Thanks Twitter!

So, per usual, I have spent too much time on-line so far this week.
And yesterday, there was much twitter chatter about oamc (once a month cooking - and yes I had to look it up before I knew! LOL). And I kept reading about it and hearing what people were making, and then darn-it, I wanted to do it too! LOL!

So I packed the kids up and went to Target. I do NOT recommend this to anyone. I had a vague idea of what I would make and just went shopping. Adding this, and that, and some of this, and oh! If I buy that, I can make this too. Which, is completely unwise and again, I do not recommend doing it this way.

Last night I made some broth thanks to thanksgiving leftovers with plans to wake up and do lots of things today.

I decided to start with breads because they had to rise. I think that actually worked well.

And I also rounded up some help, because I knew this was going to be a long day!





We measured, mixed, laughed, and at lunch time we had all the bread dough done.

Which, I might add, almost made me cry. Because I thought we'd be farther. I thought it would be easier - a couple hours and wa-la, dinner for a lot of nights! Um, no. It does not work that way. Which probably most people would have known, but I always have really unrealistic estimates of how long things will take!


But it was okay, we pressed on (after eating lunch! And started in on some chili and some homemade mac and cheese. And bread was in the oven (and the rolls and pizza dough I let rise, then shaped and threw in the freezer LOL)

The kitchen was hot and on fire. We ended up sort of getting slowed down during all of this - too many pots to watch out for, things going in and out of the oven, little people running all over the place. It sort of got a bit chaotic in there, but we pressed on (seriously, let me pause for a moment and tell you how incredibly amazing my 10 year old and just how much she completely helped me out!! She rocks!)

We then did a second batch of both chili and mac and cheese. Then I made some meatloaf (using a recipe found on-line that I'm nervous about so I won't link it, but I tweaked it a bit because it just didn't look right when we mixed it up!). Then mixed up a different batch of meatloaf that we rolled into meatballs. At this point (roughly 4:15) I remember I forgot to cook the chicken in the crock pot. So I tossed that in.

I had promised my daughter we would without a doubt make pancakes that they could heat for breakfasts. And so at 5 we started pancakes. I ended up doing 8 batches of it - which sounds like a lot, but really, each batch didn't make that much. We did half plain and half chocolate chip - and this ended up being dinner (with scrambled eggs and toast).

After dinner I did a huge pot of turkey and rice soup (that I just make up as I go!). The chicken is now cooked, but I'm not doing anything with it until tomorrow (in which I have some more big plans).

And now - well now I'm sitting and not cooking LOL! All told, we made:
2 loaves wheat bread
2 loaves white bread
40 wheat rolls
28 buttermilk rolls
4 batches chili
2 batches mac and cheese
2 meatloaves
48 meatballs
2 batches turkey and rice soup
a lot of pancakes!

That gives us at least 12 meals. Not bad for a day's work! If, however, I do this again, I will have more of a plan!

Special Project

This week I am working on a very special project that was a request from a friend. So I'll probably be scarce.

With that said, I'll leave some shots of recent finished projects for you all to admire!





That's my sister wearing this prayer shawl. It was my graduation gift to her. She left for college a few weeks ago. I hope she took it with and I hope that she uses it to cuddle up with whenever she may need it!



Knitted socks (not for me though!). My mom asked me to knit them for another relative. So I did! My aunt called and thanked me. I just hope they fit her and they keep her toes nice and warm!

And now for some non-craft items ... last week we made pasta. Yes, made pasta!

Me cutting it - which I wasn't so great at honestly.


Hanging on the hanger. A lot of the pieces actually ended up breaking and falling off.


But, it still tasted yummy!! (also, I'd like to add I made the sauce from tomatoes I canned and zucchini fresh from the garden and that the beans were also fresh from the garden - and my little garden doesn't produce much, but what we do pick from it makes my heart soar!!)

The best compliment I got was from my 6 year old M. She said, and I quote "Wow mom. It tastes like real pasta! Good job!" So cute and I guess they must have been nervous about how it was going to taste ;-)

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back at the end of the week with som fun stuff to show you! =)

Raw Food

So there is this whole raw food movement.
I've heard twitters about here and there, but never thought much of it. The kids aren't too picky, but you know, they are still somewhat picky.
But today, I read about this

over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess and had to eat it. And also, it's hot. And I didn't want to cook LOL!

Thankfully we had everything I needed to make it. Except sun-dried tomatoes. So I searched and I searched on-line. And since 99% of recipes for the marinara sauce needed sun-dried tomatoes, I started to give up hope. But I found one.

I know now why there is only one. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. My family was pretty freaked out that we could eat zucchini as pasta - which was awesome! But the kids didn't eat much. Dh had double helpings (small ones though) and said the sauce kind of killed it for him.

I do, however, have my family's permission to try it again if I can find a better sauce recipe. Amy assures me if I try the same recipe she tried (and is the one that 99% of other people use!) that it will be a much bigger hit.


Last night I made some quinoa tabbouleh that didn't go over so well either. (Way too spicy, even for me!). One child at dinner noted tonight that "I'm so glad we get to go grandma's house tomorrow for dinner. She won't make us try new stuff." Yeah, I laughed at it! But hey, at least we tried.

I will try the zucchini pasta again, and I will try the tabbouleh again too - a less spicy version I hope. Because that we ate in warmed pita pockets, and seriously, if it were toned down a bit, it would have been pure joy to eat!

I heart my husband

Look what I got tonight as a surprise! He doesn't bring me flowers often, but when he does, he always has perfect timing!
I'm tired tonight. And probably a bit cranky. This working gig is HARD (ftr: I have always admired working moms and marveled at how they juggle work and home so well. This only reinforces how I feel about that). But it is wearing me out. It probably doesn't help that the three kids are with me when I work and sometimes that's harder than working frankly.
Also, the camera is still mia. I thought it would be waiting for me when I returned home tonight, but it wasn't there :-( I'm not sure what's going on with that all .... and I'm crossing my fingers it arrives tomorrow).
But my darling husband brought me flowers (and thank goodness for camera phones LOL! So I can show off my gorgeous flowers to you all!!!)
This weekend I don't have to work (yeah!) but my hubby does. So that's a bit sad. But this is a short season in time.
Tomorrow though, I'll be cleaning lots with all my wonderful new cleaning products and I can't wait to do that because my house needs it desperately after the week we have had!

On another note: last night I made 12 pints of quartered tomatoes and 7 pints of applesauce! I have 20 pounds more each of apples and tomatoes to play around with tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'll make for sure. I think I will just do more quartered tomatoes. It's the easiest thing for me to makebut I might also try some apple butter with the apples. And I should get more tomatoes Sunday and I think I'll use those for some spaghetti sauce! =)

Ramblings ...

Oh my darling husband - gave me some great birthday gifts!!
First:

Simply In Season Cookbook
I can't wait to make some recipes in there!! It all looks so yummy!!!

Second:

Complete Canning Set
I have been wanting this since last fall - so I was extremely excited to get it!

Excellent gifts that made me smile for sure! =)

In other news, I'm not sure that I told you, but I am now working weekends out of the house. Overall, it's a good job to have and it's good for me. But, truthfully, I hate it! I hate leaving the house on the two days that my husband is not working. I miss being home and with the family. And it's tiring work! I am so tired! I'm working at a nursery right now - so I'm constantly on my feet and I'm moving plants and helping customers and watering and rearranging and all sorts of fun things like that. Although I am learning a lot about plants. My first weekend (3 weekends ago) I could not answer any questions at all. Now I can answer about, oh, maybe 30% of what I'm asked. Thankfully I never work alone and I can always find someone else to answer the question (and then I listen carefully to try to learn the answer!).

It has come in handy because today we broke up the ground to start preparing for the garden. We have the fence up to keep the bunnies out. And I have brought lots of plants home to go in (I think I have too many actually and I doubt it will all fit, but that's okay! We have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and a few other things. I can't wait to get them in the ground, but for real, the weather has been AWFUL. We haven't had two good days in a row on a weekend yet. May 15 is our frost-free date and well, we aren't planting anything yet because although I doubt it will frost, it is getting down close to 32 around here still.

I promise though take pictures of it through out the season. And I'm hoping we get enough out of to allow me to use that canning kit a LOT as the year progresses. Regardless, I'll be canning lots because I'll get veggies from the same farm I am working at right now.

Aside from all of that, I have been knitting a bit, sewing a bit, and reading a bit lately. Promise to update it all soon, but this week is going to be crazy busy.

AAARRGGGHHHH!!!!

That, my dear readers, is the sound of me screaming!
I really have something to tell you all, but I'm not telling it yet! Monday, on Monday my friends, come back and check in with me. Because hopefully then I'll have something so fun and exciting to tell you. And I swear I am not trying to be mean and doing the whole "I know something you don't know" routine. I'm just about to burst and this is helping me feel less like exploding ...

and just in case - allow me to tell you, I am NOT pregnant. Because if I were, my husband would be pretty upset since, well, we paid a doctor to keep him from getting me pregnant ROFL!

In the mean time, I started something else. And no I shouldn't have started another project with everything I have half-started, but oh well! Here's a picture to tide you over ...



I'm not sure about it yet .... but I'm going to keep plugging along on it! It will be one of my Homemade Christmas gifts so hopefully I can get another gift made quickly! LOL!

Some more yummy things I made this week:
One bag of these:



One helper (and I can't tell you if he is putting the apple pieces in the pan or sneaking one piece to eat because he did his fair share of both! ROFL!)


We filled the pot!


I don't have the end pictures, but 6 big jars of applesauce are in my freezer and one huge jar is in my fridge! Yummy ... there is nothing like homemade applesauce! =)

And oh - the best part ... the bag of apples was 3 bucks! They were all "seconds." Admittedly, there were 4 that just went straight to the trash. A couple had small spots - the rest, I can not for the life of me figure out how they made it to a seconds bag - they were perfect! We did cut up a couple just to eat them! Really, I can't imagine - all that applesauce for 3 dollars! If I'm lucky dh will bring me home another bag just like it tomorrow to make more applesauce with!
=) Yes, we are blessed!

More good things ...

Today I got some of this:



Tonight I chopped it all up, added some sugar, and tomorrow I'll mix it up with this:



And hopefully tomorrow I will have some very yummy rhubarb jam, from a recipe I spotted over at The Ink Spot.

I can NOT wait to taste it.
The very best part of it all - the rhubarb came from a neighbor of granny, who gave me permission to take as much as I wanted as long as I promised to share jam with her. I will admit, that I had hoped the amount of rhubarb I picked would have yielded more than 4 cups of rhubarb, but oh well! Next time I go to granny's I will have to pick some more rhubarb from them (and when I was talking about it today, I was told there might be another source of rhubarb for me to get)! Yummy ... too bad I need to leave it in the fridge overnight, I am really ready to make it now LOL!

PS - anyone here stop baking/cooking with white sugar? The more I read, the more I think I should not use it. But what in the world do I replace it with? And has anyone done it and not regretted it? Thanks!

Today

Today I made something very yummy!
Can you guess what it is ....



I'll give you a hint ...



I made strawberry jam for the first time ever. No one every told me that it would taste this good when it's made at home! Okay, that was a lie, people told me, I just didn't understand until I tasted it today! I had to eat some on a nice piece of toast while it was still warm! LOL! So good!
A store near me has their strawberries on sale for 99 cents a pound. That is a great price around here frankly. I think tomorrow (hoping the sale is still on) I am going back to buy lots and lots of strawberries to make some for the freezer. Just typing it is making me hungry LOL!


In addition to that, I have started a new knitting project



What I hope will become one of quite a few market bags! This is knitting up so quickly and it's a fun project. I can't wait to go shopping with this! =)