Chocolate Chip Orange Scones

This is one of my all time favorite recipies!

Preheat oven to 425

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

(I use mini chips)

3-4 teaspoons orange zest

Whisk dry ingredients together

Add cream

Mix with wooden spoon or spatula

Here's the easiest part....use an ice cream scooper and scoop dough onto a baking sheet

Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar (if desired)

Bake 12-14 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Cool on rack or serve warm

Dinosaurs, Bears and Caves.....Oh My!

Claudia printed her name for the first time...... look at the bottom of the drawing.

It is printed like this: "C... d...l...a...u...i...a..."

She didn't like the the "d" being in the middle of her name so she changed it.

And for those of you who have difficulty interpreting preschool art, let me explain:

The dinosaur (small box, bottom left) is chasing the big bear (brown amoeba object) into a cave (brown circle, top right) which contains a bed (blue circle). Brown squiggles represent the grass.

Put On Your Thinking Cap....

Yesterday evening was the big birthday celebration for my nephew, Matthew. He turned 7.... an old guy. We also celebrated my sister's birthday too. She will be 29 (cough, cough) on Friday.

The point of this story, though, is not about yesterday's birthday celebration....mostly because I forgot my camera. It does, however, involve birthdays.

This story is about my niece, Jordan, who is very intelligent... you know...gifted... "special" as we like to say. She has the kind of thinking process that puts her in a different dimension of reality.....the kind, though, that has her regularly saying and doing things that make us shake our heads and question her sanity.

Last night was one of those instances. We were discussing half birthdays....as in, Claudia's birthday is September 16th and her 3 1/2 birthday was on March 16th. Jordan informed us that her 14 1/2 birthday was on March 3rd.

"Hmmm. Jordan, your birthday is August 31st. How can your half birthday have fallen on March 3rd?"

She looked at us with raised eyebrows as if we were all dumber than a box of rocks.

"Duhhh......." she began, talking slowly so us lesser beings could have time to process her brilliance, "February only has 28 days and my birthday is on August 31st, so I had to make up for the 3 missing days in February by adding them onto March".

After we all laughed hysterically at Jordan, my sister explained to her that adding numbers was not necessary..... just count ahead 6 months.

Again, the "box of rocks" look......as in, "Whatever, you people just don't get it, do you?"

But then again, what 14 year old girl (or 14 1/2 I should say) believes anything her mom says?

Intelligent and gifted.......we're starting to rethink that one.

Special? Definitely!

Giving Them The Bird

My kids were born with Brian's ornithology gene. They have a gift of identifying birds. On any given day they can identify what kind of bird is at our feeder.

William: "Look Mom. A goldfinch!"

Mommy: "What did you just call me?"

Claudia: "Where's the goldfish?"

Brian is the same way. We can be in any part of the country, and he knows his birds.

"Hey Sue, did you see that double breasted, yellow bellied, tripple tailed, rainbow crested sapsucker?".

He even know birds from all of his foreign travels- Chinese birds (Moo Shoo Speckled Falcon), German birds (Pileated Long Neck Pilsner), New Zealand aka Kiwi birds(North Island Brown Heavy Footed Moa), Costa Rican (Banana Bellied Orange Beaked Whistling Caw Caw) and Antarctic birds (Southern Royal Ice Crested Snow Petrel).

It's amazing. I can't even remember what breed(s) our dog is, but he can memorize a bird book in no time flat!

I'm grateful that our kids inherited his gift. Me, on the other hand, I am satisfied to continue using my unique way of identifying birds:

"You mulberry eating, purple staining, flying sack of shit! If you crap on my car one more time, I'm gonna bust your feathered A$$!".

25 Random Things About Brian

Brian's with his "Public Enemies" Convict Scruff

25. I once edged the whole yard using a hand shovel.

24. My wife says I should have pursued my master's degree in common sense (which means I need some, not that I have enough to warrant a higher degree).

23. I lock myself out of houses and cars regularly.

22. I took a college course in Costa Rica. The squirrel monkeys liked to sit on my shoulder in the open roof bathroom and groom me......when they weren't throwing mangoes at me.

21. I spent two winters in Antarctica doing research on lake geochemistry...yes, there are lakes in Antarctica.

20. I broke my nose in college (1989) and didn't have it "repaired" until 2000.

19. I like to talk ..... a lot. Sue says I have the ability to converse with a street sign.

18. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2001 and am still in pain.

17. As previously mentioned, I have dressed as a woman for parties. It was required!

16. I like to camp (unlike Sue, who believes that camping together will lead to a divorce).

15. I made dinner once for my wife.... pork tenderloin with a cherry reduction.

14. My middle name is Richard. Sue thinks it gives her the right to call me "Dick".

13. I was asked by my beautiful wife to co-author this blog. I have yet to do so (I'm only writing this post under duress).

12. I am artistically talented.

11. I am not impulsive...everything must have a plan.

10. I once ate cheeseburgers for 10 days in a row while on vacation when I was a teenager.

9. A coworker once programmed his cell phone voice dial to call me when he used the word "nematode".

8. My brain has a built-in GPS and I never get lost (Sue will probably argue this one).

7. I once ran a mile in 4:42.

6. My driver's license used to state that I had hazel eyes. My eyes are actually blue......hazel just sounded kind of cool.

5. Speaking of driver's licenses, I received mine on New Year's Eve, 1986. And promptly had my first "scrape" (it was NOT an accident!) that night....when it's car vs. concrete gas pump island, the car usually loses.

4. I've been attempting to finish the same novel for five years....in fact, I don't even know where the book is now.

3. I am a prison convict in the new Johnny Depp movie "Public Enemies", due out on July 1st. In my scenes I am right next to Stephen Dorff (Sue thinks he's tasty.......check it out for yourself).

2. I have also traveled to Europe (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and China, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.

1. I am fluent in "toddler". "Dot un doe" (translated: vacuum) and mutz (translated: milk) are some of da fings that I wuv.

Happy Valentine's Day x 17

February 14, 1992

Dear William and Claudia,

This past Valentine's Day was the anniversary of my first date with Daddy. The date, which almost didn't happen, took place 17 years ago! I'll try to share as much with you as I can remember, but my memory is a bit fuzzy....

Mommy and Daddy were friends in college. We both belonged to a service organization called Alpha Phi Omega. We pledged at the same time but weren't really friends. Aunt Gayle was the first to become friends with Daddy. They hung out a lot together. One evening at an APO meeting, Aunt Gayle offered to help Daddy dress up as a girl for an annual party!

Daddy showed up the evening for the party at our apartment and Aunt Gayle did his make-up and Mommy ended up curling his hair with a curling iron. We had fun... Daddy didn't make the best looking woman (no offense, Brian) but we gave it our best shot!

Purdue 1991

Over the next year, Daddy, Aunt Gayle and Kathy started spending more time with Daddy and his handsome roommates. We went out for "pop" and studied a lot at the library (wink, wink).

Mommy wasn't really interested in Daddy (even though, to this day, he insists I was) and Daddy was juggling several girlfriends...... believe it or not.

Eventually things changed... I don't know what happened, but Mommy and Daddy started to like each other.

Valentine's Day was approaching and Daddy asked me if I wanted to go on a date. Guess what I told him? I said no! Can you believe it? I told Daddy that I already had plans with Kathy and wasn't available. Funny, huh?

After a few days, Kathy convinced me to change my mind and go out with Daddy. I called Daddy and we decided to get together for dinner. The only problem was that I waited too long to call him and all the nice (all 2 of them) restaurants were booked for Valentine's Day. Daddy ended up coming over to my house and we ate cheeseburgers together (That is why it is a tradition in our house to eat cheeseburgers on Valentine's Day). After our dinner, we went to an APO function and then out to a bar named Pete's.

We had a fun time together....