Mushroom and Pea Risotto, Linda's Lemon and Garlic Shrimp, Children's Museum, and more...

 On the plate for the past two days:  Mushroom and pea risotto, Linda's lemon and garlic shrimp (not my recipe to give away), Nikki's fancy shmancy pizza, and Caramel brownie mug cake

Soundtrack to cook to:  Jamiroquai's Traveling Without Moving...made me think of my 16th birthday all over again....good times. :)

Hanging out, eating apples, and playing with toys...ahhhh, 'tis the life!  On Thursday, it was pretty rainy and cold, so the boys and I (Alexander and Oscar) chilled out in the house.

Alexander enjoys a mixture of fresh apples and
baked apple slices.

"Hi everyone!"

Alexander, playing around in the table...yes, I said "in" the table.

I love this sneaky and mischievous look he's giving.

I saw this fun and simple tactile toy that toddlers can play with.  They can practice tracing letters, putting their handprints in it, and just squishing it as well.  All you need to create it are three ingredients:  Hair gel, glitter, and a plastic bag.  After I saw how easy it was, I thought today would be the perfect day, since it was rainy and we couldn't go outside, to create it.

Squeeze the hair gel into a plastic bag.  I found a cheap hair gel
that already had coloring to it.  Alexander was a great help! 

Play time!  Alexander recoiled somewhat at
first when he found that the bag was really squishy. 

He's warming up to it, though. :)  He has enjoyed
squishing it and tracing shapes into the gel.
I personally like this toy because it doesn't create
a mess and get his clothes dirty!  Mess free = happy mommy!

Dinner time!  What to do, what to do?  Thanksgiving is coming up and I have been feverishly working on inventory reduction in order to make room for the ingredients for our feast.  I looked in the freezer and found a half bag of shrimp and a box of peas that were just begging to be used.  All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off and I whipped up a hodge podge dinner of Linda's lemon and garlic shrimp (Linda is Joseph's mother, who is an excellent cook) and mushroom and pea risotto.

I have a lot of respect for risotto and for the people that make it.  Risotto is a labor of love.  You can't rush it and you can't neglect it.  It needs constant love in order to flourish.  However, surprisingly, it's actually quite simple to make, but like I said, you have to be careful.

Brown some onions and make sure to have a pot of chicken stock
simmering on the burner behind the risotto pan. 

Once the onions have started to brown, I added the arborio rice
and mushrooms to get some color.

Once the rice has turned a nutty brown color, it's time to add the stock.
This is where the "love" comes in to play.  You have to put in a ladle
of stock and then stir the rice until that stock has been absorbed.
After the stock has been absorbed, you have to add in another ladle.
It can be quite tedious, but trust me, the output is well worth the trouble.

After you have ladled in all of the broth,
you need a big, burly man to hand grate some
delicious parmesan or in our case, pecorino romano
onto the risotto. :)

The result:  A steaming pile of buttery, nutty, creamy, delicious
risotto.  The peas add a delightfully sweet little "pop" to the
overall earthiness of the dish.  (Although my sister Kristen
would have said that I "ruined" the dish by adding the peas...
she's not a fan.)  However, this little family likes peas, so
the result was pure heaven!

Linda's delicious lemon and garlic shrimp.  Alexander loved this dish,
as did the rest of our crew.  However, Oscar is kind of a diva and
is surprisingly not a fan of shrimp.

Friday was pretty cold in our neck of the woods - around the 40s and 50s.  So, I decided to find an indoor place to take Alexander after he had one of his immunizations.  Thankfully, Alexander has always been pretty good about getting shots - not even a tear from a little guy.  He just had a look of sheer annoyance after the lady did it...wonder where he got that from?  Ha ha ha...anyways, here's a few shots of our morning at Boston's Children's Museum:

Alexander, rocking his new Purdue hat and gloves.
We had to get bundled up, because it was cold outside.

Alexander looking out, onto the water.  We got
to the museum a few minutes before it opened, so
we enjoyed looking at the water and seeing the birds. 

"Birrr!!!" (Alexander's version of "bird".)

Alexander ran into the play place room and
scurried straight over to the fish and enthusiastically
pointed at them.  However, he wasn't brave enough
to go up to the glass and "touch" the fish.

Alexander looking suave as he's driving a car.

"Hey ladies!!"

Alexander exploring the bubble area in the
play place.

It took Alexander a little time to get used to
blowing the bubbles, instead of putting the
whole thing in his mouth.

Alexander playing at the water table.  He's finally tall enough to
play at it!  He thoroughly enjoyed playing around with the water.

He was very unwilling to give up the slotted spoon.

After a lovely day at the museum, we played around the house, and then it was time to prepare dinner.  It was inventory reduction time, yet again.  We had some feta cheese and spinach chicken sausage and whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer.  Thus, in my head, I thought that it was time to make some fancy shmancy pizza.  Yes, that's my own title...I'm not that creative, I suppose.  Here's what I threw together:

I decided to make some caramelized onions.  This is one onion. 

This is one onion after it's been cooking on low for about 30 minutes.
In the last 10 minutes, I threw in some chopped mushrooms. 

Here's where the beautiful creation is assembled:  Whole wheat dough,
homemade marinara sauce, feta cheese and spinach chicken sausage,
caramelized onions, mushrooms, feta cheese, freshly grated pecorino romano,
and a little Italian seasoning.

The result:  A crunchy, sweet, salty, and savory piece of heaven.
I seriously just threw this pizza together in my mind and was so
pleased with how it turned out.  Absolute deliciousness!

Oh, but wait...it gets so much better.  My sister was over and decided that we should have something delicious and decadent for dessert.  I went to the website that I've been addicted to and have gotten so many awesome ideas and recipes and found some inspiration.  I found caramel chocolate brownie mug cakes.  Yes friends, a cake that you cook in a coffee mug!!  Sheer genius!  It took a few minutes to mix up, and 1 minute 30 seconds to cook in the microwave.

Mix up the ingredients and pour them into a coffee mug.  The
recipe calls for salted caramels (which I LOVE...I love salty and sweet),
but unfortunately I didn't have any, but I did have some caramel balls
that I dropped into the center of the mixture. 

Look at this beauty after cooking it for 1 minute and 30 seconds
in the microwave.  It was warm, gooey, and delicious!

It was a nice build up to a weekend.  Good food, family, and good times.  It doesn't bet much better than that.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki