Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Meal Swaps
I've been swapping meals like a crazy woman. This month for my regular group I made Country Captain from the Once a Month Cooking Cookbook
I haven't had mine yet, but I've gotten a good review on it already. I made it easily by putting out all my ingredients (this one was a dump in the ingredients in a gallon bag and it's ready) as well as measuring impliments for each. Then I just measured, dumped and was done.
I'm also doing a potluck swap with some friends. I made a fall pork roast out of the same cookbook. I wasn't as impressed with it, but hopefully my friends will like it.
I started on next month's as well and didn't realize how big the recipe was, so I ended up with 16 pans of Cheesy Penne, probably November and December. Oh, well, it looks awesome, but was a little more work. When, when will I learn not to do chopped onions for meal swap? It's bad enough when I'm crying my eyes out for chopping one onion, but 8????? Holy smokes, I had tears streaming down my face. I was going to try putting them in the freezer a few minutes first, but I had too much danged bread in there (see previous post) to be able to fit them. Oh, I also forgot until after shopping to pick up pans for them.
I still want to figure out the total cost for them, but... for the Penne, I had on hand noodles I got a great deal on last week and the diced, organic tomatoes were from costco, who had buy a box, get one free, so $7 for 16 cans of tomatoes, of which I used all of them. I'm trying to find sales for ingredients, which is easier now that Henri's in school, I can go to 2-4 grocery stores to get everything I need on sale.
I haven't had mine yet, but I've gotten a good review on it already. I made it easily by putting out all my ingredients (this one was a dump in the ingredients in a gallon bag and it's ready) as well as measuring impliments for each. Then I just measured, dumped and was done.
I'm also doing a potluck swap with some friends. I made a fall pork roast out of the same cookbook. I wasn't as impressed with it, but hopefully my friends will like it.
I started on next month's as well and didn't realize how big the recipe was, so I ended up with 16 pans of Cheesy Penne, probably November and December. Oh, well, it looks awesome, but was a little more work. When, when will I learn not to do chopped onions for meal swap? It's bad enough when I'm crying my eyes out for chopping one onion, but 8????? Holy smokes, I had tears streaming down my face. I was going to try putting them in the freezer a few minutes first, but I had too much danged bread in there (see previous post) to be able to fit them. Oh, I also forgot until after shopping to pick up pans for them.
I still want to figure out the total cost for them, but... for the Penne, I had on hand noodles I got a great deal on last week and the diced, organic tomatoes were from costco, who had buy a box, get one free, so $7 for 16 cans of tomatoes, of which I used all of them. I'm trying to find sales for ingredients, which is easier now that Henri's in school, I can go to 2-4 grocery stores to get everything I need on sale.
General around the house...
Let's see.. Henri is loving preschool, though we're having issues with the fact that they want him to pee in the toilet and he doesn't tell them he needs to go, so we're getting "accident" reports. We're working on it. We're still in the taking him every hour or so stage, but I'm washing a lot less laundry and diapers.
He's also started napping/passing out in random spots lately between school and potty training. I also think he's finally growing, he may someday wear size 3 clothes.
Curling season has started. Paul's doing Super league and I'm doing women's. The rest of my team curls together for seniors, so it's nice they let a young gal like me play with them :) I'm not doing great, but fairly well for being off the ice for about 3 years.
I've had to cut my coffee intake in 1/2 as I was waking up a lot in the night. Annoying since, for the most part, the kids are sleeping through (Valerie is hit or miss sometimes, with teeth coming in), I also had the realization that the scale was climbing back up after all my hard work at the beginning of the year and that I got rid of all my bigger clothes, so Jillian Michaels and I have a daily date again, which Henri likes to join me for with his 2 pound weights. I'm also finally using my bike trailer now that the kids are big enough, V has a helmet, and my back bike tire has been replaced.
Valerie's wearing dresses every day because she has a ton and I'm not letting them go to waste, we just invested in thick tights and longsleeved tshirts. Since I thought she'd wear 12 months clothing when she was, well, 10 months old. She turns 15 months tomorrow and is just barely in them.
Henri had been admiring my painted toes and wanted pink, but we met in the middle-no pink and only the big ones.
Valerie is now doing stairs proficiently (we've taken the gates down, just need to take the hinges down and patch the walls up); climbing; walking up and down angles and she's a chatterbox and extremely busy. She must run 20 miles a day.
We havent' decorated yet, but tried on costumes...
He's also started napping/passing out in random spots lately between school and potty training. I also think he's finally growing, he may someday wear size 3 clothes.
Curling season has started. Paul's doing Super league and I'm doing women's. The rest of my team curls together for seniors, so it's nice they let a young gal like me play with them :) I'm not doing great, but fairly well for being off the ice for about 3 years.
I've had to cut my coffee intake in 1/2 as I was waking up a lot in the night. Annoying since, for the most part, the kids are sleeping through (Valerie is hit or miss sometimes, with teeth coming in), I also had the realization that the scale was climbing back up after all my hard work at the beginning of the year and that I got rid of all my bigger clothes, so Jillian Michaels and I have a daily date again, which Henri likes to join me for with his 2 pound weights. I'm also finally using my bike trailer now that the kids are big enough, V has a helmet, and my back bike tire has been replaced.
Valerie's wearing dresses every day because she has a ton and I'm not letting them go to waste, we just invested in thick tights and longsleeved tshirts. Since I thought she'd wear 12 months clothing when she was, well, 10 months old. She turns 15 months tomorrow and is just barely in them.
Henri had been admiring my painted toes and wanted pink, but we met in the middle-no pink and only the big ones.
My parents took Carter camping/boating last weekend, so we headed out for a Friday night with just Henri to see Cars 2 in the only theater still showing it.
Of course he loved it. It started off our potty training bootcamp weekend on a good note. Yesterday he had several accidents, but pooped in the toilet, so I guess I'll take it.
The kids have all been playing together more, though Henri's still a bit rough with Valerie...
Valerie is now doing stairs proficiently (we've taken the gates down, just need to take the hinges down and patch the walls up); climbing; walking up and down angles and she's a chatterbox and extremely busy. She must run 20 miles a day.
My new car!
So, we got a new car about two weeks ago. a 2011 Honda Odyssey. Yes, a minivan. I finally decided we were outgrowing the station wagon. 1) when we found out we were having 3 kids, I only tested the carseats fitting with one facing backwards. By next summer, all 3 kids will be facing forwards and Henri is very far from being heavy enough to be in a booster seat (about 10 pounds away). 2) Henri started preschool in the next town over. At the same time Carter starts in the neighborhood. The good news is my neighbor's 3 year olds and 6 year old are all doing to the same schools, so we have entered the world of carpool. Another close friend has a 6 year old at their school as well, and we trade rides. Well, the problem is I still only had 3 seats in my backseat. Even when Carter would go with my neighbor, I couldn't fit twins in the car in addition to my two. So my neighbor, who does have a minivan got pushed into doing morning drop offs. Then in the afternoon, I might be right next to the preschool, but have to race home, leave Val with her so I could fit all the 2 & 3 year olds in the car. It was getting frustrating. Plus, since Paul's car was the newest, it was my turn to get the next car.
The Odyssey was at the top of all the ratings, so it was pretty easy to decide. There's only about 4-6 good minivans out there anyways.
I'd never thought about a new car, but did it for two reasons. 1) in 2011, the Odyssey got a big style upgrade. Not only does the outside not look so "Mom car" but the inside has awesome features that 2010 and before don't... the seats spread apart, go into the floor, etc. 2) a minivan is typically a wasteland of child activity. Normally families have more than 2 kids, which means they develop a variety of spills, such as the milk sippy cup odor that I really didn't want someone else's "kid stuff" wafting up when temps rise in the summer. I have realized not everyone is a car cleaning nazi like myself.
Paul then treated me to an upgrade and I love this thing. I've thought about sleeping in it (which is good, because, not having bought a new car before, I almost had a heart attack at how much it cost, so it's good to know we could live in it-it's got DVD, video game jack & fridge....).
My life is so much easier being able to reach everyone, move people around, etc. I never realized. Though now it's making me lazy. See, the back two sliding doors and the hatch all have buttons so you don't have to be bothered with the closing of the doors yourself. Now I'm jealous that I can't open my own door with the key. Sigh. Maybe on the next version. But this should last us through the kids getting through high school, when Paul and I can buy a hot little sports car convertible :)
The Odyssey was at the top of all the ratings, so it was pretty easy to decide. There's only about 4-6 good minivans out there anyways.
I'd never thought about a new car, but did it for two reasons. 1) in 2011, the Odyssey got a big style upgrade. Not only does the outside not look so "Mom car" but the inside has awesome features that 2010 and before don't... the seats spread apart, go into the floor, etc. 2) a minivan is typically a wasteland of child activity. Normally families have more than 2 kids, which means they develop a variety of spills, such as the milk sippy cup odor that I really didn't want someone else's "kid stuff" wafting up when temps rise in the summer. I have realized not everyone is a car cleaning nazi like myself.
Paul then treated me to an upgrade and I love this thing. I've thought about sleeping in it (which is good, because, not having bought a new car before, I almost had a heart attack at how much it cost, so it's good to know we could live in it-it's got DVD, video game jack & fridge....).
My life is so much easier being able to reach everyone, move people around, etc. I never realized. Though now it's making me lazy. See, the back two sliding doors and the hatch all have buttons so you don't have to be bothered with the closing of the doors yourself. Now I'm jealous that I can't open my own door with the key. Sigh. Maybe on the next version. But this should last us through the kids getting through high school, when Paul and I can buy a hot little sports car convertible :)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Amish Bread
Someone posted on Facebook that they had some Amish Friendship Bread Starter on Facebook. I've been on an industrious streak so I figured I'd take some. Never heard of it? It's this gallon bag of goo (yeast) that you feed and then use to bake two loaves of bread every 10 days. you also get 4 more bags of starter on baking day. Once which you keep, 3 you give away. Well, let's just say I wasn't able to get rid of it for a time or two and ended up with way more bags. I just kept feeding the stuff like crazy and ended up baking and baking trying to get rid of the stuff (I've frozen the loaves). I found variations on the internet and started to have some fun with it. I've made regular (cinnamon) cherry cheesecake, white chocolate cherry, chocolate, lemon poppyseed & cranberry. The stuff is addictive and the kids love it. I just whip a loaf out whenever I need to take a snack to something. I have also learned how to control it.
1) you can just bake it all
2) you don't have to feed it as much as the recipe states
3) you can let it go extra time before baking
4) you can freeze the starter.
The basic recipe uses a large box of pudding mix and by changing up the flavor and putting in some add-ins, you can get quite the array of variances.
So, it's been fun, esp now that it's no longer taking over my life and my 12 loaves I baked over 3 days are all safely in my freezer.
1) you can just bake it all
2) you don't have to feed it as much as the recipe states
3) you can let it go extra time before baking
4) you can freeze the starter.
The basic recipe uses a large box of pudding mix and by changing up the flavor and putting in some add-ins, you can get quite the array of variances.
So, it's been fun, esp now that it's no longer taking over my life and my 12 loaves I baked over 3 days are all safely in my freezer.
I'm going to quote you on that one
As Henri approaches his 3rd birthday, we are trying to potty train him and we're enjoying the interesting quotes we get out of him lately...
Monday, October 3, 2011
Photos are here!
We had our photos done by Kerri Kincaid of Kincaid Expressions and these are some of my favorites!
She was offering 30 minute mini sessions and had just purchased a puppet to try out with the kids.
We also tried on Halloween Costumes... Right now it appears as Carter will be Elmo, Henri will be a pumpkin, Valerie a dinosaur (she'll be a bee next year).
He kept running around going "Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie!"
She was offering 30 minute mini sessions and had just purchased a puppet to try out with the kids.
We also tried on Halloween Costumes... Right now it appears as Carter will be Elmo, Henri will be a pumpkin, Valerie a dinosaur (she'll be a bee next year).
He kept running around going "Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie!"
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