Grilled Honey-Mustard Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 pork boneless loin chops

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

dash of onion powder

Directions:

Heat coals or gas grill. (Alternatively, you can cook these in a pan with a little vegetable oil; keep the heat on medium or lower)

Remove fat from pork

Mix remaining ingredients in small bowl

Cover and grill pork 4 to 6 inches from medium heat 14 to 16 minutes, brushing occasionally with honey mixture and turning once, until pork is slightly pink in center. Discard remaining honey mixture

Preschool graduation!

Tonight we had the first of what I hope will be many, many graduations for Ben & Maddie. It was a cute little ceremony, complete with white caps and capes. The kids sang several songs and did a percussion number with sticks. They went around and introduced themselves and pointed out their family. And later they said what they wanted to be when they grow up and they displayed a picture (on a screen) that they drew depicting this future occupation. Ben said he wants to be a police officer. Maddie said she wants to be a dance teacher. They each got a diploma and a chance for a picture with their primary teacher. And then a group photo at the end, which was pretty much a disaster since very few of them (especially the boys) could sit still by that point). We also tried to get a family photo and didn't have the greatest luck with that, either.

Mother's Day 2014

The kids and I had fun today picking out flowers and then planting them in our front yard!  We planted marigolds and wave petunias, on the advice of our neighbor who ha the most amazing green thumb. We moved some planter barrels that we used last year for tomatoes (and the two years' before that as sandboxes!) so they are now in the front of our house. I think it will add some beauty that the front of our house is lacking -- due to a complete lack of landscaping. 

When we were done, I managed to convince the kids to let me take some pictures and I actually got some really, really good ones. You might see these again on the next Christmas card and most definitely in a frame up on the wall :-)

Maddie's dance recital

Tonight Maddie had the dance recital that capped off her year of dance class. She had fun, but is not so desperately in love with dance. So this will likely be the end of her dance career (which is fine with us). The $50 costume is a bit much for a five-year-old, so this isn't quite my speed. Anyway....it was cute watching a bunch of girls attempt to dance.

Easter 2014

Lime bars

I needed to make something to take to a family Easter gathering today and when I opened my cookbook cupboard, an idea popped into my head. Just seeing the "Always on Sunday" cookbook by Eleanor Ostman (former Pioneer Press food writer), I immediately thought of Lime Bars.

Man are these good! Of course, they are pretty much just butter and sugar -- with a little lime thrown in.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
Dash of salt
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
Green food coloring (optional)
Powdered sugar (for dusting after baking)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In bowl, combine flour and powdered sugar. Cut in butter. Press mixture into 13-by-9 inch baking pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden.

While that is cooking, beat eggs on high speed with electric mixer until light and pale yellow in color.

Gradually add sugar and salt.

Add lime juice and 2 or 3 drops of green food coloring (optional). (I used 3 drops and it was a bit more green and it was a rich green. Two is likely sufficient so that people know they are lime and not lemon). Continue to beat at high speed.

Pour over hot crust. Return to oven for 20 to 25 minutes longer, or until golden. Sprinkle at once with powdered sugar (I poured it through a sifter to make the sugar lighter)

Ben and the space LEGOS

Big News!

At the end of this week, I'm leaving the Pioneer Press to take a new job with our parent company, Digital First Media. The biggest change, though, is that I will be working from home.

My new job -- senior data reporter -- is a newly created position that is part of a "data team" at Digital First Media's newsroom that is nicknamed, "Thunderdome." The data team currently consists of a team leader, two web developers, and a web designer. My job will be to spearhead national reporting that can be shared among the hundreds of papers in the DFM chain, and then also provide training (in doing data analysis) to reporters and editors in the chain, as well.

I will spend the majority of my time doing the same thing I do now. But instead of working with only reporters at one newspaper, I'll be helping reporters across the U.S. from a wide variety of papers. The Pioneer Press is the 2nd largest paper in the chain, so most are relatively small and there are many that are even just weekly publications.

When I travel, I'll likely make a lot of trips to New York (to go to headquarters), Los Angeles, San Jose, Salt Lake and Denver (where we have big publications). Other papers are in Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Texas (down along the Mexican border),  Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Working from home will be interesting. I really enjoy the social aspect of being in an office, but I've been having so many allergy problems at the Pioneer Press in recent years that I'm ready to get out of there. (I could've chosen to continue working out of the PP building).

Jamey is helping me set up a really awesome office at home. I'm going to have two desks -- one set up for standing, and another for sitting. (I have a similar setup at the PP and spend most of my day standing). I hope that will ease the transition.

And certainly not having to commute everyday is going to be a huge benefit. No more mad dash to get to daycare before the place closes! That will mean Ben and Maddie get a little more time with me each day, as well.

There will be a transition period the next couple of months, where I'll continue to do work for the Pioneer Press and gradually move into DFM work. So you'll still see my byline in the PP at least a couple more times.

LEGO-mania!

My brother, very thoughtfully, gave us a giant bin of LEGOs -- the ones that he and I played with when we were kids. I pulled them out a few days after Christmas, when we were hibernating due to massive cold, illness in the family and closed daycare. They were a huge hit!

I have never seen Ben & Maddie play so nicely together and sit and work on the same thing for such a long period of time. There were a couple days when we just built Lego stuff for two or three hours at a crack in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Crazy!

I was especially impressed by Maddie, because she has a hard time doing things on her own. She usually needs some direction. But with the Legos, she just went to town building and she wanted to make her own creations -- without help from me and without looking at any guidebook.

Ben, on the other hand, wanted me to make him the creations in the guidebook that came with the Legos. And of course that was impossible because the stash of Legos didn't necessarily have all the right pieces. UGH. But we did our best.

Here are their two spaceships!

Chocolate faces!

I got this funny pic of the kids after they had chocolate ice cream one day