Kitty Litter Cake and Brains in a Cup Recipes

I wish I could do my whole Halloween party over again this weekend. Ok, well, maybe not because of all the prep but still, I’ve gotten so many new great food ideas I just want to host a Halloween buffets. Oh, there’s an idea…maybe Halloween night, after school, before Trick-or-Treating. Hum, something to mull over. I’ll definitely be making some bloodied worms, bloody eyeballs and maybe mice meatloaf’s the rest of this week.

As promised, here are the recipes for Kitty Litter Cake and Brains in a cup. Yum!

Kitty Litter Cake

1 Box spice cake mix

1 Box white cake mix

1 Box instant vanilla pudding

1 Container white sandwich cookies

Tootsie rolls in various sizes

Green and Blue food coloring

Bake the cake mixes according to the directions in any pan. Mix the vanilla pudding and chill. Once the cakes have cooled, crumble the cakes together into a large bowl, add the vanilla pudding and mix to combine.

It’s best if you go to the dollar store and buy a new kitty litter pan but a disposable pan will work in a pinch. The scoop is a must in my opinion, it sells the whole thing as a kitty litter pan, plus it really creeps people out to have to serve with it.

In a zip top bag, dump all the sandwich cookies and crush up. This is a great time to get out any buried aggression, not that I have any, just saying. Once they’re pretty pulverized, not into a powder but little chunks, start adding drops of the blue and green food coloring. I usually add 10 or so drops, spread around inside the bag, then reseal it and mix around. Keep adding 10 at a time until the mix is mostly colored. The goal is to get it to look like kitty litter so, some pieces will be darker than others and some will be the sandy color of the white cookies. Dump over the top of the cake spreading evenly.

Now comes the fun part. Unwrap the tootsie rolls, microwave one at a time for 10 seconds then let your imagination run. Twist them into turds, flatten them into piles of diarrhea or dice into little balls like rabbit poop. Use various sizes, combine them, put them next to each other etc. I sometimes mix in one of the green tootsie rolls with one of the brown ones because for some reason, every now and then, cats eat something that causes them to poop something semi-green.

Yum!

Brains in a Cup

2 Box White Cake Mix

2 can’s white frosting

2 cups grape, cherry or strawberry seedless jam

Food Coloring

Clear cocktail cups – disposable or real – or any other clear jar of your choice, jar’s would make a cool specimen looking brain.

Mix the cake mix according to the directions and pour in two 8x11 pans. Drop a few drops of red food coloring onto the surface and swirl a knife in the mix to unevenly distribute.

Bake, then cool.

In a squeeze bottle, heat the jam with 2 tbsp water for 30 seconds. Squeeze a dollop into the bottom of 8 cups.

In a bowl, combine both the white frostings and enough drops of red food coloring to make it pink. Then, scoop a big dollop out into a separate bowl and add two drops of all the food coloring colors. This should produce a black or brown bit of frosting. Mix this back into the pink to produce the delicious brain color.

Using a round cookie cutter slightly larger than the base of the cups, cut out 8 circles, place them on top of the jam dollop in the glasses and drizzle more jam around the edges and onto the top just for taste. Using the top of a spare cup, cut out 8 more circles from the other cake and set aside.

Using a piping bag loaded with your frosting and a #5 round tip, (Walmart, JoAnns or Michales all have these) pipe random swirls, squiggles and lines onto the side of the cup. It doesn’t have to be completely covered. Add in your second circle of cake and then cover it with more brain squiggles.

As the final touch, using a toothpick, drag a line down the center of the frosting then fill the line with a squeeze of your red jam.

Yum!

Halloween

I absolutely love Halloween! I love decorating for it, coming up with creepy food and costumes. This week I hosted BUNCO on Wednesday and a party last night so my house is totally decked out.








My creepy apothecary center piece.



These specimen jars are all over my kitchen and fridge.



One of my favorite things to decorate with is black cut-out's. They're extremely budget friendly, super cute and reusable. The only potential downside is that they're time consuming to cut. Several years back I spent an entire weekend at the kitchen table with my cutting mat, an exact-o knife and several sheets of black and purple poster board cutting out all new decorations. I cut over 100 each of bats, rats and ghosts. I even cut haunted houses with open windows that I backed in yellow so they "glowed." (OCD remember?) I love the rats, they are running all around the baseboards in my house.


Anyone hungry?
Kitty litter cake...








Brains in a cup?


Yum!


I'll share more pictures, some gross recipes and party games in another post soon. For now, after the hospital last weekend, cleaning and cooking for BUNCO and the party, plus Anthony's school festival on Friday night I'm exhausted. I even canceled on going to the pumpkin patch today because I just couldn't muster up the energy. Considering the girls carved pumpkins for the party last night and Anthony loathes carving them it's not a tragedy to cancel but I've always wanted to take them and we were going with another family. Sometimes though, I just can't do it all. I needed today off.

Well, sort of off. I still have a bit of party clean up and I have to show a CL item tonight plus finish the laundry that Glenda the Good witch started for me yesterday. Oh well, sort of an off day.

The slowest time, the loudest sound

I'll never understand why a clock ticks louder when you don't want to hear it. So much of my life flys by with the sounds of my kids, my husbands comforting voice, family, friends and the whirl of an espresso machine. Never, in those moments do I hear the clock.

My G-ma is in the hospital right now and I swear I can hear every tick of every clock in perfect synchrony as if I were listening to it through headphones.

We don't know for sure what's wrong with her or if she'll be released soon. We're playing the waiting game and no one seems to be in a hurry. Last night shortly after midnight when I was racing the paramedics to G-ma's door I swear I could hear the digital clock in my car switching over; 12:41....click, 12:42....click, 12:43....click. Then, after the paramedics evaluated her and had her loaded in the ambulance, they were walking, normal paced walking, back to the fire truck, back to close the ambulance doors and back to the driver seat. The clock wouldn't move, everything was at the same slow pace as the paramedics foot falls. The logical side of my brain reminded me that their lack of hustle meant it wasn't an emergency to race the clock against. Good, right? Except that's my G-ma. Run damn it! Race to the hospital, make her comfortable, fix her and do it fast! But life doesn't work that way.

Now, tonight, she's seemingly better but we're waiting on one Dr. for an evaluation. Run damn it! Race to get her evaluated, make her comfortable, find what's wrong so we can fix it and get out of this clock ticking, machine beeping, sterile smelling prison. Again, logically, I know that the lack of rush means the situation is not an emergency that can be fixed better with quick action. Except that's my G-ma!

I remember being in this same hospital for births, near deaths, surgeries and other life changing events and every time I feel haunted by the damn clocks. The hustle and bustle going on outside the door somehow pails to the tick tock. The t.v volume never gets louder than the clock. Even the cafeteria with its comfort inducing grease food and tables full of people still has over a hundred clocks ticking away.

I remember walking these halls belly first in a hospital gown leaning on my husband and any nearby pillar for support as contractions slowly brought Anthony closer and closer into my arms. I remember counting my toe-socks shuffle down the halls. Counting in time to the clock. Tick, tick, tick. Loathing and relishing every time I wouldn't make it to the next minute before a contraction hit.

To be fair, I have to admit the tick has haunted me outside of these hospital walls. Pappy's wrist watch was hooked up to a megaphone that blasted next to my head each and every tick for each and every hour I laid there with him as he was dying. The comfort of my Papa's house was marred by the same clock so loud I could feel each jarring tick deep with in my bones as we watched the cancer force his good bye.

I wonder, when my time comes, God willing many, many years from now, if I will relish each second I still have surrounded by family or once again loath the tock for each moment it's robbing me of? Or making me wait? Or making my family suffer the sound?

Snickerdoodle cookies

I was on the phone with Brad today when one of his co-workers yelled "Cookies!" from somewhere in the background. Brad said he had mentioned my mega cooking day and the boys asked for: Cookies! Usually they request monkey bread or soup. I often bring in food the day before Brad has a day off. I tell the office they can help themselves to the food only if they don't bother Brad on his day off. Sometimes it works. Sometimes.
Tonight, after being forced into slave yard labor today, I wanted to make something yummy, quick and that I had all the ingredients on hand for. Snickerdoodles it was. Typically they call for baking soda and cream of tartar but my soda was flat ( you can tell if you put a tsp into water and it doesn't bubble right away) and I'm pretty sure my cream of tartar has seen 10 years inside my cabinet. This recipe came from Joy if Baking and used baking powder instead. Great cookie, but tastes more like a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon-sugar than a true snickerdoodle. Oh well, I'm betting the guys at work won't complain.





Snickerdoodles:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Coating:
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 to 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.

Shape the dough into 1 inch round balls.

Coating: In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon. I use a paper plate to roll the dough in the cinnamon sugar but a bowl works too.

Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar and place on a parchment paper lined pan, (or buttered piece of foil if you're out of parchment - like me) spacing about 2 inches apart.




I put the pans into the freezer for a few min's to keep them from spreading too much when cooked.

Bake the cookies for about 6-8 minutes, or until they are light golden brown and firm around the edges. The centers of the cookies will still be a little soft. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.


Yum!

(Yes, there's a hand in my jar of popcorn, isn't it creepy? I love Halloween!)

Letting my inner lazy out.

“Today I don’t feel like doing anything

I just wanna lay in my bed.”

(Lyrics from Bruno Mars: The Lazy Song)

Yea, that’s me today, not gonna do any thing, well, I’m going to download a new book and if my day goes to plan, I’m going to read the entire thing today. Yesterday’s mega cooking day was exhausting both physically and mentally for oh so many reasons that I am giving up on today and just going to let my inner lazy out. Thankfully I cleaned up the entire house, did all the laundry and micro-scrubbed the kitchen on Monday so the damage from one lazy day isn’t going to be massive. I still have a million and one things to do before next week but I just can’t muster up the enthusiasm to care today. I’m going to curl up in my reading chair and let my kids vegg out with Sponge Bob.

It actually takes mental effort for me to be lazy. I’m sitting on the sofa right now and there are three pieces of trash on the floor, the mixer is still out from when I unloaded last night and I think the breakfast dishes are still on the counter. I actually need to distract myself in order to not focus on cleaning up, hence the book for today. A good ‘ol trashy, sappy, girly romance ought to be a perfect source of distraction. Lets hope the house doesn’t fall apart from one day of laziness…

Mega cooking day

Tomorrow’s another mega cooking day. It feels like it has been forever since we’ve done one and my freezer definitely needs it. I’ve been so lax on cooking lately because so much of my attention has been on homework with Anthony and furniture for flipping. We had a yard sale this weekend to try and weed out our furniture inventory but most of our large items weren’t priced to move at a yard sale. People were looking for the type of deal we first purchased the items for not the price we’re now charging.

Anyways, tomorrow there is three of us cooking so hopefully we’ll get a lot done. The plan is:

Banana Bread/Muffins

Apple Bread/Muffins

6 Apple Crisps

Apple Sauce

White Chicken Chili

Chili (beef and bean)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

6 Lasagnas

12 Mini-Pizzas

18 Chicken pot pies

Shredded BBQ pork

Shredded taco pork

6 Enchilada pies

I’m going to try to take some pictures as we go to show our madness, or method, how ever you choose to view it.

Earning my Keep

This flipping business is hard work. Ok, well maybe not hard work, but harder than I thought. I’m on Craigslist (CL for short – and trust me I type it so many time a day I need a shortcut somewhere in my life) all the time and have gone into so many disgusting homes my skin is dried out from the gallons of sanitizer and extra showers. Ironically I’m not a hand sanitizer person, just don’t believe in the hype of it, but I actually now carry some in my car for when I leave a house. I went into one yesterday or the day before, looking at a solid wood toy chest advertised as “good” condition. Their idea of “good” condition included a cat pee stain(s) inside the toy chest leaving it smelling of a litter box. Can you just imagine what the house looked like if that’s what they considered “good?”

Yea, I used sanitizer after that one.

Not all of them are bad, most are nice houses and nice people. Occasionally we get a weirdo or two but that’s why we use our safety precautions. But, not all nice houses or nice people equate to clean furniture. I bought a sofa sectional from a really nice guy and his wife. They listed the sofa on CL, plus listed a yard sale. I contacted them immediately. It was a beautiful curved microfiber sectional sofa, less than 3 years old, used in a ‘fancy’ living room only. They had the price low (not so low that we questioned the quality or circumstances – trust me, those are factors) so I set up to go see it first thing. Long story short, after multiple conversations with the couple, multiple visits to their clean house, I bought the sofa for even less than advertised. We moved it, staged it with beautiful pillows, a colorful blanket and a crisp background, and then moved it again. Before the person came to see it, it was my job to set it back up, clean it up in any way it needed. Mostly just combing the fabric, it was a microfiber so the direction of the fibers dictates the color; they all have to be the combed the same way. Plus there were a few water spots and one spot I had to scrub. Now, keep in mind, I had picked this up and moved it three times before this person was coming to see it: once when I bought it, once to stage it and once to set it up prior to sale.  I wasn’t there for the final sale and I’m so glad I wasn’t, I think I would have puked! When the person came to see it, she had the smart idea to move the cushions. (Um, why didn’t I think of that? I assumed since I’d moved it 3 times, flipped it over about as many times and there was never a twitch in the cushions that they didn’t come off) Guess what she found? Food and used Q-tips. Bleh!!! So, not only did we (not me thank goodness) have to play cool about the gunk but had to pick up the Q-tips as if they belonged to one of us. Bleh!!! Thankfully, the person had a good sense of humor about it and still purchased the sofa for more than double what we paid. But, seriously, Bleh!

Most of the work is in the staging of the photos. We firmly believe that a good, clean, crisp background is the key to a good sale. If it’s a decent piece of furniture but the house is a disaster and there’s junk all over it, no one’s going to pay more than $20. Clean it up, stage it with nice accents, make the house look nice in the background and the same piece of furniture can go for $100-$200. I kid you not! All of that means though, that I have to have a place to put all these tables, sofas, hutches, book cases, etc…And, a place that has a good, clean background and polished accents. The accents aren’t such a task but, moving my furniture out of the way, setting up the new one, wrangling up the kids out of the picture, moving the toys, making sure the dog is out of the way, the floors are vacuumed, the counter in the back is clear, the mirror doesn’t have hand prints on it…its exhausting! Plus, after all that, I have to take back down the piece and put back my things, then do it all again when a potential buyer shows up. None of that includes the pieces that need work. Some need cleaning – real cleaning- some need polishing, sanding and or re-covering. Yea, we’ve made good money but I’m earning my keep for sure!

On a completely separate side note, Anthony has started receiving prank calls from girls. Yep, my little innocent 10 year old boy is getting prank calls from girls at school. They’re calling my number (it’s listed as the primary contact in the school directory) pretending to be another boy in Anthony’s class and then giggling like only a pre-teen girl can. It would be cute if it wasn’t annoying. It would be endearing if it wasn’t the beginning of the end. Right around the corner is the crying girls wanting to know why my son broke their heart, and my son’s heart getting broken. Oh joy!

Peanut Butter Pad Thai Chicken

Sorry for the dirty chalk board, I didn’t get around to scrubbing it. J

This is one of my favorite dinners. Its not authentic by any stretch but it is a far cry from our standard dinners. Often I make this with a pork roast in the crock pot but the chicken tenders make a great quick meal out of this. The sauce is so versatile as well. Thin it out with a little rice wine vinegar and it’s a killer salad dressing. Serve it as a dipping sauce for the kids with veggies and crackers. I even love it over cooked cauliflower or carrots. Yum!

3-4 Chicken Breasts or 6-8 Chicken Tenders

1 each Red and Yellow bell pepper chopped

¼ onion, chopped

1 bunch Cilantro

Ginger (1 tsp powder or an inch fresh – diced)

2 garlic cloves

Limes (1/4 cup lime juice plus lime wedges for garnish)

1 cup Peanut butter

½ cup Soy Sauce

1-2 tsp Hot Sauce

2 tsp Agave Nectar (or Brown Sugar)

In a large sauce pan, add some oil (olive is my choice) the peppers, onion, ½ the cilantro and chicken, cook on medium heat until cooked thru. If the chicken is frozen, add some broth or water to the pan to help steam it thru.

In a bowl mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, hot sauce, nectar and lime juice.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the ginger and garlic. Stir in ½ the peanut sauce.

Serve over buttered noodles. Garnish with a fresh dollop of sauce, cilantro, lime wedges and some red pepper flakes for the adult plates.

Yum!

And….STOP!

Phew! It’s been a whirl wind around here the last 5 days. Wednesday was BUNCO! My grandma hosted this time so most of the beginning of the week was spent at her house cleaning and setting up. The entire time we’re cleaning, painting over spots on the wall, re-arranging and basically exhausting ourselves we’re cursing at each other for getting this worked up over guests. Not even guests, family! It’s the same as I talked about before (the desire to be perfect) and even though we recognize it we can’t help ourselves. The bennifit? My G-ma has beautifully clean, organized and well manicured house for the next month or so. My house is next month and I can’t wait. It’s a Halloween themed BUNCO and I absolutely love decorating my house for Halloween, its my favorite!

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping on Craigslist and yard sales. We bought three dining room tables plus chairs, one sectional sofa, two rugs and three sets of bunk beds! Sadly, the partridge didn’t make with the pear tree. Everything was bought for a steal and we’re reselling almost all of it for double or more. The bunk beds were my favorite find. The guy had three sets (for each of his three daughters) plus each set came with another twin bed. So in total it was 9 solid wood beds. I kept one set to replace the girls old set (that I sold) and am selling the other two plus each individual single bed. Here’s a picture:

The other favorite was a Copenhagen table with 8 chairs. It’s perfect for someone’s Thanksgiving dinner. It’s really hard to not buy for ourselves when we’re looking. There are so many cute things! I did get a rug for my living room (courtesy of my G-ma, she bought it as a birthday present for me – which my birthday isn’t until November but we couldn’t turn down the good deal!) otherwise the rest is for resale.

My new rug (with the sofa I've sold but not moved out yet):

We’re having a bit of a storage issue but hopefully things will sell with in the next week or so. Tomorrow is our first Storage Unit Auction. I am so excited for it! Not sure if we’ll bid or just observe but I’ve been reading up on pointers all day! My only worry is where in the heck we’re going to store let alone stage things if we do buy. Staging items is half the sale. We have to make the items look appealing or they won't go for our asking price. Think about it, would you rather buy the sofa pictured above or the same sofa pictured in a stuffed garage upside down with boxes all around it? Plus you have to have a clean house when someone comes to view the item. Maybe some baking bread or cookies in the oven.

All of this on top of regular life: school, cooking, cleaning, crafting, reading stories, playing and sleeping at some point.

And…GO!

Weekly meal plan 9/26/11

Monday – Shredded pork quesadillas with side salad

Tuesday –  Pad Thai noodles with peanut butter chicken

Wednesday – Broiled Salmon with asparagus

Thursday – Abondigas soup

Friday – Unknown (haven’t figured out what we’re doing yet so no meal plan)

Saturday – Dinner at my inlaws – I’m making the dessert: Peanut Butter spice cake

Sunday – Shredded Pork (left-over) enchiladas

Depending on my day tomorrow, I plan on posting pictures of the Pad Thai instructions. I'll also post the abondigas soup and enchiladas as I make them. Yum!

I’m a mean mom

I’m a mean mom, I’ve accepted this fact and I guess, my kids will too. I can hear my mom telling me “Be careful what you say, if you say you’re mean, your kids will think you’re mean, if you say you’re nice they’ll think you’re nice. To an extent she’s right and I usually try to live by that but in this case, I think I’m ok with being a mean mom.

Anthony’s mid-term grades came in Friday. I knew something was up when he greeted me at the door with head hung low. “Hi, Mooooom.” (You know, that long drawn out ‘O’ that’s accompanied with a frown.) He handed me a packet of paper and said that it was grades. Obviously, being one of the sharper pencils in the box, I figured out that they weren’t good but he’s always hard on himself so I still had high hopes.

Yea, I should have listened to him. They were bad. Really bad.

(Ok, don’t panic.)

Me: “Anthony it’s Friday night, you’re spending the night at Grannie and B-pa’s and me and Dad are going on a date. We’ll talk about this tomorrow after the party.

Nothing like putting off today what you can do tomorrow. Plus I needed a bit to read thru it and compose my response.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon after the party for my niece and nephew.  

(By the way, the Oreo Truffles turned out great again.

I’m getting this down to a science! I whipped out 80+ in just a few hours. I even had time to tie cute little rainbow colored ribbons on the end of the sticks.)

The grades were actually a bit better than I thought. The letters were still bad (D’s and F’s) but it’s not because of lack of understanding it’s from not turning in papers. I was worried that somehow in the few weeks of school and homework I’d been missing some major struggles somewhere. I was relieved that the individual papers he has turned in were all A’s or B’s but seriously disappointed that it all went down hill because of not turning in work. Work I knew he’d done because his teacher and I check off his daily log every day. So, we set an organization plan in place to help him find his work and get it turned in on time as well as a plan for the teacher to keep me informed if something’s missing so I can help hold Anthony accountable.

There’s a fine line between hand-holding and supporting. We try really hard to help Anthony be successful but not do it for him. He is the type of kid who has serious organization issues, serious! I could dump out his folder every day, organize it and go thru each paper with him but I don’t. It’s his job. My job is to look at the tracker and help with the homework. Honestly though, it’d just rather do it for him. I know he would get much better grades if I did but that’s not the point. (Right?)

That solved the issue but we still had to deal with the consequences. That’s why he was hanging his head on Friday, he knew those grades weren’t acceptable and he was going to be in trouble. (At least I’m a predictable parent, right?) So, grounded it was. Grounded from video games, lap-top (other than homework) and choice in T.V. The last one is a bit sketchy because its not that he’s grounded from T.V. because its always on in our house (yea, I know, I know) its that he does not get a say in what’s on or get to turn it on when we are not watching it.  Regardless, he accepted his punishment and the terms: Grounded until grades improve to above at least a ‘C.’ His teacher assured me that if he stays on trend with the quality of his work and turns in everything from here on out, his quarter grades will come up easily. Still, he has a long road to go.

We’ve talked about grades for years, discussing what would happen if he got bad grades. I’ll admit that I don’t really want to punish him for this; I think his work is good it’s just the missing assignments. I kind of envisioned the whole punishment for grades thing would be for lack of trying or being too distracted to study and do homework appropriately, thus grounding would solve the distraction issue. But, because we’ve said for the past 3 years that bad grades are punishable offenses in our house I kind of had to follow thru.

Yesterday, he came home from school, did his homework and had to do his daily chores. Yes, he has daily chores. Not to be confused with weekly chores. Daily he’s responsible for emptying the dishwasher, taking out the trash, cleaning the rabbit cage and switching the loads of laundry. Weekly he has to clean his room. (I mentioned I’m a mean mom, right?) We don’t pay for chores either. He can do extras around the house to earn money but we’ve always said that regular chores are part of life, (no one pays adults to keep a clean house) so no money for chores.

Anyways, mid-chores, he started talking about a friend at school who’s “so lucky!” Said friend (supposedly) never gets grounded no matter what and gets paid (Paid!) for every chore he has to do. All this was said with that oh-so-sly sideways glance. That one that all pre-teens master that both sneaks a peak at parents as well as gauges if that parent is buying any of the b.s. spewing from the pre-teen. Obviously, I figured, this was a ploy to see if I felt sympathy for poor grounded Anthony and as a doubly whammy, to see if I could be guilted into paying him for chores. Thankfully his peripheral vision is right on and he could see that I wasn’t buying it. I was smiling that closed lip smile, raising my eyebrows and shaking my head yes. (Come on Mom’s – you know that look – the , oh-yea-right-nice-try look) I was mentally gearing up for the same discussion we’ve had before about these subjects figuring I’d have to once again reiterate that dad and I’ve chosen our parenting style based on our believes on what’s best for our children and we can’t judge what other parents decide nor can Anthony compare his childhood to another kids. (Blah, blah, blah) Before I could begin my soap box speech, Anthony said: “But I know mom, it’s just who you and dad are. You’re preparing me for real life and teaching me about responsibility and all that junk.”

Aside from the “junk” I was totally impressed. He even said it serious and with out the eye roll. I fought the urge to defend the other parent, not wanting Anthony to think that the parents of the other kid were not preparing the kids for real live and teaching their child about responsibility but I had to remember this was a 10 year old. He wasn’t making that mental leap; it never even crossed his mind. So, I held my tongue, told him he was right, I ground him and don't pay him for chores because I love him. I then reminded him he still needed to take the trashes out.

Maybe being a mean mom isn’t so bad at least its not if they get why I'm mean.

Rainy days

Rainy days are rare around this part of the desert so it's hard to not stop and enjoy them when they occur. The past 10 days or so have been off and on rainy and although I was sick a few of those days I have not yet had a chance to cuddle up and enjoy. Today, I took that chance. Kenna was extremely whiney from the moment she woke up so to appease her and pamper my inner laziness, we cuddled on the couch all day. It was blissful. We watched cartoons, ate junk food, played and took a long nap with the window open to the drizzling rain.

I woke this morning with determination in my step. I drank my coffee and wrote my daily list. (Does anyone else do this? I'm a huge list person, if I have to motivate myself or just organize my head, I make lists.) Todays list included sewing, clipping and organizing coupons for a mega shopping trip, taking pictures of Anthony's room and sanding my crafting hutch.

I accomplished none of them.

Instead I made my big kids (Anthony and Alana) laugh, snuggled my little girls, read a steamy romance and enjoyed a blissfully lazy day.

Tomorrow, oh tomorrow, Friday. I get to run full speed into yesterday's list, add in 50-60 Oreo truffles, laundry and cleaning up for the weekend. Plus, Brad and I get a date night so somewhere in there I have to wash away the housewife and primp myself into date material. If I hadn't been lazy all day today I'd be exhausted just thinking about tomorrow!

Lemon-licious!

Yesterday I mustered up the courage to tackle the girls room and actually accomplished the task. (Somewhere in there I forgot to start the lemon curd so we had stirfry last night instead.) I cleaned it all out and took out a whole box of donation toys. Seriously, I don’t know where these toys came from, I swear I just cleaned it all out a month or two ago and yet there was still an entire box full of things to donate. I haven’t figured out a storage solution for their stuff yet, its still too easy for them to make a mess. I need something for their million baby dolls and something else for their toys. Either way, I got it all cleaned up and semi organized into some bins in the closet. I did have a bit of motivation considering someone was coming at 7p to look at the bunk beds. What ever works right? The person liked the beds and will be back to pick them up on Sunday since it was pouring down rain last night. I sold it for double what I bought them for. Yea! Now I’m searching for new, new, bunk beds for them.

Today, I started the lemon curd (yea for remembering!) and worked in Anthony’s room all day finishing the painting. The only thing left is to sew his curtains and that’s first on my list tomorrow. After that I’ll post some pictures, I think it looks pretty awesome and he’s super proud of it.

With the lemon curd I made lemon chicken for dinner and a lemon and dark chocolate tart as a sweet treat. I really need to stop cooking. Every time I find a new recipe, like this one, I cook myself out of a dinner out. Brad’s theory is why go out to dinner when I can make it so much better at home. I really need to be a bad cook, then we’d go out to dinner more often and I’d get a break. Oh well, regardless, it was a delish dinner. One I guarantee I’ll be making again and tweeking, like maybe orange curd into orange chicken. Yum!

Luscious Lemon Curd in the Crock Pot

(Curd is not as gross as it sounds, its basically a lemon jam/jelly)

3 Large Lemons

6 tbsp butter room temperature (or nuked for 10 seconds)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yoks

Zest all the lemons.

If you don’t have a zester, use a very sharp knife and take off just the yellow part, the white is bitter. (Get a zester, totally worth it) Juice the lemons. In your mixing bowl, or with a hand held mixer, blend the butter until soft, add the sugar and blend for 2 min’s. Add the eggs and egg yokes, mix until incorporated, being sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so everything gets mixed. Next add 2/3 cup lemon juice. Reserve the rest for use later – like lemon chicken! The mixture will curdle, don’t stress, it’s suppose to. Pour the entire mixture into your crock pot and put on warm or low.

This is not something you can “set it and forget it” but it’s not nearly as intensive as regular lemon curd. Just stir every hour or so until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon or 175 degrease. Mine took a little over 5 hours on warm. Transfer to an air tight container, mix in 2 tbsp zest and cool. It will keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

It’s perfect over toast, great swirled into cheesecake, wonderful with shortbread or perfect with a spoon. J

Lemon Chicken (adopted from a Rachel Ray recipe) No fancy pictures - sorry

3-4 large chicken breast diced

¼ cup flour

2 tsp powder ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Vegetable oil

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

½ cup chicken broth (1 Knorr broth cube and ½ cup water)

1 cup lemon curd

2 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp lemon juice

1 lemon sliced into rings (I used the left over lemon from juicing)

3 green onions diced

In a zip lock bag combine the flour, ginger, salt and pepper. Add the chicken, seal the bag and shake to coat. In a wok or large pan, heat the oil, add the chicken and cook until brown. Remove the chicken. Add the vinegar and broth. Mix in the lemon curd, juice, rings and zest. Add back in the chicken, stir to coat and cook for 5 min’s. Serve over rice with the diced green onions.

Shortbread

2 cups flour

½ cup powder sugar

2 sticks butter softened

Dash of salt

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

In your mixer bowl add the softened butter, mix until fluffy. Add the sugar, (slowly!), mix until combined. Add the salt and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and mix for 1 min. Pour out onto a strip of saran wrap.

Using your hands compress into a disk and cover with more saran wrap.

Refrigerate for at least hour.

Roll flat and cut out cookies or press into a buttered tart pan. Bake at 375 until just starting to brown on the edge.

Dip in chocolate or serve with lemon curd….or both! I made a tart, spread the remaining lemon curd over it and drizzled it with dark chocolate. Yum!

Weekly meal plan

Weekly meal plan 9/12

Monday : Spaghetti with Sicilian Sausages
Tuesday: Lemon chicken over rice with stir-fry veggies
Wednesday: Beef Fajitas (Safeway has London broil steaks on mega sale)
Thursday: Cranberry pork tenderloin with brussel sprouts
Friday: Dinner out - potential Date Night!
Saturday: B-Day party for my niece and nephew - I think I'm making Oreo Truffels
Sunday: Dinner at my parents

Tomorrow I'm making fresh lemon curd to use in the lemon chicken so I'll post the recipe for it tomorrow once I make it.

Camping trip - take 2

After over a week of sickness we were all feeling a bit cooped up so we really needed to get out and get away even just for a bit. Hailey’s fever finally broke Thursday so we decided to go thru with our original plans for a camping trip this weekend. We booked the reservation a month ago and had several extended family members that were going. I had previously volunteered to cook breakfasts for the group for the two days but had done nothing to prep for it the entire week. So, between late Thursday afternoon and early Friday morning, I whipped together crust less quiches, French toast casseroles, a few loaves of banana, cranberry-walnut and chocolate chip quick breads and packed enough eggs to scramble one morning. We keep all of our camping stuff ready to go in a few camping boxes so all I had to do was throw them into the truck, add our pillows, a few extra blankets and the ice chests and we were ready to go by Friday afternoon.

I had hoped the girls would nap on the way to the lake but, no such luck. The lake is a small canyon lake about 1 ½ miles away from our home. We got 30 min’s away when I realized I forgot Haileys antibiotic so we had to turn around. The girls were asleep, but woke up as soon as I pulled back up into the drive. After that there was no hope of a longer nap.

The lake is one I went to often with my parents when I was a kid. Since it’s so close to home it’s an easy get away, plus it’s about 15 degrees cooler. On the drive Friday, I thought I had taken a wrong road and was concerned that I had my directions wrong. That was until I turned one corner and was instantly an 8 year old little girl riding on the top bunk of my parents cab-over-camper. I had an instant déjà vu experience and it’s ironic because the little spot that was so vivid in my memory is really not even close to the lake nor is it a significant spot in the road but I assume it was close enough to the lake that my brothers and I would either wake up or just take notice and start watching for the lake itself. We use to compete to see who could glimpse water first.

We got in around 3pm, my mom-in-law was already set up with her camper so she helped me put up the tent, cot’s and air matterss. (I said I liked camping, doesn’t mean I like roughing it!) We then headed over to the beach for a swim. The water was crisp but not cold. The beach area was the exact same as when I was a kid, I bet the buoys are the same. As we were coming back from the beach the clouds started rolling in. It was a magnificent site to behold. I wish I had remembered my camera. The clouds were a beautiful deep blue fading to a cream tipped with bronze. They were rolling in looking like a gigantic wave from the south. It was almost like one of those end of the world paintings where the four horseman of the apocalypse ride in on a wave of clouds from heaven. Poetic huh?

Needless to say, we hunkered down in the camper and enjoyed the storm. The rest of my in-laws drove in around 7pm. We were all pretty exhausted so we called it an early night. Once the storm let up a bit I ventured out to the tent only to discover that the raging storm had soaked our blankets. So, back into the camper for a snuggled night of sleep. Thankfully, the camper was large enough to accommodate our extra bodies, with a little creativity. All in all, we had 9 people comfortably sleeping by 10pm. By 11pm, Hailey was up coughing and crying. She was non-stop off and on until 2am. I felt so bad for her and for everyone else being sleep deprived in our tent. If possible I think I would have packed her up and gone home but to quiet my lingering cough I had taken a swig of Niquil so driving was out of the question. Looking back, I think Hailey was more over tired than anything else. Skipping her nap, swimming and running around camp until we went to bed at 10 was just too much for her.

Saturday we swam, napped in the AC’d trailer (Yea!) and socialized with various members of Brad’s extended family that were camping around us. Hailey made fast friends with several little girls in a camp across the way from us. Makenna was found several times wondering away into strangers campsites asking for treats. She eventually suckered me into a root beer and was unfortunately rewarded with a bee sting on her lip. Poor girl! Thankfully she did not have an allergic reaction as both Anthony and I are allergic to bee’s. She screamed, cried and cuddled with me for an hour while I held ice to her lip and watched her closely. We were not graced with a visit from her alter-ego Commando Girl, just sweet, drive-her-momma-crazy, fun-loving Kenna.

Anthony and Brad had a Boy Scouts meeting they had to attend Saturday afternoon so they didn’t get to join us at camp until Saturday evening. The rain made a second showing Saturday night but not nearly as fierce. It settled down just as Brad was pulling in so we got to light up the camp fire, roast marshmallows and sit under the stars. I had secured the tent a bit better so everything was dry in the tent. Anthony didn’t want to set up his little pup-tent so he had thrown the futon mattress into the back of dad’s truck and slept snuggled in there. The rain drizzled on and off all night and Hailey slept sound all night. It was a magical night’s sleep. Waking up at 6 was easy after such a good night.

A good breakfast of French toast casserole and eggs, a last swim and quick pack up and we were on the road home by noon.

A bit soggy, a few whiney moments, one tough night sleep and one blissfull one all equils an overall great trip.  Much better than our first attempt at camping. I think we might actually be getting the handle on this. Maybe by next year we will actually be able to camp with out stress. (Yea right! What in my life is ever done with out some amount of stress!)

Back to reality tomorrow. I have to get the tornado-stricken house under control. Brad commented that although he completely understands why it happened, it amazed him how quickly our house goes to hell in a hand bag if I’m out of commission. I’m hoping to get Anthony’s room complete, start if not finish my new crafting cabinet and help my mom prep for her purge-all yard sale. More on that one later.

Labor Day Weekend

For this past glorious three day weekend, we planned to BBQ with friends, swim, do some yard work, go shopping, watch new movies and eat good food. Instead, I ended up with a very bad stomach flu and everyone but Anthony got an upper repertory cold. So far no one has gotten the stomach flu aside from me thank goodness. I don’t know if this is the bug from two weeks ago resurfacing or another bug that decided to take up residency but I can’t remember the last time I have had a stomach flu this bad. Poor Brad had to spend his whole three day weekend playing Mr. Mom.

What a wonderful Mr. Mom he is too. He may not be a Mr. Betty Crocker but he can still make some delicious dinners. (Not that I was eating anything but the kids were happy.) He went grocery shopping with both girls, did dishes, laundry, cooking and took care of the kids while I slept on the bathroom floor. Although I would have given just about anything to not have been sick, I love it when he’s so domesticated.

 I know he appreciates what I do but times like this give him a refresher course in walking life in my flip flops. He was appalled at how fast money went in the grocery store, watched the dishes pile up in an ever-dirty kitchen and witnessed my fornicating laundry.  Despite not feeling well himself, I think he was secretly a bit happy to go back to work on Tuesday. Now if we could only find a way for me to slip into his loafers for a day with out the tech world ending maybe I would get a better appreciation of his work stresses. As it is, I still need his help to set up my printer so I don’t think it’d be a good idea.

This morning is the first time in 5 days I haven’t woken up with a major headache so I’m feeling pretty good. My main concern right now is Hailey. She is still alert and taking in fluids but her cough is so bad that if she cries or tries to play, she can’t breathe. So, we’re going to the doctor this afternoon. For now, she’s confined to my bed with vicks vapor rub on her chest, ginger tea with honey in a travel coffee mug and the humidifier humming in the background. Somewhere in there is re-runs of Sponge Bob and a scattering of books to keep her entertained.

She won’t let me stray far from her, I think she’s a bit scared by the whole thing too, so I’m not gaining much ground on my very neglected house but she’s my priority. Some where in this week, I need to cook for our camping trip this weekend, that is if it even happens. I just don’t want to decide last minuet that everyone’s well enough and we are going and have nothing prepared. I’d rather cook it all and freeze it for later if need be. We are going with about 20 other people and I’m in charge of breakfasts for both days. Thankfully, I can make easy casserole quiches, cinnamon rolls and French toast casserole. I’ll cook scrambled ‘cheese eggs’ at camp to go with the French toast on Sunday.

When I get a free moment, I have to share with you my success in making plum sauce with the plums from Bountiful Baskets Plumy Paradise pack. I also figured out how to make homemade crab-cream-cheese rangoons that were to die for. I could have made an entire meal out of the rangoons dipped in the plum sauce.

Fresh roasted chiles

The markets are brimming with hatch chiles this time of year and if you’re lucky, your grocery store even fresh roasts them for you. Our local Safeway smells divine because of the roasting chiles out front. (That is if you don’t walk over by the floral department where they have the disgustingly over scented cinnamon pine cones on display in preperation for Christmas. Yes, Christmas already!)

If you purchased the Bountiful Basket 30# burlap sack of chiles or prefer to buy them raw from your local market you can easily roast them at home. The best way is to toss them onto a roaring hot bbq grill. Keep turning them until they are black and charred. If you don’t have a bbq or prefer not to use it, crank on your broiler and place your chiles on a baking pan on the second shelf. Turn often and remove once blackened. Put the blackened chilies directly into a zip top bag. Seal and place on top of a dish rag with another dish rag on top. Leave them to sit for 20 min’s or so. The steam will separate the skin from the chili flesh.

Once the 20 min’s is up, run the chiles under cool water and remove the blackened skin. I prefer to use medical gloves for this so I don’t smell like chiles for the next two days. That and I have a really bad habit of rubbing my eyes – yea, ouch! I typically pull the stem off at this point too. Most of the seeds come with the stem. Leaving some seeds is fine.

From here, the possibilities are endless! Dice and freeze them in 1 cup increments to use in dishes that call for a can of chiles. Freeze whole and flat on a baking sheet then transfer to a zip top bag for later chile rellenos. The frozen chiles will keep for 6 months to a year.

Here are a few of my previously posted recipes that call for green chiles:

Calabacitas - Mexican Squash soup 

Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken -  The original recipe calls for jalapeños but the roasted hatch chiles make a great substitute.

Green Chili Corn Bread - perfect with chili (That's with an i as in the meat/bean stew made best over a campfire - preferably by hunky cowboys)

Also, you can:

Add to eggs for a southwest breakfast – good combined with chorizo, potatoes and cheese in a breakfast burrito

Add a cup of diced chiles with 4 cups of sweet corn, diced cilantro, juice of a lime and some salt and pepper for a great side dish.

Add a cup of diced chiles to 2 rinced cans of black beans, juice of a lime, 1 tsp cumin powder and 1 tsp onion powder. Another great side dish or addition to fajitas.

I have done a version of chiles rellenos before with poblanos from Bountiful Baskets but the recipe works with the hatch chilies as well. The hatch are a bit smaller so sometimes I layer it more like a casserole or lasagna than try to stuff the smaller peppers. I have never successfully made the stuffed, fried chiles rellenos you get in the mexican restaurants. They always fall apart on me and ooze all the cheesy goodness into the oil and although I'm a fan of good fried food now and then, fried cheese just doesn't work.

For an all in one casserole try:

1 chicken breast cooked and shredded or diced very small

½ brick of cream cheese - softened

2 cups cheddar jack cheese

1 cup Cotija cheese

2 boxes jiffy corn bread mix

1 can cream of corn

1 can corn - rinsed

1 bunch cilantro

2 eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups salsa or 2 cans of RoTel.

20 roasted chilies

Mix the chicken, cream cheese, 1 cup cheddar jack cheese, 1/2 cup of cotija cheese and ½ the cilantro, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the jiffy, corn, eggs and milk. In a lasagna pan, pour the salsa/RoTel (I prefer to puree the RoTel, I’m not a chunky tomato fan) then pour ½ the batter. Lay 10 chilies, open, flat, layered over each other on top of the batter. Then, carefully drop spoonfuls of the chicken mixture all over the chilies. Add another layer of chilies on top then pour on the rest of the batter. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 min’s until the corn bread is set and golden brown. Let the casserole cool down a bit before slicing. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro and green onions.

Bountiful Baskets Organic Bananas Bread

It’s that time again, time to order Bountiful Baskets. I still haven’t used up most things from the last basket. I still have almost all of my plumbs from the plumby paradise pack. I plan on making:

Asian Plum Sauce

Plumb Tart

Plumb freezer jam (to use in jam thumbprints for Christmas cookies)

This week I’m going to make lettuce wraps and crab rangoons for dinner one night to serve with my homemade plumb sauce. Yum! That's about as far as I've gotten with meal planning so far. Check back tomorrow for the rest of the weeks meals plus ideas for the beautiful hatch chilies that the grocery stores are brimming with. Tonight I served an ultra intensive, gourmet meal...Tuna sandwiches on toasted buns.

For now, my organic bananas from the basket two weeks ago turned brown super fast, before we could eat them. (Which is a surprise considering how fast my monkeys go thru bananas!) So, I froze them for later.

Today I made ‘Bountiful Banana Bread.’

6-8 brown bananas (thawed if they were frozen)

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp nutmeg

½ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

Topping:

1 cup oatmeal

2 tbsp flour

¼ cup butter (softened)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix the bananas, vanilla, butter, sugar and eggs. Add in the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix until just combined. Don’t over mix once you add the flour in otherwise the final product is tough not tender. Pour into greased loaf pan, muffin pan or mini loaf pans until ¾ full.

Mix (hand are best) the topping ingredients until combined. Sprinkle on top of the uncooked batter, pressing in only slightly to help it stick.

Bake in 350 degree oven.

Regular loaf pan – 45-50 min’s

Muffins – 25-30 min’s

Mini loaf pans 30-35 min’s

Till tooth pick inserted in the center* comes out clean.

*Last week was our best friends birthday. That particular day she happened to be working a double shift and her husband was in night school so we were babysitting her kids for the evening. Well, Brad was babysitting I was out for the night. Her oldest, my beautiful niece Alana, wanted to make a birthday cake for her mom to eat when she got home. Alana mixed up everything on her own and got it into the oven. The details from there are a bit sketchy. I’m not sure if a timer was set, for how long or if it was just ignored. Alana claims Brad said he checked the cake, Brad claims he told Alana to check it. Regardless, after blowing out the candles and cutting into the cake at 9 at night after a double shift, it was soup in the middle! Alana was so disappointed. It turned into a laughable forever memory as they picked out the cooked edges of the cake but I’m not sure Alana will bake a cake with Brad again.

What can I say, the man is married to Betty Crocker, he doesn’t have to be Betty. J

Craigslist = Starbucks

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA this week. I’ve been fighting a very illusive stomach bug. No, not pregnant, just can’t seem to get on top of this virus. Needless to say, the menus around here have been broth for me and catch what you can for everyone else. Nothing blog worthy.

In between dying on the couch and random cleaning spurts, I’ve been shopping. Craigslist shopping to be exact. I mentioned before that we bought the girls a bunk bed and Anthony a loft bed, well, I also bought a sectional sofa. It was on a complete whim. I wasn’t really in the market for a sectional but have always wanted one. Our current furniture is old-school Craigslist, AKA- yard sale, and well loved. However, I was browsing the furniture section late Sunday night and found a sectional.

It was chocolate brown, only a few years old, had a queen hide-away-bed and a recliner on one end. No rips, no stains, pet, smoke and kid free home. $200 and it was mine! The guy lived a stones throw away from my house too. It was the meca of the sectional couch search.

Until the next morning.

See, we picked this sectional up at 8:30 at night. So by the time we got home, moved our current couches out of the way and unceremoniously dumped the sectional into the living room, we just went to bed.

In the light of the dawning day, this is what greeted me:

A PINK sectional. Mauve to be exact, but pink none the less. Because of the colors in my house and the way the light filtered in, the color shifted from the chocolate in the top weave to the underlying color of mauve. Bleh! I’m all for outdated values but I draw the line at outdated colors!

I moved forward, rearranging with the help of an unsuspecting friend who stopped by for morning coffee. (Aren’t I a good friend!) Only, once I tried to arrange it in my house, it didn’t fit right. I did my measurements before I bought it and although it did fit, technically, it didn’t fit actually. If I centered it in the bay window, we were too close to the TV, if I moved it back farther, it was oddly off center to the window and looked awkward.

We tried every different arrangement we could think of and finally decided on moving it back the appropriate distance from the TV and off center in the window. Dedicating myself to live with it for a day or so I moved onto my next project for the day. By day’s end, I swear it got more and more pink. Plus, after a long day, we collapsed into it only to discover that it was not nearly as comfortable as we thought it was when we first sat on it.

Life’s too short to not love a Craigslist couch!

So, before my monkeys could slime it up, I reposted it the next morning. Remembering that the guy we purchased it from mentioned that we were the 5^th caller in 15 min.’s since he posted it and that he had several more before he took the posting down, I decided to bump the price up a bit. I figured if it didn’t go for my asking price I could be talked down a bit or at the end of the week I could repost it for $200. With in 20 min’s I had a taker, after 3 hours, I had over 18 offers all willing to pay $350!

$350!

My final taker paid me $375 to deliver it to her. Her house, conveniently, was on the way to my in-law’s house where I had to return the trailer. So, I got paid to drive the trailer back plus, made $175!

I stashed the money away and have been trying to find the right sectional ever since. Guess what I found? The bunk beds we just bought for the girls:

 (we paid $200) listed by someone else for $800! I sent the seller an email asking them if they’d let me know what the final sale price was. Two days later he emailed me saying he sold it for $750! Yea, sorry girls, your bunk bed are going back on Craigslist. Momma needs a $550 profit. I promise to buy you another one really quickly!

I think I found a way to finance my Starbucks habit! J