Currently :: January 2021

I always seem to come back to these currently types of posts when I return to the blog after a long absence. Seems like a good way to dip my fingers back into typing and a catch-all of sorts of what's happening right now. And I just plain enjoy them!

Feeling: the chill in the air from outside the house. It was in the low 60s yesterday and it's raining and 36 outside right now. There is the sliiiiiightest chance that this might turn to snow, but I'm not holding my breath.

Listening: to the sounds of Ethan on his gaming headset behind me playing something with his Dad. The TV in the other room where one of the girls is chilling after school with National Treasure. I know we're not the only family whose screen time has ramped up in the months of just being home.

Watching: nothing. I've realized (over the the last 10 months of being home so much), that I really don't watch or like much TV. I have favorite movies that I will watch again and again, and that's about it. Every now and then the rare TV show will come along that I get sucked into. Lately it was the Mandalorian and I loved that it only gave us one episode a week, just like the "old days." We are eagerly waiting on season 3!

Reading: January has been a good reading month. I just finished The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and it was very good! It is a YA story about a girl who inherits a crazy amount of money and she has never heard of the person who left her the money. The book is a suspenseful and very interesting story on uncovering the riddle left for her and the members of the family cut out of the will. If you are a fan of Knives Out, you would definitely like this book, but with less language. (I'd rate it PG-13 for language and a little romantic interest, but I'd let my 15 year old read it).

Cooking: all the soups. Last fall I started (in my head, it's not like a club or anything!) Soup Sunday. Not every week, but on most Sunday nights I have been making a big pot of soup for dinner and then eating on it throughout the week. It's become one of my favorite things. Favorite soups that have made it into the rotation, some several times, are:

Egg Roll Soup from Gimme Some Oven

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili from Whatever blog

Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup from Skinny Taste's One and Done Cookbook

Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana

Lasagna Soup (no link)

Podcasting: this year, for my read-through-the-Bible plan, I decided to do the chronological plan that goes along with The Bible Recap Podcast. In general, I'm not a podcast person. It's hard for me to stay focused and listen without taking notes, which defeats the purpose of listening to them while you do other things. That said, the episodes are 5-10 minutes long and I listen to them in the morning right after I do the Bible reading for the day. I've really appreciated the short commentary, and what is pulled from the day's reading. Last year, I read through the New Testament, and then spent the end of the year reading through the gospels, so I have really enjoyed being back in the Old Testament!

Missing: life before masks. I'm not here for the mask argument. Having 3 girls in public school right now and also one foot still in the homeschool world with Ethan, I hear both sides of the argument LOUD AND CLEAR. But I'm ready to see people's faces sooner rather than later. Also missing normal outings like field trips, movies releasing in theaters, and church without social distancing.

Enough listing for one day. Happy Wednesday. :)

Mama's Successful Winter Break Involves a Crockpot

Our CC group was on break this week, and it worked out perfectly for us. I seem to do better (as do my kids) on a six/seven weeks on, one week off schedule. Sometimes this lines up with our homeschool tutorial, sometimes not. But I was ready for a week to recharge. Usually these weeks involve lots of cleaning out of closets and tasks around the house, but I didn't do as much this week. All of our regular activities were still on the calendar (music lessons, Awana at church, gymnastics, etc.) so our days were still humming. However, unknowingly, I managed to give myself a bit of a break by putting four brand new crockpot recipes on my menu plan. I know! Totally risky. Crockpots are funny things - the right recipe is gold, but there are plenty of bad ones out there.

In the spirit of mom solidarity, I thought I would share the four that I made with our comments. All of these recipes came from Six Sisters Stuff. I've been following them on Instagram for a while now, and when I see them post a recipe I like, I use Instagram's new little save feature (the flag that is underneath a photo on the right). Then when I'm menu planning, I pull up my saves and go through and see if anything new jumps out at me to try.

Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas - this recipe is actually one that the Six Sisters made from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook. We had some taco meat left over from the weekend from something at our house, and I found one smallish steak in the freezer. I knew my kids would not be fans of the onions and peppers cooked with the steak, but the grownups were. One smallish steak plus a load of veggies was perfect for me and my husband to have for dinner ... and the kids got taco leftovers. I'll make this again.

Slow Cooker Lasagna - this was another good one. I made this on Valentine's Day. (Nothing says Valentine's like something Italian). It was tasty and just the right size for our crew. FYI - on all these recipes I used my 4 quart crockpot, instead of my bigger 6 quart. If I make a recipe to fill my larger 6 quart size, I generally end up with more leftovers that I want to eat! The 4 quart has been working out perfectly for us, but I know that won't last long. As different children enter different growth spurts we run out of food some nights!

Crockpot Creamy Ranch Pork Chops & Potatoes - this one got RAVE reviews from my kids. I honestly don't know the last time they have gushed about a dinner like this. The six year old boy kept asking for more "chicken" (we corrected him several times that it was pork, but it didn't stick) and said that this meat was "'ah-licious!" multiple times. (I will be so sad when he stops saying delicious that way). My 11 year said that if it wasn't considered rude, she would lick the sauce from this dish off her plate. High praise indeed for this one!

Crockpot Swedish Meatballs - another major hit with my kids (and me!) This is the only recipe I took a picture of and, other than the fact that my meatballs fell apart in the crockpot after cooking all day, it was such a good comfort food dish. I did what Six Sisters suggested, and served it over mashed potatoes and that was pretty fabulous, and I'm not a mashed potatoes person. I think the meatball problem was that they were turkey meatballs made from a Pioneer Woman recipe and in my experience, I have not yet learned the trick to getting my meatballs to stay together well. It didn't affect the taste in the least!

All these recipes are going in my keeper pile and into rotation. I have my favorite recipes and cookbooks that I fall back on time and time again, but it's always nice to find a new recipe / blogger / Instagram account to add into the rotation for some new inspiration!

Rebooting Dinner

I have gotten into a massive dinnertime run around these parts - making the same meals over and over and over again. A few weeks ago I asked for some dinner suggestions and when I got several of the same comments - "I'm so tired of tacos!"; "Can you never make _____ again?" - I laughed. : ) Really, I wasn't hurt. I was tired of our taco Tuesdays and the quick turkey kielbasa meal I make before Awana or on soccer nights. There are no shortage of meals that I want to try and add into our rotation. It's just all to easy for me to get lazy in the kitchen because I'm tired by the time I need to get started on dinner! All that to say, we've found a few winners in the last couple weeks and I want to remember that these got a good response from (most of) the family.



Pioneer Woman Salisbury steak - husband approved and super yum.

Life as Mom cheese enchiladas - (no photo) super easy meatless main dish. And bonus - the recipe makes enough for TWO 9x13 pans so I served our family one and popped the other into the freezer for a meal for friends awaiting the arrival of a baby. So good. I pretty much ate all the leftovers of this by myself and didn't share.



Pioneer Woman's Chickpea Curry with Rice - so good! I actually made this with chicken instead of chick peas but her sauce was what sealed it for me.



Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs - I don't know if you have noticed all the 1-minute food / recipe videos that are on facebook now, but I tend to watch them all. And then I made this one. Another winner. Bonus - it's a crockpot meal that I whipped up after lunch and let cook for the afternoon and it was delicious.

After these meat heavy dishes, I need a few salad nights, but my husband was sure happy! I have a split pea soup that I want to try (which will be just for me as no one else here cares for it) as well as a lemon orzo chicken soup that sounds delicious. I have also saved several cranberry recipes because it's the season. And after posting all these yummy meals, I feel like I need to make a full disclosure that I've promised the kids frozen taquitos for dinner since Daddy won't be here for dinner. Real life dinner planning here. : )

On the Menu :: Overnight Crockpot Blueberry French Toast

We tried this recipe out on Saturday night and it's a keeper. Not one of my better attempts as a faux food blogger because it was (a) winter/dinnertime lighting and (b) not much in the way of leftovers so I could take a better picture in the daylight. We are big fans of breakfast-for-dinner and I seem to go in spurts of keeping it in the rotation and then forgetting about it for a while - probably because I feed the kids waffles for breakfast fairly regularly. However, Travis doesn't get them as often so whenever I pull a full-on breakfast for dinner, I get rave reviews from him.

Anyway, you can view the recipe here - I made it as is with no changes (unless you count leaving out the vanilla because I forgot about it). I even used leftover french bread that we didn't eat with dinner and just threw it in all haphazard. You definitely don't want to cook it longer than the suggested 3-4 hours. We pulled it out at 3 1/2 hours and it was starting to get crispy on the bottom (but I liked the crispy sweet pieces of bread. Yum yum.)

PS. This post from Flower Patch Farmgirl on surviving motherhood by way of food spoke to me. Worth a read.

Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese Success

(Food blogger wanna-be strikes again.)

Homemade macaroni and cheese has been my nemesis for lo these many years. I can't count how many times I have tried to make it only to be met with a burnt or lumpy mess or something that really didn't taste very good.

One of my CC mama friends to the rescue! She sent me her recipe for crockpot mac and cheese so with trepidation I mixed up a batch and surprise! My kids loved it! The husband loved it! I made it a second time and doubled it and it still was a huge hit! Another sign of success was that my Dad asked for the recipe! (Lots of explanation points because this recipe is really, really good!)

I'm sure the secret is the Velveeta, but I'm not complaining. I wouldn't cook it more than 3 1/2-4 hours in the crockpot, even on low, because it will start to stick, but for something you want to throw in the crockpot late afternoon to have ready for dinner time, this is perfect.

Stephanie's Crockpot Mac and Cheese (not me, another Stephanie) : )

3 Tbsp. margarine, melted, put in crock pot

2 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup Velveeta, cut in cubes

4 cups milk

 

Mix all ingredients lightly.  Cover and turn on high.  Do not remove lid or stir for three hours.

 

Note: you could mix in all sorts of stuff and make it a meal. Precooked ham, peas, taco seasoned meat, etc. I served it above with the Pioneer Woman's Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork for a recent Sunday lunch with family (cooked in my cast iron dutch oven), green beans in one crockpot, and mac and cheese in another crockpot. We ate well.

Crockpot Potato Soup ... or What We are Eating on Christmas Eve

It's never too late to start a new tradition for your family ... last year marked the first year that we hosted my side of the family for Christmas Eve. For many, many years, we had spent the evening with friends and it was a much anticipated time of visiting and snacking. However, as children have grown and more and more grandchildren arrived (ourselves included!), the crowd got to be a bit much for a huge Christmas Eve get-together, and so we started our own tradition.



This recipe is courtesy of a fellow CC mom. She brought this to a recent potluck and it was delicious! Once she emailed us all the recipe, I knew this was going to be part of our Christmas dinner menu. My favorite potato soup of all is my mom's recipe which isn't quite so heavy; however, it isn't a crockpot recipe and since we'll be coming home to eat from the Christmas Eve service, I need something that doesn't take as much babying.

Kate's Crockpot Potato Soup

30 oz frozen hash brown potatoes (I diced up a bunch of potatoes since I didn't have hashbrowns and it worked just fine.)

32 oz chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz cream cheese

Bacon bits (or turkey bacon)

1 c. shredded cheese

Salt, Pepper, and Granulated Garlic to taste

 

In the crock pot, put the hash brown potatoes, broth, cream of chicken soup, half of the bacon bits and salt, pepper and garlic. Cook on low for 8 hours. One hour before serving, add the cream cheese and bacon bits. If you take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator earlier than that to warm up a little bit, it will incorporate better with the soup - I also gave it a whirl with an immersion blender to smooth it out some. Serve with cheddar cheese on top.

 

Again, the verdict by the six kids in our house was that it was GOOD. I was hoping for quite a bit leftover and I had to scrape out the crockpot to get enough for one more serving the following day.

 

Another crockpot potato soup we love is here which is quite a bit cheesier and super good as well.

In another life, I'd be a food blogger

I'm not going to lie - my kids think I'm weird when I take pictures of food. I do it anyway. I love looking at food blogs and cookbooks and making menu plans is one of my favorite things ever. Except when it's not ... and then I'm totally uninspired and don't want to cook anything and want to get take out all the time! Alas, the budget doesn't support that type of behavior.

This is a new recipe to us that we tried a few nights ago and was a hit with almost everyone. My child that doesn't like her food touching was not a fan, but the rest ate without complaint.



Chicken Enchilada Rice Casserole

3 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (leftover thanksgiving turkey from the freezer for the win!)
2 cups dry Basmati rice

2 cans (10 oz each) Enchilada sauce
1 can (16 oz) refried beans (I used fat free)
1 cup white cheddar, shredded (I used whatever was in the fridge!)
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 can (11 oz) corn kernels (I used a regular sized can because that's what I had)
cilantro for garnish (optional)
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Cook the rice. While the rice is cooking preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Mix the 2 cheeses together. In a large bowl mix the shredded chicken with the enchilada sauce, refried beans and half of the cheese. Add rice, season with salt and pepper if needed, and mix well. Pour rice mixture into a large casserole dish. Top with corn then with remainder of cheese. Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese melts and is bubbly. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve warm.

We ate it for dinner with tortilla chips to scoop it up - basically it very hearty and filling dip. I ate leftovers the next day on top of some lettuce and it was just as good. I imagine it would make a great taco/soft taco filling as well.

Original recipe was here, and the version I made was from here. My edits are noted above.

 

Winter Comfort Food :: Crockpot Chicken & Dumplins

This week has been crazy. I have had appointment after appointment after appointment on the calendar and I'll be honest ... I'm tired. Thankfully I went into the week with a pretty decent meal plan and there were several crockpot recipes on the menu to make the evenings a little less hectic. This is the first of two new ones that I've tried this week and it was a keeper. I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot on Monday and the leftovers were reinvented into chicken and dumplins on Tuesday. It's been years since I've had chicken and dumplins and I'm pretty sure that it's going to go into the rotation for the rest of the winter.

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplins (recipe origin unknown)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used leftover chicken, precooked, but you could dump frozen chicken breasts in as well)
2 Tablespoons of Butter
2 cans of Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (I added a 3rd can near the end to thicken it b/c I added too much water)
1 Onion, finely diced
1 Package of refrigerated biscuit dough
Sea Salt and Ground Pepper to Taste
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (optional)
Water

Directions: 

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and top each breast with butter, then sprinkle sea salt and ground pepper on each breast. In a separate bowl, mix together well the cream of chicken soup and onion and frozen mixed vegetables (optional), then pour this mixture over top of the chicken, spreading to cover each. Next add just enough water to cover the chicken. Cover and cook for 4-5 hours on high or all day on low.

During the last hour of cooking: Take one can of the biscuits and cut each biscuit into 4 pieces and place in the mixture and stir well to distribute the biscuit pieces (these are the dumplings).

All six kids here ate this (for the most part) without complaint. I did have a couple that were not crazy about the dumplins, but they ate the chicken and veggies so I consider that a win.

Christmas Tea and Being Thankful

I've been working through the #shereadstruth study on thanksgiving the last few weeks and it has been good. In years' past, I haven't spend as much time really thinking on what it means to be thankful during the month of November. Of course, you can't help but think about it some - it's everywhere from listing your daily gratitudes on Facebook to hundreds of crafts and ideas on Pinterest to inspire you to list your blessings. I've read Ann Voskamp's book. I have a thankful journal. I'm good on what it means to be thankful and just going through November without a pause to really reflect on it.

Or not.

I've been reminded about so many things that I know about God, but it was time to hear them in fresh ways.

• God is good all the time. Even when things look unjust from my earthly point of view. Or, ahem, when I act unjustly towards others and need God's abundant grace.
• Even in our sorrow there can be thanksgiving. When we are struggling we can still acknowledge there is a glory that will one day devour our sorrow and take it from us.
• When I am in times of searching for answers and/or reminders that God is with me, sometimes I need to non insist on finding the answer. I can rest in the certainty of the one who IS the answer. In the face of situations I can't understand, he is a God that I can fully trust.
• When I'm in a season that I am ready to be done with, I need to stop looking to the next season of life and imagining it will all be better once I have ________ (fill in the blank with whatever I think will fix the current season). Stop looking ahead and remember to look to Jesus. Sometimes waiting is the season I'm in and endurance is the lesson I'm learning.

My life is far from awful ... so far, it's almost comical when I worry about different things. I am so blessed, but yet I struggle when I feel like our days are uncertain with extra little people in our home through foster care, doctor appointments on the horizon, and a dear friend struggling with a serious medical need. A reminder of what it means to be thankful as a believer was what I needed this year and I'm so very ... thankful. : )

And to share, a recipe. I'm thankful for my friend who shared her recipe for spice tea with me. I remember this recipe from when I was a girl in Pioneer Girls, but I hadn't made it in years. I mixed up a double batch this weekend and just enjoyed my first cup while typing this post. I'm sure another cup will be enjoyed as I tackle Christmas cards and post Thanksgiving laundry and all the other things that will go into this weekend.

Spiced Tea

1 1/4 cup Tang (yes, the powdered orange drink)
2/3 cup instant iced tea with sugar and lemon
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground allspice
(The recipe also calls for 1/4 t. of grated lemon and orange rind, each, but I never add it).

Mix together. Add a heaping spoonful to a mug of hot water and enjoy.

Because it's Friday

Because the sun is shining...



Because a girl dusted the family room...



Because the kitchen table was almost completely cleared off...



Because there is only one girl that is sick at the moment as opposed to multiple sicklings...



There were oatmeal-on-the-go bars baked...



And enjoyed ...



And photographed.

Because that's what mama's do when they get a little stir-crazy after a couple weeks taking care of sick little people and the sun is shining in so beautifully.

October is My Favorite

Where to start.

The last five weeks have been ones of big BIG change for our family. The addition of a 14 year old girl has been such a blessing but there have also been some big hurdles and bumps that we have (and are) experiencing as we fit her into the family, as well as helping her overcome her own personal hurdles. (I hate the vagueness that life has to be right now in some areas. Please forgive the lack of specifics).

I've noticed that I'm not taking many pictures these days. I miss that. My plate is so full of what has to be done next that I'm not slowing down and being observant and thankful. I'm too busy focusing on the next meeting, the next school assignment, the next bathroom that must be cleaned, the next meal to be made. Those things are all very true and it's definitely helping me to be more focused and on task, but I'm drained when I don't take a little time to emotionally (creatively) recharge!)

October IS one of my favorite months. The changing leaves, all our family birthdays, the crisp weather ... I could go on and on. I've made myself a little photo challenge called #Octoberismyfavorite and I'm trying to remember to take a photo a day solely for the beauty that I am noticing that comes in the month of October and post it to Instagram. I'm not going for perfection ... I already missed posting yesterday ... but I'm slowly reminding myself to pause, look for beauty, and remember to be thankful that it is there even when the days are long and hard.

A glimpse at what I've captured since Wednesday:

Day 1: October means pumpkin in all the things ... pumpkin waffles for breakfast. (Also, in honesty, we are a cereal eating family at breakfast and we were out of all of it ... ergo, I had to actually MAKE breakfast!) Recipe from weelicious.



Day 2: take yesterday's pumpkin waffles. Add brown sugar cream cheese. You're welcome.



Day 2 (bonus): pre-birthday celebrating the night before.



Day 3: Eleven is my new favorite. She's already great at being eleven.



Day 3 (bonus): also, ten is my favorite. (All the ages are my favorite!) Celebrating the one and only nephew with a fantastic photobomb by my dad in the background.



Day 4: Soccer on cool, crisp Saturday mornings. And the fact that this girl played ... that's a whole post in itself that I need to write up to remember. So proud of her yesterday and definitely an October favorite.



To be continued...

Grace and Peace

We are slowly and surely moving into a new season in our family ... in a family of seven. We are now the parents of a 14yo girl and while things are settling in smoothly(-ish), it has just been busy on so many levels. (Busy isn't even the right word to use, I'm sure, but it's what I've got right now).

I've pared myself down to the bare minimum of outside responsibilities for me right now and I'm finding that is still stretching me to my limit daily with three to educate at home, one to keep busy, and one to get back and forth to public high school and help with 9th grade work. (Thank goodness for husbands that get - and enjoy! - algebra). I'm still working a little for our church and tutoring for our Classical Conversation group, but anything else beyond those two responsibilities (one of which I do with one of my own child in the class) is just not happening this year. I miss writing about the read alouds that we are discovering and writing "around here" type posts as a hodgepodge of notes about our days. For now, the daily pictures I manage to get to Instagram will have to do and as I can flesh out a detail or two about a photo there, I'll do so.

Like this one:



My tried and true banana bread recipe, multiplied times four to feed all the eaters in this house.

Banana Bread

1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (or 1 cup milk plus 1 T white vinegar)
3/4 t. baking soda
3/4 c. raisins (I almost always leave these out and sub chocolate chips)
2 t. unsweetened applesauce or vegetable oil
2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 t. salt
4 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

Beat the egg and the brown sugar together until foamy and the sugar is somewhat dissolved. Stir in the applesauce, bananas and buttermilk, mixing well between each addition. Sift the dry ingredients (I never do!) and stir into the liquids along with the raisins (or chocolate chips). Spray a 9" load pan with nonstick spray and spoon in the batter, smoothing the top out with a spatula. Bake at 350 on the middle rack of a preheated oven until deep golden, the center bounces back to your touch and a toothpick comes out clean. I check it at about 45 minutes but in my oven it takes 50-55 for it to be done all the way through.

Grace and peace.

Because I am Sunday night tired ... a recipe

This recipe is courtesy of my sister and it is soooo good. I made this for dinner last night and it did not disappoint! I don't know why you couldn't just combine all the ingredients and put it in the crockpot for the day instead of the oven, so I'm going to try that next time, but either way, this was still delicious and worth making even with the extra steps to cook it in the oven. (I also want to try substituting the buffalo taste with bbq since my kids prefer that to buffalo/spicy flavors)

Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cubed
• 8-10 medium potatoes, cut in ½” cubes
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp. black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 2 Tbsp. garlic powder
• 6 Tbsp. hot sauce
• 2 cups fiesta blend cheese
• 1 cup crumbled bacon
• 1 cup diced green onion

Preheat the oven to 500°.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce.  Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat.

Carefully, scoop the potatoes into the prepared baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mixture as possible.  Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy and browned on the outside.

While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mixture and stir to coat.  Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400°.  Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken. 

In a bowl, mix together the cheese, bacon and green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mixture.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Delish!

Kitchen Day

Gifted with a boatload of tomatoes from a friend's CSA and another friend's garden, today was a big kitchen day to deal with them. Three batches of Pioneer Woman's salsa, one batch (which made three dinners worth) of this amazing spaghetti sauce used up most of the tomatoes, but I managed to save a few to make panzanella for lunch (also a PW recipe). It was so fresh and good! I am sad for my kids who don't like fresh tomatoes. As a consolation lunch for them - mac and cheese out of a box and chocolate chip cookies. They were thrilled. : )

A Summer Project :: Cookie Friday

A few months ago I purchased this simple cookie cookbook from Marta. After reading through the recipes a summer project idea was born. The goal: to bake through the Cookie Friday cookbook and try all the recipes out, one at a time. There are 27 recipes in here and that sure seems like a lot of cookies to bake (and eat!) this summer, but hopefully we are up to the challenge. : )



We've already gotten a little jump start on a few of the recipes. As of now, we can check off:

• Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies. Highly recommend.

• Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. Basically your regular chocolate chip cookie baked in bar form.

• Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries. I made these with out the pecans (kids that don't like nuts in their cookies!) and with white chocolate chips instead of plain chocolate. A sweet and slightly rich tasting cookie. Excellent with coffee.

• Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies. Yummm. 

These cookies were actually part of another cookie project, within our summer cookie project. (Confusing.) We recently celebrated my Dad's birthday and a typical birthday present from us is a gift certificate to his favorite Mexican restaurant. We came up with a cookie of the month club!



I gave N1 the project of designing some simple cards in Word and we printed them out and glued them to card stock. Each month we make him a batch of cookies. And, so that we can spread the cookies out a little longer, this first month I only baked about half the batch of cookies. The other half I rolled in some saran wrap and froze so he has some cookie dough already prepped to cut and roll out for later.

Hopefully I will remember to update on our progress over the summer!

Spicy Egg Salad Salad

Just in case someone might need a kick in the pants the day after Easter (too many mini Snickers, or is that just me?)

Take the leftover salad from Easter lunch - it has a little bit of everything in it.

Take two hardboiled eggs, the ones that you meant to color with the kids last week, but forgot to so they are still in the fridge. (Also, make note to buy more eggs.)

Smash them in a small bowl with a tablespoon of your preferred brand of mayo and about a teaspoon of mustard (I used a spicy one with horseradish).

Then, add about a tablespoon of Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce.



Mix your spicy egg salad concoction straight into your salad and enjoy. A perfect post-Easter lunch that was needed after the chocolate-y goodness of the weekend.