Princess and the Pea

Memphis

2009-09-14T08:04:00.001-07:00

Jonah and I made it down to Memphis Friday! It is so nice to get to begin the move. It feels like it has taken a long time to get to this point. Jonah and I are hanging out with the family before we have to go out to Utah. Although Jonah made the comment that he didn't want to leave Nanny and Poppy's and was a little sad that we have to.

On our way down from Louisville we stopped off at the Casey Jones museum and home in Jackson, TN. It is a very cute place to visit. You can do a self guided tour of his home. You can also climb on a smaller replica engine that Casey Jones was driving on the fateful day. The resturant was very clean and the food was awesome. They had a soup bar that offered rolls and corn cakes.

It is worth visiting when passing through. Jonah loves trains...well, trains, planes and automobiles!

Life is fun!

2009-08-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Only a few more weeks until my big move. So much has happened since my last post. My son was admitted to the hospital for respiratory distress due to asthma. I have had surgery. Luckily we are doing fine now.

I also went to court to petition to move out of Kentucky so Joshua can finish BYU. We won the court case. So Jonah and I are packing up and moving.

I promise that packing by myself is so much worse than surgery. I am getting closer to being done. THANK GOODNESS! Once life settles down for me I should be able to start posting recipes again.

I am finally posting a couple of pictures of Joshua and I. My sister-in-law took the pictures. They are wonderful!

Manti Temple or Bust!

2009-04-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

The date has been set! Joshua and I are getting married in the Manti Temple June 18th of this year. I am so excited. Joshua is my best friend and it is a blessing to have him in my life. What makes it wonderful is Jonah loves Joshua and Joshua loves Jonah. His family is so wonderful and they have been so open and accepting. They already consider me family. I have to say I am the luckiest girl in the world because I have the perfect guy...who is perfect because he was raised by a wonderful family.

My dress is a Maggie Sottero. It is beautiful!

The reception will be the night before since we will be married early in the morning. The venue is at White Willow Wedding reception center. It looks amazing.

The cake that I chose is from Ladybug cakes and catering.
The specific cake is the Lindsey at the top. Instead of the lilies I decided to do white daisys. They are a perfect flower for June. The other cake I wanted was from One Sweet Slice. This website has some pretty wedding cakes also, but they where completely booked. The cake I loved from this site was the Jaci. That is actually where I decided the colors and flowers. It looked elegant. The lindsey cake from Ladybug's is also very elegant looking.

Well, I will post pictures when I get the chance! Hopefully I will get to post an engagement picture of us soon.

The love of my life-of course besides my son

2009-03-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted anything on my blog for awhile...again. I have been so busy with eveything going on in my life. I haven't had a chance to really post much about my fiance Joshua. Well, I know I post a lot of recipes so I did want to mention that he cooks! Wow. He made Jonah and I dinner and dessert. Was it good!! The first was a potato cheese soup that had carrots in it. It was wonderful. I have never had a potato soup with vegetables in it. If I can remember I will post that one because it was a comfort food. Then Sunday he made lasagna. That was quick and very good. The weird thing about me is that I have never been successful making lasagna.
For dessert he made us a cake with homemade chocolate frosting. I was in heaven. It was his mother's recipe. It was better than store bought but I also think that it is the perfect frosting for doughnuts. Last year I made some doughnuts (using the refridgerated biscuits) and I had a hard time finding a frosting/glaze for them. I am picky about my chocolate. Well, this was very delicious. The last dessert that he made was vanilla ice cream with warmed applesauce on top. I liked it. I don't usually eat ice cream. I didn't eat a lot that night in regards to dessert since I was so full from everything. I was just spoiled to death.
There is so much to write about Joshua. He is such a joy in my life and Jonah just loves him. He has been reading to Jonah almost every night. Right now we are reading James and the Giant Peach. I believe we are actually close to the end. I am not sure which book we are going to start next.

Butterscotch oatmeal

2009-03-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

I made butterscotch oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I have made it before but it has been such a long time. I am not a fan of plain oatmeal. It has to have tons of flavor in it. I found the recipe again onallrecipes.com. This is also a fun little recipe source.

Blogging

2009-01-20T06:06:00.000-08:00

Oh my, I did not realize how long it has been since I last made an entry. It has been pretty hectic around here. Now Jonah and I are sick and not to much is getting done. But at this point it doesn't bother me. I haven't experimented with any new recipes lately. I have kind of had a boring cooking experience lately. Well, during Christmas my mother bought me a fondue pot. We tried a recipe with sirloin steak and a really good chili sauce. I will try to find the recipe on that and post it since it was pretty simple but very good.

I just made a bloody mary chicken in the crockpot. It was pretty good. It calls for bloody mary mix, but since I had spicy V8 I just decided to use that. You put the chicken in the crockpot. I used 2 small cans of the spicy V8 with a lb of boneless skinless chicken breast. If you like more sauce then use more of the V8. Then you add carrots, celery, a little minced garlic and onions. Cook on low for about 8 hours. I served this over couscous since I love it. It really wasn't that expensive with the V8. I did not price the bloody mary mix so I am not sure how much that would cost.

Food Storage

2008-11-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

The the left there is a button to link to a really cool website on food storage. It is awesome and I think you all need to check this website out.

Also, with everything going on I have been researching a little more on preparing my food storage. I have a few roadstops. One problem that I have is that Jonah and I live in an apartment. We cannot store propane in our apartments. So I posted my question on egroups.com asking about other sources of fuel. This was a really big issue for some when Hurricane Ike decided to grace us with his presence. It was enough proof that any weird thing could happen no matter where you live. Generators were hard to find for some. I believe that I mentioned in an earlier post that some lost power for over a week. Luckily fast food restaurants were open! That may not be the case next time.

So when I posted on the question I received several good ideas. I will try to list the responses in the next few weeks.

The first one I read was about the petromax lantern. This is really worth looking into. I am sure I can store some of these in my food storage. I wonder how that would look if I had one shelf of food storage and another shelf of pure drinking alcohol? That would be funny! :)

Another issue I have is drinking water. This will be something I will have to look into soon. I love the idea about the 55lb drinking water tank but it would not fit into my apartment. This is one thing that I will have to work on since you will have to use a lot more water if you are storing freeze-dried and dehydrated food. When I get more information on water, I will post things that I find.

New SpringWidget

2008-11-04T07:14:00.001-08:00

Get this widget!

Ooooooooohhhhh! Banana Pancakes!

2008-11-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was planning on having leftover "Harvest Moon" Macaroni and Cheese. But as I listened (salivated actually) to my mom discuss her decision for pancakes to feed the missionaries, bananas popped into my mind. I don't even know how bananas came into it since I only remembered how I complained about my box pancake mix. It just is not sweet enough. She suggested to add sugar. But then the bananas started invading my mind! And so I went onling to find bananas and pancake mixes. Here is a divine recipe for banana bread pancakes.

Banana Bread Pancakes
2 medium firm-ripe bananas, peeled, sliced
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 cups Aunt Jemima® Buttermilk Complete Pancake & Waffle Mix
1 cup water
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 2 medium bananas)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup Aunt Jemima® Syrup, warmed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted if desired
Combine sliced bananas and sugar in small bowl; set aside.

For pancakes, combine pancake mix, water, mashed bananas and cinnamon in medium bowl; stir with wire whisk until large lumps disappear.

For each pancake, pour scant 1/4 cup batter onto hot lightly greased griddle; top with 3 to 4 banana slices.

Turn when pancakes bubble and bottoms are golden brown.

Serve topped with warm Aunt Jemima® Syrup and pecans.

Chopped pecans can be found in the baking section. To toast, place in single layer on microwave-safe plate. Microwave on HIGH (100% power) 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, until fragrant, stirring once.
Recipe Yield: 16 Pancakes

Serving Size: 2 pancakes

Nutrition Information:
Calories: 340, Calories from Fat: 60, Total Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 5mg, Sodium: 380mg, Total Carbohydrates: 66g, Dietary Fiber: 3g, Sugars: 42g, Protein: 5g

It is from the Aunt Jemima website and so worth making it. So tonight's dinner with Jonah (a.k.a. Mr. Picky Pants) was a hit as he was singing "Mommy's great for making me Banana Pancakes!" (Do you all remember 'Bill Cosby Himself'?)

Halloween

2008-10-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight in celebration of Halloween, I am cooking a recipe that Rachael Ray had on her 30 minute meals show on Food Network the other day. It is Harvest Moon Macaroni. You can find the recipe on Food Networks website.

The recipe calls for frozen butternut squash. I unfortunantly was unable to locate the boxed squash at my grocery store. Of course now there are millions of grocery stores, but it is finding that one that carries it! I am all for convenience! I had to bake the squash and then puree it. To do that you cut it in half lengthwise and clean out all the seeds and as much as the yucky dark orange stringy things from it. It won't hurt if you cannot get all of the strings out. Then you place it flat side down on a cookie sheet and cook at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or so. Then you let it cool enough and scrape the squash in your blender and puree. Now I am waiting to make the dinner. I will post what I thought of it and if it seemed like a hit.

The other day I made the guacamole and it tasted like the real deal. I will post the recipe later. But since using salsa (I love to drown things in it), the dip turned tan. So I added green food coloring while I blended it. It didn't look too bad and Jonah at it. At first he was looking at me like I was nuts. But he eventually gave in.

IKE

2008-10-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I have not posted anything in a while since Hurricane Ike decided to grace us with it's presence weeks ago. We did not get any rain but we had 70 MPH winds. My weather radio was alarming to stay off the roads. It was pretty bad. We had trees and electric/phone poles down. Many people were without power here. I was extremely lucky since I did not lose power. I did have power surges which caused my CPU not to work (since it was running when it hit-and it was on a surge protector). So anyway, I haven't posted much since then.

I did make a quick meal in my crockpot the other day. I need to use my dried black beans that are in my food storage. I cooked the dried beans in my crockpot. Of course when they are done, you drain and rinse them. You then put it back in your crockpot with a little water and then salsa to taste (I had my beans swimming since I wanted a stronger salsa taste). I had that on warm/low for about 8 hours. When I got home I added minute rice to it and let it cook until the rice was done. It makes a really good burrito filling. My only problem was getting the beans to set. I had to cook them for two days which I know should not take that long.

I am trying the silken guacamole tomorrow. It has tofu it it. I have been watching Food Network lately (mainly Racheal Ray and Semi-Homemade) and Sandra Lee was making guacamole. Her guacamole did not have tofu, but it had peas and salsa in it. I am going to experiment and combine the two recipes (the tofu guac is the recipe mentioned earlier that was in a "Wondertime" article about dinner dips). From what I have heard that peas and tofu blend with the avacado flavor so you get the good stuff and not taste it. So I decided to sacrifice my son to this experiment. Hopefully, he will just eat it. I am also sprinkling in flaxseed meal in it. I don't know but I am crossing my fingers that it will be good!

Speaking of the Food Network and Rachael Ray, there are a bunch of recipes I want to try. What is so cool about Food Network is that you can watch the shows online. So check it out if you can! I think they have some neat recipes on there. I will post the recipes I try of RR with a link because they just sound yummy and very healthy.

Book of Mormon reading time

2008-09-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Last year I set a goal that I would read the Book of Mormon with my son in one year. I would love to say that this has happened! We are halfway through Mosiah. Which is awesome still. I may not meet my goal, but at least I am trying! I somehow lost our Book of Mormon reading chart so I searched on the internet to find it again. I came across this site. It has some really neat printables, but there is a scripture notebook that you can buy for kids. I think it is cute.

http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/ScriptureNotebooking.html

The Book of Mormon for Latter-Day Families is a very good tool for family scripture study. It is kind-of expensive, but it is worth the money. Now, I think this book I am going to add to my Christmas list for Santa Claus (I have been ever so good!) because it is a wonderful book.

Here are two more links that are great. The first is a Primary Sharing Time lesson posted on lds.org about scripture reading. The second is on sugardoodle.net and it has a very cute scripture reading chart for kids. I have not been able to locate the other reading chart I used that was really cute, but this will work!

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2045-1-4369-1,00.html

http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1934&Itemid=429

And last but not least, if you have a hard time getting your personal scripture reading done, go to this website. http://www.readthescriptures.com/

Frostop in West Virginia

2008-09-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.choppedonion.com/id18.html

This link brings me back to the day! This is the best hot dog in the world. They also have the best root beer. If you are ever near Huntington, WV you have to stop and get some hot dogs and root beer!

Dinner Dips

2008-09-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Each month, the doctors office that I work for receives Wondertime Magazine. I love this magazine because it is full of recipes and activities for kids. The website for the magazine is http://wondertime.go.com/ and it is worth searching through or subscribing to it.

In the May 2008 issue, there was an article with recipes for dinner dips. I tried the first one, enchilada dip. There is a link to make your own chips. I made the tortilla chips and they were awesome. The dip was awesome. I have included the link for the article. I am thinking about trying the guacamole dip soon. I am not sure how Jonah will do with the guacamole. On one hand he loves the color green, but on the other hand it may not look appealing to him. The guacamole recipe has tofu in it. Now I have never had tofu but I heard that it blends unnoticeable in the dip and it adds calcium and protein (I am not sure if there are different types of tofu that offer different nutrients?). That will be my next venture. But this was a hit with Jonah. He is a big chips and dip fan.

http://wondertime.go.com/life-at-home/article/dips-for-dinner.html

Buffalo Chicken Wontons

2008-09-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

I am posting another one of my favorite recipes. The wontons are awesome for office potlucks. They are a little time consuming, but the wontons can be made ahead of time. I would usually just make the filling and put it in a microwave-safe bowl. When I got to work I would warm it up and then fill the wonton cups about 5 minutes before lunch started. You can save some time also by mixing your shredded chicken in already prepared buffalo sauce.

RUBY TUESDAY'S BUFFALO CHICKEN WONTONS

Fried wonton wrappers filled with Buffalo-sauced shredded chicken. Served with bleu cheese dressing and crunchy celery sticks for dipping.(Menu Description).

12 wonton wrappers, cut into quarters
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, to brush on wontons
6 cups water, to boil chicken
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
6 tablespoons louisiana hot sauce
2 teaspoons liquid margarine
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
salt
blue cheese dressing
celery (to garnish)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the wonton wrappers on a work surface and brush lightly with the oil. Mold the wontons, oiled-side up, into the bottoms of miniature (1-inch) muffin tins.

Bake until light brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and remove from the muffin tins. Cool on a wire rack. Place on a baking sheet and cover tightly with plastic wrap until ready to assemble.

Cook the chicken at a simmer until cooked through, about 12 minutes. Cool the chicken slightly, then finely chop and shred with a fork. Season with a little salt.

In a medium bowl mix together the Hot Sauce, liquid margarine, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Add the chicken and mix well. Refrigerate until slightly chilled.

TO ASSEMBLE:
Place 1 heaping teaspoon of the chicken mixture in each wonton cup and garnish with bleu cheese dressing and crunchy celery sticks for dipping. Serve at room temperature.

NOTE: The wonton cups can be baked up to 3 days in advance and stored in an airtight container. The chicken mixture can be made up to 1 day in advance. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. The wonton cups can be filled up to 1 hour in advance.

Servings: 48
Source: Cadillac Jack
MSG URL: http://www.recipelink.com/msgid/1421641

I think my dad has a pair of these glasses

2008-09-12T17:30:00.001-07:00

Funny Stuff / Myspace layouts

The power of the timer

2008-09-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hm......
My son is a master manipulator. Seriously. He trys to get out of eating dinner. He trys to get out of going to bed. He makes excuses to not do either.

With eating dinner tonight, he started whining "feed me mommy! feed me!". AH.......he wants me to feed him like a baby. Good one. He has decided that if I don't feed him he cannot possibly eat. Well........I whipped out the timer. (cue: "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" western showdown whistle song")

"You have 15 minutes to eat or you will have to leave the table and go to bed."

Just imagine a drama king who is 3 1/2 years old throwing his hands up in the air like Scarlett O'Hara ("I'll never go hungry again!"). "NO! Don't set the tiii---mmmm---eeer!!!!" You would have thought that his fish flew out of the fish tank and into a Christmas tree (if anyone knows my mom you can ask her about it. The only other witnesses to the incident are me and the fish....and the fish ain't talkin'! *snicker* *snicker*). Or that all of his favorite matchbox cars had been baked or accidentally mangled up in the garbage disposal. (No, the matchbox car "accidents" did not happen in my house. But just imagine how traumatic that would be to a boy?) The world had ended at that very moment for Jonah. How could he possibly survive once the timer was set? Now his next goal....Down with the timer...bwahahahahahahaha! Hm..........

The moral of the story you say?

Huh? Oh.....right. It scares him enough to have bad dreams at night telling mommy not to set the timer (yes, for real!) but he is yet to sit and eat dinner. I guess it's time for night-night because the timer just went off!

Red Lobster Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Shrimp Recipe

2008-09-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I have made this several times. The only downfall was the time it took to assemble everything. I did broil these. I just stuck them in the oven and it was still awesome.

Red Lobster Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Shrimp
37 min | 30 min prep
SERVES 2
Seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 dash fresh ground pepper
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• 1 dash allspice
Dipping Sauce
• 1/3 cup ranch dressing
• 1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 5 pieces of thin sliced bacon
• 5 large shrimp
• 3 slices fresh jalapenos
• 1 ounce monterey jack pepper cheese
1. Preheat oven to broil.
2. Make the seasoning blend by combining the ingredients in a small bowl. Set this aside.
3. Make the dipping sauce by combining the ranch dressing with cilantro in a medium bowl.
4. Cook the bacon in a frying pan over medium/high heat, but don't cook it all the way to crispy or brown. About 3 minutes per side.
5. When bacon is done drain on paper towels.
6. Shell the shrimp, leaving the last segment of the shell and the tail.
7. Remove the dark vein from the back of the shrimp, and then cut down into the back of the shrimp, without cutting all the way through, so that the shrimp is nearly butterflied open. (This will make a pocket for the pepper and cheese).
8. Pour 1 cup of water into a small bowl.
9. Add the shrimp and jalapeño peppers and microwave for 60 to 90 seconds.
10. Shrimp should be starting to firm up and change color.
11. Immediately pour the water out of the bowl, remove the jalapeño slices and pour cold water over the shrimp.
12. Place the shrimp and jalapeño pepper slices onto paper towels to drain off excess water.
13. Build the appetizer by cutting the jalapeño slices in half and removing the seeds.
14. You should now have 6 jalapeño slices. You'll need 5 of these.
15. Place one slice into the slit on the back of a shrimp.
16. Cut an inch-long chunk of cheese (about 1/4 inch thick), and place it on the jalapeño slice.
17. Wrap a piece of bacon around the shrimp, starting where the cheese is.
18. Start wrapping the thinnest end of the bacon.
19. Go 1 1/2 times around the shrimp and then cut off the excess bacon and slide a skewer through the shrimp, starting with the end where the cheese is and piercing the cut end of the bacon on the other side.
20. Repeat with the remaining shrimp and slide them onto the skewer with the tails facing the same direction.
21. Put the skewer onto a baking sheet or broiler pan and sprinkle a very light coating of the seasoning blend over the shrimp, then broil for 3 to 4 minutes or until the bacon begins to brown and the cheese begins to ooze.
22. Serve over a bed of rice if desired.

Spaghetti

2008-09-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

I just picked little man up from preschool and it is already time to start dinner. I have such a hard time getting Jonah to eat sometimes so I have to be inventive on how to get something good in him. I don't always cook....sometimes I just don't have the time. I can say that there have been days I have broke out tv dinners. Anyway, here is what I did for my sauce. I browned italian sausage with minced garlic, sea salt, pepper, and dehydrated onions (I cannot use real onions after PRK surgery...it burns). Then I cooked until onions were soft. I added green bell pepper, parsley and a mixture of shredded zucchini and yellow squash and let those soften up. Then I added the sauce (I used a spaghetti sauce that did not have veggies or meat - or you could use a mushroom only sauce). The squash and zucchini hide really well in the sauce. I usually use ground beef, but I wanted to see how much of a difference it made. The only difference is what you like better....beef or sausage. Of course the sausage has a strong flavor to it.

There are less than 70 days until Twilight the movie comes out! I will post all the recipes I am going to make that night. I included the link of Bella's Kitchen from Twilightmoms in an earlier post. I found some recipes I posted on the website specifically for Team Jacob! They are anti-vamp recipes. I am sure I will not try them all for that night, but there is always DVD release day! You can use any excuse to throw a party. I cannot wait to see Stephenie Meyer on Ellen next week.

John Bytheway

2008-09-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

If your LDS and you have not heard a John Bytheway talk...you are missing a lot!

I watched his "Righteous Warriors: Lessons From the War Chapters in the Book of Mormon". If you have not seen it, I think you can listen to it or watch it from the following link:
http://www.byub.org/findatalk/details.asp?ID=5564

I loved the talk. I know it was geared for teens but adults would enjoy this also. He went into so much detail...which was awesome...that he was unable to complete all of the chapters that he was planning on discussing. I was sadden by that. So I emailed him and he informed me of the book that he wrote. It is also called Righteous Warriors: Lessons From the War Chapters in the Book of Mormon. It is so worth buying. I know you can get it from Deseret.com or from Amazon.com.

It goes into a history of the war chapters and the many wonderful lessons that we can learn from these chapters. They happen the be my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon. I especially love the chapters with Captain Moroni and the sons of Helaman. It is definitally well over a 5 star book.

2008-09-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

I took my son out last night to see Wall E. This was his first time at a movie theater (he is 3 1/2 now). I was surprised at how well he sat during the movie. I thought that he would run around aimlessly in the dark while I searched through the mass of crying and screaming children in the theater. He sat on my lap the whole time and did not move! I had to check to make sure he was not sleeping. He loved the movie! I thought there were some slow parts and was very surprised he stuck through it. I would have to say it was pretty good. Some say it has politics in it. I guess it is liberal in a way because of the whole global warming issue. I am not liberal but I guess I can see some of the issues in the movie. To me it was about littering, being wasteful, ungrateful, and lazy.....and more importantly the love between Eve and Wall E. In any issue, it was pretty good and I can't wait until we can own it. It will be another movie (like Disney Cars) that I will have to play over and over and over and over and over.......

"Little man, why don't we watch another movie? Brother Bear looks good and you have not watched it yet!"

"No....I want to watch Cars!"

"But you just watched it yesterday...and the day before...."

I know there are others out there with the same problem and you feel my pain.

Twilight the Movie

2008-09-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

We have less than 75 days left until the movie. I am running down to Memphis (he he...I have been bit by a vampire)-okay, driving down to Memphis for my sister/neice's birthday. The movie comes out on her birthday. On Twilightmoms.com there is a message board with a forum called Bella's Kitchen. It has some pretty cool recipes listed.
http://twilightmomsforums.freeforums.org/bella-s-kitchen-f9.html

It has inspired me for dinner that night. I was planning on making the Vampire Soup (funny earlier this year I posted the recipe for crockpot vampire chicken-which is awesome-and that is in this forum) and the bloody mary bread.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/alcoholsub.htm

The bloody mary bread is for the bread machine and also has vodka in it. Seeing as I am not "lushy" I have included a link for subsituting alcohol in a recipe. Vodka is at the very bottom.
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm

I also included a list of how much alcohol remains when you cook it. Even after cooking something for 2 1/2 hrs, there is still a little left. So when people think that it goes away and that it is okay to cook with alcohol, think again!

Because I Said So BLOG

2008-09-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/2007/08/adventures-in-grocery-shopping.html

I remember this blog entry from Ebay. It really was listed on Ebay and it had me rolling in the floor - and also feeling sorry for this poor mom. I have one who is wild, but 6? Anyway, I wanted to add this because it is so funny and I just love humor!

Edward-itis

2008-09-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

http://kakistocracy.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/edward-itis/#more-145

I found this link while I was on a forum at Twilightmoms.com. It is too funny!

I don't know why the books are addicting, but they are. I have read the series at least 3 times within a month. It is making it so very hard hoping and wishing that Stephenie Meyer will release Midnight Sun. I think that it will only add to the addiction. Hopefully everyone is sending in their support for Stephenie Meyer to release the book. I am pretty sure that Midnight Sun will give me the closure I needed from Breaking Dawn. That was the issue I had with Breaking Dawn - no closure! There was not enough Bella and Edward and the sweet relationship...the relationship that caused me not to put the book down when my son wanted me to read to him
( I wonder if it would be wrong to read him Twilight? That way I could continue reading the
book and he really doesn't listen to me anyway.........oh, I guess that would not be good!
"Fine Jonah, bring me the I-Spy book!"
Ha, he spends most of the time looking for the pictures and there is not that much
to read! *snicker* *snicker* .........)
and feeding my child peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I can put him to bed by 7:30 pm so I could return to the book. With Breaking Dawn, I wanted to have more of the Bella and Edward after they dealt with the Volturi (speaking of, did anyone else notice Vladimir from Romania? Vladimir the impaler was the real person who inspired Dracula).

Check out this...

2008-08-30T14:52:00.001-07:00

Twilight

2008-08-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-30T07:06:00.001-07:00

If you have not checked out Stephenie Meyer's website, you might want to check it out. The release of "Midnight Sun" is on hold.

stepheniemeyer.com

It is sad that people cannot be trusted. I just hate that the fans have to be punished with not being able to read the whole thing. But I understand that she is upset. I would be very upset also if I trusted someone. So hopefully she will go ahead and release it in the future.

Here is a cool website for mothers who love the Twilight series.

twilightmoms.com

Single Mother

2008-03-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am a single mother to a wonderful 3 year old. I take care of him mainly by myself. His father only gets aprox. 3-1/2 days a month with him which is just enough time to mess up my son's routine. So it seems like-well really I am-the sole caregiver. My family lives in another state so I don't have a huge support system here. It makes it hard and I found this article which had such a sweet poem. If you are a single mother (Sorry dads-you could probably just mentally change the mother to father-there are many wondeful single dads out there who also do such a wonderful job and don't really get the credit they deserve! You are awesome too!) So here is the link to read the article http://single-parenting.families.com/blog/this-single-mothers-day

Right now, my son will be going to play therapy. It is sad that he has to go through this. My ex and I have been divorced since August 2007. My son is actually pretty good despite all that has happened. But he is having anxiety. I have to take my son to daycare every morning when I go to work and he holds on to my leg and won't let go. He will not go to sleep in his room because he wants to sleep wherever I am at. If I am on the couch watching TV, he has to sleep there. If I am in the kitchen, he wants to be in the floor. I have been really lucky that he has not become aggressive during this time. Some children tend to become aggressive when they are stressed. This is another article that is good to read. But I also feel that play therapy is a wonderful way to help them. Our play therapist's office is calming. She has very soft, calming music playing. The lights are really bright. And of course there are millions of toys. Play really can tell a lot about what a child is thinking. So anyway, here is the link http://single-parenting.families.com/blog/misbehavior-as-a-way-of-processing-stress-and-anxiety

2008-03-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.childrensrecipes.com

My mother just sent me this website. It has some good recipes. She specifically sent me the recipe for Pennies and Potato. It looks really good and will try it since I have a picky child.

Well, I found a temporary cure for preschooler "insomnia". I say that because my 3 year old is horrible going to bed. He does the typical "Mommy, I'm thirsty" routine. Then he goes on with he needs his toy car (of course he needs a specific that he does not have in his hands at the time), he's hungry, he needs to go pee-pee until it is 9p.m. and by that time I am ready to go to bed.

I took him to this children's gym (which is so cool). They have cheerleading, tae kwon do, gymnastics, and some other classes. Anyway, we went for an Easter egg hunt today. Then they had an open gym. The area was huge. It had inflatables, trampolines (that were floor level) and these awesome pits with foam squares in them. You can swing from a rope and jump in the foam. They had balance beams-well, so much stuff that wore him out. Tonight he fell asleep at 6:30pm right after he ate dinner. Wow. I don't know what I going to do with the "me" time I usually don't get! They have 3 year old tae kwon do. I might sign him up for that. They say that they teach disipline, respect, and to listen. Which would be so beneficial in my case. My son ignores me. I can be looking in his eyes and say it is time to clean his room. He will just stare blankly at me like he didn't hear me. Uh...........gotta love him.

Anyway, I loved wearing him out today. He has so much fun. The sad thing is during winter he hardly ever gets to go outside and do anything. He is so boy it isn't even funny. I cannot wait until our zoo opens up. I take him after work and they have a splash area where they can run aimlessly in water. They also have playgrounds. So I don't have as much problems putting him to sleep in the summer since he gets to be more active.

Wonderful site!

2008-03-20T20:31:00.001-07:00

http://www.homemakingcottage.com/mother/10ways.htm

What a wonderful article. I think it is the best thing in the world to spend time with your children. I try to spend time with my son. Unfortunatly I have to send him to daycare while I work. But when we get home, we spend as much time together as we can. It is just the two of us. It was hard to do family scripture study or FHE. It felt awkward. But we are working on that. I started the BOM reading at the end of last year - and we are only in Jacob. He is only 3 and has no attention span. I found the perfect way to keep him in place when I read the scriptures. When he has his bath, I read books and we have scripture reading when he is splashing around. At least he cannot run out of the room.

72 Hour Kits for Children

2008-03-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

I was looking for 72 hour kits on the Internet and found this article. It is getting close to our rocky season. We have actually had several tornadoes in the area these past several months. This week we have had so much rain we have had a flood warning this whole week. The Ohio River is over the flood stage and is not supposed to crest until possibly tomorrow. So it is time to prepare. The last thing people think of is bringing things to keep your kids occupied during these scary times.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070816/ai_n19470748

Also, another thing I invested in is a weather radio. I think it was a year or two ago in Evansville, IN (I went to high school there) a tornado hit a trailer park. Many people were killed. No one had weather radios. I love mine and it even goes off if there is an Amber Alert. My weather radio went off two years ago when there was a train derailment in the city. The train cars were transporting chemicals. The weather radio went off to alert of the hazard. It happened only a few miles from my home at that time. Trust me, they can be loud and annoying when they go off...but they could save your life!

Yummy Recipe

2008-03-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

This is a great recipe - and luckily you will keep any vampires away! And also you might keep unwanted guests away with your lovely breath! I was really surprised at how this tasted. But it was really good. I served this meal with couscous (I know, even though this is only my second recipe I have posted....you will start noticing that I like couscous!). I also served dinner rolls (I am such a carbivore. Sorry!)

Crockpot Vampire Chicken

40 cloves of garlic
2 fresh sprigs of thyme, sage, parsley, rosemary (love the homegrown stuff!)
black pepper/salt to taste
3 lbs of roasting chicken - but I just use a few pounds of skinless/boneless chicken breast
3 stalks of celery

1. Put the celery at the bottom of the crockpot
2. If you are using the roasting chicken, stuff one sprig of each herb in the cavity.
(Now, when I did my dinner.....I used my dried herbs and it worked fine)
If you did the S/B chicken breast just throw all that in the crockpot
3. Peel the garlic - but leave the skins ON. Place them in the crockpot around and on top of the
chicken.
4. Low for 8-9 hours

You can break open the garlic after it is cooked to spread with butter on your bread.

I am not really sure what the nutrition value is of this recipe.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Italian Chicken recipe

2008-03-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Tried this tonight. Although I hate to say it was not 3 year old friendly. My son cried with food in his mouth "I hate mados!" Poor thing. He didn't realize that there was a finely chopped red pepper in it. This kid is not afraid of spicy foods though. He loves the buffalo flavored fish crackers which I think are kind of spicy. He went through speech therapy for a while and they loved that they did not have to upset him by giving him spicy chips. They said it was wonderful for kids who have problems speaking to eat spicy chips and sour (like the sour gummi worms). They said it "stimulates". Well, I was more afraid of what it would "stimulate" in his tummy. Luckily not much. So anyway, I made this recipe my own. I added a few things but you can find the original recipe online titled "Italian Chicken Simmer". So with me doing a different variation, I am not sure if it changed the nutritional value of the meal.

1 tbsp of olive oil - I used oil that had italian flavors
2 lbs of skinless chicken breast
1 can diced tomatoes-undrained
italian seasoning
minced garlic - a few tbsp
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups chopped red peppers
grated parmesan cheese
1.2 cup shredded italian five cheese blend
-heat oil in skillet and cook the chicken. Add tomatoes w/ liquid, tomato paste, seasonings, peppers and garlic. Reduce heat and simmer. Make sure chicken is completely cooked- 180 degrees. Stir in parmesan and sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Let cheese melt and serve. I served w/ couscous and rolls.

This wasn't too bad. I found the following recipe off the Kraft Food and Family website http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf If you get a chance you need to sign up for their magazine. It is awesome. And it is free. No, I am not getting paid for this :) I just really love the magazine. I get it every quarter and have made may things from it. If you like black bean soup, you should search for that also because their recipe was quick and wonderful. I used it at a potluck and work and everyone loved it. And I did do anything different in that recipe.

Recipe Books

2008-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, these two books have been under major controversy in several areas. I really don't see what the big deal is. Some people just make too much out things. The cookbooks are Deceptively Delicious http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/ by Jessica Seinfeld and The Sneaky Chef http://www.thesneakychef.com/ by Missy Chase Lapine. The idea for both books are to hide healthy veggies (which I am 32 and I would give up broccoli for a cheeseburger anyday!) into spaghetti or - one example is spinach in brownies. Okay, I have both books but I am skeptical on that one recipe. Well, it was in the news that Ms. Lapine was suing Ms. Seinfeld for plagerizing. That was canned of course - because like the Judge had said, is Ms. Lapine the only person in the world with the idea to sneak veggies into food by puree? Hm.....don't think so. I wish my mom and dad would have been nice to do that for me. HA! They plopped nasty brussel sprouts (sorry to the people who love brussel sprouts-if it isn't made of sugar, don't even bother) on our plates. That's okay, that only sparked my imaginative mind on coming up with ways to get rid of brussel sprouts. I couldn't even get our dog to eat them. And they say dogs are your friends! Anyway....that was the first controversy. The second was that there were many, many people complaining it was "lying" to children. Must be the same people who don't believe in Santa Clause and the Easter bunny. Because I am so sure that every parent who thinks this is lying goes over every single ingredient with their children prior to them eating it. "Yes, honey. I put liver and sprouts in that soup." Okay, I hope there really is not a recipe with those two ingredients in it. Yuck. Anyway, I say who cares as long as your child is eating. Tell them there are beets in the cake. Who cares, it just might make it easier for them to swallow! Less fight at the dinner table. Would you like to argue with them about eating, finally making them leave the table and not eat or eat their dinner w/veggies snuck in?

Like I said earlier I have both books. And I think some of the recipes don't "sound" good, but I want to try them. I haven't been able to at this time. It does take some time to puree the veggies. But still, they are good ideas. I would not recommend one over the other because they all have different ideas that are good. So I think many people should try them.

Preschool Activities

2008-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

I found this website today. I think it is neat. I was trying to find some astronomy activities for my son. He is starting to be facinated with the solar system. I have a moon on his wall that will light up the lunar phases. Today I have purchased glow in the dark plastic stars that I am going to put around it. But this website has so many neat things to do for your preschooler.

http://science.preschoolrock.com/index.php/home

Motherboard

2008-03-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

I have not been able to post anything for a long time. One day I was using my computer and it just shut off. Then it smelled like it was on fire. My dad, who lives in Memphis, is my computer tech. Who needs the Geek Squad? He works in the IT department as a director so I am lucky to know people in high places! So now that I am back on I am hoping to get started with some fun information.

I am sure there are many who know about this wonderful website, but if you don't you need to check it out! sugardoodle.net
I love the website and have been able to do some family home evenings with some of the ideas. I have a preschooler and I haven't been able to find many ideas for family home evenings. It has been hard for me since it is just baby boy and I

Grocery Shopping

2008-01-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

This is a wonderful website. I was watchingthe morning news today when they were talking about this website. It does cost money to join. I am not receiving money or anything for posting about this, I just heard about it this morning and it sounded cool. I tried the coupon train thing about a year ago but it was too time consuming to keep up with while I worked full time, went to school full time, and took care of a wonderful (but extremely active) 2 year old boy.

Fun Website for Preschool/Kindergarten

2008-01-19T15:47:00.001-08:00

childcareland.com is a wonderful website that you can sign up for a free newsletter. Each day you get an e-mail with a project for pre-k and kindergarten. I love this website. You can also purchase CD's with ideas. When you get a chance, check it out. Last week the daily projects were with penguins. They were so cute.

Introduction

2007-12-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I have joined the world of blogging. I hope to provide some fun information. I love to read, play video games, watch movies and TV, cooking (to an extent), and of course spending time with my wonderful 3 year old son. I am almost 32 (January 8th) and I am divorced. I live in Kentucky and I work as a medical coder for 2 OB/GYN and one Maternal Fetal Medicine practice. I am going to try to post daily, but life with my son is dedicated all to him until he falls asleep! Wow, by the time that happens I am tired myself. But again, I plan on writing information, posting some of my recipes that I like to make (or post info on the book I got it from in case it is copyrighted), what I thought of some movies or shows.....hopefully a lot. There are some awesome blogs out there that I know I will never be able to compete with, but I hope mine is beneficial.