Merry Christmas from the Vescapades Family!

I know, Christmas is over, and many of you have already taken down your trees and decorations. However, after a week off from posting to my blog, I just have to share some of the lovely photos from our Christmas celebrations.

Our tradition is always Christmas Eve with Colby's parents, Christmas Day with my mom and step dad, and the day after Christmas with my dad and step mom. Needless to say, the Vescapades minivan is fully loaded with gifts when we make our way back to Lincoln.

Soren told everyone she wanted a Leapster, and she got one.


One BIG happy family!


The kids with their cousin.


The girls couldn't wait to open presents at Grandma Vesely's.


Baby Kort's first Christmas. We made sure to get him a Star Wars board book. Every little boy needs Star Wars stuff. Soren couldn't get enough of him. I'm sure he's had enough of her for awhile.




The oldyweds...13 years in May 2011. Can you believe it?


Colby with his mom and dad and siblings.


Soren loves Grandma's piano.


Colby and his brother cleaned up all the Christmas dinner dishes and mess for the first time this year. I love my hubby!



The kids at Grandma Marta's house.



Evie got licked by my mom's dog right when Colby took the photo. It's still cute, though.


Soren wet her pants at my mom's house. She had no other pants there, so we slipped Brody's new shirt on her while we washed her pants and scanties.


My mom's granddaughters with their gifts.


We had a very merry Christmas indeed.

Guinness Cupcakes

I always look for interesting recipes for Colby to take to work on his "treat days." Last time he took bacon cupcakes. This time I made Guinness cupcakes. The recipe I found required baking the basic cake in layers, making a filling, and then making a frosting. Who has time for that? I dumped the cake batter into muffin pans and frosted them with ganache.

First, pour 1 cup of Guinness beer into a small saucepan. Add 1 cup of cut up butter to the beer and heat on low heat until the butter melts. It looks like this:


Once the butter is melted, remove the mixture from heat and whisk in 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. It looks like this:



Set the beer mixture aside to cool while you move on to the next steps.

In a large bowl combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

In a separate smaller bowl, beat 2 large eggs with 2/3 cup of sour cream until smooth with an electric mixer. Pour in the beer mixture and whisk to make a smooth, thick liquid.

Pour the beer/chocolate into the flour mixture and gently combine with a spatula. Pour the batter into muffin cups lined with papers.

Bake in the oven preheated to 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. The amount of time will depend greatly on the type of muffin pan you use. Cool completely before frosting.

Now, I have no photos of the finished product because I had bowling league last night and was in a hurry to get out the door. Colby took the cakes to work this morning, so my photo opportunity is gone. Instead of photos, I will share with you the chocolate ganache recipe I used as frosting. It's so easy.

Chop 9 oz. of bittersweet chocolate into small pieces and put it in a mixing bowl. In a small saucepan over low heat, gently bring 1 cup heavy cream to a simmer. If it boils it will froth out of the pan and all over the place. Or so I'm told.

Pour the warm cream into the chopped chocolate and whisk until smooth. Allow to cool before pouring/spreading onto your cake. Really, if you make cupcakes you only need to make a half batch of the ganache. Or make a whole batch and just eat the rest with ice cream or animal crackers.

Another Clothes Basket Adventure

I'm telling you, clothes baskets are the best toy ever.

This is Soren in her "ship", watching Olivia on t.v., and taking touristy photos with her Mickey Mouse camera.

Gingerbread Houses

Saturday mornings are not the relaxing, sleeping in time of week they used to be. With both girls now taking dance class Saturday mornings, we have to be ready and out of the house by 8:00 am. That said, the building where the girls have dance also houses a lovely local bookstore, and we just happen to have about an hour to kill in between dance classes. Our routine is to head downstairs after Soren's dance class for bagels with cream cheese, juice, and coffee. The bookstore always offers Spanish/English story time on Saturday mornings; Soren just loves to play Spanish Bingo. So, here are some photos from this Saturday's bookstore adventures, which included the creation of the stickiest gingerbread houses ever.

The bookstore trains are always fun.



Soren wanted a turn with the camera.




The book this week was one of those I Spy books. I think there were too many kids, so no one could actually get close enough to find any of the hidden items.



Evie came downstairs after her dance class, so both girls got to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and frosting.





As we were leaving, Soren carried her house quite carefully, as carefully as a 3-year-old could, while still stealing little bites along the way. Alas, it still managed to fall on the floor, which didn't actually stop her from still eating it. Yuck.

Dade's Fall Band Concert

First of all, I must apologize that the photos are so horrible. The lighting in the multipurpose room is horrible, and our seats were waaaaayyyy in the back.

With that out of the way, Connie and Carrie joined us for Dade's band concert. He's been playing the trumpet since 5th grade, and now that he's a 7th grader the concerts are actually quite enjoyable. He has band every day, so the kids get lots of practice. It definitely shows in their performance.

Although the concert lasted past the kids' bedtimes, everyone was quite happy to see Grandma and Auntie for a few hours. We tried to keep ourselves occupied in the crowd by snapping lots of silly photos.





Dade did a great job. We are proud of all he's accomplished over the last few years in band. He had to wear jeans for his performance because the dress slacks I bought him a couple of months ago were far too small. Yet another pair of unworn pants fallen victim to adolescent growth.

One More Thought on Healthcare

I was just reading an article on HuffPost about a 5-year-old with leukemia who has been receiving treatment since she was three years old. Her father is a disabled veteran. Her mother works part time, and she has 5 siblings. The story is an attempt to get this girl's story out there to raise money for her medical expenses. Apparently the first medical bill the family received following the girl's diagnosis two years ago was for more than $49,000 (more than the family made in income the whole year). The family is also asking for grocery store gift cards so they can buy food and toiletries.

One of the comments posted under the story was really thought-provoking for me:

How can a country as wealthy and powerful as the United States relegate whether or not someone dies to charity?

Oh.my.god. I support universal health care, but this comment made me shiver. I'm rendered speechless, really. I think that comment says it all.

Homemade Toaster Pastry

As a kid, one of my absolute favorite foods were Pillsbury Toaster Strudel. I loved pooping them in the toaster and squeezing that little tube of frosting on when they were done. I haven't bought them in years because they have absolutely no redeeming nutritional value.

One day while watching Food Network, I saw one of their chefs making homemade toaster pastries, and I said to myself, "Hot damn!" Actually, I said it out loud, but whatever.

Today I tried my first batch. I have never worked with puffed pastry dough before today, and I actually think it was really easy and pretty tasty. Now, the recipe on Food Network had a filling made of blueberry jam boiled in a pan with cornstarch until thickened. Although that sounds yummy, I had a can of cherry pie filling in the cupboard, so I thought that would do.

So, all you have to do is thaw the puff pastry sheets, lay them out on a lightly floured surface, and cut them into 4 equal strips per sheet. I put just about 4 or 5 cherries and some of the sauce down on the pastry strip, wet the sides of the pastry with water so it would stick together, folded the strip in half, and crimped the edges with a fork. I lost a little filling along the way, but I'm not in this to be prom queen. I just want something yummy.







Bake at 425 for about 12 minutes. I didn't want to overcook them because I want to be able to reheat them in my toaster oven without burning them.


I made a quick powdered sugar and water glaze for when they are cooled off. Sure, they aren't Pillsbury, but they are still delicious!