, you are seeing this picture correctly!

This is my dear husband attacking our young son

with a snowball.

Then the innocent photographer got attacked too. Ruthless.

We headed to our local park.

Lil' J learned this month to go down the BIG slide all by himself.

He wanted to do it despite the snow on our lovely snow day.

I swear I didn't push him!

He sat down to go down the slide, and oops hit a patch of ice!

If you enlarge the photo, all you see is his feet...and me laughing my butt off.

The aftermath...

Happy Holidays

2009

Working Hard

I have to say the whole family has been hard at work. I have become a complete kitchen freak-cooking, baking, and such. I took a few days off work, and have been in the kitchen ever since. I'll post some of my creations later. In the kitchen, I'm somewhere in between Julia Child and Amelia Bedelia. Despite the process, the food is real good (this is why we have to exercise so much!).

Lil' J has also been hard at work.

Picture Notes:

In hand- real hammer

On head- vintage big bird hat (it was Uncle Keith's)

On face: big smile

Sadly, after this picture:

On face- knot on the head from the hammer

That didn't stop him...

Put the paci in, and kept hammerin'

After this man to man moment, Jason seemed really happy.

Then he had to come in the kitchen to do the dishes.

My husband is such a good man!

...and easy on the eyes!

Party like a Rock Star!

We had nearly 40 people at our tiny house for Lil' J's birthday party. The big 2!

I was such a great time. Lil' J was so happy to see all his very close friends and family.

Thanks for those that came to celebrate with our big guy!

Jason made this cake.

While his previous experience has mostly consisted of erotic, um, funny Bachelorette party cakes, he was the really proud of this one...as was the birthday boy.

Btw, The other cakes are quite good, too. I'm willing to send photos by e-mail, but let's keep this blog clean.

Lil' J had no issues with one candle. The other one was a collaborative effort.

While Jason was working on the other cake, I made these babies.

We had a variety of candies to decorate cupcakes.

Jason, as most know, stayed close to the candy bowls.

We had a good time, and he had a ROCK STAR birthday party!

Photos...and a few words

Rock Star

Christmas Tree Hugger

"Bro-mance"

Baby Gymnastics

 

3:30 a.m...Black Friday

Shopping Hangover

Persistence

Two. The Best of Times...The Worst of Times!

Love, The Jones Crew

Our best side

We decided to put our Christmas tree up the same night they lit the town square.

When we lit our tree Lil'J says, "Wow"

So I took a few pictures because that's how I roll....

Pose One

Pose Two (he did this himself)

Pose Three (I know, he's strange)

What do you think? What is his best side?

Btw, I know I need to cook the pumpkin from Halloween. Don't judge.

Super Dad!

Big J has had a few weeks off of work. It has been perfect timing with the weather. He has been working on our house...I'll post pictures another day.

When Jason isn't renovating our home, changing diapers, going to story time, working out, running, cleaning, making art, donating his time to charity, and cooking up some good beans...he has a day job as a muralist.

Here are some recent photos of some murals he did on campus. What a superstar!

This mural is at the University of Arkansas campus

Demensions are 9' by 16'

Another view

Another mural on campus

Demensions 7' by 12'

To See more...

http://www.artistjasonjones.com/

Vegan Pasta

Here is a new recipe we tried. Dear god it was good!

 http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=26481.0

I haven't cooked with the nutritional yeast before...but I will now!

I swear you can't tell it is tofu. It taste the same as ricotta cheese. It was really delish.

I didn't feel like pulling out my blender or food processor.

I just mashed the tofu thoroughly until it looked like ricotta cheese.

It was quieter and way less dishes to do.

I'll be honest my noodles fell apart. I made it into lasagne. I used fresh spinach.

Didn't seem to make a difference...but what the hell do I know.

If you haven't visited VegWeb, look around there is some great food on that website.

Notice that I added a few more blogs to follow.

Surprisingly, the Gluten-free blog has been my favorite so far.

Back to the kitchen...I'm baking a pumpkin from Halloween. It better be worth it, is all I'm saying.

Grease Monkey

Here is a real quick post of Halloween!

Lil' J was a Grease Monkey for Halloween!

Thank goodness because his parent's both had car trouble this week.

Happy Halloween to Everyone!

The Jones family is already sick from too much candy!

You have to know that it's the Jones way.

We are just trying to keep up with the rest of the family.

Illness, afros, and a birthday

Well this month has flown by. I swear I'll post more...then 4 weeks pass.

Major events this month went something like this...

Illness

Jaysop had a pretty good fever for a few days

As seen in this photo, the "one-a-day video" rule was thrown out the window.

Also, the "paci only at night time" rule was ignored.

But soon our son was feeling better. How did we know, you ask?

The Afro told us so...

Last but not least

Big J had his birthday. We joined our buddies at Tim's Pizza for some good food, beer, and...

Birthday Cake!!!

Little Bread Company made it!

Ginger, Peach, Blueberry Cheese Cake

Yep, it was heaven!

One more thing!

We have had my sweet, wonderful, and cute mother-in-law in town this month.

She looks too young to have her baby boy be 34!

Just so you know, she went to a late night concert with me one night...and she was the one in the sexy heels.

I love her!

Visiting Family

Over the weekend we went to vist some family. Here is a recap of the weekend.

Yep, we did it! We let Lil' J watch videos while we traveled. Don't Judge!

There was a lake in the town we visited. Lil' J kept saying "boat comin', boat comin"

Our poor kid sounds country.

Lil' J wanted to hold his cousin's hand. So sweet.

Super sweet!

We had a great time visiting family!

Lil J

Lil' J and his bestie

Playing on Dad's sculpture

He has been dying to climb this tree...with a little help

Getting a little cooler outside, and test driving some lovely hand-me-downs

Watching a video on the computer- old school sesame street