Yummies in our Tummies

Remember the other day when I was talking about fall and all the yummy, hearty cooking that comes with the season?  Well, today was a rainy, cool, windy day.  When it's like that, you can't do much outside so what did I do?  I baked...kinda.

It all started yesterday.  We went to the apple orchard and picked about 15 lbs of Honey Crisp apples.  The girls had a blast finding the "perfect one" and going from tree to tree.  They each had a little bag that they carried with them (I had a big bag), and they were even able to sample an apple right from the tree.  Mmmmmm

Today after church, we came home and the girls took naps while I listened to the Packers on the radio.  As I listened, I turned this...

Into this:  Applesauce.  I kept the peelings on the apples, since that's where a good chunk of the vitamins are, so that's what gives the sauce the nice, rosy color.  I also then blended the sauce after cooking to chop the peelings and get the applesauce smooth--I have food textures issues.  I kept a good amount out for snacks for the next few days and froze a bunch as well.  I was told by Andy that I could make it more often and a lot of it, too.  I think that means he liked it.  We still have about 8 lbs of apples that we'll either eat or make into apple crisp in the coming days.  No, not pie.  We all know that Candy doesn't like pie.

Since the apples needed to cook for about 30-40 minutes until they were tender, I got busy making this:

Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.  I did make some cookies, maybe 2 dozen, but my main goal was to freeze all of those little dough balls--plus 20 more--for future use.  They are all nestled in my freezer, waiting for me to put them into baggies.  This way, when we want a treat or someone stops by for a visit, we can have fresh-baked cookies without the mess and time of making them.  Yum.

And in non-food news, we have a new member in our family...we think.  This little guy showed up on our back porch Saturday afternoon and hasn't left since.  He's quite young and thin, and we believe he's used to being around people because he's nervous and shy, but comes up to us on his own terms.  Then when we pick him up, he starts to purr like crazy.  And I shouldn't say He, really;  we haven't even checked to see if he's a He or a She.  But because of his raccoon like tail, the girls have named him Coonie.  I must admit, he is awful cute and quite a change from our 5 pure black cats.

Oh Gravy, how I loathe (love) thee

I consider myself a good cook. I always try to feed my family healthy, hearty meals and seldom do I get a complaint. On the contrary, I often get compliments from not only my family, but friends who also come over for meals. One friend even jokes that he's going to marry me for my cooking when I get sick of Andy!

One thing that I can never conquer, though, is gravy. I have looked up recipes on-line and tried several different variations of the same, basic recipe. I've worked from a cookbook. I've asked family and friends. But no matter what people tell me to try, I just cannot make a decent gravy. I usually end up tossing the too thin, or too lumpy, or completely bland crud out for the cats while we eat plain noodles or mashed potatoes. Sometimes, I buy the powdered mixes because I don't want to try and fail. Sometimes I make a gravy from cream of mushroom or chicken soup. But never, have I made a successful gravy from the roast juices. Never. Not once.

So I'm imploring you all to help a girl (and her family) out. Do you have an awesome, easy, fail-proof gravy recipe that doesn't include the powdered mix from the grocery store or a can of soup? Will you share it with me? Please?

*By the way, do you notice the post date and time? I planned that...

Farewell to Summer

We go camping every Memorial, July 4th and Labor Day weekend, as most of you know. This past weekend was the last planned family camp of the season. We have a blast and always look forward to every weekend, so Labor Day is always bittersweet. It signifies the end of summer, the end of camping, the end of these planned get-togethers for quite some time.

Now, I'm not the neatest person ever. My house gets messy, my floors sometimes go a day or two without being swept, and my laundry has been known to sit folded on the living room couch for days. But one thing that drives me nuts is when my kids get super nasty dirty. Well, if you read the paragraph above, it's hard to combine camping with clean kids. But I try. And sometimes, I fail or I just give up and let them be kids.

The other afternoon, we did s'mores with the kids. Mikayla was so excited and chowed into hers like there was no tomorrow. My neat-kid side was screaming, but I let her be and allowed her to just enjoy it. After the first s'more was eaten by a misunderstanding lug of a puppy, who thought Mikayla was offering her the s'more instead of just showing it to her, I even made her another and let her go to town. It almost killed me, but she just loves her s'mores and I just love how happy they make her. And it makes for a cute picture, too...

Today is Tuesday and Emily over at Chatting at the Sky has restarted Tuesdays Unwrapped, which are all about being and seeing the bigger picture of things, or maybe the tiniest moment of peace in a stressful day, or letting something go that's not that important anyway. If you'd like, please visit her blog. She rocks.

Yum!

I do my best, like most parents, to keep my family healthy. One of the ways that I do that is by providing them with healthy food and habits. The girls have all been exposed to various fruits and vegetables since they were old enough for "real food". As a matter of fact, one year as a joke my mom gave Lilly a carton of cherry tomatoes and a can of peas (low sodium). She was THRILLED!! My mother-in-law gets disgusted when we're together and my girls eat green or red pepper slices like most kids would eat potato chips. It's funny, but it's also great that they eat and actually like the healthy foods. The biggest kid I had to deal with? Andy.


When we first got together so many years ago, he didn't eat a lot of the veggies that I like to cook with or have as a raw snack. I told him that I would adjust some meals, but some would just have to have certain things in them and he'd have to pick them out or deal with them. The progression over the years has gone like this:


*Andy would gag over the peppers and onions in my meals, laugh in disgust at my spinach salads, and make a face at anything with fresh tomatoes.
*Then, he'd tolerate the peppers and onions, still laugh at my spinach and gag over the tomatoes.
*After awhile, he'd notice if something didn't have peppers or onions, and ask where they were. He tried spinach and agreed that it's not as bad as he thought. He'd eat tomatoes, but only if diced and in small amounts on a salad or tacos.
*Now, he's a "dork" (his words, not mine) He orders onions on burgers, eats raw onion and peppers on sandwiches and salads, he loves spinach and complains if I make a salad and don't have spinach for it. He likes steamed carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. He even, just in the last week, tried eating cherry tomatoes with me for a snack. Last night, he brought them out on his own.


So yes, according to him I've turned him into a dork because he now likes healthier snacks and foods. I tell him that he may be a dork, but he's a healthy one with a more varied palate. Regardless, he's eating it all and I'm smiling secretly. The other night I made this for dinner...

And he said, "YUM! That looks really good." (I sauteed them for Philly sandwiches) Such a difference from 10+ years ago when the smell alone would have driven him far, far away.

(I also made this the other day for his birthday...could have been better, but I was crammed for time!)

What a great afternoon!

Yesterday was Alayna's spring program at school. My friend Karla volunteered to watch the extras for me, so away we went to watch the magic that is elementary school programs. The girls love to watch them and spot Alayna in the crowd of kids!

This year, the program was about physical activity, so it was held in the gymnasium. The kids sang their songs while various students did selected activities like jump rope, hopscotch, pogo sticks and bouncing balls. Alayna was supposed to do the Skippo (a ball on a stick that loops over your foot and you twirl it, jumping over the ball when it comes backaround) but she forot to put her gym shoes on and it wouldn't stay on her foot with her sandals. It was pretty funny and gave us all a good laugh.



After the program, we continued our tradition to stopping at the Dairy Queen. The girls all enjoyed their ice cream, especially Mikayla. When I tried to help her with her by licking the ice cream dripping onto the cone, she yanked it away (almost getting Lilly in the eye) and yelled "Ice cream is all MINE!" Good times.

Mikayla waiting for the program to start

Alayna about to Skippo

Lilly volunteered for a special part!

The crowd was invited to join the chicken dance.

Andy's in the middle in green along with my parents, sister and the girls

Dairy Queen!

Yummy Big Bite

So good!

All clean!

Sugar Highs

Growing up, one of the things I looked forward to each year around Christmastime was the cookie baking. My mom would whip up a big double batch of sugar cookies and we'd cut them into trees, angels, santas, stars, snowmen. Then while they baked and cooled, we'd dip pretzels in melted almond bark. Once that was done, it was time to frost and decorate the sugar cookies until they were so beautiful, I could barely stand it. I LOVED doing that each year. Of course, as we got older we added more complicated goodies into the mix, but the sugar cookies and pretzels were always the staple.

Now that I have my own girls, I have continued the tradition of baking with them, especially at Christmas. I invite over my mom, sister, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, as well as a few friends who are available. We bake and chat and dip and create. This past Saturday was the day this year. We made SO many yummy goodies that it's crazy.

We did sugar cookies, like always...

...and spritzes and little elf hats (plain bugles filled with almond bark and an M&M)...

...peanut butter star cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, dipped pretzels, pretzel rings filled with a melted Hug and an M&M, and oreo truffles-some plain, some mint.

I love seeing what master-pieces of art the girls create with their cookie. They are all the most beautiful things, but taste even better. Yum.

And the funniest part of the day? When the "men-folk" showed up later for dinner and saw the HUGE spread over every inch of counter and table that I have. If eyes could drool, their eyes were doing it. They went into an instant sugar high and stupor looking at all the goodies before them. They were like kids in a toy store, not knowing where to start first!

Duluth 08

This past week has been a very, very busy one. I feel like it's been go-go-go since Tuesday afternoon, with not much of a break but lots of fun. So here's what's been going on:

Tuesday was Lilly's birthday, of course, and that night we also had Alayna's first parent-teacher conference for the year. Andy and I met with her teacher and had a great conversation about Alayna and her schooling. She's doing very well and her teacher had no complaints, except that she's maybe a little too chatty sometimes. Imagine that...

Wednesday was Alayna's first day of the next three that she didn't have school! We hung out at home a bit, then went to the dentist for check-ups for Alayna and Lilly. Both girls were yet again members of the No Cavity Club! Then we headed to the library before coming home to rest up. While the girls rested, I got ready to host our monthly Bunco group. I cleaned up the house and made this:


Nice, huh? I actually adapted this from an idea I had seen at Wal-Mart. It turned out uber-cute and tasted so good. Just a simple french vanilla cake mix baked in 2 - 8" square pans, but it was really moist and yummy.

Thursday was supposed to be a normal day, but it wasn't at all. First off, Alayna didn't have school. That in itself is difference enough, but then when it came time for my daycare kids to arrive, I found out that my one daycare mom was in labor! I was so excited and anxious all day to hear how things were going. So while I waited to hear, I entertained myself with my own kids, my one extra daycare kid and packing. Why? Because as soon as Andy got home from work we were headed to Duluth for the rest of the weekend. So needless to say, I kept pretty busy. I don't know how many times I was asked "Is it time for Daddy to be home from work yet?!"

Once Daddy got home, away we went! We went to Duluth and stayed at the Edgewater Resort and Waterpark with our friends Nick and Andrea, and their 2 girls Roz and Clara. The girls had so much fun playing in the water and swimming, sliding and having general water fun. Alayna finally mastered her swimming and not only figured out a good doggy paddle, but also learned how to dead-man float and swim underwater! We were so proud of her! She also lost a tooth on Thursday afternoon, so the tooth-fairy made her 5th visit while we were in Duluth!



I also got the call I'd been waiting for all day. My friend Missy, whose son Alex comes here for daycare, had her baby. Their little girl, Katherine, was born Thursday afternoon about 5:00. I was so excited to hear that she was here safe and sound and that she was a GIRL! We were all thinking another boy was in store for them. Congrats Missy, Dale and Alex!

Friday afternoon the older girls, Nick, Andy and I went to Canal Park so the girls could see all there is to take in down there. We walked the pier, went to the lighthouse, and visited the Lake Superior Marine Museum. We also were there in time to see a ship, the Canadian Navigator, come into port. In the words of Lilly, it was "huuuuuuuuuge!" The girls thought that was so neat to see. They couldn't believe the size of the ship, but they were also enthralled with the lift bridge and how high it went to accommodate the huge ships.





Saturday morning, after a beautiful sunrise out of our motel window...

...we packed up and left the motel. We drove through Duluth, up the hill and to Enger Tower. Enger Tower is an old watch tower that sits way up on the hill overlooking Duluth and Lake Superior. The view from the tower is breath-taking, especially with the beautiful fall colors.

See the ship coming into port?

On our way home, we stopped at Pattison State Park and did some hiking with the girls. Pattison is home to Wisconsin's highest waterfall, Big Manitou Falls. The girls were so excited to see the waterfall and the leaves were just gorgeous for a hike through the woods. It was also a lot warmer at Pattison than it was at Enger, being a lower elevation and further away from the lake.

It was a great weekend and so much fun on many accounts. We love Duluth and though Andy and I have been there many times, this was the first time for the girls. We plan to go back many times as a family, as there were still lots of things we didn't get to do or see. But we have lots of time and hopefully we can get up there every year from now on out.

Weekend Review

Andy was out of town this past weekend with some friends, so us girls had some fun. Afterall when Daddy's away, the girls can play, right?! He left for his fishing trip to Devil's Lake, North Dakota on Thursday morning. Well, this is what happened after that fateful morning...

I woke up on Friday and our 7.5 year old turned 15 overnight. Seriously. Doesn't she look at least 14.75 anyway? She thought that meant she could stay awake for the Ladies' Night that I had here Friday. Didn't work, but she tried.

Saturday we went to the Twin Cities. Well, we live over 70 miles from the cities and with gas prices what they are, we combine trips and maximize our experience. Before ending our day at our friends' BBQ, we went to Sam's Club, the mall, Wal-Mart and Como Zoo. Can anyone spot the giraffe? (You may have to click on the pic to make it bigger)

At Como, they also have a mini amusement park for kids. The girls got to go on some rides and they had a blast.

Sunday morning we went to church, where Mikayla got to play outside while the girls were in Sunday school. The wind was blowing and she was having fun. Love the hair.

After running some errands, it was nap-time. During nap-time, I practiced making Lilly's birthday cake. She wants a pumpkin themed party and my friend Alicia inspired me to make a pumpkin shaped cake. Mine is smaller than most people's, but I think it turned out great. I used one cake mix and 2 glass bowls for baking, instead of 2 mixes in 2 bundt pans. The little cake will be for Lilly and whomever she chooses, everyone else will get cupcakes on the big day. This cake turned out better than expected (I've never done anything like this before) so it was a surprise for Daddy when he came home.


Then the best part of the whole weekend...Daddy came home! The girls all ran and hugged him, clung to him, talked to him non-stop about the weekend and I was left in blissful peace. They didn't want or need me after not having Daddy for 4 days. It was GREAT!