How to make bread

Would you believe that she has never seen Rachael Ray?

Her stage presence has improved quite a bit in the year and a half since her first cooking video here.

(*There is a gem at 3 minutes, 10 seconds...*)

Quintessential Housewife

I wasn't pregnant anymore, but I was certainly barefoot for the Father's Day's shrimp buffet I provided for my loving husband. For a girl who doesn't like seafood, this just shows how much I really love this guy. I made him shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi, and coconut shrimp. The kids enjoyed the shrimp too, while I had tater tots for dinner.

Birthdays

Both of my children had birthdays in the last six weeks, and neither of which has been documented on the eternal blog. So here goes.


Leah turned five!

It's funny because whenever she tells someone how old she is, she says, "I used to be four, but now I'm five."

Aunt Rebecca and cousin Paul celebrated Leah's birthday with us, and took us to the Ogden Train museum, where the kids had a blast. For her birthday dinner she requested "salad," which means fruit salad, and garlic bread. She also was very pleased with her "Strawberry Shortcake" cake, which was really just a cake in which I added strawberries to the center filling for fun. I totally winged it, and it tasted great.

There was also a party with a bunch of five year olds, but I guess I was busy enough that the camera did not make an appearance at that party. You know what they are like: cake and ice cream, a bunch of kids most of my readers won't recognize, and an elated birthday girl tearing the paper off her gifts.





Samuel is three!

I was in Dallas for Grandma's funeral when he turned three, but we figured he wouldn't really know the difference if we celebrated a couple days later. He specifically requested a Spongebob birthday, which surprised me because I don't think we really watch Spongebob at our house. On the other hand, he does get a lot of Dora and princess exposure, so I am really glad he didn't ask for Dora or Ariel. It was fun to decorate (and eat) Spongebob. The trick is to frost the cake, then trace the image with a toothpick before icing the face on it.

The video displays the excitement of a little boy turning three, followed by what three year olds do best: be silly! Compare to this video of when he turned two.

Bread

Some facts:

• Within 72 hours of milling wheat, 90% of its nutritional value has dissipated.


• All-purpose white flour has to have vitamins replaced which were removed in the milling process. Only the endosperm remains in white flour, while essential nutrients, oils, and fiber is found in the bran and germ.


• Any "whole wheat flour" you purchase at the store is missing lots of the nutritional value of freshly-milled-today whole wheat flour.


• When you buy something that is marketed as "whole wheat bread" chances are you are eating enriched white flour, and that it has carmel color added to make it darker colored (to trick you!) and of course, it has high fructose corn syrup in it. If you want true (store bought) whole wheat bread, the first ingredient should be "Stone ground whole wheat flour."

(source: http://www.healthbanquet.com/fresh-milled-flour.html)

Ok, so since I've recently decided to be uber picky about the bread I buy and eat and feed my family, I've discovered that there is no bread on the market (that I can afford) that meets my expectations. Hence, I have decided to make my own bread. Secondly, since I have decided that there is no wheat flour on the market that meets my expectations, I have also decided to mill my own wheat berries.

I have a great recipe (thanks to Aunt Sue for lending me Pantry Secrets, which you can make in just 1 hour!) and today I bought a grain mill (ok, the hand crank kind, but it's what I could afford for now...) I just baked my first loaves of fresh-milled whole wheat bread and they are beautiful and delicious. This bread is better tasting, has way more nutritional value and is therefore better for our bodies (I am a huge advocate of fiber!!!), and is infinetly cheaper than store bought bread.

(Ok, I confess that the milling was kind of a workout. It took me 20 minutes to grind enough flour for these two loaves, so I will definately be investing in a NutriMill in the near future, but for now Chris will do the milling for me, but not even a day in advance, mind you).

Ingredients: Freshly milled whole wheat flour, Sugar, Salt, Yeast, Soy Lecithin, Water. That's it!

I am hooked, and I feel so liberated!

A Rant on Luxuries and Necessities

Well. We crunched the numbers and realized that we were spending too much money. Thus, we decided that since Samuel has allergies, is still wearing diapers, and eats more than his older sister, and thus costs more to maintain, he would be the one to go.

Just kidding.

Actually, we decided to have a budget and stick to it. We figured that was a more permanent solution to our predicament than getting rid of one of the kids.

Here's what we did. You have to budget for things that only happen once or twice a year, so if you are going to have to register your cars for $350 once a year, then you have to put away 1/12th of that ($30)every month, same with clothing, car maintenance, etc. So then we totaled up our monthly expenses for our tithing, mortgage, household expenses, insurance, utilities, car maintenance, entertainment, personal spending, clothing, etc, and whatever was left would be our grocery budget. Oh, yeah, and that's while paying down those credit cards and trying to put a little away in savings while we're at it!

Well folks, magic number is $290/month. Does it sound that hard to feed a family of four on $290/month? It doesn't sound that bad. But looking over our expenses for 2010 thus far, we had been spending and average of $600/month on groceries. So, does it sound so hard to cut your food budget in half? Yes! That is a major change of lifestyle for us. I guess we just like to eat.


But what are necessities? Is dishwasher soap a necessity for people of my generation? Or do we have the patience to wash dishes by hand if need be? Do you have the determination to make powdered milk and homemade bread? What do you break your budget for that you absolutely cannot live without?

I'll answer that. Dish soap, homemade bread, powdered milk I can handle. But I've already learned that diapers must be in the budget because I cannot live without those (I mean, I can't live with Samuel without those, and we've already decided to keep him.) And WiFi. I don't think I can live without that. What about you?

So here we are. Buying potatoes because they are dirt cheap, foregoing the $2.50 box of fruit snacks because that's a lot for processed sugar(!), finding ways to put zucchini in everything because they keep appearing in my backyard garden (okay, I know I planted them there, but there are just so many...), and the list goes on. I find myself keeping track of how much money I have left while I'm grocery shopping, and I'm asking myself, do I want to spent $4 on a can of french fried onions, or do I want to buy toilet paper?

To live on $290 a month, we absolutely had to make a dinner menu. I got the basic breakfast foods and lunchy type things, but planning out our dinners and getting only those ingredients made a huge difference on how much I spent at the grocery store. Plus, I am more organized each night at dinner time because I know what I'm making, and we have lots of leftovers (hence, I also planned a leftovers night!) My latest victory is that I finally mustered up the guts to price match at Walmart and probably saved $15 on 2-week's menu. Way to go me!

So, that's what's been on my mind lately. End of rant.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Inventory

When I took a nutrition class at BYU about 6 years ago, I learned that most "wheat bread" is really not made with wheat flour; it's enriched white flour, with carmel coloring added to make it look darker. It didn't really have a whole lot of nutritional value. At that point in time, I resolved to only purchase bread which listed as the first ingredient "whole wheat flour." I have done this very successfully. I have been a careful consumer, and although we have paid more per loaf of bread, the result is more than just peace of mind. True whole wheat bread has better fiber and protein content. We are a very fiber-conscious household, and if we can get more than 4 grams of fiber per slice/serving of bread, bagel, tortilla, or pasta we feel like we've found the nutrition jackpot--this usually means anything that is designated as "whole wheat" or "whole grain."

Well, it's time to find a new loaf of bread again.

I have recently resolved to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from my diet. It is an unneccessary sweetener in so many of our regular groceries, it almost makes me sick. If we consumers change the way we shop, the food industry will hear us. That is how we can make a change.

Take for example rbST. If you look on your milk carton, I guarantee you that it says "Made from cows not treated with the artificial growth hormone rBST." Ask my brother, and he'll tell you that artificial growth hormones as a principle are not bad, but the point is that consumers changed the industry overnight. When a large body of consumers changes the way it shops, the industry changes in response.

So with that said, I am changing the way I shop, and we are changing the way we eat. I've been the primary grocery-shopper for my household for 7 1/2 years (and for the last year and a half, I have also been a paid grocery shopper by trade), and I have come to rely on some favorite brands. Here is a list of all of our favorite, regular foods in my house that I now intend to replace with their non-HFCS sweetened couterparts. Well it is all about to change. And this is going to be painful.

• Sara Lee Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread
• Yoplait Yogurt
• Smucker's Strawberry Jam
• Sweet Baby Ray's Barbeque Sauce
• Kraft Barbeque Sauce (all varieties)
• Heinz Worchestershire Sauce
• Hunt's Ketchup
• Wishbone Italian Salad Dressing
• Slim-Fast
• Mountain Dew (and all other sodas)
• Keebler Fudge-Stripe Cookies
• Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce
• Keebler Club Crackers
• Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies
• Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
• Applesauce, most brads (unless it says "All Natural")
• Frosted Flakes Cereal

This list only represents the things I currently have in my house and intend to replace as soon as present stores are depleted. Few of our suspected-guilty favorites made the HFCS-free cut, including Cheerios, Peanut Butter, Bulls Eye Barbeque Sauce, Life Cereal, Quaker High-Fiber Oatmeal, Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce, Hunt's Tomato Sauce, Campbell's canned soups, etc.

While it might be hard to enjoy foods sweetened naturally instead of with HFCS, it is all a matter of conditioning. If you are conditioned to the taste of super-sweet applesauce, naturally sweetened applesauce will be hard to adjust to (hard to "swallow" if you will). That's why we're switching. I don't want to be accustomed to unnaturally sweetened products anymore. I want my children to appreciate the tast of applesauce for what it is: apples.

Once we've conquered HFCS, our next battle might be switching to free-range chicken, or grass-fed cows, but I can't wrap my brain around them all at once.

Here are some resources (from both sides of the debate) to educate yourself before you jump down my throat. I don't like debating, I just know what irks me, and HFCS irks me.

The movie that started it all: Food, Inc.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/25/corn.syrup.sugar/index.html
http://www.labelwatch.com/addinfo.php?aid=456;
http://www.sweetsurprise.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588
A list of HFCS-free foods: http://www.stophfcs.com/list.html
http://www.ehow.com/list_5851584_list-high-fructose-corn-syrup.html

I welcome your input on your favorite HFCS-free brands.

The Folly of Youth: Why Ignorance is NOT Bliss

Okay, here is just one example.

When we were newlyweds living in a BYU married student ward (with so few children that there was no Primary or Nursery), I had the opportunity to babysit a little boy. We'll call him Chip. He was younger than my Samuel is now, so about 8 months old, and if I remember correctly, he didn't have any teeth yet.

Well this is what I was given to feed Chip during my 2 hour babysitting stint: a banana and some rice cereal (no big deal).

And a tuna sandwich.

Did I mention that this little boy had no teeth?

Being a childless and ignorant 20 year old, I had no idea what to feed a baby, nor did I have a box of Cheerios stashed away at the back of the cabinet. But I could tell that a tuna sandwich was an unusual menu item. I could also tell that Chip was not happy. He tried and tried to eat that tuna sandwich, gumming it for 30 minutes until he had finally eaten half of it. Based on his determination and long suffering, I'm comfortable assuming that this was not the first time he had been given a tuna sandwich. But boy, was he grumpy about it.

Chris had been present when Chip was dropped off by his mom, and was witness to my sheer excitement at having a "trial run" at the baby business. He stopped back in briefly after an hour and found me, most likely in tears, rocking and bouncing and swooping the little guy to get him to stop crying and go to sleep (since he had already eaten his tuna sandwich). By the end of my 2-hours when Chip had gone home, Chris came home again only to find me fast asleep on the couch, completely exhausted. He decidedly announced that we weren't having any babies yet, and teased me for my naive longing for a baby of my own.

Ah, the advantage of hindsight. That day I was just as clueless as Chip's mom. Poor baby. Poor mom. At least I could tell that he was not happy with a tuna sandwich for lunch.

In case you are wondering, here is a website that gives some good guidelines about what to feed an 8 month old. I don't see any mention of tuna or sandwiches.

Random Question

My favorite regular breakfast of choice is Life cereal with skim milk and a banana sliced into it.

What is your favorite and/or most regular breakfast?

The tasters have tasted

Congrats to my cousin Nancy--you are the lucky random winner for a free cookbook! I'll put it in the mail this weekend. Your only requirement is to blog what recipes you try and how you like them!

True to my word, I've so far tried 7 recipes from my new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, and as promised in last week's post, I'm now going to provide you with my reviews of how they turned out. I'll comment on each one pertaining to flavor, ease of making it, and if I will make it again.

Applesauce Muffins (with butternut squash): They were moist and delicious! I especially liked that even though you are cooking healthy, you still get to put a yummy crumb topping on these. I took these with me to our Relief Society cooking group, and everyone loved them. You could not taste any vegetable content--Leah was sad that I gave away most of her "cupcakes" to "all those people". I will definitely make this again! 5 out of 5 stars.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins (with yellow squash): I was a little more hesitant to take that first bite, but the flavors of lemon and blueberry were actually quite powerful and complementary that again, you couldn't tell there was squash inside. I tested this one out on my friend Lisa and she was sold. I'll most likely make it again (I just don't normally buy blueberries). 5 out of 5.

Chicken Nuggets (with sweet potato): To bread chicken, you first coat the food in an egg/veggie puree mixture and then roll it in the breadcrumb mixture. While the food tasted great, the egg mixture was so heavy that it kept sliding off the chicken during cooking and got left behind in the pan. Anyone know a way around this problem? I would like to try making this again with the other vegetables recommended, namely pureed broccoli, spinach, or beet, and see if the flavor is at all affected differently by those vegetables. As it was, the crumbly coating was crunchy while also being moist and sweet--not at all like the sweet potato flavor I normally dislike. Leah also enjoyed these chicken nuggets far more than the freezer kind. I'd give this one 4 out of 5.

Mozzarella Sticks (with cauliflower): This one was a little iffy. Again, I couldn't get the crumb coating to stay on the cheese--they all turned into a giant glob of melted mozzarella rather than "sticks" and the cauliflower was a little "meaty" and actually made me gag a little. If I were to try this again(debatable if I will), I would add a little more corn starch to keep the shape better, and I would try to make each cheese stick smaller. Maybe that would make them keep their shape. Leah wouldn't eat more than one bite of these, and I frankly didn't really want to either. 2 out of 5.

Aloha Chicken Kebabs (with sweet potato and pineapple): Yum!! Very fun and tasty, and actually quite quick. I will definitely make this again now that I stocked my pantry with shredded coconut, an ingredient I was missing when I made this. It was a very subtle Hawaiian influence, but really quite good. Make sure your chicken fingers aren't too big or it will take forever to cook. Leah loved eating this off of a skewer! 5 out of 5.

Pita Pizzas (with spinach): This recipe is for mini pita pizzas, but they worked great on English muffins. They were our quick after-church snack, were super tasty, and actually tasted better with the spinach on them than without. And who's to know the difference? This is definitely making it onto our regular meal rotation. 5 out of 5.

Frozen Yogurt Pops (with berries): I think I am accustomed to super sweetened yogurt, because the taste of plain yogurt was way too tart for my liking, even though there were other ingredients mixed in. Perhaps more sugar would have made the difference? (thereby reducing the "healthful" purpose) Leah loves them and I will most likely feed all 8 of them to her over the course of the next few weeks. 3 out of 5.

I would still like to try making several more recipes, including rice balls, spaghetti pie, and some of the desserts. We'll see! Oh, and as soon as Chris comes home from his trip, I'm sure he'll beg me to make him all of the ones we've already tried so he can be a taste tester, too!

Some things I've learned in the process:
My 1.5 cup food processor is way too small to puree veggies by the plethora. (So I went out and bought at 6 cup food processor. I just needed a good excuse to get it!)
Don't try to make all the purees in one day. It is a lot of work, you will end up burned out, and will most likely have cauliflower on the ceiling.

I kept track of approximately how much puree each vegetable made, something that would have been a nice reference table to have in the cookbook:

1 bunch spinach = 1/2 cup puree
1 butternut squash = 1 1/4 c puree
2 medium beets = 1 c puree
2 small summer squash (yellow squash) = 1 1/2 c puree
1 large sweet potato (they call them yams here) = 1 c puree
1 head cauliflower = 3 1/2 c puree
2 large zucchini = 3 c puree

Experiment in Deception

I am really excited to report that I just picked up this cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, at Sam's Club this week. I've heard about it before, and I thought, "Hey, if I can sneak some more vegetables into my kids diet without them noticing, maybe I won't notice them either!" The whole basis of Jessica Seinfeld's cooking method is to puree common fruits and veggies and sneak them undetectably into everything from macaroni & cheese to brownies, meatloaf to muffins. She sneaks some pureed cauliflower into scrambled eggs, butternut squash in the macaroni & cheese, and chickpeas in the chocolate chip cookies. You say it sounds gross? I guess we're about to find out!

The recipes are common foods that kids (and their parents) usually have in their repertoire, with the added twist of a little extra nutrition. In addition to over 70 innovate recipes, Jessica outlines instructions on how to cook and puree fruits and vegetables (handy simply for making your own baby food!), and with the help of nutrition experts, she breaks down nutritional guidelines geared specifically toward children. She also details what nutrients are found in each vegetable, thereby identifying why it is important to have a variety--then she provides approachable ideas for incorporating them into your and your children's diets. I found this particularly informative and important since children are so physically active and since their bodies and minds are in such a crucial stage of development.

I love her tips for approaching picky eaters and I found that I generally agreed with her opinions and tactics about feeding kids (and adults!) in general. I love that she is down to earth about what our bodies need and don't need, and her recipes tend to constitute a good variety of nutrition and flavor. Its amazing how inadequate our standard diet is in vegetables--particularly fiber (YIKES!!). A diet adequate in vegetables can provide more energy, better skin tone, smooth digestion, better eye and mind health, and so much more. Why has it taken me so long to get on board? I think this cookbook could change the world!

Usually, I flip through a cookbook and anticipate that I will only ever attempt to make 10% of the recipes, and maybe one ever makes it into our regular dinner rotation. Last night I went through all the recipes in this cookbook, and anticipate that I will try half of them. They all look and sound so good, and seem very nutritious. Stay tuned for my recipe reviews as I try them out!

I've already made a list of the basics that I need to add to my kitchen to complete some of the recipes in this book, and I'm prepared to head to the grocery store and start pureeing some vegetables. I'm going to start with Applesauce Muffins (with butternut squash or carrot puree), and I plan to bring them with me to our Relief Society cooking group tomorrow--we'll see if anyone notices the vegetable content!

I am so excited to try out these recipes and I have so much confidence that they will work that I want to share the joy with you! Leave me a comment answering these three simple questions--I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday the 19th and I will send you your very own Deceptively Delicious cookbook!

1. Do you think your regular diet (and what you serve your family) has
a big enough variety of vegetables in it? Is there room for more?

2. Would you feel comfortable "deceiving" your children by sneaking
vegetable puree into their favorite recipes? Or does the idea of being
deliberately deceptive bother you?

3. Do you think this would work for your family?

Why I love Naperville

Welcome to Naperville, Illinois!

Why did we sarcastically say "Welcome to Naper-thrill" when we were teenagers? What were we thinking, wanting to get out of here all along, when now I can't wait to come back?

Here is a non-comprehensive list of what I love about my good old hometown:


10. Band concerts in the park

We were here for the 4th of July bash, with cannons!



9. Community Activities-Ribfest, The Last Fling, Haunted House, etc

8. Beatiful parks and playgrounds, plentiful biking and hiking trails, outdoor art

7. The Naperville Riverwalk
Here we are feeding the ducks.





6. Herrick Lake- hiking, biking, boating, picnicing

Yes we did get caught in the rain, but we loved it! Yeah, the humidity is....sticky....but to actually have rain was really refreshing!

5. The DuPage Children's Museum

For grown-ups as much as it is for kids. Chris and I came here on a date when we were engaged!









4. The Morton Arboretum-hike, bike, drive tour.

Open virtually every day of the year. It has something like 17,000 acres. What a beatiful place!



3. Good Eats--Chicago-style pizza and of course, hot dogs at Portillo's!!! (Enough calories in one meal that it is probably a good thing we only visit twice a year...)

2. Visiting Chicago (Watch for an entire post dedicated to the city, coming soon to a blog near you!)

***AND NUMBER ONE***

1. Visiting my family!

My parents and my brother's family, which includes 2 out of my kids' 3 cousins. They sure have a blast together! Plus, mom and dad have an Endless Pool!!! Talk about endless fun!













Naperville was recently rated the 3rd best place to live, and has repeatedly been rated highly for walkable community, raising kids, public libraries, etc. If only I could afford to live there!

The Anti-Atkins (non)Diet

For breakfast I had cereal with milk. For lunch, I had an all-fruit smoothie. In between I snacked on strawberry yougurt, a handful of LIFE cereal here and there, a glass of juice, a handful of popcorn, a tasty treat with my daugther as she celebrates having gone potty. I did have a redeeming dinner of chicken pot pie, and I even ate all my vegetables. Then, just for the fun of it, I thawed some cookie dough and did some baking. Now I can tell that this is not exactly a well-rounded (or should I say well-squared) diet, and my digestive system is not exactly rejoicing. And I know this is not the way to shed the baby pounds, which I've professed as an important goal. And for the record, I don't eat like this every day. But here's what I want to know: What is it about depression that makes it seem like too much work to cook or eat right? Or get dressed, for that matter? I knowingly missed lunch and sat there for over an hour listening to my growling stomach...willing myself not to eat? I don't understand.

All in a Day's Work

Today was a neighborhood yard sale. In a close condo-type community like ours, it works very well for everyone to put their own sale out in front of their house and let the customers just shop from street to street. I didn't have all that much to sell, but for some reason I decided to have a bake sale. I made cinnamon rolls, rice krispie treats, and banana bread. I also put out a plethora of fabric that I inherited from someone in the ward--everything you can fit in a plastic grocery sack for $2.

Chris bought me a $2 chalkboard from someone else's sale to be my advertising, I traded 3 rice krispie treats for a coffee table, inherited a free TV, and traded fabric for baby boy clothes. It turned out to be a successful sale, based on the fact that I sold all my baked goods. And at 50 cents a pop, I came out with $40. I was going to say that I broke even, considering that in the process of trying to make a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough last night, I broke my hand mixer, but Mom pointed out that through my efforts, I got a TV, a coffee table, baby clothes, and a new mixer. I can live with that. Incidentally, hand mixers have a life span of approximately 2-3 years. This was my second mixer in 5 years.

Unfortunately, I've been eating junk food straight for 3 days, created a war-zone in my kitchen, and totally ignored my children. Tonight for dinner I had a simple, sugar-free club salad. I guess it was a good day, but man, I'm tired.

In the rest of my world, we finally got our laptop up and running, thanks to a terrific computer service in Orem I would recommend to all my friends (she even made a house call!) all for only $49 and the cost of a new hard drive. Leah is mostly potty trained but is consequently a sugar-aholic. My baby is 18 pounds. This week I traded in my babysitting money from the past month for a CHI! And, it is finally hot enough to need the swamp cooler running.

Until next time!

Spilled Milk and Soggy Cheerios

You're not supposed to cry over spilled milk, but let me make my case to the contrary.

I haven't gotten adequate sleep for six weeks.

My house and personal hygeine have suffered because of my lack of energy, and the distractions aplenty haven't helped. I'm sick of changing diapers. The one thing I did this week to clean the house was mop the kitchen floor Wednesday night so we wouldn't sacrifice our socks to its stickiness, only to have a 5 foot diameter fall-out zone the next time Leah had a meal.

Chris has been sick all week, missing work to sleep afternoons. This morning Leah woke up with a cough and sore throat. It's only a matter of time until the baby and I get it. Does this mean we'll all be sick on President's Day?

Although I do have cabin fever, everytime I try to go somewhere, I end up more exhausted than its worth. (Yeah, spontaneously bursting into tears at the Walmart customer service desk isn't exactly what I had in mind when I decided to get out of the house...)

So given a severe energy deficit and my anxiety about the kitchen floor, is it okay to cry when the floor gets doused with the contents of a bowl of soggy, milky cheerios, and I have to clean it up?

Random Tidbits

Random highlights from the past week:

I'm going on my makeover shopping spree on President's Day. Click here to give me your fashion advice, and you could win a set of 10 hand stamped cards. (If it makes any difference, everyone's advice has been great, so I'm going to pick a winner at random). While we're at it, what are the rules of wearing stripes or prints?

This week I've made Honey-Glazed Chicken, Mustard-Lemon Chicken, Pesto Cheese Tarts, and a Lemon-Lime Tart (way harder than I thought it would be!). I even successfully made French Toast on the first try.

Last night, all four Fosdicks were awake at some point during the 4:30-5:30am hour, three of us subsequently requiring wardrobe changes. Nevertheless, I got 8 hours of sleep over a span of only 9 hours--the best since the baby was born. I feel great!

I've mastered one-handed blogging while simultaneously breast-feeding (like right now).

Friday I ventured to the grocery store with two children. What do you do when you get home and the baby is hungry, the toddler is asleep in her carseat, and the trunk is full of frozen groceries all at once?

I filed our taxes yesterday morning.

Diaper Count for Samuel: Approximately 250.

In the stamping world, I had a Stampin' Up workshop yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I demonstrated the Pretties Kit and it is oh, so pretty! The only problem with the kit is that two year olds love it. Here are the projects I made for the workshop. The last one is a tin I decorated, filled with designer paper scraps, and gave to the hostess.



Also, I put this in my newsletter to my customers, but nobody has taken the bait: To celebrate Samuel's arrival, send me a baby card made with Stampin' Up! products--On March 1st, I'll pick one at random and that person will receive a free Classic Inkpad of their choice. Mind you, I haven't gotten any yet, so if you hop to it, you could be the only entry and thereby the winner! (email me at jennyfosdickATgmailDOTcom if you need more info).

Also, I decided to take a trial run of the Demonstrator Business Website while I can get two months for free--I haven't done anything to it yet, but that is my project for this week.

That's it for this week's random tidbits! Tune in next time!

Short-Order Breakfast

My favorite breakfast option as of late is French Toast. I justify making this for myself and my child because it has milk and eggs in it, and I make it with whole wheat toast. Fiber. Protein. Calcium. Sounds good to me! Its cheap, only takes about 15 minutes to make, and is super tasty. I make it approximately once a week.

Since Chris is back at work this week, I'm now on my own with two kids, but nevertheless, I had the craving for French Toast this morning. I decided to make a double batch so that I could keep some in the refrigerator and reheat it later in the week or as a midnight snack. I busted out the 20" griddle so I could make 8 at once. My toddler waited patiently by playing with tupperware on the floor, and my baby was blissfully sleeping. By 8:30 I served Leah a piping hot slice of french toast, soaking with melty butter and dripping in hot syrup. I poured myself a glass of milk and took a bite.

It tasted really funny. My first guess was that it tasted different since I coated the griddle with butter instead of pan spray as usual. I took a second bite. Like a brick it hit me with perfect clarity: I had used 1/4 cup of salt and not sugar. French Toast is not supposed to be salty. It tasted awful and it was not salvageable. Leah didn't seem to notice and ate her whole slice, but didn't ask for seconds either. What's really a shame is that I wasted 8 eggs, 2 cups of milk, and 8 slices of bread. And I was still craving buttery, syrupy, sweet French Toast.

I mournfully poured the remaining batter down the sink and all 7 remaining slices in the garbage can and started over. (A month ago, still pregnant, this would have made me cry). Of course by the time my second try was ready, my glass of milk was warm, the syrup was cold, and the baby had woken up. So much for being Supermom. This is the kind of thing that has contributed to the "Inadequacy" label having so many entries--this kind of thing happens to me all the time.

Here's the recipe so you can make it right the first time (Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook):
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup of milk
2 T SUGAR
2 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
8 slices of bread
butter

Christmas Candies, Confections, and Crafts

It's the holidays, and you just can't have Christmas Eve without egg nog, sappy music, family games, and of course a plethera of treats to munch on. So I've set to work in the kitchen over the past week. I've made fudge (which never did set past a gloop stage...any tips?), 3 batches of mini banana bread loaves, toffee (the first thing to get completely devoured), and seven dozen snowball cookies (aka Russian Tea Cakes, aka Mexican Wedding cookies, etc). I've used several pounds of butter, chocolate, and walnuts, and almost an entire 5 lb bag of sugar, plus I've cleaned the kitchen at least half a dozen times (so why does it still look like a blizzard of confectioner sugar?) and had a resultant stomach ache every night since.

I had planned to make all these tasty delights in time for our party on Saturday, but you know, falling down the stairs forced me to slow down a little and take a break. The party was a great success--we had a good turnout of about a dozen people, which was just the right amount. And nobody seemed to mind that my fudge was more gloppy than anything else and that I didn't serve more homemade cookies, a veggie platter, pesto cheese tarts, or chips and dip. Everybody brought something tasty to share and I didn't have to stress out. For the record, we were planning on visiting the dentist soon anyway and both of us have Weight Watchers on our radar for next year.

So not only did I feel the need to deliver plates of goodies to our neighbors and friends, but I had to stamp too. I made these cute little cocoa pouches with snowman tags and a candy cane. There's just something addicting about this kind of activity that makes it really hard for me to stop making them...

And lastly, here's our tree. We are hoping to find our remote control tomorrow buried underneath presents, because we can't think of anywhere else it could possibly be!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

What's in your Fridge?

Once upon a time, I bought Fat Free Ranch Dressing. Apparently, this is an abomination because it just doesn't taste good. I learned my lesson that it doesn't get eaten at my house, and have since adopted the practice of buying Light Ranch Dressing. It tastes much better and still has a lower fat content than regular Ranch Dressing (which is also very good).

Last night we had a green salad with our pork chops. I went to get some ranch out of the fridge for my salad, but all we had was that same 24 oz bottle of Fat Free that is still only 3/4 finished. I couldn't bring myself to eat it, knowing it would taste funny compared to my expectation of how Light or full-fat ranch tastes. I settled for some other creamy dressing and vowed to buy salad dressing the next time I'm at the grocery store.

About to put the inferior salad dressing back in the fridge, I curiously checked the expiration date on the bottle. 12OCT05. What? That bottle of ranch expired over two years ago? That was before our child was born! What's even more appalling, since October of 2005, we have moved twice. This means I have moved that particular condiment from refrigerator to refrigerator two times, and we still have no intention of ever finishing it. I threw it away. How liberating.

Do you know what's lurking in your fridge?

Happy Thanksgiving...again!

Yesterday we had Thanksgiving again. Let's just say I needed the practice and we wanted leftovers. I successfully made a turkey! Last year, we sat down to eat with dinner guests and the turkey was still frozen. Then, attempting to slice it into smaller pieces to cook faster, we sliced through the aluminum baking pan and got turkey juice all over the stove. Lets just say it was somewhat of a disaster...

But this year, the turkey was fully cooked on time (it had 8 hours!) and was super juicy and delicious! Here's what we had for dinner: Turkey (I got a 20 lb turkey for $1.5o with all my turkey vouchers!), honey ham, mashed potatoes, gravy made with the turkey drippings, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, Rhodes rolls with lots of butter, and green olives, followed by a dessert buffet including pumpkin pie, pecan pie, mango cheesecake, chocolate truffles, and sparkling cider. Nobody had room for egg-nog. It was de-lic-ious.

In the process of creating this meal and serving 6 adults, one two year old, and a nearly full-grown fetus, we exhausted our supplies of china, serving bowls and spoons, silverware, glasses, casserole dishes, pie dishes, counter space, aluminum foil, tupperware, oven mitts, clean dishtowels, and of course, our appetites. We did, however enjoy good company, stuffing ourselves silly again and again, opening early my first Christmas present of the year (more tupperware), packing the freezer with leftovers, and the inevitable I-ate-too-much stomach ache all night long. We dropped the pepper shaker in the gravy, ate dessert with plastic forks, ran the dishwasher three times, and didn't get to bed until 11:00. We also celebrated Leah's birthday and David's birthday. What a terrific day!

Yes, I take advice from chocolate

I found out I was pregnant with Leah on a Friday. The following Sunday, I snagged a chocolate out of the Bishop's candy jar. This is what the wrapper said:

Celebrate the child within you.

I thought that was really cool. I laminated the candy wrapper and put it in a scrapbook.

So, it's been a busy week. On days when I actually have a car to drive (meaning I drove my husband to work at quarter to 8--before I prefer to grace the world with my crusty presence and morning breath), I have to make the most of my errand-running time, of course working around lunch and nap time. Monday was a doctor's appointment and grocery shopping and car cleaning. Tuesday was filled with Relief Society duties. Yesterday I stayed home and went through paperwork and made piles of things to put away. Cleaning up a mess in and of itself creates an entirely new mess. Well, when I say I did paperwork, I mean I spent several hours preparing documentation for a dozen FLEX account transactions throughout the year. Yes, it was a good thing I kept the receipt for that Pepto-Bismol. Today, I swapped babysitting with my neighbor, and in my hour and a half, I made copies of all the paperwork from yesterday and did some birthday and Christmas shopping. Then, even though my child was now in tow, I went visiting teaching, made a Relief Society drop-in visit, and spent $135 at Sam's Club (and in only 45 minutes!) while my child was sound asleep in the shopping cart. How I wished it could have been me asleep in the shopping cart. I think everyone I passed (and they all ogled that there was a kid sound asleep in the cart) saw the sleepiness in my eyes and the half-speed shuffle in my step.

While at Sam's I gravitated toward the free food samples. One of them was Dove chocolates...irresistible. The lady gave me one of each kind, regular chocolate, dark chocolate, and extra dark. This is what the wrappers said:

You're allowed to do nothing.

Flirting is mandatory.

Celebrate the freedom to indulge.

I was grateful for the validation to indulge, since that was my third chocolate in 90 seconds, and it was the extra dark one. As for the second one, I will remember that when Chris gets home from class.

But do nothing? What a relief! I'm so burned out that I'd love to do nothing! Here's what I could be doing right now: make pies for Sunday dinner, research how to successfully cook a turkey, scrub the kitchen floor, disinfect the kitchen counters, remedy that the kitchen curtains are encrusted with cheerios and toddler face-prints, attack the piles I made yesterday, wrap birthday and Christmas presents, attend the sewing class at church, put Christmas lights in the windows, put up that infernal kitchen cabinet that still adorns my living room, and essentially play SuperMom until I run myself into the ground.

But I'm doing nothing. And I'm allowed to do nothing. In 45 minutes Leah will be in bed and I will put up my feet and commence nothing. I will possibly watch Tuesday's House, flip channels randomly while sipping hot cocoa, read a book, blog, or something equally underproductive, because I have permission! Sorry, but SuperMom is not in tonight!