Lady Gaga

This morning, my mom, Afton, Avery and I drove to MN to attend my great-uncle's funeral (which is tomorrow). In the car, we listened to a variety of music that we could all agree on. One of the last CDs we listened to was a burned CD of Afton's that had various current pop songs on it, including songs from Kelly Clarkston, Adele, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. Afton was about to skip a song stating that Mom wouldn't like it, so I asked what it was-it was Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory. I told her that we should listen to it anyway and see if Mom would like it, because how would we know since she had never heard it before? And surprisingly, she really liked it! Who would have ever guessed that Mom would not just tolerate, but enjoy Lady Gaga?

What I learned: Mom likes Lady Gaga (well, at least the two songs she heard!).

The Nutritional Merits of Jell-O?

Recently, my mom and I have had several conversations about the nutritional value of Jell-O. My mom thinks it's healthy for you (I think her exact quote was, "It's filled with protein!") and I do not. Now, this isn't to say that I don't like Jell-O or think it's terrible for you or don't eat it myself, because I really like Jell-O. I just think that we have very different ideas of what "healthy" means in this case, so I decided to do some research and this is what I found.

Daily recommended intake of protein:
women-46 grams
infants-10 grams

Daily recommended intake of sugar:
women-20 grams
children-12 grams
(these numbers are confusing because on the same website it said that your daily intake of added sugars should be 40 grams or less, and then it says that the American Heart Association states that you should only have 20 grams of sugar a day, so I'm not sure which numbers to go with).

Jell-O has 2 grams of protein and 19 grams of sugar per serving. I think it's fair to say that the amount of sugar contained in Jell-O overrides the fact that it has 2 grams of protein in it. Again, there are WAY worse things for you to eat, and I am not advocating not eating Jell-O. I just think that choosing to give Avery meat for his protein intake instead of offering him Jell-O is probably the way to go :) Sorry, Mom!

What I learned: Jell-O has a LOT of sugar in it and not much else.

Burned Cheese

We are at my dad's house today to hang out and watch the Superbowl. I brought over some tortilla chips and shredded cheese to make nachos in the oven. At home, we have a gas oven and when I make these at home, I use the broiler and I wait about 3-4 minutes, check on it, and usually keep it in for another minute or so before it's done. Well, my dad has an electric oven and I put them in on the broiler, waited three minutes and when I walked into the kitchen, smoke was billowing out of the oven. I opened up the oven and was engulfed in smoke. The entire pan was black and burned and the kitchen and the entire downstairs of the house filled with smoke. After THREE minutes. Geez. I hate electric ovens!

What I learned: Apparently electric ovens broil things at a much faster rate than gas ovens do. Either that or my dad's oven is super powered and mine is crappy.

Cream Cheese Pillows

Today I made some cookies to bring with to MN for my Uncle Harold's funeral as the family will be providing dessert after the funeral. I first made some no-bake cookies, a family favorite. I then decided to make something I have never made before. I looked in various cookie cookbooks that I have and settled on making Cream Cheese Pillows. This recipe has dough made out of butter, cream cheese and flour which is rolled into a ball and then refrigerated for four hours. Then you roll the dough very thinly and cut it into 2.5 inch circles. In each circle you put 1/4 teaspoon of raspberry jam, then fold it over and press the ends together with fork tines. While the process was easy, it was really time consuming, especially rolling out the dough, which took me about 45 minutes. After the mini pastries bake for 10 minutes, you dip them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. While these "cookies" took a long time to make, they turned out to be delicious.

What I learned: How to make cream cheese pillows.

Uncle Haircut

This morning I found out that my Great-Uncle Harold passed away. He had suffered from Alzheimer's for a few years and had come down with pneumonia again, so his passing wasn't unexpected. While a great-uncle might seem like a distant relation, we were closer to him since we saw him as often as we saw our grandparents growing up. My mom grew up calling him Uncle Haircut, a name we continued to call him as children. While he was no longer himself at the end, I will still always remember him in his immaculately kept garden in St Paul. You will be missed, Uncle Harold, but we know you are finally at home in heaven.

What I learned: My Uncle Harold passed away this morning.

Burning Calories

Today I was reading an article on babycenter.com and they had a list of common household activities and how many calories each one burns. Everyone has seen these lists before showing how many calories you burn by vacuuming or doing laundry, but this list had something I found interesting and don't remember ever seeing before. It stated that you burn 216 calories per hour playing with a toddler, which means that I burn probably 1000 calories a day (an estimate...)! So now everyday when I feel bad that I don't spend any time exercising, I can remember that I actually exercised for hours by just playing with my son. How awesome is that?

What I learned: Playing with Avery burns over 200 calories per hour.

Nutria

Tonight I was playing Trivia Pursuit with my mom and the answer to a question was the nutria. I have never even heard of this animal before, so I looked it up. It's a semi-aquatic rodent that lives mostly in South America. It's weird to think of a rodent as aquatic. What's weirder is that they are very similar to otters and yesterday I learned something new about otters.

What I learned: The nutria is a semi-aquatic rodent.

This is my 100th post! Woohoo!