Pasta Salad for a crowd

This is so good, I'm so excited for our potluck tonight at my grandparents' house!

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

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

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 :)

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 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.

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:

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!

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!

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.

Plan for today

so after last night's (this morning's?) marathon cooking session, it's continuing. We got home from church and I put the beans on to boil for 2 hours. I also need to make pie crust, but that will have to wait. The lawn people are coming this week and I need to mow short and get moss out in preparation for their visit. Of course today is the only day when it won't be actually raining. Valerie's about to go down for a nap-So, I guess I'll mow while the beans are boiling (grass will be wet, so it will be challenging) then I'll take the beans off to cool (Can't put them in the bags hot) then spread the moss killer all over the lawn that we got on the way home from church, then come in, clean up the house a bit, make some pie crust then get out there and start raking. Sigh.

Freezer Meals-Ham

It's nearly 3 in the morning, I'm so exhausted, but I got a TON of cooking done this evening and I'm just reflecting on a job well done. Don't get me wrong, I have a few leftover things to do tomorrow, but with just a few more steps (cooking beans, shredding chicken, making pie crust &  labelling containers, this afternoon/evening I went to a grocery store with all 3 kids and made:
9 pans (1 large for church) pans of ham casserole
8 bags of ham & quiche innards (still need to make the pie crusts to freeze with)
8 bags of country ham & bean soup (beans are soaking overnight, need to cook 2 hours, cool and add to the bags, waiting in the fridge-no idea where they'll go after that, the freezers are FULL)
8 pans (equal to 32 full-size enchiladas) pans of chicken enchiladas in a homemade sauce
3 pans of potato, ham & cheese casserole.

That's 36 meals... over one month of meals almost completely done in one day. 

We went to my parents' house to visit with my brother and his son. My brother kindly got swindled into watching my 3 kids so I could head to the store, mostly for sale items, including stuff for lunches and snacks for my pantry as well as a helluva deal on cheese. I usually consider $4 a pound a fair price for cheese.  Safeway this week has 2 pound blocks OR shredded store brand cheese for $4.99, which is dirt cheap for cheese. We love cheese and the meals this time around were cheese heavy. I saved a ton of time by buying the shredded for the same price as block. Usually the block is so much cheaper, I just run it through my shredder blade on the food processer, but this time I saved time by buying the shredded for the same price as the block.  I also discovered the clearance aisle at the Albertsons by my mom, including wine. I got $14 bottles of wine for less than $3. I figure if they are horrid, I can always use them to cook with!

My goal this time around was to use approx 30 pounds of ham I'd bought for 99cents a pound (with bone and fat attached-3 large shanks), mushrooms & wheat pasta;  some tortillas I'd gotten a deal on, frozen corn that was 99c a pound, black beans and diced tomatoes I got on sale last month.

While Carter went outside after we got home to build and paint a birdhouse, Henri watched Him, Valerie napped, then wandered around outside in back while the boys rode bikes in the front, I got down to work. First up was ham casserole, a family favorite.

The ham casserole has no measurements
I used this soup base I made last night instead of cream of mushroom soup
canned shitake mushrooms that I got on sale last month
frozen peas-on sale this month and last for .99 a pound
shredded cheese
whole wheat pasta I got for either $1.00 or $1.25 a box last month

then we did dinner, bath, pjs and I then took all 3 to the grocery store. We crazily and with a good, fun attitude, grabbed the few things I was missing for my ambitious cooking plan.  One funny thing about going to the store with all 3 on a Saturday night-no one judged my hoodlums, I got stopped by two women asking about the children and really happy about how happy they seemed even though they were hanging 1/2 way out the cart. It was nice and relaxed :)


Next I put on the 2 huge packs of chicken thighs/legs from the grocery store on the stove to boil with their skin mostly pulled off.

Then I moved on to the ham  & cheese quiche. Oddly enough I had 2 dozen eggs on hand, used shredded cheese and this recipe from my friend Jacquie C:

1 c. half & half (purchased 1 quart regular & 1 non-fat and labelled the bags to give participants a choice)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt & 1/4 tsp pepper (I omitted)
1 tsp onion powder
1 cup ham
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Put in gallon bag together and freeze with a pie crust (I'll make those from scratch tomorrow and roll up in parchment paper). Directions: thaw, mush, pour into pie crust and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, done when center is set, not jiggly.

I pulled the chicken off the stove to cool and also bagged up the chicken stock in 2 cup increments after cooling it (important!)

Then I assembed the Country Bean soup except the beans that need to soak overnight , another recipe I think from Jacquie:

2 cups milk
4 Tbsp butter (melted)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt (omitted)
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp pepper (omitted)
2 cans canellini beans (I'm doing them from dried for less than 50% of the cost of canned)
1 1/2 cups ham-diced
1/4 cup onions (had some in my produce drawer and frozen-when I have just a little left of peppers or onions, I dice them, measure them and throw them in the freezer to put in recipies when I don't have fresh).

Mix all and paste to thaw and put in crockpot for 4-6 hours in low or bring to boil and simmer 20-30 minutes.


Then I made a few potato, ham & cheese casseroles I found on pinterest. 

Then the chicken had cooled, so I pulled it off the bone and mushed it with my fingers to separate it.  I then made this enchilada sauce while I mixed up the filling in this recipe for enchiladas.. Assembled and done until tomorrow when I still have to do a ton of dishes waiting in the sink, cook the beans, cool and put in the soup, make the pie crusts to freeze, label everything (everything just has name, not directions on right now).

I'm off to bed!

Children Laughing

Love the sounds of these guys laughing...