Friesen Talk

Writing about all the big & little things

Category: Food (Page 1 of 6)

Mother’s Day

May 13, 2016 / / 1 Comment

family picture for mothers day R

I had an exceptional Mother’s Day weekend.  Some of the highlights were:

  • Got a nice family picture of us all dressed up.  Yup, that picture above–isn’t it cute?
  • Jen brought me Caribou coffee–yummmmm….
  • Went to the musical “Into the Woods” with Chloe (it was put on at a church here in town)
  • Enjoyed Root beer floats
  • Went with a group of church ladies to the Salt Caves in Minneapolis and then coffee afterwards
  • Talked to my Mom
  • Spent time outside in the gorgeous sunshine playing with the kids
  • Jen came over and watched Maddie during church so she could get an excellent nap
  • Went out to eat at Chili’s
  • Tim gave me the best card and roses and a Ninja!  (more on that below)
  • We watched Ant Man.  It’s hilarious.

mother day with kiddos R

See?  It was an amazing weekend!

Tim got me a Ninja blender–this was super exciting for me, because I had been hinting (not so subtly) that I would love a blender that had more “umph” to mix up our smoothies.  The ice and frozen fruit was starting to take a toll on my little wimpy blender.  If I used it too long (I mean like more than 30 sec.) it would start to smell like burning electrical, and ooze black liquid.  Yeah, never a good quality in a blender.  But in my sad-little-blenders’ defense, we did get it when we got married, so there could be a life expectancy on blenders, I suppose.  🙂

Either way, I LOVE my new blender.  It’s awesome.  An my favorite feature so far is that it came with some individual blending cups, so I can make myself a single serving right in the cup and then flip it over and viola! I just drink it right in that cup.

Life back to normal

March 21, 2016 / / 1 Comment

We had a delightfully lazy weekend.  Well, technically Saturday was more lazy, and then Sunday I kind of had to do all the stuff I put off on Saturday… ha!  But it was still a great weekend overall.

On Sunday we had friends from church over and I made a strawberry pie for the first time.  I must say I was quite skeptical that I would like it… but it was actually very tasty!  And not terribly complicated as far as desserts go–a little bit time consuming because you have to simmer it for 10 min. stirring constantly, but otherwise easy.

In random other news, here’s a picture of a snowflake that Chloe made at school.  I think it’s super cool. I’m not sure if you can tell, but it’s 3-D.   Just another week or so and I’ll need to take it down since it will seem so out of place as it gets warmer!  Well, at least that’s the hope, I guess… 😉

snowflake R

Corn Bread Muffins

February 22, 2016 / / 2 Comments

I love corn bread.

In particular, I love Famous Dave’s corn bread muffins.  They are delicious.  Look… don’t those look AMAZING?

Image credit HERE

Image credit HERE

So the other day when Tim came across a box mix for these exact muffins we agreed it would be a good idea for me to try making them.  😉  I normally make corn bread from scratch and it’s fine, but not amazing.

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I could tell right away as I started to make the new mix that they were going to be good, because the batter tasted very sweet.  (There must be a lot of sugar in them… hehe!)

It’s at this point in the story that I should mention that I’ve been using the basement oven more lately because it preheats SO MUCH faster than our upstairs one.  Unfortunately since it’s downstairs I sometimes forget to set the timer and sometimes forget I’m baking anything at all…  Out of sight, out of mind right?

Um…. yeah…

If you can see where this is going, I burned them pretty good.  It wasn’t until I was questioning “what in the world is Tim doing downstairs that smells so strange” that I realized it was my corn bread muffins burning.  However, we still ate them for supper (just cut off the bottoms) and they were delicious.  And that, to me, is really saying something.  If the muffins were still good even after burning them, they are definitely something I would try to make again (and remember to set the timer!).

Don’t you all want corn bread muffins now?  😉

Valentine’s Day 2016

February 15, 2016 / / 3 Comments

We had another delightful Valentine’s Day around here.  By supper time I was totally wiped out from being such a fun Mom 😉 with activities and special foods planned… but it was totally worth it.  I know I only have a few fleeting years where the kids actually think all of the cheezy stuff I have planned is exciting.  I’m sure before I know it, they will be too “mature” to love my heart shaped foods and pink milk.  So, for now we’re celebrating as much as we possibly can!

Here’s a recap of the fun we had yesterday!!

red velvet waffles R

We made Red Velvet Waffles for breakfast!

scavenger hunt R

And had a scavenger hunt…

Then we made Valentine's

Then we made Valentine’s

 

And colored fun heart sheets I had printed off

And colored fun heart sheets I had printed off

We had pink milk and arrow sandwiches with cheese & grape kabobs

We had pink milk and arrow sandwiches with cheese & grape kabobs

Jen came over to watch Maddie for us as we went to see KUNG FU PANDA 3!!! She took this picture--it was snowing all day.

Jen came over to watch Maddie for us as we went to see KUNG FU PANDA 3!!! She took this picture–it was snowing all day.

We made fun cookies!

We made fun cookies!

These didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but the dough was VERY tasty

These didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but the dough was VERY tasty

Finished cookies

Finished cookies

We made heart shaped pizzas for supper

We made heart shaped pizzas for supper

I made a cute banner for the fireplace

I made a cute banner for the fireplace

And finally, I made a french silk pie for Tim. Yum!

And finally, I made a french silk pie for Tim. Yum!

 

Superbowl 2016

February 8, 2016 / / 1 Comment

We had a successful Superbowl 2016 and Epic Food Stadium yet again this year.  We did a head count this year, and I think we had 36 people (exactly half were kids).  It was a busy, loud, yummy, messy, fun and exhausting time.  Wanna see how it all turned out?  (I’m sure most of you have already seen it on Facebook, but it’s fun to post it here too…)

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My favorites this year were the cream cheese bars, cream cheese wrapped pickles in ham, honey glazed chex mix and monster cookies (can you tell I have a sweet tooth?  ha!)  Of course, there were MANY other delicious items that I sampled but I ended up coming back for more of those things.  I was disappointed when the night was over and I realized there were a handful of things I didn’t even try!  Oh, well, next year I guess!  😉

I actually didn’t even see any of the Superbowl this year because I hung out on the main floor with all the kids.    With that many kids there needed to be a referee and I didn’t mind.  We had a few friends who were very interested in the game, so I wanted to give them a chance to watch uninterrupted.  So, the kids (and all the toys) stayed on the main floor and upstairs.  We even rolled out board games to play and eventually a movie (Inside Out was the the movie of choice).  I think everyone had a great time.  🙂

If nothing else, everyone went home VERY full!

Basement Kitchen Remodel DONE!

February 1, 2016 / / 4 Comments

We are officially done with our basement kitchen remodel.

DONE!

We wrapped up all the loose ends yesterday (touch up paint, caulking around corners, straightening outlets, etc.).  It took a lot longer to do those little things than I thought it would, but we are happy to finally be finished.  Actually the only thing left to do is buy more stools for the counter, but that can wait until later.

before R

Before…

best kitchen after (3) R

After!

best kitchen after (6) R

After (from the other side)

We have an album of pictures on Facebook if you want to check it out HERE.  I didn’t want to post all the pictures here because I have to resize them and that’s a pain… 😉

There were a few twists along the way, as there always are in remodels (surprise!  That wall you thought was straight is not!) and we ended up going over budget but just by a tad.  We hadn’t expected to hire out the taping and mudding, but let me tell you–that was money WELL SPENT.   I have to say I am super impressed with Tim.  He really stepped up and pushed himself outside of his comfort zone.  He literally did the entire thing start to finish (minus the mudding and taping).  Isn’t he super cool!?!

And the most exciting part is that we met our timeline.  Tim wanted to have it finished for the Super Bowl party this coming weekend and it is!  With a week to spare even.  So now Tim can shift his attention to getting the Super Bowl food stadium back out and ready.

 

The smell of fried food

January 29, 2016 / / 1 Comment

One of the best decisions we made (years ago now) was to move our deep fat fryer to the garage.

I always hated when Tim would use it because it would leave that smell of fried food hanging in the air for hours after we ate.  And while it was yummy smelling for a little bit, after 3 hours or so, it just smelled stale and greasy.  I cringed at the thought of my students walking into a wall of questionable smell.

Of course, I might also have been swayed to move the fryer after that one time when it spewed hot oil over the sides and all over/into my purse… that might have had a direct impact on my dislike of the fryer…  maybe…

So, now it’s stored and used in the garage.  And we wouldn’t ever go back to keeping it in the house.  It makes using it a bit more accessible, which is a good and bad thing.   Good food, but bad for the waistline!   Our friends LOVE that we can just whip up a batch of fried yumminess when they come over–we’ve very popular now… haha!

I think the fan favorite is boneless wings but I enjoy mozzarella sticks and onion rings.    Tim enjoys cheese sticks wrapped in bacon and jalapeno poppers.  I did have fried ice cream for the first time the other day (a friend brought it over and we cooked it up) and it was quite delicious.  I must say it’s a really odd feeling to know it came out of the oil piping hot and yet the ice cream in the middle is still cold!   I’m sure over the years we’ll try even more strange concoctions of foods–and that’s the fun part!

Happy Friday everyone!

Candy Bags done

December 15, 2015 / / 4 Comments

candy bags 2015 R

I worked this past Saturday all day to get the candy bags done for my students.  It was a full day, but they are totally done.  Tim and I were brainstorming afterwards ways that I could speed up the process and I think I have a way of making things go faster next year, so I’m excited to see how it compares to this year.  This year I made 66 bags and it took me 14 hours–but keep in mind I did eat meals in there and I had to watch the kids for the morning while Tim was at worship team rehearsal, so that slowed me down.  And, of course, as Chloe gets older she becomes more and more helpful to me.  I love it!

 

Pumpkin Party Chili!

October 26, 2015 / / 4 Comments

The other day when we had our pumpkin party Josiah woke up extra early with Tim to start the chili for the party.  Seriously, you would have thought it was Christmas morning.  And you really can’t tell in the video, but he was over the moon excited to help.  He’s so funny.

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