Monday, November 29, 2010

Dinner this week

Since I do this most weeks, I'll pop on here and post what I plan to cook for the week in case anyone needs inspiration!

Monday--burgers
Tuesday-- Chicken fried steak with steamed broccoli and corn casserole(recipe at bottom)
Wednesday--Pork burritos--this is a new one for us
Thursday--leftovers
Friday-- Loaded Chicken Philly Sandwiches. This is another new one. Bacon, chicken, cheese, homemade hoagies. How can I go wrong?
Saturday--I think I'll buy a honey baked ham with a coupon I have so we can eat on that for the weekend.

Corn Casserole
2 small cans sweet whole corn
1 regular can creamed corn
1 stick melted butter
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 (8oz) container french onion dip

Mix it all up, pour in an 8x8 dish and cook for 40 minutes at 350.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Riley's preschool class went on their first field trip right before Halloween. We headed to a local farm for a hayride and pumpkin picking.

Brock got to go!
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A picture before we got started. Brock, Riley, his best bud AJ, and his girlfriend Morgan.
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On the hayride.
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Picking out his pumpkin.
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Scaring the beejeezus out of Mama by sitting on the rail.
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They had a pit of corn--instead of sand. The kids loved it!
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King of the Mountain!
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About to take off into the hay maze.
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Leaps and bounds.
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The cute little class of hellions!
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We had so much fun!

Outside!

Just some fun in the sun.
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Carpooling
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

An adventure

I woke up one morning hearing weird sounds from the library kitchen area. Riley must have heard me getting dressed b/c I heard some major noise and shuffling before I made it out. He was just walking away from the counter when I came out. On that counter was our camera. I didn't really pay any attention until a few days later when I uploaded pictures to my computer.

A morning alone, photographed by Riley.

Cars!
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Self portrait.
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Chair, cause those are cool.
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Ummmmm
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I think those are our front doors.
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That's not a bad shot of the front yard, right?
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This one makes me want to vomit a little. I think it makes me feel motion sick.
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And again with the darkness.
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I have yet to decipher this one.
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Think that's a face shot with his thumb over the lens?
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And the puppy who probably watched all this with a bit of perplexity. Hey Bronco!
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That concludes Riley's morning pictorial essay.

More brother love

Squee!
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I know I just did some of these, but it cracks me up when they come riding up on a scooter together.
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Couch time with Daddy.
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Gimmie kisses!
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They love holding hands.
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Volcano

I started the evening by letting the boys color pages from a Curious George coloring book while I got some dishes done. After a page each was finished I switched to blank paper because Riley started doodling around the edges of his paper. I had never seen him do this before. He wrote the letters R and Q and drew a dog! He's only ever really scribbled before now so I might have gotten a bit over excited. I was doing finishing up loading the dishwasher when he came over telling me something and showing me his picture. Once I saw the picture I realized he was saying volcano!

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Is that not the cutest, sweetest volcano you've ever seen?

I love creativity.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Loaded potato soup

I made a delicious soup tonight. I looked through many recipes and couldn't find one easy enough and yummy looking enough so I combined a few. I made a really big pot because I like to share and I like to be able to freeze some. So you might want to pare this down a bit.

1lb bacon
4C chicken broth
water
6-10 med. sized potatoes(mine were pretty small Idahos so I used 10)
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves or garlic, minced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk/whipping cream(any combo of the 2)
2-3 cups shredded cheddar
1C sour cream
Salt and pepper

Cook bacon. Crumble. I oven baked mine earlier in the day and let the grease cool. You'll need about 2 tbsp of the bacon grease saved so I scooped it off the tin foil in the pan and put it to the side until I needed it.

Peel your potatoes and cut them up into chunks. Put them in a pot and pour in the chicken broth. Add enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes. Potatoes need to be fork tender but not mushy.

Get out your dutch oven or a very large pot. Add the bacon grease and melt it. Add your diced onions and saute until translucent. Add in the garlic for just a minute.

Pour off a lot of the potato liquid and reserve. Bring down to about half the level it was. Add the potatoes and left over liquid to the big pot and stir. Take a potato masher and mash the potatoes a bit so you get a good creamy texture with plenty of chunks. Let his mixture simmer while you prepare the next step.

Melt the butter in a med. saucepan. Add the flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk, stirring all the while. Bring to a boil and allow to thicken-it doesn't take long. Stir this mixture into the potatoes and combine well. Simmer.

Add the cheese, sour cream, bacon, and salt and pepper.

It's now ready when you are!

I'll get a picture added when I take one.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Traffic Jam

I randomly come upon these displays throughout the house.

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They're sometimes on a window sill or the hearth, or on the bed upstairs.

This was a bit more artfully done that some of the others.

Notice the domino effect.

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Riley is such a little artist.

Brock's Big Boy Bed

Check out that alliteration!

BeBe and Granddaddy got Brock a big boy bed for birthday/Christmas this year. The Guy and I picked it out. We agonized over what bed to get for Brock. Riley has this awesome bunk bed that's beautiful and fun and will last forever. We really wanted Brock to have a cool big boy bed but, him being the 2nd kid and all, we didn't want to spend as much money as we did the first time around! Poor Brock.

The Guy and I went to furniture stores all over. I went to a ton with just the kids, and I still could not find a bed I loved. Then I went to Walmart.com. Cue angel music. I found the perfect bed for Brock for the next few years. When he's 5 or 6 he can pick out the bed he's going to be stuck with for the rest of his time in our house.

It came in a really big box that I wanted to save but that The Guy wanted to ditch because he's tired of all the trash I give to the kids in the name of TOY.
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The thing is plastic. It's made by the same people that make outdoor slides and climbing toys for kids.
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It was a cinch to put together! It might have taken up 20 minutes from start to finish.
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The boys love it and play in it almost every day.
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And the best part? Brock is too scared to climb out of it on his own. So it's just like a crib! I haven't had to deal with him showing up in my room at 1am or banging on his door during nap or coming in to find his room completely destroyed(all things his brother did when he got a bbb).
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YAY!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Food links!

Since I'm doing horribly at blogging anything about food, I've decided to just put down some links for some of my favorite recipes.

Drunken Pork Chops

Thank you, Pioneer Woman. Her Ranch style Chickenn is amazing!

These little suckers are a great lunch for me and the boys. Just dip them in a little mustard.

This one has become very popular with my Goonies. Such an easy way to get Chicken Parmesan.

These are easy and very very yummy. You can even freeze the filling if you want to for another time.

Oh, man. This chipotle shredded beef is amazing. It's great on corn tortillas.

Here's another crockpot recipe that's great. Red beans and rice.

Kickin' Chicken is great and easy. I drain out as much liquid as possible and then use this as a filling in tacos or burritos.

Oh, Tasty Kitchen, how I love thee. If you haven't signed up over there, you need to. Here are some of my favorite main dishes from there:

Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches - I use banana peppers b/c we like it a little weaker, but these are so tasty. I highly recommend homemade rolls to go with it!

I was never a fan of salmon until I made this. Bliss.

And one more for today. These come up nice and crispy. Oven baked fish.