Playing in the mud...
Chasing Chickens at Grandma's house
Learning to jump, she loves these shoes because they are noisy..
the grand finale! What Valerie & Paul's new quality time entails.....
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Videos
We got cookies the kids had decorated, then they sang some songs for us. It was hilarious. One kid during one of the first songs came to his/her mom to hug them then all the kids decided they should do the same at random times and were giggling the entiere time....
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Yummm... sweet potatoes....
It seems if I'm not busy cleaning, I'm busy cooking or crafting! I seem to get into a groove with one and slack off on the others. Right now I'm cooking. I saw a box of sweet potatoes at Costco and decided to challenge myself.
Last night was this great maple syrup & pecans recipe off pinterest (I mean, seriously, is there any better way to eat sweet potatoes?) tonight we made a hashbrown recipe using them that had red pepper and bacon. Called for Canadian bacon, I used some super-awesome bacon I got on $5 Friday at Safeway last week and left out the chile flakes so the kids would at least try it. It was so good, Paul even asked for seconds.
I also made a freezer biscuit recipe my mom found when she was cleaning out her recipe drawer so I have no idea where it came from, but it works, the entire family loved them. I'm going to include them with a ham & bean soup dinner swap. You pop them in the oven straight from the freezer and they were really fast and easy to make. I did roll them too thin, next time, I'll make sure I have a ruler to make sure they are thick enough, but they were still yummy. The heavy cream is pretty expensive, though I think I spent almost $7 on cream. I probably would wait for a dairy sale next time...
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus some for rolling out
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups heavy cream (you could just use 1 quart, I had to add a lot of flour as they were pretty sticky)
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper OR use Pampered Chef stoneware like I did a skip the parchment paper. Set aside. Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir in the cream wiht a wood spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn dough out onto floured counter and gather into a ball, knead briefly until smooth, about 60 seconds, adding flour if necessary.
2. Pat dough to 3/4 inch thick. Cut out biscuits using a 2 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter (or go old-school like my mom used to and use a drinking glass-I actually used a scallopped circle cutter and it looked nice. Set them out on to the baking sheets with plastic wrap around them adn freeze until frozen solid about 6 hours (probably fine with 4 hours)Transfer to a Ziplock (or wrap really well in the plastic wrap you used to cover the pans) and freeze for up to 1 month. DO NOT THAW BEFORE BAKING.
3. Bake from frozen at 450 degrees until puffed and golden brown-20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot with butter and jam or honey.
Last night was this great maple syrup & pecans recipe off pinterest (I mean, seriously, is there any better way to eat sweet potatoes?) tonight we made a hashbrown recipe using them that had red pepper and bacon. Called for Canadian bacon, I used some super-awesome bacon I got on $5 Friday at Safeway last week and left out the chile flakes so the kids would at least try it. It was so good, Paul even asked for seconds.
I also made a freezer biscuit recipe my mom found when she was cleaning out her recipe drawer so I have no idea where it came from, but it works, the entire family loved them. I'm going to include them with a ham & bean soup dinner swap. You pop them in the oven straight from the freezer and they were really fast and easy to make. I did roll them too thin, next time, I'll make sure I have a ruler to make sure they are thick enough, but they were still yummy. The heavy cream is pretty expensive, though I think I spent almost $7 on cream. I probably would wait for a dairy sale next time...
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus some for rolling out
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups heavy cream (you could just use 1 quart, I had to add a lot of flour as they were pretty sticky)
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper OR use Pampered Chef stoneware like I did a skip the parchment paper. Set aside. Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir in the cream wiht a wood spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn dough out onto floured counter and gather into a ball, knead briefly until smooth, about 60 seconds, adding flour if necessary.
2. Pat dough to 3/4 inch thick. Cut out biscuits using a 2 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter (or go old-school like my mom used to and use a drinking glass-I actually used a scallopped circle cutter and it looked nice. Set them out on to the baking sheets with plastic wrap around them adn freeze until frozen solid about 6 hours (probably fine with 4 hours)Transfer to a Ziplock (or wrap really well in the plastic wrap you used to cover the pans) and freeze for up to 1 month. DO NOT THAW BEFORE BAKING.
3. Bake from frozen at 450 degrees until puffed and golden brown-20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot with butter and jam or honey.
Changing the way I make bread
So I've been trying multi-grain bread and white bread and it was just too dense for my family's tastes and I had to be home most of the time for the kneading, rising, etc. So I pulled out my breadmaker that had been gathering dust in the bottom of the pantry (ok, not really, I've been making Hawaiian sweet rolls in it (recipe at the bottom of this post)). And started having it do the dough tough work. It takes 1.5 hours and I use only enough ingredients to make one loaf (many recipes call for enough ingredients to make two) then I bake it in the oven in my regular Pampered Chef stone pan so it looks like a loaf of bread, though I'm looking into Pullman pans which make bread look more like the kind you get from the store.
Anyways, my bread is coming out much fluffier and I don't have to watch it as closely. I can throw the ingredients into the maker and get everyone ready for the day and off to school, come home and pop it in the oven for 35-45 minutes depending on the type of bread.
Here's that recipe for Hawaiian sweet bread I got from a friend of a friend on Facebook-I use it to make rolls for dinner:
1 cup water; 1/2 cup sweet condensed milk (1/2 of a regular sized can); 1 tsp salt; 1 Tbsp butter, 3 1/3 cups BREAD flour (you could use all-purpose, it just will be less fluffy); 2 tsp yeast. Put all the ingredients in the breadmaker and set for dough cycle. Original directions suggest spearating into 3 sections, rolling each out like a snake, mesh ends together and braid, place in baking dish. Rise 25-30 minutes, brush melted butter on top after rising Bake at 250 for 30-45 minute until top is golden brown. I roll them into 2 inch balls and put them in a greased 9x13 pan evenly spaced, then raise and brush with butter and bake about 30 minutes.
Anyways, my bread is coming out much fluffier and I don't have to watch it as closely. I can throw the ingredients into the maker and get everyone ready for the day and off to school, come home and pop it in the oven for 35-45 minutes depending on the type of bread.
Here's that recipe for Hawaiian sweet bread I got from a friend of a friend on Facebook-I use it to make rolls for dinner:
1 cup water; 1/2 cup sweet condensed milk (1/2 of a regular sized can); 1 tsp salt; 1 Tbsp butter, 3 1/3 cups BREAD flour (you could use all-purpose, it just will be less fluffy); 2 tsp yeast. Put all the ingredients in the breadmaker and set for dough cycle. Original directions suggest spearating into 3 sections, rolling each out like a snake, mesh ends together and braid, place in baking dish. Rise 25-30 minutes, brush melted butter on top after rising Bake at 250 for 30-45 minute until top is golden brown. I roll them into 2 inch balls and put them in a greased 9x13 pan evenly spaced, then raise and brush with butter and bake about 30 minutes.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Pasta Salad for a crowd
This is so good, I'm so excited for our potluck tonight at my grandparents' house!
Boil up 2 boxes of pasta (I use whole wheat, the regular gets a little mushy sitting around in italian dressing) then cool them down, either run under cold water, put in the fridge, etc.
Drain the following ingredients and stir together in another bowl:
1 can of diced tomatoes (you could use fresh, we don't generally like tomatoes, so I keep canned on hand), you could also substitute with some sundried tomatoes.
1 can artichoke hearts or two small jars or about 1/3 of a Costco jar of them
1 can olives, I use black, and prefer a large jar of Klamata but depends what I have on hand
about 1- 1 1/2 cups of shredded or cubed cheese-I prefer white-you can use mozerella, feta, parmesan, whatever you have and/or like. You must cool the pasta before adding the cheese or it will melt and then get lumpy, which is not very attractive.
Mix the veggies with the pasta, very carefully. I usually put 1/2 the pasta in, and slowly stir in the rest as I go.
Then add the dressing, based off this recipe:
First make an italian dressing base, you will not use all of it, so safe the rest for another day...
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon celery salt or seed
I love making pasta salad because you can do it ahead, don't have to keep it particularily cold and I generally have all the ingredients on hand
Boil up 2 boxes of pasta (I use whole wheat, the regular gets a little mushy sitting around in italian dressing) then cool them down, either run under cold water, put in the fridge, etc.
Drain the following ingredients and stir together in another bowl:
1 can of diced tomatoes (you could use fresh, we don't generally like tomatoes, so I keep canned on hand), you could also substitute with some sundried tomatoes.
1 can artichoke hearts or two small jars or about 1/3 of a Costco jar of them
1 can olives, I use black, and prefer a large jar of Klamata but depends what I have on hand
about 1- 1 1/2 cups of shredded or cubed cheese-I prefer white-you can use mozerella, feta, parmesan, whatever you have and/or like. You must cool the pasta before adding the cheese or it will melt and then get lumpy, which is not very attractive.
Mix the veggies with the pasta, very carefully. I usually put 1/2 the pasta in, and slowly stir in the rest as I go.
Then add the dressing, based off this recipe:
First make an italian dressing base, you will not use all of it, so safe the rest for another day...
1 tablespoon garlic salt
Stir all these up then take 2 TBSP out and put in another bowl and wisk with it... (I used one of those glass carafes they sometimes sell with Italian dressing mix and didn't measure)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons water
Wisk up or shake and pour ALL of it over the pasta. Let refridgerate until you serve your crowd :)
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Flip Flops for MOPs
I'm the craft coordinator at our MOPS group and was asked to do a craft to decorate Flip Flops. These are the 3 options that will be available and some basic instructions:
Beading
I took very fine beading wire and cut it about 2 feet long (note that this is for XXS, I'd probably do 2.5 feet if I were making larger ones or putting my beads closer together, I really wanted to use these beads and only had abut 60 available). I tied a knot around one end of the flip flop as close to the connection area as possible and made sure that my knot was on the outside so it would not irritate the foot, but hidden under the edge of the strap so it would not be seen. I then strung my 27 beads on (9 groups of 3, 4 on each side, 1 in the middle) and wound it around holding it taunt. I wound around to the front, put my 3 beads in place, then wound again and again until I got to the other end. You can do as many or as few as you want to do. Here are some other tutorials:
http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/04/15/diy-bedazzly-flip-flops/
http://swfds.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-jewelled-flip-flops.html
Next up were simple flowered flip flops. I took matching silk flowers (note I only put one on mine, but you could put as many as you wanted to... a bunch of smaller flowers would probably be cute as well). I tried glue and it totally did not stick, so forget that. Then I took my flower and found the center:
I then turned it over and pulled the center stem off (this is way easier than you would think!)
you then have a bunch of layers of flowers. The awesome part about this is that you can take out some layers if your flower is too poofy or you can take apart 2-3 flowers and interchange the petals for a more custom look if you like.
then take a brad/fastener and start restacking your flower. Mine was bulky, so I left off the fluffy white plastic separators.
then pull the wings of it out straight as tight as you can.
Then just tie it on the strap! Easy Peasy!
The last option available will be to use lengths of ribbons 5-6 inches long and double knot them next to each other along the straps. You can use all one color like I did or a few colors. You can also put them 1/2way like I did or all the way around the straps, covering them completely. You can burn the edges with a lighter to keep them from fraying.
Beading
I took very fine beading wire and cut it about 2 feet long (note that this is for XXS, I'd probably do 2.5 feet if I were making larger ones or putting my beads closer together, I really wanted to use these beads and only had abut 60 available). I tied a knot around one end of the flip flop as close to the connection area as possible and made sure that my knot was on the outside so it would not irritate the foot, but hidden under the edge of the strap so it would not be seen. I then strung my 27 beads on (9 groups of 3, 4 on each side, 1 in the middle) and wound it around holding it taunt. I wound around to the front, put my 3 beads in place, then wound again and again until I got to the other end. You can do as many or as few as you want to do. Here are some other tutorials:
http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/04/15/diy-bedazzly-flip-flops/
http://swfds.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-jewelled-flip-flops.html
Next up were simple flowered flip flops. I took matching silk flowers (note I only put one on mine, but you could put as many as you wanted to... a bunch of smaller flowers would probably be cute as well). I tried glue and it totally did not stick, so forget that. Then I took my flower and found the center:
you then have a bunch of layers of flowers. The awesome part about this is that you can take out some layers if your flower is too poofy or you can take apart 2-3 flowers and interchange the petals for a more custom look if you like.
then take a brad/fastener and start restacking your flower. Mine was bulky, so I left off the fluffy white plastic separators.
Then take a ribbon about 4-6 inches in length and push the brad through it (you may want to use a tiny hole punch or just shove it through like I did )
then pull the wings of it out straight as tight as you can.
Then just tie it on the strap! Easy Peasy!
The last option available will be to use lengths of ribbons 5-6 inches long and double knot them next to each other along the straps. You can use all one color like I did or a few colors. You can also put them 1/2way like I did or all the way around the straps, covering them completely. You can burn the edges with a lighter to keep them from fraying.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Scrapbook redo-to add AWESOME new shelving!
We have a remodel/resale store here in Seattle and I scored this awesome almost 5 foot tall solid oak cassette shelving today at it for $45. I had $15 credit from returning some cabinet doors that didn't work. 2 Weeks ago, I put in a cabinet door I went because Home Depot wanted about $110 for a cabinet door. I got an unfinished one at this place for $7! Since I wasn't quite sure what I needed I bought 4 of them because you can return for store credit within 2 weeks. So, I took 3 of them back for credit and got this. I had to put down the backrow of the minivan and put it in at an angle, but it fit!
Here's the new shelving:
Here's a tour of the move around to accomodate it... I did all of this moving around this afternoon and evening, thank goodness for the sun so the kids played outside because it was a hazard zone in here at one point! We have an interesting design issue in that our basement was originally a tall crawlspace and the foundation had to be reinforced in order to accomodate the increase in wall height. So, we have a 2+ foot footing all the way around each room.
From the doorway and going around the room to the left...
Behind the door is my sewing box, drawers with chargers/headphones, etc. stuff, the basket on top is for DS stuff, so the kids know if they can't find theirs to look here first because that's where I put them when I find them... There's nothing in the pockets on the back of the door, I tried to put my paper punches there but it was too heavy. Then my file cabinet from Craigslist with my tv on it that I think Paul got from work for $1 or something with a box to get Hulu and Netflix (we don't have cable anymore), the kids' junk pile is between the cabinet and my printer.
By the printer is my desk (salvaged and refinished left in the basement of my old house-I think my next project will be putting pretty paper mod podged on the drawers and putting on new drawer pulls) with USB stuff on it, hard drives, the boxes on the ledge behind the desk have finished homemade cards to send out
The middle drawer is basically a junk drawer, upper left is writing utensils organized in Stampin' Up clear stamp boxes & Crystal light containers. Computer cords in middle left, upper right is office supplies, mailing supplies are in middle right, bottom 2 drawers are empty.
There's paper shredder behind the desk and speakers and phone, electric pencil sharpener and a cup warmer I got at the thrift store.
On the window ledge is stuff I'm going to try to get rid of, under the window ledge are 3 Cubes. On the top of the cubes are: L to R; embossing machine & plates, Wishblade, Scrapbook idea/sketch books. The cubes have: Top Drawer, Glaze Pens & Watercolor pencils & pastels; Middle drawer: Paint brushes/tools; Bottom drawer-tools-heat gun, crimper, tag maker. In the open spot are rubber gloves for stamping, a cutter and my Cricut cartridge books (mom has the cartridges-I use a Gypsy). The drawer below is filled with vellum quotes, transparencies, journal blocks ands and cardboard of different photo sizes for layout planning. Top two drawers of the 4 drawer are adhesives, bottom right is baggies, bottom left is empty.
Left of that is the paper, I need more paper holders, as well as in the middle are my sticker binder (considering changing that storage) and my circle/oval cutters. Above is a cool shelf my grandma gave me when she moved that holds glitter mist on bottom shelf, smooch & mists, stamp cleaner, etc. on the middle shelf and more adhesive stuff on the top and on the very top is adhesives and things that don't fit in shelves, but I'd misplace them if they were hidden.
Then the new addition:
This is storage for stuff I'm not using right now or crafts that are not paper crafting. These shelves are those modular wire ones, I use them anytime I rearrange, lol. At the top are some boxes I want to alter and some baby gifts in bags. That box is full of my Cricut Cartridge boxes. I'm planning on making card sets and putting them in the boxes all prettied up. Top right is gift tins/bags. Bottom 2 left bins are gifts I have on hand and some containers left over from straightening up. The right middle are refill pages and albums the lower right is mailing supplies and some binders with our house inspection/papers. That no-man's land in between the shelving units has a tall bag of gift wrap.
To the left is a conference table that we store in there, on the top of the square cubes is my sweing machine, some blocks I plan to modge podge for home decor, the Vitamin Water box I use for spraying colors and adhesives so I don't get them everywhere, scrap bags for scrapbooking on the go (the box in the center has more refills and albums), then the left double side is mostly craft stuff to alter (ie: stuff I want to make pretty by adding paper on it), to the right on the top you can see in the last picture, but not this one are some recycling containers I'm hoping to reuse. Periodically I go through and recycle anything that doesn't fit my needs. The triple cubes that used to be in the main office area but got swapped out contain "other" crafts and some extra office supplies, fabric, my software for when my hard drive crashes, etc.
That's the tour! I realize I look like a hoarder, but at least I'm an organized one. I got caught up on my pictures that I had printed by doing 48 pages on National Scrapbook Day and so I've been going through magazines (that's the box and the magazine bin on the scrap table) and tearing out what I like and gluing them in an altered composition book (my cheap verson of a Smash/idea book-I get them at 25 cents each when schools starts) and I'm excited that now I can SEE my supplies and I'm inspired by the magazines I've been going through.
I'll have to do a video of the 48 pages I did-Carter's album is all done through his 7th birthday, which was last month :)
I leave you with our funny of the day-our conversation leaving this morning:
Me: Carter, do you have your backpack with your homework and lunch?
Carter: Yes, mom!
Henri: I have my penis!
Me: Alright then, I guess we have everything we need, let's go!
Here's the new shelving:
Here's a tour of the move around to accomodate it... I did all of this moving around this afternoon and evening, thank goodness for the sun so the kids played outside because it was a hazard zone in here at one point! We have an interesting design issue in that our basement was originally a tall crawlspace and the foundation had to be reinforced in order to accomodate the increase in wall height. So, we have a 2+ foot footing all the way around each room.
From the doorway and going around the room to the left...
Behind the door is my sewing box, drawers with chargers/headphones, etc. stuff, the basket on top is for DS stuff, so the kids know if they can't find theirs to look here first because that's where I put them when I find them... There's nothing in the pockets on the back of the door, I tried to put my paper punches there but it was too heavy. Then my file cabinet from Craigslist with my tv on it that I think Paul got from work for $1 or something with a box to get Hulu and Netflix (we don't have cable anymore), the kids' junk pile is between the cabinet and my printer.
The middle drawer is basically a junk drawer, upper left is writing utensils organized in Stampin' Up clear stamp boxes & Crystal light containers. Computer cords in middle left, upper right is office supplies, mailing supplies are in middle right, bottom 2 drawers are empty.
There's paper shredder behind the desk and speakers and phone, electric pencil sharpener and a cup warmer I got at the thrift store.
On the window ledge is stuff I'm going to try to get rid of, under the window ledge are 3 Cubes. On the top of the cubes are: L to R; embossing machine & plates, Wishblade, Scrapbook idea/sketch books. The cubes have: Top Drawer, Glaze Pens & Watercolor pencils & pastels; Middle drawer: Paint brushes/tools; Bottom drawer-tools-heat gun, crimper, tag maker. In the open spot are rubber gloves for stamping, a cutter and my Cricut cartridge books (mom has the cartridges-I use a Gypsy). The drawer below is filled with vellum quotes, transparencies, journal blocks ands and cardboard of different photo sizes for layout planning. Top two drawers of the 4 drawer are adhesives, bottom right is baggies, bottom left is empty.
Left of that is the paper, I need more paper holders, as well as in the middle are my sticker binder (considering changing that storage) and my circle/oval cutters. Above is a cool shelf my grandma gave me when she moved that holds glitter mist on bottom shelf, smooch & mists, stamp cleaner, etc. on the middle shelf and more adhesive stuff on the top and on the very top is adhesives and things that don't fit in shelves, but I'd misplace them if they were hidden.
Then the new addition:
Yes, I did screw it into the wall, it's almost 5 feet by 5 feet, The very top has: acrylic paint & glass shakers that I hope to one day use for glitter, next shelf down is metallic scrapbook paint on the left, Bling on the right, 3rd shelf down on left is more scrapbook paint, right side is teeny tiny beads and Robin's Eggs, 4th shelf is all chipboard (mostly alphas), 5th-left embossing, solid colors 5th-right, metallic stickles (glitter glue) and Flock 6th row is metalic embossing powder and plain colored stickles (hmmm.. maybe I should switch so all the metallic is on the same row?) 7th row down is glitter on one side, embellished brads on the right. 8 & 9th rows are ribbon on left, brads on right (there's some spooled ribbon in a container just to the left on the shelving unit that I got at Tuesday Morning as well). 10th and 11th on left are brads in TicTac type containers from Oriental Trading company, right side are a tin with my Sew Easy stuff and "other" inks like Cat's Eye, Stayz On (the cleaner for Stayz on is also there) Bottom row has ice cube trays for small brads that didn't fit elsewhere.
I did have a 3 row cube where the new shelf sits and my paper where the 2 row shelf now sits. The 3 row shelf replaced this 2 shelf one in my closet. The 2 shelf is mostly stamps and accessories, above are my flowers in magnetic containers that are on a magnetic white board. The containers were filled with office supplies and 25 cents each on clearance so I donated the supplies and kept the containers. To the left of it is a Creative Memories POD that holds premade pages, in front of it are two large sticker PODs that hold premade borders
This is my scraptable next to a desk also salvaged from the basement of the old house (the darker wood). The desk is 3 drawers, top is misc. stuff I use a lot (as is the pink bag on the table) the middle are trimmers (12 inch and photo trimmer) bottom drawer is pretty much empty right now. It's 3 drawers with a swing out table top, but the table top broke in two places about a month ago, when I was at Restore, I got a huge cabinet door for $5 That I'm hoping to replace the old top with and then maybe put some cute wrapping paper I got at the Tuesday Morning and put glass or plexiglass over it, but that's another project :) For now I have the lightweight table beside it. There's trash and recycling bins under it. You'll also notice I have 3 plastic chair mats so I can roll from my computer desk to my scrap desk. There are also IKEA pendant lamps above both the scrap table and computer desk for task lighting without the space of a lamp. Next to the premade pages and borders is a shoe shelf I've use several times that I think I got off of Craigslist or from Target or something. I put my Stamp pads on it, my stamping ink pens next to it and on the top shelf are my Cricut mats, then there's nothing on the bottom, this is to reserve space for the cricut mat to be able to go through the machine without running into anything. I have the Gypsy attached in front of it. To the left of that are plastic drawers that are labeled with my paper punches, on top is a letter holder for punches that are too tall and some foam stamp sets I got at Tuesday Morning that wouldn't fit in my stamp shelves.
Don't judge the closet, I know it looks like a horder closet, but the floor is clean so we have access to our sump pump and each spot has it's own stuff in it!
To the left is a conference table that we store in there, on the top of the square cubes is my sweing machine, some blocks I plan to modge podge for home decor, the Vitamin Water box I use for spraying colors and adhesives so I don't get them everywhere, scrap bags for scrapbooking on the go (the box in the center has more refills and albums), then the left double side is mostly craft stuff to alter (ie: stuff I want to make pretty by adding paper on it), to the right on the top you can see in the last picture, but not this one are some recycling containers I'm hoping to reuse. Periodically I go through and recycle anything that doesn't fit my needs. The triple cubes that used to be in the main office area but got swapped out contain "other" crafts and some extra office supplies, fabric, my software for when my hard drive crashes, etc.
That's the tour! I realize I look like a hoarder, but at least I'm an organized one. I got caught up on my pictures that I had printed by doing 48 pages on National Scrapbook Day and so I've been going through magazines (that's the box and the magazine bin on the scrap table) and tearing out what I like and gluing them in an altered composition book (my cheap verson of a Smash/idea book-I get them at 25 cents each when schools starts) and I'm excited that now I can SEE my supplies and I'm inspired by the magazines I've been going through.
I'll have to do a video of the 48 pages I did-Carter's album is all done through his 7th birthday, which was last month :)
I leave you with our funny of the day-our conversation leaving this morning:
Me: Carter, do you have your backpack with your homework and lunch?
Carter: Yes, mom!
Henri: I have my penis!
Me: Alright then, I guess we have everything we need, let's go!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
White bread and books
Today I made a new bread recipe. I think I have to try it again for several reasons:
It was really dry, I had to add a lot of water at the end (I did only 1 of 2 loaves, maybe I divided wrong?)
It was a little dense.
It was so friggin good, I'll probably eat the entire loaf by tomorrow.
Carter even ate it which he wasn't really doing with my 7 grain bread I'd been making.
I also made pie crust to go with the quiches I made last week. Look online for any recipe that uses 1 egg and vinegar in it and it will work out great. I had to make about 3 batches for 8 crusts. I rolled them out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to a large circle, then rolled them up in the bottom parchment paper (like the rolled Pilsbury ones in the supermarket) then wrapped in foil and labeled. Voila! A little work, but just as much as driving to the grocery store with 3 children AND I bet they were WAY cheaper. used about 6 cups flour is about $1.75 and 3 cups of butter/shortening about say $2.50 so for about .50 per crust I saved a lot considering they are about $1.65 per crust at the store.
My other accomplishment was figuring out how to get books from the library on to the Nook Tablet we got. Here's what you do.
First, get yourself an adobe ID https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/membership/index.cfm?nf=1&nl=1
Download Adobe Digital Editions http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/#fp
Then go to the library website and login
find a book that is available and click Download
Then click "open" NOT "Save" and your Digital Editions program will pop up. Plug in the Nook using the USB cord. Click and drag the book from where you see it on the middle of Digital Editions screen over to the left where you can see what drive your Nook is located at and drop it on the drive location.
Then unplug your Nook and go into "Library" "My Stuff" "digital Editions" then press and hold your finger on the book for a moment and you can move it to your Home page or Shelf! I have no idea how to check the bugger back in yet, but it will expire in 21 days, so you could always just let it expire, but then no one else can check it out as there are only a certain number of licenses available.
It was really dry, I had to add a lot of water at the end (I did only 1 of 2 loaves, maybe I divided wrong?)
It was a little dense.
It was so friggin good, I'll probably eat the entire loaf by tomorrow.
Carter even ate it which he wasn't really doing with my 7 grain bread I'd been making.
I also made pie crust to go with the quiches I made last week. Look online for any recipe that uses 1 egg and vinegar in it and it will work out great. I had to make about 3 batches for 8 crusts. I rolled them out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to a large circle, then rolled them up in the bottom parchment paper (like the rolled Pilsbury ones in the supermarket) then wrapped in foil and labeled. Voila! A little work, but just as much as driving to the grocery store with 3 children AND I bet they were WAY cheaper. used about 6 cups flour is about $1.75 and 3 cups of butter/shortening about say $2.50 so for about .50 per crust I saved a lot considering they are about $1.65 per crust at the store.
My other accomplishment was figuring out how to get books from the library on to the Nook Tablet we got. Here's what you do.
First, get yourself an adobe ID https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/membership/index.cfm?nf=1&nl=1
Download Adobe Digital Editions http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/#fp
Then go to the library website and login
find a book that is available and click Download
Then click "open" NOT "Save" and your Digital Editions program will pop up. Plug in the Nook using the USB cord. Click and drag the book from where you see it on the middle of Digital Editions screen over to the left where you can see what drive your Nook is located at and drop it on the drive location.
Then unplug your Nook and go into "Library" "My Stuff" "digital Editions" then press and hold your finger on the book for a moment and you can move it to your Home page or Shelf! I have no idea how to check the bugger back in yet, but it will expire in 21 days, so you could always just let it expire, but then no one else can check it out as there are only a certain number of licenses available.
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