This is Just About To Get Weird

I think I slept through the entire month of December last year because I took all these pictures to post and then didn't.  Fail.  Would it help if I said I actually wrote this post in June and set it to auto-publish today?

I was searching Pinterest for tiny houses and came across this little gem. Is that not the cutest thing?

 

That definitely looked like too much work, but when the boys and I made gingerbread men, I decided to play around with the dough and cut a slit into this little guy.  Yes, he dipped a toe into the water to see how it felt prior to this picture.

 He enjoyed sitting on the edge of the cup but was noncommittal about actually getting in.

 

And then Mr. Steady got involved in the fun.  You can see where this is going, can't you?  He influences me in bad ways.  He suggested we make the hot cocoa into a hot tub.  This part of the post is not suitable for children {wink}.  This is our gingerbread likeness, enjoying the hot tub, except it wasn't until now I realized my doppelganger should be wearing a swimsuit.  Little hussy.  Oh well, at least she remembered to bring a dish rag beach towel.

No gingerbread men were injured in the making of this blog post.  Um, nevermind.

The Chocolatiest Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

If you're a long-time reader you know I am somewhat of a hot cocoa snob.  I know what restaurants serve the best (Bob Evans - but do not, under any circumstances, look up the nutritional information), I have to doctor up gas station hot cocoa (two creams plus one chocolate cream if available), and I have been known to hide the "good stuff" in the back of the pantry.  I haven't seen Drinking Chocolate in any store lately so I had to resort to something else.  The boys all love hot cocoa as well and while I have found some super fantastic recipes that involve heating milk and melting chocolate (sister doesn't lie when she says it's the best ever - try it this Christmas), my time allotment and wallet require something simpler, like heating a kettle of water.  Something they can do themselves when needed.

So we reverted back to the powdery packets of ho-hum.  But I quickly tired of tasteless tan liquid.   I searched for recipes on Pinterest, Food Network and allrecipes but who to believe?  Recently I beseeched my Facebook friends for their favorite, tried-and-true hot cocoa mix recipe.  And one came up a near winner!

Source

Now because, when drinking hot cocoa, taste and texture matter much more than calories, we tweaked the recipe a bit and added more chocolate.  And if you're worried about clean eating and limit your children to real food, you're definitely going to want to skip this recipe.  But if you're looking for a hot cocoa mix with a lot of flavor and a great mouth-feel....here's your recipe.  Also, too, there are hardly ever powdery bits at the bottom of your cup with this recipe.

The Chocolatiest Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

1 (8 qt) box dry milk

2 large boxes instant chocolate pudding mix

2 (30 oz) containers chocolate drink mix

½ c. powdered sugar

1 medium jar coffee creamer

Mix together and store in airtight container.  Add ¼ c. mix to each 6 oz. water.  Top with marshmallows or whipped cream.

If you are adventurous, add a tablespoon or two of cinnamon to the batch (I'm the only one here who likes cinnamon in my hot cocoa (and my chocolate chip cookies) so I just shake a little in my cup when I prepare it).  

If you decide you have already long ago derailed the train called Self-Control, add a dribble of real cream when you prepare a cup. 

And, as a side note, I always thought dry powdered milk was supposed to be cheaper than regular milk?  I only buy a box every year or two but egads - it's way more expensive than I remembered.  I think I calculated the total cost of this recipe to be around $11.00 and it should yield about 66 servings.  

 

Fish & Chips

We were blessed to be gifted some fish and potatoes, caught or grown by a good friend of Mr. Steady's.  We are not huge fish eaters but I typically buy the same couple of types (tilapia, cod, and salmon) and I typically bake it when I do serve it.

Our friend gave us walleye, pike, and perch.  My dad loves fried walleye so I decided to dig out the deep fryer.  And as long as you're frying fish, you might has well make some fries too, no?  I hopped on my trusty friend, Pinterest, and got some "Pin"spiration.

First up I found Nan's Batter for Fish.  It was a simple, straight-forward recipe that had ingredients I already had, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, and water.  The recipe said it would work for about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of fish.  I had no idea how much fish I had so I just doubled the recipe.  It was the perfect amount and I had enough left over to slice up two onions and make onion rings with the batter.

 The french fry recipe I found was Coleen's Recipe for Excellent French Fries.  I looked at a lot of different recipes, some said you had to parboil, some required coatings of ingredients I didn't have.  This recipe was potatoes, water, cornstarch, and salt.  Easy peasy.  The recipe said to soak for at least an hour, or overnight if possible.  But I had made some oven fries earlier in the week that had you soak for 10-30 minutes so I decided to give a shorter soak time a go.  I ended up soaking for 30 minutes and they were perfect.

Mr. Steady offered to manhandle the deep fryer because I hate using it (I hate making bacon too because of all the grease that splatters).  I think he and I ate as much fresh out of the fryer and we did at the table!  We don't spend much time in the kitchen together.  I always say we have a two-bottom kitchen and often the boys beat him to the punch.  But we had so much fun just chatting and catching up on our day.

Both recipes turned out fabulous and the onion rings in Nan's batter were out of this world - I think that was everybody's favorite!

House Guests 201

As I shared yesterday, we recently hosted a family over the weekend and I want to share what & how I did, for my own future reference and also perhaps to help another reluctant host.  Today I'll share what I served for food.

For as many pictures as I had in the last post, this post is drastically missing any.  I didn't have an extra moment to snap pictures of any of our food.  All the pictures in this post are borrowed from the Internet.

I made up as much food ahead of time as possible.  I did not want to be in the kitchen all weekend and I definitely did not feel like I was.

For drinks, I made tea syrup from a recipe that Deborah shared with me.  Then I froze it in pint size servings, which make 1 gallon each.  I had a galvanized 1 gallon cooler with iced tea and a 2 gallon cooler with water available at all times.  We drink filtered water so over the month prior to their arrival, every time we emptied a gallon jug I rinsed it well, filled with filtered water and popped it in the freezer.  This way we didn't have to constantly refill the water filter or wait for filtered water.

 Source

In the mornings I made coffee and heated up hot water.  I laid out a variety of tea bags and a container of hot cocoa mix which was a huge hit with the children.

I had a meal planned for Friday evening but our company didn't arrive in time for dinner.  So Friday evening before we left for church I put the dessert, apple crisp, in the oven and put it on time bake so the house smelled so comforting and homey when we arrived home.  I served it hot with ice cream but the most delicious part of the snack was the fellowship!

Saturday breakfast: Sausage & egg casserole (I made the day before but I often make and freeze this as long as 2 months ahead of time), watermelon & cantaloupe, orange and apple juices, hot drinks

Saturday lunch: Grilled Chicken in the Crockpot (this is a recipe that Jill shared with me, it was so simple and so delicious) served with barbeque sauce, Corn on the Cob in the Cooler, Frozen Berry Cups (another recipe shared by Deborah...I feel like I should say this post was brought to you by the King girls, tee hee), Lemon Cake

Source

Grilled Chicken in the Crockpot
Chicken Breast (the recipe didn't specify amount, I used a double recipe of marinade for 5 pounds of tenderloins)
1/4 c butter 
1 c vinegar
1/8 c salt 
2 T water
1/2 t pepper 
1 t poultry seasoning
1 c b sugar.  

Boil all ingredients together, pour over chicken, marinade 2 hours.  Grill chicken for 5-10 minutes (chicken will NOT be cooked, I cooked tenderloins for 5 minutes since they are small).  You can freeze at this point.  Make a fresh batch of marinade WITHOUT the salt this time, thaw chicken, put chicken and fresh marinade in crockpot, cook on HIGH for 2 hours.

I was very leary of the amount of salt and vinegar in the marinade recipe but it was not overly salty (make sure to omit the salt from the second batch of marinade) and the vinegar really helped to make the meat tender.  Also the fat from the butter in the marinade helped the chicken to not stick to the grill.  This chicken was very tasty, tasted fresh off the grill but neither Mr. Steady nor I had to take time away from our guests to stand over a grill!

I was also not certain how the corn-in-the-cooler idea would work so I tried it out several days ahead of time.  You simply boil water, husk your corn and put it in a large cooler, pour the boiling water over it and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.  Mr. Steady was afraid it would ruin the cooler.  I used a different cooler each time (because of amounts) and both times I heard a distinct *pop* but neither cooler seemed damaged in any visible way.  I haven't used either one for cold items since but if I have a problem, I'll report back.  The first attempt I tried husked and non-husked corn.  Both cooked and tasted great but since we were serving a lot of children and you have to handle the corn hot if you cook it in the husk I decided to husk it ahead of time.  That's a great job for the children to do.  Make sure you rinse out & wash the cooler immediately because I read that it can get pretty funky pretty quick if you don't.

The family was at another home for supper Saturday night.

Saturday evening snacks:  Cheese & crackers, cookies

Sunday breakfast: Vanilla yogurt, homemade granola with a variety of stir-ins such as raisins, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips, zucchini bread (made ahead of time and froze), orange and apple juices, hot drinks.  I knew this meal might be more rushed as we attempted to get 15 people up, dressed, fed and out the door for church so I made it very simple and pretty much self-serve.

Sunday lunch was a carry-in at church

Sunday evening we had pizza and snacks at the church afterwards but I set out veggies and dip and zucchini bread for a snack before we headed out the door to church.

Source

Monday morning: Crockpot Egg Casserole, watermelon & cantaloupe, orange and apple juices, hot drinks.

I cannot find the link to the recipe I used for this but there are a lot of different recipes online for this idea.  I can tell you the basics.  It was 1 pound of cooked & crumbled bacon, 1 (32 oz) bag of frozen hash browns, 4 cups shredded cheese (I used a variety of sharp cheddar and co-jack), 12 eggs, 1 cup of milk, salt & pepper.  The recipe also suggested onions, peppers, and mushrooms but I omitted and stuck to the basics.  You start with your meat, then layer the hash browns and cheese, repeat layers to the top.  If you want to add veggies, layer those as well.  Then mix the eggs, milk and seasonings and pour over.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  This was so perfectly cooked and it served everybody with seconds plus Mr. Steady had a nice amount to take for his lunch.

I served all the meals buffet-style in the kitchen.  I used our regular dinner plates with disposable cups, napkins and silverware for each meal.  This way it was easy to keep up with dishes but we didn't create a huge amount of trash.  I bought some fun colored cups from GFS and had a lot of fun matching different napkins from my stash to the cups.  

Gooey Caramel Cake

The Reader dislikes chocolate about as much as The Thinker and I like it.  He will eat it but prefers caramel or vanilla over chocolate.  So for his birthday he requested a "vanilla cake with caramel sauce drizzled over it and vanilla icing".  Antithesis of chocolate?  So I found this pin and thought it would suit him well.

I don't have round cake pans (which you will see why in a future blog post) so I used one 9x13 and one 8x8 square.  I cut the 9x13 in half and stacked them all together.  The cake is really super moist and you stack it while it's still hot which made for a mess stacking them.  So it's not so pretty (click on the link above and see how pretty the original cake was).  But the end result?  Even this self-proclaimed choco-holic was enamored with it.

I had to add about double the amount of powdered sugar to the frosting to get it to spreading consistency, maybe I didn't follow the directions carefully and missed something, not sure.

Try this cake very soon, you will not be sorry.

Dark Chocolate Truffle Brownie Cheesecake

I found this pin on Pinterest and immediately thought of The Thinker who, like his momma (pregnant or not) can never get too much chocolate.  When I asked for his birthday dinner request, he asked for frozen pizza, Ruffles potato chips, and chocolate cheesecake.

I had only ever made one cheesecake in my life, not being a HUGE fan of cheesecake and always discouraged by the cost and uncertain results, but when a child requests something as simple as frozen pizza, how can you NOT attempt to make him a cheesecake?

This was a very simple recipe, simply bake the brownie layer, while it is baking prepare the cheesecake layer, pour it on, bake it up, pray, pray, pray that it doesn't crack, chill and serve.  Be wild and throw some birthday candles on if you like.  And if you want to get super crazy with a side of nuts, let your children go crazy garnish with the can of chocolate whipped cream that you bought in a moment of weakness just to get the children to the check out counter quickly and quietly after a thoughtful moment of consideration.  Man, that stuff is really nasty.  The children like it but blech.

The middle was still a bit gooey after baking for 50 minutes, I'm blaming it on the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.  I'm wondering if my springform pan is 8 inches instead of 9?  The top never cracked in the slightest bit - it is simply a gorgeous cheesecake.  Boy howdy, is this thing rich.

UPDATE: Today I had another piece and it wasn't gooey at all.  The recipe said "chill several hours" and while it was baking I did some other researching that said you should refrigerate overnight or even up to 24 hours.  I only chilled it for about 2 hours so I think this was why it was gooey...if you try this recipe, make it the day before.

The birthday boy was very pleased with his birthday "cake".  My dad and his wife took The Thinker out for his birthday lunch, he requested Fazoli's and they took him to Olive Garden!  What a treat!  Happiest of birthdays, Thinker!

Tea Party

Tea parties are a pretty favorite thing to do around here.  Sadly, we don't have them with much regularity anymore, and despite my best intentions, my intentionality has been waning significantly lately. 

The Reader had asked for a tea party several times and I kept putting him off, mostly because I was {and still am, and I'm also convinced I forever more will be} deep in the thick of decluttering and nesting.  I would be scrubbing the crevices of the kitchen counter with a q-tip, ammonia sitting in the oven every time he would ask.  There was always something on the dining room table or a project I was in the middle of.

Soon however, my pregnancy hormones combined with the deep desire to get some extras cleaned out of the fridge and a craving for lemon (a very common craving during this pregnancy) found a stray jar of lemon curd and, much like giving a moose a muffin, if you've got lemon curd, you need to bake some scones to go with it.  If you've got the makings for Mock Devonshire cream in your fridge, all the better (next time I've halve the recipe as now I've a stray container of Mock Devonshire cream and I loathe stray containers of anything in my fridge).

I made a quick trip to our favorite bakery where I spent $4.00, pulled from the hutch some glass dishes and my grandmother's vintage hankies to use as napkins.  I clipped a few flowers from the yard and set the table for an impromptu, and yet still very overdue, tea party.  It was simply too hot for a pot of hot tea so I made iced and no one complained. 

Why do I wait so long to do special things like this?  Why does it seem like a huge deal in my head but really, it wasn't any more work than a normal afternoon snack.  It did create a few more dishes but they were dishwasher safe so who cares?

What have you done to make something special for your children & family lately?

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?

One Dessert: Three Ways

I was asked to bring dessert for our family get-together Sunday for Father's Day.  I had lots of ideas but everyone likes something different.  I wanted to make my dad's favorite, coconut cream pie, but I also wanted to make something to make Mr. Steady feel special.  When I asked what dessert he would like, he responded with Boston Cream Pie.  I also remembered that The Reader had requested a piece of banana cream pie recently.  So I did what any woman who loves the men in her life would do - made something for each of them.

I pulled out my tiny jar collection - most are 4 oz but some are bigger.  Many of these jars came from my mom's stash, whom she inherited from her mom.  Apparently my grandpa would take puddings and desserts in his lunchbox in these.  

I baked a yellow cake from scratch, halving the recipe.  Then I used my handy cake-leveler and cut the cake in half.  I have cleared my kitchen tremendously of useless gadgets and tools but this is one single-use tool I keep and use quite often. 

Then I used a 2 1/2 inch circle cutter and made cake rounds.

Next I made a batch of vanilla pudding....or maybe I made a batch of pastry cream.  I have no idea what the difference is except some chef thought pastry cream sounded more sophisticated.

I separated the pudding into three bowls.  Into the first I added shredded sweetened coconut.  

Next I took 4 small jars, lined the inside with pie crust and blind baked them for about 7-8 minutes.  Then I filled the crust with the coconut cream pudding and chilled.

In the next 4 jars I layered crushed graham crackers, pudding, and bananas.

And in the last 4 jars I layered the yellow cake, vanilla pudding, and finished it off with chocolate ganache.

Just prior to serving I topped the coconut cream pie-lets {smile} with whipped cream and toasted coconut.

 That jar in the back is my favorite - I love the shape of it - and it was one of my grandma's.

This is how Mr. Steady began his special day.  He had requested a pitcher of lemonade all to himself (because the boys had made 2 pitchers of lemonade the week before and by the time Mr. Steady got home, it was all gone).  We rimmed his glass with sugar and stuck in a curly straw, tee hee!  I said all he needed was some sand and a palm tree.  So The Thinker brought in the radio and put on some Caribbean music, then he Googled a beach scene and set up the monitor in front of Mr. Steady.  That's about as "beachy" as our budget allows for this year!  

I am so thankful for my dad and my honey - they are both wonderful fathers!

Kairos Cookies

I certainly did not intend to go so long between blog posts. Time has just gotten away from me. I lost my camera for a while, then I accidentally erased every picture on the camera when I did find it. So some of these pictures are months old but I wanted to blog about these things for posterity's sake.

Mr. Steady served on a Kairos Prison Ministry team this spring. Every team member is asked to bring 200 dozen cookies to the weekend. No, that is not a typo. Yes, that is 200 DOZEN cookies. There were 50 men on the team and they ended up with over 12,000 DOZEN.

 My good friend, Lisa, offered to host a cookie baking day to help out.  We baked 98 dozen cookies in short order!  Thanks so much, Lisa, Nat, Amber, Bonnie, Sheila, Arlene for spending the day with us...and Carla and Daisy for sending dough!  Thanks for organizing it, Lisa!  The inmates were certainly impressed and blessed by all those cookies!

Philly Beef Sandwiches

 This is a favorite family dinner and it's so easy and quick when you use leftover roast.  This recipe is from The Occasional Cook by Cyndy Salzmann, which is my all-time favorite make-ahead cookbook.  If you have never attempted freezer cooking, I highly recommend starting with this recipe.  When we have a roast, I reserve half of it and shred it, adding a small amount of broth back in to keep it moist.  Then I add onion, butter, and Worcestershire sauce.  Put in a gallon size zip top bag, smoosh all the air out and flatten.  Freeze flat. 

If you want to be really prepared, you can place sub buns in a gallon size zip top bag and shredded cheese in small zip top bag, all bags into a 2-gallon zip top bag, label and freeze.  I don't do this - I typically just wait to serve this until I find sub buns or French bread on sale or marked down.

 When you're ready to serve, thaw meat, heat over med-high heat until heated through.  Then pile on to sub buns (or halved French bread), butter the top bun, top with shredded or sliced mozzarella (or provolone) and broil until cheese is bubbly.

The whole family loves this quick and easy meal - so very tasty!  If we have extra broth left we like to dip the cooked sandwiches in it.

Creamy Parmesan Broiled Tilapia

I found this recipe on SparkPeople.com and paired it with the Loaded Mashed potatoes we had yesterday and some cooked carrots (my favorite veggie).  The Entertainer couldn't get enough of it!  If you are not a big fish fan but know you really need to eat more fish, or if you're just looking for a new way to prepare tilapia, give this a try.  Tilapia is a great mild fish to start with.

2 Tilapia Fillets (5oz to 6oz each - if frozen, be sure to thaw fully before cooking) (I used 4 4 oz filets)

2 teaspoons Light Mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Non-Fat Plain Yogurt (I used greek style)
4 Tablespoons Shredded Parmesan Cheese
2 to 4 sprigs of fresh Dill
1 tsp Garlic Powder or Garlic Salt, divided
Black Pepper (use as much or as little as you like)
Non-Stick Cooking Spray
Makes 2 servings, 5oz-6oz depending on size of fillets.


1. Place Mayonnaise, Yogurt and Parmesan Cheese in a small bowl, mix with a spoon until well combined.

2. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum and spray with Non-Stick Cooking Spray of your choice.

3. Set oven to Broil on High (if you have that option)

4. Place Tilapia fillets onto cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

5. Divide the Cheese mixture and spread half onto each fillet with a spoon, using the back of the spoon to distribute evenly over fish.

6. Rub dill between your fingers to separate and sprinkle 1 to 2 sprigs worth of leaves over each fillet.

7. Sprinkle each fillet with half of the Garlic powder or Garlic Salt and desired amount of Black Pepper.

8. Place cookie sheet into oven about 6" below the broiler. (I used the first level down from the very top).

9. Watch fish carefully. Depending on the weight of the fillets it will take between 5-7 minutes to cook fully. When you notice the cheese starting to brown, check fish every 30 seconds to see if it's done. Fish will flake easily with a fork when fully cooked.

10. Turn broiler off and leave fish in oven about 5 minutes. (this is optional, but will ensure it's cooked all the way and give you a chance to finish the rest of your preparation)

I am a huge rule follower but not a very patient reader so I mixed all the topping ingredients together, added some Old Bay and used dried dill weed.  My filets were the frozen-in-the-bag type and were done in 5 minutes.  Delish!

Crunchy Crazy Caroler Cookies

Say that five times fast!  I had clipped a picture out of one of those recipe idea booklets years ago of these cookies.  Sadly the page I clipped didn't have any markings as to where it came from so I can't give credit where it's due.  Tonight was our Christmas caroling and we always gather together when we are done for chili and snacks.  So I knew these cookies would be perfect.  You simply make sugar cookies, cut them into circles, cut a mouth using a straw (or the bottom of a funnel), then bake and decorate.  You might have to re-shape the mouth when the cookies come out of the oven.  I found a medicine syringe worked great for the warm cookies.

I was decorating this cookie, after having flopped the blond hair color I was going for (The Reader said it looked like boiled eggs yolks - you know the overcooked greenish gray ones?) and making more of a gray color.  I decided to have a little, okay a lot of fun and make one look like a man at our church.  I added a beard to another one.  Well, the boys just thought that was all kinds of silly and egged me on.  Suddenly our children's choir turned into a whole church choir.

 Then I remembered all the beautiful colors of skin we are so very blessed with at our church and decided to try some gingerbread dough as well.  This is one of the families at church with their newly adopted children.

 One of our elders and ministers, hee hee.

 And Mr. Steady, even though the eye color is wrong (I think Brother Keith's eyes are wrong too, I think he has blue eyes?)

I can't get these next two pictures straight, sorry!  You'll have to turn your head to see them :o)

Great fun, good times.  They are singing

"He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders, of His love."

Hey, they're my cookies, I can make them sing whatever I want, no?

Eeking By (As if.)

Before I tell you what I came here to tell you I want to tell you something.  I restarted a 90 day spiritual/health journey on September 15 and one of the exercises has you make a list of 25 things you want to have, be or do.  One of the things on my list was "blog 3x/week on Towngirl".  That was eight days ago and this is my first post in nearly three weeks.  Ahem.

On to more pressing things, like my freezer.  Every once in a while I like to, either out of financial necessity or an overwhelming feeling of guilt of our First World problems try to make it a week or two living out of just my pantry and freezer with minimum grocery purchases.  I know for some of you that is an every day occurance and I truly stand in awe of some of you who can live out of your garden for months at a time.  The last several times I have tried to put something in or pull something out of my refrigerator freezer things have fallen out of it.  Partly because we're slobs and just throw things in there when we're done with them but mostly because we have TOO much food!

I was making a grocery list today and wanted to make Pasta Primavera (is that supposed to be capitalized?) and wasn't quite sure if I had shrimp on hand.  How can you not be sure if you have shrimp?  It's not something I stockpile but Meijer will occassionally have it for an insanely cheap price and I often buy a bag when it's cheap.  I had to dig (DIG!) for it.  And while I was digging I saw the boston butt with the '09 date on it and the meatball mixture I bought in March and the french dips that we only consumed a portion of the package and on and on.  I thought, here I am making this elaborate grocery list when I have perfectly good food right here in my house already.

So I erased my whole menu plan and we're winging it next week.  Again, I know this is old hat to most of you but I'm a slow learner.  Hebrews 5:11 was written with a special dedication to me.  Here is my tentative menu:

Thursday: Breakfast Casserole (made with the 1 pound of cooked, crumbled sausage and the last 6 Rhodes rolls I had in the freezer)

Friday: Honestly not sure on this one yet because Mr. Steady works until at least 5:30 and we have church at 7:00, might eat out, we'll have to see.

Saturday: We'll be at a wedding and the boys will be at a friend's house

Sunday: Carry In - taking Chicken Dill Rice and an Old Fashioned Applesauce Spice Cake

Monday: Salmon and Pollock with lemon pepper noodles

Tuesday: Hot Dogs and Sausage with homemade mac and cheese

Wednesday: French Dips with Risotto

Thursday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes

Friday:  The guys will probably eat out as I'm leaving for Ladies' Retreat and they think that's a good excuse for White Castle - blech.

Saturday: Ham Loaf, Hashbrown Casserole

Sunday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Breakfasts and lunch will be a mishmash of things, I have several packages of deli meat in the fridge along with chicken nuggets in the freezer.  A box of cereal.  We are way better at the cereal thing than we used to be.  We used to have three or four boxes of open cereal and we hardly ate cereal.  Now we have it twice a week and I don't buy a new box until the first one is almost empty.  I used the last of the peanut butter today so that is probably out.  Mr. Steady will be lunching on a variety of single-serve frozen items that I am evidently saving for the Queen of England.  I do have to buy some foods, like bread and buns, 1 lb of meat for the meatloaf, and some fresh fruit and eggs.  Other than that I have everything I need. 

Isn't it sick that I have meals for nearly 8 days and yet we stand there in the kitchen saying "We have nothing to eat"?  We do, it's just not stuff we WANT.  Or are in the mood for.  I have bags of dried beans that I *want* to use but have no idea how to and forget to find out, boxes of cake mix, tubs of frosting.  Not to mention four more meals that I intentionally stuck in the freezer but don't want to use "just in case".  It's sick.

I even found a few stray snacks in the pantry, a lone bag of fruit snacks, half a bag of colored mini marshmallows (that's one snack you never have to hide from or share with me - blech), those weird pirouette cookies, one last bag of 100 calorie chocolate covered pretzels.  Plus I have hidden snacks that they are unaware of that I can pull out in case of emergency.  As if our "emergency" is anything close to the actual definition of it. 

This would probably be a very good week to check out Hungry Planet from the library again.  There might be some complaining that will need to be squelched.  Because we are such a sad little nation full of abundance and discontentment.  And my family and this author is no exception!  In fact I would love nothing more than a fountain Coke right now.  {Sigh}. I am so over myself and my first world problems.

April Fool's Dinner

I have never done anything special for April Fool's Day but I've always wanted to. I saw this idea in a Family Fun magazine some years back. I baked meatloaf in cupcake papers and topped with mashed potatoes. A sprinkle of poppy seeds completed the look. When the boys came to the table I told them we were having cupcakes for supper! They knew it was a joke but immediately went to the kitchen to see what else there was waiting for them. When they found nothing they were quite confused. It wasn't until they cut into it that they realized what it was.

Did you know April Fool's day is called such because in the 1500's the first day of the new year was changed from April 1 to January 1? Because news traveled so slowly in those days many people still celebrated April 1 as the new year. People began to make fun of them and call them "fools" for being behind the times. And thus the name stuck.

Psalm 14:1 says that "the fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'" Don't be a fool, if you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart, to save you from your sins, do it today.