Pink Confetti

Today I finally had the right ingredients and enough energy to make Macaroni and Cheese.  After my last my post I started looking for a recipe like my grandmother's.  I knew the basic ingredients she used:  milk, cheese, noodles, and an egg.  So I passed over any recipe that didn't use an egg. After finding quite a few I settled on The Pioneer Women Cooks recipe.   Macaroni and Cheese I followed the recipe exactly and it looked like my grandmas... I even used the same baking dish.  However, it did not taste like Grandma's.  I had baked it for 20 minutes and it just wasn't right so back in the oven it went for another 20.  This time it was more crunchy but still not perfect.  It was too cheesy and the noodles near the edges weren't crunchy and brown.  The egg did blend well but next time I'll use way less cheese.  I know my grandma used Tillamook, which is the best cheese ever, so that wasn't the problem. So now the hunt begins...

For some reason all I can think about is my Grandma Huber's Macaroni and Cheese.  It was yummy, cheesy and she always put something crunchy on top before she baked it.  Grandma didn't make it very often since she couldn't eat it, but she loved making it when me and my sister came over for dinner. Sadly, like most cherished family recipes, there was no recipe, Grandma just dumped good stuff in and out came amazing Mac & Cheese.  My dad's is a close second but I don't think he's made macaroni and cheese in about 10 years. So here I sit wishing for some yummy homemade macaroni and cheese while Tyrone is getting ready to grill some salmon, which I also love. I love the memories that food creates.  How one bite can be like a time machine taking you back to a cherished memory.  One of my regular customers at work gets the morning bun every day, she says it reminds her of her mother's cinnamon roles.  Some how that always makes my day, even when she remi...

Valentine's Day always seems like such a weird holiday.  They are gifts but sometimes not everyone gets one.  There is lots of chocolate, candy and flowers too.  Sometimes there is to much emphasis put on a day that has strayed so for from St Valentine.  My old boss used to call it Single Awareness Day, because you'd know who was single quite easily. Tyrone and I don't have any big plans this year.  Tyrone has Monday Club tomorrow and we didn't really do anything today.  I did make him a cute 'Be Mine' chocolate heart cake. I started thinking of past Valentines and remember what I did. I remember getting fun puzzle-cards in the mail from my grandparents.  The cool mailboxes we made in elementary school to hold our Valentines.  Eating conversation hearts.  Sending friends flowers in high school if we were single so we wouldn't stand out. I also remember Meatloaf! I'm not sure what year this started but my mom made meatloaf for Valen...

Five years ago today Tyrone proposed. Wow has it really been 5 years?  Some days it feels like yesterday. It was a day much like today, rainy and overcast.  We always had a special date on the 6th of each month since that is the date of our 1st date.  So Tyrone picked me up and we headed off to Edmonds.  I knew we were doing something fun as I had to pack a lunch.  Tyrone had thought about taking the ferry but it was so gray there was nothing to see, so we had a picnic at the beach. We had walked down quite a ways and sat down on some logs and enjoyed our lunch.  We are sitting there looking at the water and just talking.  After we packed up our lunch, Tyrone says he has something to tell me.  On the drive down I had a brief thought that maybe this was the day, the day he would propose.  All of a sudden I'm sure of it when his first sentence is "I want to make you a promise." Tyrone does not make promises lightly he won't even use pro...

Tomorrow Samuel is 18 months old, so today was his 18 month check-up. Samuel is 32 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds.  So basically he's tall and skinny like his dad.  Our Doctor is happy with his progress and said keep up the good work. Some days I just can't believe how big my baby is, and that he's now a toddler.  Where did that cute little 8 pound baby go? Six months ago we celebrated his 1st birthday.  He had just started walking the week before and was really moving.  Twelve months ago he was perfecting his 'Army' crawl and working on the real thing.  Eighteen months ago he was this adorable little package that looked just like his daddy. Just a few hours old 8/4/09 6 months and happy as can be Birthday Boy

I love dessert! Pie, cake, cupcakes, cookies and ice cream.  It's genetic, my Grandpa Blick ate Blueberry Pie for breakfast frequently.  Why not it's fruit and bread, how is that different than toast with jam?  My Grandpa Huber always had an amazing selection of cookies.  The ice cream comes from both sides, the Blicks made homemade ice cream all the time and the Hubers always had one bowl before bed. One of the first things I learned to make was cookies.  My dad and I always made a ton of chocolate chip cookies.  We would triple the batch and then count to see if the recipe was right.  Most of them would end up in the freezer to be enjoyed later.  To this day one of my favorite memories with my sister is sneaking into the deep freeze in the garage and grabbing a stack of frozen cookies. In the 2nd grade I learned to make Cheesecake, the easy kind with a pre-made graham cracker crust.  It was for a contest at school but my pie was ineli...