A new recipe

This is what I have going in the crock pot today.

Look yummy?

Annie Chun's Sushi Wraps

Just wanted to give a quick review of a new product we tried last night.

This was actually pretty good! We like sushi, but it's not always easy to get out of the house with 2 kids. I saw this kit on sale at the grocery store, so I picked one up. I got some krab, cucumber and avocado to make California roll, and they turned out very tasty!

In the box is a bowl of sticky white rice, small pieces of nori, and a packet of soy sauce. You microwave the rice for 2 minutes, spread it on the nori, add any ingredients you want, then roll.

It comes with 10 pieces of nori, and each piece ends up being about the size of 1.5 pieces of restaurant sushi. This would be okay size for a 1-person meal, or you could do like we did and heat up some other favorite Oriental foods to go with it if you have to share.

Be forewarned, however, that it does not come with wasabi or gari (pickled ginger). If these are what "makes" sushi for you, you will have to provide them yourself.

I'll probably buy this again when a sushi craving hits, but I'm sure it's more economical to make your own if you have the tools/ingredients needed.

Give it a try!

I don't think you've seen her yet.

My other baby, Little Girl.

A little too big for the bassinet?


Hitchin' a ride on Mommy.


She's mad!


The fam.


Playing with Big Girl.

Next Up...

Ruebens.

And strawberry shortcake.

But not together.



Now, I love me a good rueben. I've had my fair share, too. The best ones I've had come from Omaha, and the worst one I've had comes from Alabama (it involved corned beef from a can...enough said?). This one definitely ranked up there with my good old Nebraska sandwiches.

Point-cut corned beef briskets were on sale dirt cheap at the grocery store last week, so I picked one up. Sounded like something good to throw in the crock pot on a busy Saturday. Plus, I like to surround myself with things that remind me of Nebraska on days the Huskers play on TV, and ruebens fit the bill.

I rinsed the meat (a must, in my opinion), covered it with water in the crock, turned it to low and let it cook for 8 hours.

After the 8 hours was up, I let it rest on the counter for an hour before putting it in the fridge for and hour. Once it was cool enough, I thinly sliced it with a super sharp knife and layered it on the sandwich.

The sandwich construction is important to me. Things must go in a certain order (kind of like I must always put the ketchup next to the top half of the hotdog bun, and the mustard next to the bottom half, but I digress...). It should go: bread, swiss cheese, corned beef, 1000 Island dressing, sauerkraut, bread.

It just tastes best this way. Trust me.

And make sure, like with all good grilled sandwiches, you butter the outside of the bread all the way to the edge. You want the bread to get nice and brown and crispy all over.

And don't turn the heat up too high! You want the cheese to have a chance to get super melty so that it oozes over the meat and holds the sandwich together.

Can't forget the importance of the bread itself, too. It must be marble rye. No other bread will do.

Can you tell how much I love ruebens? Have I rambled on long enough?

Moving on...



I'll pretend you can't tell how overdone the top of the shortcake is. And don't even ask about the bottom...I hate my oven...

I had a pint of strawberries from the last co-op to use, and I've never made a shortcake before, so I thought I'd give it a go.

The instructions say to use a food processor to get the flour, sugar and butter to a coarse meal, but I don't have a food processor. I chopped the butter up into small pieces, then let my hand mixer do the rest.

I have to adjust the cooking temps and times for every recipe that requires me to use the oven. For some reason, everything cooks super fast in there (I assume it runs hot, but have not proven this theory yet). So I lowered the temp 25F, and checked them before the minimum cooking time, but they were still a little too brown. Grr.

And I did not make my own sweetened whipped cream. You can probably see the star shape from the aerosol version I used.

Overall, this was an okay recipe. Okay in that it tasted "okay", not that it's "okay" for you...it certainly isn't.

I think I'll stick to strawberries and whipped cream (aerosol or otherwise) over angel food cake for now.

I'm back...

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. It's been a whirlwind of fun activities the last few days, with more visits to the pumpkin patch, trunk or treat, shopping and the like.

First, some recipes.



Vegged-up Spaghetti and Meatballs

I used this sauce recipe as inspiration, but I really changed most of the recipe, so I think I can call it my own.

I sauteed most of a sweet onion, a handful of chopped baby carrots and one whole zucchini (chopped in pretty small chunks so some might "accidentally" make it into Big Girl's mouth) in two tablespoons of olive oil until tender.

To the veggies I added 2 garlic "ice cubes", 1 big can petite diced tomatoes, 1 8 oz can tomato sauce, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of paprika, a few good shakes of Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon or so of salt, and 3 bay leaves.

I let it simmer while I made the meatballs. I halved the recipe, and it made 2 dozen smallish (party-size) meatballs.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't care for meatballs (really, anything made with ground beef). I tasted one and thought they were okay. Derek and Big Girl really liked them.

I cooked them in the simmering sauce for 40 minutes or so. There was enough meat mixture left over for me to freeze some meatballs for another meal.

All in all, the meal was good. We all liked the sauce, they liked the meatballs, and some vegetables were unknowingly consumed by our little meat-and-starch eater. Next time, however, I will reduce the amount of added salt in the sauce, because the chunks of zucchini ended up really salty.

Okay, I thought I'd do more than one recipe in this post, but I'll be back with more later...

Pretty as a flower...

girl, that is. Big Girl gets to be the FG in her uncle's wedding this December, and the dress I ordered for her came today! She looks darling in it, and adamantly protested taking it off after trying it on.

If you need any formal wear for an event soon, check out this site. They were an online kids formal wear rental place, but they're going out of business and selling off all their inventory. This dress was a steal for how nice it is! And it's in excellent condition (excited about the potential resale value here!).





Okay, I know she doesn't look like she's having fun, but she really was. You'll have to take my word for it.

A Success

Well, I did it.

I willingly ate cooked zucchini.

I didn't think I could, but apparently I can.

And it was good.

I sauteed it in a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil, and seasoned simply with salt and pepper (thanks, Kari!).

Derek loved it. Big Girl, not so much. But she doesn't typically allow anything green to pass her lips.

So this meal was a winner! The herb roasted potatoes were excellent, too. I wish I would have cooked them at a higher temperature to get a little more color, but I wanted to cook them and the fish at the same time, so I did a little cooking "math" and averaged the temps and times. Anyway, everything was cooked, just not as pretty as I was hoping.

And I'm not taking any credit for the stuffed sole, since I didn't "make" it. But it was good, too.

On to the next experiment!

1 zucchini...

2 zucchinis, 3 zucchinis, 4.

I made zucchini bread (muffins, actually, because I couldn't find a loaf pan) last night, and knocked out 1 zucchini. I substituted a few ingredients to make them a little less unhealthy. I subbed unsweetened organic applesauce for 1/2 the oil, and used 1/2 whole wheat / 1/2 all-purpose flour. Now I need to find a suitable sub for the 3 cups of sugar! Splenda for Baking, maybe?

Zucchinis rank right up there with bananas on my DO NOT LIKE list. I have to say I much prefer zucchini bread to banana bread! I would make these again, maybe next time with some mini chocolate chips. Mmm...chocolate...

Last night for supper we had turkey breasts simmered in Trader Joe's Thai green curry sauce, with orzo and baby carrots for sides. Big Girl slept through supper, and it's a good thing she did. The sauce certainly has a kick! The adults thought it was good, though, with a subtle sweetness from the coconut milk, the flavors of lemon grass and cilantro, and a chili pepper punch.

On the menu for tonight was spaghetti and homemade meatballs with a vegged-up sauce (trying to get rid of more zucchini before it goes bad). However, I used up the rest of the eggs last night making muffins, so that meal will have to wait. Instead, I think we'll have stuffed sole (Omaha Steaks) with herb roasted potatoes and a veg of some kind (Big Girl is liking cooked carrots right now, so that's a possibility).

And to make this more interesting, I'll try to start taking pictures.

Maybe that will hold me accountable for a nice presentation, rather than just slopping it on a plate!

Some pictures from the pumpkin patch...

Co-op Today

6 apples
6 bananas
6 pears
red grapes (~2 lbs.)
1 cantaloupe
1 head leaf lettuce
4 zucchinis
10 red potatoes
8 roma tomatoes
2 red onions
6 ears corn
*not pictured: 16 oz. strawberries

Another awesome haul from Bountiful Baskets! Erica is loving the grapes, and we used some lettuce and a couple tomatoes already today for BLTs. The tomatoes are delicious, and almost all meat/no gel! The only item I'm concerned about is the zucchini. I am NOT a zucchini eater, so if you've got some suggestions on how to prepare them, leave me a comment!

Erica and I are headed to Mother Nature's Farm today for some fun with friends. We'll be back later with pictures!

If it's not one thing, it's another...

and another, and another, and another.

First it was a nail in a tire.

Next it was the alternator & battery.

Then it was a flat tire.

Now it's the horn.

That's right, the horn. Quite possibly the most useless vehicle accessory ever invented, unless you do a lot of driving in a big city.

And it's not that the horn just stopped working...


A couple days ago someone's car alarm was sounding. I figured it was an attempted break-in (not entirely uncommon around here), as that's the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.

It sounded as though someone had passed out in the driver's seat and laid his head down on the wheel. It was obnoxiously loud and unrelenting.

We didn't have any way of knowing just by looking outside that it wasn't our car, so Derek smartly grabbed his keys and went to check it out.

Of course it was our car. Why wouldn't it be?

Maybe because we don't have a car alarm?

Did I mention that it was 7:00 in the morning? On a Sunday? On the first nice day we've had since, I don't know, last April? Everyone had their windows open.

I heard Derek drive through the complex parking lot, siren blazing. Then out into the neighborhood. Then out onto the main road. I heard him the whole way.

I began busily calling around and googling for advice. Derek thought he fixed it, but right as he walked in the front door it started up again.

We finally got it stopped for good by locating the fuse box schematic in the owners manual (which I had thrown on the floor board 2 days prior in an effort to locate the proper tire pressure measurements so I could fix the aforementioned flat), and pulling the fuse.

So we have no horn, in a city full of terrible drivers.

I guess for now I'll have to make other drivers aware of their vehicular indiscretions the old-fashioned way...

To keep you regular...

I recently joined a food co-op.

For those unfamiliar with this notion, it's a group of people who each contribute a small amount of money, and then food is purchased at wholesale cost and distributed evenly among all the contributors.

Basically, it's an awesome way to get lots of food for little money.

My co-op deals mainly in produce. For example, this is what I got last week for $17:


















3 red peppers
1 pint cherry tomatoes
16 oz. baby carrots
1 head red leaf lettuce (huge!)
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch scallions
12 Utah peaches
9 apples (Honeycrisp, I think)
4 pluots
7 bananas
1 cantaloupe
1 pineapple

This makes me very happy (although I'm waiting for Debbie Meyer to stop by with some of her Green Bags...we cannot eat 7 bananas before they turn to mush!).

It's worth way more than $17. And we didn't get anything totally unusual.

We love having ripe fruits and vegetables in the house. You just feel...better...when you eat unprocessed, fresh-from-the-earth foods.

It's definitely worth googling to find out if something like this exists near you.

Now, does anyone know of a toilet paper co-op? Because between potty training and all this fruit, I could sure use a deal...

My First Time

I never thought this day would come, but I've created a blog...

I intend for this to be a place to show you the basics of my life, from boring (what we had for dinner), to semi-interesting (what new things the kids are doing), to slightly-more-than semi-interesting (places we go, fun things we do).

I make no promises on quality or frequency, but it may be slightly amusing and/or entertaining.

Maybe.