Meringue Cookies-Cooking with Kenzie

I'm still trying to keep up with Tasty Tuesdays but with everything going on in our life it's been a little hectic, if you want to join Tasty Tuesday you can join at A Beautiful Mess, she ALWAYS has the yummiest recipes or you can join Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and I describe her recipes as scrumdiddlyumpsciousness...just means I REALLY love them too!


Most of you know that Makenzie(10 yrs old) has been laid up with a hurt ankle but she's still trying to cook as much as possible.  She was bored the other day, it's hard work laying on the couch with your leg propped up!  So, we decided to make Meringue Cookies.  I've made them before but she never had.  We are also going through the Future Christian Homemakers book (which you can download for free right now) and this weeks chapter was on eggs.  Plus it's a great add on to our homeschool curriculum and wonderful mommy/daughter time!

Makenzie learned how to separate eggs, she kinda liked and thought it was fun but she wasn't sure the egg whites were ever going to turn into meringue because it took a long time to beat them!

Heat the oven to 225 degrees

Beat 3 egg whites at high speed with a mixer
Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Add 3/4 cup of sugar 2 tablespoons at a time
beat until still peaks (this took her a long time and she didn't like it)

Place spoonfulls on a cookie sheet (we lined it with parchment paper)
Bake for 1 1/2 hrs then turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside to cool until they are dry and crisp (about another hour).

Here's a pic of Kenzie waiting for the Dr to look at her ankle

Secret Keep Girl tour-Pajama party

Kenzie and I had a mommy daughter date night with a group of mommies and their daughters from out homeschool group.  It was a fun night!  We all wore our PJ's and met at Cracker Barrel and then car pooled to the event.
I highly recommend this tour for anyone with a "tween" daughter between the ages of 8-13, they will LOVE it,  its a high-energy, fun event designed to reach girls before they are teenagers and while at an age to be more receptive to the modesty presentation.
Here is the link to Secret Keeper Girl, they have games, Truth or Bare fashion test, and an area for MOMs and an area for GIRLS!

Mika's pantry blog

One of my besties of all times, Mika,  has started a cooking blog called Mika's Pantry and I just wanted to share with all of my readers because she has some great recipes!!!  Leave her a comment and let her know you stopped by!

Her and her husband adopted Bailey at the same time that we adopted Makenzie.  Everytime we go visit them in OKC they try out new meals or their favorites at the time on us and EVERYTHING is always so delicious!!!

This is a pic of Mika and Bay and Makenzie and I at the Dillon Family Picnic 2001

Camping in Silverton, CO

When I was younger I lived in Durango, CO and we would go camping quite often and one of my favorite things is the smell of the air when it's just so crisp and clean and has that slight chill and you bundle up in a hoodie.  Oh how I miss those camping days, of course I was a LOT younger and slept in a tent without a blowup bed and could hike all day and not feel it the next day.  Well, times have changed!  I'm older and wiser (blow up beds are my friend now) and I can't hike all day because I'll be really sore the next day!  The kids had NEVER been camping in CO so we met up with my dad, stepmom, my brother and my sister in law and camped out (ok you can call it camping but they had a mini winnie and a 5th wheel) so we had luxuries that I never had as a kid like a porta potty, running water, a nice comfy bed, a kitchen, etc.  We also didn't have the fun 4 wheelers when I was a kid, however my kids LOVED it that Grandpa, Uncle Aaron and Auntie Erin would take them on rides and they even went up to Clear Lake on the 4 wheelers...good times!
We camped just outside of Silverton, CO in the South Mineral campgrounds.  I do recommend this area, so beautiful, plenty of hiking, camping, 4 wheeling, jeeping, etc.  Should be something for everyone here!

I took SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many pictures while we were camping but I will spare you and only post a couple of my favorites.

 

This is the little town of Silverton, CO it's so tiny and cute!

I went to the woods

because I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential facts of life,

and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,

and not, when I came to die,

discover that I had not lived.

~Henry David Thoreau~

 

Colorado and New Mexico trip

It's been 3 years since we've been back to NM and CO to see my family, wow how time flies!!!  I just can't believe it's been that long but Makenzie was 7 and Kylan was still 5 so they have changed a LOT since then.  Here's a pic of them then

and here's one now

They've really grown a lot!  Over the next couple of days I'm going to share some of our favorite highlights from our trip.  I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

More Kylanism's

I asked Kylan to put his socks away and this is what he did with them, made himself a muscle man!

When Kylan was telling his story about why he wanted to be baptized he said and "Makenzie telled me"...so cute.

We were having beer batter biscuits for dinner and he wouldn't eat them because it's against the law for kids to have beer and I was being a bad mom letting him eat those biscuits.

While we were camping up in Silverton, CO I drank a Mike's Hard Lemonade and Kylan says, "I can't believe you are drinking a drug"  He might be a little confused after Kevin and I have been talking to the kids about just saying NO to drugs.

We were playing a card game and somebody said, "Where have you been?"  Kylan piped up "The meatloaf  factory"....hmmm not sure about that one but it was FUNNY!

Yes, he's still allergic to red dye but he's much better...and here's some proof!

Here's another video that my sister made of Makenzie when she was a TOS All Star Cheerleader. She was SOOOO little!

Testify to Love

My sister made this one too, it's the 5 grandkids that live in OK.  The kids are all so little in this one!

Devin's brown belt

My sister has a company called Treasures of the Heart and she takes pictures and makes them into videos. This was one that she made years ago of her son Devin.  If you are interested in having her make a video for you let me know and I will give you her contact info!

Cooking with Kenzie-Sausage Quiche

Over the past year Kenzie has really been into cooking and learning how to do different techniques in the kitchen so we chose Thursday as her night to help in the kitchen.  She can help any night but this is our special time to make something that she has chosen for the week.  Every 2 weeks she plans the menu for the next 2 Thursday night dinners and she's come up with some great ideas!  This past week it was a recipe she chose from Paula Deen's My First Cookbook. 

                      Whipping the eggs

Grating the sharp cheddar

She browned the sausage and then put it into a rolled out pie crust

Adding 1/2 and 1/2 to the eggs

Sharp cheddar goes on top of the sausage

Next you pour the egg mixture on top

 Then you bake and enjoy!  It was really good and Kenzie did a great job, she chose fresh fruits to go with it and it made a delicious meal!

Great job Kenzie!

So my friend Dawn started doing Tasty Tuesdays so I decided to join her and I've found some yummy recipes.  If I can remember I'll post a new recipe every Tuesday....hmm, Dawn you may have to remind me!  LOL!

He's baaaaccckkk!

We have a little Welsh Corgi dog named Trix and 2 weeks ago he got our of our back yard and we have searched and searched for him but couldn't find him. Yesterday we get 2 phones calls from 2 different ladies in our area and they both think they have Trix. We saw pics of both dogs and they both have the exact same markings that Trix has! It was crazy!! After many phone calls back and forth we finally figured out which dog was Trix, he still had his green collar on but his tags were missing. We were able to pick him up last night and he's soooooo thin...poor baby! We were all glad to see him and he got a bath as soon as he walked in the front door because he was a stinky boy.

Galveston Beach

A couple of weeks ago we headed out for Galveston to go to that national dance competition and I wasn't very excited about the location.  EWWWW, the Galveston beach is kinda gross, at least the last time we were there BUT if you know us then you know we are going to have fun no matter where we go or what we do!  WE had such a great time at the beach skim boarding, boogie boarding, playing in the waves, looking at sea creatures, hanging out with friends and we were also very happy to report that no oil was spotted in Galveston from the oil spill!

If interested in dance please be sure to check out the dance team Kenzie's on and their ministry The Legacy Project!

Cousins

It's been 3 years since I've been back to NM or CO to see family and last week some of my cousins came into town for a baseball tournament.  It was the Jackie Robinson World Series 9U...I think I got that correct!  Anyway, we all got together at my moms house and had lunch and dinner and visited for hours.  It was so great to see them, my cousin Jeremy has 4 kids now!  Last time I saw him he only had 2 but they had a set of ADORABLE twins since then.

Nathan and Matthew

Riley and Tyler-the twins

Makenzie

I was bummed that we didn't get to see Nathan play ball because it was the same time as Korea camp but his team did really good!  They got 3rd place in the tournament...so proud!

My cousin Krista (she's in the pic with Kevin) has changed so much, she was one of the flowergirls in our wedding and now...sniff, sniff, she's planning her own wedding! She's all grown up and getting her doctorate in physical therapy...wow, time flies!