My Aquafina campaign is almost at an end.  I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.  I love having a 6 pack of water show up at my door every week in a different flavor! So far I’ve received mixed berry, lemon, strawberry kiwi, grape, and raspberry.

Raspberry is the flavor this week.  I love raspberries.  I love to throw them in a salad.  My mom makes a yummy salad dressing with them but I’m lazy and use raspberry all fruit preserves because pushing all of those strawberries through a sieve seems torturous to me.  I also love them in the cocktail I talked about in this entry.  I had a canning party last weekend (that is an entirely different subject and I promise to write about it soon…now pick your jaw up off the table) and drank a few too many of those yummy raspberry cocktails.

As for the waters, lemon was my favorite.  My second favorite was a toss up between strawberry kiwi and grape.  This week, I’m surprised to not be loving the raspberry but I just don’t like it that much.  The flavor is a little too strong I think.  It isn’t awful – I am drinking it right now…just not a flavor I would purchase.  I am a little sad to report that in my area the lemon isn’t easy to find in stores…but the other flavors seem to be pretty common.  And I am very curious to see what the last flavor of our campaign will be.

How about we make that the question for entry to win a coupon for a 6 pack and 2 lip balms (one raspberry and one mixed berry)?  What flavor do you think is the last one? I’ll draw a winner on Tuesday 6/15 around noon central time.

Don’t forget you can print your $1 off a six pack coupon right here.

I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for Aquafina FlavorSplash and have received various FlavorSplash samples to facilitate my participation. Mom Central will send me a gift card at the end of the program.  My opinions are my own.

Sabrina has been all girl from day 1.  But now she wants the world to know it.  For the past 2 weeks, she has demanded to wear a dress every day.  The only problem I have with that is: she only has a few dresses.  I bought a few dresses and a bunch of shorts and tops for the summer.  This is the first time I’ve had to fight with her over wardrobe options.  She also wants Tessa to wear dresses – thankfully Tessa doesn’t care yet.

This is the current favorite dress.  Every time I do laundry, she immediately requests this dress.  The reason she loves dresses?  Because she can dance and twirl in them.  This from the girl who didn’t like dance class.  She will turn on her radio* (thanks Grandma Freida…it is now her favorite item…and mommy likes it too now that Steve loaded songs on it that don’t drive me crazy) and twirls for longer than anyone with an inner ear should be able.

Unfortunately, the twirling makes it difficult to capture a picture in our dark cave of a living room between the bad lighting and the fact that my camera always snaps the photo at the exact moment she turns her head.

And neither child will actually look at me when I have the camera out.  Tessa will purposefully turn her head and refuse to look at me when she hears me turn it on.

But sometimes it still turns into a cute photo.

*This is the radio (Discovery Kids MP3 Player) that Grandma Freida got Sabrina for Christmas 2 years ago.  It is an MP3 player that you can load songs onto.  It comes pre-loaded with 20 really annoying songs but you can remove those.  We put music on it that Sabrina likes dancing to but that doesn’t drive us crazy.  (Abba, Stevie Wonder, Bon Jovi, Barenaked Ladies, Go-Gos, Def Leopard, AC/DC, etc.)  Click here for the listing on Amazon.

Dear FCC: No one asked me to plug the radio and the link is not an affiliate link…assuming I am using the term affiliate link correctly (meaning I get nothing if someone clicks on the link).  Just sharing a good product with my friends.

My June Cooking Light magazine contained a recipe for Bourbon Baked Beans.  Memorial Day was looming and we were headed to a big picnic the Saturday before.  I decided I would try them for the picnic.  Then I had second thoughts.  Would the many children at the picnic hate the less familiar flavors?  Should I attempt something new and inflict it upon others before trying it myself?  So I took canned beans to the picnic (what? Bush’s does a good job) and made the from scratch beans at home for our own cook out on Monday.

During the cooking process, the Cooking Light recipe and I parted ways.  I decided these beans needed a little more bacon and some brown sugar.  Then I read some other recipes and saw people using coffee.  Later on I decided they needed a little bit of ketchup and mustard and a little more brown sugar.  I also decided they needed a little bit of spice…which I am going to leave out here because it overwhelmed the beans a bit.

A word of warning: if you’ve never had baked beans from scratch, you need to adjust your expectations a little bit.  The beans will not be as soft as the ones from the can no matter how long you soak them or bake them (unless someone knows something I don’t).  They aren’t hard…just firmer.  And a tip – these taste even better the next day so don’t be afraid to bake them and then warm them up the next day to serve.  Also, it is a long process so unless you don’t have plans to go any where don’t start this.

Bourbon Baked Beans (adapted from Cooking Light Recipe click here to see original)

1 lb dried navy beans

6 slices bacon

1 yellow sweet onion, diced

3 1/2 cups water (then more as you cook)

1/2 brewed coffee

1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff…the pancake stuff is too sweet), divided

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons bourbon, divided

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

1 Tablespoon cider vinegar

Soak beans over night in water.

Drain beans and put aside.  Preheat oven to 350*.  (You can do all of this in a dutch oven if you have one. I do not.)  Cook bacon in large, deep skillet.  Remove from pan and crumble.  Reserve 2 Tablespoons of the drippings in the pan.  Brown the onion in the drippings for 5 minutes or until browned.  Add beans, bacon, 1/2 cup coffee, 3 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup bourbon, Dijon mustard, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce to pan.  Bring to a boil.

Transfer to a large baking pan (I used my big lasagna pan), cover with foil, and bake for 2 hours and 30 minutes.   Stir in 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup maple syrup, ketchup, yellow mustard, vinegar, and remaining 2 Tablespoon bourbon.  Cover and bake.  Check every hour.  If it is getting dry, add more water.  I cooked mine for a total of 5 hours.

Linking to Rachel’s Mouthwatering Monday.

When Sabrina says they are going to hide, this is what she and Tessa do.  Yep, Mensa has us on speed dial.

Tessa kindly passed her illness on to me hence my silence this week.

I will tell anyone who worries about a developmental delay in her child that every child is different and they all eventually catch up (except those that don’t…but that is another post).  I’ve told people this professionally.  I’ve told people this personally.  I believe it.  Except when it comes to my children.

I know in a few months, I will be kicking myself in the ass for complaining about this but I am concerned that Tessa isn’t talking.  There were a half dozen bloggers who had babies within 6 weeks of me and they all write about their babies asking for things and saying I love you mama.  Tessa has had the same words for over 6 months now.  Cracker, momma, dadda, Nina.  She also says “Ba” which can mean ball, bye, and when said twice her cup.  She says lolo for lotion and looon for balloon as well as noool for noodle.  Her only recent word is peas which means please.  She does a few signs and screams for everything else.

The screaming is about to send me over the edge.  She screams when she is happy.  She screams when she is mad.  She screams when she is frustrated or wants something or is bored or is playing with Sabrina.  It is obnoxious and by the end of the day I often have a headache forming.

We try to work with her on words.  She tries and makes lots of sounds…some of them appropriate and some of them not.  Sabrina even tries to get her to say new words.  Sometimes she’ll say them a couple of times but then she seems to forget how.  Honestly, Sabrina rarely shuts up long enough to really let Tessa try to talk so Tessa just screams over her incessant chatter.

Mostly, I put this out there because I need to say it out loud.  It worries me.  But also I wonder when do I become concerned?  She will be 2 in less than 2 months.  At this age (I know, stop comparing), I worried Sabrina was behind but she was putting 2 word sentences together.

Steve reminds me that Tessa has done everything at her own pace and in her own way.  She started walking and was running the next day.  She started eating solids way late but she just decided to get on board with it one day.  He says that one day I will ask her if she wants more milk and she’ll reply with a full sentence “Why yes mother, that would be delightful.  Thank you.”

I don’t know about your house, but in mine it isn’t really a holiday until someone is sick.  My poor little Tessa isn’t feeling good.  Fortunately, it just seems to be a cold but she is snotty and whiny and clingy.  I think she caught something at the cook out we attended on Saturday.  Who knows how many germs were floating around in that baby pool?  The girls had a grand time so I tried not to think about it.  Good for the immune system, right?

I’ve got baked beans from scratch in the oven right now…if they turn out yummy I’ll share that recipe next week.  I also made a pretty red, white, and blue cake for Memorial Day.

It is a jello cake.  For anyone who doesn’t know how to make one of these, I’ll share the recipe.  (I originally saw it in Good Housekeeping or Better Homes & Gardens eons ago.)  My husband loves this cake and always requests it as summer rolls around.

Red, White & Blue Jello cake

1 box lemon cake mix

1 large box strawberry jello

1 8 oz tub cool whip

1 pint strawberries

1 pint blueberries

Prepare cake mix in 9×13 pan according to box directions.  Allow to cool

Poke holes all over the top of the cake with the end of a spoon or  a chopstick.

Prepare jello with 3 cups of water (box will say 4 cups – use less).  Allow to cool but not set.

Pour jello over cake.  Make sure it all cool before topping with cool whip.

Top with tub of cool whip.

Slice strawberries.  Alternate strawberries and blueberries in stripes.  (Can use any other berry you like.  Can also make a design with berries – the original cake was for a flag cake which had the strawberries striped and all of the blueberries in the upper left corner to mimic the American flag.)

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Visit Rachel for more Mouthwatering Monday recipes.

The recital was adorable.  The lack of organization prior to that had 200 people standing in line for over an hour in a really hot hallway to sit down to watch the recital? Not so cute.  Entertaining a not quite 2 year old in the hallway of a high school for 90 minutes because they require the girls there ridiculously early? Not so much fun.  But the recital was so sweet I think I got cavities watching it.  So much cute in one place – GAH!  Sorry no video here.  If we are friends on facebook, you’ll find it there.

I can’t even get her to look at me and smile most days and they got a glamor shot.

This is Sabrina just before we left for her last dance class last week.  I have to be honest – I’m not going to miss the Wednesday struggle to get her into tights and make her hair stay in a bun while convincing her she likes going to dance class.  I’m also not going to miss trying to keep Tessa happy for 45 minutes in the tiny waiting area every week.  I did like some of the other moms so I will miss chatting with them.  But we will not be signing up for dance class again next  year.  I might put up with the expense and the hassle if Sabrina liked going but she was so indifferent that it is clear that dance isn’t her thing – at least for now.  Regardless, I am glad that we did it.  I never took classes like that as a child and I hope that my girls can discover what they are good at while they are young.

I think maybe tumbling/gymnastics might be our next pursuit – we’ll see.

Because look at this baby tomato!  So exciting…our first tomato.  It is on the roma tomato plant for anyone curious.

And everything else is looking pretty good.  Lots of blooms on the cucumbers.

Summer is here no matter what the calendar says.  The kids are out of school here and we’ve either hit 90 degrees or hovered awfully close for the last few days so I’m calling it: summer!  And the girls are on the move.

Celebrities pay big bucks for lips like these:

Anyone want to guess if she was being helpful to her little sister or tormenting her?

Bikes are traded…no matter that the girls don’t really fit well on each others’ bikes.  We always want what someone else has.

Bubbles are the best.  They make everyone smile.

Some cute for those who don’t like my recipes:

Now onto the yum.  I’ve attended several Tastefully Simple parties since moving here.  They have sweet “cheese” balls that I had trouble liking until a friend had an Apple Pie flavored one at her house and I devoured about half of it with the yummy graham pretzel twist thingies.  I can’t justify the cost of some TS items and the graham twist thingies are one of those things (don’t yell at me…I like Tastefully Simple…I just think it is pricey so I purchase judiciously).  I found some ginger pretzel twist thingies at World Market for much cheaper and started thinking they might be good with a lemon cheesecake ball.  And the googling began.

I found several recipes but zeroed in on this one.  I needed an excuse to make it – I couldn’t make it and have it sitting around here or I would eat the whole stupid thing.   I hosted book club last week so that seemed like the perfect excuse.  It turned out really yummy – a nice way to satisfy the cheesecake desire without baking a cake.  I refrigerated it overnight but it never got solid enough to roll it in the graham crumbs so I sprinkled them on top.  I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese so that might be why it wasn’t quite as solid.

Lemon Cheesecake Ball

12 oz cream cheese – that is 1 1/2 bricks (I used the 1/3 less fat)

3 1/2 Tbs sugar

Zest of a lemon

2 Tbs fresh lemon juice

3 full graham crackers, crushed

With a rubber spatula, combine the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.  Taste – you can add a little more sugar or lemon juice if it needs it.  Wrap in plastic wrap to form a ball – I put mine in a small bowl to form the ball shape.  Refrigerate for several hours until firm.  Roll in graham cracker crumbs or sprinkle them on top.  Serve with graham crackers, animal crackers, etc.

Visit Rachel’s Mouthwatering Mondays for other recipes.

The winner of the coupon for the free 6 pack of Aquafina Flavor Splash and lip balm is comment #1 (I know the random number generator is random but I’ve never seen #1 be the number generated).  CMTMDT I sent you an email.

Don’t forget, those that didn’t win can print a $1 off coupon by clicking this link.

If I get some other good stuff to share, I’ll do another give away.  I’m looking forward to seeing what flavor they send me this week.