Fun With The Kids and a Giveaway!!

What does Mother's Day mean to a Mom? Well to me it means spending time with my kids and looking back on fun times I have had with my kids. Although, I will admit that maybe just some quiet time to myself would be in order for a change sometimes on Mother's Day (like a lot of moms out there wish for this from time to time). It means something different to every Mom in their own ways. Here are just a couple of highlights out of so many I have had with my kids recently.

Like the time when my daughters and I travelled to Spokane WA to see family and friends...



Then this year when we decorated the Easter eggs, that was really fun. Vanessa had a blast (she is my 4 yr old) and my daughter Nicole (my 10 yr old) thought she was Rembrandt with the way she decorated her eggs, or something...



And who could forget the Jump Rope For Heart fundraiser my older daughter participated in, which my younger daughter had to try to participate also. It was a great time with my daughters...



But, the important thing is that the time is spent with the kids in quality. Quality time is always better than quantity, although both are equally important if you can swing it around work schedules, school schedules, etc. One thing I try to do is get them into the kitchen with me, which is where the giveaway is concerned. A friend of mine over at Kitchen Mage has given me a wonderful gift and an option to promote my own giveaway. She is giving one signed copy of her cookbook Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids as my giveaway prize. How nice is that? She is a very sweet person to help me out. I also get my own copy and cannot wait to start cooking through this book with my kids, that will be fun times!!



Now the ways to win (each item gets one entry):
1. Leave a comment telling me how you like to spend quality time with your kids. (this one is the main contest entry; if you do not have a blog then just leave the comment, that is all you have to do)
2. Twitter this giveaway with the link back to this post and then comment back here with the link of your tweet.
3. Follow me on twitter, or let me know if you already are a follower, let me know your twitter ID
4. Blog this giveaway and then link back to this page, leave link to the post in a comment here.

Be sure to leave your email address with each comment so I can get a hold of you if you win, or else I will have to pick a different number.

The giveaway runs from Monday May 4 until Friday May 8 midnight in which I will pick a winner by random picking then blog the winner on Saturday morning before I go to work. This giveaway is limited to United States viewers only. Good Luck to everyone!!

Basil Red Pepper Spread

Well, this is a good recipe but I am sorry I do not have any pictures this go around. I just had to reinstall Windows and everything that goes with it and lost all my pictures I have taken recently and so sad to say, I cannot show you what this spread looks like even though it tasted heavenly on the french bread we broiled it on.

It is a wonderful combination of fresh chopped basil and chopped red pepper with a cream cheese base. This is a nice spread on crackers or bread for parties, appetizers, or hot french bread since the cheese melts well and it is heavenly! I so wish I could show you!

So welcome to day 3 of the NaBloPoMo Challenge where I will have a blog post everyday this month, so that means 31 posts in 31 days for the month of May. So far so good, but having lost my pictures, this may prove to be a bit more difficult than anticipated but I am determined.

Enjoy the recipe!

Basil Red Pepper Spread

1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
1/8 cup red pepper, chopped
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic, sliced into chunks

Soften cream cheese and beat well with the olive oil with electric mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Notes:
- This can be made for a holiday cream cheese spread to be molded for parties.
- Put this on top of slices of french bread and broil for 4 minutes or until browned and bubbly, works good with a meal of spaghetti or a good steak. We had ours with London Broil.

Honey Glazed Pork

Recently we have had the outbreak of swine flu. There is a myth going around that you can get it from eating pork; that is not true, so I will continue to eat pork since we really like it. Especially in Chinese food, this honey glazed pork from my Chinese cookbook called Best Loved Chinese Recipes & More. It is an older book from 1998 (I guess that is not all that old, but my store does not have it and I tried to find a link to find it but I couldn't find one). It is published by Publications International, Ltd. This was a very easy recipe and it tasted very good; however, I noticed that the cooking times were a bit off so I compensated for it and in the recipe below reflects the cooking time change I used. If anyone finds a link to this cookbook, please let me know as I would like to link back to where you can get it. Just leave me a comment if you find it.

I served this pork dish with Spicy Yakisoba Noodles (recipe below) and some steamed broccoli. It was a lovely meal, one that the family enjoyed which is my indication of a meal well done, because, if the family won't eat it... it has failed! So I know I can add this dish to my array of meals that they will eat.

So this is Day 2 of NaBloPoMo and I will take on this challenge and make it! Enjoy the recipe!



Honey Glazed Pork

1 2 lb pork tenderloin roast
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger ( I used 1 tsp of ground ginger and it was good)
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (method below)

Place pork in large resealable plastic bag. Combine soy sauce and garlic in small cup; pour over pork. Seal bag; turn to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator up to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain pork; reserve 1 Tbsp marinade. Combine honey, brown sugar, ginger, and reserved marinade in small bowl.

Place pork in shallow, foil lined roasting pan. Brush with half of honey mixture. Roast 30 minutes. Turn pork over; brush with remaining honey mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Roast for another 30 minutes until meat thermometer reaches 155 degrees.

Let pork stand, tented with foil, on cutting board for 5 minutes. (temperature will rise to 160 degrees). Cut pork across the grain into 1/2 inch slices. Serve with pan juices, if desired.

Notes:
- To roast sesame seeds, spread seeds in small skillet. Shake skillet over medium heat 2 minutes or until seeds begin to pop and turn golden.

Spicy Yakisoba Noodles (this is what I made up myself when cooking the yakisoba noodles to go with the Honey Glazed Pork, it is not in the cookbook)

1/2 lb yakisoba noodles
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp pan juices from Honey Glazed Pork
1/2 tsp red pepper

Cook the yakisoba noodles with the chicken broth until hot, add juices and pepper. Stir until hot. Serve. Takes about 5 minutes.

Trail Mix Cookies

To kick off my challenge of blogging every day for the month, which equals 31 posts in 31 days, I have a great cookie recipe to share. If you want to know more about
NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month just click the link. It is very interesting and I have heard it is quite the challenge, but I am up for it. Look for something new every day this month. Now for the cookies...

The other week my family wanted me to make cookies. I thought to myself ok no problem... well, big problem; they did not want my normal chocolate chip cookies, they wanted something different. I stood there dumbfounded and wondered, "how could they NOT want chocolate chip??" I was definitely puzzled. So, I looked through the cupboards for ingredients and through my recipes for some type of cookie. I found my grandmother's oatmeal cookie recipe and in my cupboards I had cereal (Post Trail Mix Cereal, Vanilla Cranberry to be exact), chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, dried cranberries, couple different kinds of nuts, and then the usual cookie baking stuff that I always have. I do not buy cookies at the store, I always make them. It is more economical than buying store made cookies and they taste better. So again, I thought to myself.."what should I make?" and then it came to me reading the box of cereal.. Trail Mix Cookies! What a brainstorm, I could modify my grandmother's recipe to make it happen, which is exactly what I did. Take a look. (again pretend this picture is not fuzzy since I need a new camera and just look at all the goodness in that cookie, yummy!)



They were very good, except that they get crispy after they cool off but, if you like crispy cookies than these are good. Here is the recipe:

Trail Mix Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened (I recommend using butter)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups Trail Mix Crunch Cereal (any kind will do, I used the Vanilla Cranberry since that is what I had on hand at the time)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans since I had the most of those)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup cinnamon chips (Hershey has a new cinnamon chip and it is very good)
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter or margarine, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the eggs. Mix well. Add half the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. Then add remaining flour and mix well. Mix in the cereal, cinnamon chips, chocolate chips, nuts, and cranberries. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet (I used parchment paper on my cookie sheets) and bake 11-13 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes to set (they may look soft when you take them out), transfer to wire racks. Enjoy!

Notes:
- This might be a good cookie recipe to add some M&Ms to for another trail mix effect.
- You can add oats in place of Trail Mix Cereal
- Any type of dried fruit or raisins can be substituted for cranberries and that will probably be good, just different flavors.

Basically, you just have to mess with this recipe to get the taste you want, or you can make it different every time for a change of flavors. Just depends on what you want to add to it. White chocolate chips or peanut butter chips would probably be good too. I just used what was already in my kitchen. The kids loved these cookies!