My blog is moving!

It's official ~ I am moving over to myhighlycaffeinatedlife.blogspot.com Come and check it out!

Allow me to introduce...

... the latest addition to our family - Seer. He is a one year old Golden Retriever mix. We just adopted him from a wonderful agency called RAGOM (Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota) today. He is still very much a "puppy" although he is full grown ~ we've got plenty of work ahead of us. He is small for golden standards - only weighing 43lbs. He is such a sweet boy!

Thanks to the wonderful folks at RAGOM and Seer's foster Mom, Denise, for helping us adopt Seer.

Plenty more pics to come!

Father's Day at the Dome!

Today my husband took our son to a Twins game for Father's Day. What a great father-son bonding experience! They went with other folks from our Little League organization and were allowed to go down onto the field to run the bases.

He looks good in a baseball uniform!

Yesterday in the 85 degree heat...walking in the Parktacular Parade.

Lemon Blueberry Pudding Cake

You know a recipe is good when your husband, after tasting the finished product, says "will you marry me?" This is one of those recipes. Surprisingly, it was so easy - our 6 yr old helped me make it this afternoon. If you love the combination of blueberries and lemon - this recipe won't disappoint you. It's tangy, lemony and very light.

Lemon Blueberry Pudding Cake

3 large eggs, separated

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 2 quart souffle' dish. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, butter, buttermilk, lemon zest and juice. Add flour, sugar and salt and whisk until smooth.

Beat egg whites until firm peaks form. Fold one quarter of beaten egg whites into lemon mixture, gently fold in remaining whites. Pour batter into baking dish; transfer dish to a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of baking dish. Sprinkle blueberries over pudding.

Bake until top is puffed and light brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from water bath and let cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and serve.

Enjoy! Thanks to All You magazine for a great summertime dessert.

Pirate birthday cake

I found the cutest cake ideas on the Betty Crocker website last night. Here is my version of the pirate birthday cake....I am giving it to a special boy I know!


It's the first time I've made a cake like this - and it was really very easy! I would do some things differently next time but it definitely got me over the fear to attempting a theme cake. Already I am "looking" at candy differently ~ "how can I use that on a cake?" Check out the Betty Crocker website for yourself! They have great "how-to" videos and quite a few girl AND boy ideas.

My Little Sous Chef

Meet my little sous chef! Every time he hears me pulling out the gear to start baking, he runs to get his apron, chef hat and of course, his stool.

Reporting for kitchen duty!

Patiently waiting....

"Daddy, come check this out!"

Last Day of Kindergarten

What a party we had today at Peter Hobart! There was face painting, space bouncing, ring toss and the incredibly popular dunk tank. The morning started out dunking the SLP Fire Chief and continued with a 3rd grade teacher from Peter Hobart as well as Mayor Jacobs. Keep in mind the temperature this AM was in the 50's and never got much above 60 degrees. Talk about dedication to the kids! Thanks to the Peter Hobart PTAO for raising the money to give the kids a wonderful last day of school!

June Cookie Carnival (OK, a little early)

I was so darn excited when I saw this month's Cookie Carnival ~ oh, how I love strawberries and I have NEVER made a cookie with real strawberries in it. So maybe I am a little early with my post but I had all the ingredients in the house and some free time on my hands. Voila, cookies!

When I saw the recipe was from Martha Stewart, I was a little skeptical. My experience with her recipes is that there is always some tedious step or obscure ingredients. But to my surprise, these beauties were so easy. They would be perfect for an afternoon tea. They were tender and not too sweet - they reminded me of a mini scone.

One thing I'll do when I bake these again (and I definitely will!) is mix the dough longer after adding the strawberries. I noticed that my cookies do not look like the picture from the recipe but I think it's because I was afraid that mixing them too long would make them tough. Although I think the "less blended" version looks more afternoon tea-ish.

Thanks Cookie Carnival for the delectable strawberry cookie!

Slow-Cooker Eggplant and Tomato Pasta - really easy!

Tonight for dinner I made a really simple recipe for Slow-Cooker Eggplant and Tomato Pasta. I found the recipe in the current All You magazine. I love to toss in a slow-cooker recipe into my repertoire when ever I can - it makes my life so much easier!

There are a couple of things I would change about this recipe as posted on MealsMatter.com 1.) peel the egg plant. It probably won't "hold up" as well but there was something weird about the skin on the eggplant after it was cooked. 2.) cut the eggplant into smaller pieces. The recipe calls for 1/2 inch pieces and I think mine were much bigger. I really LOVED the pasta. It was springy and so much fun! It was definitely a recipe I would try again - it got a thumbs up from my 5yr old. We served our dinner with a side salad and Sister Schuberts yeast rolls.

First Little League Game

Sam has another game coming up this weekend so I figured I had better post pictures from his first game before the season is over!

It's so fun to see 5 and 6 year olds playing baseball.....who's on first? Organized chaos! Needless to say, Sam did score a run. It's all good fun.

I love, love, love cookbooks!

Did I mention that I love cookbooks? I do! I generally try to get them from the library first and, after trying a recipe or two, I may or may not buy my own copy. There are so many mediocre cookbooks out there. Here is a new cookbook that my husband got me for Mother's Day. It has a lot of really great basic information in it. I love those kinds of cookbooks. My husband has a Betty Crocker Cookbook that his mother gave him years (I mean years) ago that is my "go to" cookbook when I need just a basic recipe or need how to do something.

I also received this book from my husband! I've been faithfully reading Tuesday's with Dorie for quite sometime. Her stuff looks amazing. I have yet to try a recipe - but that's about to change this week! Wish me luck.

Thank you Cookie Girl Creations!

The postman brought me something today...this beautiful necklace and earring set. I recently won them from The Cookie Girl Creations. This picture does not do the set justice - they are so amazingly beautiful! Thank you again, Cookie Girl!

You will love this food blog!

One of my new favorite food blogs is Joy the Baker! It is very easy on the eyes (not super busy with ads everywhere) and the recipes are amazing. Here is one of my favorites - it's for Spicy Sweet Almonds. I made these last Friday - really quick, super easy and very tasty! Let's just say we managed to polish them off by the next afternoon.

growing up too fast...

My son is growing up too fast! A couple of night ago he says "Mama, now that I am a big boy, can I sleep on the top bunk?" Until now, we made him sleep on the bottom bunk and told him he could move to the top when he turned 6. Well, he's not 6 yet, but he rides a big-boy bike with no training wheels, finishing kindergarten soon, loosing teeth at an amazing rate - so how could I say "no"?

The only problem is that now it's nearly impossible for us to have our special "cuddle time" when I tuck him into bed each night. I thought he wouldn't care but he said to me last night, "Mama, can I sleep on the bottom bunk again?" He is still my little boy!

Little League season begins!

Little League practice started this past weekend. Yes, he is still wearing his "church shirt" during practice. He is playing for Sam's Club this year - how fitting! Their first game is this Saturday. Good luck!

really nice folks

We met some of the nicest folks on Saturday at an event sponsored by the Minnesota Kite Society. Who knew there were groups of people that held meetings, planned events and had a website all about flying kites. It's pretty serious business! At this event in St. Louis Park, we met a bunch of really great people that demonstrated and even shared their kites with us. This is my son with a gentleman that makes his own kites. Sam was really in love with this American flag kite not only because it looked like our flag but because it was the biggest kite there!

Little League try-outs

On a chilly Saturday morning my son had tryouts for Little League. He was just a little excited!

flying kites

We went to a park on a gloomy Sunday afternoon and flew some beautifully bright kites!

bright spring day

yes, please...a large!

I saw this on another blog and just had to have it! Does anyone know which coffeehouse sells these?

mini cupcakes

I finally broke down a purchased the Wilton icing bags and tips. I am still getting the hang of how they work and looking for a good butter cream icing recipes...but it sure was fun!

a sure sign of spring!

On our recent trip to the Westwood Nature Center we found that many hearty Minnesotians had two-wheeled it. Granted it was a beautiful day- I don't know that it was warm enough to ride a bike there. Obviously, some thought it was!

Valentine's Day 2009

Oh...I just love the collage feature in Picnik! Check it out for yourself - it's fun.

Learning how to make our own maple syrup!

We had a great time on Sunday at Westwood Nature Center learning how to collect the sap from sugar maples and make our own maple syrup (although Sam looks crabby, he had a great time). Sam is determined that next year we will be tapping the two silver maple in our yard and making maple syrup!

bye, bye winter...

It's official - I am washing all our mittens, scarves, hats, coats, etc and putting them away for the season. Yesterday was 57+ degrees and today might hit 60! Hellooooooooo spring.

that face...

does this creep you out?

Something about this picture gives me the creeps. It's a close up of some type of fern-like plant at the Como Conservatory. The plant has not yet "bloomed". When I look at this, all I think about is the "Octo-mom" with all those babies inside her. Is it just me or do you see it too?

do you see the resemblance?

Here is my boy standing in front of a self portrait that he painted at school. Do you see the resemblance?

my sissy

...here is the final product

How to catch Lucky the Leprechaun

My son and I created this awesome trap to try and catch Lucky the Leprechaun. The lid to the oatmeal is removed and a piece of felt put in it's place. When Lucky climbs the ladder to steal the piece of "gold" on the top, he will fall into our trap.

Every year Lucky does all sorts of mischievous things around our house...turns your milk green, pees in the toilet and doesn't flush (the toilet water is green), puts green kisses on our faces as we are sleeping, and leaves us silly notes around the house bragging that we cannot catch him. This year we are sure to catch him with this great trap! We found the idea in Family Fun magazine.

reflection...

can you guess my hometown?

Minnesota? Are you sure?

This is definitely NOT Minnesota today...it IS the Como Conservatory last week.

Grandma's salt n' pepper shakers

sunken garden

I recently spent an afternoon at the Como Conservatory taking pictures for a photo class. The flowers and the smells in the sunken garden are amazing!