Meteor crater

Last weekend we drove to see where a meteor had landed. Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago. yes it was just a big hole in the ground but the thought of something doing all that so many years ago is interesting, Abby loved trying to steal every rock she could get her hands on, and she loved looking at the stars and space stuff inside the museum.

Butter Abby

Abby and I made rice crispy treats, I apparently left the butter with in arms reach, and Abby thought butter seemed like an awesome thing to play with, Honestly I wasn't even upset I just laughed took some pictures finished washing dishes then cleansed up the big greasy mess. But I will tell you she smelled so good, and was so soft!

Crazy crock pot yogurt

I knew as soon as i herd of crock pot yogurt that it sounded gross and crazy but i totally wanted to try it! you wanna a know something I made some yummy granola! I  am super proud of my self!!
You will need:
--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (I only had 2% its kinda running but still good, next time ill use whole milk to see the difference in texture)

--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)

-- 1/2 cup sugar (optional)

-- 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

--thick bath towel
The Directions.

This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.This is so exciting. My fingers are shaking!

Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.
Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.
When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt, vanilla and sugar Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.
Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.
In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

I thought it was good, I thought the flavor and it still kinda warm reminded me of homemade tapioca, which i love. I put the reaming batch in two ball canning jars and put in fridge, i have read other blogs and im am going to to some variations to see the difference on taste and texture will be. I also plan on blending some up with the frozen fruit i have. Today i just added the homeaid granola to it yummy! I am so happy with the way it turned out!
I say if it a try here is a rough cost brake down:
4 cups store bought dannon yogurt 4.00
1/2 gallon whole milk 2.00 which make 8 cups,
so you are spending half the money and getting double the amount!
*update even better after been in the fridge, I think this is will be how I have yogurt all the time!

Abby the big sister

So last night I wasn't feeling very well so I asked Abby if she could feed Ben for me while I went up stairs, she had no problems helping me out, she got right out of her chair and sat in my seat, it amazes me at how much she watches me, Ive never taught her how to feed Ben but she know you have to dip it in the food then feed him, he was unsure of her helpfulness so she would so, 

"open Ben, eat"

"Here you go Ben"

"a oh, mess"

"eat"

A bunch of gibber, but I herd no no, eat, open and mess.

( I think she said no no Ben open your mouth stop sucking your thumbs and eat)

"here you go"

She even tried to wipe his mouth with his spoon, she was so cute, and she had a look of pride. I love her so much.

BAKED PESTO CHICKEN

BAKED PESTO CHICKEN
ANGEL HAIR PASTA WITH HERBS 
FRENCH BREAD

Baked Pesto Chicken Ingredients:


4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ cup basil pesto ( I bought the pre made one by bertolli)

2 plum tomatoes
shredded mozzarella cheese

Basil pest sauce ingredients:
5 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 cloves garlic
3/4 cup Bertolli® Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put in Pyrex pan

2. put a spoonful of pesto cover both sides of chicken

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
4. Place slices of tomato on top of chicken and sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake another 3-5 minutes.
6. Serve with a box of angel hair pasta and herbs and French bread.

I only cooked 2 chicken breast so I put the other 2 in a gallon sized zip bag, I froze the reaming sauce, in a smaller bag, put cut sliced tomato in another bag, and the cheese in a separated bag. Then you have another freezer meal ready just pull out the big bag with all the ingredient and let defrost and cook as normal.


note on freezing tomato:

• Slice tomatoes into at least one-half inch slices. Package in a rigid airtight container and fast freeze.
• Or put slices on a cookie sheet and freeze for two hours, or until they are crisp on the outside. Then remove and put them into freezer bags or containers.

To prevent freezer burn, don't leave slices very long in the freezer unwrapped. Frozen sliced tomatoes should be eaten in a near-frozen state for fresh taste. Cherry tomatoes are good on salads if eaten while partly frozen.

note on freezing left over basil sauce:
Here is a quick one on how I like to freeze pesto. The short version is that I put the fresh pesto in a decent Ziploc back, cut a corner of the bag (1/2" size hole) and squeeze like icing into ice cube trays . Freeze the trays and then transfer into freezer bags. I freeze mine with the cheese in there. when we want pesto in the middle to winter, we just pop out a couple of cubes and toss in the dish. Much easier than carving out of a large frozen block... I also do a few tricks to keep it from oxidizing while freezing etc.

I totally spaced the tomato and cheese, duh me, lol

meatloaf

Meat Loaf
1 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 c. fresh Italian style bread crumbs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or less, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 cup ketchup
3 tbsp. Balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. Parmesan, grated (optional)
In a small bowl, combine tomato sauce, ketchup, Balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce
In a large bowl, combine beef, bread crumbs, onions, green bell pepper, parsley, chopped garlic, egg, seasonings, 3/4 cup of tomato mixture, and optionally, Parmesan cheese.
Form into loaf. Place into shallow 7 by 10 in. pan or bread loaf tin, lightly oiled. Pour remaining liquid over meat loaf to coat.
Bake in a 350°F oven for one hour and 15 minutes, basting occasionally with ketchup or your favorite barbecue sauce.
This recipe made 3 loafs, so I froze one pan of the raw mixture to use later, if the mixture seems to liquidly, you can add oats or more bread crumbs.
Serve with potatoes and a salad.

Dinner 4

BACON AND CHEESE QUICHE
HOME FRIED POTATOES
Bacon and Cheese Quiche Ingredients:


1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
1 Tablespoon butter
6 bacon slices, crumbled
1/2 pound sausage cooked and crumbled.
1 bag Italian blend shredded cheese (or mozzarella cheese)
4 eggs
2 cup heavy cream
¾ teaspoon salt
(I only had a 1 cup of heavy cream so to make up the other cup I mixed 1/3 cup melted butter with 3/4 cup milk)
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spread crust into pie plate or quiche plate. I used my 8x8 pyrex pan
2. Spread crust with butter. Sprinkle bacon, sausage and cheese on crust.
3. Beat eggs with rest of ingredients. Pour into crust.
4. Bake 15 minutes. Turn down to 325 degrees and bake 40 more min. Let stand 10 minutes.
(after reading online i should have put a tin foil "crown" around edges of crust so that way they wouldn't toast or burn)

Home Fried Potatoes Ingredients:


4 red potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Directions:

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat.
2. Add onion and green pepper. Cook, stirring often, until soft (about 5 minutes).
3. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
4. Pour remaining 2 tablespoons of oil into the skillet and turn heat to medium-high.
5. Add potato slices salt, paprika and black pepper. I also had a Cajun seasoning so I added a little for some heat.
6. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are browned.
7. Stir in the onions, green peppers and parsley and cook for another minute.

Benjamin

He is my handsome boy, sitting in the bumbo eating a banana out of the masher thing.

Dinner 3

 PIZZA

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground sausage
1 jar pizza sauce
1 tubes refrigerator pizza crust
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Pepperoni slices
1 small can pre sliced olives with jalapeños 

Directions:

1. Brown the sausage in a skillet and drain.
2. Stir pizza sauce into browned hamburger and simmer until heated through.
3. Roll out pizza dough on a cookie sheet, Top with toppings
4. Bake 425 for 10 minutes

we also had another green salad to go with the dinner, I saved some of the cooked sausage to go in another meal, feel free to add or remove what ever toppings you like.

play group

So I joined on online play group, with stay at home mom with kids about my kids age, we first meet at chick fil-a for breakfast then we went to Barnes and noble for a reading group. They also organized a play group to meet at the children's museum, so the kids and I went, I didn't recognize any one so i hung out whit the kids, i tried talking to some ladies with there kids, but that failed miserably, plus they pissed me off once Abby handed a lady a toy to give to her crying baby and the lady tosses it behind her, grrr

I was only able to catch a few shots, they did really good we were there for about 3 hours. 

until nap time hit her hard, I have no idea why she was crying she was just standing there then wham the ugly cry came out.

Dinner 2

HONEY PECAN PORK CHOPS

BAKED SWEET POTATOES

Feta and tomato salad.

Honey Pecan Pork Chops:

1 ¼ pounds boneless pork loin, pounded thin

½ cup all-purpose flour for coating

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons butter

¼ cup honey

¼ cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. In a shallow dish, mix together flour, salt and pepper. Dredge pork cutlets in the flour mixture.

2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chops, and brown both sides. Transfer to a warm plate.

3. I used a can of sweet potatoes dump into sauce pan add butter brown sugar and the 1/4 cup nuts, heat to boiling.

4. Mix honey and pecans into the pan drippings. Heat through, stirring constantly.

5. Pour sauce over cutlets. Serve with sweet potatoes and salad

super easy and very good!

cookies

Today the kids and I went to the base library they had a reading time form 9:30 to 10:00. we sang some songs and read a really cute book http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Do-You-Love-Me/dp/0763634700

Abby was shy and didn't really participate but she smiled the whole time, but when we sung wheels on the bus she knew that song and the actions so she was excited!

After that we all went to a play group in this sound proof kid room filled with toys, dress up and books. it was from 10-11. Ben was super tired and fussy but soon the other little girls noticed him it would ham it up and smile and coo and hide.

We got home and laid Ben down, Abby was just sitting with her toys not doing anything but zoning i think all these play groups have worn her out, i was able to lay her down at 11:30 and she napped all the way till 2:00. I went in my room and read my new book I cant put down http://www.amazon.com/Safe-Haven-Nicholas-Sparks/dp/044654759X i even fell asleep it was heaven! 

After nap we all got up and Abby and I made some sugar cookies, I love cooking with her and she loves it too, I hope this is a child hood memory she always remembers is us in the kitchen making things.

Here are some pictures of her and I making cookies.