Yup. It's been fifteen years! We can barely believe it.Tonight we're heading up to the North Shore with Ezra to celebrate for the weekend. We'll be sipping coffee and gazing at Lake Superior between feedings and naps (and diaper changes). Fingers crossed for a fantastic and relaxing weekend with the infant.Can I tell you how much I love that man up there? SO. DAMN. MUCH.Since it's Friday... and it's autumn, today's internet share is the recipe for Pumpkin Spice Latte Jello Shots. Happy weekend! Oh! And the always-amazing Margaret has alerted me that there's an new Chvrches song out. So go enjoy that with your jello shots.
Today my amazing and beautiful friend Courtnay dropped by for a nice afternoon walk, so she (obviously) needed to change her shoes. Because those shoes up there? That's what this lady wears to, say, the grocery store. She is High Class all the way.One thing about visiting Chez Plesser is that you have to put your shoes up high when you take them off or else Magda will steal them and hide them. So here are Courtnay's shoes in the window sill (it's about five feet from the ground). Yup, welcome to my world.For your internet share today, how about 
Oh this girl, she continues to steal my heart.She has been so well behaved despite being cooped up in the house with the family during such great weather. Wait, don't get me wrong, she is getting some nice, long walks. But she hadn't been to the dog park in ages for some good old-fashioned running and chasing of other pups. So we took her there this weekend -- even with Ezra in tow using the Ergo. And what fun we had!What was interesting though was that Mags enjoyed the other dogs just fine, but she was more excited to play fetch with her dad or chase him around the park. Maybe she's maturing after all...And besides her exciting trip to the dog park, as seen above, she has been quite the snuggler. She burrows into my side at night after I put Ezra down to sleep and most nights she falls asleep in my arms. (This is the part of the blog post where my father and grandmother grimace and remind me how filthy dogs are and how many germs they carry.)For your internet share of the day, it's like 
Oh you guys, do I have a treat for you today!Jamie's mom, Carole, is in town visiting her grandson (and us), and she makes some amazing dishes. I talked her into making her delicious blintzes for the blog, and thank goodness she agreed. These are super easy and SUPER DELICIOUS. I would also like to note that even if you don't like blintzes, you could easily fill the crepes with, uh, nutella and bananas. Just a thought.
OK, so you start off with these ingredients (this is to make a full serving of 8 -- we made a half serving, so if the list looks different from the photo, that's why):• 5 eggs• 1 cup flour• 1 cup milk• 1 tsp salt• 1 large container (24 oz) cottage cheese (you can substitute with farmer's cheese or ricotta if you prefer)• 1 tbsp butter• 1 tsp vanilla• 2 tbsp sugar (or much more if you prefer sweeter blintzes) 
Bubie Carole's recipe is based on the one found in "The New Settlement Cook Book," which I photographed above. What a find! Also? No photos in this book! But the best part is across from the title page. "The Way to a Man's Heart." Ha!
So let's get started! First, you combine the flour and salt with the milk and four of the eggs. While doing this, you may want to begin warming your greased frying pan on medium heat.
Mix these ingredients together until you have a very smooth consistency, and then spoon the batter into your heavily greased, hot frying pan. You want the batter to just cover the bottom of the pan -- for my large pan, we used five spoonfuls, but this will vary. The thinner the batter, the thinner the crepe (which is what you want).
While the batter is cooking, use a fork to gently separate the edges from the pan (much like we did with 
So the photo above shows what the cooked side of the crepe will look like (this is why you flip it). Repeat this until you are out of crepe batter (a full recipe should make 8-10 crepes, depending on the size of your pan).
Once your crepes are all made and resting on the plate, mix together the cottage cheese, the sugar, vanilla and the remaining egg. If you like things on the creamier side, you can also mix in some cream cheese at this point.
After this is combined, you spoon the filling into the center of the crepe. You want the proportion of filling to crepe to be about what it is above (it varies depending on your crepe/pan size). It's best to use a slotted spoon if you have one -- but if not, just make sure you drain off the excess liquid from the cheese mixture. You don't want it too runny. Also, make sure you spoon the filling onto the cooked side of the crepe (the browner side), as we'll be frying the uncooked side later.
Next, you fold the crepe over the filling like an envelope or a burrito, and set it aside.
Once all your "envelopes of deliciousness" are folded, melt the butter in your frying pan and place the packets folded-side-down (you want to cook that side first to seal up the blintz). If you are doing batches (or a full recipe), you might want to add more butter between batches to keep them from sticking to the pan.
Our audience is VERY INTERESTED in this recipe. As well she should be.
So you cook the blintzes on medium heat until they brown (like above) and then you flip them and brown up the other side. You don't want them too crispy, so keep an eye on them.
Voila! We topped them with powdered sugar, sour cream and fresh blueberries, but this part is totally up to you. This morning I also had one with sour cream and pumpkin butter (oh man, that was good), and I'm sure peaches, strawberries or anything would be good. Ooooo, honey! I bet that would be good as well! Or nutella! Or bananas! You get the drift.
Yeah guys, this stuff is awesome. And they keep well in the fridge as well for leftovers. Yum....
Tonight we made it out to a concert! We saw Delta Spirit (who we adore) over at First Avenue, and it was so much fun. But I will admit that my energy levels were amazingly low. I found out today that my infection IS STILL HERE. Yup. Five rounds of antibiotics, and I'm still in rough shape.I'm to call the doctor tomorrow to discuss further treatment options.You guys? I'm ready to be well again. No joke.But on a more light-hearted note, how about we all go watch 
Today I had to go back to the hospital for a few follow-up tests. Don't worry! I actually feel good -- they just want to make sure all those antibiotics actually killed off my infections.Anyway! Jamie was working from home today... so I left the baby with him.Gasp! I KNOW! I left the house on my own without the kid! And it was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.Now, don't get me wrong -- I adore little Ezra to pieces. Really! I am even sorta stunned myself at how much I love spending time with that little peanut. But as I was backing out of the driveway, and as I turned up the Nirvana song to near deafening levels, I had a huge smile on my face. Alone? In the car? With Nirvana and a gorgeous autumn day? BRING IT. And instead of going straight to the hospital, I figured a stop off at Starbucks for some pumpkin spice goodness would be an excellent idea. And then I sipped my coffee, blared my music and drove along curvy back roads only stopping to snap photos of beautiful fall foliage.You guys, drives like that? They are so good for the soul.You know what else is probably good for my soul? 
I remember back before I was knocked up (oh, doesn't that seem like ages ago?) that I would hear stories about new parents who had kids and their love for their dogs would wane. They of course still loved their furry family members, but the dogs/cats just fell a bit in ranking, and they would get fewer walks and not as much attention. And I have had friends who have volunteered at dog rescues or humane societies who have taken in many surrendered animals because of a new baby in the household. I even rescued a 6-year-old sheltie when I got out of college who was given away because she wasn't as good with the grandkids as her parents had hoped.So you can imagine how nervous I was about this baby coming home. I mean, we all know that I *adore* my animals... and I didn't want to become someone whose priorities shifted. These guys were my kids for years before I got knocked up, and I hoped that my love for them would not diminish.You guys? I had nothing to worry about. AT ALL.If anything, my heart swells even more for Magda and Merlin as I watch them welcome Ezra to the family and quietly approach him, offering sniffs or gentle kisses. Magda was terrified of infants before Ezra came home, and now she's happy to lick his ears and feet (and anywhere else where we might allow -- which isn't much). Sure, making time for the daily walks requires much more planning. But seriously, look at those eyes up there? I am still nutso for that crazy girl. Even if she did get into the trash twice today.Yup. Still madly in love with a trash digger. Who knew I had it in me? 
I'm back in the kitchen! Well... sort of. As you're about to find out, this is almost the easiest "recipe" ever (after the 
First, here's what you'll need:• A bread pan lined with plastic wrap• Three pints of your favorite ice cream. I did 2 salty caramel and 1 maple nut (all from Izzy's, my favorite local ice cream). I almost think you could do 3 of the same flavor and just break it up in the middle with cookies, but I wanted to mix flavors.• Some Oreo cookies. I think this was about 2/3 of a "sleeve" of them• Whipped cream. Yes, you can totally make your own (which I normally love), but I wanted to make fancy designs on the cake so I wanted a spray can.
So the first thing you do is figure out what "color" or flavor you want on the top of the cake, and you put that on the bottom of the pan. I ended up using 1.5 pints of Salted Caramel for this. 1 pint makes a super thin layer, so keep that in mind.
Then I smoothed out the ice cream...
Then I put the Oreos between to sheets of wax paper (I just folded the wax paper over it) and then I crushed them up. I used a shoe because as we've discussed before, it's an ode to my grandmother. But use what you like.
Then you get so excited about the cake that you forget to take a few photos because you haven't done this in a while! Ha!But really, you next spread the crumbled Oreos over the salted caramel ice cream and then spread the maple nut ice cream on top of the Oreos (you can get the idea from the photo above).
I then hid the bread pan in the freezer for a day. When I pulled it out, I waited about 5 minutes and then pulled the ice cream out using the edges of the plastic wrap and flipped it over onto the cake stand.
Next, I made fancy schmancy whipped cream designs! And then I finally crumbled up more Oreos to sprinkle on top!
Voila! That's it! I'm not giving you the calories because HELLO IT'S ICE CREAM CAKE. If you're on a diet, you shouldn't eat this. Actually, you should TOTALLY eat this. Just exercise 30 minutes longer that day :)