Basketball Weekend

Now that Aidan, Emmy and Aoife are all playing Rec Basketball, our weekends are super full!!  At least 3 - if not 4 - basketball games per weekend give us a lot of time in nice warm gyms - better than freezing our tails off on the lacrosse field!!

 

 

Almond Cookies

These cookies are delicious - almondy, crunchy and soft at the same time and gluten free (if that's important to you!).  The almond paste can be found in the baking aisle next to the marzipan. Make sure to use the almond paste - not the marzipan.  Marzipan already has sugar and other ingredients in it!

Almond paste comes in varying sizes so you may have to do a little math (gasp!) to adjust the recipe.  Our family loves these so much that I always at least double the recipe - and they are still gone within a few hours.  These also freeze perfectly so make them ahead and surprise everyone! You'll be a hero!

Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

10 ounces almond paste - NOT marzipan

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

¼ teaspoon almond extract

confectioners sugar

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.  Break the almond paste into small pieces and place in food processor fitted with a steel blade.

3.  Add sugar and salt and process until mixture is finely ground and combined.

4.  Whisk the egg whites in a small bowl and add in a steam to the almond mixture while processing – stop adding whites when mixture becomes a medium thick paste.

5.  Stir in the almond extract.

6.  Scoop the dough by heaping teaspoons onto the baking sheet and sprinkle heavily with confectioners sugar.

7.  Use three fingers to press indentations into each cookie.

8.  Bake the cookies 15-20 minutes until they are just barely brown around the edges.

9.  Be careful not to over cook – these burn quickly!

10.  Remove from oven and let cool on the pan.

m&m blondies

These are a super fast and awesome dessert to gift or enjoy yourself!!  You can make them for any holiday since m&m's come in all sorts of seasonally appropriate colors. These happen to be red and green for Christmas but they come in Valentine's colors, Easter colors and even 4th of July colors!

I made these for Aidan's middle school teachers for Christmas and his math teacher liked them so much that she wrote a note begging for the recipe. If there's one thing that I like more than cooking it's sharing recipes!  So here it is:

M&M Blondies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter

2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

2 – 2 ½ cups M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease a 9x11 baking pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

Melt 2/3 cup butter and add to bowl of electric mixer.

Add 2 cups brown sugar to melted butter and mix well.

Once cooled slightly, add eggs (beaten) and vanilla and mix well.

Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Mix in 1 cup of M&Ms.

Pour batter into greased 9x11 baking pan and spread to edges of pan.

Sprinkle remaining 1 – 1 ½ cups m&ms over top of batter.

Bake 20-30 minutes until browned and just cooked through.

2017 recap

2017 marked the 10th year that I have kept up with this blog. Some years have had more posts and some less - mostly indicating if I was swamped with a new baby or a deployment or in this year's case, a new job.  Nevertheless, it has been a fantastic exercise in reflection and commitment that has built a family history that is fun to look back at and enlightening as well.  We all have ups and downs and although I never intend to dive too deep into the lows or highlight the highs, they are still there and evident in either what I wrote or the lack of posts during a certain time frame. It also serves as a very concrete touchstone for the kids.  They don't remember a lot of what happened on a daily basis when they were little but being able to read about it and see photos builds a narrative of what our life has been like so far. 
2017 has been a tough year in the world but our family managed to have a lot of fun and enjoyed a lot of what living in Virginia has offered us!

In January we went to Disney World and Brendan ran a bunch of races during the marathon weekend. Declan started full time school at Jamestown and everyone played lots of basketball.

 In February Aidan turned 12 and we finished up the basketball season.

In March we got a little bit of snow and then it turned super warm only a few weeks later.  The girls started lacrosse season!

In April Aoife turned 8, we visited Manasas, Aidan started baseball and the girls started lacrosse games.

In May we played lots more baseball and lacrosse, Declan had an end of year music concert and Aoife had her First Holy Communion.

 

In June the kids finished up school, baseball and lacrosse, Brendan had his change of command, Declan went to soccer camp and Emmy turned 10!

In July we went to Massachusetts for a week, Emmy and Aidan both went to camp and Aoife played box lacrosse.

 

In August we harvested honey from our beehive, went apple picking and enjoyed the end of summer.

In September we went to a lot of football games and lacrosse games and Declan turned 5!

In October we dressed up for Halloween, watched a lot of lacrosse and finished up the football season.

In November I turned 40, we finished up lacrosse season and we celebrated Thanksgiving in Massachusetts.

In December we got ready for the holidays, watched Aidan play basketball at the Verizon Center, celebrated Christmas and enjoyed a great New Years Eve with friends!!

We are excited to see what 2018 has in store!  I know it will be another year full of fun - watching the kids grow and change.  Keep checking back - blogging year #11 starts now!