Second Annual Christmas Letter!

Time for the Annual Paper and Postage Saving Environmentally Friendly Kerr Christmas Letter!
So you might be asking yourself, "What did the Kerrs do this year?" You know what? I don't know. It's all a blur. Thankfully, I have iPhoto to jog the ol' memory.
Ah yes...on March 15th, we welcomed the newest model Kerr, Andrew James, weighing in at a whonkin' 10lbs, 2 oz.


I think birthing a baby is a pretty big accomplishment so I'll just end my letter here.




Just kidding





Andrew is exceedingly cute and a fine fit for this family. At this point I want to again extend a thank you to all those who brought us dinner after Gummi was born. It was all so tasty, I might be tempted to have another baby.

Did you hear that? I think my mother just fainted.



Anyway, on with the rest of our year.


In February, we bought our own land yacht. We love having all the space and if you ever have need to transport 12 people at once, give us a call. While not exactly the most fuel efficient vehicle, we could probably work something out as long as you don't have plans to drive to Copenhagen.



In May, my fabulous friends threw me a surprise birthday party for my 40th 29th birthday. It was a great day with family and friends. So much so, I think I'll have another birthday next year.



Also in May, Bo Hunkmeister and his Dad went on a one week motorcycle tour of the Great Smoky Mountains. From all accounts (and pictures) it was a great trip. They have plans to do one again next spring in the Ozarks.

In July, my brother Dan and his family visited from North Carolina. I'd have pictures to show you, but between whining that the USS Constitution was closed and searching for cannoli, we didn't think to take pictures. Rest assured though, a fun time was had by all (and there's no photographic evidence to prove otherwise!)


Let's see, what else...



Bo: Is still working for Newfangled Graphics when not kid wrangling.





Me: I continue to bake, read and have my science projects go horribly wrong.





Princess Buttercup: This is her in front of her keychain collection displayed at our local library. She continues to read voraciously. Her current faves are Lloyd Alexander and Eoin Colfer. Any other good author suggestions would be welcomed.



Princess Git Er Done: Continues to play the violin when not taking control of Gummi care. She also works as a mommy's helper for a neighbor. I see many babies in her future.




W. Bear: Is currently obsessed with Pokemon and Webkindz.





Tater: Has learned to read this year!







Baby: need I say more?











So that's our year in a nut shell. We hope all is well in your neck of the woods and wish you a happy and healthy 2010!

Spend All You Have For Loveliness....

I love Rice Krispie Treats. Really, I could live on them. You know that Woody Allen movie "Sleeper" where he finds out 200 years in the future that coffee and cigarettes are actually good for you? This is my fantasy for Rice Krispie Treats.

It so happens that I am not the only one to have this "love that nutritionally dare not speak its name". I was flipping through an old copy of Gourmet magazine and found this recipe*. It combines Rice Krispie Treats, chocolate and coffee - some of my favorite things! And because I'm that peace and love to the world type of girl, I'm going to share it with all of you. Shall we get on the road to loveliness?


Chocolate Marshmallow Squares with Espresso Ganache
(from Gourmet magazine 12/2006)

for ganache
5 oz fine quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), chopped
3 oz fine quality bittersweet chocolate (70%0 cacao), chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Tia Maria, Kahlua or other coffee flavored liqueur
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules

for marshmallow squares
1/4 lb marshmallows (15 large marshmallows or 2 cups small)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Drost in the red box)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups Rice Krispies

to make ganache
Melt chocolates with cream, liqueur, and espresso powder in a metal bowl set over simmering water, whisking occasionally until smooth, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand at room temperature until thickened, about 2 hours.

to make marshmallow squares:
1. Spray a cookie sheet with non stick spray.
2. Melt marshmallows and butter with sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2 1/2 to 3 quart heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and gently stir in the cereal. Transfer to cookie sheet pressing evenly with dampened fingers. Cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Cut sheet in half.
4. Spread some ganache on one of the half sheets. Top with other half. Cut the sheet into bite sized squares. Reheat ganache gently to loosen and drizzle on top of the squares.
5. Let stand until set, about 15 minutes.


NOTES:
1. for the chocolate ganache, 8 oz of Hershey's Dark chocolate works fine.
2. I've found you need to double the marshmallow square recipe to deal with all the ganache.
3. Do not use old marshmallows. Believe it or not, these sugar bombs need to be fresh to avoid the krispies being brick hard


There you have it! Love in a pan!


*that I was looking through old cooking magazines is a blog for another day - I have many, many issues

Nativity Scenes

Seeing how it is the Christmas season and all, the kids, taking a break from making miles upon miles of green and red paper chains, decided to make a Nativity scene.


This was Princes Buttercup's rendition of that sweet night, long, long ago:



A close up for detail:


Note the nuance of emotion that Madame Blueberry brings to the role of Mary.



Raising the bar even higher, Princess Git Er Done, enlisting the aid of Tater, creates a "living creche"


Look at that adoration in her eyes!
I'm not sure who the vacuum cleaner is supposed to represent, but I'm pretty sure that Gummi now qualifies for his SAG card.

You're Killing Me....

There's a blog I like to frequent. It's called Pioneer Woman. I like it because it's not your usual Mommy-Blog; as in 'here's a funny thing my kids did, here's a goofy picture of the husband' or worse - 'let me give you a detailed list of what went wrong with my day!' Pioneer Woman writes about her life as a rancher's wife in Oklahoma. I'm a bit jealous because not only is she is running a household of 6, but she has time to keep up five sections on her blog, homeschool the four kids and take fabulous pictures while she's at it. If I can school the kids and take a shower in the same day, I consider myself phenomenally successful. I also really appreciate how she speaks of her husband. In this day and age where most men are spoken of as knuckledraggers or goofballs, she speaks highly of her man. Something tells me there are more babies in her future....


Anyway, my one complaint is her recipes. Take a look at this steak sandwich:




Or this onion and blue cheese sauce for a grilled rib eye steak:

Would it be pathetic to admit that I sniffed my computer screen?



This apple dumpling dessert my kids affectionately refer to as crack because it's that addictive:

Try it. You'll be calling me from rehab.



When I made this lasagna for my neighbor, she squealed. Squealed.



But the killer is this pie I made last night. Chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs. That combination is not evidence that there is a God, but that he loves us.



You're killing me, Pioneer Woman.

But my husband thanks you.

Who's Your Handyman?

Baby told me he needed to fix the house today.



What?
Doesn't your handyman wear a gold sequined leotard?
Note the fringe tool belt.
I think I might get one for Bo Hunkmeister this Christmas.
Hey, quit complaining about the mental image in your head.
It could have been a lot worse.
A lot worse.

Slacker?

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've made a post. Hey, cut the Domestic Goddess some slack. It's not easy to keep up this level of fabulosity and still have time to blog about it. I need an entourage. Yeah, that's it, an entourage to report on my activities. I'll have to speak to the Bo Hunkmeister about this....

Anyway, what has the Domestic Goddess been doing you ask? (even if you're not asking, I'm going to tell you)


1. Exploring nature with the kiddies


We periodically see these things in our yard, but this one happen to be a biggun'



2. Examining the 'fruit' of the garden










Is there a world record for smallest watermelon? Princess Buttercup tried to grow one here in New England. We actually tasted some of it. It tasted very...watery.



3. Running a massage parlor


I plead the 5th here.



4. Trying to keep up with Gummi's appetite



Need I say more?



5. Debating my brother on the merits of Intelligent Design

Representing the Darwinists, my brother


Representing the ID folks, me


Hey, my blog, my picture choices!



But of course this morning, when I saw this, I had to blog.


Who is this you might ask (and I ask that frequently myself)?
Why it's Flying Boy!

(at least, that's what he tells us)

And this morning Flying Boy walked up to Princess Buttercup with some old dress from the dress up box and asked her "Will you be my princess?"

Buttercup looked at me with a questioning look.
I replied, "It's a special thing when a superhero asks you to be his princess."

So she put on the dress, to which Flying Boy exclaimed, "Princess!" and then proceeded to save her from various entrapments.



It's Baby's world and we're just spectators in it.


see what I mean?

Who?

Friend
Husband
Adviser
Fellow movie critic
Yard sale buddy
Father of my babies
Rubber of my feet
Fetcher of lattes
Partner in crime




To paraphrase Shakespeare ~

What's in a name? A Bo Hunkmeister by any other name would be just as fabulous.


Happy Birthday Honey!

The Other Uncle Dan

Not that I didn't like him, but Uncle Dan was the source of much confusion in my childhood. I knew that for someone to be called an 'Uncle', he had to be a brother to your mom or dad. However, since he didn't have the same last name as my dad, and wasn't in any of the old pictures, I knew he wasn't my dad's brother. Seeing as he had no Japanese features what so ever, this removed him from being my mother's brother. So maybe his wife, Aunt Mary Alice was related to my mom or dad. Again, Aunt Mary Alice, though lovely, was not Japanese and some sleuthing on my part revealed that she did not share the same last name as my dad's family. My five year old brain was quite befuddled as to how we came to call these people Uncle and Aunt when there was no blood relation.

Finally it occurred to me to actually ask someone to clarify all this, and my brother lovingly replied, "They're just good friends of the family, you dope."

Oh.

Okay, I can live with that.

The brother who said that is the one named after Uncle Dan, by the way.

I came to find out that Uncle Dan had met my father in third grade and they had been friends ever since. Wow. That blows my mind. In this day and age of immediate gratification and disdain for anything long term, a relationship that has lasted that long is worth noting.

Anyway, I always liked the visits with Uncle Dan and Aunt Mary Alice. He had a dry sense of humor and his wife was the most laid back person I had met. They had six kids. Six kids? That's crazy, eh? They also drove a VW bus. What's neater than that?

Uncle Dan has some mad carpentry skills. He built a bunk bed for one of his girls and a little captain's bed for another. He built a sun room addition to his house all by himself. I think I made a box in high school shop class and the teacher took pity on me and passed me anyway.
So recently he called me out of the blue and offered his skills. Perhaps he was having flashbacks and thinking of raising his own six in the small (by today's standards) house they shared.

And this is what he did for us. He made us a bench so the kids would fit more comfortably around our kitchen table.











































Bo Hunkmeister, having some skills himself, had the kids sign the bench before he finished it.
















And here's the tribe giving it the weight test:


















No, Baby is not wearing a diaper, he's wearing a gold sequined leotard. Don't ask.



Thanks Uncle Dan. This was truly a blessing to us and we appreciate the time you took to do this.


Oh! I almost forgot to mention my favorite part:



















This is the bolt securing the corner of our bench. Uncle Dan used this same bolt to secure a bench he built for his tribe. Rumor has it that it was pilfered from the Verrazano Bridge job site in the 60's. Don't worry Uncle Dan, your secret is safe with me.

A Confession

I am normally one of those conscientious moms, concerned about the health and wellness of her family. I try to keep a close eye on the nutritional value of what I put in front of them, but today I left the res'. I fell off the wagon. I hit new levels of gastronomic lows.
And I'm confessing this here because I value the honesty in my relationship with all 429 million of you, my closest friends.



What did I do?





I ate one of these.

















A Kentucky Fried Chicken "Double Down" sandwich. And I gave half to my husband. He asked, "Is this because you love me or hate me?" I said, "If I hated you, I'd give you the whole thing."

I couldn't help myself. It looked so good on TV. Yeah, I knew it was probably a heart attack waiting to happen, 2,000 calories in one sandwich, but it's fried chicken. I like fried chicken. And cheese. Well, I'm not a big fan of cheese so I'll leave that there. Special sauce? I'm always interested in what constitutes 'special sauce'. And of course, the deal maker - bacon...who doesn't love bacon? Well, vegetarians, Muslims and those abiding by Jewish dietary laws, but outside of those people, who doesn't love bacon?

So with some hard earned money, I bought a "meal" that consisted of this sandwich, a 16 oz. Pepsi and potato wedges.

the Pepsi was 200 calories
the potato wedges, 260 calories
and the sandwich, 590 calories (according to KFC)
for a grand total of 1,050 calories in one meal!

Even if you allow a generous 2,000 calories per day for your average gal, that's 50% of your daily need blown in one meal! I could eat an entire pint of Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream and still not hit that many calories (no, I really, I could eat the entire pint.)

So if I'm going to blow 1,000 calories, it needs to be indulgent, succulent, worth the trip, as they say.

But this sandwich was...

it was....

remarkably mediocre

exceedingly average

astoundingly uneventful


So now I'm out $6.48 (arrgh! that's 3 Coolatas!) and I'll probably have to start mainlining statins tonight and eat salad for the next three days. But at least I know the truth now, right? Right?

~sigh~

How Time Flies

Eighteen years ago today I was at church....

No, I wasn't doing the Mormon multiple spouse thing. From the left are Matt, my "man" of honor, me, Bo Hunkmeister and Lou, Bo's best man. I asked my college roommate to be maid of honor but she took off to Italy. So I asked my good friend Matt to step in. I love the fact that he so readily agreed.


Pre wedding...
...I was pinning a corsage on my dad, running the show like a stage manager on a power trip. I love the smile on my dad's face. You can tell he saying, "Oh that poor boy! I wonder if he knows what he's in for!"


On the other hand, Bo and his best man were watching Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bo said he shaved three times that day. Maybe that's why Bo's cheeks were shiny.


These are my brothers lovingly telling Bo, "Now that you're part of the family, we don't have to pretend to like you any more." Aren't they the sweetest?


Marrying this wonderful man has helped introduce to the world...

Gummi

Tater

Princess Buttercup

W. Bear

Princess Git Er Done

and of course...

Baby!

It's been a fabulous eighteen years, Bo. Here's to more adventures!

Public Service Announcement #234

Everyone needs to read this (it's an easy read, no really, it is):




To prevent this:





We'll address the whole public speaking skills thing later....