Pork Tenderloin

This recipe was so good tonight I decided I had to share it:

Serving Size : 6

• 2 pounds Pork tenderloin -- well-trimmed
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
• 1/2 cup Flour -- all-purpose
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1 cup Bread crumbs -- dry
• 6 tablespoons Butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoon Olive oil
• 1/2 cup White wine -- dry
• 1/2 pound Mushrooms -- sliced
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon Parsley -- minced fresh

1. Dry meat with paper towels.
2. Combine salt, pepper and flour; dredge medallions in flour, shaking off excess.
3. Beat eggs with water; dip medallions in egg and coat with bread crumbs.
4. Press medallions with heel of palm to make crumb stick; dry 10 minutes.
5. Heat butter and oil in Dutch oven; saute medallions 8 minutes per side.
6. Remove meat; drain on paper towels, transfer to heated platter and keep warm.
7. Add wine to pan; deglaze over high heat, scraping brown bits from bottom and sides of pan.
8. When liquid is reduced by half (about 3 minutes), add mushrooms and cook 2 minutes, stirring.
9. Add lemon juice and cook 1 minute, stirring.
10. Correct seasonings, pour sauce over meat and garnish with parsley.

I used Italian bread crumbs and they were very tasty. The topping ends up being less of a sauce and more just seasoned mushrooms, which I wasn't too sure about at first. But they added a nice flavor to the crispy rounds.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Speaking of Soccer...

Reagan's new soccer cleats really stand out!

Damian got this awesome picture of Reagan making a corner kick.

She really hustled to get the ball.

None could stand in her way...

And she breaks through with the ball!

I think we'll definitely be continuing soccer in the spring. The kids have really loved it. There are no pictures from Sean's game this morning because we were a little distracted chasing the Con-Man around.

Anyway, they have a tournament next Saturday and then that's the end of soccer til the spring season. We should get more pictures of Sean then.

Soccer Pictures

Reagan and Sean in their soccer uniforms. They've really enjoyed playing this fall. The last game is this Saturday and then they'll have a tournament type thing the following Saturday. Should be interesting!

Halloween

The kids and I went to Trunk or Treat at the church last night. They had a lot of fun! Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Sean, though, so I'll have to have him dress up in his costume again and take some pictures. That won't be too hard since he LOVES wearing his costumes year-round!

I actually bought Connor's costume Halloween morning! I had had a different one for him, but it had one of those hoods that goes over the head and he did NOT like it. So we took it back yesterday morning and fortunately they still had a few left to choose from. It was also perfect since Sean was Robin!

This is a little a girl we met last night. Her name is Chloe and she is 1 month older than Connor.

Connor actually seemed to enjoy his little costume.

Reagan was a 'Velvet Princess'. She looked very lovely in her costume.

Poor baby! It's getting close to bedtime.

Unfortunately for Connor he didn't get to go to sleep any time soon. We decided to take a trip up to Miromar Outlets because they were supposed to be having trick-or-treating there until 9pm. Well, apparently if you want to get any candy you have to get there way before 8! We got up there just bef0re 8 and found only 3 stores that still had candy left.

But the kids had gotten a lot of candy at the church and they had fun driving in the car with Dave and Daddy. Plus they got to get ice cream. All in all it was a fun night.

More Art

Sean created this piece of art this morning. This is a picture of me and Damian. He's got my hair down to the purple stripes! Although I'm not sure why Damian has red hair in this picture. Anyway, the first time he showed it to me, Damian and I did not have the nice rosy cheeks you see here.

However, Sean decided to color our cheeks in and he came back to me and said, 'Look, you guys are blushing!' He was laughing as he told me this because he apparently thinks the idea of mommy and daddy blushing to be very funny!

Connor's New Friend

Ok, so Dave has actually been hanging around for 6 months or so, but Connor has just now decided he's worth sitting on!

Connor is watching the TV as daddy plays Beautiful Katamari. Dave brought his Xbox 360 over so we could try it out.

Good luck trying to get Connor to look at the camera when you want him to.

And another shot of his famous 'look'.

Quotable Quotes

Sean comes walking out of his room with a sad look on his face and Reagan turns to me and says, 'Mommy, I wonder why Sean looks so glum?'

Sean wants me to show him how to use a jump rope in the front yard. He hands me the rope and says, 'You can show me how to do it, Mommy, the old-fashioned way.'

Not sure exactly what the 'old-fashioned' way for jump roping is, but apparently I know how to do it!

Soccer

The kids started soccer this fall. They're playing in the Naples Optimist Club. They have practice once a week and a game on Saturday. Both of them are really enjoying it, and they've both made new friends.

Reagan is #12. She was part of the starting group for their game yesterday.

Reagan going after the ball. She actually kicked it around a bit during the game, but I think I only got that on video.

Reagan hustling for the ball again.

Sean doing his version of pre-game practice. He's #7.

I got him to slow down long enough to get this picture.

This was during their game. #10 is a little boy named Oliver who is actually quite good. I'm pretty sure he's played before!

Sean loves kicking the ball in. I think he begged to do it every single time!

Artwork

Sean drew this picture this morning. I think it's a story about me (see 'mom' in the middle in red) and some other people, but I don't remember all the details.

Last week one of Sean's phonics readers was 'Mac's Map'. I explained to him that the apostrophe-s meant that the Map belonged to Mac. So a couple of days later he drew this picture of a fish. Then he wrote his name at the top. Then he asked me to spell fish, which I did and he wrote that out as well. The next time I looked at the paper I noticed he had added an -'s to his name to show that it is his fish. I thought that was pretty cool!

Reagan drew this picture last week. I really enjoy the way she draws her people. I'll have to look and see if I can find some examples of her first drawings from kindergarten and first grade. She's always had her own style.

These figures make me think of angels. Reagan was experimenting with a different way of drawing her stick figures. I like it!

Killer Caramel Corn

One favorite fall memory from my childhood is that of my mom making oven caramel corn. I remember she did this quite a few times while we lived in Stone Mountain, GA. Unfortunately the recipe was lost during our move to Naples. At least that's the story she always gave! Anyway, not too long ago I decided to search for a caramel corn recipe to see if I could find one that lived up to my memories. I'm happy to say I believe I did. And now I'm going to share it with you. The base recipe is actually from allrecipes, but this is the version I came up with based on a couple of reviews.

Caramel Corn

1 cup popcorn kernels
2 T. oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
12 T. butter (1 1/2 sticks)
6 T. light corn syrup (1/4 cup + 2 T)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250.

Pop the corn 1/2 a cup at a time in 1 T. oil. Put popped corn in a disposable aluminum roasting pan (22-25lb. pan, I found this was the best way to fit all the popcorn in a single pan). Keep warm in oven.

Mix brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla.

Spread mixture over warm popcorn. Stir well. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Let cool and break into pieces.

Tattoos

I found a box of Transformers tattoos on clearance at Target for $2.49. Much fun was had by all (and we still have a bunch left!).

Connor kept amazingly still in my lap while I put this on his forehead.

This picture just doesn't do it justice. Sean had tattoos on his legs and both arms as well.

Reagan didn't go for the cheek tattoos, but she had a couple on her arms.

We took a trip to Publix right after we got done putting the tattoos on. Needless to say, the kids got quite a few comments. Especially Connor!

Bathtime Funny

Sean and Connor just got done taking a bath together. I was helping Sean get dressed when he looked down at his wrinkly fingers and said, 'Mommy, I have little mountains on my hands!' He then asked me what they were called and I told him we call them wrinkles.

Liz's New Hair

So here's what I did last time I was at the hairdresser!

It had been almost a year since I had my hair done, so I decided to go with something a little different.

I would have gone with all-over purple, but Brenda wasn't about to strip my entire head of hair!

I've gotten a few, 'Why did you get purple hair?' questions, and my answer is usually something along the lines of, 'Because I could.'

I like the purple, and it's lots of fun, but I may throw some red or another color in there next time around. Just to keep it interesting.

Children

Just a couple of pictures from the past week.


Damian took this one of Connor and his beautiful blue eyes!

Reagan got a make-up kit from Claire's Boutique recently (Damian took her there after their visit to the Edison Museum). So Daddy spent the next afternoon making animal faces on Reagan and Sean.

Reagan as Cheetah-girl (and no, this has nothing to do with that show of a similar name!)

Birthday Boy

I can't believe Connor is a year old already. I swear I don't know where all that time went. He just gets cuter and sweeter everyday (along with his brother and sister).

I think Sean has had as much fun with this fire engine as Connor has. I keep having to remind Sean that it's his brother's toy!

This is what Connor looks like when Daddy surprises him with the camera.

More proof that he totally deserves the nickname 'Face'!

Those lips that get him comments everywhere we go.

Another favorite that Daddy took the other day.

Spelling

While the kids were eating lunch today, Reagan told Sean to spell the word 'off'.

Sean replied, "o-f-f (pause) f".

Then she asked him to spell the word 'on'.

Sean says, "o-n (pause) n".

At which point Reagan and I both asked him why he was adding extra letters to the end of the words, since he knows the correct spelling of both of them.

Sean replies, "For safety."

So there you have it! Spelling for safety, just add extra letters at the end!

Tracy Comes to Visit

My friend, Tracy, came to visit us last week. She and I were roomies at 'Bama our freshman year. Somehow we remained friends even though she wasn't able to come back the following year (which really sucked for me bc I had to live with a stranger again).

Anyway, Connor really enjoyed having someone else to pick him up and hold him when he wanted them to!


Connor likes Lil' Crunchies.


Poor, sleepy baby!


Connor was just being too cute on this day.


Damian has nicknamed him 'Face'.


There's that look again.

Reagan and Sean had fun with Tracy too, we just didn't get any pictures of them. The point of the visit was to relax, and that's what we did. Well, that and deal with my insane cat.

Sean was very distraught when Tracy left. He cried as we pulled away from the airport. He's ok now, though.