Let me eat cake.

There was lots of cake left over from my niece's birthday celebration this weekend.  I should start by saying, dessert doesn't stand a chance in this house.  A new bag of Oreos typically lasts 48 hours.  The solution: send it all to Will's work.  The cupcakes I've posted pictures of here and here?  Yep, all but a few went to his coworkers.  Even leftover cake from our wedding was safely deported from the house.

Naturally, my niece's cake was waiting on the counter Monday morning, waiting for Will to whisk it away.  Then something horrible happened.  He forgot it.  AND he had to go out of town immediately after work.  So I've been stuck here with the cake.  Just me and the cake (and the dogs and cats, but all I can see is the cake).  And here I am.  Standing at the counter with fork in hand.  Forget the plate.  Sigh...  

Family Visit

My father-in-law and step mother-in-law came up north this weekend, and they brought my sweet 3-year-old niece along for the visit.  We don't get to see her very often, so we're always shocked at how much she's grown.  Since her birthday is coming up, we got to celebrate while she was here.  It was a great weekend!

Spring Rollin'

I occasionally get a HUGE craving for spring rolls, but I can't seem to find many places that offer vegetarian versions.  Also- my body hates me more with every roll of fried goodness I devour.  Solution: homemade baked vegetarian spring rolls!  I was definitely intimidated by these at first, but they're really not that difficult to make.  Bonus: they're only about 100 calories per roll!  Here's the play-by-play:

Baked Vegetarian Spring Rolls (Adopted and adapted from The Tasty Alternative)

Makes about 12 rolls.  If you stuff them more and make fewer than 12, that 100 calories per roll I mentioned won't be true anymore.

Ingredients:

• 1 small red bell pepper, julienned
• 2 stalks celery, julienned
• 2 cups "broccoli slaw" (This is a mixture of shredded carrots, broccoli, and cabbage.  If you'd like you can use 2 carrots julienned with 1 cup of shredded cabbage instead, but for me the slaw was convenient and reasonably priced.)
• 2 cups cooked rice noodles
• 4 T soy sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• about 3 T olive oil
• 12 rice wrappers 

Directions:

1. Heat 2 T of the olive oil in a saucepan over medium.  Add the red pepper, celery, and broccoli slaw (or carrot and cabbage, if you chose this route).  Sprinkle in the onion and garlic powder as well.  Saute for about 10 minutes or so, until the vegetables are pretty tender.
2. Meanwhile, bring at least 4 cups of water to a boil.  Put the rice noodles in a small bowl and dump the boiling water over them.  Let sit until ready to use (at least 10 minutes).
3. Drain the noodles and toss in with the veggies.  Add the soy sauce and last T of olive oil to the mixture.  Cook, stirring, until everything is combined.  Remove from heat and let cool for about 20 minutes.
4. Once cooled, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Fill a shallow, wide dish with water to dip the rice wrappers in (I used a pie pan, which worked perfectly.).  
5. Add one wrapper to the dish.  After about 30 seconds or so, when the wrapper is flexible, remove it to a flat surface (at this point, it's efficient to add another wrapper to the dish to begin soaking).  Mound about 1/3 cup of the veggie/noodle mixture to one edge of the wrapper.  Roll the wrapper around the mixture, tucking in the edges as you go (see photos for a visual).  Place the roll on a baking sheet.
6. Repeat step 5 until all the veggie/noodle mixture is gone.  Add the baking sheet-full of rolls to the oven.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until crisp.  Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes so they don't scorch your mouth (a step my husband can't seem to master).
7. Dig in!  Best served with sweet & sour sauce!

Happy Easter from the "Children"!

Easter this year is a warm, sunny, beautiful day. We've got the windows open, and the critters are sunning themselves.  Ahhh...

Recently...

 We've been spending more time outside with the season change... we're also in the initial stages of house hunting, which is sucking up every free second.  Here's a bit of what we've been doing.

We went to a pretty amazing Michael Jackson tribute performance
by a local youth program.

My Bensimon shoes came in the mail!

Kirby will usually only run for treats.

Recently there has been lots and lots of ice cream
and frozen yogurt in my life.

Mr. Spice Organic sent me some samples to try when I explained in an email that many of my cardiac patients have a hard time adding salt-free flavor to foods.  Can't wait to try them!

The cats think it's great to climb to the outside of the
railings on the balcony.  It scares me to death.