Thankful Thurs #35

1. We got Blockette's ceiling fan up again.  (Although working properly is a different story altogether.)

2. Nice visit with friends.

3. Not panicking (too much) being the hostess.

4. The rain stopped before I had to stand outside in it.

5. Not getting sick while working.

6. Being patient while Blockette had a meltdown.

7. It's been nearly a month since her last meltdown.  (Which is a huge improvement from the biweekly meltdowns at the beginning of the summer.)

8. Blockette apologized on her own without prompting.

9.  Mrblocko and I chillin out watching TV together without one of us reading, sewing or playing on the computer.  (We've just finished season 1 of Mad Men and we're hooked!)

10. The school secretary was very nice when I filled out my time sheet incorrectly...twice.  (Yeah, I felt super special.)

Spiral Cut Dogs

No. Not this kind of spiral cut dog:

These spiral cut dogs from Chow!

Have you seen them before? They were all over the food blog-o-sphere earlier this summer.  I'm just a bit late to the game.

Holy cow!  I don't think we'll ever go back to cooking hot dogs on the grill the ordinary way again.

Mrblocko and I were both a bit skeptical at first.  I mean, last year we tried the marinaded hot dogs where you cut slits in the hot dogs.  Neither of us thought they were really anything special.

However, the spiral cut dogs are a whole 'nother story.  In spiral cutting the dogs you expose more surface area to the grill, so you get more caramelized charred meaty goodness.  Plus, with the slinky effect created by the spiral cut, the hot dog now goes from one end of the bun to the other.  No hot dog-less bit of bun leftovers!

Oh, one more thing...if you are a fan of loading up your hot dogs with condiments, the spiral cut allows for the relish, onions, chili, whatever, to be evenly distributed throughout the hot dog.  On an ordinary hot dog all that stuff just gets piled on top and falls off.  Whatever you put on the hot dog falls into the nooks and crannies between the spirals.  It's a pretty groovy thing.

So how do you make spiral cut hot dogs?
1. Take a skewer and poke it through the center of the hot dog lengthwise.
2. Cut at an angle down to the skewer rolling away from you to form the spiral.
3. Remove the skewer.
4. Grill.
5. Top with desired fixins.
6. Chomp away!

Renaissance Festival Fun

This year, instead of having a birthday party for Blockette, we decided to take her to the MN RenFest. Even though there is a Ren Faire much closer to us in WI, Mrblocko and I are partial to the one in MN.

Mrblocko and I have pretty much taken a break from the Ren faires since Blockette was born.  There was always one reason or another why we couldn't go.  So we just made some time and figured out a way to go.  As luck would have it, an extremely shirt tail relative was able to get us free tickets. Score!

Blockette wasn't too sure about the whole thing at first.  She wondered why everyone was so "fancy."  Then I think that it hit her it was one big game of pretend and dress up.   Then she was upset we didn't all go completely in costume.  Maybe next time.

As it was, she was pretty fairy-ied up with her wings, wand and new crown-tiara-head dress thingie.

I really wished I'd taken more pictures.  Particularly of the faun.  She had hooves and everything.  She gave Blockette the bell for her wand from a secret fairy stash.  I think I was too in awe of the cuteness to remember I had a camera dangling from my wrist.

Here are a few pictures I DID remember to take of Blockette's favorite parts of the Festival.

First: The Secret Fairy Garden.

Blockette liked it so much we went through twice.  

Truth be told, this is one of my favorite places at the festival too.

You really have to know that this garden is there.  The entrance is in this weird spot where it doesn't look like much.  Then you go around this hedge and you come to a hobbit house.  This year they had a little person pretending to be a hobbit.  Blockette thought that was awesome too.  She had a grand old time chatting that young lady up. 

After the hobbit house you wander through this wooded path.  This in itself is awesome as it is the only truly shaded place in all of the festival grounds. 

The path takes you past several small fairy cottages.  It's sort of sad that they have to be roped off.  It would have been cool to take some closer pictures.  Why do people have to be dorks and ruin things for everyone? 

Anyhow.  The enchanted forest was right up our alley.  If you ever go to the MN Ren Fest, you've got to check it out.

Blockette's second most favorite thing at the fair was: The Mermaids.

This was a new feature at the Fair this year.  I opted to sit under a tree while Mrblocko stood in line with Blockette for 20 minutes. 

Blockette said it was totally worth the wait in the sun to see the mermaids.  She informed me that some of them were the tricky mean kind like the ones on "The Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."  Although, apparently the mermaid in the tank was one that wanted to be caught to see people.  I guess she was from the Ariel/Little Mermaid school of thought.  

I did ask Blockette if they were REAL mermaids and she gave me a weird look and said, "Oh of course they were."  (Cause why would they advertise they had mermaids if they weren't real?)

All in all Blockette had a smashing time.  She can't wait to go back!

Cookie Dough Brownies

I was originally going to make Pudge Cake from Cookies and Cups for my birthday.  The bottom layer is a boxed brownie mix, baked in a 8" cake pan.  Then, you have a nice thick layer of salmonella free chocolate chip cookie dough.  And if that isn't enough, you've got a top layer of Funfetti cake.  Finally there's the obvious frosting, and decorative cookies.

Doesn't that sound sinful amazing?

Yeah.

Then I remembered that the day after my birthday we were driving up to Minnesota.

There was no way we could eat that entire massive cake in one day.  Nor would it stay fresh in the fridge.  I'm sure I could have frozen it, but there was no room in the freezer.  (I had made huge batches of spaghetti, turkey stock, and chili recently.)

So it was back to the birthday cake drawing board.  I settled on cookie dough brownies from Buns in my Oven.

Although, it wasn't really settling.

These brownies were exactly what I was craving!   Chocolate Fudgy brownies and cookie dough.  Yeah!

I used a box mix for my brownies, but you could jazz this up and make it from scratch.  You could even make one of those fancy box mixes with chocolate chunks or caramel.  I wasn't feeling fancy so I went with the standard fudgy brownie.

As these brownies are super rich, we didn't finish them in time either.  There was much less to try to fit into the freezer, esp considering I left a few in the fridge for our cat sitter.


I can only think of two bad things about these brownies:
1.) The cookie dough has a tendency to fall away from the brownie.  Blockette actually preferred eating her dough separate from the brownie.  I just smooshed them down together and forced them to stick.  Not a big deal in my book.

2.) I ate the last one on Friday for at lunch. Wah!


Cookie Dough Brownies from Buns in My Oven
1 recipe or box of brownie mix, prepared and baked
3/4 cup salted butter, room temperature
3/4 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c sugar
3 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)

Bake brownies per package instructions, in a 8x8 or 9x9 pan lined with foil, and sprayed with cooking spray.  I like fudgy brownies, so I followed those directions.  Let the brownies cool completely.  Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla until well combined. Slowly add flour and mix until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips. Top the baked and cooled brownies with the cookie dough.  Store leftovers in the fridge or freezer.

Belated Thankful Thurs #33 and 34

1. Some beautiful fall like weather.

2. Hand me downs. I had very little back to school clothes shopping to do. 

3. Blockette's awesome performance in her first church musical.

4. I got a part time job as a crossing guard!

5. At least we found out our trees have Emerald Ash Borer before they totally fell over dead.

6. I have a job to help pay for our tree removal.

7. Blockette was not in her room when her ceiling fan fell.

8. I was able to get the ladder under the fan to stop the ceiling from falling apart. (The fan was too heavy for me to disassemble by myself.)

9. Mrblocko came home without me asking him to, in order to take the fan down. (It was balanced rather precariously on the ladder.)

10. Our handy neighbor came over after work and reattached the metal box that was supposed to be attached to the ceiling beam with several very long beastly screws.

11. Mrblocko agreed that we should not attempt to reattach the fan before heading out to MN that night.

12. A great visit with my mom.

13. Blockette loves the ren fair as much as I did at that age.

14. We all survived the long summer break without going completely insane.

15. I managed to find gym shoes the day before school started.  I checked them the week before and the ones she had fit just fine.  What is she doing? Growing in her sleep? 

16. Blockette's teacher seems like a great fit. 

17. Blockette LOVES school.

18. Naps!

Happy Seventh Blockette!

Hey Pumpkin!

Hope your special day is filled with magic!

The Second Grader

Wasn't she just starting preschool last week?

EEP!  My baby is growing up way too fast.