Our Little Bit of Heaven

Question I get asked a lot

2011-11-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

"How do you do it?" is a question I get asked a lot. When people find out that I home school, work as a chef, am council PTA president they always ask that. I always seem to be scrambling to find an answer. I know they are looking for some magic method that allows me to get everything done.

Honestly?

I have no clue.

I am sitting here tonight in the class room, by myself. The boys are sleeping, Derek is playing a video game downstairs (some new game that he has been glued to since he got it) and I am up here grading papers, organizing completed assignments, printing and clipping coupons. Feeling a bit annoyed. You know that saying "No man is an island", well I am feeling like an island tonight.
I know everything I have read about homeschooling says that you (as the mom) shouldn't count on your husband to be involved at all in the schooling. I am just feeling quite over-whelmed at the moment. My kitchen is a disaster, pile of dirty laundry is almost as tall as me, and of course I have a small stack of assignments to grade, grades to enter in the grade book, bathrooms that need cleaning, trash that needs to be taken out, and a thanksgiving dinner to plan. I won't get help with any of it, and Derek is angry with me about I am sure all of it.

I wish I could be like some of those other moms out there that can post about how they are proud of their dirty dishes, piles of dirty clothes and smelly bathrooms because it all means They are busy doing something more important and impressive.
My husband isn't impressed at what I accomplish in a day. He doesn't care that today I got 1 load of laundry done, gave Alec a history test, worked on a Science lesson with him, went to the bank, Target, Walgreens, HEB, put out a PTA drama fire, helped Cole with his homework, made dinner, swept the kitchen floor (not once but twice today) and paid the bills. None of that is impressive because there are still dishes in the sink. Frankly it drives me crazy too. But when it is 11 pm, and I have to prepare for school tomorrow, and I am just flat exhausted I almost feel guilty for needing sleep.

Well, I have taken enough of brake time, back to work grading papers, and perhaps I can get a load of laundry tossed in before I pass out from sheer exhaustion.

It's not all rainbows and unicorns

2011-10-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

I know this now. I found myself last week thinking about all the advice I had gotten from veteran homeschoolers. One mom had told me that if both Alec & made it 3 months without wanting to kill each other then we would be good. We had had so many good days since the beginning I thought all these people were just scaring me, or maybe I was doing something wrong.
Well, yesterday was a day. It was a hard day to say the least. He just wasn't feeling it. It would take him 30 minutes to do 1 very short activity in his language arts booklet and fought it the entire way. He took so long to do 3 math problems. And every 5 minutes he needed to go to the bathroom, get a drink, re-sharpen his pencil, get a tissue, you name the excuse to not do his work and he tried it.

Yesterday I wanted to scream and rip my hair out.

I did not however. My hair and vocal cords are intact. Instead we closed the books, put them back on the shelf. He went to his room to read, build legos whatever. I went to my room, sighed heavily and prayed for a better day.

And today was better. Much better. He busted through his work and we were done by 12:30. I know now, every day can't be like today, or like they have been. We won't always finish on time, we won't always work all day. Not everything on my lesson plan will get done when I have scheduled it. I feel the pressure of needing him to have a perfect day every day, and get through all this work as quick as possible since he is a bit behind of where he "should" be. Should by whose standards? Well, that I need to let go of too. It's just us. In our homeschool there are no TAKS tests, or STAR tests. There is no model for him to live up to. It is more important to us that he actually understands what he is learning and retaining it rather than blowing through as many lessons as possible.

So that was my last heavy paragraph for the day. I promise.

I have been working on so many things the past week, it's crazy. At work last week I made Ricotta cheese, it was amazing. I never made cheese before, but came across a recipe from Nancy Silverton for ricotta. It looked so easy! and there was less than 5 ingredients! I made it at home this weekend and we have been eating it almost non-stop.

So 4 ingredients. That's it. Full fat milk, heavy cream, lemon juice and kosher salt.

You combine everything (don't stir) in a pot and place it over medium heat. bring it just to slow bubble. Remove it from heat and allow it to sit at room temp. for about 15 minutes. Use a solid spoon (not slotted) to spoon the curds and whey into a strainer lined with cheese cloth set over a bowl.

Let it drain for an hour or so on the counter, then you will get this:

I then tie it up so It can drain for the last hour in the fridge

After it is done this is what you get:

Creamy, thick and delicious! My personal favorite is to smear it on a toasted baguette piece, top with sliced strawberries and a little drizzle of really good balsamic vinegar or honey. Sunday night I made Derek and I calzones with it. At work we sampled it out with a drizzle of basil infused olive oil. DEE-LISH!

Here is a link to Nancy Silverton's recipe from Bon Appetit Ricotta Cheese

Next up Mozzarella cheese!!

Evolving

2011-10-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's funny. We have only been homeschooling since August and already I have changed things. You find out real quick what works and what doesn't. I have re-organized our bookshelf in the classroom, moved some furniture around, and re-organized our books and supplies.
Last night Derek and I had a little date night. His parents are visiting so they took the boys for the evening. We spent our fun date night going out to dinner (Jason's Deli ) and going to Office Max and Hastings. I got some organizational things for home school (binders and such) and was excited to find this book in the clearance bin at Hastings

It's a very cool book, a perfect addition to our art curriculum. This month we add another subject to our schedule. Last month we added English/Language Arts and so far it has been going great. This month we will be adding a more formal History/Geography curriculum (from Alpha and Omega). Alec has been doing just so good. He is so happy and back to his old self. A friend of mine sent me this picture, I printed it up last night and put it up in the class room.

It just made me think of Alec (and I think that is why she sent it to me).

Cole got his progress report from school, all A's. He was less than 10 points away from having 100's across the board. This is one proud mama! He loves math, everything is math and numbers. He quizzes us any chance he gets.

So that is us in a nutshell the past month or so. :) more to come

Off to a fantastic start

2011-09-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we are in our 4th week of homeschooling and things are moving right along. Alec is doing great with his math. We are ahead of schedule so I decided to back off math a bit and start incorporating more subjects to our day. I had Alec take the Language Arts placement test last week and that was an eye opener. I didn't realize how far behind he was in this area as well. He will take a history placement test this week as well, then we will head down to FEAST to get his curriculum.
So this week we are working on:
Math: just reinforcing math facts and learning about Roman Numerals.
History: continuing our study of WWII. We will start this week on the Pacific front of the battle.
Current events: last week Alec chose a story about a local woman who celebrated her 100th birthday. It was touching and sweet. I loved how he called her a "young lady".
We are reading together: Diary of Anne Frank
Alec is reading on his own: Moby Dick
I am reading on my own: My life in France by Julia Child (on the kindle app on my phone)

Alec did awesome today on his own. Me working 2 days a week has really helped him learn self motivation. I leave him a list of assignments to complete by the time I get home from work (usually around 3pm). The first couple weeks he didn't get much done. He would spend the day playing with his Legos, reading (which I didn't mind at all) or sneaking television. But having to spend Saturday and Sunday doing school while his friends were playing wasn't too much fun so last Friday and today he got everything done on his list including his chores.

Cole as usual is doing awesome. All his work that has been coming home has been 100's. He has had 2 spelling tests since the first day of school and some "practice" tests. His spelling tests he got 104's on (because the teacher puts extra credit words on there that are hard ones and he gets them all correct.) The practice tests are all 100's as well. Last week I took him out for ice cream to celebrate. He was so sweet and invited his brother to go too.

Well I better wrap this up. It's 9:30, I can still hear the boys in their rooms playing. They are supposed to be sleeping (in a perfect world they would listen the first time) but I hear Legos instead. I gotta go get my lesson plan ready for tomorrow, review the math one more time, and come up with a fun activity to help Alec learn his vocabulary words for history.

Till next time y'all have a great night!

WWII and a hard question

2011-09-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

This month we are studying WWII for history. It's something Alec has been asking about. Derek is a big WWII history expert. He has read probably every book ever written on WWII, knows insane amounts of information on the subject, especially when it comes to the air war (the Air force, Luftewaffe etc.). We started last week learning about it, starting a little before the beginning, so that we understand why WWII started. A quick study of the Treaty of Versailles, and a brief background of Adolph Hitler's life, and how he came to be in power.
You may or may not know that my mother-in-law is German. She was born in tiny town on the Rhine River at the end of WWII. Her mother was a distance runner in Germany. She was supposed to compete in the 1940 Berlin Olympics that were cancelled because of the war.

This is a picture of her shaking hands with Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, one of the most evil men in history. Josef Dietrich, a highly decorated SS general is standing to the left. The man in the middle My father-in-law wasn't too sure of who it was. Derek said that he would have to look a little harder to see if he could recognize him.
This was the article published in the local news paper, Her now shaking hands with Adolph Hitler.
The picture and the news paper article are scans that my mother-in-law sent me. They are of course old, and not in the best shape. But a fantastic part of history. It was great to be able to show Alec the connection he has with this part of history, however dark it may be. I also told him the story of his grandma's birth which is an interesting one. The night Ilse went into labor the Allied forces were doing bombing runs. Hermann (or Opa as we called him) wanted to take her to the hospital. She adamantly refused, she wanted to deliver at home. Oma & Opa were pharmacists, they owned and ran a pharmacy in their town (still in operation today, all tho it is no longer run by the family). So Ilse gave birth at home, in their apartment above the pharmacy. That night the Allied forces bombed the hospital where Hermann wanted to take Ilse to to deliver. Everyone inside the hospital died. A little over a month later the Germans surrendered to the Allies and the war was over.
As part of the history lessons, we are also reading The Diary of Anne Frank. We have been talking about the holocaust, and watched a documentary on the Frank family. He has learned that it wasn't just Jews that Hitler sent to the concentration camps, basically anyone that wasn't German/Aryan was sent as well.
I can tell it has got Alec thinking about things. Today he connected some dots.
See he is also working on our family tree. Learning about his family history, where we came from etc. He asked me today that had our family lived during the time of WWII in Germany, would we have been sent to a concentration camp.
Wow. Heavy question.
I told him most likely Daddy and I would not have been allowed to marry each other in the first place because we came from different ethnic backgrounds. But, most likely we would have. But I would have done everything in my power and fought to the end to stop that from happening. It scares me to think about it tho.
Kids can't ever ask easy questions can they?

On a lighter note the weather has been wonderfully cool the past 2 days! We spent the day yesterday at the park
Went on a short hike. It was just a beautiful day for it. This morning for PE we took the big black dog for a run. Well a 1 block run, then we had to "encourage" her the rest of the way. 9 year old great danes don't like to move much :)

First day of school

2011-09-05T20:02:00.001-07:00

The boys with their schule tutes before school. We do schule tutes every year. It's a tradition that we have continued over the years. My in-laws did it for Derek and his brother when they were growing up. We fill them up with little toys (usually a small lego set) and some fun school supplies, like cartoon pencils, colored paper clips etc.

Alec trying real hard to concentrate on his math lesson. He is just loving teaching textbooks.
Here is a little tour of our room, for the most part done.
The table/desk. Derek and I actually built it. I LOVE it. It's the perfect height to work at standing up or sitting on a stool. On the shelves are some of our supplies, manipulatives, Also my rotary cutter, cricut and some of our art supplies.
Derek built me the shelf in the corner for the tv, dvd player, cable box. We have the dinosaur desktop computer in the corner with the printer (brother multi-function which I love!!! CHEAP ink cartridges!!) And the bookshelf that holds more supplies and curriculum.
The "Reading Corner". This is still kinda in progress. The chair we found at Goodwill, only $12. We have covered it in a black sheet since the light lavender color doesn't really go with the room. We are looking for fabric to re-do the chair in and a rug to go under it. The art on the wall is (in the frame) a print of Van Gogh's Iris's that I got from the J.Paul Getty museum. The other 2 are paintings Cole did in art class over the summer. It is where Alec sits when he does his reading and when we watch a video.
Back to the table again. The white board we got from Target, I had a gift card that I got for transferring a prescription, so it was about $7 out of pocket. And of course our little blue caddy in the center of the table came from Ikea and we keep it filled with pencils, pens, erasers, scissors, white board markers etc.

So that is the tour of our school room. I am gonna head to bed now. We have tennis first thing tomorrow morning.

Lots of updates

2011-08-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, we are rapidly approaching the end of our first week of homeschooling. So far it has been going so good! Really better than I expected. Alec is getting ready to take his first math quiz tomorrow. He has really been doing well with the Teaching Textbooks. He completed 7 lessons since Monday getting 80-100% on all the assignments. PE kinda took a hit for us, today was the first day we got to play tennis. We took walks Monday and Tuesday because a couple weeks ago he tore some muscles in his right arm (he is right handed) and it has still been bothering him. So we tried tennis today till his arm started hurting too much then gave it a rest. Tomorrow we are adding a little history to the mix. Alec has been asking to learn about WWII for a while. Derek has so many books and knows so much about WWII, it has sparked an interest in Alec. So we have some books, Derek recorded some shows from the history channel about it and I checked out from the library "The Diary of Anne Frank" and a short dvd about her life. I have not seen him this excited to learn about something in a long time. It makes me so happy.

The room is pretty much done, I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow. I found a comfortable reading chair for $12 from Goodwill. It's in decent shape, just needs to be re-upholstered (light purple doesn't go with the room) which will be a good project for us. Right now we have a black sheet covering it until we find some fabric we like.

So, the Valrhona class was amazing! So inspiring! I walked away with so many ideas and so much information.

Valrhona chocolate sponge cake layered with mango jelly and a hazelnut praline cremeux.

The chocolate curl is a caramel flavored milk chocolate, topped with (kinda hard to see since it melted a bit) a whipped chocolate ganache cremeux surrounded by rum scented banana caramel and topped with a slightly sweet pine nut cracker. It was PHENOMENAL!!!

These were so fun! Left to right: dark chocolate caramel candy "Bling" pop (actually a thin chocolate shell filled with an almost liquid caramel center painted with gold dust and a milk chocolate ice cream bombe' filled with a raspberry sorbet.
Amazing amazing amazing.

Well, I gotta finish the lesson plan for tomorrow and get in bed. Both boys are supposed to be in bed now, but Alec is still watching tv with Derek downstairs and I hear Cole still drawing in his room. Have a great night!

Progress

2011-08-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

These pictures I took week before last:

The "Everything Room". The office/craft room/catch-all. The before pictures. I have been working feverishly for the past 2 weeks getting this room re-organized. I have gotten rid of a lot of my scrap booking stuff, listed a bunch of old books and games on Amazon.com (sold the majority of them too!) I just have 1 laundry basket full of scrap booking stuff to go.
Last week I took the boys to F.E.A.S.T. and Lake Shore Learning to get some of Alec's curriculum. We have decided to go slow with the curriculum since it is VERY easy to spend a small fortune on it. I have tried to put myself on a budget when it comes to the homeschooling supplies. The money I have made selling my scrap booking stuff I have been putting towards it. We'll buy a little at a time, as we have the money to do so. Derek and I talked about what we felt was important to concentrate on first then we would go from there. Alec has trouble with math so we purchased his math curriculum first. We want to work with him to get him caught up, or ideally ahead of where he needs to be. (Since we will have more time to work on it) His handwriting is horrible too so we got a couple books to help with that. Of course exercise is very important as well so P.E. will be part of our day as well (as long as the weather allows). I am thinking our schedule will go something like this:

6:45 - Wake up, get dressed & have breakfast
7:45 - I get back from taking Cole to school
8:00 - Alec & I will meet in the "school room" say pledges and start the day off with a prayer. We'll talk about our schedule for the day, I tell him what I expect of him that day, and he will do the same for me.
8:30 - We'll get our tennis shoes on, grab our tennis rackets and head over to the tennis courts at the local park. (Tennis was his choice btw)
10:00 - Come home, have a little snack, change clothes and return to the school room.
10:30 - Math
12:00 - lunch break
12:30 - Handwriting
1:30 - Reading
2:30 - Family Tree project (a special project we have come up with for him to work on the entire year)

Of course this is not a rigid schedule. It will change, from day to day I am sure. But this is what I really like about homeschooling. We have some wiggle room! After the first 3 months I will start adding more subjects to his day, or as I feel like he is doing good with the math and handwriting. For math we chose Teaching Textbooks, for Language Arts, Science, History & Geography we chose Alpha and Omega. I do also want to have some study of religion and the bible, but I haven't quite found one that I like. A&O I am seriously considering but I just haven't had time to really look. We chose Teaching textbooks because it just fit Alec's learning style. I felt like it would help me make math fun for him again. I liked how Alpha & Omega had their curriculum set up. At FEAST we can buy the workbooks just one at a time as he is ready for them. (which helps our budget too!)
I also got a lot of books when I went to the Scholastic warehouse sale. You can get info on them here. Both boys love WWII and I found them 2 great books at the clearance sale about it. Target's $ Spot is also a great place to find stuff. Last year I stocked up in some fun workbooks & flash cards for the boys, .25 cents each. I also have gotten educator discount cards at stores that I frequent, Office Depot, Office Max both extend their special discount card to homeschoolers. I also have a Hastings educator card that gives me 25% off all books, 15% off music and 10% off videos.

I have been busy at work lately, getting in lots of hours before school starts. Tomorrow I am attending Valrhona chocolate demo/class at Le Cordon Bleu. I'm taking my camera in hopes I can get lots of good pictures!

Stay tuned!

The big decisions are not always easy ones

2011-07-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes they are no-brainers. Sometimes you agonize over them for weeks, months, years even.
The move to Texas for us was a no-brainer. It was a big decision, and of course had a big impact on our family. But it didn't take much convincing that it was the best thing for us. We still say it was the best decision we ever made.

Homeschooling was not a decision we came to quickly, or easily. It has been something that we have been going back and forth on for 2 years. It all started when Alec was in 4th grade. I had brought it up the idea to Derek and he wasn't so receptive. He felt like 4th grade was just an "off" year. That the next year things would get better. But they didn't. They got much worse. Alec was "diagnosed" ADD in his 3rd grade year of school. At the time we chose not to go the medication route. We changed his diet. Cut out processed foods, red dye, limited sugar, and started buying organic milk, butter, meats etc. We also limited electronic entertainment including video games, iPod and television. He did great with these changes. 4th grade happened and things went down hill in a big hurry. Against our better judgement he started on medication. Adderall XR was the first. He was on it for a good part of the year, but we switched him when he wouldn't stop loosing weight. Then his doctor prescribed a generic form of Amphetamine. He was on that till about a quarter of the way through 5th grade when we noticed that he wasn't sleeping at night. We would check on him sometimes late at night (11pm - midnight) and he would be wide awake, unable to go to sleep. I had to wake him up at around 6am to get ready for school, so most nights he was getting less than 5 hours of sleep. He was also still having trouble keeping weight on. He is a skinny kid anyway, and no amount of me sneaking protien powders and full fat milk into fruit smoothies helped. It was like someone pressed the pause button on his growing. The doctor suggested we try a non-stimulant so we tried Strattera. His 3rd week on Strattera he started having problems. He came home one day from school saying he wasn't feeling well. That he hadn't been feeling well all day. Upon further questioning he had been sent twice that week to the nurse at school because he was feeling nauseous and dizzy. One of the days he said that he almost fainted during P.E. and spent a while in the nurse's office recovering. Never did the school nurse call me, nor did we get a note home saying that he had seen the nurse. Had he not told us, we would have never known. Immediately we stopped the medication. His grades were already bad, he was still having trouble sleeping, still not gaining weight. The benefits of medication at this point were not out-weighing the risks. Since 4th grade we had hired a tutor to come to the house once a week to help him with his school work. Since he was doing so poorly the school required him to attend tutoring at the school as well. So he would go to tutoring after school 1 day a week and have tutoring one day a week at home. After the first round of TAKS tests the school stopped tutoring. But we still had our private tutor come to the house to help him.

The whole experience over the last 2 years has made me incredibly sad, angry, frustrated, and disappointed.

So, after much research, and countless nights of discussion Derek and I decided to start homeschooling Alec this year. It is going to be a year of re-building and recovery. Re-building his confidence in learning, and just recovering from everything he has been through and what our family has been through.
Really we are looking forward to it. I haven't done anything remotely resembling scrap booking in over a year so I am in the process of selling the majority of my scrap booking supplies (keeping the things that I can use for homeschooling) and fixing up the office/catch-all/former scrap room to a school room. Mostly just getting rid of things and re-organizing. We have told our parents and they are supportive of the endeavor. They have known the struggles we have endured over the last couple years and are happy for the fresh start. At the core, we all want what is best for our boys. We feel this is a step in the right direction.

Proud to be a Texan today

2011-07-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today we laid to rest Lance Corporal John Farias in my home town of New Braunfels Texas. Yesterday over 1,000 citizens of our town lined a 3 mile long stretch of road holding American and Texas flags, and signs of thanks and condolences honoring John and his family.

Yesterday about 4,000 people attended a special service held for him at Canyon High School, where he graduated from. An estimated 1,000 people attended the services today at Tree of Life Church. We stopped along the highway to pay respect as the procession traveled down IH35 to Ft. Sam Houston to lay his body to rest. Every over pass we drove past was filled with people holding flags. Fire trucks, police cars, paramedics all lined up on the over passes and on the grassy parts of the on and off ramps with their lights flashing.
God bless each and every person who took time out of their day to pay their respects.

God holds a special place in heaven for these guys:

The Patriot Guard Riders.
Sadly the Westboro church traveled to tour little town to protest this funeral, as is their way. The Patriot Riders did what they do best. I just don't know what to say about them. I hold them up, they are heroes. If you happen to see them, be sure to thank them.

I am very proud to be a Texan and a resident of New Braunfels today.

(a special thank you to my friend Lisa who took most of these pictures)

Summer so far...

2011-06-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

So far this has not been a very fun summer for our family. The first week my boys were out of school I had to serve on a jury for a very hard case. It took an entire week to finish it, I am glad it's over. Alec had to go to summer school because he failed his math TAKS test. Summer school has been frustrating on more than one level.(more on that later)
If you have been paying attention to the weather you know that Texas is in the middle of a severe drought, and despite our sprinkler system our garden has been suffering. We just are not getting any ware near the yields we got last year, or that we needed. So far only 2 ears of corn and they were TINY. Sweet, but tiny. We did get a ton of grapes off our vine, they were little but pretty sweet. This is the second year we have had it so I know next year they will be just perfect.

But we had Cole's birthday party earlier this month. A pool party and everyone had a fantastic time.
The cake Derek and I made:
It took us over 5 hours but for never having done this before I think we did a pretty good job. Cole loves Legos so of course he had to have a Lego birthday party.

Alec's birthday is coming up weekend after next so we have to start planning that as well.

Last weekend Alec competed in his first shooting competition since he started shooting on the 4-H shooting sports team. We left the house at 6am and didn't get home till after 7pm. It was a long hot day!

For his first time shooting he did ok. He shot in 3 events, 5 stand, Trap and Skeet. It was his first time ever shooting 5 stand. To add insult to injury 2 weeks ago the firing pin on his shot gun broke, so he was borrowing an extra gun from one of his team mates. Saturday was only the second time that he had shot it. His gun was a 20 gauge and the one he borrowed was a 12 so there was a bit of difference in shooting it. He didn't place, but we didn't expect him to. He shot over 150 rounds that day and never complained, we were proud.
His gun has to go back to the manufacturer to get fixed so there will be no competitions for a while.

Work has been going very well for me. I started making ice cream at the restaurant that have been a big hit. Small batches using as many local ingredients as possible, and flavors that can't be found any ware else. I just made earlier this week a batch of chocolate stout ice cream using an amazing stout from a local brewery. It turned out amazing.
We got another write up in the news paper. An Austin paper this time. We will also be mentioned in the travel section of the Dallas news.

I do have some big news, new changes are coming to our house, but I'll save that for another post.

The "Everything from Scratch" Breakfast

2011-04-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

The only thing I didn't make from scratch this morning was the butter and the honey :)

I cooked up the maple cured bacon I made week before last.
It was CRAZY good

EEK. Note to self, find a better window to take pictures in front of.

We also had biscuits I made from scratch. I always make the biscuits from scratch. I have a great recipe (listed below) that I use. I change the type of butter I use. Sometimes I use Kerrygold butter, today I used imported un-salted Normandy butter.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Sift together in a bowl:
2 cups un-bleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt (omit if using Kerrygold, or other salted butter)

Cut in with a fork or pastry blender:
6 T. Cold butter
This is what I used today:

But feel free to use whatever butter you like. Blend this into the flour mixture till it resembles coarse crumbs.
Slowly add 3/4 cup buttermilk. Stir it with a fork till just blended. Then get your hands dirty! Gently knead the dough till it is no longer sticks to the bowl and is smooth on the surface.
Now my boys usually help me so we just pull off small handfuls of dough, gently roll them into balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet (this method makes them a little more rustic looking). Allow them to rest while your oven heats up to 425 degrees. Brush the tops with melted butter and bake them (depending on the size) 10-15 minutes or till golden brown.

This morning we topped them with my home made jam:
That I made last year during my month long canning binge. (We are just now starting to run low, despite me giving away many jars) We also topped them with some delicious local honey from Round Rock Honey . Eggs (eek I forgot to get a pic!) came from a friend who has property south of Seguin where he has chickens, ducks, goats, cows etc. The chicken eggs he gives us are some of the best we have ever had. Fruit also came from my 2010 canning binge. Alec pulled out a a jar of my chunky spiced apple sauce. (made from organic pink lady apples)

So that was our Sunday breakfast. Have a great week!

Sunday snack and Bacon part 3

2011-04-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

The bacon is done. And our lives will never be the same again.

It was late Thursday night that we sliced it and sampled it. Above is the belly straight out of the oven. Cooked in the 200 degrees till the temp registered 150 degrees. It sat on the counter to come down to room temperature, then got wrapped in foil, and chilled in the fridge till firm. I very carefully sliced it with a VERY sharp knife. Cooked up a few pieces and holy cow! Or holy pig :D . It was a little too salty, I left it in the cure I think a day or so too long. But no worries. Blanching the belly in water for a few minutes fixed it. When Alec tried it he asked me "Mom, how are we ever gonna eat store bought bacon again?" We won't I told him. We will make our own bacon from now on.

Sunday snack:

New favorite sandwich. Just went on the menu at Gourmage. Lightly toasted baguette drizzled with basil olive oil, a slice of prosciutto, couple slices of fresh mozzarella and a basil leaf. mmm...

Bacon part 2

2011-04-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

The pork belly, right now as I type is resting comfortably in a 200 degree oven.

It spent about 8-9 days in the maple cure. I took it out of the cure, rinsed it and patted it dry with paper towel. I placed the belly on a rack in a foil lined sheet pan. According to Michael Ruhlman's book you can leave the belly this way in the fridge for up to 3 days (just make sure you cover it with plastic wrap) But Alec asked (in a worried voice) "We aren't gonna wait that long are we?" Oh HECK NO!! I prepped the belly last night and just put it in the oven this morning. It will sit in the 200 degree oven for about 2 hours or until the internal temp. reaches 150 degrees. At this point if you wanted, say, pepper bacon you could add the pepper to the belly now, before it goes in the oven. You could also smoke it if you are lucky and have a smoker. (we are still shopping for a bbq with a smoker box) Apple wood is pretty classic, you could do cherry, hickory, mesquite, etc.

By this afternoon we will have BACON!!

I realized that I forgot to post the cure recipe. It's pretty easy one.

1 lb. Kosher Salt
8 oz. granulated sugar
2 oz. pink salt (you can find at well stocked grocery stores or online, I get mine from my butcher shop)

Just mix it all together, it will keep in an air tight container forever. Depending on the size of your pork belly use around 4 oz (more or less) to completely coat it. To my recipe I also added 4 oz. real maple syrup, but you could also add garlic, pepper corns, dried herbs etc.

Breakfast

2011-03-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

Coffee, Don Francisco Butterscotch (can't find it in Texas so we either stock up when we are in California or order it online) and a Pain Au Chocolate.
Reading my Charcuterie book, plotting my next adventure in the art of curing meat.

Feeding my obsession

2011-03-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

I ordered this book from Amazon a couple weeks ago

And haven't been able to put it down. I mentioned in a previous post my current obsession with charcuterie and this weekend was all about it. Friday after work the boys and I went to our local meat market, Granzin's and got a fresh pork belly. (Bacon who hoo!!!)
Saturday we packed the boys in the car early (well early for them) and headed up to Austin to check out the farmer's market. Jen had told me about a few people that sold at the farmer's market to check out. I got some Pate Campagne and some Morcilla blood sausage from Kocurek Family Charcuterie . I also got some venison breakfast sausage and some fresh lard (in preparation for confit) from Dai Due.
I couldn't wait to dive into the Pate from Kocurek Charcuterie. As soon as we got home from our day (We also took the boys to Salt Lick in Driftwood, Wimberly Glassworks and Cabela's) I grabbed the baguette I had brought home from work Friday from the freezer (let it defrost of course) and tucked into my pate. Happy sigh.

So today (Sunday) I tackled the pork belly.

So pretty

This bacon is gonna be so good.

Seriously.

I made up a batch of Michael Ruhlman's Basic Dry Cure
And got to work. I coated the belly in the dry cure (both sides)

and placed it in a 2.5 gallon zip bag. I decided to give the maple cured bacon recipe so I added some maple syrup to the bag

squished it all around the pork belly. It's sitting in a 1/4 sheet pan in the fridge and according to Michael Ruhlman it will sit there for 7 days. I just hope we can wait that long.

I found this website from Michael Ruhlman's site : http://www.mrswheelbarrow.com/charcutepalooza/the-ruhls-2/

I am not participating in the challenges officially, I kinda stumbled upon it too late. And too, only 1 month to complete challenges could be a little difficult given how much I have been working lately. I plan on working my way through the book at my own pace. Feel free to join in if you'd like. Get the book, Amazon has it for less than $20 and free shipping if you have Amazon Prime (like I do and I totally abuse it!). Feel free to post with your experiences or questions and I'll link back to your blog.

Happy curing!

10 Day Challenge, day 10

2011-03-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Day ten: One confession.

At any given time I have at least 3 different kinds of butter in my fridge. Currently the following are in my fridge:

10 Day Challenge, day 9

2011-03-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Day Nine: Two smileys that describe your life right now.

:D

:p (just cuz I am a smart ass)

10 Day Challenge, day 8

2011-03-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Day Eight: Three turn ons.

1. Humor

2. Politeness

3. Confidance

3 Cheeses to try...

2011-03-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

I consider my self blessed to be a chef in a cheese shop. I have just about landed my dream job. Jen, our resident "cheesemonger" I adore. She loves cheese and we share an obsession with charcuterie. Every Tuesday and Thursday we get our cheese orders in. Usually on those days (when we get a new cheese in) we do a little tasting which is great because it has allowed me to try some new cheeses. Just like my charcuterie obsession, I am also obsessed with a few cheeses that I highly recommend you try if you happen to come across them.

2 of my cheeses come from Cypress Grove. Their cheese are just awesome. This Midnight Moon I love for 2 reasons, #1 it's just a really yummy cheese. 1 year aged goat cheese that has such a beautiful smell and flavor. Lightly nutty, it has those lovely little crystals that you can feel in your teeth when you eat it that tells you you are having good cheese. & #2, I just love the picture of the lady on the cover. How cool is she? I have this cheese in my fridge right now. I have been eating it with thin slices of pink lady apples and of course a fresh baked baguette.

Crozier Blue is a cheese we got in just for St. Patty's day. And I will be honest, at first I didn't like it. When we opened the package the smell hit me like a ton of bricks. There is a definite barn-yard smell to this one. The first thing out of my mouth was "It smells like the sheep at the county fair". But then I tasted it and holy cow, it was good! So creamy and smooth. Not at all what I expected from the smell. I just spread it on some baguette, but I imagine this would be good with some slices of pear too, maybe crumbled over a salad. When the last of this sells I don't know what I will do.

Above is Purple Haze Cheve (also from Cypress Grove). This is a lovely creamy cheve that has lavender and fennel pollen. This was another that I wasn't too crazy about initially. I once described it tasting "like you think a head shop would taste". But Jen suggested pairing it with some chopped walnuts and a drizzle of honey. The honey really mellows the fennel and makes it just very yummy.

I have more cheeses in the fridge that are also very yummy, Prairie Breeze , Tipperary Cheddar , and of course Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Give them a try next time you are at your local cheese shop or well stocked cheese counter at the grocery store and let me know what you think!

10 Day Challenge, day 7

2011-03-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Day Seven: Four Turn Offs.

1. Disorganization

2. Passive-aggressiveness

3. Indecisiveness

4. ok, I'll say it, poor hygiene.

10 Day Challenge, day 6

2011-03-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Day Six: Five people who mean a lot - in no particular order.

1. Derek

2. Alec

3. Cole

4. Jodi

5. Grandma

10 Day Challenge, day 5

2011-03-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Day Five: Six things you wish you'd never done.

1. Said "Yes" when I wanted to, or knew I should say no to.

2. Attempting to split firewood. Sinking that stupid axe into my knee was not my finest moment.

3. Said "No" to things I wanted to say yes to.

4. Cut my hair so short when I was younger. Having short hair is not something a person with very thick and curly hair should do.

5. Spoken up when I knew I should have.

6. There were a few times I wish I had taken a risk when I decided to play it safe.

10 Day Challenge, day 4

2011-03-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.

1. My kids

2. My husband

3. Housework/my to-do list

4. Recipes

5. Family/Friends

6. Money

7. Random things that have nothing to do with anything ;)

10 Day Challenge, day 3

2011-03-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.

1. Make me laugh

2. Know when to lie and when to tell me the truth.

3. Know when to be spontaneous and when to plan ahead.

4. Open doors

5. Love my friends (epically Jodi) because they are my family

6. Dance with me

7. A well planned compliment doesn't hurt...

8. Eat the food I make (also refer to #2)

10 Day Challenge, day 2

2011-03-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

Day Two: Nine things about yourself.

1. I HATE green bell peppers. HATE THEM. I don't think they should be allowed to exist. I refuse to cook with them or eat them.

2. I do however LOVE red, yellow and orange bell peppers. I use them instead of the green ones.

3. I have an addiction to cooking magazines. If you ever come to my house you will find piles of them all over my house. I never throw them away, and I am afraid to actually count how many I have.

4. I have inherited my mother's addiction to table linens. Every time I go shopping I look for new ones. I have amassed quite a collection of those too.

5. I love to go shooting with Derek and the boys. I shoot a 9mm and am actually very accurate. Anyone trying to break into my house better think twice.

6. I live vicariously through my friend who has the most beautiful, sassy little girl.

7. I wear funky socks every day. (unless I am wearing my yellow box sandals) I have themed socks for just about every holiday, all different colors and patterns.

8. I am addicted to my new Blackberry Torch. I love the "Angry Farm" game I got for it. Flying pigs that explode into strips of bacon make me laugh.

9. Charcuterie is my new obsession. I love it all.

10 Day Challenge

2011-03-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

This came from my friend Kasey. She is a hoot and a half, love her to pieces. She started this on her facebook so I thought I'd steal it for my blog. Maybe It can get me back in the swing of posting more often :D

Here it is, feel free to yoink it for your own blog.

Move down the list each day:

Day One: Ten things you want to say to 10 different people.

Day Two: Nine things about yourself.

Day Three: Eight ways to win your heart.

Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.

Day Five: Six things you wish you'd never done.

Day Six: Five people who mean a lot - in no particular order.

Day Seven: Four Turn Offs.

Day Eight: Three turn ons.

Day Nine: Two smileys that describe your life right now.

Day ten: One confession.

Each day I will add to this note and in 10 days it will be complete. A little story of me. I'll start tomorrow on a fresh day...

Day 1: 10 things to 10 people

Dad: I wish I was more important to you.

Mom: I wish I was more important to you.

Derek: I have never had anyone care about or love me as much as you do. & I love and care about you just as much.

Alec: You have no idea how proud of you I am.

Cole: I wish I had your energy.

Grandpa: I miss you.

Grandma: I wish you'd come live with us. I have a room for you and nothing would make me happier than to take care of you for a change.

Jodi: If I ever win the lottery I am sharing my half with you.

Letisha: You are awesome. I am thankful that you smashed your way into my life. I adore you, I adore your family. I hope we are friends till we are wrinkled old ladies sneaking martinis in the nursing home.

Chef Richard Blais: (I know, like he will ever read this but I needed a #10) Watching your show, and watching you cook on Top Chef has really inspired me to take more risks with my cooking, and to look at food and cooking with a more whimsical and fun approach.

I try

2011-03-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have some time today, after I just finished cleaning my kitchen and family room, resting my knee. The knee is a whole 'nother story. I decided a while back during a particularly cold day that I would try my hand at splitting firewood. (See: worst things ever for Linsey to do.) And how fun would it be to sink an axe in my knee. It wasn't pretty. It's fine now, but I have a feeling that I messed it up pretty bad, seeing as how squatting down and kneeling is not something it will allow me to do anymore. Stupid stupid stupid.

I did start a new job back in November. I'm working as a chef at Gourmage, one of my favorite places in New Braunfels to get food. Serving breakfast and lunch, I get to experiment, and have added a few things on the menu. I am getting pretty well known for my handmade marshmallows. They have been flying out the door almost as fast as I can make them. Plain ol' Vanilla ones, Dulce de Leche, Chai Spice, Honey Lavender, Raspberry, Moscato Peach, Chocolate Chip, and special for this week Guiness ones. I also did some that I rolled in Pop Rocks. They were a huge hit.
I have put a couple new soups on the menu that have been big hits too. The job was supposed to be temporary, until the holiday season was over, but the boss told me I wasn't allowed to go, so I stayed on.
Juggling my work schedule along with the boy's school schedules, extra curricular activities schedule, Derek's schedule, and of course the housework, household shopping etc. it has been hard. There have been a few things that have slipped through the cracks. People who know me know how crazy it makes me to forget things. Tho through it all I have learned what I can delegate and what I can't (the latter list being a whole lot longer), and really who my true friends are. Sad that I am a grown woman still learning that lesson. I am thankful for my friends who have forced their way into my life to solidify their spot.

So that is that. I will work harder this year to be more regular in my postings. As soon as I figure out how I can post from my new phone I'll be all set.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

So much stuff has been going on it's crazy. It seems like since we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Cali. I have been moving at break neck speed. On top of everything else I try to get done in a day I recently added a job to the mix (yes I am crazy) I'll talk more about that later tho.
I figured that I would do a quick post for those of you needing a last minute Christmas gift.

This one I did for a few people this year, including my son's teachers. They were VERY well received. Less than $5 each, they even make great hostess gifts, (I know whenever we attend a party I like to take a little something for the hostess) gifts for your mail carrier, lady that cuts your hair etc.

It all starts with the jar. Plain old jar. I got it at Hobby Lobby, regular price was $1.99, but they regularly go on sale for 50% off so I got mine for $.99 If you don't have a Hobby Lobby close to you check Michael's. I am sure they have something similar. You just want at least 1 smooth side.
Then go search the jewelry section of your favorite craft store. I found these:

I am not totally sure what they are called, medallions of some sort. Regular price of the package was $2.99, which I used my 40% off coupon on which brought the price down to $1.80 for a package of 4. ($.45 per medallion) When you choose your medallions you want to make sure they have a pretty flat back. Then I just glued it on the jar. Personally I use C.A. Glue, which is stronger than krazy or super glue. You will find it with the model kits at your craft store. Make sure you get the Thick C.A. glue, and while you are at it get a bottle of de-bonder as well. This stuff will NOT come off anything it gets on, including your skin, clothes etc. and if you accidentally glue things together that you did not intend the de-bonder is the only stuff that is gonna get it apart.

Now I filled some of my jars with good smelling bath salts. I get them from a local favorite day spa:

This particular one smells amazing. This 16 oz. bag was around $8 and I filled 2 of the bottles with it. If you are close to New Braunfels they have other bath salts, including the pink Himalayan Sea salts which are lovely too. They have a few scents to choose from and custom mix them for you. You could also make your own scented bath salts. Just buy a carton of Epsom salt and add a few drops of your favorite essential oil (just be careful, a little goes a long way!).
I also filled them with chocolate kisses for my son's teachers.
So that is my easy cheap last minute gift.

Today I am baking Stollen, my mother-in-law's recipe that has been in her family for only the lord knows how long. Her mother in Germany used to make it every Christmas. I'll try to get pictures up when I can.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Cocktail Time!

2010-09-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

I watch a lot of television. That's what my husband keeps telling me anyway. My tv watching lineup is pretty varied. I don't know what you would think if you saw what was on my DVR on any given day. General Hospital, Family Guy, The Office, Grey's Anatomy, Robot Chicken, No Reservations, I could go on and on.

One show that I just LOVE and have not missed an episode thanks to my obsession with it (and my DVR. honestly I don't know how I ever survived without it!) is AMC's Mad Men.

I (like many women and men too I am sure) am infatuated with Don Draper.

He is so smooth & handsome. I love his wife irl, she is a cutie, I loved her movie "Kissing Jessica Stein"

Joan Halloway-Harris is my other favorite. Thank you for making curvy women sexy again!
Mad Men is on Sunday nights starting at 9pm here in my neck of the woods which is perfect because the kids are in bed. I have gotten in the habit of having a cocktail while I watch Mad Men. I dunno, kinda gets me in the mood. It's always a martini, and thanks to another favorite show of mine, I have a new favorite martini. I call it the Jeff Lewis Martini. (from the show "Flipping Out" on Bravo)
I got the initial recipe from the show, but made a couple minor tweaks. So here ya go, my version of the Jeff Lewis Martini:

first gather your ingredients & "tools":

You will need:
Martini glass
Cocktail shaker (I have just a single serve one which is just fine since my husband doesn't drink)
Liquid measuring cup
Ice

Ingredients:
Vodka (I use a local organic brand from Dripping Springs. It's yummy!)
Spanish Olives w/ brine
Blue Cheese
Water

First load your martini glass with ice to chill it down. The key to a good martini is that everything is ICE COLD. Fish out a few olives from the jar and remove the pimento from the center and fill that little sucker with blue cheese, as much as you can get in there. This is key. Olives that come pre-stuffed with blue cheese suck. take the few minutes and a couple extra bucks and do it yourself. Trust me, it's worth it.
Now load up your cocktail shaker with ice. Into the shaker add 2 Tablespoons of the Vodka of your choice (I keep mine in the freezer so it is as cold as it can be) 2 Tablespoons of the olive brine and 1 Tablespoon of water. Now shake it up really good. REALLY good.
Toss the ice from your martini glass, drop in your olive (or 3 if you are like me) and pour your martini in the glass.
mmm... Hold on one sec Don, just let me finish my drink...

What they do when they are supposed to be cleaning up

2010-07-28T15:46:00.001-07:00

sigh...
The game room will never get cleaned. Legos are just too enticing.

Updates

2010-07-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Garden updates:

cantaloupe. I've watched this little guy grow from a tiny little marble. He gets bigger every day.

red bell pepper. Tiny little thing. so far, out of the 4 plants we planted this is the only one. sigh. there go my dreams of jars and jars of homemade roasted red bell peppers canned in olive oil, roasted red bell pepper relish...
GIANT carrots. Seriously, we have pulled out like 3 that were this big. and they are so tasty too!

Rocky is bored by garden talk. Poor thing can barely keep his eyes open.

Canning:
4 cases of jars have been filled with various things. Recipes will be forth coming. This week I will be making more jam (got lots of strawberries to do something with). Pictures coming soon, and a neat giveaway.

I will leave you today with a simple recipe, something I make every time we throw meat on the grill (which during the summer epically is quite often)
If you grew zucchini and yellow squash this year this is a good recipe to use some of them up.

BBQ Veggies:
3-4 zucchini and yellow crookneck squashes (each) cut in half lengthwise then cut into half inch pieces.
1 large red onion (cut about the same size as the squash) and break them up a bit.
Olive oil (use the good stuff) a few good glugs around the pan
Balsamic Vinegar (again, the good stuff, I prefer the Alessi Balsamic Vinegar aged 20 years, it's pricey but it's good) a few good splashes around the pan
Thyme, I use fresh sprigs from my garden (about 5) you could use dried but I think the fresh is better
Kosher Salt and Pepper to taste
(optional) few tablespoons of un-salted butter

combine everything in one of those cheap disposable pans you get at the grocery store. If you are feeling particularly naughty you can add a few tablespoons of un-salted butter.

looks yummy already! When your coals are hot put this on the grill, depending on what else you are grilling, it needs to cook for about 30 minutes (also depending on how hot your coals are). Cook, stirring occasionally till you get this:
It's AH-MAZING. So good. Even my husband (who hates just about every veggie) likes this. It makes a great juice in the pan that is really good to dip some crusty bread in.
We cook this with steak, chicken, pork, I'd say fish too but my husband doesn't like fish so it's a rare occasion that we cook it. I have changed the herbs up a bit too, adding fresh oregano from the garden, or herbs de provence. It's yummy either way.

Canning Season

2010-06-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

So I spent the evening in the kitchen today, experimenting with some canning recipes. I recently hosed a house party for the Ball canning company. It was SO MUCH fun! It got me excited about canning again. We have this great garden that is actually producing now, and I want to be able to enjoy it all year long.

I have plans to can some more tomorrow. After I get it done, take the pictures I'll be posting the recipes, (be on the look out for those) and I will have a little give away for y'all as well. (It's gonna be a good one!)

Here is a little sneaky peak of what I have been doing:

Now it is 11:30 central time. I should be sleeping but instead I am having a craving for a quseadilla from Taco Cabana with the hot salsa. A Dr. Pepper would be nice with it too.
Cravings have been frequent lately. Couple days ago it was mini powdered doughnuts. Last week it was chocolate cake, brownies etc. You know what was so good? And it's so gross, but the Betty Crocker Warm Delights chocolate cake with the caramel. Cake you cook in the freaking microwave but it was so good. I craved it, and I am so not a sweets person. Hands down, I'd rather eat a bag of salt and vinegar chips or a big bowl of popcorn with Tobasco sauce. What's up with the sweets lately?

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

2010-06-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a, well, long few months. The boys have been out of school for about 2 weeks now. Normally I do not look forward to their summer break. It just means that I have 3 months of them at home, all the time, fighting, eating, making messes whining, whatever else they can think of to drive me crazy with. But this year I was counting down the days (along with them) to the last day of school. This school year was the hardest, most exhausting, physically and emotionally draining that we have had since my oldest started pre-k. This was the first year that I seriously contemplated homeschooling. No, we didn't follow through. We stuck it out, but believe me, It's still a possibility.

I have so many posts in my brain, half done on my old dinosaur computer, I'll get to them I promise.
Most recently we have been working in the garden. Yesterday the hubs and I spent the day in the garden, harvesting the last of our sweet corn, beans and radishes. We pulled out the corn stalks tilled the soil and added a bunch more peat moss, manure and sand. (we have HORRIBLE clay-like soil here) The clay soil is good in that it is dense with nutrients but it is so heavy, it's hard to work, and many things can't grow in it, like carrots, potatoes, onions etc. That is why we add more stuff to it.
This year has been very successful. More so than last year.
This year we are doing more melons. Here is a picture I took of a honeydew melon last week:

and here it is about a week later:

Yes, the very same honeydew melon grew that much in just 1 week. We are doing nothing special. Just regular watering. (Thank goodness for my crafty husband who put together the automatic watering system)

Our peach tree finally gave us peaches this year. We got 3 off the tree before the birds got the others. They were VERY yummy.

My Roma tomatoes finally coming in. The weather, up until recently, has not been warm enough for them.
Cantaloupes. we have 6 of them now, good sized, and lots of little golf ball size ones too.
We also are growing sugar pearl sweet corn, dragon's tongue beans, green beans, soy beans, radishes (lots of different varieties) jalapeno, tobasco and habenaro chili peppers. Red bell pepper, carrots, purple potatoes, yellow & purple onions, Roma and yellow tear drop tomatoes, garlic, thompson seedless grapes and my usual suspects of herbs, oregano, thyme, tarragon, rosemary and chives.

I will post more pictures later, as it is now 8 pm. Derek and the boys went to the shooting range and they should be back soon. I have to figure out something for dinner. Tonight I am thinking takeout because I have been sick to my stomach all day and have not had the motivation or the energy to prep anything. & I need some Taco Bell anyway.
I have this thing about Taco Bell. Whenever I get sick the only thing that can bring me out of it is Taco Bell. When I was pregnant with both my boys I had terrible morning sickness. More like morning, noon and night sickness, and both times it lasted like 6 months. and through it, the only thing I could stomach was Taco Bell. My poor husband drove one night in a snow storm to get me some.
It must be a genetic thing because my mom was the same way when she was pregnant with me.
I love Taco Bell for the same reasons Anthony Bourdain loves KFC mac & cheese. It's crappy, horrible, totally bad for you, but for some reason so good!
Now I have to go call my husband and ask him in my nicest, sweetest voice to please pick me up some tacos and a Dr. pepper.

What a week it's been

2010-03-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't started my last post on couponing, how my trips go, last minute tips etc.
The last week has sucked big time.
Aside from both Derek and Alec getting strep throat, TAKS test and school difficulties we had a death in the family.
our cat, Daisy died.
yeah, she was only a cat, but she was our cat. She was the sweetest, most cuddly, friendly beautiful cat. She was 3 years old. She died and I was devastated. Well, both Alec & I were devastated. Daisy was his cat. He was a present from Santa Claus to Alec. But she was my cat too. Every night she would climb under the covers with me and sleep till Derek came to bed and then she would go sleep with one of the boys.
This adjustment has been hard. We have had lots of tears, lots of crying bouts.
Now she is buried in the back yard. Derek made her a headstone. Alec put her food dish on top of it. Some times he goes out there. I don't know if he is praying, talking to her or what. It just sucks. That's what we say. It sucks.

Here is the most recent picture of her. (that I could find) taken Christmas morning. She is missed and forever in our hearts.

To all my friends, family & acquaintances...

2009-12-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

If I had given you a 40% off coupon to kodakgallery.com I apologize for them not working.
Kodak had approached me back in November asking if I would host a house party for them, to promote their new products and their company in general. They had provided me with a big stack of 40% off coupons to pass along to entice people to try their site, new products etc.
I have gotten emails from so many of you that the coupons were not working. The coupons expired on the 12th of December. I had sent my first email to Kodak on the 15th after posting the issues on the message board on the house party website. I got nothing but automatic responses from Kodak until last week. This morning I decided to just call their customer service rather than deal with email. I was told by a representative from Kodak that there was nothing they were able or willing to do to make this right. I have been a loyal customer of Kodak for many years. I have gotten my pictures printed through them, have had at least 3 of their cameras and one of their printers.

This situation has taught me that Kodak does not care about their customers. Even their most loyal. They thought nothing of taking advantage of me, using me to promote their business, giving nothing they promised in return, then asking me to pass out bogus coupons to people to further promote their business.

I will let everyone decide for themselves if they want to continue using Kodak or not. I for one will not. I will not allow a company that treats me like this to receive my hard earned money.

I recently placed an order with www.snapfish.com and was pleased with their service and quality of the prints. Their prices are cheaper than kodakgallery.com and they have many of the same products. And if you fan them on facebook (
http://www.facebook.com/#/snapfish?ref=ts ) you get a free photo book. I haven't gotten a photo book from them yet so I can't speak for that, but the prints were very nice. If you want 1 hour service you can pick your prints up at Walgreens, Walmart and others. I love too that you can get matte finish, where as Kodak only gave you glossy.

I have also used www.scrapbookpictures.com for prints as well. you can get the odd sizes there, like 4x4, 5x5 etc. Their quality and service is excellent too.

So that is that. I do plan on filing a complaint with the BBB. I doubt anything will come of it. But I wanted to make it known my feelings about the company and to apologize once again for Kodak's gross error since they won't.

Sugar coma here we come!

2009-11-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

As promised, this morning Derek and I took the boys to the next restaurant on their Adam Richman, Man V Food list. Lulu's Bakery and Cafe in San Antonio Texas.

They wanted only 1 thing. The giant 3 1/2 lb. cinnamon roll.
This is going to be their post but I'll get my part out of the way real quick first.
The cinnamon roll, featured on Adam Richman's San Antonio show. Lulu's is known for their giant cinnamon rolls but also for their Chicken fried steak. It's also huge. some people at the table next to us got one. it was darn near hanging off the huge plate it's served on. I did resist the urge to be the crazy food blogger and ask them if I could take a picture of their breakfast. I guess it was bad enough that I was snapping pictures of my kid's food.
Adam was all over the menu.
Apparently when Adam was there he consumed an entire cinnamon roll and the police chief (a full sized chicken friend steak topped with queso) I honestly don't know how he did it.
That cinnamon roll was daunting enough, then to eat an entire CFS, topped with queso.

So the boys ordered the cinnamon roll, Derek and I ordered off the menu. His breakfast consisted of 2 sausage patties a big helping of scrambled eggs, potatoes and 4 slices of toast, all that for less than $5. I got the migas breakfast which was really good. I gotta say the refried beans were really tasty, some of the best I have had. They brought Derek a HUGE glass of OJ and I had coffee. Ok, the coffee sucked. It was pretty weak.

The place was PACKED full of people. It's a seat yourself kind of res truant. The waitress let the boys pick their cinnamon roll (we only got 1 for the 2 of them. We are not stupid) then she heated it up and brought it out to them. I'll let them add their commentary now...

Alec: We looked and picked the one with the most frosting on it. The frosting is the best part.
Cole: Yeah, it was AWESOME!

Alec: I was surprised that it was really THAT big.

Alec: It took her a while to heat it up but it was totally worth it.
Cole: I couldn't wait to try it!!!

(Mom: Dad had to help cut it)

mmmmm.....

Cole: Look at that cross section! It's full of gooey goodness!
Alec: It was really good. We couldn't finish the entire thing. It was so much. We have it at home now.
Mom: It will be your breakfast tomorrow. :)

Lulu's Bakery and Cafe
918 N. Main Ave.
San Antonio Texas
210-222-9442

The cinnamon roll was only $5.99, a decent price for the size of it.

We have another MVF outing planned. Check back to see where Alec & Cole go next!

It's COOOOLD!

2009-10-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

ok, so maybe to most people 48 degrees isn't cold. But to this mom, who grew up for most of her life in sunny southern California, land of the 70 degree Christmas, anything under 65 degrees is cold. I sat last night checking the weather report for today. 48 degrees at 6 am. brrr....
Lately I have been cooking breakfast for the family in the morning, most of the time it's biscuits, scrambled eggs and fruit. I wake up early to do this. Earlier than I would care to get up on a cold morning. So feeling slightly proactive I decide to prepare breakfast before I go to bed, so I can sleep in a few minutes longer.

Crock Pot Oatmeal is something I started perfecting since our first winter here in Texas, some 5 years ago. I think I have it down to perfect. I use the regular old fashioned oats (not quick cooking) I personally prefer the steel cut oats, but the family prefers the old fashioned variety.

Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated is preferable)
1 cooking apple peeled & cut into bite size pieces (Granny Smith, Macintosh, Honey Crisp, Pink Lady are all ones that I have used)
4 cups water

Tools needed:

Crock pot with a low setting. I love this one by Hamilton Beach. It has the locking clips to clamp the lid down in case you need to transport. I've had it for a little over a year now and it still works great. Good crock pot for under $50.

Toss all the ingredients in the crock pot.
Looking good already...

Turn your crock pot on the low setting and head off to bed.
About 2 am the smells of cinnamon and apple start wafting upstairs. mmmm....

In the morning you'll wake up to this
Big pot of warm, cinnamon-y oat meal. I ended up using a honey crisp apple this time because the granny smith pictured was a little too bruised. I only use 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar, we don't like it too sweet, but you can add more if you want. You can even change it up, add some raisins, pecans, walnuts, dried apricots, etc. Apple cinnamon is our favorite.

This was my tiny portion before I had to take the boys to school. Derek eats close to half the pot before he heads off to work.

Stay warm out there!

Sopapillia Cheesecake, oh YUM!

2009-10-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Sopapillia Cheesecake a couple weeks back at the teacher appreciation luncheon at my son's school. We do them every other month for the teachers. A bunch of PTA volunteers all pitch in and make lunch for the teachers and staff. We love our teachers and take great pride in spoiling them.
So at the last luncheon my friend Stefanie made this Spoapillia Cheesecake. It was gone in less than 10 minutes. So good. So yummy. Sinful. Rich & Creamy. I BEGGED her for the recipe and she was happy to pass it along.
I've had the ingredients in my fridge ever since then & never had the time to make it. Not that it takes a lot of time to make (it really doesn't). I've just been so engulfed in everything else going on around here. But tonight turned out to be the night. The night that I would make a pan of Sopapillia Cheesecake & have to seriously restrain myself from eating half the pan.

Today. Sigh.... Today has been a day. Well I've had quite a few "Days" the past few weeks. First it was getting through Cole's homecoming for football.
(Me & my Bear Isn't he cute with his garter? GO REGULATORS!)
2 days before homecoming my friend and I made I think 28 mums & garters in 1 afternoon. My finger tips had second degree burns the hot glue gun. And that day I worked the concession stand (and helped decorate the field for homecoming) from 7 am till about 4pm taking 1 hour break to watch the Bear play. I had been up since 5am that day. Yeah, mom was tired.
Lots of things are colliding this week, PTA functions, Alec's orthodontic appointments, & the usual suspects of course.
Derek had a particularly rough day at work as well. We deserved this tonight. Put the kids to bed and we had a piece while we watched "Family Guy". (Days like this require carb-loading and belly laughs)

The ingredients:

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
2 packages Cream Cheese 8oz Pkg.
1-½ cup Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 stick Salted Butter
1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Spread 1 can of crescent rolls into a 9×13 pan. Mix together cream cheese, vanilla extract and 1 cup sugar. Spread over the rolls you pressed into the pan. Cover with the other can of rolls. Melt butter and in rest of sugar and the teaspoon of cinnamon. Pour butter/sugar mixture over the top and bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.
Oh yum. This was my piece. (I'm a corner girl) It was so good. Now to see how long it lasts in the house before getting eaten.

Restruant Review: Schobel's, New Braunfels Texas

2009-10-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

It is a rare occasion that my husband and I get to dine out alone, without the kids. While they are in school it's even rarer that our schedules jive. Today the planets aligned and we got to go out to lunch today. (yay!) After the weeks I have had lately I was excited to get to have a nice quiet lunch with the man that I love.
So we decided to go to Schobel's here in New Braunfels which opened a couple weeks ago. First I kicked myself because I forgot to grab my camera before I walked out the door. I guess I was too excited about the prospect of an un-interrupted hot meal.

We were greeted by the hostess when we walked in. She was wearing jeans and a dingy white t-shirt. I forgot what it said on it. Wasn't Shobel's, or anything to do with the restaurant, or restaurants in general for that matter. eh. not impressive. The restaurant itself was very nice. it was decorated very nicely. Homey, feeling. Neutral colors, exposed beams etc. Since it was a beautiful cool day today we opted to sit out on the deck overlooking the river. Lovely.

Our waitress arrived a few minutes later to take our drink orders. We opted to do their lunch buffet which our waitress told us included salad, various veggie selections, soups, and the main entree selections were king ranch chicken and some beef thing (looked like mystery meat to me).
and fried chicken strips.

My kids happen to LOVE going to buffets so we have eaten at our fair share. Here is the thing about buffets, you have to keep the food filled. You gotta have some one there, all the time, wiping up spills, re-filling food, assisting people etc.
That said. We arrived at the restaurant at 11:50, 10 minutes before the lunch rush. and a lot of the food was very low or empty, including lettuce, and the king ranch chicken. I got salad, it was ok, the greens had clearly sat there for a while so they were kinda wilted and bruised. What I enjoyed: the smashed red potatoes. skin still on, they were fluffy and yummy. The King Ranch Chicken I am sure was good, however all I was able to get was queso and tortilla, maybe 1 or 2 bites of chicken. fried okra had clearly been sitting for a while and was hard as a rock.

Dessert was a close second to the smashed potatoes (only because I am not super big on sweets). They had a selection of cakes, pies etc. Derek got chocolate cake and I got buttermilk pie. The chocolate cake was VERY rich. The frosting was good but the cake was VERY dry. I am not a cake or sweet person but every so often I LOVE a piece of soft moist chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and a big glass of milk. Their cake really disappointed me. One bite was it for me. The buttermilk pie was actually quite tasty. Not too sweet. very yummy.

Our waitress was very attentive. She kept Derek's glass filled with tea. However she looked like she just rolled out of bed, put on her boyfriend's t-shirt and came to work.

All in all, I was not impressed. I didn't feel it was worth the $27 we spent. I've had better food for cheaper elsewhere. I think whoever owns Schobel's needs to get a uniform for their employees, or at the very least a dress code. That really bugged me. I have worked in many different restaurants for the better part of my life and EVERY restaurant I have worked at had some sort of uniform or dress code.
Schobel's is a nice looking restaurant. The menu prices reflect that it is a nicer restaurant (above I'd say Applebee's & Chili's type restaurants) But the staff did not look nearly as professional as those from Chili's or Applebee's (& I used to work at an Applebee's)

I don't think we will be going back any time soon.

Favorite Website

2009-10-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to take 20 minute break this afternoon in between PTA duties and getting ready for cubscouts to blog. It's been a long time since I posted last. So much has happened since.
I celebrated a birthday on September 18th. Had a lovely dinner out with my family at Johnny Carino's here in town. Sadly the service was HORRIBLE but I loved my wedge salad. It's my favorite. bacon, candied pecans, tomatoes, apple and gorgonzola cheese crumbles. mmm...
My hubby did surprise me with an armful of roses. He is so sweet. And for my birthday he gave me permission to order my camera!! (YAY!)

I've had it for almost 2 weeks now and sadly really haven't had time to play with it. I took one picture with it and that was about it. Life has just kept me busy lately. I will have the opportunity to use it this weekend since my Cole Bear has his homecoming game for football. :D

So another favorite website of mine, Craft Gawker. I love it for inspiration & for shopping!
It's getting close to the holidays and I like to start shopping now. Craft Gawker is a great place to start since alot of etsy sellers (another favorite website of mine) post on there.

on my Christmas wish list:
Amazing beautiful necklace
CUTE little elephant stamp
BEAUTIFUL bags by my friend Lynn (They are high quality and did I mention BEAUTIFUL?)

I've also had this thing lately for hair things. I recently got my hair cut and had the stylist REALLY thin it out. (otherwise it's so thick and takes FOREVER to dry) so I can wear cute little hair things in it now.
I found this store on Craft Gawker, Petal Mix. Her Japanese style barrettes are BEAUTIFUL! I really want some!

So that has to be it for today, I gotta go finish getting ready for cubscouts tonight. We are working on their Readyman badge (first aid, cpr etc.)
FUN for me!!

My kid's favorite...

2009-09-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

My kids don't watch tv, pretty much at all during the week when school is in session. My husband and I are strict on that. They can watch tv on the weekends only if they are caught up on school work. With our ADD child, it just makes managing it easier.
When they get to watch tv on the weekend they don't watch cartoons. They tend to gravitate more towards the military channel, the discovery channels and the travel channel. Their absolute FAVORITE show, Man V Food. They love to watch Bourdain, and Zimmern's shows but Adam Richman is their favorite.
Yesterday the Bear had a football game in Hutto, which is north east of Austin. It was a LOVELY rainy day (yes, the little kids STILL play if it is raining, and it was POURING). We decided to treat the kids on the way to breakfast, somewhere they have been asking about ever since they saw the MVF Austin episode. Round Rock Donuts for the Big Texas donut.

It's HUGE. (as you can see)
They were so excited. Seriously giddy as we waited in line. The line which snaked 3 times inside the store then went out the door and almost around the building. They also have a drive thru which on this day, the cars were lined up out the parking lot and down the street and almost around the corner.

Round Rock Donuts has Krispy Kreme beat 100 ways from Sunday. It was amazing, light, airy and just plain yummy. The Big Texas Donut is the equivalent of about a dozen regular donuts. Costs only $5.50 and comes in regular glazed and chocolate glazed (which is what we got)

The two of them ate the whole thing pretty much all by themselves. Derek and I broke off a couple small pieces, but they just about inhaled it.
I HIGHLY suggest that if you are ever in the Austin area go get you a donut from Round Rock Donuts! You don't have to get the Big Texas Donut, but it is kinda fun.

The boys have decided that they want to visit as many of the restaurants featured on MVF as we can. So this marks #2 for us since a visit to the Salt Lick in Driftwood TX is a regular trip for us.
So look out soon for more posts from Alec & the Bear in their food adventures.

Round Rock Donuts
106 Liberty
Round Rock, Texas
www. RoundRockDonuts.com

The Salt Lick
18300 FM 1826
Driftwood, Texas
www.saltlickbbq.com

Another Favorite

2009-08-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

Boy this first week of school is kicking my butt. School, PTA, Football practice and getting ready for Cub Scouts has got me a little frazzled.
I have time for a quicker post today. Another favorite website

Food Gawker is a website that I visit at least 2 times a day. I love it for inspiration, ideas, or to just waste time.
It's similar to Tastespotting. Which itself is nice. While I can appreciate good photography, I really don't need professional pictures ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I just want a decent picture and a good recipe. (the recipe part being more important to me) It does seem like you need to be a professional photographer with a fancy studio to get your stuff submitted on there. ( I had tried a few times back before my good camera broke and was rejected for reasons I am still scratching my head over)
Anyway, foodgawker seems to update more often and there are TONS of great recipes and pictures on there.

My favorite today:
It's a video from Foodtease about Hatch chilies
http://foodtease.com/2009/08/hatch-chile-feast/
It's hatch season here in Texas. They are all over the grocery stores. At the Central Market in San Antonio they have HUGE drums of them roasting outside. As you walk to the entrance the smell is amazing!

Well, I am off again to get the Bear ready for football practice. No rest in this house. Have a wonderful afternoon!

Braised Short Ribs Part 2

2009-08-16T14:58:00.001-07:00

So Monday, early afternoon I begin the second half of this recipe. (which btw, came from last year's Food & Wine best new chef's edition.)
The first step is to pull it out of the fridge, remove the ribs and strain the liquid.

I toss these veggies, into the compost pile they go. I place the ribs into an enameled cast iron pot. If you are lucky to have some Le Cruset then yay for you. I have the ghetto Rachel Ray version. :) Then I prep my next batch of ingredients...
Chicken stock (I get this brand by the case at Costco. It's actually pretty good as far as boxed Chicken stock goes) a few more carrots and some onion. These onions are fresh from our garden. They are on the small side (we had to pick them early, it's along story) so I used 4 of them. If you had regular sized onions 1 would do just fine.
Peel the carrots and cut them into chunks
You want to keep the carrots somewhat big because they will braise along with the beef and if they are too small they will get mushy quick. Nothing worse than mushy carrots.

Toss the carrots and onions on top of the beef in your pot

Like my ghetto Le Cruset? LOL I shouldn't joke. My kids got it for me for mother's day.
Then combine the wine liquid you strained from the veggies with the chicken stock (entire box) and pour over the beef and veggies. Cover and place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 2 hours. then remove the lid and let it cook un-covered for another 45 minutes. Mmmmm. The house smells WONDERFUL

Remove the pot from the oven, pull out the ribs and place them on a baking sheet, pull the bones apart, and pull the meat apart with your hands. (let it cook a bit before you do this). And this is where the the type of short ribs come in. These ribs I got are what you find most often in the stores. The origional recipe called for "Flanken Style" short ribs, which have a fair amount of fat on them (you want that) but lots of meat. These ones I got had more fat than meat on them so there wasn't a whole lot of meat to work with. Spread the meat out in the baking sheet and toss the carrots on them. Strain the onions from the liquid and put the remaining liquid into a fat seperator. Just to seperate the fat from the good stuff. Pour a little liquid over the meat and carrots.

Place this under the broiler in your oven for a few minutes. The meat and carrot will sizzle and get nice little brown bits. YUM. When I have made this in the past I serve it over buttered egg noodles. Tonight the husband and kids want rice so I oblige.

The beef is tender, flavorful, just plain yummy. And while the beef is the star here, I LOVE the carrots. You really can't beat veggies braised in wine with beef. This is one of Alec's favorite meals. He scarfs the beef down and asks for more.

Braised Short Ribs Part 1

2009-08-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

I will warn you, this one is what I consider to be a "cold weather" recipe. It is one of my favorite comfort foods, and a cheap one to make at that. I just had a craving yesterday (despite the 102 degree weather outside) while shopping at my local meat market. Short ribs were on sale so I grabbed some.

This is a 2 part recipe, it takes 2 days to make it, but it is oh so worth it. The recipe I came across in a food magazine last year. I get so many, I can't remember if it was Food & Wine, Savuer, etc. It was from Tom Colicchio who I love to watch on Top Chef. I did make a few changes to the origional recipe (I'm just not a fan of celery) here is my take on it.

Part 1:

ingredients:
6 flanken style short ribs with bones (my butcher didn't have the flanken style so I am using the regular ones that are seen the most in meat cases)
1 large onion chopped
2 carrots sliced (I threw another in there cuz the one was kinda skinny)
3 garlic cloves peeled and thickly sliced (or just give them a good bash with your knife)
1 750 ml. bottle dry red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon
4 sprigs fresh thyme
small amount of veggie oil

Method:
Season ribs with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add a little oil to the pan. Sear the ribs on all sides.
So yummy. As they are seared place them in a shallow baking dish. Don't crowd the pan, just take your time and do just a few at a time. While those are working take care of your veggies.
When your ribs are all done toss your veggies in the pan and saute till they are just tender. Don't forget to toss in your thyme sprigs.
This....
smells wonderful.

Then add your wine. This weekend I am using:
It's pretty tasty. I took a little sip while I was cooking.
It was on sale this week at my local grocery store, $6 a bottle. Now the last couple times I have made this I have used the Fish Eye Cab. and it was really good too.

The whole bottle to the pan, and bring it to a boil.

Now this REALLY smells good. I let it boil for a few minutes & the veggies start to turn purple from the wine.
I forgot to mention too that the thyme came from my cute little herb garden out in the back yard. The heat has really taken it's toll on the oregano, basil and tarragon, but the thyme and rosemary is doing ok. ( I am so ready for some cold weather!)
Ribs in the pan...

Add the veggie and wine mixture to the ribs. Allow it to cool completely then cover and place in the fridge over night. You can also keep this in the fridge for up to 2 days before going to the next step.

I have prepped this today (Saturday) for Monday night's dinner so check back to see Part 2!

Links I love

2009-08-01T08:12:00.001-07:00

So, I am taking a while to upload pictures from my camera. It seems every time I want to sit down and blog, upload pictures, check my facebook etc., my hubby wants to play his flight simulator game on my laptop. So on our very old, very slow desktop computer I can't do much. So I decided that during those times I will post a link to another site that I like.

First site:
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
It's funny & cringe inducing at the same time.

This one I think is my favorite
memories of childhood Easter baskets, gone horribly wrong...
Yup. it's a deep fried Cadbury egg.
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/post/95460484/deep-fried-cadbury-creme-egg-submitted-by-kerryn

Enjoy on this fine Saturday afternoon wherever you are.

I still wonder, "What was FOX thinking?"

2009-07-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

I spent this afternoon watching re-runs of one of my all time favorite shows. (while packing for my trip this weekend)
If you never saw an episode of "Kitchen Confidential"
I suggest you go to Hulu and check it out.
The show is based on Anthony Bourdain's book of the same title. Bradley Cooper plays the Tony Bourdain character. It was a fantastic, funny & smart show. Why Fox chose to cancel it after only 4 episodes is beyond me.

Forget George Clooney, Brad Pitt. Bradley Cooper in chef's whites, seriously, this is my fantasy.

Ok, hands down, the best episode, #6 The Rabbit Test. So many quotables from that episode!
Go watch the episodes on Hulu then write in to the executives at Fox & tell them what idiots they were for canceling this great show!!
Now, "Where is my rabbit stabbing knife?!?!"

This weekend I am headed to Austin with some of my friends for a PTA convention. Sounds safe I know. But when you get a bunch of stay at home moms out of the house for a couple of nights without their kids, all hell breaks loose. Well, with our PTA anyway. I am just looking forward to having some fun with my friends, good food and very important, good drinks.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Field trip & a craving satisfied

2009-07-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

I have been craving mochi for a while now. When we were in Maui for vacation I actually got to temporarily satisfy my craving, a local store was selling local handmade red bean mochi, and it was oh so good. Even the kids enjoyed it, which suprised my hubby. They have only had the ice cream mochi, which, back in California was easily found.
We used to get it at Trader Joe's all the time. (I REALLY miss Trader Joe's. I wish we had them in Texas) Here in Texas the only place we have been able to find them is Central Market.

Central Market, it's about a 30 minute drive and that is probably a good thing. If it was our regular grocery store we'd be bankrupt. So it is a once in a while treat for us. Every time we go we can't seem to get out of the store spending less than $50 and we really don't seem to get anything. The produce is amazing. They have just about everything you could want, with the exception of fresh curry leaves. (I use them when I make Upma and curry) Sunday when we went they were sampling out Golden Pineapple, fresh made guacamole, rainier cherries, navel oranges. watermelon & cantalope.
The meat and seafood department is great too. But my favorite area of the store is the cheese section. An entire section devoted to just cheese, & seperated by country/region.

It's all beautiful. Just about any cheese you can think of, they have. My oldest has become quite the cheesemonger. He likes this section too.

The wine section is also great

This is only a small part of it.

They also do SAMPLES!!!My family also loves the fresh made tortillas.

There is always a cute little old lady there making them.
They come in different flavors. The family loves the plain and the butter ones. They never last the car ride home.

Amazing bread

Doesn't it look yummy?
And of course you need butter. this is only a small part of the butter section. By this time I think the employees were catching on to me taking pictures and a lady kept following us around.

last but not least, the boys absolute FAVORITE part of the store, the gummy candies

Gummy just about EVERYTHING you can imagine. We always have to make a trip here before we leave.
So we got home and Derek and I indulged in the mochi after the kids went to bed.
yummy.

Dill Pickles

2009-07-06T10:45:00.001-07:00

I was finally able to find fresh dill. Had to drive almost 20 miles but I found some!! So now, time for some dill pickles!

First is the cucumber prep. A recipe I found online said to soak the pickles (I did slices) in ice water for at least 2 hours. This is supposed to help them stay crunchy.
Next was the garlic. Peeled and cut in half. I did about 1 clove per jar, but the cloves I had were big. If you have smaller cloves you may want to add more.

Next is the dill, freshly washed and I just trimmed the tough ends. Each jar got a clove (or 2) of garlic and a few sprigs of the fresh dill.

Packed the cucumber slices in each jar and over it poured the hot vinegar mixture which was 1/3 cup pickling salt dissolved in about 5 cups of water and 2 cups plain white vinegar. Brought to a boil then ladled in the jars, just like the last pickle recipe, leaving a 1/2" headspace.

These do have to "marinate" for longer than the sweet & spicy ones, about 2 months. They do look really good! I can't wait to try them!

This week I am "jamming" (ok that was lame) making strawberry jam & spiced peach jam. I started my strawberry jam this morning but I didn't realize that I am out of sugar (and fresh lemons!) so I had to put it on hold until I go to the grocery store this afternoon.

Guess I could do some scrapbooking stuff since it seems like I haven't in a while...

Dill has been found!!!

2009-07-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

took a little drive, but I have found it!
Dill pickles comming soon!!

Where has all the dill gone?

2009-07-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Apparently there is a shortage of fresh dill in South Central Texas.
Grr..
It was one of the few herbs that I did not plant this year and I am really regretting it now. Derek and I have been plucking more cucumbers off the vines this year and I have another bucket that needs to be pickled. I already did Sweet & Spicy Pickles. It was my plan to do dill pickles this week. I personally LOVE dill pickles. My local meat market makes some pretty darn good ones. I do wish they were a little crunchier but they are pretty close to awesome. Derek took me out last night to get more jars and a few more supplies. We went to HEB, Walmart & I called Albertsons (the 3 grocery stores in our town) and no one had ANY dill!!

What is going on here?!?! I can't make dill pickles without dill!

On a happy note we got our first ear of corn from the garden a couple days ago.
It was one of the Sugar Pearls. So good, sweet and crunchy. We cut the kernels off the cob and ate them raw. I made a little salad:

Lettuce, corn and the little yellow tear drop tomatoes picked fresh from the garden. dressed with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and a very little bit of white wine vinegar. This is the best part of gardening!

PICKLES!!

2009-06-29T18:19:00.001-07:00

Homemade from the garden!

Last week I spent the afternoon making some homemade sweet and spicy pickles with the cucumbers that Derek and I picked from the garden.

The recipe is from Emeril Lagassi. I of course made a few little changes. But here ya go...

3 lbs. pickling cucumbers, sliced 1/4" thick
2 cups sliced white onions (was about 2 med. sized onions)
1/2 cup pickling salt
water
3 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. turmeric
approx. 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon dried chili flake
Pickle Crisp (was listed as optional in the original recipe but I used it)

Tools Needed:

Canning jars & lids
Canning pot (You can find them usually for around $20) or a large pot with a steamer insert
Jar lifter (trust me on this one! You don't want to mess around with FULLY boiling water)
Colander
Ladle (for spooning hot liquid into the jars)
Funnel - I guess this could be an optional tool if you think you can be really neat with a ladle.
Clean kitchen towels (these are always a must for me)

Optional:

Mandolin - Knife works fine too. this just gives you perfectly even cuts, and is pretty quick. even for me and I am pretty fast with a knife.
Head space tool - you can find this in the canning section of your local kitchen wares store. It is good for measuring head space since different foods require different amounts of space in the jars for expansion etc. The other side you can also use to release any air bubbles that may get trapped.
Magnetic jar lifter - I used one just cuz it came with my jar lifter. This is basically a stick with a magnet on the end. Handy for lifting sterilized lids and rings out of hot water. It helps to keep things clean, but when I am canning I wear gloves anyway. (just to be on the safe side)

Directions:

First completely dissolve salt in water, add cucumber and onion slices. Add water till just covers veggies. Cover and let this sit on the counter for about 2 hours. After wards drain in a colander and rinse with cool water.

In a sauce pan combine the vinegars, sugar, mustard seeds, turmeric, garlic, and chili flake. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer till ready. Just an fyi here. Don't put your face over the pot while it is boiling to smell the yummy-ness of the combination of flavors here. Your eyes will water, your nose will burn, and you will cough. Moving on...

Place freshly washed jars in a large pot of boiling water. Place lids & rings in a separate pot of boiling water. Carefully remove jars, fill with cucumber and onion mixture, then using a funnel, fill with hot vinegar liquid leaving a 1/4" head space. If desired sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of Pickle Crisp in each jar. Using a clean/damp paper towel wipe the rim to remove any spilled liquid. Place lid on and screw the ring until just barely tight. Repeat with remaining jars. Place jars in a hot water canner (or I just used my big pasta pot with a steamer on the bottom). Make sure the jars are completely covered. Bring to a full rolling boil, cover and let process for 15 minutes. Remove jars with a jar lifter and place them on a clean kitchen towel on the counter. Some where out of the way where the kids won't be touching them, and they won't get knocked over. Don't touch the jars for at least 4 hours. When they have cooled completely, press down on the lids. If they pop back at you they did not seal completely. At this point you can either A.) Re-process them as stated above, or B.) put them in your fridge and consume within the next week or so. If your lids do not pop back at you CONGRATS! You have successfully canned your pickles! Tighten the rings all the way and place in your pantry to "marinate" for at least 2 weeks. Then crack those babies open and enjoy!!

The "Farm to Table" rage

2009-06-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

Strikes me as funny when I hear terms like that.
It always seems to remind me that my great grandmother was WAAAY ahead of the times. She was buying organic before there was even a word for it. She grew her own foods, knowing that what she was able to grow was 100 times better than anything you could buy in the store. She & my great-grandfather always had chickens and those eggs were better than any you could buy in the store. According to today's terminology, organic, free range chickens. Papa would let them out of the coop in the afternoon to roam their property, happly clucking around the grass finding bugs. As dusk would approch they all would make their way back to the coop, the mother hens calling their babies to follow them. After they had gotten comfy in their coop he would close the gate & leave them till the next morning.
And Grandmommie grew just about everything. Corn, peas, concord grapes (that she would make her own grape juice out of. Delicious & WAAAY better than Welch's), Onions, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples, plums, figs, walnuts, rubarb and jalapeno peppers which she was known for. She would pickle them with carrots and onions, can them up and give them out to family.
So this summer Derek and I have started our garden. This season has been trial and error. As we are starting to get into a schedule of planting. We have been "harvesting" lately which is exciting. We are growing:

Green Leaf Lettuce

Cute little watermelons. They only get about as big as a cantalope. (The kids can't wait for these)

Cucumbers

Yellow Tear drop tomatoes

And corn. Beautiful corn. 3 varities of sweet. Derek and I can't wait for these.

Rocky likes to play in the corn. "Rocky of the Corn" we call him now. :)

So far we have been able to harvest:

The cucumbers you can dang near watch them grow. Those I picked last week I pickled (look for a recipe soon!) and I have 3 more HUGE ones sitting on my counter right now waiting to be pickled too. The yellow tomatoes are the first we picked last week. I have another bowl, over-flowing with them just from the last few days. I just grab a handful of them as a snack. So yummy.

And as my great-grandma did, we are growing our veggies and fruits pesticide free.

So I'll get my pictures and recipe together for the Sweet & Spicy pickles I made last week and post that as well.

Have a great week & Happy Gardening!

Cake Pops! Well, not so much....

2009-05-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

First off, I am not a baker. I have probably said this before, but I do not do pastry. I pretty much suck at baking. I've got 1 chocolate chip cookie recipe that I rock, but that is about it.

So what was I thinking when I thought, HEY KIDS! Lets make some Cake pops!
I know what I was thinking. I have been reading Bakerella's blog ( http://bakerella.blogspot.com/) and ooh-ing and aww-ing over her fantastic-ness when it comes to the pastry arts.

Cake pops! how hard can they be? Yeah, not so easy.

Well we tried.

While the kids were home on Spring Break #2 AKA. Swine Flu Vacation I decided this would be fun for them to try. We went to the store and they picked out a box of cake mix & canister of frosting.
I am pretty sure we went wrong with the choice of cake mix. The kids picked Pillsbury "Funfetti" mix, which already has sprinkles in the mix. But the package said "Pudding in the mix for extra moist cake!" which I think was the problem since we couldn't get our balls to stay together.

We used the white chocolate melts (so we could dye it other colors if we wanted) and the kids used left over sprinkles we had from Christmas cookies. They definatly did not look as pretty as Bakerella's. But the kids loved them. I mean, what's not to love? Cake? Frosting? Chocolate? Sprinkles?

I don't know if we will be making cake pops again any time soon.

I have NEVER been so upset with a pig before...

2009-04-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the swine flu outbreak the schools in our area have been closed for 2 weeks. Thankfully our little family is not fighting the flu so now I have to come up with activities for the kids to do at home for the next couple weeks.

This morning I am taking a few minutes to formulate a game plan and enjoy a cup of coffee

I love my Newman's own coffee. I am totally NOT a coffee person, but I do love this brand. It's tasty & the caffeine doesn't hurt either.

So I have some ideas for the kids. We do have school work to do, and since it is raining today they really can't play outside. So inside activities it is.

Stay tuned to see if I go insane!

Quite possibly the BEST wedding I have ever attended

2009-03-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

My own included!

Back in August/September of last year our little Texas family traveled up north to Minnesota, Waterville to be exact, to watch my husband's cousin get married.

The back story, my father in law is origionally from Minnesota, his older sister still lives there. She and her husband, and their son (grown with kids of his own) have a farm where they grown corn and they also operate a grainery.

The farm is awsome, corn fields as far as the eye can see.

My sous chef posing among the corn. The stalks are easily twice as tall as he. The kids loved it. They had never been on a farm like that before. We are more used to ranches in our neck of the woods.

He walked with my mother in law and picked some of these beauties:

Super sweet, juicy raspberries. Apparently planted 20 some odd years ago by my husband's grandma.

The kids ate handfuls of them as we explored the farm.

But, back to the wedding, which was beautiful. But the reception the next day was held at the farm, and this is what we feasted on:

2 whole locally raised, freshly killed, roast Pigs.
And these are the guys that raised dear little Porky & Petunia, ;) butchered them and cooked them for everyone.

And the money shot:

Juicy yummy porky-ness. crispy caramelized skin. Oh heaven! I am still dreaming about that dinner!

Then there were the usual bbq fixin's, beans, potato salad, veggies, etc. But the pork was the main attraction. Well, a close second to the bride and groom.

Another long stint between posts

2009-02-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Lucky me, my digital camera died completely, and beyond repair the day after christmas. (and yes, my dearest really did try to repair it, took it completely apart) It was a kodak, and after calling the 800 number They offered me a 10% discount on a new digital camera from their online store. yeah, I don't think so. 10% off is not a deal to me. I am shopping around for a new digital camera, my dream camera, a Nikon D-60 is currently out of our price range. I have been considering a less expensive Nikon coolpix until I can gather the funds for my ideal one.

So no pictures for a while. :(

I have been cooking like crazy, have lots of recipes to post, but I just hate recipes that have no pictures. I like to know what my dish should look like!

So, on to other subjects...

my newest cookbook:

Yeah it's good. I love watching him on Top Chef. I had tried his recipe for braised beef short ribs that was published in Food & Wine or was it Gourmet? or Saveur? I can't remember) a while ago & my entire family went BONKERS over it. I know he is the king of meat, and man those short ribs were tasty. Love my new cook book.

late night snack:

(took this one a long time ago)

(all from Central Market in San Antonio)

loaf of country french bread (freshly baked)

YUMMY mimollete cheese

candied spiced pecans (yeah, pecans are a big deal around here)

I am going to figure out this picture thing so I can get my stuff posted. It's driving me CRAZY!!

Comfort food: Chili

2008-12-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, it has taken me a LOOONG time to find an honest to goodness chili recipe. For so many years my chili recipe was one handed down from my step-mom, which came from her mom. It wasn't bad by any means. It was a recipe that perfectly fit my step-mom. An "open and dump" recipe. (open the cans and dump them in the pot) The only actual cooking consisted of browning the ground beef. It did contain beans, and it wasn't till we moved to Texas that I learned, REAL chili doesn't have beans.

So the recipe came from Alton Brown with a few minor tweaks. I use my pressure cooker and the meat is fall apart tender.

So first, get your mise together.
3 lbs. stew meat. (I get mine from our local butcher shop.)
Kosher salt/black pepper
Veggie oil
2 12oz bottles of beer
1 16oz (approx) container of chunky salsa
2-3 chipotle peppers chopped up with a tablespoon of the adobo sauce reserved
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
handfull (more or less) corn tortilla chips

First, season the meat lightly with salt and pepper. The meat I usually get from the butcher shop is in rather large pieces so I will usually cut them in half. (more bite size)

Add a little oil to the pressure cooker and heat it up over medium/high heat & brown the meat in batches because THIS Is what you want. Little brown bits of meaty goodness. :) We are going to liberate those little brown bits of meaty goodness from the bottom of the pressure cooker with the good stuff.

Keeping it local with some good Shiner beer from Shiner Texas. This is the Heffenweizen, but the good old origional Shiner Bock works good too. This one just has a nice malt-y flavor. So you are gonna dump in 1 entire bottle and half of the other one. You will need to drink the rest of the bottle you know. It would be sacreligious to let it go to waste....It'll foam up, don't worry. Just get out your wooden spoon and start scraping the pan as it bubbles away. After the bubbling subsides add to the pot your meat, jar of salsa, peppers, adobo, chili, cumin & tomato paste. mix it all up together then take a handful of your tortilla chips and crush them as you add them to the pan. This is what it looks like:

Before your lid goes on. Which brings me to the hardware, ie: your pressure cooker. Make sure you read the instructions before you attempt to use it. Please don't re-paint your kitchen with chili.

Ok, so lid goes on (as per instructions) and you want to raise the heat till the the valve is all the way up (as mine does) or whatever yours does. Then lower the heat just so it maintains the same level, whistle, whatever yours does. Mine looks like this: So it will cook underpressure for about 20 minutes. After which, as per your cooker's instructions release the pressure. (i just push down on the little black button on mine and all the steam escapes. When your pot is de-pressureized you are left with this:
mmmmm..... Chunky, spicy, meaty. yum.

You can adjust the heat level by cutting back on the chipotle peppers. I like spicy chili, my dear husband, the gringo, likes milder chili. So I make it mild for him, them add more pepers for myself later.

Serve alone in a bowl. my family likes cornbread with it. We also do the old Frito Pie with it. This chili will taste better the next day. So make lots and enjoy the left overs. Chili Dogs, Chili burgers, Tamales with Chili.....

Comfort foods...

2008-11-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well, here in central Texas it is starting to cool down. The crisp-ness is comming back in the air. The leaves and grass are starting to turn brown and crunchy. Whenever it gets cold and windy I want homey food. I tend to do lots of roasts, stews, soups and such.

I have been working recently on some comfort foods. Week before last (when we got the first cold front of the season) I did chili & cornbread. (look for the recipe to be posted soon)

My first comfort food, some may not really consider it a comfort food. Just 1 ingredient. But to me it is a dish, or a snack that really makes me feel safe, and reminds me of home. Well my grandma's home.

My grandma was born and raised in Mayaguez Puerto Rico. Growing up I spent alot of time at her house. My parents divorced when I was pretty young, so my mom, a newly single mom, working full time and going to school full time, left me to stay with my grandma after school was over, till she came to pick me up.

My grandma, was an amazing cook. Beans & rice, Coconut rice pudding, and this my favorite, fried plantains (or Tostones). Tho we never really served them with anything. They were an after school snack, or a side dish with dinner.

I was having a craving last night so I grabbed a green plantain and got busy.

Just the smell of the plantain frying in the hot oil took me right back to her kitchen. The cold tile counter, the heavy cast iron skillet.

There really isn't a "recipe" per-say. All she did was take some veggie oil in a pan and heated it up. Sliced the plantain into a little thicker slices, peeled the slices. Then she got out an old heavy drinking glass and smashed the plantain with the bottom of the glass. sometimes she would take a piece of peeled garlic, smash it with the glass first, then smash the plantain slice. They would then get fried in the hot oil till browned. Out from the oil they came to drain on paper towel. A quick sprinkle of salt and that is it.

So good and so yummy.

Halloween Weekend...

2008-11-02T07:13:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted.
Gosh, I tend to do these "It's been a long time..." post alot don't I? LOL
I just get busy with the 100 million things to do around here.

Halloween was un-eventful. Kids dressed up and went trick or treating. We didn't get pictures, just plain forgot. But really, as the kids get older, it's just not that big of a deal anymore.
Friday afternoon Derek got back from a week long hunting trip at the DR Horton Ranch. He had a great time and came back with a bunch of venison.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to the Kelly USA/Lackland AF Airfest 2008.
http://www.lackland.af.mil/airshow/index.asp
It was a GREAT time. We stayed all day. Walked through most of the displays. We ran into our neighbor who flys the C-5 Galaxy for the Airforce. He took me upstairs of the airplane to show me the cockpit, sleeping quarters etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-5_Galaxy
Derek and the boys had already seen it all, our neighbor had taken them last year on a tour of it and let them fly the simulator.
The highlight of the day was seeing the Blue Angels team perform. What a GREAT show! They did an awsome job. Amazing what those planes can do, and what those pilots can withstand.

As we drove through part of the base housing (we had to park kinda far and take a bus to get to the show) It struck me. All the houses we saw, not one Obama/Biden sign. Not one Obama sticker on a car. Lots of McCain/Palin ones. To me, that speaks volumes.

I saw this video on Fox news this morning, and my mom sent it to me yesterday.

Very powerful.

Here is one thing that bugs me about politics/hollywood.
Last election there were so many celebrities, Barbara Streisand being a big one, that said they would "leave the US" if Bush was re-elected. He was re-elected, so why are they all still here?
I read last weekend an interview with Tina Fey in which she implied that she would rather die than see McCain/Palin win. (It was I think last week's Parade Magazine that comes in the sunday paper. They did an article on SNL Politics) Seriously? Can I hold you to that?
It would just be nice if people stayed true to their word. Don't say it if you don't mean it.

A tribute...

2008-09-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

wow. Woke up this morning to hear that one of my very favorite actors, Paul Newman had passed away.
What a loss.
Brad Pitt, George Clooney never did it for me. It was always this man:

Favorite movie? a close second to Casablanca is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Cool Hand Luke, Presumed Innocent, Slapshot, Color of Money and of course Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (I once dated a guy almost OBSESSED with this movie). All GREAT movies!

Mr. Newman, you are missed. Your food stuff is amazing. Fig Newmans are my fav.
Your Italian dressing is always in my fridge and It gets used more than anything else in my fridge.

A great trip, & a sad ending...

2008-09-21T08:05:00.001-07:00

Well our trip to Minnesota was great! It was so nice to meet that part of the family. We got to see where my fil grew up, the house he lived in, the highschool he attended, where he had his first job, where he hung out. It was so fun.
The family has I don't know how many acres of corn, they grow for feed and/or biofuel. The boys had fun playing in the corn stalks.

Alec & Cole with their cousin HD, who is 17 years old and over 6 feet tall. He is a great kid. Helps his dad & grandpa work the farm. The wedding was beautiful, reception was the coolest I have ever been to. So much fun! Those pics should arrive shortly.

The sad ending...

We arrived home and had to take my cat Miles to the vet. He was having trouble breathing, and over the past couple weeks had lost alot of weight (despite me feeding him more high fat/calorie food rather than the regular seinor formula stuff). We ended up having to put him to sleep. The vet said it sounded like he had fluid in his lungs and around his heart. The treatment he would have had to undergo he probably wouldn't have made it through given his age. (He was over 14 years old) The vet thought it was best to let him go. He was having so much trouble breathing. I held him while the vet gave him the injection & he died in my arms. It was the hardest thing I have EVER had to do.
My boy in better days. He was a really good cat. I had got him when he was just a couple weeks old. He was the runt of his litter, the only boy of all girls. He went through 4 moves (one of then half way accross the country) 1 attack by a 100+ lb. dog (this was not Princess, it happened years ago when we lived in North CA) and had killed probably hundreds of mice, lizards, snakes etc. He was a great hunter. I miss him when I drink my morning coffee, he always hopped up on my lap. And listening him to him growl a little when he ate canned food.

He is missed!

You know what sucks?

2008-08-27T20:39:00.001-07:00

You have all kinds of pictures you want to take and your camera poops out on you. :(
I think it just needs a new battery.

Friday we leave for Minnesota, Derek's cousin's wedding. Hopefully we will get some time to check out the Mall of America. (I've heard it's pretty big :D )

Have a great weekend!

The Omnivore's 100

2008-08-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

How the Omnivore's 100 Works:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos Rancheros

4. Steak Tartare

5. Crocodile (does alligator count?)

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom Tomatoes (they taste best still warm from the garden)

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and Beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna Cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted Lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar (not together tho)

37. Clotted creme tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O JELLO SHOTS!!! oooh too many of these to count...

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain (a favorite childhood food memory)

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (a personal dream of mine tho)

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa (i've only had the plain old variety :( )

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

74 for me. Not bad. :) You will notice that I didn't cross anything out. My dad raised me to try everything once when it came to food. It is a habit that I have tried to keep up with my boys. (they do however have their father's stuborness and limited palate) I will admit that the whole insects will probably require a few shots and some egging on tho...
Oh, and all of the shellfish ones were before I found out I was allergic. Seriously, My dad gave me my first oyster when I was like 10 years old.
A few of those, aloo gobi & eggs benedict, are like my last meals. I'm on death row, what do I want to eat? ooh, spicy potatoes and cauliflower. total craving comming on now....

I'm back!!!

2008-08-01T16:41:00.001-07:00

What a crazy past couple months! I won't bore you with details, here is a brief synopsis:

new office/scrap room/sewing room finally done! (pictures will follow when I finish getting it organized!)

Our dog Princess is (fingers crossed!) heartworm free. She had her final treatment last month (and almost $700 ago!)

We are currently planning a garage sale so the house is getting purged of things we no longer use. (YAY!!!) & getting ready for back to school shopping.

The Piggy Tales Flap album was finally finished!!! If you'd like to see it fully finished you'll have to make a visit to Scrapbook Haus in New Braunfels (http://www.scrapbookhaus.net/) to see it on display there. :D

I've been VERY busy with lots of projects in the works. a few mini albums, a Piggy Tales slide album (class for this hopefully comming soon!) and just made a few of these:

They are Schule Tutes. Translated: School Tote. It's a tradition that started with my mother in law when she lived in Germany and has continued on with my husband and his brother and now with our boys. They are decorated paper cones that are given to kids on the first day of school. They are filled with little treats, pencils, candy small toys etc. to make the first day of school a little funner, calm those jitters. I have made them for Alec every year for his first days of school, Cole gets his very first one this year! If you'd like one for your kiddos, check out my etsy page. I am selling them on there. Or if you happen to be in the area, take my class at Scrapbook Haus! Sunday August 17th at 4:30. Cost is $10 and includes everything you need to make one (including a few goodies to put inside!). Just visit www.scrapbookhaus.net to call and sign up for it.

& Jodi, if you are reading this, yes, that one above is for Genna! After the class is done I will pop it in the mail to you along with one for Joe.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Changes to be had....

2008-07-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of changing some things here. Layouts, colors etc.

please pardon the dust....

I'll be back soon!

Question of the week....

2008-03-13T15:12:00.001-07:00

Are you an actual "housewife" if you hire others do your cooking/cleaning/raising of your children? Should you even be allowed to call your self a "Housewife"?
http://www.bravotv.com/Real_Housewives_NYC/season/1/index.php
This season really has me shaking my head in wonder.

The "remodeling" of the new office/guest room is NOT going as planned. I was doing drywall repair yesterday. FUN! & have to finish today after cubscouts tonight.
(me in my whiney voice) I CAN'T EVEN START PAINTING YET!!!

I know I promised pics in the last post (last month, lol) I haven't snapped them yet. BUT I have plans to go crop with my friends this weekend (fingers crossed) so when I get back there will be LOTS of pics. :D

back to the crazyness!

New Addition to our family

2008-02-16T19:09:00.001-08:00

As you can see, here is cowboy Cole with Princess. We adopted her this past Tuesday. She is a 6 year old Great Dane. She is a great dog! So mellow & gentle with the boys. They just adore her.

She was (we think) un-intentionally mis-treated. We took her to the vet friday and she is about 15 lbs. under weight. :( So we have been trying to pack the pounds on here. Luckily she landed in this house, where it is very easy to gain weight, thanks to my cooking. :) She has really been a great dog. And for me to say that she has to be. She needs some big time TLC. But she is getting lots of hugs and attention. We are glad we got her and we are totally sold on Great Danes.

I worked more on the piggy tales album. 3 hours and I got 1 page done. (It had 2 flaps to work around) So far it's looking cute. I ran out of adhesive so I had to stop. (DARN!)

Right now I am standing at the island in my kitchen (where I usually scrap) Drinking a Miller Chill with extra lime and a dash of salt. (YUM!) Listening to my ipod. currently playing is "Save a Horse, ride a Cowboy" by Big and Rich. Cole is yelling at me to stop dancing. LOL.

Am I the only adult that likes Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus? It all started with the song that she did with her dad. I LOVE her! to me she sounds like a young Stevie Nicks. (who is one of my fav's of all time!) Like when Stevie and Lindsey had Buckingham and Nicks. She is great. I am totally not ashamed to have some "Hannah Montana" on my ipod. I have told Alec that currently she is the only girl he is allowed to marry. He just makes a face and says that he "doesn't want to marry Hannah Montana". I suppose I should be happy he isn't into girls yet.

ah! my friend Kasey just texted me, brb...

ok, back. hee hee. I love texting on my blackberry. It is so much easier!

Well, my Chill is gone, ipod battery is almost dead (i am so bad at charging it!) and it's 9:30. I am gonna go throw a load of laundry in before I head to bed.

Have a great Saturday night! I'll post a pic of the page I completed today, tommrow.

Random Thursday

2008-02-14T08:09:00.001-08:00

this came in an email from my friend Jodi.

50 ODD Things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yup. on salad espically
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No. (technically don't you shoot heroin and smoke crack? I'm no drug expert but...)
3. Do you own a gun? My husband has a shot gun
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Nothing most of the time. Just a large Dr. Pepper, extra ice. Every once in a while I may get a cherry coke, or a cherry limeade.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on which dr. I am seeing.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? They are good. Not my favorite thing
7. Favorite Christmas movie? It changes. I just watched "Meet the Robinsons" with Cole & I love it! It totally makes me cry! espically at the end when Lewis gets a family. :D
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? small glass of oj followed by coffee
9. Can you do push ups? I haven't tried since probably highschool, and even then I don't think I could. I may be able to now, carrying around 2 big kids has given me some muscles.
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My engagement ring. cuz Derek picked it out all by himself.
12. Favorite hobby? cooking
14. Do you have A.D.D.? No, sometimes I think I have OCD tho. :D
15. What's one thing you hate about yourself? I'd like to have more free time. I'd like to excersize more.
16. Middle name? Lare
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment..... I gotta finish printing up stuff for tommrow, make a few phone calls and do some laundry.
18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Beef stock, ginger & cilantro (just grocery shopping)
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Aquafina, Dr. Pepper & Coffee
20. Current worry? Haha, am I getting sick? is Derek getting sick? Am I still gonna be able to go eat sushi with my friends saturday night?
21. Current hate right now? Unfolded laundry sitting on my bed.
22. Favorite place to be? Hanging out with the family.
23. How did you bring in the New Year? freezing my a** off watching the boys shoot fireworks off.
24. Where would you like to go? In the world? Greece, Italy, Germany, France & Japan.
25. Name three people who will complete this? Post me a comment if you do on your blog!!
26. Do you own slippers? Yup. wearing my ugly pink ones right now.
27. What shirt are you wearing? just a plain black t-shirt
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nope. too slippery & cold.
29. Can you whistle? Not very good.
30. Favorite color? I've been digging greens lately
31. Would you be a pirate? No way. I get seasick just looking at a boat.
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Not a shower singer. I barely have time to shampoo and shave before someone is banging on the door.
33. Favorite girl's name? Lexi (that was gonna be Cole's name if he was a girl)
34. Favorite boy's name? Alec & Cole (my boys of course)
35. What's in your pocket right now? nothing, pockets don't really go with this outfit. :D
36. Last thing that made you laugh? "Will & Grace" on tv last night.
37. Best bed sheets as a child? I remember some old holly hobby hand-me-downs I had when I was little. I mostly had plain colors, no super cool ones.
38. Worst injury you've ever had? breaking my wrist when I was 12
39. Do you love where you live? I love it. I will never leave Texas!
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 3
41. Who is your loudest friend? Ashli! LOL (just kidding if you are reading this!!)
42. How many dogs do you have? 1 and that was a recent development.
43. Does someone have a crush on you? not as far as I know...
45. What is your favorite book(s)? I have been reading cookbooks lately, I love Goviand Armstrong's. the pictures are beautiful.
46. What is your favorite candy? Sour skittles
47. Favorite Sports Team? Cowboys baby!! Love me some ROMO!!!
48. What song(s) do you want played at your funeral? "Sympathy for the Devil" LOL
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Aw man! Is it 6:00 already?!?!

The Piggy tales album

2008-02-12T09:26:00.001-08:00

I worked on it saturday night for almost 4 hours, got 2 pages done. most of that time was working around the flaps. I was thisclose to tearing my hair out. Well before going any further here are pics of the pages:

I had to sacrafice 1 flap to create my own template. This album is no walk in the park.

I told my friend that if there was ever an album to kill me, this one would be it. My friend Angela, who also has the album, contacted piggy tales about the template. They sent us new ones, plus some goodies which was great, but the templates still don't work. The actual albums are not the size they state. the template noware near fits the flaps. It is just taking alot of trimming. My exacto is getting alot of action. :)

After working on the album I started not feeling so good, Sunday by mid morning a migrane is starting. Sunday night/Monday morning full blown migrane with pukies and everything. Migranes suck. Today is the first day that I have been able to get out of bed without feeling sick to my stomach. (horray!) Now it's lunch time & I'm starving. (not eating for 2 days will do that to you) I am gonna go eat something and then work on the album some more. Have a great day!

Today I feel...

2008-02-07T16:10:00.001-08:00

It's been a long month (or 2)...

2008-02-05T08:09:00.001-08:00

Thank God the holidays are over! Christmas just about killed me. We finally got Alec's room done. Finished the painting before we left to visit family for Christmas. We put the furniture together when we got back. He loved it. His reaction really made it worth it for me. He still gives us hugs and says thank you for his new "grown up" room. Such a sweet boy.

The red and blue blanket totally doesn't go with his room, I know. In cleaning out his old room I found it up in his closet. It was a blanket that his great-great grandma made for him when he was born. He loves it so we put it on his bed.

I humbly as for prayers if you are so inclined. My very good friend Erika's little boy Jake has been in the hospital for the past few weeks. Very sick, with a bad case of strep, and RSV amoung other things. He was finally taken off the ventilator and they took the intibation tube out, now is the road to recovery which will be a hard one. Currently he is going through withdrawls from the morpheine he was on while intibated. So if you have a moment, please say a prayer for him.

On the crafting front.... I have a few projects in the works. I just finished a pretty big page kit swap. I have also been working on some cards and started an album using the new piggy tales flap album. (I got the slide one too)
you can see it here at http://www.piggytales.com/ . I have plans to work on it today. I'll post pics when I finish.

I am in the process now of getting Alec's old room transformed into the new guest room/office/craft room. This is what it looks like currently

Yup, the blue wall is going, as are the curtians (neon blue dragons and flames really aren't my thing. those are a LOONG story for another day). I have gotten all the stuff off the walls and patched the holes. I am still trying to decide on a paint color. The room gets so much light I could go with a darker color, but I am not sure that I want to do that. I go back and forth between colors. First it was warmer colors, golds and reds. Then to greens, right now I am thinking of brown walls and white trim. But that will probably change tommrow. I gotta primer first anyway so I have a little time to decide. But I need to get it done asap because I am sick of having the computer in the bedroom and all my stuff in boxes scattered around the house.
Well back to my paint chips.
Must choose paint color
Must choose paint color!

Christmas presents...

2007-12-19T06:28:00.001-08:00

The last of the boxes were mailed out this weekend. Love, Love LOVE having my own fed ex account. Just print my lables up at home and drop them off at my local fed ex store. No lines, no waiting.
YAY!

So, what are you giving this christmas? did you take the pledge too?

You can take it at http://www.etsy.com/ and get your own badge as well.

One thing we are giving this year is Gourmet Texas Pasta (http://www.gourmettexaspasta.com/) We met these great people a while back at Gruene Market days, here in Texas. http://gruenemarketdays.com/ which is a great place to find lots of handmade things.

My boys love the Spinach basil garlic. my current fav. is the Szechuan Orange spice. SO YUMMY!!

We are giving lots of people the crates, which are too cute. If you ever happen to be in Texas make it to one of their many events and give the pasta a try.

Good news is that we finished painting Alec's room last night, YIPPIE!!!

Bad news is that I went to the dr. yesterday and I have a sinus infection, ear infection & strep throat. Yesterday I finished painting with a 101 degree fever. I am crazy, I know. There is still so much to do before christmas. Some times I feel like it will never get done.

The house is finally decorated, We got our tree last weekend. (I'll post pics later). Last Saturday We took our cubscout den, along with some other kids from the pack to our local assisted living facility. The boys sang carols, and visited with the residents. Everyone had a great time. Cole espically, did not want to leave. Those people have had amazing lives, and fantastic stories. We go every year, the residents love seeing the boys dressed up in their uniforms. The men, espically get nostalgic. One man was telling my dh & I that he was at the first Jamboree sooooo many years ago. The ladies all talk about how they were the den mothers to their boys too.

Well, gotta get started putting bedroom furniture together.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

The holidays are upon us...

2007-12-12T14:36:00.001-08:00

Along with them the usual stress. This year I feel espically stressed. I have more to do than previous. I finished moving all my stuff out of the office, and so far the office has been primered. Still have to take down the light fixture, paint the ceiling, walls, trim and the closet. then of course assemble the bedroom furniture for not only Alec's room but Cole's as well. Also getting presents wrapped, some shipped. Finishe decorating the house for chirstmas (started this weekend but didn't get too far) All of that on top of my regular sahm duties of houes cleaning, laundry, cooking, cubscouts and today I hosted a playgroup here. My stress level is pretty much maxed out.
We haven't even done our christmas cards yet, don't know if they will get done this year. I have too much else to do. I had wanted to do some more stuff for my etsy shop, even bought a bunch of fabric and such to do them. just not enough hours in the day. This time of year I could totally justify having an assistant, housekeeper or a nanny. I just need an extra body.

So with my crazyness this month I probably won't be posting too much. right now as I type I am sitting with Alec, helping him with his homework. I will post pics when I can.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

It is my favorite "food holiday". I do have very fond memories of thanksgiving from when I was a child. My grandmas, mom, aunts cooking all day long. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pecan pie etc. After dinner was always football, and naps.

This year was our little family (Derek, the boys and I) and my in-laws. Now I usually just get a frozen turkey from the local supermarket. It was what my grandma always did. For the last 7 or so years I have been giving the turkey a soak in a brine which has always made it juicy and produced the best pan drippings for gravy.
This year however, I splurged and got a freshly killed, free range organic turkey. This guy was just shy of 20 lbs. (roast turkey NEVER lasts long in our house)
He soaked in a brine for 8 hours.
1 cup kosher salt, 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar per gallon of water. Enough brine to cover the turkey. (I put it in a clean cooler with ice packs) The turkey soaks for 8 hours in the brine. I put it in Wednesday morning, take it out of the brine after it's soak and place it on a drying rack in the fridge over night, which helps the skin get taunt and dry (and crispy when it is roasted).

I am in the group of turkey stuffers. I have never gotten sick from stuffing. It always goes in the turkey warm & I always check the temp of it too. My stuffing is from my grandma. It is the only stuffing I have really ever had for thanksgiving. I've tried others, I like this one.

2-3 loaves of a dense whole wheat bread (my grandma always used orrow wheat honey wheat berry bread)
1 stick of butter (unsalted)
1 large onion chopped
1/2 bunch celery chopped (hearts, leaves and all)
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped (or macintosh is good too, you want a more tart apple)
handful of sweet baby pickles finely chopped (the little ones)
2 squatty cans of sliced black olives, drained
ground sage
salt & pepepr
warm water
In a BIG pan melt the butter and saute the onion and celery till they are creamy golden (not too soft) set aside.
in a BIG bowl, pour your warm water in, and take a handful of your bread, dunk it in the water and squeeze out the excess. Break up the bread in the bowl (or I use my extra roasting pan) you are mixing the stuffing in. Continue this till you get the desired amount of stuffing. Add the onion & celery. add the rest of the ingredients and mix together well (hands work best) season to taste with ground sage, salt & pepper. (my grandma always just knew how much, never measured)
put it in a pan & bake or stuff in the turkey.

Anywhoo, here was our turkey, all done. Roasted and beautiful.

It was completely gone by sunday evening.

Hope your thanksgiving was a good one!

A weekend of relaxing, fun & embarassment..

2007-11-28T13:50:00.001-08:00

Relaxing: When the temp. out side does not go above 40 degrees, it is rainy and windy, the best thing to do is to sit infront of a roaring fire. ALL DAY.

what a nice fire huh? can you feel the warmth through your moniter? the boys spent a good portion of the weekend at the in-laws house, so derek & i sat infront of the fire all day. Did a little christmas shopping online.

Fun: We watched Evan Almighty on Sunday. What a fun movie! Steve Carrell is too funny. After that was over, Bruce Almighty was on tv so we watched that too. One of my favorite movies. I love the message that they both have. Great family movie Evan was. Also scored a toy that Alec has been asking for for christmas online so that was fun. did a little happy dance around the living room.

Embarassing: While shopping at Walmart (had to get some more firewood and milk) some guy tripped me (not on purpose I suspect, he was very apologetic) and I fell flat against the glass door where the milk is kept. So graceful and elegant I am. The day is not complete unless I fall, trip or drop something on me.

I am in the process of moving my office/guest room/crafting, scrap room so the majority of my scrapping supplies is packed up until I can set up my new room, which probably won't happen till some time in January. One last look at my striped walls:

My lovely stripes will be painted over as my office will become Alec's room. Kinda sad, those stripes took me a week to do.

Have a wonderful week!

2 posts in 1!!!!

2007-11-06T08:09:00.001-08:00

first:
halloween, Alec dressed up in the same costume as last year, jeans, black shirt, scary mask and black cape.
Cole was a Killer Bee (ala John Blushi from SNL)

Cole & John Blushi (best pic I could find)
The Bee costume on Cole was actually from my little brother. He wore it when he was about 18 months old. It was pretty short on Cole but worked out just fine.

Second:
Randolph Brooks Air Show Saturday:
a couple highlights:

Cole loved riding this little airplane! he didn't want to get out!

Cole & Daddy next to the C-5 Galaxy. That was HUGE airplane!

The airshow was alot of fun. The boys had a blast. It kinda sucked for me. Dh told me to wear comfy shoes because we would do alot of walking, so I put on my most comfortable shoes, my thongs. Well he didn't tell me that we would have to walk through mostly grassy area. So of course as soon as we get out of the car, my foot hits the ground and I get stung by a fire ant.

long story short, i get multiple bites on my foot. When we get into the airshow, I head over to the red cross tent and they put some stuff on my foot to take the sting out. works great. well spent the day at the airshow, got home and put my foot up with an ice pack since it started swelling. next day I decide that it would be a good idea to get it checked out by a dr. since the swelling as increased and is traveling up my foot to my ankle. (plus I can't get a shoe on, and cannot walk) go to texas med clinic, where they tell me that I have a fever and my blood pressure is high. Dr. puts me on antibiotic and gives me something for the pain. Fine, go home, take an antibiotic and a pain pill and go to sleep. wake up at 2 am, drenched in sweat, shaking and nausiated. Morning comes and I proceed to "give up" everything in my stomach and then some. Derek takes me to the er, since swelling is still spreading and now I can't stop "ralphing"

turns out that I am throwing an allergic reaction not only to the stings, but also to the antibiotics. Lovely. he gives me some other meds to take care of the swelling/inflimation, anti-nausea med, pain med and something to counteract the venom from the fire ant sting. then tells me that as soon as the swelling in my foot goes down to go shopping for a pair of boots. LOL. exactly what Derek has been telling me. Poor Derek, they almost had to call a code "W" on him while the nurse was trying to get an iv in me. (she said they call a code "W" when a husband is about to faint, stands for "Code Wimp") After being on the new meds I am much better and back to my sahm duties. Laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping. Derek did clean up the kitchen last night. that was a BIG help.

I did go to a crop last friday night, and I do have a couple things that i did to post. Just gotta find the time. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Harvest "Suprise" Pancakes

2007-11-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time I know, I have a few posts in the "can" that i just haven't gotten a chance to type up.

This past sunday I made these panackes for breakfast. no suprise that everyone LOVED them.

here is the gist of what I did:

Boxed pancake mix (I used Red Mill's Buckwheat mix) I made the 16-24 pancake recipe (i think, it was the one in the middle) just followed the directons, egg milk etc. then I added about 3/4 of a smaller can (soup sized) of Pumpkin puree, about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and a few good shakes of pumpkin pie spice. mixed up all together and cooked as usual.

the apples on top, something I make for my boys alot and they love them.

1 pink lady apple (mine was pretty big, but use more if yours are smaller)

3 tablespoons butter (unsalted)

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

few shakes of pumpkin pie spice (or equal parts cinnamom and nutmeg works good too)

a little glob of vanilla paste (I get mine from Trader Joe's whenever we are back in CA, but I believe king arthur flour has it too)

Peel, core and slice the apples, place in the pan with the butter (melt it first) & brown sugar and saute. as the apples become soft add the vanilla paste and spices. mix around the pan and cook for a few minutes longer.

Enjoy!

Isn't that the point?

2007-10-19T06:25:00.001-07:00

I get at least 2 emails from CPSC (Consumer Product Saftey Comission) each day with items that have been recalled.
I guess I was in a snarky mood when I read this one...
"The Gymboree Corp. Recalls Toy Swords Due to Breakage and Laceration Hazard"
"Laceration Hazard" - Isn't that the point of a sword?!?!

LOL. I know it's a toy and not supposed to cause any REAL damage. just kinda struck me as funny.

Lots of things on my plate this week/weekend. This week we had our bi-monthly den meeting. This weekend we have the cubscouts raingutter regatta race & chili cook off. Today to prep for it I gotta gather my chili ingredients and make my chili powder. We also have a birthday saturday night, derek wants to go to the new braunfels air show saturday also, i just don't know how we are gonna fit it in. Sunday of course is football.

Cole's tooth finally came out wednesday.

Not on it's own accord I assure you. He just turned 4 and is way too young to be loosing that tooth. I guess this is what happens when 1 4 year old and 5 7-9 year olds play in a pool. One of Alec's friends knocked him in the mouth and the tooth came loose. It looked fine (the incident happend a couple weeks ago) until saturday when it started moving and sunday it was bleeding. his dentist said there was no saving the tooth, so now Cole will be toothless till the adult one comes in, which will be about 2-3 years. I gotta figure out how to re-create teeth in photo shop now for our christmas card pic. His new nickname is "Rocky". :D

well, off to the grocery store! Have a happy friday!

Ok, Everyone vote!!

2007-10-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

for Sam Talbot (Top Chef Season 2 finalist)
http://glad.eprize.net/steamiestchef/index.tbapp?page=vote_form;voting=Sam%20Talbot

If he wins, Glad will donate $30,000 to the JDRF.
Come on! He is a total hottie! a great chef, and totally should have won Top Chef!

Help support the JDRF!
http://texasscrapbookingmom.blogspot.com/

A fantastic weekend!

2007-10-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

The walk Saturday was great! It was a beautiful, perfect day. So many people showed up. It was truly inspiring to see the hordes of people rallying around in support of their friends/family members living with diabetes.

And a big to everyone who donated! We raised close to $3,000! AWSOME!!
here are a few pictures from the day...

We all hauled our cookies out of bed at 5:30 am just for this cute little guy!

We decorated our wagon (our team is Reid's Rangers, like the Texas Rangers)

the boys being goofy on the walk route. :D

I set up a little 6 degrees badge on here, so you can still make donations.

OH! and go here: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=4C772792-1279-CFD5-A7D5868616726A18

to vote for Sam Talbot as Glad's "Steamest Chef" if he wins Glad will donate $30,000 to the JDRF. You can vote as many times as you want so vote lots please!! He is a hottie!!!

Well, I am off to take Cole to the dentist. He got knocked in the mouth and one of his front teeth is loose so we have to go get him checked out. Oh the joys of raising boys!

Have a great week!!

It's not too late!

2007-10-12T07:45:00.001-07:00

This weekend we are walking in the JDRF Walk for the cure. Saturday October 13th at the Shops at LaCantera in San Antonio Texas.
Alec & Cole's friend Reid was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes earlier this year. He is only 5 years old.

You can make a donation by visiting our team's page here : http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmID=86745219
You can learn more about Reid here:
http://reidsrangers.tripod.com/
and by watching his video here: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=37278d535a9341e1e9d848&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Please condsider making a donation. Every little bit get us closer to finding a cure. Any amount. Hey, it's tax deductible! And you are helping save lives. What could be better than that?

Thanks everyone and hope y'all have a great weekend. If you are in the San Antonio Area come on out and cheer us on!

Yeah, it's been a while, I know....

2007-10-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

life gets crazy. my oldest has a busy school year this year with all the activities he does.
I have a little time before I have to get ready for a meeting I have to go to.
I was inspired to post here. It's all because of Amy S. her cooking blog is one of my favorites. (she is under the what I read box on the right, Cooking with Amy)
So last week I was catching up on a little blog reading while my youngest napped. She did a post about her process for creating recipies. So it inspired me to post my process for recipe creation.

first comes the inspration. Inspiration hits me usually in the supermarket, mainly the Broadway Central Market in San Antonio, http://www.centralmarket.com/, I could and usually do spend several hours browsing that market. Just about anything you could possibly want is there. (with the exception of curry leaves, CURSE THE HEAVENS!) One of these days I'll take my digital camera and post some pictures. It is an AMAZING store. Some thing there will inspire me. I'll get whatever it is and take it home. Inspiration also comes to me from reading cookbooks. Yes, I have a whole cabinet in my kitchen dedicated to my cookbooks, and my cooks illustrated (and other cooking) mags. I read cookbooks like most people read novels. Food Network and the show Top Chef on Bravo also help. (seriously when Sara N. messed up the avacado ceviche I went out, got the ingredients and figured out where she went wrong. *I couldn't try it, but my friends loved it!)

So once I have the inspiration I take stock of my pantry, which is almost always followed by a shopping trip. Then I just get back in the kitchen and play. It never comes out perfectly on the first try. it's a few tries before it comes out just right. Depending on what I am cooking, my husband is my taste tester. If I am trying out something he doesn't like I use my friends as guinea pigs. They are almost always more than willing to do so. If my in-laws are here, my mil is pretty open to trying new things too.

Yesterday I got a new cookbook,

I quickly skimmed through it yesterday as I was standing in line to pay.

Thoughts?

So far I LOVE it! The pictures are just beautiful. I have plans today to sit down and look through it some more. Great pictures in a cook book totally suck me in. (I am afterall a scrapbooker at heart)

Bought any good cook books recently?

What are your favorite magazines?

I do love "Food & Wine" like most cooks I think do. One of my favorites is Cooks Illustrated. I need to re-up my subscription to that one. I have used so many recipies from that one. The brine that I use each thanksgiving to brine our turkey in actually evolved from a recipie in that mag. I also like the Saveur, Tho I don't buy it as often as the others. It's kinda hard to find in my small Texas town. I also love getting my King Arthur Flour & Sur La Table catalogs. I save those, and espically in Sur La Table, mark things for my "When we win the lottery" list. :D

*by the way, little known fact about me, I am allergic to shellfish. I love cooking it, but can't ever try what I cook. So there is a little fun fact of the day for you. enjoy!

County Fair Weekend

2007-10-01T07:45:00.001-07:00

This weekend was the annual Comal County Fair. We went Saturday night (after spending the better part of the day at the San Antonio Zoo) and the boys had a blast. They rode some rides, played some games. Cole even won a goldfish at one of the games. So of course after we left the fair we had to stop by Walmart to get a fish bowl, food, all the fish stuff.
Apparently lots of people won fish at the fair and had the same idea we did (Walmart was completely out of fish bowls) so we improvised and got a big glass jar. Washed it out (of course) and now Cole's fish has a nice home. He named it "Buddy" and with Derek's help, takes care of it.

Another cool thing...
I had decided on a whim to enter a picture I took of Cole in the photography contest/ whatever it is called at a fair. I matted and framed the picture and stood in line Thursday morning (the day before the fair started) for a very LOOONG time to submit it. I really didn't think anything of it. Just thought it would be fun to try. I truly didn't expect to win anything. There were people there with just STACKS of pictures they were submitting. I felt kinda silly with my 1 picture. anywhoo. It turned out pretty good.....

I got second place. :) I was pleased. I am leaving shortly to go pick it up. Later this week I am gonna take it over to the fire station (where the picture was taken) and give it to the firemen to put up in their house. A police man standing behind me in line on thursday helped me come up with a title for it, "The New Recruit". Too cute & fits the picture perfectly. He was submitting pictures of his dogs, dauschands named Chili Dog & Oscar Meyer (weiner dog) They were great pictures too. I think he ended up winning first place in the animal division.

Another cool thing that happened this weekend, well officially today, was the launch of my friend Susan & mine's labor of love...
http://kindermoms.com/
I launched the site last night and announced it to our group last night. So far the response from our current members has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone loves the site and espically the logo & apparel. EXCITING!

Well, I am off to go get my picture and run a few errands.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Bad Blogger! BAD!

2007-09-23T16:06:00.001-07:00

Wow it's been a loooong time. Life gets crazy. We started Flag Football and scouts pretty much within a week of each other. I went to a fundraiser crop last weekend for a school here in town. Had a BLAST. got some stuff done which was nice. Including this layout. (sorry for the glare) The paper is all from Crate Paper's Zoom collection. Chipboard was some I found at Walmart of all places, and I painted it with my Making Memories paint. It's not done of course. I am searching for the Zoom ribbon, and some brackets. I love the teal-ish paper. It says "I like to go fast" a bunch of times. Totally fits Cole. This was the most finished layout from the crop night last weekend.

I have been sick for most of this week. feeling totally yucky. We had scouts wednesday night, flag football and scouts thursday night. Today was another football game for Alec. We got there at 1:00 for pictures and didn't leave till 4:00. (pictures and a game) It was a LOOOONG afternoon.

Alec is so loving flag football. He is having a great time & it really shows.

He was excited to be on the Cowboys team. (a Texas team) Dad was not so happy. Dad's favorite team is Greenbay. But Alec did get the #4 jersey, which Derek said is Brett Farve's # so he was ok with that.

Well, I gotta go do some more laundry so everyone has clean clothes to wear this week. I do just LOVE laundry!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Saturday

2007-09-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

A page FULLY completed! HORRAY FOR ME!
Haha!
A group of us were supposed to be attending a crop Saturday night at our favorite store, but we ended up leaving the crop before we could even get our things un-packed. A horrible situation involving a new employee of the store. I'd rather not go into the details if y'all don't mind. It was just horrible and embarassing for my friend.
Such a bummer, because I was ready to spend some money, they had the cute Jack & Abby paper, and Ashville from Senic Route that I have been wanting to get.
Out of respect for our friend none of us bought anything. We left and came back to my house and croppped. My dh was very understanding, even went to the store to get us some chocolate. :D I got one other page pretty much done, just need to paint my chipboard and get it on the page. I was very happy with this one tho. These were not pictures that I intended to even scrap. HEB was having a sale on 4x6 prints this weekend (.5 cents each) so I printed up a bunch of pics. I had this paper & emblies, and found inspiration on the 2 peas gallery.

This week shapes up to be another busy one. Wednesday night is School Night for Scouting. I gotta get my display board finished for that. I also have to go some time this week to get altoid tins for the fundraiser crop I am helping with this weekend. (I am doing an altered tin make & take)
Some time soon I have got to clean up the office/guest room. I have a friend comming to stay with us next month & I want it to be nice and neat for her.
I still have to go through the boys clothes. never got time to do that last week.
Today i have to:
finish laundry (the never ending chore)
sweep/mop kitchen floor (always done after the weekend is over since the house is usually full of kids Sat.& Sun.)
Grocery store, get a few things for dinner. I am planning a to do a roast pork loin tonight with onions apples and sage. I hope it will turn out yummy. I just got the idea in my head over the weekend so I thought I'd give it a try.

Have a great day everyone!

Bring it on!

2007-09-05T13:55:00.001-07:00

School.....
Cubscouts.....
Mom's group.....
Flag Football....
OH MY!!!

It's been busy! trying to get back in the routine of all the above. Well the flag football is a new addition. Alec has been bugging us about playing for a while now, and while we have been hesitant (since there is not one ounce of fat on my child) we finally caved and signed him up today. We'll see how it goes. fingers crossed we won't have any er visits. Now day 2 of cubscout camp we had an er visit. that was fun.

Tonight is the first den meeting. I gotta go finish the prep for it. Derek & I were up late last night working on something pretty cool for the den. As soon as it's finished i'll post pics.
Gotta get everything back on regular schedule, including my posting.
Our weekly scrapbooking group is starting up again, so hopefully I will have something to post every week. (hopefully!)

Have a great week! It's almost over!

2007-08-28T07:20:00.001-07:00

picture of mom...

Not the best, you can't see much of her face, but it's how I will always remember her, laughing, talking.

The ceremony was saturday, i unfortunately did not get back to CA for it. That made me sad. She was a tremendous presence. I'll miss her. rather than people sending flowers and such her son (my best friend) asked everyone to make a donation to her favorite charity. Heifer.org http://www.heifer.org/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=edJRKQNiFiG&b=477011&sid=itK0K5NHLfJXJaOKLqG

Which is a wonderful charity that is helping end hunger in the US and all over the world. Helping people feed their family & generate income. Mom, you are missed.

So, on to other things. Alec started back to school yesterday. much to my delight. Now I don't have to listen to the boys fight all day. We took Alec this weekend to get some school clothes. (to the outlet mall in San Marcos) Scored some major deals at Children's place. Derek took the boys to KB toys and bought them each a pair of boxing gloves. so they got home that afternoon and preceeded to wail on each other. No one was hurt of course and they loved it.

With the start of school, we also have the start of cubscouts. I had spent the better part of the afternoon sunday planning the scouting year for our den. It's a lot of work. I had told Derek that he needed to take on more of the work when it came to the cubscouting stuff. of course the OCD in me kicks in when it's almost september, we have the first den meeting coming up in less than 2 weeks and he has not even cracked the book yet. So the year is planned, just have to type up calendars and get them out to the parents.

Also have some work to do for the mom's group. another thing to add to the always growing to-do list.

I have pictures from yesterday, I'll have to upload them later and post. Alec had a great first day. came home with of course a stack of papers for me to fill out. (mommy homework)

Today's to-do list:

finish laundry
vaccum downstairs
go through boy's clothes (pull out the too small stuff)
re-organize pantry
and of course play with Cole :)

Have a great day!

"I am serious, & don't call me Shirley"

2007-08-20T07:13:00.001-07:00

Well, Derek & I watched "Airplane!" the other night, and the quotes have been flying ever since.
It was much needed after the week I had last week. I found out early in the week that some one very close to me had died suddenly. It's been rough. My best friend's Mom who was Mom to me too. It was suddenly and very un-expected. She was the mom of 2 boys, but a total girly-girl. She was always loving, supportive and just fun to be around. She loved cooking, her Christmas Spode & loved reffering to her old Emily Post book for advice on social graces.
She always said that my other bf Jodi and I were "the daughters she never got to have", and I think she was slightly dissapointed when we didn't marry one of her boys. But to be thought of as good enough for them was a tremendous honor. Before we would leave the house she would give each one of us a hug and whisper "you're my favorite, don't tell the others".
Makes me smile, I say that to my boys too.
Derek has been wonderfully understanding through it all. He only met her once I think. But has sat and listed to me sob & tell the stories I remembered. I think a layout is in order here! a tribute page. yup. now I gotta go dig through some pictures....

So we watched Airplane! friday night. It was on TBS or a similar channel so alot was edited. Still hilarious. Just what I needed.
Saturday I hosted a little cocktail party/recipe exchange for our mom's group. It was great, we had a blast. drank some wine had some finger-ey foods, talked it was so much fun. I had cleaned up a bit saturday night, but when we came downstairs sunday morning derek looked at all the empty wine bottles and said "looks like you guys had fun last night" yup we did!

So photobucket is down, I had a picture to post but can't get in there. :(
So I apologize for the picture free post. next one will be loaded with pics. :)
Have a great week! Mine is shaping up to be another busy one. Tho, I wouldn't have it any other way...

Elsie Challenge!

2007-08-08T11:11:00.001-07:00

Things to do before my next birthday....

Weeelll... doesn't give me a whole lot of time. My birthday is next month, 9/18.

Finish some of the projects I have floating around in my head. (and use the fabric that is floating around on my dining room table!)

Paint my kitchen. I have the colors and everything picked out. Just need to do it. We can't afford to completely re-do it yet, but a few gallons of paint we can swing.

Get over my fear, buy some canvas and paint something. My mom & her sisters were all awesome artists. Whenever I see the paintings they did when they were kids I am totally inspired.

Find a house for my friend Kasey & her family out here.

Things I would like to do before my next birthday (2008)

Visit my friend Jodi who lives in Indiana (or get her a plane ticket to come visit Kasey & me!)

Decorate more in the house

Do more volunteer work

(hopefully!) Get pregnant. :D

I am sure more will pop up as the days progress. I always adding to my to-do list.

Well, the acquisition of a new laptop has stalled. Only for the time being tho. The reason why is aggravating, and I really don't want to re-hash it. Bottom line, my dearest just doesn't think I know what I am talking about. never mind that I have been researching this since April/May. ugh! well, off to run some errands, Target, Bath & Body Works & 2 mystery shopping assginments that I have to get done today. (yippie!)

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL day!

The vote was unamious

2007-08-03T20:30:00.001-07:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5070598

All my boys agreed this one was their favorite!

Thank you to Dawn in TX!
Please email me your addy & your package is postal!
(gotpictures@sbcglobal.net)

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Extension on the RAK....

2007-08-03T06:31:00.001-07:00

The trip to the vet took longer than expected yesterday, and my afternoon/evening yesterday got crazy then my dh decided to sit on the computer all night and look at go-karts. (rolling my eyes) I am ordering my laptop this weekend!

Today is shaping up to be a busy one yet again. So you get extra time! I will pick a winner tonight, say around 10 pm central time. :) Good luck!

It's a pretty good prize if i do say so myself....

RAK ends tonight!!!

2007-08-02T10:53:00.001-07:00

Happy Thursday everyone!
Just a reminder that the RAK to name my etsy store ends tonight!
get your ideas in!!! Everyone so far has come up with some great ideas!

I am off now to take the cats to the vet. Both Miles and Daisy are due for rabies boosters. I forgot about it till this morning when I was going through some paperwork. (oops!)
Just gotta figure out how to transport the both of them when we only have 1 cardboard carrier!

Have a great day!

Elsie page

2007-08-01T18:52:00.001-07:00

This is espically for Ms. Elsie's blog.

I am working on this board book (same as in my RAK), just for myself, If I am ever lucky enough to have a little girl, I'll pass it along to her. This book is going to be about all the women in my life and the impact they have had on me. This first page is for my great-grandmother, we called her "Grandmommie". She and I were VERY close. She died about 5 years ago of lukemia. She was 92 years old. She was such a fun lady, taught me so much. (and that is me in the one pic with the red dress on!)

I haven't had a chance to do my journaling yet. I think that will come when I finish the entire album.

I am using just the Roxie line from Love Elsie for the book. I was thinking about title-ing it "Well behaved women rarely make history" since the women in my family can be anything BUT well behaved. but I see that phrase EVERYWARE now, it's starting to get old...

Random Wednesday...

2007-08-01T14:06:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I am just loving everyone's ideas for the etsy shop! Keep them comming!

So random wednesday, This came from my friend Katherine, feel free to steal for your blog. :D

Q: How many beds did you lay in yesterday?
A: one
Q: What color shirt are you wearing?
A: Black
Q: Name one thing that you use everyday?
A: chapstick (i hate dry lips)
Q: Whats the color of your bedroom walls?
A: ugly beige-y color. I haven't gotten around to decorating our bedroom yet.
Q: How much cash do you have on you right now?
A : i don't really carry cash , maybe a buck or 2
Q: Whats your favorite sport?
A: to play: soccer with my son, to watch: probably basketball
Q: I can't wait till..?
A: I can order my new laptop!
Q: When was the last time you saw your dad?
A: almost a year
Q: What did you have for dinner last night?
A: salad and a piece of pizza
Q: Look to your left. Whats there?
A: window to my back yard.
Q: Whats the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone?
A: probably one of derek's boxer shorts (i wear them to bed when it's hot)
Q: Do you have plants in your room?
A: nope, i would kill them
Q: Does anything hurt on your body right now?
A: no, not really
Q: What city was your last taxicab ride in?
A: Cozumel when we were on vacation
Q: Do you own a picture phone?
A: No, Derek does tho.
Q: Whats your favorite starbucks drink?
A: Not a big fan of starbucks, but I do like their iced tea

Last..
1. Person you saw: Alec
2. Hugged: Cole, he has been in a huggy kind of mood today.
3. Shopped with? Not counting grocery shopping, my friends angela, erika & melissa, a few weekends ago.
4. IM: I have no clue. I really don't use the "IM" feature.
5. Song you listened to: "Sister Kate" by the Ditty Bops

Today..
1. What are you doing now: blogging, waiting for Derek to get home.
2. What are you doing tonight: getting new tires for my car
3. What are you going to eat for lunch: I had a Dr. pepper & a hamburger (took the boys to McD's as a treat)

Tomorrow..
1. Is: Thursday
2. Got any plans: Hanging at home
3. Goal: do laundry, get downstairs cleaned and vaccumed, spend a little time at the sewing machine.
4. Do you have to work: Not outside the house.
Currently:
1. Love someone: yes
2. Like someone: yes
3. Have a boyfriend/girlfriend: have a hubby
4. Does someone like you?: i sure hope so!
5. Missing someone?: quite a few people actually

RAK Prize

2007-07-30T06:07:00.001-07:00

to help me name my etsy store. You have till Thursday night to submit an idea. I'll pick a winner friday & the winner will recieve this cute little prize package I put together last night:

A blank 5x5 white board book, some of the cute Love, Elsie paper (Roxie & Betty) matching Bazzill (& some Bazz Bling in there too!)

a cute tag from one of my favorite Etsy shops & an embelie bag that has Love, Elsie ribbon & chipboard buttons, primas, felt tags, eyelets, brads and some self adhesive jewels. The little tin is not included (too hard to ship) But you can score your own cute little tin like this at Target's $ spot for, you guessed it, only $1!

So that's it! Get your thinking caps on! I am gonna go get ready to take Cole to the park, I will check in this afternoon.

Have a great day!!

The un-veiling

2007-07-29T17:50:00.001-07:00

or what has kept me sane during all these rainy days! Ha ha.

Here is the first apron. It is a fairly simple one. Fabric is from Amy Butler. I first saw the flowery fabric and just had to get it (with no real plan in mind for it) the pink dots came later. I'm not ready to list it on my etsy yet tho, I have been searching for some brown rick rack to go along the bottom of the waistband but have had no luck. (checked 3 stores!) So if anyone knows where I can get some medium-ish wide rick rack please let me know!

The rest of my aprons are on my etsy, link here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5070598

I had so much fun doing them! I have 2 more patterns and even more fabric that I am gonna work on when I can. My oldest is comming home Tuesday from an almost month long visit with his grandparents, So I am sure I'll be busy with the house full of kids like it was before he left. That's summer.

I added a couple other things on my etsy as well. I just LOVE that site. I have gotten a few things from there.

I just love http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=4894, Daisy Cakes soap. She makes this AWSOME Chai Tea lip balm. It smells so good!

& of course everyone's favorite since Ali E. posted about: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5015388, Every Jot & Tittle. I have a whole tin of tags and such from that store. Even used them in a swap I recently signed up for.

I just love to browse the site, see what people are up to.

It got me thinking. My store is pretty plain. I haven't really had a chance to make a banner for it, or even come up with a clever name.

So here is a little RAK for all the readers of this blog out there....

Help me name my etsy store!

feel free to ask any questions, post a comment with your idea.

I'll choose a winner & that person will recieve a special package from me! (i'll put it together tonight & post a pic)

Help an etsy girl out!

The view from our front yard...

2007-07-27T13:23:00.001-07:00

Taken Wednesday afternoon. looking over the houses accross the street from us.

I am so sick of rain.
Today (Friday) was our first day of more sun than rain. Wonderful!
Took Cole to the playground behind Mckenna Hospital this morning to play with some of his friends from the mom's group. We had a great time. The kids did an egg in spoon race, we painted faces, ate popsicles & just played. It was nice to just get out of the house. We got home, had some lunch. Cole rode his new bike around the back yard while I cleaned up the kitchen and now has layed down to rest for a while and watch some cartoons.
I've been busy this week. Made lots of things with my sewing machine and some of the pretty fabric I bought. I gotta figure out the best way to take pictures of them then I will post. I'm excited to un-veil them for my etsy store. I had also started knitting another scarf for my etsy store, but Cole decided to pull it off the knitting needle while I was on the phone with my friend so now I have to start it all over again. (grr)

The guest room/office/scrap/craft room is a mess again. I gotta get it straightened up, which won't take me long, it's just putting stuff away. I may have some company comming next month so I gotta get on it. (positively thinking this weekend) I'd like to find an armoire to put in here, so that when we do have guests, they have some place to put their clothes since the closet in here I use to store all my scrapbooking stuff. Hopefully the weather will be nice so I can go check out some garage sales.

Have a great weekend everyone!

We got a pool!!!

2007-07-19T07:40:00.001-07:00

totally un-planned, thanks to mother nature! lol. We had a pretty strong storm blow through here yesterday. This is the back yard in the middle of it. Got water in the kitchen, from the back door almost to the stairs. just lovely.

& more rain is forcasted for today. Derek just called to tell me a big cell is comming up from the south. gonna dump alot of rain on us again. I gotta go put the towels back along the bottom of the back door and hopefully that will keep some of the water out!

Today seems like a good day to stay inside! I have some projects for my etsy that I have been planning for, gathering the materials and such. Today seems like a good day to work on them. You'll have to be suprised with the finished creations but here is a sampling of the fabric I have been collecting over the past couple weeks:

I don't understand why this picture looks so pixelated. strange.

Lately I am totally loving two local fabric shops, Quilt Haus (http://www.quilthaus.com/)

and Oak Leaf Quilts (http://www.oakleafquilts.com/) I was getting so sick of seeing the same fabric for the past 3 years at hobby lobby. (They never get in anything new or exciting!) I feel like I have found new homes in Oak Leaf & Quilt Haus. I must say, if you are ever in New Braunfels, go check out Oak Leaf. I love the store! It looks just like an old fashioned merchantile shop. Like the ones you see in the old movies. Both stores have huge selections of just beautiful fabrics. I have realized that like shopping at a scrapbook store, I need to go into fabric stores with a purpose. not just to browse. I see all these beautiful fabrics and inspiration just smacks me in the face. A yard of this, two yards of that, it can get out of hand! I was lucky tho and the fabric i got at Quilt haus was 50% off. so that wasn't bad. I have plans for all of them, which brings me to the fact that I should get off the computer and get moving!

Hope you have a nice and dry day!

What has kept me from posting the past couple weeks...

2007-07-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

Well Cole's room is finally done!

Only took me the full 2 weeks!

We were pulling an Extreme Makeover Home Edition, putting stuff away as he is comming home! But It turned out great. We had him close his eyes before he walked in and when he opened them he said, "WOW. This is awsome!" love my little guy!

I am quite pleased with how it turned out too. I have some really cute airplane fabric that I am gonna make him a quilt cover out of for his bed and a matching window treatment. Just gotta find the time to do it!

So after neglecting the housework for 2 weeks while I have been doing this, and after having 10 boys at our house on saturday for almost 8 hours for Alec's b-day, well the house is a mess. carpet is in serious need of the steam cleaner. (took the day off on sunday because I was too exhausted after saturday's marathon b-day party and baseball game that night) So far I have gotten the kitchen cleaned and done about 5 loads of laundry. I really want to sit down and do something besides cleaning or laundry. I have a bunch of projects in the planning stages. I got some really neat vintage patterns that i want to use. I was at my new favorite store last week http://www.quilthaus.com/ and got some really cute fabric. I found some totally cute Amy Butler fabric & some other vintage looking fabric that was on the clearence table! got 2 yards for like $5!
Speaking of Ms. Butler, has anyone seen the cute totes from her at Hobby Lobby?
They are ADORBALE! $39 a piece. made out of her cute fabric. I think I gotta get one!

Well, I gotta get back to the laundry. It was nice to take a break and post. I know It's been a while!

back again soon!