Samantha's Mommy's Blog

Smoky Potato Cheese Soup

2009-10-17T14:18:00.006-04:00

Winter seems to have set in here in Central Ohio. Fortunately we haven't seen any snow yet. Cold weather is perfect for soups. We aren't crazy about soup at my house, but this is one that we all enjoy. I usually make this recipe a couple times a year.

The original recipe came from Allrecipes, but I lightened it up a bit. However, this is by no means lowfat between the smoked sausage and the Velveeta!

Smoky Potato Cheese Soup

1/2 c chopped onion
14-16 oz pkg light smoked sausage, diced
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb Velveeta Light, cubed
2 (12 oz) cans fat free evaporated milk
black pepper, to taste

Spray a large pan with nonstick spray. Cook the onion and sausage over medium heat until the onions soften and the sausage starts to get some color. Add the broth and potatoes. Simmer until the potatoes are soft.
Using a potato masher, lightly mash the potatoes, being sure not to completely mash them.
Add the Velveeta and stir until melted.
Stir in the evaporated milk and season to taste with pepper.Notes:
1. If the soup isn't as thick as you'd like, then make a slurry using equal parts cornstarch and water. Stir in about 1 tablespoon at a time to the soup until the desired thickness is reached.
2. For best results, leftovers should be reheated on the stove. Microwaving can curdle the soup.
3. Serve with some crusty bread and a salad.

Canning Jar Epiphany

2009-09-23T18:20:00.004-04:00

I'm 32 years old and have been homecanning off and on since I graduated college. My mom did not can, so I did not have anyone to teach me how to do things. Everything I have learned has come from reading the Ball Blue Book and assorted canning cookbooks and the glorious internet. I've certainly learned a bunch by trial and error as well.

One thing has always bewildered me about canning jars. Modern canning jars have a two-piece system that comes in two sizes depending on the opening size of the jar. The small size is called "regular" and the large size is called "wide-mouth." Why not "small" and "large"?

The answer came to me today in an unexpected way.

I recently asked my in-laws if they had any spare canning jars hanging around that they wouldn't mind parting with. Today they came over with two boxes of jars that Joe's dad pulled from the attic. There were lots of different jars in there. Three of the jars were the old style with the rubber gasket and glass lids. A number of them were the old zinc one-piece lids. One jar had a wide-mouth opening, but most of the jars were regular opening size. However, a couple jars had tiny bands but no flat lid. Those puzzled me until I found this lid on one of the jars (the band is under the flat lid):

At the top it says "for narrow-mouth jars". Duh! There used to be THREE sizes! Narrow, regular and wide. I can totally understand why they no longer carry the narrow-mouth size anymore. It's hard enough to fit some foods in the regular size opening. I can't imagine trying to use the narrow-mouth for something other than jams and jellies. Then it becomes a pain stocking multiple sizes of lids. I only own regular size jars (until today) for that very reason.

As you can see below, the narrow-mouth and regular lids are noticeably different in size:
There was one other surprise in the box -- a 2-quart canning jar! I've heard about these, but had never seen one. On the left is a Ball quart jar and on the right is a Kerr 2-quart jar. The Ball jar is one that I purchased at the store. I have no idea how old the Kerr jar is. The stores no longer carry that size because it takes too long to safely process foods in a jar that large. Oh, but it will be fun to use it in the fridge.

Menu Plan Monday: Labor Day Week

2009-09-07T10:15:00.003-04:00

The rain is pouring down this morning. It's bad enough that Directv can't even pick up The Weather Channel, so we have to use the internet to see how bad the weather is. It's kinda humorous.

No big Labor Day plans for today. Yesterday we hit up the tractor pull at the Richwood Independent Fair. Samantha really enjoyed herself. Her favorite thing were the animals, in particular the rabbits. She also liked the tractors with the black smoke. It was a vast improvement over last year when we left early because the animals and loud tractors scared her. Unfortunately the tractor pull had to be called before all the tractors had a chance to compete due to the sled breaking. It was a bummer because we waited forever while they tried to fix it.

Monday - hopefully the rain will clear up so we can grill some steak and jalapeno poppers

Tuesday - spaghetti and meatballs

Wednesday - Pizza Casserole

Thursday - smoked sausage, sauerkraut

Friday - lunch at the Popcorn Festival; dinner will be pizza on the grill if the weather agrees or in the oven if it doesn't

Saturday - spicy honey chicken thighs - these were really good the first time we had them

Sunday - Spaghetti Pie

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Generic vs. Name Brand with Coupon

2009-09-02T21:48:00.002-04:00

I use coupons for nearly everything I buy at the grocery store. I get this weird feeling when I buy something without one. I hate it when the generic is still cheaper even after my store doubles a manufacturer's coupon on the name brand item. I'm saving money with the generic, but I know that I can do better if only my timing were better.

I'm in one of those pickles right now. I am down to my last teaspoons of sugar. I don't even have any Splenda to substitute. So I have to suck it up and buy sugar at the going price. I can't wait for the rock bottom price. I am at my store's mercy. One of my stores has Domino 5 lb bags of sugar on sale for $2.50. I have a manufacturer's coupon for 30 cents off one. That means I'll spend $1.90 at this store that doubles. I just don't know. That doesn't sound like a good price.

I'm probably going to Aldi and/or Save a Lot this week for some of their sale items, so I'll check out their prices before buying any sugar. I could stop in Walmart to see what they charge, but that's a crapshoot. I've noticed that WM is higher than regular prices at Kroger or Meijer on half the stuff I buy. The problem is knowing exactly which half is cheaper at any given time. I really don't want to go all over town comparing prices.

We'll see. I NEED sugar, so I know I will buy it. I just don't know how willing I am to make sure I'm getting a decent price before I hand over the cash. The gasoline just isn't worth it.

August CVS $10 Challenge: Final Week

2009-09-01T17:37:00.002-04:00

I have had tomatoes on the brain, so forgive me for the tardiness of this post. Sunday, August 30, I did my final shopping trip of my August $10 Challenge. Joe threw me a curveball when he asked for the Blink Contacts eyedrops, so I had to pay full price for those, but everything else was somehow on sale.

Over two transactions, I bought:
(2) pkgs of filler paper
(1) medium Glade soy candle
(1) store brand hand soap
(1) Softsoap bodywash
(2) folders in Ohio State colors
(1) Blink Contacts rewetting drops

Retail price including tax was $29.49.

I had an instore savings of $3.60.

I saved $2.00 using manufacturer coupons:
(1) $1.00 Softsoap bodywash
(1) $1.00 Blink Contacts rewetting drops

I used $21.63 in CVS coupons:

- $1.50 CRT coupon for the bodywash
- $1.69 coupon from my email for a free gift (I chose the hand soap)
- $1.89 ECB from 8/16
- $1.98 ECB from last week
- $7.58 ECB from last week
- $6.99 ECB earned in the first transaction from the candle

Sunday's OOP was $2.26. I started the day with $2.61, so that left $0.35 in my pocket at the end of the month.

I walked out the door with $8.00 in ECB's:
1X $3.00 from last week
1X $2.00 from the bodywash

1X $1.00 from the folders (raincheck)
1X $2.00 from the filler paper (raincheck)

For $9.65 OOP, in August I purchased:

(2) book covers
(2) one-subject notebooks
(2) 5" scissors
(1) 3-pack glue sticks
(1) compass
(1) protractor
(2) 20-ct pens
(2) 10-ct pens
(2) rulers
(1) sticky note pad
(2) recycled plastic pencil boxes
(2) 1" vinyl binders
(2) mini composition books
(2) composition books
(2) pkgs of filler paper
(2) folders
(1) 36-ct aspirin
(1) Blink Contacts rewetting drops
(1) 10-ct box of store brand tampons
(4) Carefree ultra pantiliners
(1) set of earhook headphones
(2) Reese's peanut butter cups
(1) Glade candle holder for the scented oil candles
(1) Glade scented oil candles
(1) Glade Sense and Spray starter kit
(2) small Glade soy candles
(1) medium Glade soy candle
(1) store brand hand soap
(1) Softsoap bodywash

All-in-all I don't think I did too badly for the whole month. There are people who would have picked up each and every freebie and every ECB-earner in order to boost their numbers. I didn't do that. I stuck to items that my family will use or that I can donate.

I will be starting a new personal $10 challenge for September. Don't expect any blogging about it though. The blog provided the accountability and proof that it could be done. Besides, there are no coupons in next Sunday's paper, so I put in my vacation stop. No paper means no CVS ad, so I'm taking a holiday from CVS for a couple weeks.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-08-23T20:58:00.004-04:00

Last week's MPM post was...how should I put it?...absent. I made up my menu and fully intended to type it up for all the world to see. Monday came and went, but no MPM for me. It seemed silly to post it on Tuesday, so I skipped it altogether.

Today's weather felt like fall, but the summer crops haven't gotten the message yet. Between my garden and the CSA veggies we get every Thursday, we are overloaded with vegetables. One day I may have them under control and then the next I can't find a spot for another zucchini in the fridge. A family of three can only eat so many veggies a week, so the freezer, dehydrator and canner are my friends this time of year.

This week's menu only covers the main dish so that I can feel free to use up whatever veggies are overflowing that day:

Monday - Spaghetti Pie

Tuesday - Pepperoncini Beef

Wednesday - Cajun Buffalo Wings

Thursday - Turkey Enchilada Casserole

Friday - pizza night - redeem coupon for a free cheese pizza from Papa Murphy's and top it with frozen homemade meatballs. If only I had some feta...mmm.

Saturday - grill night - burgers stuffed with pepperjack cheese and hot dogs wrapped in bacon

Sunday - CSA potluck/hog roast - I always enjoy potlucks at the farm, but Joe isn't crazy about them with all the funky vegetables dishes that the vegans bring. Something tells me that the vegans will be staying home, so that they don't have to witness the mass consumption of animal flesh by all the meat eaters. Ah, pork is so yummy.

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

August CVS $10 Challenge: Week 4

2009-08-23T20:07:00.006-04:00

I had a great time shopping at CVS today. I used the $5/$25 coupon that I got for the ReadyFill quiz. I didn't even have to try very hard to make it work. Just got lucky with my coupons.

Over two transactions, I bought:
(2) Reese's peanut butter cups
(1) Glade candle holder for the scented oil candles
(1) Glade scented oil candles
(1) Glade Sense and Spray starter kit
(2) Glade soy candles
(2) composition books
(4) Carefree ultra pantiliners

Retail price including tax was $50.86.

I had an instore savings of $14.25.

I saved $15.08 using manufacturer coupons:
(2) $0.55 Reese's (they were on sale at 2/$1, so the coupons were capped at 50 cents each)
(1) $1.00 Carefree that I got in the mail from a sample
(1) Buy Glade candle holder Get candles Free (they were on sale for $2.50)
(2) FREE Glade soy candles (they were $3.29 each)
(1) $4.00 Glade Sense and Spray starter kit

I used $19.57 in CVS coupons:

- $5.00 coupon for doing the ReadyFill Survey and purchasing at least $25 in merchandise
- $6.99 ECB that I earned 8/16
- $7.58 ECB earned today from 2 Carefree

Today's OOP was $1.96. I started the day with $4.57, so that leaves a balance of $2.61 for the rest of August.

In addition to a $1.89 ECB from last week that I didn't use today, I walked out the door with $12.56 in new ECB's for next time:
1X $1.98 from the composition books
1X $3.00 from the Glade Sense and Spray, candle holder and scented oil candles
1X $7.58 from 2 Carefree

For $7.39 OOP, I have purchased month to date:

(2) book covers
(2) one-subject notebooks
(2) 5" scissors
(1) 3-pack glue sticks
(1) compass
(1) protractor
(2) 20-ct pens
(2) 10-ct pens
(2) rulers
(1) sticky note pad
(2) recycled plastic pencil boxes
(2) 1" vinyl binders
(2) mini composition books
(2) composition books
(1) 36-ct aspirin
(1) 10-ct box of store brand tampons
(4) Carefree ultra pantiliners
(1) set of earhook headphones
(2) Reese's peanut butter cups
(1) Glade candle holder for the scented oil candles
(1) Glade scented oil candles
(1) Glade Sense and Spray starter kit
(2) Glade soy candles

Stay tuned for next week to see the final results of my August CVS $10 Challenge. What will I be able to bring home with just $2.61 cash and $14.45 ECB's?

August CVS $10 Challenge: Week 3

2009-08-16T13:58:00.002-04:00

This week's sale at CVS was better than last week. The freebie school supplies were back. Unfortunately I was unable to use the $5/$25 coupon that I received in my email last week that expired today. I couldn't find enough to meet the $25 purchase requirement yet still stay under my Challenge budget regarding the OOP.

I broke up my order into 4 transactions. I bought:
(2) 10-ct pens
(2) recycled plastic pencil boxes
(2) 1" vinyl binders (I redeemed a raincheck to get these free after ECB's)
(2) mini composition books
(1) 10-ct box of store brand tampons
(1) set of earhook headphones

Retail price including tax was $35.13.

I had an instore savings of $9.08.

I used $21.88 in ECB's:
- 4X $0.99 ECB from 8/2
- 1X $1.98 ECB from 8/2
- 1X $1.98 ECB earned today
- 2X $3.98 ECB earned today
- 2X $3.00 ECB earned today from the binder raincheck

Today's OOP was $4.17. I started the day with $8.74, so that leaves a balance of $4.57 for the rest of August.

I walked out the door with $8.88 in ECB's for next time:
1X $6.99
1X $1.89

My store was out of the free filler paper, so I got a raincheck.

For $5.43 OOP, I have purchased month to date:
(2) book covers
(2) one-subject notebooks
(2) 5" scissors
(1) 3-pack glue sticks
(1) compass
(1) protractor
(1) 36-ct aspirin
(2) 20-ct pens
(2) rulers
(1) sticky note pad
(2) 10-ct pens
(2) recycled plastic pencil boxes
(2) 1" vinyl binders
(2) mini composition books
(1) 10-ct box of store brand tampons
(1) set of earhook headphones

Twin Birthday Cakes

2009-08-15T19:57:00.004-04:00

Joe's nieces Erica and Elizabeth turned 10 this week. Joe's sister decided not to have a birthday party. Instead, she said I could make a cake for them and take it to the family reunion, which was today. I volunteered to make the cake because I haven't had a reason to make one all summer long. I wanted to play around with my cake decorating supplies again.

Every person has a birthday and I know that the twins were born August 12, but I didn't know for sure whether Dawn wanted me to make their birthday cake until two days ago. For some reason I put the design on a mental hold until I received the word that it was a go. I feel a little bad because the twins' cake did not have as many hours of thought put into it as their brother Zach's tractor cake. Not much I can do about it now.

My starting point in the design was two 8" petal pans that I picked up at a yard sale in May. I've been wanting to use them ever since. Girls and flowers go well together.

Dawn said that the flower design was fine and that the girls like pink and purple.

I like two-layer cakes better than single-layer ones. Can anybody say filling? However, family reunions lend themselves towards single-layer cakes. That worked well because I was able to make each girl her own cake from one cake mix.

The next design consideration was how to put their names on the cakes. I wanted to outline the flower petals in icing on the top of the cake and give it a daisy-ish center. That wouldn't work with writing the name on top. However, I still had some fondant left from my Wilton class back in April (double bag the fondant in freezer bags and it keeps a long, long time at room temperature). I decided to cover a 12" cake circle with fondant and write their names on the fondant instead of the cake itself. As far as the fondant colors used, well, those were colors I had made up already that I knew I had enough to cover the 12" circle AND would match the main colors of pink and purple.

I tried to make both cakes as identical as I could, but just like the identical twins Erica and Elizabeth, their cakes have their own distinct personalities.

August CVS $10 Challenge: Week 2

2009-08-13T15:14:00.003-04:00

Sunday I received my CVS weekly circular in my newspaper. After finishing my OAMC cooking, I read my paper. I don't actually "read" the paper. I just clip my coupons and read the store ads. When I got to the CVS ad, there wasn't a single thing that I wanted. N O T H I N G.

I could have posted on Sunday that I wasn't going to stop by my local CVS this week, but I waited. Why? Some weeks CVS will send an email on Thursday that has a printable coupon which is good through Sunday. Often they will be "save $5 off your $25 purchase", but sometimes I get "save $3 off your $15 purchase." I was hoping for the $3/$15, so I waited. I guess I thought a miracle would take place and suddenly the ad would have something that I wanted. The great thing about these is that the $15 or $25 or whatever purchase is BEFORE coupons.

Today is Thursday. Yes, I received an email from CVS. It had the $5/$25 as I expected it to which is good through Sunday. Please, please, please let there be an awesome sale on Sunday that I can use the $5/$25 on without blowing my $10 challenge.

The CVS email did have an added bonus coupon. CVS has this new ReadyFill prescription program. If you go here and take the quiz, then they'll give you a coupon for $5 off your in-store purchase of $25. Okay, so it sounds like the same deal as above, but the bonus is that it doesn't expire right away. I took the quiz today and the coupon doesn't expire until August 27. That allows me a couple weeks to plan an awesome shopping trip.

CVS will only allow a customer to use one of these purchase based coupons per transaction. I cringe when I hear bloggers use two of them at one time. There are "boyfriend" coupons (some stores have a price scanner/coupon printer) and there are email coupons and there are CRT coupons (cash register tape ones that come out after your receipt). Please only one of these. I would have to buy $25 of stuff twice in order to use both the regular email and the ReadyFill coupons.

So to recap:

This week's OOP: $0.00.

I still have $5.94 in ECB's for next time:
- 4X $0.99
- 1X $1.98

I have spent $1.26 cash out-of-pocket (OOP) this month, which leaves $8.74 left for the rest of August.

I have purchased:
(2) book covers
(2) one-subject notebooks
(2) 5" scissors
(1) 3-pack glue sticks
(1) compass
(1) protractor
(1) 36-ct aspirin
(2) 20-ct pens
(2) rulers
(1) sticky note pad

Pizza Casserole

2009-08-13T13:33:00.005-04:00

Back in college I had a roommate named Danette who had a boyfriend named Robby. Pizza Casserole was a staple in his house. Danette really liked it so she introduced us to it. Just five simple ingredients that didn't put a huge dent on our college student budget. Needless to say, we ate it quite frequently.

Pizza Casserole

12 oz package egg noodles, cooked
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 lb ground beef, crumbled, browned and drained
28 oz jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350. In a 9x13x2 baking dish, layer HALF of the noodles, soup, ground beef, spaghetti sauce and cheese. Repeat. Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes until hot and cheese is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Note: if you want to spice this up a bit, feel free to add fresh garlic and red pepper flakes or perhaps some Italian seasoning to the meat.

OAMC: Prepare this in two deep 8x8 baking pans instead of the 9x13. Freeze. Thaw completely and bake as directed.

Microwave Barbecued Round Steak

2009-08-13T12:53:00.007-04:00

My parents bought their first microwave from Monkey Wards when my sister was a baby. I have fond memories of watching the time count down and trying to stop it at "0" (zero, not oh) by pressing the button to open the door. Here's a great recipe from back then with some of my own twists:

Barbecued Round Steak

Yields 8 servings

1/2 c minced celery OR 1 t celery seed
10.5 oz can tomato soup, undiluted
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 t prepared mustard
1/2 c minced onion OR 2 T dried onion flakes
2 t garlic powder
2 T brown sugar
2 T lemon juice
1 t Tabasco sauce
2 lb round steak, cut into bite-sized pieces

In a 3-quart microwavable bowl, mix everything except the meat until combined. Stir in the meat. Cover and refrigerate several hours.

Microwave, covered, on 50% powder for 20 minutes. Stir and recover. Continue cooking at 50% for another 20 minutes or so until meat is tender, stirring every 5 minutes. If edges start to dry up, stir in a little bit of water.

Note: the fresh celery and onion usually provide enough moisture for a 2-lb batch. If you use the dried versions, you'll definitely need the water. Also, if you're feeding a smaller family and cut the recipe in half, then you'll also need some water.

OAMC: I am trying this out for the first time, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Put 2 lb meat in a gallon bag (or 1 lb meat and 1 cup sauce in each of two quart baggies) and pour sauce over and freeze. Thaw in fridge. Pour into bowl and microwave as directed.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-08-10T19:28:00.004-04:00

Last week's menu didn't go exactly as planned. I felt like cooking Friday instead of stopping by Papa Murphy's, so Samantha's free pizza coupon will probably get used next week. Saturday and Sunday were spent doing a lot of OAMC cooking. I'll have to post about that later when I pull the photos off the camera.

My favorite meal of the past week was from my OAMC session. Generally I will reserve two dishes and stick them in the fridge rather than freezing them. This time was no different. Last night we had Ground Beef Casserole II that I found on OAMM's July Menu. I thought it was quite tasty. Joe said it reminded him of Hamburger Helper. Eek! I wouldn't touch HH with a 10 foot pole, but this stuff was good. Samantha liked it, but picked out the meat.

I think the menu-planning gods are shining down on me. Ordinarily I like to pull a freezer meal out 36 hours in advance and set it in the fridge to thaw. For some reason, I had not yet done that with tomorrow's meal which was supposed to be Turkey Enchilada Casserole. Just now, as I was typing up this post, my neighbor John stopped by with a bag of banana and jalapeno peppers. Hot dog! I know what's for dinner tomorrow -- Chorizo-stuffed banana peppers. If I make it to the grocery store for bacon and cream cheese, then I might also have poppers, but that's up in the air right now.

Monday - Mexican Noodle Bake from the book Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough

Tuesday - Chorizo-stuffed banana peppers and maybe jalapeno poppers

Wednesday - Carolina BBQ

Thursday - Pizza Casserole - a recipe from my college roommate Danette

Friday - Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs

Saturday - lunch: family reunion potluck; supper: ravioli

Sunday - BBQ Round Steak with rice - a microwave recipe that Mom made often when I was little

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Italian Beef Sandwiches

2009-08-04T20:34:00.005-04:00

I have been eating Italian Beef Sandwiches all my life. I think I heard someone say that the recipe entered our family through my dad's Aunt Jane (please correct me if I'm wrong.) While the recipe is essentially the same, I have tweaked it to make it suitable for the crockpot.

First, I gather all the ingredients. You'll notice the Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning. Ordinarily I'd use Lawry's Seasoned Salt, but I'm out, so I've been using Tony Chachere's instead lately because it's also a seasoned salt just with different spices.

Put the roast in the crockpot and sprinkle on the seasonings. Add 1 cup of water to help cook the roast, but not more since this is a crockpot and the moisture can't escape like in the oven.
Let it cook on low all day. When it's tender, remove the meat and thinly slice or shred.

Put the meat back in the crockpot with the juices. Add only enough water to not quite cover the meat and let it cook some more.

When you're tired of waiting, serve the meat on some good buns, being sure to add some juice to each sandwich.
Tonight I tried these 40-Minute Hamburger Buns that I heard about on Love to Pinch Pennies. Casey's were prettier than mine, but that's no surprise considering I screwed them up. I am out of active dry yeast, so I used rapid rise, but mixed the dry ingredients first rather than proofing the yeast in the water like you do with active dry. That shouldn't be a huge deal, but I added more than I needed to. I dumped in 3 packets without thinking and each one has 2.25 teaspoons for a total of 6.75 teaspoons, but the recipe called for 2 tablespoons or 6 teaspoons. Then I forgot the salt. They were good, but definitely needed salt. They were fast because they only require one short rise instead of two rises which made them great for a weeknight. I will hold onto this recipe.

Italian Beef Sandwiches (100% Crockpot method)

3 lb boneless beef roast such as rump
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
1/2 t seasoned salt
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t rosemary
1 t Italian seasoning
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 cup water for roasting plus more later

Place meat in a crockpot. Add seasonings and 1 cup of water. Cook on LOW all day.

Remove meat from crockpot. Slice thinly or shred and return to crockpot with juices. Add a little bit more water, but not quite enough to cover the meat. Continue cooking a couple more hours to let the flavors mingle.

Serve meat and juices on a good bun that won't get soggy and fall apart from the juices.

50% crockpot/50% stove option:

To speed up dinner, after the meat has cooked in the crockpot until tender, you can simmer the sliced/shredded meat and juices in a covered skillet on the stovetop for 45 minutes. Just don't add any more water than you need to!

If you know you'll be exercising the stove option and you don't have the time/energy to measure out a bunch of spices in the morning, then don't worry. Just put the meat in the crockpot and season it with the salt and pepper and add the water. You can add the remaining seasonings to the skillet in the evening.

Menu Plan Monday - Staycation

2009-08-03T20:19:00.005-04:00

Joe is taking a golf staycation this week. He has a membership to a local golf course, so in the mornings he will be golfing. In the afternoons he will be putting down gravel underneath the deck for weed and erosion prevention. Yesterday he laid down the fabric. Today he went with his dad to get about 3 tons of pea gravel at a local quarry. He spread out some of the gravel, but the rest should be done by tomorrow. I have no idea what he'll do the rest of the week. Must come up with a honey-do list.

With the staycation in mind, I planned out this week's menu to be pretty simple.

Monday - red BBQ sandwiches, Betty Crocker Creamy Italian pasta salad with some salami, swiss cheese and black olives

Tuesday - crockpot Italian beef sandwiches, frozen french fries, Velveeta Shells and Cheese (I know that there are 2 starches, but the box expired last week, so we need to use it soon and fries just "go" with sandwiches.)

Wednesday - Southwestern Turkey Casserole

Thursday - jar o' Ragu, box o' pasta, frozen garlic bread, and salad

Friday - redeem another coupon for free Papa Murphy's pizza

Saturday - grill night - maple honey pork chops

Sunday - OAMC Day, so one of those meals

If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out this week's Menu Plan Monday guest hosted by The Happy Housewife to see what others are having!

August CVS $10 Challenge: Week 1

2009-08-02T16:09:00.007-04:00

Last month I happened upon a blog where a woman had challenged herself to spend no more than $10 at CVS for the whole month. She got tons of stuff.

I thought it sounded like fun to see what I could get for just ten bucks in the month of August at CVS. There are 5 Sundays in August which means $2 per week, so this could get tricky if I spend too much cash in any one week.

I started the month of August with $3.87 in Extra Bucks (ECB's) in my pocket:
-- 1X $1.89
-- 2X $1.98

This week CVS is again running another three-day sale with free school supplies after ECB's. Woo-hoo. Too bad Samantha is only 2 years old. So this morning I went to CVS and bought over the course of 4 transactions:
That's:
(2) book covers
(2) one-subject notebooks
(2) 5" scissors
(1) 3-pack glue sticks
(1) compass
(1) protractor
(1) 36-ct aspirin
(2) 20-ct pens
(2) rulers
(1) sticky note pad

If nothing were on sale, I would have spent $33.47. Ha! I only buy things on sale.

I had an instore savings of $11.48.

I then used:
- 1.89 ECB carried over from last month
- 2X 1.98 ECB carried over from last month
- 4X 0.99 ECB earned today
- 2.94 ECB earned today
- 2.99 ECB earned today
- 3.00 ECB earned today
- 1.99 August Free Gift (mine was the aspirin)

I spent $1.26 cash out-of-pocket (OOP) today, which leaves $8.74 left for the rest of August.

I walked out the door with $5.94 in ECB's for next time:
- 4X $0.99
- 1X $1.98

My store didn't receive their shipment of folders, so I got a raincheck. Rainchecks are great, but it won't do me any good if my store never gets the item in stock. I will keep looking for the folders as well as the 24-ct pencils and 1" binders that I have rainchecks for. I really want the binders to help organize all my OAMC recipes!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-07-27T21:15:00.005-04:00

Of all the meals we ate last week, the Curry Chicken was probably my favorite. Very surprising considering that I did not grow up eating those flavors. Joe and Samantha also liked it. She knows that it's called curry, but she even called the currants "curry", so there's still a little confusion there. This was a freezer meal, but just as good as the first time around.

I'm at a point where I want to actively cook more meals each week. Part of me doesn't want the summer to slip away with casseroles cooking in a hot oven. Heck, I'd be happy if it were always summer. So more grilling and new ways to use up the fresh CSA veggies while they're in season.

Monday - mexican un-stuffed shells, fritos and ro-tel dip, cucumbers

Tuesday - escarole, beans and italian sausage over pasta -- not sure how the greens are gonna fly with Joe, but I have a whole head of escarole to use up, so here goes.

Wednesday - turkey dressing casserole

Thursday - beef in a leaf -- now that we have beef again I can make this asian-inspired dish

Friday - pizza night, salad -- I froze half the dough last week, so the hard part will be deciding what toppings to use this week!

Saturday - spicy honey chicken thighs on the grill, starchy side, green veg

Sunday - brats on the grill, buffalo chicken spaghetti, green veg

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Homemade Cake Release

2009-07-27T07:55:00.001-04:00

My sister will be attempting to decorate her first cake this week for her oldest daughter's birthday party. (Laura likes stargazer lilies, so I took this picture of mine in bloom for her.) Baking the cake itself isn't hard, but wondering whether it will come out of the pan in one piece can be scary.

Typically a cake mix will tell you to grease the pan with shortening and then dust it with flour. Sometimes it's hard to grease the pan evenly if the pan has a lot of nooks and crannies. Another option these days is to buy a can of nonstick spray that already includes the flour. I know that Pam, Crisco and Wilton carry such a spray, but who really wants to have to buy another product that you will only use occasionally?

My Wilton Method instructor gave me a recipe to make it easier. The best part is that most bakers are likely to have all the ingredients already in their kitchen. I divided the original recipe by four, so if you make a lot of cakes feel free to quadruple my quantities. It works great as long as you line the bottom of the pan with wax paper and then brush the sides with cake release. I've only had it fail once, but that was a banana bread recipe that I've found to be particularly difficult and I didn't line the pan with wax paper.

Homemade Cake Release

1 /4 cup + 2 tablespoons Crisco
1 tablespoon Oil
1 tablespoon Flour

Mix until creamy. Brush onto sides and bottom of pan with a basting brush. Store leftovers in refrigerator. It keeps a long time.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-07-20T19:54:00.003-04:00

We finally got the beef quarter from the Sippels! I am very excited to be able to eat something besides the chicken and turkey that have been dominating the menus lately, so I slipped in beef a couple times this week.

Monday - chicken curry, rice, peas

Tuesday - turkey spaghetti, green veg

Wednesday - cheeseburger skillet, french fries, green veg

Thursday - chicken enchiladas, crockpot refried beans, green veg

Friday - pizza night

Saturday - CSA potluck

Sunday - grill night - STEAK!!!

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Using up the veggies: Chard Tartlets

2009-07-14T19:14:00.005-04:00

Every Thursday in the summer, we receive our CSA share from the Sippels. I get excited about some veggies and dread others. The ones we like are gobbled up in a day or two. The ones we dislike stick around the fridge until they are mushy, moldy or otherwise inedible and get tossed in the compost bin.

To keep on top of what's left in the crisper drawers, I have a list on the fridge of all the herbs and veggies. When we use up something, then I cross it off. When we pick up that week's share, I add the names. It's a lot easier than rummaging through the crisper drawers to see what I still have.

Before last week's pickup we still had and their status before tonight's dinner:
- lettuce -- took to a cookout
- garlic scapes (they're the stem and flowerhead that garlic plants get)
- swiss chard (a colorful green)
- beets
- sage leaves -- dehydrated for more sage-y weather
- kale

Last week in our share we got and their status before tonight's dinner:
- more lettuce -- took to a cookout
- more beets
- cabbage
- collard greens
- zucchini -- made pickles
- yellow squash -- cooked
- kohlrabi
- tomatoes -- gone

Today is Tuesday so that means only tonight and tomorrow before the fridge is inundated with more veggies. I had to take action now.

I decided to use up some of the greens. When we were on vacation last month I made Sharna's Chard Tart. The original recipe uses a pie crust, but I didn't have one, so I decided to make a crustless tart instead. Joe isn't crazy about greens, so I baked them in muffin tins for individual portions and froze the rest. I used up the swiss chard and the kale leaves that were still green. Even without a crust, I thought these were really good.

While those were baking, I tackled the beets. One of the blogs I read, Once a Month Mom, had a post recently about making freezer pickled beets. I usually can my beets, but that's a lot of work for only a jar or two of beet pickles. I will try anything once, so there's now a container of pickled beets in my freezer.

If my list is correct, I still have left:
- garlic scapes (they'll keep, so I'm not worried)
- collards
- kohlrabi
- cabbage
- half a hot pepper from my garden

Maybe tomorrow will be coleslaw using the kohlrabi and cabbage as well as some carrots and onions from the garden. Or not. Tuna casserole is on the menu. In my experience greens make a better side for tuna casserole, so maybe it'll be the collards. Probably not.

Here's my version of the chard tart:

Chard Tartlets

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 bunch swiss chard, coarsely chopped and stalks sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tablespoons dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch ground red pepper
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Line a muffin tin with (roughly) 10 cupcake papers. Lightly spray the papers with cooking spray.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and cook until onions are soft. Add swiss chard stalks and garlic to the skillet and continue cooking until tender. Add the leaves and cook until tender. Season with basil, salt, pepper and red pepper.
In a bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt and cheese. Stir in the chard mixture. Scrape into the prepared cupcake papers, filling 3/4 or more full. These don't rise very much, but they do bubble.
Bake at 375 until filling is golden and firm, 25-35 minutes.

Pork Fat Rules

2009-07-13T18:12:00.015-04:00

Yesterday we cooked a 7.46 pound bone-in pork shoulder.
Joe liberally coated the meat with a blend of salt, pepper and garlic.
Joe put it on the grill with an aluminum pan of cider vinegar and water underneath.
He put charcoal and applewood chips in the sidebox. He also put some charcoal in the main compartment.After several agonizing hours of smoking, the butt was finally done.
In one cast iron skillet, I added the pulled pork, salt, hot pepper flakes, cider vinegar and water.
After simmering and stirring, the lovely carolina barbecue looked like this:
For some variety, I put pulled pork in another skillet and topped it with bottled barbecue sauce.
With some nudging from some cider vinegar, the alternate barbecue eventually looked like this:

Menu Plan Monday

2009-07-13T07:34:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Joe smoked a pork shoulder. Yum. I'll post about that later. This week:

Monday - turkey dressing casserole

Tuesday - mexican un-stuffed shells

Wednesday - tuna casserole

Thursday - turkey enchilada casserole

Friday - redeem Samantha's Papa Murphy's coupon for a free medium cheese pizza from the library's summer reading program

Saturday - Samantha will be spending the night with Joe's parents while we go to Shamrock Vineyard's Twilight Dinner. Last year we went and had a good time.

Sunday - grill night -- maple honey pork chops

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-07-05T21:40:00.007-04:00

Last week I was late posting my menu, so this week I'm going to get it done early.

Sunday - Chicken Curry, rice - I was taking a risk by serving Joe an entree with curry powder, onions and dried fruit, but he liked it and I thought it was delicious.

Monday - Turkey Spaghetti, green veg

Tuesday - Maple Honey Mustard Pork Chops, green veg, starchy side

Wednesday - Chicken Enchiladas, refried beans, green veg

Thursday - burgers stuffed with pepperjack cheese, Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti, green veg

Friday - pizza night, salad

Saturday - cookout at Clinger's house - will have to think of something to take

Sunday - Smoke the Pork Shoulder - carolina barbecue, pasta salad, green veg

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

OAMC Big Day

2009-07-05T20:39:00.004-04:00

Yesterday morning Joe cooked a 14 lb turkey on the grill for me. Grilling a turkey is great any time of year. On Thanksgiving Day, it frees up precious oven space. In the summer, it doesn't heat up the kitchen. It always tastes great with the hint of smokiness that grilling adds.

I especially liked the cost of buying it in November. Super cheap. They were such a bargain that I bought two turkeys even though we were flying out of state for Thanksgiving. I shudder to think what they go for this time of year.

Yesterday afternoon while Samantha and Joe were napping, I chopped and measured all the turkey meat. I still had an hour to spare before I needed to get ready to leave for a July 4th party, so I made the decision to assemble a couple easy dishes right away rather than waiting. Both dishes were no-cook, mix and layer casseroles. I made up 2 pans each of Turkey Enchilada Casserole and Southwestern Turkey Casserole. I assembled them in less time than it took to chop all the meat off the bird, which saved me 45 minutes today. Another bonus was that the food was frozen this morning and ready to be wrapped, bagged and stacked. That freed up 4 baking dishes and freezer space.

This morning I resumed in the kitchen. I had my game plan written up, but with the first two dishes knocked out already, I wasn't sure where to start. I had selected those recipes because they were so fast that they would give me that jump start to my motivation. It's great to be able to say "I've only been working an hour, but already I've completed two recipes." It really helps get the momentum rolling.

Eventually I re-tweaked the game plan and got started. I finished cooking by 1 pm with a lunch break included. Today I made:
- 3 dishes of Turkey Dressing Casserole
- 2 dishes of Mexican Un-Stuffed Shells
- 2 dishes of Turkey Spaghetti
- 2 dishes of Chicken Curry
- 3 mini-loaves of Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
- 12 Mocha Chip Muffins
- 12 Turkey and Muenster Roll-ups
- 12 Pepperoni and Provolone Roll-ups using same dough recipe as the turkey ones

Between yesterday and today, I made 13 supper entrees and a few breakfast and lunch items. That won't last us a month on its own, but I still have frozen meals from my last cooking session as well as extras that I've stashed away here and there. Plus, Joe will be smoking a pork shoulder next weekend. Lots of yummy Carolina Barbecue and other pork dishes to add to the freezer. We'll be set until the end of the month.

I was so pooped after cooking that I took a 2-hour nap this afternoon. Maybe it wasn't the cooking. Maybe it was not getting to bed until midnight after an evening of drinking some Buckeye Red and then waking with the sun to cook the next day.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-29T16:08:00.004-04:00

I wrote this up last night and then forgot to publish it!

It's pretty easy to plan out my meals when I do it ahead of time, but pretty difficult if I wait until Sunday or Monday. This week's menu I wrote out middle of last week some time when I was thinking about my upcoming OAMC day. My freezer is about half empty right now, but after a day of OAM cooking this weekend and a new quarter of beef next weekend space is going to be tight. My single largest space hog is a frozen turkey from last Thanksgiving's turkey sale. It's on the OAMC menu to make room for more beef.

Monday - tuna casserole, salad, fruit

Tuesday - chicken and corn quesadillas, green veg

Wednesday - firecracker chicken, green veg, pasta/rice side from a box

Thursday - taco joes, green veg, pierogies and cheese

Friday - grill night - ranch chicken kabob salad, garlic bread, fruit

Saturday - 4th of July cookout - Take the awesome FLO'S ROASTED POTATO SALAD. Roasted garlic, bacon...need I say more? (Btw, I've made the brats and cabbage recipe too, but they're only so-so whereas the potato salad was a keeper).

Sunday - OAMC Day - Joe will grill the whole turkey for me to use

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Zucchini Pineapple Cake

2009-06-29T14:11:00.005-04:00

Sunday was the first CSA potluck of the year at the Sippel Family Farm. The potlucks are open to CSA members and their families. Members are supposed to bring a large enough dish along to feed everyone in their party (Grumble grumble vanload of rude people who don't) as well as table service for their party.

Typically the agenda is like this:

3 pm people start arriving
4 pm eat
5 pm farm tour
6 pm leave

The time's aren't set in stone or anything, but that's the general idea. Some months there will be something available for picking. Some members pick before the meal and others pick afterwards.

This month there were sugar snap peas. Peas are not my favorite veggie, but Joe likes them a lot. They're ok as a side dish, but a must in tuna casserole. Canned are gross. Fresh or frozen are fine. I don't care for the pods.

After we finished eating, Joe and I skipped out on the tour and headed off to the pea field with Samantha and reusable grocery bags in hand. I found a row and started picking away, not discriminating against any pod size. Joe carried Samantha until she whined and wanted down. Samantha happened to pick a good spot that wasn't picked-over yet. He also did not discriminate against small pods until he discovered that some pods were very full with large peas. I grew tired of stooping over the low-lying plants and headed over to see his bounty. He wasn't ready to stop, so I kept picking large pods as I headed back to the beginning of the row. We headed back to the house. We each had our bags half full of pea pods. That's a lot of peas.

We stood around talking and didn't leave the farm until 7. By 8, Samantha was in her jammies and we were out on the deck shelling peas. Around 9:30 it was too dark to see, so we came inside and put the girl to bed. Shelling was finished at 11. There were 4 Tupperware Thatsa Bowls of pods that hit the compost bin and just 5 lb 7 oz of peas for eating. Joe went to bed and I continued with blanching the peas for freezing. I was in the bed at midnight with 7 pint bags of peas in the freezer.

Thursday night I decided what to make for the potluck during a power outage. I try to take a dish using fresh produce and/or dessert. In our share that day we got lettuce, garlic scapes, yellow and green summer squash, beets and carrots. In my garden I also have new potatoes that I could use. I wasn't expecting the squash yet (it's nearly July but feels too early), so that was a pleasant surprise. I thought about it a while in the dark and remembered Pineapple Zucchini Cake. I dug out the recipe and was happy that I had all the ingredients on hand.

My mom has been making this recipe for as long as I can remember. This was our standard zucchini bread recipe for me growing up rather than the typical spiced version. I only remember Mom making one other zucchini bread recipe and it wasn't as good. It was a Weight Watcher recipe that made a single 8"x8" pan. The following recipe is far too point-y to be WW-friendly.

For the potluck I used my 9"x13"x1" pan plus a mini loaf pan. I took the 9x13 and stashed the loaf in the freezer. Good thing, too, because there were no leftovers to take home.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was when Joe tried it and liked it. He ate 3 pieces!

Zucchini Pineapple Cake

Makes: two 9x5 loaves OR two 8x8 pans OR one 9x13x2 pan OR one 9x13x1 pan plus one mini loaf OR 30 muffins

3 eggs
2 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1 c oil
2 c grated and drained zucchini, unpeeled (or yellow squash)
3 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 c raisins
1 c chopped nuts (my favorite is pecans, but I used almonds for the potluck and toasted them)
1 c crushed pineapple, drained (from a 20 oz can)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour (or use non-stick spray) baking pans.

Beat eggs until fluffy. Add sugar, vanilla, oil and zucchini.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into wet mixture until just blended. Stir in raisins, nuts and pineapple.

Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake until nicely browned and toothpick in center comes out clean. For 9x5 loaves, 8x8 pans, 9x13x2 pan that's about an hour with pyrex dishes. Metal 9x13x1 pans and mini loaf pans take about 50 minutes. Muffins take about 35 minutes.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

If desired, loaves can be frozen. Wrap loaves in plastic wrap first before wrapping in foil. The acidity of the pineapple will eat through aluminum foil and that's not a good thing.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-08T20:23:00.004-04:00

It was a busy weekend around here.

We had a yard sale, my first as an adult. Profit of $130 after buying price stickers. It was a neighborhood sale, so I didn't bother placing an ad in the paper. I could have made a killing if I had sold Samantha's baby clothes and toys, but I'm holding on to those just in case we should need them again in the future. I cringe thinking about having to pay full retail for baby related items. I did sell her bathtub, but it was a gift and not the one we would have asked for.

Yesterday I made four batches of strawberry jam for a total of 38 jars. I only make jams from locally grown produce. To do otherwise would just be wrong. I'd rather buy a jar of Smucker's (a fine product I admit) than use store-bought berries. Homemade jams made with sugar will keep forever even though most recipes say they only keep 12 months. I don't care for low-sugar and no-sugar homemade jams because they turn gray and ugly quickly and keep no more than 12 months. On a good year I jam a lot. On a bad year I miss the harvest window and don't jam anything. Strawberry season is only 2-3 weeks and it started last week. Next week I will be on vacation. We ran out of 2005 jam about six months ago, I couldn't take any chances. The time to jam was here, so jamming I did. I expect this year's strawberry jam to keep me until the 2011 or 2012 season depending on how many jars I give away.

As I mentioned last week, I already had this week's menu planned out. As predicted, last week's version had to be modified.

Monday - we had baked ziti, garlic bread and strawberry radish spinach salads. The ziti was supposed to be yesterday. The garlic bread was a deal from Kroger's triple coupon sale over the weekend. The strawberries, radishes and spinach were all picked from the garden today.

Tuesday - taco joes, french fries, spinach something

Wednesday - chicken taco wraps, green veg

Thursday - ranch chicken kabob salad (maybe, depends on the CSA share this week)

Friday - pizza night, green veg, clean out the fridge

Saturday - Vacation!

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-06-01T07:42:00.005-04:00

It's Monday again so that means it's time to plan out the week's menu. I actually did this yesterday afternoon when Samantha was sleeping. I laid out a menu for this week and next right up until we leave for vacation, but I'll leave you hanging on next week's food. Besides nothing works out exactly as planned, so I bet I'll revise the menu before we eat.

Monday - tuna casserole, spinach, jell-o

Tuesday - farmer's casserole, something from the CSA share, biscuits

Wednesday - Velveeta taco mac and cheese using grilled turkey, green veg

Thursday - buffalo chicken spaghetti, salad

Friday - pizza night (BBQ chicken filling was supposed to be for pitas, but I haven't bought any yet), salad

Saturday - grilled firecracker chicken, hash brown casserole, green veg

Sunday - baked ziti, garlic bread, green veg

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Bzzzz Bzzzz

2009-05-31T17:31:00.006-04:00

Tonight we are having cheese stuffed shells for dinner. Cheese, pasta, homemade marinara, what isn't there to love? For starters, it is not a low-calorie dish, but I ignore that most of the time.

Stuffed shells scream for a green vegetable side dish. This week I got a bag of mesclun and a head of lettuce in my CSA share. As much as I despise salads, I know that they go well alongside pasta. It would be a waste to not use the lettuce. Lettuce is healthy. The cards are stacked against me.

So, I tore up the lettuce, washed it and ran it through the salad spinner to dry. Now what? I swear that the best part of the salad is the crouton and I'm all out, so I must find something to top tonight's salad. A bare lettuce salad will not be served. That would just be wrong.

I decided that a few radishes would be nice. So I gathered Samantha and we headed to the garden. She loves strawberries, so we took a detour to pick today's red, juicy berries. My little berry thief ate them as quickly as I could pick them.

With the strawberries eaten, I proceeded to the small row of radishes. However, I couldn't get very close without hearing a very distinctive sound - the buzz of bees. I've never been stung and I'd like to keep it that way. I backed away and observed half a dozen bees flitting about the chive blossoms. Can you imagine chive honey? Ick. It probably tastes like onions, but is sweet like honey.

This spring I divided and transplanted one clump of chives. They have a new home in my garden as four clumps with lovely purple blossoms. The problem is that I planted a row of radishes adjacent to the chives. At the time I figured that the radishes would grow quickly and be harvested before their neighbors, the chives and carrots, got very big. I didn't realize that the chives would be in flower during the radishes' harvest.

No radishes for my salad. I hope there's some shredded cheese in the fridge.

Don’t Panic: More dinner’s in the freezer cookbook giveaway

2009-05-30T13:45:00.003-04:00

Tricia and Cortney over at Once a Month Mom are giving away a copy of "Don’t Panic: More dinner’s in the freezer" by Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell and Bonnie Garcia. Check out their blog to find out how to win it.

I have not yet read this new cookbook, but I expect it to have lots of yummy recipes if it's anything like the original. I borrowed the original book "Don’t Panic: dinner’s in the freezer" from my library. I wish I could have kept it longer than a month! I tried three recipes on my May 3rd cooking day. The Quick Mix Pizza Dough was a thin crust (I like thin, but Joe prefers thick) and the dough wasn't sticky on serving day. Farmer's Casserole was very good and will definitely be put into my OAMC rotation. It was nice to have a frozen side dish on hand for Mother's Day at the campground and Hash Brown Casserole was well received.

I have way too many cookbooks, but either Don't Panic book is welcome in my kitchen.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-05-25T19:52:00.005-04:00

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. We went to a cookout Saturday. When we got home, one of the neighbors invited us over to a bonfire. We stayed out until 1 am. I am getting too old to do that. There just isn't enough coffee to keep me going. I'm still feeling sluggish two days later. Ugh.

Today was a big OAMC day. I got lots done. We have enough frozen meals to get us through until after we get back from vacation next month. I was exhausted last night before bed, so I failed to set out all the needed items. Let me say that things go a lot smoother when I have a chance to think through each recipe and lay out the needed ingredients, bowls, utensils, pots, baking dishes, baggies, wraps, etc. in advance. Every recipe I felt like I was stepping all across my kitchen to find something that wasn't out on the table yet.

A new batch of OAMC meals means that I have new options to choose from for this week's menu, but it looks like I'm mostly trying to use up older meals. Fortunately I wrote up the menu Saturday afternoon before we left the house or else it would probably not be done yet. Here it is:

Monday - the chicken and corn quesadillas that we didn't eat on Sunday, refried beans and a spanish rice mix

Tuesday - chicken enchiladas, green vegetable

Wednesday - quiche in a bag, green vegetable, frozen biscuits if I can find them in my freezer

Thursday - first CSA pickup of the year! lasagna (I couldn't find it last week, so I had ravioli instead) and probably a salad since Ben likes to grow yucky lettuce :p (He grows beautiful lettuce, but I really don't like lettuce, that's all.)

Friday - pizza night, salad, bake cookies for Joe's golf outing

Saturday - Joe will be eating steak at his golf outing; Samantha and I are having chicken tacos, velveeta mac and cheese, green veg

Sunday - Stuffed shells

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Seven Layer Bars

2009-05-22T21:10:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow we're going to a cookout and I knew that I wanted to take a cookie or other dessert-type item, but I just wasn't sure what. So tonight I'm just sitting there and seven layer bars pops into my head. It's been ages since I've eaten one and even longer since I've made them. Have I ever even made them in my adult life? Maybe in college.

I looked through my recipe box of clipped dessert recipes (desserts get their very own box and everything else goes in another), but alas, no seven layer bar recipe. I moved on to the cookbooks. I could have gone straight to the internet, but I knew my umpteen cookbooks would not let me down and they didn't.

I started with the plastic ring-bound cookbooks that are typical of the church fundraiser. The first book had nothing, but I struck gold with the next book, "Roaring Good Cookbook" by the Witt Lioness Club in Witt, Illinois. There on page 64 was the following recipe for submitted by Kathryn Walcher for Seven Layer Bars:

Seven Layer Bars

1 stick oleo
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 small or large pkg. chocolate bits
1 small or large pkg. butterscotch bits
1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped nuts
1 can Eagle Brand milk

Put in layers in order. Cover all with Eagle Brand. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

That's it. I love how Kathryn assumed that her readers were familiar with the desired outcome of the dish. If you had never eaten a seven layer bar would you know to make this in a 9x13-inch baking dish? Would you know to melt the oleo (butter would be yummy) in the baking dish while the oven preheats? How big is a small or large bag of chocolate bits? What do they look like when they're done? How many servings does it make?

All of the ingredients I had on hand. Six of the seven were purchased back during "baking season" before Thanksgiving and Christmas. The seventh item, graham crackers, I picked up this week for no particular reason other than the fact that "s'mores season" is kicking off at all my stores. All of the stores had marshmallows, graham crackers and milk chocolate bars on sale. They would have you believe that no Memorial Day party would be complete without a few ooey-gooey s'mores.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-05-18T19:33:00.002-04:00

It was a cold morning today. We had a light frost, so I covered the tender plants in the garden last night before bed. I don't recall needing to cover anything in the spring since planting my first garden in 2003. That means that either this is a later frost than usual or that I am not waiting long to enough to set particular plants out. Probably a combination of the two. My neighbor gave me one extra tomato plant and I planted it last week, so I had to cover it. Usually Memorial Day weekend is the time when most people around here set out tomatoes, so I admit that it's early for tomatoes. I also covered the potato plants, but they still got a slight burn where the blanket came in contact with some of the leaves. The damage would have been much worse, possibly fatal, without the blankets.

I will be doing my OAMC cooking on Memorial Day Monday, but I still have lots of food in my freezer, so I haven't completely decided what we'll be eating this week. We must either free up a bunch of freezer space or else I'll postpone the Big Day for the following weekend. Here's what we might be eating:

Monday - 3 Step Jambalaya, broccoli, corn, strawberry and banana sorbets

Tuesday - tuna casserole

Wednesday - lasagna, garlic bread, green veg

Thursday - pizza night -- one with cheesy chicken taco topping and the other with vidalia onions a la Vidalia Onion Pie Casserole

Friday - microwave BBQ round steak, rice, green veg

Saturday - cookout at Max and Amy's house, pasta salad, dessert

Sunday - chicken and corn quesadillas, refried beans

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-05-11T07:34:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day. We spent the day at the campground with Joe's parents and his sister's family. I played a game of corn hole with my twin nieces. Samantha was our fourth. She doesn't quite understand the concept, but neither do the twins and they're 8.

I laid out this menu on Saturday so that I could take it easy yesterday. Here's what we're having this week:

Monday - quiche, green veg

Tuesday - lasagna, green veg

Wednesday - tuna casserole, applesauce

Thursday - farmer's casserole

Friday - pizza night

Saturday - grill night (I hope the weather agrees), steak, mac and cheese, green veg

Sunday - baked ziti

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Corn Pizza

2009-05-04T20:12:00.003-04:00

Whenever I make pizza I tend to make two pizzas. "Joe's pizza" will have toppings commonly found at a pizza place. "Amy's pizza" either has unusual toppings or toppings that Joe doesn't like such as onions or pineapple. I always eat some of both pizzas. Joe will only try my pizza if it is onion-free. He doesn't like half-and-half pizzas because the onions on one side somehow contaminate the non-onion side.

Last week was no different. I knew I would be making pepperoni for Joe, but I didn't really know what the other would be until I started cooking. The $0.19 ears of corn in my crisper drawer called out to me. I don't recall ever using corn on pizza, but the other veggies (carrots, celery, super old daikon) just didn't inspire me like the corn did.

That night I baked the pepperoni pizza first. Joe and Samantha ate the pepperoni pizza while I worked on the corn pizza. When the corn pizza was done, we all had some. Joe was skeptical about putting corn on a pizza, but he went back for a second slice which meant he liked it. Samantha is an unpredictable toddler whose eating habits are typical for her age. Yet she ate more of the corn pizza than she did of the pepperoni. That spells success in this house.

I can't personally vouch for the reheatability of it because Joe took all the leftovers to work. He said his coworkers laughed at him for eating corn on pizza, but he didn't mind because it microwaved well without the warmed-over flavor that pizza often gets.

Corn Pizza

1/2 lb of your favorite pizza dough
1 T or so of EVOO
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese
Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 450. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza pan with non-stick spray. Press out the dough to desired size in the pan. Drizzle the olive oil onto the dough and brush to coat evenly. Lightly rub the garlic all over the dough. Sprinkle the corn over the garlic; cover with cheese. Season with Italian seasoning, to taste. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the crust is browned and the cheese is beautifully melted.

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Now listening to The Laurie Berkner Band - Five Days Old on iTunes
via FoxyTunes

Menu Plan Monday

2009-05-04T07:31:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's cooking session made laying out this week's menu super easy. I think it only took about two minutes. Here's what is on the menu for this week:

Monday - Farmer's Casserole, asparagus from the garden

Tuesday - turkey corn quesadillas, refried beans, green veg

Wednesday - baked ziti, asparagus

Thursday - turkey macaroni bake, green veg

Friday - pizza night, asparagus

Saturday - stuffed shells, garlic bread, green veg

Sunday - Mother's Day at the campground with Joe's parents

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

OAMC Big Day

2009-05-03T16:00:00.017-04:00

Today was my freezer cooking day. Joe and I got started around 8:30. We took a break for lunch at noon. Then he stopped to go pick up Samantha from his parents, so I was on my own in the kitchen. I finished cooking around 3. I packaged up some of the meals that were already frozen and cleaned up the dishes. I finished up around 4.

We made:
-- homemade marinara sauce for ziti and stuffed shells
-- 3 meals of baked ziti
-- 2 meals of cheese stuffed shells
-- 3 meals of pork lasagna
-- 27 pumpkin muffins
-- 3 lb of pizza dough for pizza roll-ups, stromboli and put 1 lb of it in the freezer uncooked
-- 2 meals of pepperoni pizza roll-ups
-- 1 meal of pepperoni stromboli for tonight (I had a little pepperoni leftover from the roll-ups)
-- 2 meals of smoked sausage quiche mixture
-- 3 meals of farmer's casserole (2 smoked sausage and 1 bacon)
-- 2 sides of hash brown casserole

I figure that most "meals" will feed the three of us dinner one night as well as lunch the following day. Fifteen meals isn't too shabby. Not exactly a month's worth of food, but still plenty. I won't have to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen making dinner for a couple weeks unless I want to. That's a great feeling.

Here are the pumpkin muffins cooling.

Here are the pizza roll-ups.

This is my freezer mid-day. The top shelf has baked ziti and stuffed shells cooling. On the bottom are loaf pans of lasagna, stuffed shells in the back, baggies of pizza dough and some bags of potatoes that I used later on.

These three dishes are the farmer's casserole midway through assembly. The mixing bowl with the whisk has an egg mixture which was poured over the potatoes, meat and cheese.

This is what my freezer looks like now after all the cooking is finished. Some food has been wrapped and baggied while other dishes are still cooling. I don't want to mislead you into thinking this is everything that was prepared today. There is one casserole still chilling downstairs in the chest freezer. Some of the muffins will be eaten this week, so I put them in the pantry instead of freezing them. The stromboli will be eaten tonight, so it's in the fridge. Tomorrow we're having one of the farmer's casseroles, so it's in the fridge too. Everything else is in the freezer. As you can see, there's still quite a bit of empty space available.

Preparing for the Big Day

2009-05-02T22:31:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is my cooking big day. Good news is that I have a sous chef. Joe will be helping me. Samantha is spending the night with his parents. It's so odd not having her around.

I just set up my kitchen in preparation for tomorrow's cooking. I cleaned all the dishes and put away everything that is already dry. I unfolded my folding table and put it in my kitchen. I went through each recipe and put the nonperishable ingredients on the tables. Refrigerated ingredients are all on the bottom shelf in the fridge. Baking dishes are on the table. Mixing bowls are on the counter.

Bad news is that I have to cut one recipe off the menu. I discovered that one of my two 8 oz packages of pepperoni was growing nasty black mold. So gross. I had two recipes calling for pepperoni. Pizza rolls need 8 oz and stromboli needs 4 oz. Not enough good pepperoni to do both recipes, so I decided to try the pizza rolls. Roll out the dough, add toppings, roll up jelly-roll style and cut into slices similar to a cinnamon roll, but with savory flavors instead of sweet.

Ah, it's getting late. Joe fell asleep watching Nascar on the couch. Forty-three guys driving in a circle knocks me out too. Gotta get to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-04-27T16:25:00.007-04:00

Here's what is on the menu for this week:

Monday - spaghetti and meatballs, french bread, carrots

Tuesday - creamy enchiladas, green veg

Wednesday - pepperoni pizza

Thursday - smoked sausage, sauerkraut, pierogies

Friday - turkey spaghetti, green veg, brownies

Saturday - turkey macaroni bake, green veg, final cake from fondant class

Sunday - OAMC Big Day so who knows?

Do you know what you're eating this week? If you would like some menu plan inspiration, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what others are having!

Once a Month Cooking (OAMC)

2009-04-27T15:22:00.006-04:00

My New Year's Resolution was to plan out our weekly menus at the beginning of each week. Each Sunday I would take a scrap piece of paper and write out the days of the week. Then I would fill in the days with whatever meal I planned on making that night. I hung the paper on the fridge as a reminder throughout the week.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong. It took me FOREVER to decide what to make. The hard part is that I only make meals from my stockpile, so if I don't already have it and it's not on sale, then I'm not making it. I buy all my beef and pork from the Sippels a couple times a year. When I run out of a particular cut of meat, then I'm out until they harvest another animal. Occasionally I'll pick up chicken or smoked sausage or canned tuna from the grocery store, but only when it's a super deal and not all that often.

As with any resolution I could only keep up so long. I did well with this until about the end of February. At that point I was still writing out the days of the week on paper, but then I would only fill out one or two days on Sunday. I'd go day by day just like I had been doing before.

One day while catching up on one of the blogs I read, Stretching a Buck, Marcy had a guest post by Tricia who is half of the blog Once A Month Mom, which is all about once-a-month-cooking, also known as freezer cooking, bulk cooking, etc. I had heard of OAMC before but never really tried it. I gave Tricia's blog a look and liked what I saw.

Each month, Tricia and her friend Cortney put together a monthly menu complete with shopping list. Throughout the month they post when a local store has an ingredient on sale so it can be purchased inexpensively. Anything left on the shopping list will need to be bought the final week right before the Big Day when the entire menu will be prepared and frozen.

So I have a problem with the OAMM menu. Remember how I purchase meat? I don't do it at the grocery store. April's menu is full of ham dishes. I like ham, but I don't have one. I'm completely out of chicken.

I decided that I like the OAMC concept, but that I'll have to devise my own menu to fit what works best for me and my family. I think OAMC (or twice a month cooking) will help me in my meal planning.

My next Big Day is scheduled for May 3. If I don't answer the phone, it's not because I'm ignoring you. It's because I'm going to be very busy making 2, 3 or even 4 weeks of meals. I gotta stay focused.

Happy Birthday Joe!

2009-04-23T18:53:00.016-04:00

Today is my husband Joe's 35th birthday. It's hard to believe that I'm married to someone that old!

I had asked him what he wanted me to do for his birthday cake a couple weeks ago. He said that he'd like it to be golf themed. He also requested german chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting, but I already knew that was his favorite flavor, so I had those items stockpiled a while. The frosting was free (I love double coupons!) and the mix was an ok sale price.

So I brainstormed for a while and decided that I wanted to use the Wilton Sports Ball Pan. I wanted a design that would permit part of the cake to go with him to work yet still leave some at home for the family. I toyed with the idea of a golf ball stuck in the rough as well as one on the fairway. The "rough" version would include one-half of the sports ball sitting on top of a square or round cake with grass icing to give the impression that the ball was buried in the rough. The "fairway" version was pretty much the same thing except there would have been the whole ball resting on shorter grass. My sister said the "fairway" cake would be more impressive with its 3D ball, so I was leaning that direction. Either way the cake would be destroyed if I tried to take the sections apart, so that he could take some to work and leave the rest at home. I just didn't like that idea.

Then a couple days ago while lying in bed, I got the idea to do cupcakes. It solved my separation issue, but posed a new one. How would I incorporate the coconut-pecan frosting in a cupcake that would be iced with buttercream? I knew I would fill the space between the two ball halves with the coconut-precan frosting, but I had never tried filling cupcakes before. No time like the present, right?

Wilton sells a cupcake decorating kit that includes a Tip #230, which is a long round tip that can be inserted into a cupcake or other baked goodie to be filled. I really want this tip, but I haven't seen it sold separately and I already have or don't want the other items sold in the kit. I would have to make do with what I already own. I decided to use the largest round tip I own, a #12. I filled the bag with frosting and inserted the tip into the cupcake and squeezed. It worked rather well other than the clogging pecans. Note to self: if you add nuts to a piping bag, make sure to chop them smaller than the opening in the tip.

After filling the cupcakes, I covered them with green grass and placed one buttercream golf ball on each. Ordinarily I would have smooth-iced the cupcake first and then used the grass tip #233, but I like the brown cake peeking through. It makes it kinda look like dirt and grass.

One day when Joe wasn't around, I pulled a golf ball out of his golf bag to use as a model for his cake. It happened to be a Nike One Platinum that he found while out golfing one day. I changed a couple details to emphasize that this is his 35th birthday. Can you guess which ones?

The dimples were tedious, but relatively simple to make. I smooth-iced the cake first and let the icing crust over a bit. Then I used the ball end of a ball and veining tool to carefully make the impressions. I used cornstarch to keep the tool from sticking and pulling away too much icing.

This was my first experience with a three-dimensional cake. It was a little scary and not without its mistakes. I have definitely learned some things from this cake:

1. DO NOT listen to the Wilton directions concerning the quantity of cake batter, baking time and baking temperature when using Betty Crocker (maybe other brands too) cake mixes. I used one mix and it made two ball halves as well as 4 cupcakes. The balls baked at 350 for about 44 minutes. After cooling and settling, that seemed about perfect.

2. DO use a firm textured cake to ensure that the assembled cake will hold up. Wilton suggests using only 1 T of oil per cake mix.

3. DO ice the cake on its final cake board. It is impossible to move it without digging your fingers into the icing when you only have a small board supporting the cake.

4. DO make sure the bottom hemisphere is perfectly level before filling. Shave more cake off the base if necessary.

5. DO dowel the cake as an insurance policy, but cut it a tad short so that it won't show through if the cake continues to settle after icing or in transport.

3-Step Jambalaya

2009-04-15T20:48:00.003-04:00

I like to cook, but often my meals are Semi-Homemade rather than from scratch. Quick and easy is usually the name of the game around here.

Tonight I had nothing prepared. No idea what to make. Then I remembered a recipe I clipped from the coupons a few weeks ago. It was the March 8th Red Plum to be exact. The recipe called for Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage, which I stocked up on last week at Kroger. Pretty great deal that I would have overlooked without my Grocery Game List. I bought 8 packages. My List subscription more than paid for itself with the savings on the sausage. Ah, but I digress.

I pulled out the recipe and read over the ingredients. I had everything! But half of the ingredients were in the freezer. No biggie. I set the items out on the counter and walked away for a few minutes to give the stuff time to defrost a bit. The onions, peppers and tomatoes were still icy when I tossed them in the skillet. The sausage was still cold when I sliced it, but I didn't have any troubles passing the knife through it.

You're probably wondering exactly what the recipe is. Well, Hillshire Farm called it "3-Step Jambalaya". I thought that jambalaya usually had seafood in it, but this doesn't and that's fine here. Joe wouldn't have touched it if it had had any seafood. Really it's just doctored up Rice-a-Roni with some veggies and meat, but it was good and I like good. Good enough that I might save my last box of Rice-a-Roni especially for one of the 6 remaining smoked sausages.

3-Step Jambalaya

2 T butter or margarine
rice from a 6.8 oz pkg of Rice-a-Roni Spanish Rice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 c chopped onion
3/4 c chopped bell pepper (I only used 1/2 c and it was green)
2 c water
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained (I used my last pint bag of frozen tomatoes from 2008. If you use canned tomatoes, I suggest trying a no-salt-added one because this dish is plenty salty already)
seasoning packet from rice mix
1 pkg Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices (I used the lite variety)
hot sauce, to taste (I happened to use Frank's Red Hot, but Tabasco would probably be good too)

1. In a large saucepan over high heat (I used medium since my stuff was still frozen), saute the butter, rice, garlic, onion and pepper for 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the water, tomatoes, seasoning packet and sausage; bring to a boil.
3. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. (I stirred occasionally during cooking to prevent sticking. The sauce was creamier due to the stirring.) Remove from heat and stir. Add hot sauce to taste.

Wilton 2

2009-04-04T15:11:00.015-04:00

In February I took Wilton 2 classes. Wilton 2 emphasizes flowers and introduces a couple new icings. Whereas Wilton 1 used only Buttercream icing, Wilton 2 added Royal icing and Color Flow to our repertoire.

We learned how to make rosebuds. The ones in the picture are made of royal icing, but in class we used buttercream. They're not bad and look great as part of a rose spray. That same week we also made chyrsanthemums, but I don't have any pictures because I didn't like a single one that I made, so I trashed them all.

The next week we used color flow to make these ugly birds. Color flow is interesting stuff. It smells and tastes horrible. It's redeeming quality is that it can be used to make plaques that are hard as a rock. This bird was supposed to go on my final cake in this course, but as you can see, I never even got around to removing the bird from the waxed paper. Maybe some day.

We also made our first batch of royal icing. I had never worked with it before, so I had no idea what to expect. Somehow I added WAY too much water, so it was super thin. It wasn't good at all. In class I added in extra powdered sugar, but I still didn't have it at the right consistency until the next day when I added even more p. sugar at home. Petals lose definition if the icing isn't stiff enough.

We learned apple blossoms, violets (see final cake pictures below), and violet leaves.

We also learned daisies, but some of mine could easily pass as a sun on a southwestern themed cake.

Daffodils are probably my all-time favorite flower in real life. Icing daffodils are cute, but not quite as high on my list.

Primroses are simple and would be great fillers.

These three roses are not Wilton Roses. They are Victorian Roses. The technique is the same, but it uses a different tip which produces a softer petal edge. I prefer the Victorian Rose to the Wilton Rose. I dried all the flowers except the rosebuds in flower formers (think paper towel core cut in half). The purple flower got mushed when I put it in the former to dry.

In Wilton 2 we only made one cake. The last week of class we learned the basketweave and rope border at the beginning of class. Then the rest of class was spent decorating our cakes. The basketweave is not difficult, but it is tedious and repetitive. My hand was tired by the time I got all the way around this small oval cake. How come whenever we practice something we do it perfectly, but when we do it for real, we don't do it as well? I did the rope well on my practice board, but on the cake it looks like the rope is unraveling.

The pansy was probably my favorite flower in this class. The ones on the top of the cake were all purple, all yellow or purple and yellow. On the bottom border I placed violet flowers and violet leaves.

Cheesy Potato Spoon Bread

2009-03-27T20:57:00.004-04:00

We tried a new recipe tonight at dinner for Cheesy Potato Spoon Bread. I've been holding on to the recipe for a while now. I clipped the recipe from the March 2005 issue of Vegetarian Times Magazine. It only took 4 years for the stars to align and for me to have the ingredients on hand. Usually when I keep a recipe that long, I am disappointed, but this one was good. Joe and Samantha both had seconds, so that means it's a keeper.

The original recipe has some quirks that I attribute to the fact that it came from a vegetarian magazine. I'm a meat-eating homecook, so I adapted the recipe to suit my cooking style. The portion size was large, which is fine as a main dish, but I served this as a side. There were alternate directions for baking individual ramekins or a single casserole dish. I chose the family friendly casserole dish. Another recipe oddity was the SOY margarine combined with the eggs and dairy. Vegetarians are weird.

Here is my version:

Cheesy Potato Spoon Bread

Makes 6 side dish servings

1/2 T margarine
2 c leftover mashed potatoes (prepared)
1/2 c water
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1-1/2 T margarine
1/4 t onion powder
Salt to taste
1/4 t ground pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
3 oz. hot pepper cheese, shredded
5 oz. neufchatel cheese, softened

Preheat oven to 425F. Generously butter 1.5-qt. soufflé dish or casserole.
If using cold mashed potatoes, warm in large nonstick skillet or saucepan over medium heat until very hot, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Meanwhile, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil. Put flour, margarine, onion powder, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper in mixing bowl, and pour boiling water over mixture. Using electric mixer on low, beat for 1 minute, and add very hot mashed potatoes. Beat again well. Add eggs, and beat again, until thoroughly combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
Mix cheeses in a small mixing bowl. Pour 4 cups potato mixture (about two-thirds) into the prepared casserole. Drop spoonfuls of the cheese filling over the potato mixture. Cover filling with remaining potato mixture. Place casserole on baking sheet.
Bake 50 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

Fun Party Cake

2009-03-20T21:25:00.005-04:00

I just finished up a cake for a party that my friend Lisa is hosting tomorrow. It's not the typical party. Sometimes they're called "fun parties." Basically a bunch of women get together and buy things at the party that they can take home to spice things up in the bedroom.

I volunteered to make a cake for this party, but I was thinking that I could practice the latest flower or border technique. Then Lisa asked if it was going to be a theme cake. Oh, no. What was I going to do? I'm much too easily embarrassed. I couldn't make a cake in the shape of a male body part.

I went online to do some research. I found a website with a photo gallery of thousands of all sorts of cakes. They even had an album of naughty cakes, but you have to become a registered user to view those photos and swear that you're an adult. I registered. Great. Now "they" know that I look at cake porn.

I found a lot of really gross cakes like the functional male ones. Eww. But there was one concept that I thought was pretty conservative as far as naughty cakes go. Man and woman in bed covered by a blanket. Everybody knows what's going on under the covers, but the details are left to one's imagination.

I was going to do that, but then I saw something at Hobby Lobby on the clearance aisle. "Susie" spoke out to me and I knew how I would decorate the cake. They had one female doll head marked down. She was the perfect size to put on a cake. There were no males. The only other doll making part was one pair of eyeglasses which were much too big. I took Susie home.

This week in Wilton 3 I made a cake covered in fondant with a fondant bow. While that is a story unto itself, I had some fondant leftover so the colors for the bed cake are very similar to the bow cake. I didn't feel like making more marshmallow fondant (MMF) for a few pieces on one cake. It's easy to make, tastier than Wilton Fondant, and about a fourth of the cost of the Wilton stuff, but I wanted to use up what I had before it went bad.

The cake is a 9x13 made from a lemon cake mix with homemade lemon curd filling. The fitted sheet is 100% MMF. The purple fondant for the pillow cases and blanket is a blend of Wilton fondant and MMF. Yes, I did intend for the marbling of the blanket. The pillows are cake scraps that I froze prior to carving. The bed skirt is buttercream (I never thought I'd ever use the ruffle technique when we learned it in class last week.) The headboard is Wilton fondant with some Gum-Tex added for stability. The headboard will be added to the cake on site which is why I'm holding it in the picture. Susie's body is made of fondant.

I like how Susie is looking over to the other side of the room as if to say "Come on, Honey. I'm warming up the bed for you."

St. Patrick's Day Menu and Irish Soda Bread

2009-03-15T20:41:00.006-04:00

I won't be home Tuesday night, so we had out corned beef and cabbage dinner tonight. Very yummy. Corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes and soda bread.

St. Patrick's Day has always been important in my family, but it's funny how I have modified the menu over the years. Growing up, Mom always bought the pink pre-corned beef at the grocery store. She cooked it and then added in the cabbage. We always had the "new" potatoes, which were always red and if we were lucky then they were small. For dessert there might have been green jello. I don't remember there being anything else.

Now that I am an adult I have figured out that I do not get along well with the chemicals in store bought corned beef. They give me headaches and a general sense of malaise. Not pleasant feeling at all. So, several years ago I started seasoning a beef brisket myself several days in advance. This year I tweaked the seasonings and I think it made it even better. Then I proceed with the cooking just as Mom always has. I do the cabbage the same as Mom. Joe doesn't like boiled new potatoes and I'm still working on establishing "our" traditional potato dish, so this year I made mashed potatoes. That leads me to the soda bread. Some years I've made a quick bread variant that was ok, but Joe was never crazy about it. This year I tried something made from yeast. It's really more of a raisin bread, but it's great. Soft. Would probably make a good sandwich bread.

Last year Mom sent me one of those magazine/cookbooks that they sell by the register at the grocery store. It was called Taste of Home Irish Food & Fun. The original recipe can be found on their website here. My comments below are italicized.

Irish Soda Bread

SERVINGS: 10

CATEGORY: Breads

METHOD: Baked

TIME: Prep: 30 min. + rising Bake: 30 min.

Ingredients:

1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°) (I will admit that I do not precisely measure the temp. I microwave 8 oz of liquid for 30 seconds in a Pyrex measuring glass. Less liquid for less time; more liquid for more time. I then check it by sticking my clean finger in it. Totally scientific, huh?)
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 cup warm buttermilk (110° to 115°) (I used the powdered buttermilk and reconstituted it per the package)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour (I needed more)
3/4 cup golden raisins (I used regular raisins that I soaked in hot water until plump. I drained off the liquid after soaking.)

Directions:

In a large bowl (I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the flat beater here), dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Beat in the buttermilk, butter, salt, baking soda, 1 cup flour and remaining sugar until smooth. Stir in raisins and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface (I kept in my mixer and switched to the dough hook.); knead (I used Speed 2 and added flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking to sides of bowl. The bowl did have a little bit of dough sticking at the bottom.) until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes (At this time the raisins were pretty beat up, so there were little bits throughout the dough. May want to consider adding in the raisins near the end of kneading if you are concerned about keeping the raisins intact).

(After kneading, I cut the dough in half and froze one half for later use. Note to self: the yeast will be groggy upon awakening so be prepared for extended rise times.)

Place in a greased bowl (I used the same mixer bowl), turning once to grease top. Cover (I like a clean kitchen towel, but plastic wrap will allow you to see the progress) and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes. (If your kitchen is cold, try this trick: turn your oven to the lowest possible setting (mine is 170 F) and a timer for exactly 1 minute. When the timer goes off, turn off the oven and put the dough inside.)

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead for 2 minutes (This I do by hand and I stop when the dough becomes difficult to fold over itself). Shape into a round loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet (I used parchment). With a sharp knife, cut a 1/4-in.-deep cross on top of loaf. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes (even the half loaves) or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf (or 2 small loaves).

Wilton 1

2009-03-15T14:48:00.015-04:00

As you may remember, Samantha's First Birthday cake was the first cake I had ever decorated. I enjoyed making it, but didn't do any other cakes until her second birthday.

The Crown cake was what I made for her second birthday. It was hard and I was sweating. The directions called for 5 cups of icing, but I only had enough powdered sugar to make 4 cups. I stretched it, but only barely.

For Christmas I asked for a set of cake decorating tips. Joe obliged and bought the large set with lots of tips that I had no clue how to use. I saw that Hobby Lobby had Wilton Method classes in January for 50% off, so I headed over there one day to see what it would cost me. "Only" $17.50 for a 4-week session with classes one night a week. I signed right up for Wilton 1.

The first week my instructor Melissa showed us around the cake decorating aisle at the store. So many tools to make the experience more enjoyable because the class kit ($24.99 then) contained only the bare minimum to get through class. Then she made up a double batch of buttercream icing and flavored it with equal parts of vanilla, almond and butter flavorings. (I concluded right then and there that I'm not crazy about the butter.) She left us with a list of things that we needed to bring to the following class including a cake and icing. We had two options for the cake. We would either need to bring a "character" cake (such as the shaped crown pan above) or we would need a pattern to transfer onto our cake. I chose the transfer cake option.

I scoured Samantha's coloring books looking for a suitable image that I could transfer onto my cake. She was crazy about Happy Feet at the time, so I thought a penguin would be good. The night before class I laid out my plan step by step so that I would do it all in order. The next day I got a phone call from Melissa. Class was canceled because we were expecting bad weather that evening. I decorated the cake at home and the Penguin Cake is what I made. Looks ok, but the mouth is goofy.

The following week I wanted to again make a transfer cake, but I wanted to do a different cake than before. I found a rubber duck online and printed it out. Ducky Cake used stars and outlines and the transfer method.

In Week 3 we learned how to make clowns. In real life I think clowns are scary, but made from icing they're kinda cute. They use up lots of icing though. We also learned drop flowers that night. This picture doesn't show a very good drop flower. The other cupcakes I was just messing around trying different techniques on. They're not worth mentioning.

Week 4 we were given the task of choosing any cake in our book and replicating the concept. I really liked drop flowers, so that's what I knew I could do. One bonus was that we made them ahead and allowed them to dry. In class all I had to do was add the bottom shell border and place the flowers wherever I wanted. While a drop flower border is great for covering up a lousy shell, this cake was one of my best shell borders.

Wilton 1 teaches the "Wilton Rose", but I haven't yet mentioned it because during this class I wasn't very good at it. They're ok, but not my favorite flower.

Sauerkraut Again

2009-03-15T14:26:00.004-04:00

Last week one of my grocery stores had cabbage for 19 cents a pound. I'm making corned beef and cabbage tonight. That will meet Joe's monthly quota for cabbage, but at such a great price I bought extras so I could make sauerkraut. Yummy sauerkraut.

A year and a half ago I tried my hand at homemade sauerkraut and it was delicious. Here's the recipe I used back then. I've since found the juniper berries that I omitted back then, so the new batch has juniper berries and caraway seeds.

It's crazy cheap to make homemade sauerkraut. I paid $1.49 for 3 heads of cabbage. Two heads went to the sauerkraut and the other is for the corned beef. That's roughly $1.00 for enough cabbage to make 12 cups of sauerkraut. I already had the salt, juniper berries and caraway seeds in my pantry, so I don't know what cost they contributed to the recipe, but it wasn't much.

For comparison, I bought a 32 oz jar of sauerkraut for $1.84. I needed it for the reubens we'll be making with the leftover corned beef tomorrow night. Too bad we couldn't wait 4 weeks for the homemade batch to be ready for consumption. That jar has a third as much as the homemade, but cost more.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T14:14:00.000-05:00

We are in California visiting my parents right now. Samantha adjusted immediately to the three hour time difference. I figured she would be going to sleep at 4 pm local time (7 pm Ohio time), but she stayed awake until 7 or later. Each morning she has been waking up at 6 or 7.

Last night some people came over. We played UNO and had a good time. Samantha refused to go to bed. At home when she gets sleepy, we just lay her in her crib. She usually talks and plays for a few minutes and then she falls asleep. Last night when we tried to lay her down, she would start crying even before we let go of her. After 11 but before midnight, I put her in bed and let her scream. I'm not used to making her cry herself to sleep, so it was difficult for me to listen to. The alcohol helped me but nothing helped her. Eventually she wore out and gave up. She was up bright and early at 7 this morning. Way too early.

Disconnection

2007-12-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

They're shutting us off! I opened up a notice from the water company which states that our payment is late and so they're shutting us off December 26. (How nice of them to let us have water for Christmas.)

I figured that I must have forgotten to send them a check. (Yes, I still pay my bills with paper checks.) I grabbed my checkbook and wrote out a check. It wasn't until I went to record the check that I saw that I had just sent them a check on November 28. The notice was dated December 10. I know that companies sometimes send out statements that don't have the most recent payments credited to the account yet. I called the water company. The woman said they haven't received anything since my previous bill back in September. She said that she would note my call in her computer. She suggested I call my bank and then call back.

It's a Thursday night. I bank with the local hometown bank. I'll have to wait until morning before I can talk to anyone. But they do have online banking (I just don't use it to pay my bills), so I went online to see if the check had posted. It hadn't. Funny thing though. I wrote four checks on November 28. Three of them posted on December 3. The last one is still missing. I don't know where it could be.

I'm not sure if I should stop the check or not. That will cost $30. If I don't pay, then it will cost $41.65 to reconnect plus the overdue amount. We'll be gone to California for a week. We won't need water while we're gone. We also won't be using any during that time either. That would almost make it worthwhile to not pay the water bill. However, the mark on my credit would not be worth it.

Cake

2007-12-01T23:13:00.001-05:00

Mom decorated cakes when I was little, but I never learned how. I tried, but I wasn't very good at it controlling the flow of the icing out of the bag. It was too frustrating.

But something made me want to try. Or perhaps I should say someone. Tomorrow is Samantha's birthday party. I decided to make her cake rather than buy one. Very scary thought. I went to the store and bought a cake decorating set that came with some tips, couplers, bags and icing color. I also picked up a beginner's guide that included pictures and directions for several basic cakes.

I've baked many cakes, but somehow I never made the icing. I guess it's because the stuff in the tub is so much easier. Mom always made her own from scratch. There were points during the process when I wondered whether I was doing it right. The directions said to mix in all the powdered sugar into the shortening before adding the water, so that's what I did. It went from a stiff paste to a wet gloopy mess. I don't remember mom's icing ever looking like that. I kept beating it and eventually it turned light and fluffy.

For my first cake, I don't think it looks too bad. What do you think? As you can see, I'm a bit of a minimalist. I could have kept going with the flowers, but I reached this point and the little voice in my head said that the cake was done. I did a white zigzag with pink dots at the base of the cake. The top edge has white stars. The little pink drop flowers have a white center and green stem.

Pouting Chair

2007-11-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

Samantha's pouting chair arrived today. Woodworking was one of my grandpa's hobbies. He made the chair before he died several years ago. That was back before he had any great-grandchildren to sit in one of the chairs. Mom sent the chair here so Samantha could have it. Doesn't she look cute sitting in it? It's a perfect size for her except for her feet not touching the ground.

Hey

2007-10-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

I've been sorta awol for a while.

Samantha had been cold-free for a few days, but now she's got a yucky nose again. I think it's a sinus infection. She's got green snot. That's gross in and of itself, but the halitosis is terrible. It smells like spoiled cow's milk. She makes a point of exhaling right in my face. I seem to recall Mom telling me I had bad breath when I was sick. Now I know what she was talking about. She seems like her happy self. Maybe a little sleepier, but it's bedtime so that's to be expected.

Mom is enabling me and my Starbucks habit. I received a Starbucks card in the mail from her today. Thanks Mom! I made sure to register the card at starbucks.com. I registered a card once before and they loaded $5 on it. I hope they do it again. I love getting free stuff, but you knew that already.

Tomorrow is the final CSA potluck of the season. I'm not sure what I'll take. Mom sent me a roasted butternut squash recipe along with the Starbucks card. It looks tasty. Very seasonal. I'm not sure how warm it will stay or even if that will matter. It's supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow, so fall foods will be appropriate. I think winter squash qualifies as a fall food.

I need to pick up some apples for Samantha. She really likes them. Fresh or sauced -- it doesn't matter to her. Sauce is a little better for sending in her lunch at daycare. She would stuff an entire apple slice in her mouth if I let her. Instead, I hold a piece and let her gnaw off a bite.

Last weekend we ate dinner at the Sippels' house. Lots of good food, but the most unusual thing I consumed was a shot of cider vinegar. This was like no other cider vinegar I had ever tasted before. It was the real deal. You could tell that it used to be hard cider. It had a wininess that is lacking in most cider vinegars because they bypass the alcohol step and jump right to vinegar. I would tell you that the flavor had a different shape in my mouth, but I can't find the right words to describe the sensation, so I won't.

Sauerkraut

2007-10-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

I checked on the sauerkraut today as I have been doing over the past month. I noticed more scum than usual so I pulled it out of the closet and set out to skim off the scum. The bread container looked a little funkier than I liked, so I thought I'd wash it. Of course, that meant removing the cabbage from it. The removal process gave me an opportunity to smell the stuff. It smelled kinda like beer. Definitely could tell that it was fermenting. As I started filling up the new container, I started wondering how I'd know if my sauerkraut was done. Afterall, my recipe gave me a length of time, but it did not tell me what signs of doneness to look for. I checked my blog and saw that the cabbage went in one month ago tomorrow. That should be the right amount of time.

I decided to brave it and taste the kraut. I'm not used to eating veggies that have been sitting out for a month. They usually rot before that amount of time. If I don't survive the night, then let Joe know that the sauerkraut in the fridge should be thrown out! I don't know if I had ever eaten real sauerkraut before. It tasted different. Like I said above, the fermentation gives it some beer like flavors. It was crunchy but not like it was when fresh. I never made it to Penzeys, so the only spice I added was the caraway seeds. The commercial kraut I typically buy does not have any spices. However, commerical stuff has that vinegary flavor from the fast pickling methods they use. My kraut has no vinegar.

Now I want to try the kraut with food to see how Joe likes it. It would probably make an excellent Reuben, but for that I'd have to make my own corned beef. I'll probably just try it with a little smoked sausage. That would be good. Or on brats. I will be passing through Bucyrus on Thursday. If they're open at the time, I may stop in Carle's for bratwurst to take home. Or not.

I would like to try another batch. Maybe seedless. One with the juniper berries might be nice. But honestly, I don't think we eat that much sauerkraut in a year. Samantha would have to start eating it, but it's got too much salt for her to be eating now.

Recipe Contest

2007-10-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

I have entered the Marion Star's annual recipe contest for the past four years. Each year they have selected one of my recipes for the cookoff. I won my category the last two years. Their rules are pretty simple. It does not have to be original or anything. There are about ten categories and you submit the recipe based on one of those categories. Then they read the recipes and pick about four in each category that sound good to the judges. If you're selected then they notify you to bring the prepared dish on the appointed evening for final judging.

Well, I was glancing at today's paper when I saw the cookoff mentioned on the front page. I knew that the deadline was soon, but I hadn't really paid any attention. You see, I only subscribe to Saturdays and Sundays of the paper. Even those usually wind up only half-read. I turned the page to find a copy of the entry form. I have until October 18th at noon to enter. That's this Thursday! I don't know what to submit. I ran out of tried and true family favorites last year when I entered Italian Beef. I have less than five days to find an award winning recipe. Now is not the time to create something new. I need help. Any ideas?

Oh, you might want to know what the categories are. This year, they are:
-- Edible Centerpieces
-- Appetizers
-- Brunch
-- Cookies & Candies
-- Cakes & Pies
-- Meats
-- Youth 18 and under
-- Ethnic Dishes
-- Casseroles
-- Crockpot Favorites

Obviously, I am not a youth, so that's out until Samantha is old enough to cook in a few years.

The End is Here

2007-10-12T19:59:00.000-04:00

My frozen milk stash has been depleted. There is enough for Monday, but Tuesday is doubtful. If I pump a few ounces each day this weekend then I might have enough for Tuesday. I don't pump on the weekends anymore, so it looks like Samantha will be trying formula Tuesday. I don't know how she'll like it. I'm hoping she likes it enough to drink it but not so much that she starts refusing breastmilk.

I have been dreading the day that I'd have to supplement. Formula is evil. Well, not necessarily evil, but first and foremost, formula companies are out there to make a buck. I hate that I now have to give them my money. But on a positive note, look how long we've gone without supplementing. When she was four months old, I was looking for a job and knew that I would be going back to work soon. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pump enough. Around that time, she went through a growth spurt and was drinking 7 oz bottles. My output was pretty meager compared to that. Honestly I figured I would run out of frozen milk within a month or two. But her appetite settled back down to 4-6 oz bottles and that helped me out. I was able to stay ahead of her up until now. I am proud of these ten months.

I might try making up a couple ounces of formula for her to try this weekend. I'm not sure what the best delivery mechanism will be. I'd like to have her weaned off a regular bottle by 12 months, so I don't know if I should start that just to stop it in a month or two. She isn't doing that great with the sippy cups yet (we have a few different styles which just confuses her), but she expects those to taste like milk, not formula. She didn't like when the sippy cup had water or juice in it. I have let her drink out of my water glass. We get all wet, but she likes it. That would probably be too messy for anything other than water. That isn't a feasible solution for daycare. I'll probably try one of the sippy cups. Yucky formula. Those LLL women have brainwashed me! I better not tell them next week at the Ohio LLL conference that I am supplementing.

Summary

2007-10-08T20:24:00.000-04:00

I moved into the new office in Columbus on Friday. Today was the first official day for me and Alex. We didn't get much done. Our major accomplishment was hanging the dry erase board in the conference room. So exciting! The hard part was that we have four computers but no servers. All of the files we need are on the server in Indianapolis. The server can be accessed remotely through the Lexington office, but we have to go over the internet to do that. We don't have the internet. We have a Sprint wireless connection card thing that fits into one of the laptops, but it only works about half of the time. We have an adapter so the Sprint card can be plugged into the other laptop, but no software to run the adapter. It's gonna be a long week without the server. Erin from the IT department is tentatively going to be here next Monday. Until then, I may have to work from the wifi hotspot at the nearby Starbucks.

Speaking of Starbucks, I have every Song of the Day so far. The barista at the Starbucks near the office gave me a couple future ones when I went in on Friday. There are 37 days in the program. As previously mentioned, Sara gave me the first two days. I already had two future ones since they were iTunes freebies. That leaves 31 songs that I'll have to pay for unless I have a nice barista who gives me one. At $4 per drink (approximate price for a grande latte with a syrup), that's about $120 in coffee. Yikes. I'll have to be sure to take my own cup so I can save a dime. That will save me enough money to maybe get a tall.

The Girl is doing fine. She ate steak last night and tonight. She loves steak. Last night we had t-bones and tonight we had rib steaks. I cut the meat into small pieces and let her feed herself. I didn't think she would ever stop. She just kept shoveling them into her mouth as quickly as I could put them on her tray. I saved some for her to eat tomorrow. It will be a yummy treat.

Okay, if you've ever been a Weight Watchers member or lurked on the boards at ww.com, then you have likely heard about this magical food called Black Bean Brownies. WWers love an excuse to eat dessert. I tried them out this weekend. They are 2 points per brownie if you cut a 9x13 pan into 24 servings. By most, that is low point. If you cut the pan into fewer than 10 servings, then the fiber cap takes over and the points will go up. Take a regular brownie mix and add a can of black beans which has been rinsed and drained and then pureed in the blender with 1 cup of water; mix and bake. That's it. No more and no less. Good if you like rubbery, waxy, dark brown goo that is reminiscent of beans. Better if add in nuts, but then they aren't 2 points anymore and they're still rubbery, waxy, gooey and beany. Moral of the story: don't waste your time. If anyone tells you they're good, then that person has been deprived from the real thing far too long to be trusted.

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Now listening to Emily King - Moon on iTunes
via FoxyTunes

Free Music

2007-10-04T09:58:00.000-04:00

I went to Starbucks this morning. I wish I had a barista at home who would make a latte for me on demand. It doesn't take them very long at Starbucks because they're already set up. It takes too long at home.

Anyway, today is Day 3 of Starbucks' Song of the Day promotion with iTunes. Stop by your favorite Starbucks for your drug of choice and they give you a code for a free song. My barista Sara was supposed to discard the codes for the first two days, but she hadn't yet so she gave me ones for those days as well. Tuesday was "Jokerman" by Bob Dylan. I'm not a Dylan fan, so I'm not crazy for it. Wednesday was "One Day" by KT Tunstall. That was good. It was labeled as explicit, but I didn't play close attention to the lyrics, so I'm not sure how bad they are. Today's song is "Night of the Iguana" by Joni Mitchell. I thought Joni was a woman, but the singer sure sounds like a man to me. To sum it up, I paid $4.05 for my latte and got one good song. Not too bad. It would be nice if they were giving away free drinks and free songs.

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Now listening to KT Tunstall - One Day on iTunes
via FoxyTunes

Ice Cream Sandwiches

2007-10-01T06:44:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I made vanilla frozen yogurt (3 c plain yogurt, 1 c sugar, 1 t vanilla) using the tub of yogurt that I bought for Samantha to eat. I also made brownies. Using the cow mold Joe bought me for our anniversary, I made ice cream sandwiches. Aren't they cute?

Lesson 1: Homemade frozen yogurt tastes nothing like the commercial stuff. If you don't like yogurt don't make this. Strangely, it gets even tangier when frozen. Joe didn't like the yogurt.

Lesson 2: Frozen yogurt melts at a very high temperature and doesn't make good sandwiches.

Lesson 3: These brownies freeze quickly in the freezer. They were only in there for a few minutes, but they were already hard.

Lesson 4: These were tasty brownies. Don't lose the recipe that came with the molds.

Samantha's Big Day

2007-10-01T06:17:00.000-04:00

Today is Samantha's first day at daycare. Daddy and Samantha just left the house. This will be very different than being at Aunt Dawn's house, but Miss Amy will take good care of Samantha. There will be other babies to play with...well, around. New toys to try to eat. It will be fun.

Move in day at work is Friday. Since today is the first of October, it made more financial sense to send her to daycare today than to wait until Friday when I'll be down in Columbus too. They charge either by the week or by the month. The monthly rate is better since she'll be there the whole month.

Hold the Dairy, Please

2007-09-27T21:31:00.000-04:00

My milk supply isn't keeping up with Samantha's demand. We'll be running out of frozen milk soon (only a week or two left), so something has to be done to make sure she's getting enough nutrition for her age. She really likes her solid food now and is taking in less and less breastmilk as the weeks progress. One result of her reduced liquid intake is that she has been having constipation issues. She strains and cries when she tries to pass the hard stools. It's awful being the mom who knows what it's like but doesn't know how to make it better.

That is where we're at. I thought I would try two things to help make sure she gets enough milk. The first is to try supplementing her diet with an alternate milk source. So, I thought I would try Samantha on yogurt. From what I've read, yogurt and cheese can be introduced at her age, but cow's milk should be held off until later. Joe gave her some last night for supper and I gave her some this morning for breakfast. She thought it was different but ate it anyway. This afternoon when I picked her up from Dawn's house I wasn't even in the doorway when one of the twins started telling me a story about Samantha having diarrhea and getting poop all over her clothes. Dawn said it made her gag worse than any of her five kids' poop ever has. That's pretty bad. And she had two bouts of diarrhea. Poor thing. Her tummy must not have felt good at all. That is a total of three poops in one day for a girl who doesn't always go every day and it's hard when she does. Only thing new in her diet is the yogurt. We'll be laying off dairy for a while. I was hoping to be able to give her cheese, but it's probably best if we wait on that too. Now I have a tub of plain whole milk yogurt in the fridge to eat.

I started taking fenugreek. It's an herb that is supposed to help increase milk supply. I went to two pharmacies before finding it at GNC. One side effect of fenugreek is that it makes you and/or your baby smell like maple syrup. Apparently fenugreek is used to flavor artificial pancake syrup. I burped earlier today and felt like I had recently eaten pancakes. I read that most women will notice an increase within 24-72 hours of starting fenugreek. We'll see how it goes. I'll be happy if I can pump an additional half bottle a day. That won't be enough to meet her current milk intake, but every little bit helps. I won't be quite so worried.

Adventures in Kraut Making, Day 1

2007-09-22T12:28:00.000-04:00

Joe and I recently watched an episode of Good Eats where Alton made sauerkraut. Alton made it look easy and unscary. The scum potential and lengthy wait time have deterred me from making sauerkraut to date. But it is cabbage season and there have been cabbages in the CSA shares this month. Joe will only eat cabbage a few times a year without complaining and there is just too much of it sitting around occupying space in the fridge, so I decided I would try my hand at sauerkraut making. I hope this works. We'll know in a month.

Here is the recipe. My comments are italicized.

Sauerkraut

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2004
Show:	Good Eats
Episode:	Good Eats: Eat this Rock!

Yield 12 cups

5 pounds green cabbage, shredded (I used three medium to large sized heads.)
3 tablespoons pickling salt
1 tablespoon juniper berries (I couldn't find any here in town, so I omitted for now and will add it in when I can get to a store in Columbus that carries them. I'll go to the Penzeys if I have to.)
2 teaspoons caraway seeds (Mine are a little old, so I toasted them a few minutes to make them more fragrant and then cooled them before using.)
1 quart water, in a sanitized glass jar

In large mixing bowl (this should be read as huge mixing bowl. I used two 4-quart bowls and they were filled to the brim.), mix cabbage thoroughly with salt, juniper berries, and caraway seeds, using hands or tongs. If using your hands, make sure that they are very clean prior to mixing. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Pack cabbage mixture down into a large plastic food container (Alton used a bread container with the insert for removing the bread slices, which he used instead of the lid mentioned in the next step, but Walmart didn't have that type of container, so I couldn't do that.). Top with a lid smaller than the opening of the container and place a glass jar filled with the quart of water on top of the lid. Place in cool area overnight (65 to 70 degrees F). In a day, the cabbage should have given up enough liquid to be completely submerged. The jar serves as a weight to keep the cabbage submerged and away from air.

Check cabbage every other day for approximately 2 weeks and skim the surface of scum, if necessary. Let stand for 4 weeks. Transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Shopping

2007-09-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

Saturday, Samantha and I went shopping with my friend Kim. I wanted to get a start on my Christmas shopping. I did that, but more importantly, I needed to find something for my sister's birthday that's coming up at the end of this month. It was long day. I picked up Kim from her house in Delaware (that's a city in Ohio for all you non-Ohioans) at 11 am and dropped her back off at 9 pm. Samantha was not very happy by the end of it. She has been going to bed around 7 or 8 lately. There was too much activity going on around her for her to think about napping. I seem to remember Laura not wanting to miss anything by sleeping either.

Last year my siblings and I decided that individually we would not buy something for each of us. We picked names in July when we were all together. Last year my sister, her husband and her daughter, my brother as well as my husband and the yet unnamed and unborn "Baby" were included in the drawing. The only rule was that you couldn't pick the name of someone in your own household. If you do the math, this only saved me from buying one gift. Andrew's birthday is in December, so I unintentionally fooled him into thinking we had his name for Christmas when I asked him what he wanted.

This year we have decided to do the same thing as last year. Only differences are that we have added my brother's girlfriend and "Baby" is now named Samantha. Laura and Andrew have pretty much guessed who has whom, but to keep the secrecy, I will not discuss who I have purchased gifts for. They may suspect that as a family we have picked names X, Y and Z, but they don't know if Amy has X or if Joe does or if Samantha does. And yes, it does make a difference. A gift selected by Amy will not be the same as the one chosen by Joe. If you don't believe me, just ask Joe's nieces about the remote control cars they got this year for their 8th birthday.

The impetus for the shopping trip was to spend the day with Kim and scratch a few things off my Christmas list.

A Cat's Life

2007-09-11T15:58:00.001-04:00

I've never talked about Kasey before. He can be a great cat, but he can also be a real pain in the neck sometimes. One of his pastimes is sitting in the window sill and just looking around. When the weather is nice he enjoys it even more because I open the window for him. All those smells must be so foreign to him. He is quite the agoraphobe. He hates when we take him outside. He is overdue for a vet appointment, so we will be torturing him again in the near future. He'll cry the whole trip. Good thing it's only a few minutes away.

Anyway. Do you see the grass growing outside the window? This time of year it tries to grow inside the window. On a breezy day like today the tips will find their way into the screen. Kasey loves it and will try to pull the blades through with his teeth and paws. It's hilarious to watch. I just hope he doesn't break the screen and get out. There are a few snags in the screen already.

Brownies

2007-09-09T22:03:00.000-04:00

I made brownies to serve with the peanut butter ice cream. Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven. It was a mix, so no recipe for me to share. However, the mix employed a method that I haven't used before with brownies. I liked the technique enough that I think I might try it the next time I make brownies from scratch. By the way, the mix was from Williams-Sonoma.

The mix came in two pouches. There was a sugar pouch and a cocoa pouch. From the ingredient list, I'm guessing that there was nothing more than sugar in the sugar pouch. The cocoa pouch had the cocoa, chocolate chunks and flour. The baking powder and vanilla may have been hidden in either pouch. As I recall, that was it. To the mix, I added 4 eggs and a stick and a half of cooled, melted butter. Sounds like the typical brownie recipe so far. The odd part was that you're instructed to beat the sugar pouch and eggs in a mixer for 5-7 minutes until it's more than doubled. It gets very fluffy kinda like a meringue, but there are yolks, so not a meringue. Then you stir in the melted butter and cocoa pouch just until combined.

I wish I knew more about the chemistry behind brownie baking. These were good brownies. Their only downfall was they lack that flaky top crust that brownies are supposed to have. I bet Alton Brown knows the answer to how to bake the perfect brownie.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2007-09-09T21:48:00.000-04:00

We made ice cream for dessert tonight. I mixed it up and Joe put it in the ice cream maker. If you like peanut butter, then you'll like this ice cream. Very peanut buttery. Easy too, since there are no eggs to cook.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2 2/3 c half and half
180 g (3/4 c) peanut butter
180 g (3/4 c + 2 T) sugar
dash salt
1/8 t vanilla

Put all ingredients in the blender. Puree until smooth. Refrigerate a few hours until well chilled (or as long as you can stand to wait). Freeze in ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instructions. Yields about 1 quart.

We have a Cuisinart brand ice cream maker that can hold up to a quart and a half. It is the type with a bowl that is filled with refrigerant and refrozen prior to making each batch. Mine must be frozen at least 24 hours or else the ice cream will not freeze properly. I have found that a Ziploc 2 gallon freezer bag will hold the freezer bowl nicely. I put the clean bowl into the bag and pop it in my chest freezer. Then whenever the ice cream making mood strikes, i am prepared. This recipe froze in 25 minutes.

The One and Only Cheerios

2007-09-06T12:46:00.001-04:00

Samantha tried Cheerios last week. She likes to eat them, but hasn't quite figured out what to do with them if they aren't completely in her mouth. This morning I saw her put one into her mouth. She doesn't yet know that she has to let go of it if she wants to eat it. Until she gets the hang of it, we put one into her mouth and put another one in front of her for her to play with. She'll be a pro in no time.

Samantha Update

2007-09-05T12:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Samantha's 9 month "birthday". Joe took her to see the pediatrician for her checkup. She weighed 15 lb 14 oz and measured 26.25 inches. Not a big girl, but doing fine. I have to remember not to look at the growth charts. The growth charts that most people refer to were from a study with a limited population in Ohio. Most of those children were formula fed and often started solids before four months. Therefore, they will not be as accurate for a baby who was breastfed and started solids closer to six months. Samantha is growing at her own pace.

Bye Bye PMI

2007-09-05T06:54:00.000-04:00

Last month, I looked through my mortgage paperwork to determine whether I was able to drop the private mortgage insurance yet. It appeared good, so I contacted Washington Mutual to find out their requirements. They sent me a letter detailing everything. Basically, since this is my primary residence, I needed to have a good payment history (I do) and 20% equity. I was a little short on the equity, so I sent them an all principal payment, which was about the size of one month's mortgage payment. Ouch. But we had the money sitting in the savings account, so it didn't hurt too much. Now I'm not paying $42.11 each month for PMI.

I wrote two other checks to WaMu last month. I sent them the regular payment due September 1st. I also sent them $148 to bring the escrow account back up to the level they like to see. Every August they re-estimate the escrow figures based on the previous year's debits and credits to the escrow account. Last year, my property taxes and homeowner's insurance were higher than budgeted, so they wanted more to balance last year. A once a year adjustment is a lot easier than having to pay the taxes and insurance without the escrow account.

Yesterday, I received the statement from WaMu reflecting all of the payments I sent them last month. Starting October 1, the payment is about $37 less than what was due September 1. I intend to continue paying the extra $37 and applying it toward principal. Every little bit helps. I doubt that we'll live in this house long enough to pay it off, but it sure would be nice to some day sell it and make enough money for a down payment on the next house.

She Caught It...

2007-08-27T05:20:00.000-04:00

My cold that is. I figured she would get it eventually. Breastmilk has antibodies, but it won't have any for a bug that I'm not immune to yet. Yesterday her nose started running especially when she was upset. She was sneezing more often than usual. She even sneezed directly into my ear when I was holding her. Her sneezes are so petite, but that was loud! She didn't sleep well overnight. She cried out on more than one occasion. When I went in to feed her this morning, I could hear her congested breathing. She has a fever. Her diaper was full already because she had been awake more than usual. To relieve her discomfort, I gave her some ibuprofen, changed her and fed her. Hopefully this cold will quickly run its course for both of us. Colds are no fun for anybody.

Joe left for Chicago yesterday. He won't get back until late Wednesday night, which leaves me to deal with a sick girl.

Samantha Pictures

2007-08-26T19:02:00.000-04:00

I told you a while back that I would put a picture of Samantha's tooth up here. This morning I took her picture and she showed off both of her teeth. If you look closely you can see both of her pearly whites.

You're probably wondering what she can do now that she's approaching the 9 month mark. As you can see, she can now hold onto something and stand. As she gets older she probably won't appreciate Mommy taking a picture of her rear end!

And just what was she so interested in looking at? Her kitten book, of course.

She's telling me that it's time to get ready for bed, so we better go before she trashes my office.

Poll Results

2007-08-25T18:03:00.000-04:00

At what age should a child stop breastfeeding?

0% Don't start. That's what formula is for.

0% At six weeks when mom goes back to work.

50% When she gets teeth.

50% When she can ask for it.

0% When she goes off to kindergarten.

Where are the Kleenex?

2007-08-25T17:44:00.000-04:00

I have a cold. It's not progressing like my colds usually do. Tuesday night it started with a sore throat which lasted for two and a half days before any other symptoms kicked in. Friday morning I woke up and had that deep, raspy voice. Then late in the afternoon my head started getting congested. It was difficult to fall asleep. Now my nose runs and I sneeze on occasion. The weird part is that I don't feel all that bad. Oh, I forgot the itchy eyes that I had before I took a nap this afternoon. This just seems milder, but more drug out than usual. I haven't had a cold since before getting pregnant, so maybe my memory is failing me.

So far the rest of the family is feeling fine. However, Samantha is fussier than usual since waking up from her nap.

Barbecued short ribs are in the crockpot for supper. I checked them a couple hours ago and the bones fell out. There's no doubt about their doneness, so I turned it down to low. At that time, I spooned out the sauce into a jelly jar and let it settle for a few minutes. Over a third was grease -- so gross. I dumped out the grease and poured the sauce back over the ribs. I hope they're good because there are a few more packs of ribs in the freezer. It's 6 pm and the only question is what sides should I serve.

Kings Island

2007-08-17T22:02:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow Joe and I are going to Kings Island. It's his company's summer outing. Free admission, lunch, and drinks for the two of us. We pay for gas and parking. Not too bad. I've never been there.

Samantha is going to spend the day with Joe's parents. She'll be asleep before we pick her up tomorrow night. I don't think she's been away from the both of us for that long before. She'll be fine. They're taking her to a family reunion. Every year his family schedules the reunion for the same weekend and every year we have already made plans by the time we get the invitation in the mail. Watch, next year I'll leave that weekend open and they'll move it up a week. We'll just have to wait until Thanksgiving to eat cottage cheese. (It's best to eat before visiting Joe's dad's family. They are not known for their cooking skills. One aunt is so bad that she takes cottage cheese to every event.)

CSA Potluck

2007-08-11T20:44:00.000-04:00

The Sippels had their monthly potluck at the farm today. Samantha and I went so she could see her boyfriend Charlie. He had his first cold this week, so they didn't get very cozy. Hopefully she didn't pick up his germs.

There were green beans available for you-pick and Samantha loves green beans, so I had to be sure to get some. I borrowed Lisa's backpack carrier and wore Samantha out to the bean field to pick. I was able to fill a four-quart basket before she started getting fussy. It's akward having a baby on your back and bending down to pick beans. It showed me how out of shape I really am.

Then we ate. There were two large families that brought a small covered dish (certainly not enough to feed their respective brood) and did not bring table service. To say that Lisa was miffed would be putting it lightly. Even I brought two things to eat even though Samantha isn't old enought to eat either item. The members knew to bring table service. It was rude for them to expect it to be provided. Organic farmers aren't exactly big on putting disposable dishes in landfills. I think Lisa had enough plates for everyone, but then she got stuck having to wash them all. Maybe they'll think twice before coming to another potluck.

After the dinner, Ben always gives a farm tour. I've been on it a number of times, but the exercise is always good. Plus it gives me a chance to see what crops I might see in the next couple weeks. (I saw the okra. How much longer will it be? Will it make good babyfood?) Samantha rode in Charlie's jog stroller. She fell asleep in no time even though the terrain is less than flat. Her head rolled forward in a position that would have given me a crick in my neck. Ah, the joys of being a baby and really flexible.

I left Samantha with Lisa and headed back out to the bean field. I had brought two baskets with me and wanted to fill them both before going home. Now I have more beans than will fit in my fridge. The plan is to freeze them all. Samantha will be happy that part of them will be made into babyfood. I'll snap the rest into pieces and freeze them for Joe and me.

This wouldn't be a proper post if I didn't find some way to bring up breastfeeding. Samantha ate her supper lying down on a blanket in the grass. The side-lying position is a personal favorite even though we don't use it as often as the cradle position. I think it's easier to relax. It helps to have a certain amount of boobage, so it's not for everyone.

Puke Everywhere

2007-08-09T07:40:00.000-04:00

Joe is flying to Chicago today, so I woke up Samantha this morning. The usual routine goes like this: get her out of bed, change diaper if wet, nurse on one side, feed her some solid food, change her clothes since she probably got food all over her pjs, and then nurse her on the other side.

She was still asleep when I went into her room, so I had to wake her. Since she hadn't awoken yet, she also hadn't peed yet. I held off on the diaper. I grabbed a bib and we went to the living room to eat. I turned on the tv to check out the weather forecast (hot, muggy) and we sat down in the glider. I put the Boppy in my lap and laid her down. She didn't nurse quite as long as her norm, but I didn't think much of it. I sat her up to put on the bib before going into the dining room to eat her food. I barely had the bib on her when she started vomiting. Some people say "vomit" or "puke" or "throw up" when their kid really just spits up. This was vomit. Chunks of last night's supper all over the two of us.

I had to change her clothes, which I would have done in a few minutes anyway. I had to change my clothes because it got on my shirt, pants and soaked through to my underwear. It got on the Boppy, so I had to take off the slipcover. I saw a couple chunks on the chair, but I didn't see any liquid, so I think the chunks just fell off when we sat up. Needless to say, there's a load of laundry in the wash right now.

After cleaning us up, I tried feeding her the breakfast I prepared. She had a couple bites, but wasn't up for more. She nursed on the other side, again faster than usual. I don't know if she's sick or whether her dinner just didn't agree with her. She isn't running a fever and she seems like her happy self. I called Dawn to her know that Samantha had thrown up. We agreed that I'd keep her for a few hours to see if she gets sick again. If it is a bug, we definitely don't want to spread it to her cousin Zach.

She's taking a nap. I'll try to work and hopefully she'll be better soon and able to go to Aunt Dawn's house later on.

Italian Seasoning

2007-08-04T21:50:00.000-04:00

I don't know about most people, but I think I have a lot of spices. They fill up an entire shelf in my cupboard, and there's a second shelf that I use as overflow. (Now that I think of it, there are spices on the top shelf too!) To make finding a particular spice easier, I have an expanding, tiered organizer. Sometimes, the dorky engineer in me will alphabetically sort the spices by container type so that it looks nice with like being by like. However, as soon as I pull something out, the whole system gets messed up. Usually it ends up that the lesser used spices are at the back (vanilla bean, essence, dried lemon zest) and the commonly used ones are in the front (pepper mill, garlic powder, italian seasoning.)

Ah, I'm finally to my desired topic. I don't really remember when it started, but I have been blending my own italian seasoning for quite some time. I know that I have purchased italian seasoning at least once in my lifetime because I have been reusing the same container over and over. Whenever the container gets empty, I make more. Since I'm an American, I don't actually know what should be in Italian seasoning. So I read the ingredient label and added stuff that I thought should be in there. As I said above, I have a lot of spices on hand. My blend contains basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary, a touch of tarragon and maybe garlic powder. There is no specific recipe. I just add some of this and some of that until it looks good. The only rule I have is that I am not allowed to use all of an herb when I make a blend because I want to make sure I don't run out of anything that I might need for a recipe later. A while back, Joe caught me making a batch of italian seasoning. By his reaction, you would have thought I was making hot dogs or bologna (which, btw, he claims to not be bothered by the pieces and parts that make up those items.). He could not fathom why I would make something when I could go out and buy it for a dollar. The way I see it, herbs have a short shelf life, so I might as well use them to make a blend where they're likely to be used than left alone to go bad. For Mother's Day, Joe bought me an herb cookbook (I love to read cookbooks) and had bookmarked two recipes. Any guess as to what they were for? You got it -- italian seasoning.

Lots of Squash

2007-08-04T21:10:00.000-04:00

I cooked up all of my yellow squash and pureed it into baby food. Cut up, they filled a 3.75 quart pot to the brim. After cooking, I filled up three ice cube trays plus another half cup that I put into the fridge. That's about 37 ounces. Samantha currently eats 1 or 1.5 oz at a time, so she will be eating yellow squash for quite a while. Good thing she prefers yellow over green when it comes to squash.

Now don't start thinking that I'm making my daughter eat her veggies when I'm not eating my own. That's not the case. I kept all the zucchini for Joe and me to eat. Yes, Joe has been eating squash! I have done a few different things.

I have also pureed chopped, cooked yellow squash with canned crushed tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. Except for the orange color, it was hard to tell that it was squash.

I have taken finely diced squash and cooked it with ground beef. Then I used that as an enchilada filling with a very spicy salsa verde topping (I used two jalapenos and probably should have just used one for the number of tomatillos I had.)

Last night I got a little more bold. I made a pasta bake with big chunks of zucchini and eggplant. My basket of tomatoes was piling up, so I made them into a tomato sauce with some onion. I ran it through the food mill to take out the skins. I chopped up a couple garlic scapes (only one more left for the year) and added italian seasoning (homemade, of course). So that was the sauce. I sauteed the zucchini and eggplant chunks until they were soft. Then comes the pasta. I had started on the tomatoes before confirming my pasta alternatives, so I had no options. The only Italian noodle in the house was spaghetti, which is not what I usually select for a baked dish. I prefer penne, but I used what was on hand. If I had taken the sauce in an Asian direction, I could have used soba or udon noodles, but I didn't, so they are left for another day. I mixed the sauce, veggies and spaghetti together, topped with cheese and baked until bubbly. Joe started picking out the chunks towards the end of the meal. For the leftovers, he figured that he would be able to eat them with some more salt and garlic.

Stage 3.5 Baby Food

2007-08-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

No new posts for the last few days. Roadrunner has been on the fritz and I haven't always been able to go online. A couple neighbors have unsecure wireless networks, but they're too slow for web surfing.

I bought some peaches yesterday and made more babyfood. I peeled, pitted, squeezed them in my hand and cooked them in their juices with a cinnamon stick until they were thick enough. This morning I stopped by Kroger for milk and walked down the baby aisle. I wanted to see what commercial baby peaches look like. My peaches don't look anything like that crap. Stages 1, 2 and 3 are all too homogenous. Some of them had fillers like rice or oats and sweeteners such as apple juice. The Graduates peaches are cubed in juice. So I'm calling my peaches Stage 3.5.

I have a brother

2007-07-28T22:42:00.000-04:00

That's nothing new of course. For Andrew living just an hour away, we don't see each other very often. He and Heather came over tonight for supper. He is well. They took the blue La-Z-Boy off our hands.

Joe made a brisket using Guiness Stout. It was very good. Joe made the recipe last year around this time (July 22 to be exact) and cut his finger trimming the brisket. This year the butcher already trimmed it before we got the meat. No trips to Urgent Care were made during the preparation of the brisket this time.

I made Guiness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream. That was really good too. Much creamier than my previous attempts at ice cream making. It was of the custard type where you add egg yolks and carefully cook them. That was a first for me, but eggs are emulsifiers so they are probably the reason for the creaminess. The key is cooking the custard slowly. Otherwise you can blink and find a pot of scrambled eggs in front of you where creamy milk used to be. I will be sure to note in the cookbook that this was a good recipe and that I should make it again. The beer flavor is not overpowering, but would make this ice cream for adults only.

Baby Food

2007-07-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

Before Samantha was born, I had never given much thought to the types of solid foods that I would feed her. I kinda figured that I’d buy “baby food”. But when Laura, my sister, said that she made all of Maddie’s baby food, my competitive spirit kicked in. If she could do it, then so can I.

I started making baby food before Samantha was ready for solids. I had picked more asparagus out of my garden than I could possibly eat, so I steamed, pureed and froze the extras. I thought she might find the flavor pretty strong, but she gobbled it down.

Gerber is part of a conspiracy to convince parents that it’s impossible to make food for your own child. Gerber's whole existence depends on it. Strained carrots, anyone? Do you even have a strainer fine enough to match the consistency of commercial stage 1 baby food? I don’t. If the child is too young for solids, then of course their food needs to be strained. But wait until around six months of age when the baby shows signs of readiness and you can skip right on to pureeing and mashing.

Here’s a list of the tools that I’ve used to make, store and serve Samantha’s food:
- a small pot
- a pot with steamer insert
- a potato masher
- a hand blender with chopper attachment
- a fork
- ice cube trays
- Ziploc freezer bags
- Tupperware Midgets (1/4 cup size)
- Tupperware Snack Cups (1/2 cup size)
- Plastic baby spoons
- Pyrex 4 oz custard cups
- Pyrex 10 oz custard cups

I received the spoons as a shower gift and I purchased the ice cube trays. All of the remaining items were already in my kitchen. There’s nothing exotic or hard to come by on the list. Some people use a baby food mill, but I think the hand blender pureed nicely. I have a regular food mill because I like to can stuff like tomato sauce and applesauce, but it has not come out of the box all year.

Being a CSA member, each week I have a seemingly endless supply of potential baby food options. It would be stupid to pay Gerber for squash when I have fresh zucchinis. With just a small amount of time invested each week spent cooking, I can quickly grab a frozen cube or two, warm and serve. No wasted, half-eaten jars of baby food around here. Plus, she gets a varied diet – Gerber could never afford a product line so diverse.

For the sake of full disclosure, I have bought baby rice cereal. On its own, it is too bland for Samantha’s breastfed palate. However, it’s that same blandness that makes it a good mix-in for strongly flavored foods such as escarole or blueberries.

No more blockage

2007-07-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

It took two days, but the plugged duct is gone. Samantha usually sleeps in her crib at night, but spent most of the last two nights in bed with me. She nursed every few hours, so I never had that overfull feeling. I'm still sore, but that should get better soon as long as she doesn't bite me. Her first tooth came in last week. She doesn't let me see it, but as soon as I do, I'll take a picture of it. The sharp points are sticking through her gums and I can feel them with my finger.

Anyway, I wonder how difficult it will be to get her back to sleeping in her crib all night without midnight snacks. Hopefully we didn't undo several months of good sleep habits in a matter of two nights. I don't think I can handle her in bed with me another night. I couldn't sleep with her there. I was worried about her rolling out of bed or me rolling onto her.

We got a good bit of rain overnight and this morning. The Weather Channel is saying it's 70 here. That's cold for noon. Maybe it'll get warmer this afternoon, but they're calling for more storms, so I doubt it. Just so you know, I'm wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt. It's July! Bring on the heat.

Blockage

2007-07-24T06:57:00.000-04:00

Samantha started crying around 2 am. It only lasted about 30 seconds. Must have been a bad dream. She fell back asleep, but I was awake, so I decided to go pump. The right side felt fuller, so I started there first. The lumpiness was a bad sign. After pumping until nothing came out anymore, the lump still remained. Argh. Clogged duct. Not today! Tuesdays are my day to travel to Norwalk to check on my waterline construction project. Any other day of the week and I would probably be able to keep her home with me for a day of nursing. I've had a clogged duct a couple times before and pumping does an unsatisfactory job of clearing the blockage. A baby is the best pump out there when nursing issues arise.

As Joe would put it, tonight is my "boob meeting". La Leche League is more than seeing women's naked breasts. It's about seeing real life examples of moms that are weirder than I am. While I am no lactivist, I do feel that every baby should be breastfed. LLL is a little more extreme. My meeting has a couple moms that are still nursing two-year olds and one of them is going to try tandem nursing after she has another baby later this year. To me, that's weird and not something I'm comfortable doing myself. To each her own. Oh, and if this clogged duct hasn't disappeared, then I can talk about it with the other women. Maybe one of them will have a solution I don't know about.

And the Winner is...

2007-07-23T12:50:00.000-04:00

Peaches! Samantha will be trying peaches for supper tonight. Good thing I picked up a couple at the store.

Here are the results:

What food should Samantha try next?
27% Apples
36% Peaches
9% Potato
0% Kohlrabi
27% Oh, Mom, stop with the healthy stuff. Bring on the pizza!

Space in the Fridge

2007-07-22T21:25:00.000-04:00

There's finally shelf space in the fridge again. Thursday's CSA pickup left little room for anything other than veggies in there. I froze all the squash. I made eggplant babyfood icecubes. I canned pickle relish and pickled beets. There's still kohlrabi, broccoli, lettuce, scapes and green onions in the crisper drawers. Too bad lettuce doesn't freeze well. I have two huge heads of romaine left. The Sippels know of my dislike for lettuce, yet they insist on growing such nice heads of the stuff. I can only eat so many salads before I turn into a rabbit and I'm at my limit for a while.

I have to admit that I like using the Tupperware FridgeSmart containers for my produce. They have two small vents that you can open or close depending on the contents. I put paper towels (Kleenex Viva) in the bottom to absorb excess moisture. I think veggies last longer that way than when I store them in grocery bags or unwrapped in the crisper drawer.

The poll closes tomorrow morning on what Samantha's next food will be. Currently, peaches and pizza are neck and neck. What will win?

Got it Covered

2007-07-22T09:44:00.001-04:00

Joe, Samantha and I went to a cookout last night at the home of one of his co-workers, Jim. Jim likes to shop at auctions and had picked up this cast iron lid that he didn't want. I have a number of cast iron skillets in various sizes, but no lids. The lid was labeled as being a #9 size. I knew I had a #8 skillet and a larger one. I brought the lid home and tested it out on my skillets. Sure enough, my biggest skillet is a #9. Now I can cover it. Thanks, Jim!

This leaves me with a dilema. Dad's recipe for Carolina BBQ specifies that the meat be simmered in a #10 skillet. All this time I've been using the wrong size. Oh, no.

TGIF

2007-07-20T05:20:00.000-04:00

One more day of work. Then maybe I can try to catch up on an hour of sleep. Oh well.

I saw my boss yesterday. He was over from Indy and had been in Columbus to look at the possible office locations. He gave me a map so I could also know where they have in mind. One of the spots is a block or two from where Joe and I had our anniversary dinner. I had suspected it was on the list. I don't really care where they select. I just want to know the address asap so I can start interviewing nearby daycare centers. The office locations are too spread out to select a daycare just yet.

Last night, I came home to a bunch of new CSA veggies. I saw that there was basil. I like fresh basil, but it always seems to go bad before I can use it all. So I decided to get the dehydrator out and dry some herbs. In addition to the basil, I'm drying last week's sage (more on that below), and some oregano and tarragon that I am growing. For my style of cooking, dry herbs are much more user friendly.

To me, sage is the seasoning that makes sausage taste like sausage. But sage is said to dry up one's milk supply, so until we're ready for weaning, I am trying to keep my sage intake at a minimum.

It's Veggie Day

2007-07-19T07:55:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of Samantha taken yesterday morning before I took her to the sitter. I don't like to see her sucking her thumb, but it is cute.

I am a member in a CSA which is short for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA's are a program where a person pays a farmer at the beginning of the crop season for a share in the harvest. Every week we get a bag of fresh veggies. Thursday is our pickup day. Joe will be going after work since I have a meeting and can't make it. Usually Joe gets the veggies on his way home from work since I'm currently working from home. I wonder what is in this week's share. I still have stuff from last week, so I think I'm gonna make a salad for lunch and supper.

Will I ever get 8 hours of sleep at a time?

2007-07-18T05:45:00.000-04:00

Samantha is seven and a half months old. She's a great baby who has been sleeping through the night since she was about two months old! However, we are breastfeeding and ten hours is WAY too long for Mommy to go between nursing sessions. I try to pump at some point in the middle of the night to relieve myself. But here lately, I am too tired to get up around 2 a.m., so I stay in bed until I find myself leaking like this morning. So gross. By the time I finished pumping, it was time to get up. So, I've been up since 3:45. It was 10:45 when I went to sleep last night. That is just not enough sleep. This sleep deficit is getting to me.

When she was a newborn, people would ask me the stupidest question -- "How's the baby sleeping?" She slept fine right next to me in bed. We'd wake up every couple of hours. I'd latch her on for one of her marathon nursing sessions and I'd end up falling asleep. I didn't know the difference between day and night, but I was getting plenty of sleep. Now that I'm back to work, I don't have the luxury of napping with her.

Sleeping Beauty has awoken from her slumber. I can hear her talking over the monitor. I better go make breakfast. We're both having blueberry oatmeal, except she's having some milk to wash hers down with.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2007-07-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

Joe and I got married three years ago today. Time sure flies.

It's raining today just like it did that day. We were married outside. Luckily, the rain held off until we could get inside the reception hall.

It has been so dry here lately. The crops really need a good, steady rainfall, but today does not appear to be the day for it. Joe is happy because the grass has been dormant for weeks and hasn't needed to be mowed. However, the weeds keep on growing and needed trimming.