A Definite Touchdown!

We had some friends over yesterday for the Super Bowl. Kirk made his famous barbecued chicken. I made deviled eggs and jalapeno popper dip. I found the dip recipe on the Big Red Kitchen blog last fall, but hadn't had a good reason to make it yet. She said it tasted exactly like jalapeno poppers, which is absolutely true. It was a huge hit and I will make it again for sure.

Jalapeño Popper Dip

2- 8 ounce packages cream cheese, room temp
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1- 4 ounce can chopped green chilies
1- 4 ounce can sliced jalapeños- double if you like heat

1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used regular home-made ones)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 stick butter, melted

In a food processor add the first 6 ingredients and process until smooth. You do not need to drain either can of peppers. Spread the dip into a greased 2 quart casserole (I used a 9" x 13" Pyrex, which was just fine too). In a bowl mix bread crumbs and the other 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Pour melted butter over top crumb mixture and mix well. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over the dip and bake in a 375° oven for about 20 minutes. You want the top to get browned and the dip to be heated through and bubble gently on the edges. Do not over heat this dish or the mayonnaise with separate and you will have a grease puddle in your dip. Serve with Buttery crackers or a sliced French baguette (we served with Wheat Thins). Serves 8-10.

It's Been Way Too Long

I'm not really sure why it has been almost a month since I last posted. Yikes! Fortunately, report cards went out last week, so I'm done with them for a couple of months. The other good news is that my student teacher is now with me every day. By the second week of February, she'll be in charge and I will be there as support. I'm excited about it because it will mean that my work weeks will be down to 40 hours. What a novel idea!

I have taken some time to do some sewing lately, which has been really fun. Our friends who are also our neighbors are having a baby in a week or two, so I've been making some things for them. She had a baby shower last week, so I made a tag blanket and bath apron, both of which I failed to take a picture of before I gave them away. This weekend I also made a pair of fleece mittens and a hat. The tag blanket was so fun and easy to make that I made another two this weekend.

This one is made out of two shirts Kirk was giving away, with fleece on the back. It's about 13" x 13".


This is monkey flannel with fleece. It's 9.5" x 9.5".

Favorite Ornaments

Every year I love unpacking my Christmas ornaments and rediscovering my favorites. Many of them bring back memories of Christmases past.

Our Starbucks ornaments are definitely a favorite.

This beautiful ornament was given to me by a student my first year of teaching. It's a little hard to see, but it has a crocheted star hanging inside it.

When I did my student teaching a mom had all the students sign this wooden apple for me.

We had to have a monkey on the tree, so I was excited when I found this ornament a couple of years ago.

We got a few of these golden ornaments at a Christmas bazaar in Belgium.

Here's another special one from Belgium.

My family has had these reindeer and bears for as long as I can remember.

A new favorite, in honor of Kirk's favorite football team.

I look forward to seeing what gets added to the collection in the future...

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Yes, Christmas break is finally here! I makes me so happy to be at home all day, especially since it's been snowing all afternoon. Even time spent doing laundry and cleaning doesn't seem too bad when you look out the window and see such a beautiful blanket of snow. It's been accumulating little by little, which has been fun to watch. Let's hope it will stay for Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a ... Little Like Christmas

Between the usual craziness for me at work and Kirk being sick, we haven't gotten much Christmas decorating and such done. We finally made it out to a local tree farm yesterday to get our Christmas tree. We spent quite a while searching, then found a tree that we liked but the tag had no price on it. We decided to keep looking and come back to that one if we didn't find anything better. After more looking, we were just about to head back to that tree when I spotted one that I really liked. It was small and skinny, but looked good. Finally, two trees down, we found the winner that got cut down and loaded on our Suburban. So far it only has lights on it, but at least I got it that far. Pictures to come soon.

Photo from marthastewart.com

Another Christmasy thing I did last night was bake a batch of Gooey Coconut Dream Bars. I saw them on Martha on Friday and they really are delicious! Plus, they're rich enough that you only need a couple of little bites. Just don't plan on cutting them too soon after you take them out of the oven.

On a totally different note, I sat down to watch one of my favorite shows when I got home from work and got a great surprise. I love watching The Amazing Race and last night was the season finale. The teams were in Moscow and were instructed to fly back to the States, to their final destination of Portland. From there, they had to find Camp Tilikum, where I worked for two summers. It was so cool. Part of the reason I like The Amazing Race is because I'm always hoping that they will go somewhere I have been. I always figured it would be a European destination, though, and not where I went to college. They didn't show much of the camp or anyone that I knew, but it was fun nonetheless, especially since it was so unexpected.

Happy Thanksgiving from South Africa

A student from our school is in South Africa right now visiting her mom's family. Last Wednesday they were at a wildlife preserve that has a live feed you can watch online (Africam.com). They arranged to be there at 9:00am our time so that our school could have an assembly and see them there. They made a big poster wishing us a happy Thanksgiving. It worked out perfectly and was very cool to watch.

Multicultural Museum

On Wednesday my partner teacher and I both brought the souvenirs, crafts, clothing items, and such that we have from around the world to school and made a "museum" for our students. We had small groups of them come walk around and enjoy our collection. Some of them were really fascinated. Our principal was quite impressed with our combined collection. Thank you to those of you who have brought me items from many different places!