Post St. Patty's Post

So, what do you do with leftover corned beef? If you're "lucky" enough to have some left over, here are two ideas for the day after St. Patrick's Day:

• Confetti Corned Beef Hash (I must confess that I leave out the green peppers! That is a taste that, even though I'm technically a grown-up*, I have yet to acquire.)



• Reuben Paninis I'm actually making these tonight. I had my sweetheart cut some thin slices of corned beef last night (the electric knife worked nicely for this!). I'm going to put the corned beef slices on some dark rye bread with provolone cheese slices, sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing. Then I'm going to grill them in my panini maker. So easy! If you don't have a panini maker, a George Foreman grill works fairly well.
  
  By the way, I forgot to get thousand island dressing, but it is easy to make: mix together 1/2 cup mayo, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish and a pinch each of salt and pepper.

*Funny story: A couple of weeks ago, at Mutual, I was making sure all the young women had a ride home. Some of the girls were in the gym with the boys when I checked to make sure they had a way home. While I was in there, one of the 16-year-old boys said to me, "Wait, you're a leader? I thought you were one of the girls! How old are you?" I told him and he said he would have guessed 12. I don't even look date-worthy and yet I have three kids!

But there is a silver lining: one of my girls said "Wow! You're young!" So maybe she thinks I'm just a bit cooler 'cuz I'm still in my 20s! One other upside to having a baby face? When I'm 40, I'll just be starting to look like I'm in my 20s! Maybe Lil' Miss and I will look like sisters!

Luck o' the Irish!

I love to make holidays special and fun for my kiddos and St. Patrick's Day is an excellent holiday to have a little fun! My mother-in-law always did fun stuff on St Patty's Day and my husband has requested that I follow some of the same traditions. So here's the menu for dinner tomorrow:

• Corned Beef
• Boiled Cabbage
• Shamrock Jell-O Jigglers (these are creamy)
• Green Rolls
• Green Punch (Lime sherbet in Sprite)
  

I cook my corned beef in my slow cooker with enough water to cover it. I usually don't add the spice packet because the fam doesn't care for the flavor it adds.

The roll recipe I've linked to is a great one for the bread maker! It is a family favorite! I just add green food coloring to the ingredients at the beginning. When the dough is done, you form three small balls for each roll and put the balls in a muffin cup. They end up looking like a shamrock. This trick comes from my mother-in-law.

I think I may play some leprechaun tricks on my kids. This blog had a fun idea I may try! I also might make a craft tonight with the kids for FHE. This one looked fun!

Eat what Mom makes!

So yesterday we went to Stake Conference (and it wasn't too bad!) and the Stake President issued a challenge to all the primary children: "Eat what your mom makes!" To which Big T responded, "Oh, great!" (Wow, that does a mom's heart good.) The theme of the conference was "Love at Home" and kids eating their dinners will definitely aid in family harmony! The Stake President also encouraged parents to expose their kids to a variety of foods because who knows what they may have to eat on their missions. Variety tends to happen around here because I get bored making the same things over and over. I've been trying some new recipes, as usual, and I'm ready to report:

• Tuna Noodle Casserole: I loved eating Tuna Casserole as a child (I know it sounds crazy!) and lately I came across a new recipe that kind of mixes it up a bit. And the best part? My kids will eat it! The hubby really likes the hint of lemon flavor.
• Herb Crusted Salmon with Spinach Salad: I had no idea that I liked salmon! I've always been afraid to try eating it or making it, but this recipe made it sound so simple that I had to try it! I like it so much that I made it for dinner on my birthday. Unfortunately the kids are the biggest fans, but I am prepping them for their lives as missionaries, right? (By the way, I don't buy all the fresh herbs, I just use Italian style breadcrumbs.)
• Cheeseburger Chowder: I thought the kids would really like this recipe because it has "cheeseburger" in the name, but Big T informed me, " If it's in a bowl, it's soup and we don't like soup." Well, OK! That's too bad because they are missing out and this is tasty!
• Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole: A few weeks ago I was at the grocery store with the two little ones and they were giving free samples of this. Lil' T seemed to really like it, so we gave it a try. I haven't ever been big on this dish, but I really liked it and the kids seem to like it too. Here's the recipe:

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 ½ cup Ritz crackers, crushed
¼ cup margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first four ingredients, spoon into lightly greased 7x11” pan.

Combine crushed crackers and margarine, sprinkle over chicken mixture.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

It's so easy, but so yummy!

Hope this gives you some ideas for dinner! Let me know how you like these recipes!

Lil' T-isms

Lil' T just cracks us up! He has such a great smile and loves to be silly and make the rest of us laugh. He says the funniest things, too. Here are some examples:

• We took him skiing on Saturday and he was not at all into it! At lunch he told us, "I'm not here for the skiing, I'm here for the eatin'!"


• After lunch he started to put on his ski boots, so we asked him if he was ready to ski again, to which he replied: "I'm going for a hot dog!"


• Later at my parents' house we decided to soak in the spa and Lil' T saw the spa chemicals and said, "Those are for the hot dog man. Grandpa looks like a hot dog man!"


• Then last night, he woke up in the night because he had knocked his covers off. He came into our room crying, "Big T is breaking my feelings 'cuz he won't put my blankets back on!" I went in to help him and Big T was sound asleep. I don't think Big T was trying to be rude.

Lil' T is also quite the songwriter. Here is his most famous ditty performed by him with a little backup from Big T:

American Idol, here we come!

Happy Birthday Week!

This is a shout-out to my amazing sister who celebrates her birthday today. This is our favorite week of the year because today is her birthday and Thursday is my birthday and Saturday is Valentines Day! Our mother aways made it such a special week and as a result I still love Valentines Day because of all the great memories. When we were little girls, Mom was constantly asked if we were twins because we were about the same size. She always told them, "No, they're two years and two days apart." The truth is that Julie was actually due on my birthday, but graciously decided to come two days before so that we could each have our own day and make it into a week-long celebration! Good work, Sis! I love you so much and I couldn't ask for a better friend than you!

XOXOXO

I love to make holidays special for my kids and I've had a request for me to share my Valentines ideas, so here they are:

For a special Valentines meal, I'm going to make a pizza, but instead of making the dough heart-shaped, I'm going to make the toppings heart-shaped! I did this a few years ago and it turned out really fun. I bought tiny heart cookie cutters at Roberts and used them on pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sliced mushrooms, and sliced zucchini. Here are a couple of pictures of my creation:













Cutting out all the hearts was a little tedious, but this year I may let my kids help!

I'm also going to make a fun drink. I bought heart-shaped silicone ice cube trays at Target in the dollar area and I'm going to freeze red Kool-Aid in them. At dinner, I'm going to put the red heart ice cubes in raspberry cream soda. My kids will love this!

For dessert I'm going to make the best dessert ever! Have you ever had molten lava cake? There are several restaurants that make it, but it's not hard to make at home. I use a recipe I found on Kraft's website. I love this cake because it is kinda like a brownie on the outside and hot fudge on the inside! YUM!











Last time I made them, I used custard cups, but this year, I'm going to use my silicone muffin pan and make a more kid-friendly serving size. Also you may not want to look at the calories-per-serving (and a serving is actually only half of one) for the custard sized ones! OUCH! But I don't know if calories actually count on Valentines Day!

So, I may be crazy, but I want to host a Valentines party for Lil' T this week. We're going to make individual heart pizza (made from refrigerator biscuits) and I'm going to make heart-shaped raspberry muffins. To make heart-shaped muffins (or cupcakes) you just put a marble or a small ball of foil in your muffin cup between the cup and the liner. I thought about making cupcakes for about two seconds, but as Big T's school teacher said, "Cupcakes are the devil!" They're just so messy and we're talking about preschoolers at this party.

For a game, I'm going to make heart-shaped beanbags out of red, pink and white felt. I haven't decided exactly what we're going to do with the beanbags, but it will definitely involve tossing. At the end of the party, I'm going to send a beanbag home with each child. And what's a Valentines Day party without Valentines? I'm going to have each kid bring some to share. We'll decorate red paper sacks with stickers for them to collect them in. Luckily I have a good stash of Valentines stickers from my scrapbook supply hoarding days!

One last V-Day idea I'm using this year: last month at Target in the Dollar Spot (man, I love the Dollar Spot!) I found small metal mailboxes. They even have little flags! I bought three of them, one for each child. So far I've just let the kids play with them and they've really enjoyed writing each other notes and just playing with them in general. But for Valentines Day, I'm going to put a special valentine in each of them just to let them know how much they are loved. I may also make my husband write his own special notes. We'll see!

I hope these ideas inspire you. I bet you are more creative than I am, so good luck and happy Valentines Day!

Not much of a blogger...

So, I guess I'm not a very good blogger. I go way too long between posts! It's not like I'm busy or anything. I mean 3 kids, that's not challenging at all, right? j/k! But I have needed a little time to get back on track after the holidays, especially memory-wise. I thought I was doing better and then today I forgot that I was going to watch my friend's little boy and I wasn't home when she brought him over! What kind of friend is that? I thought writing things down would help, but it only does if you remember to write them down and then read what you wrote! (Minor details.)

So it hasn't just been the kids that have kept me busy. I have been working on a few projects, several of them have been sewing projects. The first project that I recently completed was Lil' Miss' bed skirt. I've only had the fabric bought and cut out since last spring (I think). It took me awhile to find the ribbon I was dreaming of to finish it, which ribbon I found at Wal Mart of all places. Now I need to move on to the matching valance for her window. I already have the fabric and the curtain rod, I just need to do the valance. (PS My sweet sister made the adorable crib quilt for Lil' Miss before she was born)

Another recent sewing project was lengthening a skirt that I've had for awhile. Do you ever have skirts that are almost long enough, but just not quite there? I especially feel the need to set a good, modest example now that I am in YW. Anyway it's better now.

And one other sewing project that's kept me a bit busy was making invitations to our YW New Beginnings. Our theme is "Becoming the Girl of Your Dreams" and it will kind of be like a slumber party (the girls are even supposed to wear PJs), so we wanted to have the invites be little pillows. I got volunteered and it only took me about 3 hours to make 24 little pillows with pockets to hold the paper invitation with all the info on it. (I think it took me just about as long to get the paper invites the way I wanted them!) (The doll is just to give you some perspective on the size of the pillows. The other pillow color combinations were a little cuter, this was just the one that was left over.)

OK last project: decorating above my kitchen cabinets. Actually there was no sewing involved, really just shopping. We have the best home decorating store nearby! You can honestly spend hours there and still not see everything! And the prices are quite reasonable. Several months ago I bought some serving dishes there with the intent of actually using them for food. I really loved the color of them and left them out on top of the cabinets to store them. Then on Saturday I saw some square plates at Tai Pan that coordinated and I had to have them! Too bad I was really there looking for something for my mantle in my family room. I think I'm going to have to take another female (besides Lil' Miss) with me to fulfill that mission! Anyway I really love the way my cupboards look now. The blue really makes me happy! (I know you are all shocked because you thought that pink was the only color that I got excited about!) I'm not quite finished with this project. I think it still needs some greenery or something, but it's a good start. So the next project for the kitchen will be to make valances to replace the ones our home's previous owner left. I already have the fabric and an basic idea, I just need to research how to go about getting the look I want.

So there you have it. It's just too bad that things like cooking and laundry and changing diapers and cleaning and helping with homework, etc. seem to take precedence over fun projects. Oh well, it comes with the territory, I guess!