Family Fondue Night!

                      Easier and cheaper than the Melting Pot!

This by far is the easiest meal and fasted to prepare. All you do is cut up some frozen meat, make a broth, throw in some herbs and cut up some veggies.

For the broth I use a beef broth, fresh garlic and some herbs from our herb garden. The meat is usually what ever I have in the freezer cut into small pieces. These pieces are larger than usual because the husband helped...




and you can see careful little hands love to do it too!

Christmas Gifts and my Herb Garden

 I AM NOT A COOK, but a lot of our friends expect me to be because I am married with a toddler and haven't found a job that justifies paying daycare. ( IE I WANT to work, but in my last job I literally would have been paying to work.)

We often get wonderful homemade gifts from friends, they are the type of friends that appreciate homemade gifts in return. This year as you know I planted an herb garden where I buried a St. in a toy story sandwich baggie in hopes of selling our house to be a family all the time again.

The thought came to me that not many people have an expansive herb garden filled with the likes of Lemon Verbena and several types of basil such as mine..... 

Then it came to be that dried herbs in lovely mason jars would be a wonderful gift to give to my friends who actually do love to cook !  Simple, easy and CHEAP! 

1. Step One, grow the herbs
2. Step Two, harvest the herbs wash and dry in a salad spinner
3. Step Three, place in food dehydrator 
4. Step 4 when dry put in mason jars. 
5. STEP 4 MAKE SURE YOU LABEL the jars before you get mixed up and have to start tasting and guessing what herb is what... 

How did I end up here...

Today I am making SALSA and it is ALL one of my best friends Kristin's fault.  One year she gave us homemade salsa as a Christmas gift.  My husband and I tried it and realized it was MUCH better than the store stuff. I HATE to cook but LOVE to eat. ( Maybe why my weight fluctuates up and down 20-40 lbs depending on the season ugh!) So what is a girl to do... Either raid her friends stash or learn to make it.  I wanted to just sneak a few jars out of her house at a time with out her noticing but the husband nixed that idea...

So I asked her how she did it and then googled a few ideas that contained step by step pictures. Then last year I told my Mom my plan and she asked if I needed admitted to the hospital and promptly checked me for a fever. Confirming I was not sick but maybe mentally she kindly gave me a large amount of Roma Tomatoes from her garden, fresh garlic , onions and peppers she and my Dad grew. Still confused she sent me on my way.

So before you start or think it is too complicated go here to see the step by step pictures and instructions.  More to follow later gaters!

Kitchen Playdates...

Recently I bought the book Kitchen Playdates by Lauren Bank Deen and was extremely disappointing. It was poorly organized and really read like a giant disorganized run on sentence. I am glad that I didn't pay full price and instead paid maybe $0.75 because the store was going out of business. However it did inspire me. I haven't been able to find a book or blog that gave me everything I wanted for playdates and parties.

Today my son has his first kitchen playdate with a friend. We are making pizzas and I am going to have Birthdaycake dip for dessert.

What you Need

Birthday Cake Dip

• 1. 8 Ounce Package of Cream Cheese
• 2. 8 Ounce Package of Cool Whip
• 1 package of Birthday cake from Serendipity Dip Mixes  or Funfetti  Cake Mix or any random cake mix you have on hand + sprinkles

Then take the ingredients and mix together well with an electric mixer. Place in the refrigerator and let chill until it is time for dessert. Serve with Animal Crackers, Graham Crackers, Nilla Waffers etc. 

Pizza Play-date

This play-date is geared toward three year olds. 

What you NEED

1. Frozen Pizza dough  ( most grocery stores make it and sell it cheap) 

2.  Cooked Pizza crusts in case your dough doesn't unfreeze in time 

3. Pizza Sauce

4. Cheese

5. Toppings ie peperoni, mushrooms etc. 

6. Pans or plates for each child to make their pizza

7. Small containers to distribute supplies to each child ( I use the small Pyrex containers)

8. Spoons for each child per each item. 

How you do it.

1. First have the children wash their hands. 
2. Distribute the dough.
3. Instruct the children to make it flat 
4. Give each child a small container with some pizza sauce 
5. Instruct them to spoon the sauce and spread it with the back of the spoon
6. Give each child a small container with cheese
7. Instruct the children to spread the cheese on their pizza. 
8. Then give them the variety of toppings and encourage them to make patterns or shapes.  

Don't be afraid to try new things. One thing I have learned is children will eat almost anything on a pizza. One of my child's favorite foods is a garlicy seafood pizza from a nearby pizza place.


When we have play-dates I also like to keep a plate of fruit and or vegetables in easy reach of the children. For the adults I provide  either a dip that goes with bread or crackers. The children also often enjoy the "adult dips"


* Side Note. I made an adult dip from Serendipity Mixes and the children and adults devoured it before I could get pictures.  Run here to try their Sundried Tomato Dip. I paired it with a small baguette from the grocery store and it disappeared instantly! 

My kind of Domestic... Candy and Cartoons

 

 

 

 

New Blog, New Party, New Direction

As many of you know we are moving so I decided to move a new direction with this blog. First off if you are drama filled move along this blog isn't for you and personally I don't want you here either. This is a place for fun and entertainment. You know who you are so move along...

With that out of the way. I am going to dual post here and my new blog until my followers decided to come along....

I have been given the pleasure of hosting aPhineas and Ferb Movie Screening Party on August 5, 7:30-9:30 pm  via Children's Play. Well the little man has but I will be in charge!

They were kind enough to send a hug box full of masks and tattoos! 

You too can host a party! Here are a few tips!

1. Target Dollar spot is full of Phineas and Ferb stuff, socks, plates, bowls. white boards, tablets, activity books!
2. Target also has a ton of Phineas and Ferb items on clearance!
3. Disney Family has crafts and food items here
4. Coloring pages can be found here
5. Pre-made Phineas and Ferb crafts can be found here Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension (Phineas & Ferb)

Also in preparation you can go to Family Video and rent Phineas and Ferb free as part of their FREE Children's Rental program.

Summer Boredom...

Many days it is just me and my little man. I want to be the Mom he remembers doing fun things, not the Mom who just cooks and cleans.   He loves to Go -Go Go anywhere with me. So I decided to make a jar of fun.


Jar of Fun Template

Social Group Buying

I <3 Social Group buying sites.  I am cheap I admit it but  I LOVE to have fun!

I am trying...

Life is crazy. We are in the process of selling our house with the help of a real estate agent. I am not a fan of real estate agents because we had a REALLY bad experience with several agents when we were looking for this current house. If we would have listened to them we would have been stuck with a house that would never resale in this area...


With that being said I am trying every trick known to man to sell this house. It was built in the 70s which means great construction but bad visual appeal with a green sink in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom.  So far I put in an herb garden of semi exotic herbs because I heard an herb garden increases your home appeal.

http://diyhomestagingtips.blogspot.com/2011/04/very-short-course-in-herb-gardening.html

and here  http://www.househunt.com/reports/herb-garden/

and then  I buried St. Joesph upside down in the herb garden for good measure.

and then I felt wrong burying a St. unprotected upside down in the dirt.  All I had were Toy Story sandwich baggies.

And my non Catholic husband thinks I am going to be struck by lightening because I laughed as I put the statue in the bag and buried it upside down.

The new age of being a parent, wife adult

The technology age has given a new meaning of what it means to be a parent. Whether you stay at home , go to work or work from home, times have changes since our parent's generation. Today's new wave of adults bargain shop to extremes and are not embarrassed about it. In fact a study has shown that more affluent shoppers use coupons more.

* More affluent consumers ($70k+) are considered super heavy coupon2 users (39 percent compared to 35 percent for total U.S. households) and coupon enthusiasts (42 percent compared to 35 percent for total U.S. households.)

We now have tons of recipes at our finger tips with several detailed directions, everything from  elaborate meals to crock pot sensations.

Many of us find other ways to gain an extra  income while at home, where it be Craigslist, Ebay or Survey& Product Testing Sites.


All of these things are a foreign language to many older people and therefore because they do not understand it, it is better from them to put down, criticize and judge.  So don't let those older members of you family put you down for being a new generation of adult using technology to enhance your lives!