Sleeping Baby, Curtains, and an Old Microwave

This makes me smile...

Made some curtains a few months ago for the livingroom and finally finished them over block leave in December.  They make a HUGE difference - especially with the amount of sunshine EP gets!!  It's nice to pull them closed right before nap time to start winding the hooligans down.  And it makes a big difference keeping heat/AC INSIDE!  So, first shot at curtains.  Learned a lot.  Mainly... that working with HUGE pieces of fabric is challenging.  I need more practice.  (Any tips??  Seriously!)  Someday.  Someday...

This was our old microwave.  This microwave has a good story.  I found it in the pantry while at EC.. maybe junior or senior year.  Can't remember.  Either way, someone was throwing it out.  So, I plugged it in, and it worked!!  The only "problem" was that the display didn't work.  So, I brought it back to my room and had a microwave for a year or two at Elmira!!  Well, then I got married and moved away... and it still worked!  The fact that the display didn't work wasn't huge... but over the past year it's gotten pretty annoying.  Anyway, the poor thing FINALLY died this year!  It still "runs" but doesn't heat things up well at all.  So, we put it out on the curb... and true to El Paso... it was gone shortly after!  Thankfully, Blair and Hilary blessed us with one that they didn't need! 

Went to have "Breakfast With The Cows" this morning at Chic-fil-a and the girls had a BLAST!!!  Well... Hannah slept through most of it, but the "big girls" loved it!  Addison is particularly taken with the cow mascots that make an appearance during these events, and she smothers them with hugs!!  It's really very cute!  The craft was decorating a pillow case... neither of the girls got into it... Morgan... because she wasn't in the mood to get that involved; and Addison, because she was having way too much fun with the cows AND dancing!!  Forgot my camera, but next time I'll have to remember both the camera AND the video camera!

Homemade Pasta

It's no secret.  I LOVE pasta. 

Josh was wonderful enough to get me Kitchen Aid's Pasta Press attachment this Christmas... a decision which I'm sure he'll grow to regret as I've already made 3 batches of pasta in the past 2 days.... yes.  I've fed my family pasta for 2 nights now... and I fully intend on eating pasta for lunch tomorrow too! 

It helps that Addison's 3 favorite meals are quiche with spinach, ham, and cheese; homemade pizza; and spaghetti with meatballs (she's a carbosaurus like her mommy!).  So being that there was a spagetti plate for the press, I HAD to try it!! 

Well, here are some pictures and the run-down...

Made the first batch of dough in the food processor.  Not sure if it was the machine, or if the dough needed more water.  Either way, it was too crumbly.

After being kneaded in the mixing bowl with a bit more water.

Ready to make pasta... though the actual balls that I fed into the attachment were about half the size of these.

One of my little helpers...

Homemade Pasta goes best with Homemade & Canned Vodka Sauce! Yum!!!

(Thankfully I had the time to can a bunch of these before H was born!!)

Cooked

Sauced

Day 2, Batch 3 Elbows and Spagetti

Huge hit all around with dinner... this one even licked the plate... which is how she got the nice blotch of sauce on her forehead!

I've learned a lot about making pasta these past few days... now I'm anxious to find and tackle some spinach and carrot pasta recipes!!

Post Church Pictures

Love Them!!!

 Miss M.

 Kisses

 Double Kisses for Baby H!

 Yes... She's 19 months and her only top teeth are molars and her 2 front teeth.  The bottoms are winning out with only the canines left to poke through.

Little Kittens & Their Mittens

Ok... well, for today they can be kittens... but first thing tomorrow morning they're back to being monkeys again.

If you've spent much time around our girls, then you'll know that they both love to dress up in anything above and beyond a top and bottom. 

Addison is our bag lady.  She has quite a wide collection of different bags, purses, trick-or-treat baskets (you get the idea).  These bags tend to be filled with anything and everything that Miss A can fit into it: cars, "little friends" (aka mini beanie babies), small toys, Hannah's toys, etc.  After filling each bag to the brim, they are either slung over her arm and carried around on her elbow, or their layered 3 and 4 bags deep over each side of the baby stroller... and then paraded around the house.  This is usually done in "pretty shoes" and a tu-tu.  I know.  I NEED a picture of this!

Morgan loves Loves LOOOVES to wear socks and shoes allll day, even if we're just around the house.  And she will also put on a random jacket and just hang out.  I don't think I'm emphasizing this part enough.  When she knows that we're leaving the house, she'll RUN to the closet and SCREAM until we arrive to fetch her jacket and put it on. 

So, that being said, you can imagine their excitement over new mittens!!  And they LOVE them!!  Thanks Mamie!! 

These two monkeys, err, Kittens, ran around the house in their new mittens until bedtime... when mean ol' Mommy hid them in the closet!

I'll have to get this pattern... these mittens are WONDERFUL!!!

Morgan has thumbless mittens... PERFECT!!!

"Have you seen these mom?!  SO COOL!!"

"CHEESE!!"

Roasting a Whole Chicken is For the Birds!!!!

...but we'll get to that later...

Yesterday we took Morgan into the Doctor's to start the voyage down the allergy testing road.  Whether or not it's an allergy, we're not sure, but it's time to get to the bottom of this mysterious rash that continues to pop up on her trunk.  Simple blood test is the first step; testing for all of the major offenders (wheat, eggs, etc etc.).  Thankfully, Josh had Friday off.  He wrangled the biggest and littlest monkies, while M and I went in for the appt. and then the blood draw.  Poor baby.  Doc. said results in 2 weeks... the lab said 2-3 days... we shall see!

Addison also told us yesterday during dinner that she wanted to drive race cars.  I wasn't so thrilled on the level of safety, but after some discussion it was decided that she could do it safely.  That's when she told us that not only would she drive race cars... but that she'd do it with her clothes on too!!!  Phew!!  At least I don't have THAT to worry about!!!

Tonight, Addison washed my bathroom floor for me - soapy water and all!!!  ...just not in the method I would have preferred, and half way through the job, her attention was rerouted.  She decided to dump a few buckets of soapy bath water onto the floor... her bath was promptly ended.... but I have a clean floor!!!

I've also decided that I need more practice in roasting a whole chicken. 

Whole chickens usually serve their purpose in my soup pot leaving their already butchered friends for our day-to-day cooking.  The whole issue of roasting birds here in EP began LAST Thanksgiving.  After the first shot at a Turkey (taking MUCH longer than anticipated) it was determined that I didn't account for the HUGE increase in altitude from our last "Home".  (We're at 4000 feet here.)

Roger.

Second attempt - Last Christmas.  I took into account the altitude.  Successfull turkey dinner.

Fast forward (and OVER a few UNsuccessful attempts) to tonight's chicken dinner.  We went through all of the usual prep steps.  Here's how I cooked my chicken tonight:

Oven to 350*
Cleaned up and patted dry.
Placed in a Pampered Chef stone baking dish   (Rectangle and in Cranberry if you're interested)
S&P on top
Rosemary sprig inside the cavity
In-Oven thermometer insterted into the theigh
Bits & Pieces tucked in
Very small amount of water put into the bottom of the pan
Covered pan with foil and baked until thermometer beeped at an internal temp of 165 (taking into account carry over cooking)
Checked the liquid and I THOUGHT they were running clear... but they weren't.

Back into the oven, no cover this time, for another 20 min - at which point I carved and then finished it in the microwave for bedtime's sake.  The end result was still very good... just a bit more labor intensive than necessary.


No cover next time?
Higher temp?
No water?
A new thermometer?
(At one point, it read out a 201 internal temp... maybe I didn't have it placed right...)

How to you cook YOUR chickens?? 

H is winding up - bedtime is approaching... YAY!

Stay tuned... Church in the AM, which always means a good message... but it also means the hooligans will be at their best... visually speaking.  Behaviorally?  No promises!!!!  :-)

But, for now:  29 Dec 2010

Honk!!!! Honk!!!!

First Hair Cut

October 16, 2010

Addison's 3rd Birthday & First Hair Cut! 

She was very excited, though after it was all over with, she asked if we could put it back on!

Birthday Cake!

A very happy birthday for our sweet Addison!