Goodbye Summer!--beach, sick and cupcakes

Goodbye summer!
...well, for the moment.I mean come on, as if Florida has actual seasons!

It DID get so cool I spent a day with the A/C turned off... but it came back on before bedtime, I can't sleep in the heat. A 70 degree breeeze one day ,100 degrees the next. That'll make you insta sick...
not to worry though,we already have the sick. UGH.

Rory gave it to me( I guess she got it from Ben)
- I gave it to Ri,
so,he ended up switching his off days so he could stay home sick Friday evening, and all of Saturday.
He wanted to go swimming in a pool friday,but I didn't want to further pass our ICk.
We stayed in mopey and yucky. I made some yummy soul food for dinner. collard greens,sweet taters,beans and rice- I am such a southern Florida girl it didn't hit me I had made soul food, until Ri was like "I need hot sauce with this".We ended up crashing pretty early. In fact, as much as I thought the sinus nasty we have had messed up our sleep, I think it FIXED IT! Woooo


So , we decided to go to the beach Saturday. Lissy wrote me on myspace hopeing to stop in with mom... I told her she could try to catch us before we left,
but, we had the sick it was probably best that her preggy self didn't come around.

On the ride to the beach,and quite frequently though out the last few days-my mind has been in an odd place.I dunno what that means,just having trouble in my head. mmm, hope it isn't a bad omen.

-anyway-We drove for a LONG time trying to find a spot on the beach in Flagler...but we found one before we made it into crescent beach.lol

It was a little chilly but not bad at all.
I think Rory really could play on the beach ALL DAY!






The waves were very forcefull ,and NASTY.We didn't stay long, but we had a good time.The salt air/water was probably good for our ick.
We stopped in a grocery to get some basics we were out of,bribed the child with far from vegetarian marshmallows and headed home.
We came home to a sicky care package on our step,from Mom and my sis- cane sugar soda, cough drops,green tea, and gauva nectar.Awww.thanx mommy ... I had to find a use for that guava nectar.

Ri made loads of yummy pizza- filling our fridge with leftovers,even made two little personal pan ones for Rory- shaped them like Mickey mouse ,and she grubbed out!!She was absolutly tickled he made pizza for dinner, don't tell her its wheat crust and topped with veggies LOL.

Poor Ri had to drag his sickness back to work today,at least he was able to sleep- he never woke with the "must prop myself up to avoid suffocation" feeling me and Rory dealt with a few nights.
Today, Rory destroyed the house and jammed out to Pandora radio while I played in the kitchen with food ,and dirty dishes.
She seemed overtired most the day,irritatingly fussy. She finally crashed,though.Poor thing.

Ri is making ratatouille again for dinner. :)




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Thought about giving this its own post- but am lazy and this will be my goodbye summer blog.




"Goodbye summer" Guava nectar vegan cupcakes

-inspired by the orange cream vegan cupcake recipe I have found floating all over the net from the book :
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World- (which I may now need pick up).

For the Guava Cream Filling/Topping:

• 1/4 cup calcium-enriched plain soy milk
• 1/2 cup guava nectar
  
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 3 Tbsp. white sugar( I cut the sugar WAY back because of all the sugar in the nectar)
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla

For the Cupcakes:

• 1/3 cup veg or canola oil
• 1/3 white sugar(again way less sugar- the actual recipe calls for half a cup or more)
  
• 3/4 cup calcium-enriched soy milk
• 1/2 cup guava nectar
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/3 cups white whole wheat flour(I mixed half wheat, with half unbleached white flour-I do for most baked goods)
  
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Make the pudding first.

Place soy milk, guava nectar, cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together until mixture starts to boil. Turn heat down to low and stir continuously until mixture thickens.(happens fast) Once it reaches the consistency of a pudding, remove from heat. Transfer to a glass bowl and let cool completely...trying not to eat it all, Once cool, move to the refrigerator for an hour.

Now make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Whisk together the oil, sugar, milk, guava nectar and vanilla with 1 tablespoon of the flour. Sift together the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, one third at a time, stirring until the batter is smooth after each addition.

Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake 20-22 minutes until the top springs back when pressed lightly. Remove cupcakes from muffin tin. Cool completely.

Take orange pudding out of refrigerator - the recipes I found recommended a make shift ziplock pastry bag. I just stirred and used a spoon- Make an indentation in the center of each cupcake with the handle of a wooden spoon (or your finger). Fill generously with guava pudding.

The orange cream recipe also had a simple chocolate gonash topping, would be good on orange- unnecessary ,and probably not as good on guava.
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Rory was not a fan of the guava pudding topping(or the yummy plain gauva nectar),she had two plain guava cakes without though and liked it. :)

Alright, that's all for me tonight peeps.


PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

Is there any coffee in that fairy house??

Hey again!
So, our schedule is shot to shit from Rory's nights of propped up stuffy nosed ,childrens Tylenol, sleep.
She still sound a little stuffy,but no more fevers- so other than the falling asleep early and waking up bouncing off the walls at 3 am,she seems to be all better.

...I on the other hand am stuffy and yucky feeling :( .

Last night I made veggie burgers out of the pea soup, rice and squash I had made for dinner a few nights ago... I am getting all gourmet on this cheap veggie thing :) . I walked to the store to get a black and mild, and me and Ri sat outside and chatted for a little while-
-Then Me & Rory ended up crashing out way early on the couch.
Ri woke up this morning, to go to work, to see us still awake . Rory had made a disaster area of the living room finding toys she hardly every plays with entertaining in her delirium.
Oh, and BTW- there isn't crap online between 3 and 5 am,WTF?, that is when poor insomniacs need the most entertainment!!
We did end up taking a long nap at around two PM, yeah,we will be up all night.


It's oddly cool outside,I know , I know , your saying "it is officially fall"- but check the location folks-
Central(ish) Florida DOES NOT have fall. It is weird that if feels Autumnish.

I decided to take the kid outside to play.Someone told me about building fairy houses, I have seen a few people do it (on those new fangled message boards) , it looked like it would be fun.
So, I asked Rory- and she was all for it,
However, my realistic child told me she was not convinced on the fairy part, and decided it would be a much better butterfly habitat. She had proof for me when a butterfly came and sat next her while we built the house.


If anything is spoken about the size of my pores when I am a giant- I will blow you off the table. (I can make futurama refrences, too.- and you should buy me or Rory this shirt)




Noobie was distracted rolling in the grass and digging up something.
Good, I was slightly worried she would approach the fairy house the same way she does sand castles- and knock it over with dumb doggy grin.


It started looking nasty out so we came in..
....but then Rory dug up a rock she had saved in a toy box and made me rush out to set it up in the fairy house:Its a couch she says

Oh, and a peek at the mess Rory made today rediscovering her toy boxes.
I am not sure why the tv is on(Hercules was on, I think), its all about the toys today.
(ignore her plumber crack) .





Ri called and told me to "make more beans", we will be having burritos again tonight :)
So,I am gonna go clean the kitchen(AGAIN, GRR!)...and see how many of the toys I can bribe the kid to put back in their box.

PEACE AND TOFU CHICkEN GREASE,
babyhellfire

Get on the boat, and go with the flow.

Oooo I am sooo lazy!!
I uploaded a bunch of pics ,and started this blog entry on Sunday-
and here it is, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, and I am finally writing it out.
Forgive me- Oh blog gods,and um "readers"- hey, I have those, I think.
Well,You're reading it at least,and hey those bikini pics have to have boosted my readers a little , right?

SOooo ,on to the recap.
Friday, Aunt Flo came for a visit and brought the sickness,fever and all. I felt really really horrible.I don't like her very much. :( ... it was made worse by the bit of stress I felt over our plans to go out on the boat with Ri's dad,and his wife(Rory calls them BOTH NanaPop,instead of Nana & Pop)
... I actually asked Ri if i could stay home sick. He came home with all kinds of goodies (homemade coleslaw,potato salad,veggie dogs and buns) to take out... I crawled in bed with a tummy full of pepto and ibuprofen hoping to wake up "better".

Saturday morn I did feel a bit better,and went ahead out. We stopped by Vals 1st to pick up Rory's life jacket(LOL,Ri actually forgot it was ours and called Val asking if we could borrow it!)
I am really glad I sucked it up and went.
We had WAY more fun than I expected.

Ri's stepbrother ,Carl, and his 8 yr old son Ben went, too-sweet kid and they had an absolute blast together.
- it was a kinda of yucky drizzly day.The temp was nice though.

We rode out to Pop's spot- a sand bar out in the st.Johns - they let Ben ride behind on the tube,until he said he was tooo cold.

I think Rory wanted to..but didn't at the same time.







Rory really liked it up top- It was weird ,she looked almost scared ,Ri asked her "Are you having fun short-round?" and she shook her head vigorously, Yes .
We got to the spot,but the heavy rain and hurricane weather had made it still pretty deep. Deeper, and rainier than I really wanted to go swimming in. Rory however heard the word "swim" and was like "point me to the water" . The current kept pulling her , in that life jacket. We ended up making her hold a rope so she wouldn't float too far,sending someone out to swim after her.
Ben was really helpful and protective too.



Yes,they are both total hams. Ben actually asked while I was taking the pic if this was a good pic- or if he needed to move the tube over. LOL.
Ri also brought them some fish from his work. Pretty good food.Found out Rory LOVES her veggie dogs grilled.



She ended up playing so hard she fell asleep,and stayed asleep all the way until we came back to dock,and then she was upset because she wanted to swim some more!


Ri and Carl.
I didn't get any good pics of Pop. I think its SUPER cute Rory still calls them both NanaPop.
We parted with plans of doing it again some day- hopefully a spring or something- when their pontoon is running again.

We all ended crashing out fairly early after we came home.


Sunday - Mom and Dad showed up with my new/used table and chairs,chairs are hideously green-MUST repaint.The table is really pretty though.
I Have no idea were I am going to put the old table ,or what...Right now its sort of an island in my kitchen,which works out rather nice actually.

Ugh. On that note ,I feel really off balanced. I NEED to get ready for the upcoming month. I can feel that October will be chaotic,and I NEED to get it together.I NEED to be going through my crap and preparing for the HUGE community yardsale. I may need to kidnap my sisters for help on that..I also have TWO dentist appointments,Rory has her cleaning,and then there is Halloween to prep for(I always regret not planning more and missing out on Halloween events) .

Rory discovered youtube has TONS of little kid created vid of Littlest Pet shop adventures - and has had way too much fun with that- ohh, and I got this CUTE video.




You have to love the exit one side- come out the other,hair flip routine!!

Rory had lots of trouble getting to sleep last night.
She woke up multiple times with a stuffy nose :( . Ri got up with her and made us s'ghetti before he went to work.
This afternoon (Monday) I propped her up on the couch,enough that she could breathe easier, and she fell RIGHT asleep. She ran a slight fever,but she has been really good(well, a little over tired grumpy) otherwise ,poor thing.

I made black beans and cleaned up most the day.
Ri came home and made AWESOME burritos from scratch. Rory chowed down ,too.

Rory's plate. Homemade Spanish rice, black beans(a little salt pepper and cumin),tomato and avocado slices, and homemade tortillas.
Our burritos - had sour cream, homemade guacamole,and salsa. Ri added some of his freaky hot spices and peppers to his.




Well , I should go brush the kids teeth before she falls asleep.

Ri is off all day tomorrow,YAY! ...well, except for that being insanely broke thing.That sux.

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

Dressed up ,dirty watered ,eye in a peasant dishes ,stormy day off at the beach.

It is nice to dress up for dinner. Even when its simple peasant style ratatoullie ,mashed potatoes and soda:


(I love that she looks as if she disproves of her drink. "Its the stewards fault,really")
--that "ratatoullie" was WAY better than expected- Ri will have to make it more often.

Rory has still been being concentrated cuteness.
With the occasional mini meltdowns overtired or hungry.

The EYE seems to be a bit of an issue 'round here.Perhaps karmic debt for threatening to steal moms allergy eyed kitten "sniffles" and get him checked out?
- the dog has been bitchy- She has a cloudy spot on her eye.It already seems better than it did when I 1st noticed it,and her eyes still dilate and seem as though she can see.As far as I can tell it is a cholesterol deposit .Sigh.

The next morning I woke up with eye pain- a teeny stye in my upper eyelid.-its already gone.

Oh,and dirty water.Came in from playing in the sprinkler with the kid- to find a notice on the door that we should boil any water we consume for the next two days- when they'll turn it off to test it. :( It is back on now,and I am still not sure whether we should trust it.

Tuesday- Ri had the whole day off for once,and it was a surprisingly nice day,considering the patchy storms that have been plaguing us..We slept in for awhile then got dressed and headed for Flagler beach,taking the poor dog for once.


This may be the largest deepest tide pool I have ever seen. It was filled with teeny fish.









We took turns running the dog,and taking pics.


Rory played her feed the waves game,and pretended to be a fish-and that Noobie was a dogfish.














She also went out and jumped waves with Ri a little. It started to look stormy so we rode home. We tried to coax the dog into riding in the back(hatchback),and she surprisingly did for quite awhile,before making her way to her spot.


Ri made awesome sandwich's out of the left over ratatoullie(its like eggplant,zucchini,squash - and peppers-simple and amazingly good -next time I think we will make subs) and fries on the side MMm..

Thankfully none of us got burned this trip :)

Today. It stormed REALLY bad. The kind of lightning that comes WITH the sound- telling you "ITS HERE!" . Rory yelled loudly at the sky " BE QUIET,I DON'T APPRECIATE YOUR NOISE"
She was a little over hungry tired most of the day(not that we kept her awake or didn't feed her,just that she didn't sleep or eat while she was tantruming over nothing.We finally got her belly full, and she is sleeping.-Yeah,she'll wake up later tonight, I am sure.
Ri made homemade pasta sauce,salsa ,and guacamole while he made lunch- enough we should have a few extra around for awhile :)

Alright, I think I will sneak in a nap ,too.
PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE