Hello Monday!

Deborah has been doing "Hello Monday" posts for quite some time and her week always seems so full and intentional compared to mine.  I had a very fun and full week last week so I decided to jump on board.  I actually remembered to pull out the camera and document some things as well!

Hello long weekend trip!  We visited Sauder Village in Northern Ohio last weekend.  It started out to be a one night trip, then slowly morphed into a three-night trip, which utterly blessed our socks off.  More in depth post on this to come.

 Goodbye to old paint in the baby's room.  Mr. Steady and his friend put a fresh new coat of aqua on the walls.  Full reveal of the nursery will come when it's complete, which may or may not come prior to her arrival!

 Hello to fluffing up old things and making them new.

 Hello to Girls' Night In!  Mr. Steady and I started meeting with several other couples to pray & share our lives about 2 years ago.  These ladies have become so precious to me and even though we haven't met as couples lately, most of our husbands get together weekly and us girls try to get together once a month or so.  We had a healthy {cough, cough} dinner of pizza, chips, pop and Ho-Ho Cake.  Luckily, C brought fresh pears so we could pretend it was a well-rounded meal :o).  Then we watched October Baby, which is a must see, if you haven't yet seen it.

 Hello to science projects right outside our window.  If you hadn't gathered by the blog name, we live in town.  Hawks aren't something we see around here.  I would never have noticed him sitting there, outside my kitchen window, devouring a squirrel, if my neighbors, who go for twice daily walks hadn't walked soooo slowly, soooo apprehensively past him.  He didn't flinch as they walked by.  Then he waited for a while to make sure the coast was clear and had himself a tidy little breakfast.

No pictures of these last events but hello to finding out baby girl is head down and not in some other position as I feared - praise the Lord for hours spent in the pool trying to get her to flip!

Hello to date night, we haven't seen you in such a long time and it will likely be a long time until you visit us again.  That is okay because we make time to be together and laugh and play together as often as we can but there is something special about a quiet meal with adult food and conversation.

Hello to family reunions!  So fun to see people you haven't seen in a year, especially when you have news they haven't heard!  News used to travel fast in my family but it seems several didn't know we are adding to our family, Lord willing!

Hello to comments being turned back on.  Several of you noticed I had turned the comments off on my blog.  They should be back on now.  I appreciate your comments and although I don't respond very often, I do read each and every one!

Goodbye Summer!  We officially bid adieu to summer and I, for one, couldn't be happier.  I happen to adore fall to begin with, and the promise of meeting my daughter is the sweetest reason I could think of to say hello to autumn!

What did you find yourself greeting hello or wishing farewell to last week?  What does this week hold in store for you?

My Camera is Like a Box of Chocolates

The Entertainer likes to borrow my camera and I never know what I'll find when I plug the memory card in.  And now, for your viewing pleasure - from the vantage point of The Entertainer.

Pinterest Practice

I heard about Pinterest a long time before I checked it out.

This is exactly what happened to me.  I think I received an invite back in the early fall and since then I've pinned over 760 things!  Oh my!

Recently I decided to stop Pinning (okay, not *stop* per se) and starting doing something with all those Pins.  I'm going back through and re-organizing my Pins and Boards, deleting some and actually doing some of them.

I am in desperate simplify-clean-up-use-up mode of my pantry and freezer both to maximize our grocery money and to make room for freezer food for when baby comes.  I'll post more about this later.

Thought I would share my thoughts of some of the recipes we've tried.  Some of these were either tried or searched for based on items I had on hand.

 The pinner said "Crock Pot Cube Steak that will melt in your mouth".  I followed the directions for The Post It Place's Crock Pot Cube Steak and Gravy.  My family wasn't impressed at all.  We have never had cube steak (I think, maybe, possibly, my mom used to make it when I was younger but I don't recall exactly) but it was really thin gravy and the meat was dry, despite being submerged in the gravy.  And the flavor of the onion soup (again, something we never use/eat) was way overpowering.  IF I was going to make it again (and that would be a big IF), I would use only half a package of onion soup mix and mix it in with the soups and water before putting in the crock pot. 

Glazed Doughnut Muffins...the muffins themselves were dry, much more like a donut, which would be fine if the cake to glaze ratio was smaller. The tops with glaze were delightful, think they would be better in a mini muffin. Mine only made 10 muffins.

 "According to many pinners-THE BEST white chicken enchilada recipe ever!!" These were good and had good flavor. I used 4 large burrito-sized tortillas (because that is what I had on hand) which made the filling a bit dry...might mix some of the sauce in with the filling or just use smaller (less filled) tortillas.  I also had one child who didn't like the chunks of green chiles, and if I'm being honest I didn't care for the texture of them myself - love the flavor, just not the chunks - so I might chop those up better next time.  Will definitely try again.

Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole - hubby loved it, none of the boys asked for seconds.  I think I did two things wrong with this recipe.  First I used canned chicken and with all the mixing the texture of the chicken became quite pate-like.  One of the boys commented on the texture of the filling and I agreed.  Next time I'll try cubed chicken, and maybe even wait to add it at the end.  The other problem I encountered was I used all the "gravy" and it was too soupy.  Next time I'll only add 2/3 of the sauce or less.

 Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar we tried this around Christmas time and no one really liked it that well, the Oreos tasted really weird and took forever to bake. I ended up throwing half of it out because no one wanted anymore.  It didn't taste like chocolate chip cookies, brownies, or Oreos. 

 

One Pot Mac & Cheese - Tried this today after church, it was pretty good but not as cheesy as I prefer.  Several of the comments suggest taking out the egg, adding a can of cheddar cheese soup, or using Velveeta.  I cooked on low 4 hours (my crock tends to run on the cooler side) and the pasta was neither crunchy nor mushy.  The pasta itself was perfect - just could have been cheesier.  This recipe served our family of 5 with seconds for most.

 

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings - fool-proof and oh so yummy! Hubby said it was better than my mom's and way better than Cracker Barrel.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup - this was a treat to find and a treat to taste!  We even went one step further and tried the Super Special Chocolate Milk recipe on the same blog page.  That was delicious (although I'd leave out the vanilla next time).

Best Brownies (this picture is not from the original website, not sure where it came from) - these were SO super fudgy (I only baked 22 minutes) and rich.  I am a chocoholic and these were too rich for even me.  I cut the pan into 9 squares and then cut those into half each.  Super rich.  The frosting was difficult to get smooth.  I actually ended up doubling the frosting recipe because the first recipe wouldn't spread at all.  With the second batch I melted the butter (instead of just using soft butter), then mixed up all the ingredients except the powdered sugar.  After I added the powdered sugar I warmed up the whole mixture in the microwave and that worked better.

If you'd like to see what other treats and projects I've got on my Pinterest board, come check it out.  If you are new to Pinterest, check out Jill's thoughts before joining - there are so many bad links on Pinterest it drives me batty.  I try to correct them on my own Pins as soon as I find them because it's so frustrating.

What new things have you tried on Pinterest lately?  And did you like them or leave them?

Seasoned Garlic Salt

I know this will probably seem like the most basic blog post you've ever read. I grew up eating warm butter bread with spaghetti. When I met my husband, who is 1/2 Italian, I was introduced to really good garlic bread, similar to what you would be served in a restaurant. He taught me how to make it but he is usually the one who makes the garlic butter.

For the past 11 years whenever we wanted to make garlic butter we'd drag out four bottles of spices, sprinkle a little here, pinch a little there, taste. Repeat. Well, I decided it needed to be a little more scientific. So I {gasp} got out the measuring spoons while Mr. Steady scoffed at me.

Much to my delight and his surprise I found a ratio that we like. And now, dear readers, I share it with you. Because you don't have to have warm butter bread and you don't have to buy frozen premade garlic bread. And also, too, you don't have to drag out four bottles at a time.

1/2 c. garlic powder
1/2 c. salt
1/8 c. dried oregano
1/8 c. black pepper

Mix together and store in an clean spice bottle. Use 1 heaping teaspoon per 1/2 c. butter. Garlic butter will last in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Mangia, mangia!

A Fun Snowy Day Treat

Recently on a snowy day I served "Melted Snowman Soup" to my family for dinner. Just take your favorite potato soup and add garnishes. This idea is not original to me but I cannot remember where I saw the idea.

Coming Clean

There is a trend among bloggers out there of airing your dirty laundry in an effort to help your fellow readers know that you are human and photoshop your pictures, crop out the junk, and only blog about things you want to talk about. So I thought I would jump on board and air my dirty laundry oven. I hadn't cleaned it since George W Bush was President. The first time. I jest but it was bad. Bad. I am the lazy cook who just sprinkles salt on the spills in the oven. And then leaves it. This was AFTER I had cleaned out all the big globs. And trust me, you have no idea how bad things look until you've taken a picture of it and put it on Photoshop. ANYWAYS, here is how to clean your oven without noxious fumes, high smelly temperatures, and very little elbow grease.

First sprinkle a generous layer of baking soda in the bottom of your oven. I started with 1 cup but before it was all said and done I used the whole box. But like I said, this was a nasty job. You probably only need 1 cup because you clean your oven often. After the soda is spread spritz it with water from a spray bottle. Then leave it for an hour or more. Every once in a while or whenever you remember, spray with water again. You want the soda moist but not wet. If it's wet, sprinkle more soda on. Keep spritzing with water for several hours (again, once an hour or two), you can even leave overnight like I did. You can even cook dinner with this mess in your oven like I did.

After about 8 hours or so, you can wipe the soda out. Now, I was going to be all technical and Google why this works so I could look smart. I did find something about the soda and carbon but the truth is. I don't care why it works. It's cheap, requires very little elbow grease and is easy. 'Nuff said? Good. Now do not go be all clever on me and try to scrub your oven clean after the first hour. It won't work. Ask me how I know. You have to let the soda do it's job.

Now here is what my oven looked like after I wiped all the soda out. Much better but I thought it could be even better. So I took my favorite tool in the world, my handy dandy Pampered Chef stone scraper thingy and applied the smallest amount of elbow grease to get the rest of the gunk out.

And ended up with this. Which I was pleased as punch with until I put my pictures on Photoshop and saw all the yellow gunk on the front walls. But hey, the cookies don't complain about dirty facilities and the nachos seemed satisfied with their accomodations as well so we'll call it a day.

There you go, fume free, cheap way to clean your oven.

Kings Firecrackers Jump Rope Team

A friend sent me this and it's been sitting in my inbox for about a month. Gather your children around and watch. This jump rope team is from Kings Local School district near Mason, Ohio. They are amazing!