Hunkering Down

It's 8:45 pm, and the snow is really coming down now. The high school basketball game was cancelled tonight, so I didn't have to work concessions. Schools all over the area are already cancelled for tomorrow.

Some people stock up on milk, water, canned food, and salt for outside before a snowstorm. My husband went out earlier tonight to stock up on more flour, sugar, butter, and eggs so that I can bake more cookies tomorrow during the snowstorm! :)

This afternoon I baked two more batches of cookies ... cappuccino flats and raspberry almond shortbread thumbprints.

One of the Tastes of Fall ...

... great pumpkin dessert. Yum!

(Day 319 of 365)

Cleaning Day

Today was a busy day. Not fun-busy either, but it was productive.

I spent much of the morning dealing with money ... paying bills, balancing the checkbook, entering expenditures into the computer, working on the August budget, etc. I also "cleaned up" and reorganized a bunch of my document files on the computer.

Josh went to the kids' school and worked with another school parent on some of the teachers' and classrooms' computers.

In the afternoon Josh went over to the home of some elderly church members and set up their new computer for them and transferred files from their old computer to their new one.

Before he left, Josh asked the kids to vacuum out the van while he was gone, which they did.

Meanwhile, I spent the whole afternoon cleaning ... bathroom and kitchen sinks, counters, the tub and shower, and toilets as well as cleaning out and scrubbing under the kitchen sink cabinet, washing kitchen and bathroom garbage cans, shaking out rugs, sweeping/vacuuming and washing kitchen and bathroom floors, washing some walls, washing the outside of the fridge with a magic eraser, vacuuming the floors in the rest of the house, and scrubbing the outside of a bunch of bathroom and kitchen cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap because they were really grungy.

In the midst of all that, I helped S go potty a few times, but one of the times he flushed the toilet, it overflowed all over the bathroom floor. See?

(Day 212 of 365)

Ugh! I was able to get the toilet to stop running by lifting up the ball-thingy inside the tank, but so much water had already filled the toilet that it kept coming out for a bit.

This was when Josh was gone, and the water inside the tank wasn't coming up to keep the ball up, so I didn't know what to do. E came in and held the ball up while I called Josh, but by the time I got a hold of him, the water was coming up so that the ball floated and the toilet stopped running on its own.

Atleast when this all happened I was still planning to wash the bathroom floor but hadn't yet, so I didn't have to wash the floor twice!

Josh and I have been working with E to teach her how to cook this summer. Tonight she and I made a new recipe together which was really good! F helped, too, by stirring the ingredients together.

Rhubarb Recipes

As requested, here are the recipes for the rhubarb bread and strawberry rhubarb pie that I made. Sorry it took so long to get them posted!

Yum! ***UPDATED with recipe!***

This afternoon I made homemade cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. Yum!

(Day 106 of 365)

***UPDATE***
Gretchen asked if the recipe for these cinnamon rolls was on my recipe blog because she wanted to make them. No, it's not, but they are a very good basic cinnamon roll.

And so, without further ado, here is the recipe ...

Cinnamon Rolls
from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Combine 2 c all-purpose flour and 1 pkg active dry yeast. Heat and stir 1 c milk, 1/3 c sugar, 1/3 c margarine or butter, and 1/2 tsp salt til warm (120 - 130 degrees) and margarine almost melts. Add to flour mixture along with 2 eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a spoon, stir in as much of 2 - 2 1/3 c all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour here.) as you can.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place til double (about 1 hour).

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

Roll half of the dough into a 12x8" rectangle. Melt 3 Tbsp margarine or butter; brush half of margarine over dough. Combine 1/2 c sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon; sprinkle half of mixture over dough. If desired, measure 3/4 c raisins (I didn't add the raisins.); sprinkle half of raisins over dough. Roll up from one of the long sides. Seal seams. Slice dough into 12 pieces. Repeat with remaining dough, margarine, sugar mixture, and raisins. Place rolls in 2 greased 9" round baking pans. Cover; let rise til nearly double (about 30 minutes). Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing.

Powdered Sugar Icing
1 c powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
milk

Mix sugar, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp milk together. Stir in additional milk 1 tsp at a time til you reach desired consistency.

Day 66 of 365

Tonight's supper: broccoli fettuccini alfredo and chicken parmigiana - Yum!

Checklist

• Redesign my weight loss blog ... DONE!


• Redisign my recipe blog ... DONE!


• Redesign the girls' memorial blog ... Not done.

I'm still debating whether or not to redo Forever in our Hearts because I really like the footprints background, but I'd like to have a matching header, so we'll see.

In the meantime go and check out the new looks on More Than Numbers and Star Recipes. I'd love to know what you think!

Day 57 of 365 - Updated with Recipe!

Tonight's supper

As requested, here is the recipe:

Sausage Broccoli Bread

2 loaves (1 lb each) frozen bread dough
1 lb bulk pork sausage
1 lg onion, chopped
2 1/2 c chopped fresh broccoli (I used frozen broccoli that I thawed and pre-cooked.)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
2 c (8 oz) shredded Montery Jack cheese (I used shredded mozzarella.)
1 egg, beaten

Thaw dough and let rise according to pkg directions. Meanwhile, in a skillet over med heat, cook sausage and onions meat is til no longer pink and onions are tender. Mix in broccoli and tomatoes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll each loaf of dough into a 12x10" rectangle. Spread sausage mixture lengthwise down the center 1/3 of each rectangle. Top with cheese. Fold the short sides in 1". Fold long sides over filling; pinch to seal. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Brush egg over top and sides of each loaf. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 min or til golden brown. Makes 2 loaves.

Day 44 of 365

Yummy monster cookies with Valentine colored M&M's

A New Year

Yesterday evening we hosted a new year's eve party for a few friends. I made this yummy chili dip for the first time to serve for the party as well as some caramel dip with apples and a plate of Christmas cookies. Our guests brought snacks to share as well.

At 9:00 we did an early countdown to the new year for the kids and then sent them to bed shortly after. We had some sparkling grape juice for the kids, but we forgot all about it when they had their countdown. Oh, well!

Just before midnight we all got something to drink (most of us elected to drink the sparkling grape juice that had been meant for the kids) and turned on the tv to see the "live" taped clip of the ball dropping in New York to ring in the new year. All our guests left by 12:30.

This morning I worked on listing my first ever item on eBay. I've bought items off eBay before and haven't had any problems, but this is the first time I'm selling something there. I'm nervous about it, but I'm sure it will go alright.