Olympic Opening Ceremony Viewing Tradition

The tradition started with the 2004 Olympics and has continued every Olympics since then except 2006 when I was at American University for the semester. Thus, I was surprised that when I started to make this post on this year's decor and food and wanted to link to previous ones I couldn't find anything. Basically, I make food dishes from around the world and/or with an Olympic theme to enjoy while we watch the Opening Ceremony. This year it was more let's clear out the big stuff taking up space in the freezers (pizza and apple pie) and something Brazilian (cheese buns), but I also made some chocolate covered fruit and mini ice cream sandwiches to represent the Olympic rings.

Happy Pierogi Day (a.k.a. Mik's Thanksgiving)

Yesterday Mik asked how many pierogis I had made and instead of counting them I just said more than enough for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Thus, that's what he decided we're having for Thanksgiving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Valentine's Day: 1st Holiday in Our New Home

Wednesday Dad and I planned how to celebrate Valentine's Day on the actual day, but Mom had forgotten to tell us she was going out of town that evening.  Thus, we celebrated it a day late tonight.

My plan was to make a heart shaped cake with cupcakes as Mom thought that was cool when we were in Target the other day.  Since the kitchen is only partially unpacked I had to improvise a little in how I made it.  For one, we had no mixing bowls unpacked when I was mixing up the batter, so I ended up using a pot.  Of course, the one box I unpacked while the cupcakes were baking was the one with some of the mixing bowls!

Secondly, we have not found the pans, so I could not make regular sized cupcakes.  What I had unpacked already, though, was my mini cupcake maker, which ended up being a better way of making them anyways.  However, it took forever to use up all the batter (about 8 batches at 8 minutes each).

I topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and strawberries after arranging them in a heart shape.

Too Efficient at Preparing Lunch Today

I rarely actually plan what is for lunch ahead of time, but this morning I had Mik choose exactly what we should have and planned to have it right after his workout with his personal trainer.  Thus with a plan, I started making the potato fries in the oven to have them ready right when he is usually done.

Of course, for once they actually stayed out longer and I ended up having it all ready 15 minutes early.  Thus I had to reheat them for Mik when he was ready.  At least the corn dog was frozen and I had to heat that up for him anyways.  In the meantime, I enjoyed my veggie corn dog with some of the fries straight out of the oven.