Channeling my Grandma

And no I'm not sitting here drinking a martini and partaking in cocktail hour (although I should be)!

In keeping with my goal of learning how to cook/preparing something new every week last night's task was preparing a roast beef. This is one I was a little nervous about seeing as how I spent a decent chunk of change on a nearly 4 lb. piece of meat and didn't want to screw it up!!!

Now, what does this have to do with my grandmother you ask?

Besides being the Queen of cocktail hour and delicious appetizers she could rock an AMAZING roast beef!

Under the guidance of my Mom my task began, and I'll be honest literally this is was of the easiest meals I have prepared!

To give the beef itself a little something extra I found a rub which I coated the meat in after I spread some margarine all over it.

I placed the meat in the oven and let it go for an hour, checked the temp (I knew it wouldn't be done yet) before I set it off to cook some more I melted a little butter and mixed some of the rub into it, brushed it over the meat then placed in back into the oven for another 45 minutes.

At this point the meat was at the perfect temp, so I brushed some more of the margaine/rub mix on top and we covered it with a dish towel for a few minutes until we were ready to eat.

When it came time to carve it up I'm happy to report it was PERFECT!

Not only did it make a delicious dinner last night it also made very yummy sandwiches for lunch today!!!

So I know that last night my grandmother was looking down and raising her martini glass to me :-)

Mexican Lasagna

It occured to me today that I forgot to share this creation, and trust me it literally is a creation because I pretty much made it up as I went along.

My family LOVES tacos, and that is actually an understatement it's one of our favorite meals.

I decided why not take taco ingredients and serve them in a different form.

The ingredient list is really anything you like to put in tacos, so it could be shells, meat, tomatoes, onions, cheese, peppers, tater tots.....you get the idea.

The first thing I did was fry up the taco shells in oil to get them nice and crispy.

Next I browned up some meat, with the meat I put in garlic & cillantro for some additional flavor.

To get a mexi-nugget flavor in some tator tots I fried them up with some taco seasoning and then broke them up so it was essentially little cubes of pototes.

Next came time to layer in the pan, I started with the taco shells in the bottom, then cheese, then meat, then veggies, more cheese, another layer of taco shells, cheese, potatoes, cheese, taco shells - I repeated the layering until the pan was full. You could also put salsa or pica de gallo in the layers, but not everyone in my house likes the same salsa spiciness or pico de gallo so those were added on as a topping when people got their servings.

I'm happy to say it was DELICIOUS!!!

St. Patty's Day (a week late)

Ok Ok so I know this was a week ago, but I've been busy....

I love St. Patty's Day everyone (even those of you who aren't actually Irish like St. Patrick himself) have a chance to sport some green and and celebrate this fun day!

Here is America we love this day, it's a chance to go out and have fun and wear a bright color! Take Chicago who has been dying the river green since 1962 - I can't even imagine in my head how much dye that take, but what a fun thing to do!! Many cities have parades with rainbows, fake gold and of course a leprechan or 2!

The past few years on St. Patty's day I've spent the night with some great friends and we've had a blast out together, however this year with the day being on a weekday staying out late was not on the agenda for a few people! My most awesome friend Brad had actually never been out on St. Patty's day - I was SHOCKED to learn this! So Sean & I made plans with Brad MONTHS ago because he needed to go out and experience the awesomeness that is going to a pub on March 17th!

Our evening actually started with dinner at my parent's house, however instead of your typical Irish faire we had New York style pizza, oh well we had a multi-cultural night :-) Our plans did not include making the trek downtown to go to Kell's because really we didn't want to drive that far, and pay for parking, not to mention how packed it gets there! Luckily there is a great Irish Pub/Restaurant about 5 minutes from my house which is where we decided we'd try our luck for the night!

They had a HUGE tent set up in their front parking lot with a live band in it, as well as a live band inside! We opted for the tent because you can be rowdier a tent, not to mention the fact that there was ZERO room inside! We met up with some folks that Brad knew (however most of them left on the early side - NO FUN!) The band was GREAT we had a good time rockin' out to them!!!

As we were outside with our beers having fun I was reminded of many many many college parties. Just the overall feeling of loud music, lots of beer, and everyone in a really good mood it was great! Everyone is all smiles and nobody has a care in the world - what fun!!

We went inside around midnight for another beer and some delicious food and yet more band music, we were lucky enough to find an empty table!

It was such a fun night with my 2 favorite guys!

Pulled Pork

 Greetings from the chef!

So this week's "make something I've never made before" task was Pulled Pork (I think you probably could have guessed that from the title of this blog!)

So once again to start I searched my favorite recipe sites, and my good old trusty friend google. A recipe I saw mentioned caught my attention was one that called for Jack Daniels whiskey (anything with good whiskey can't be bad right?) Well it took some digging but I did find a good recipe (one that I will include in the blog)

Never having made pulled pork I had no idea what to expect. I made sure I had all my listed ingredients, then I had to finda good pork shoulder - which I did! Thank goodness Top Foods was having an awesome meat sale!

Since this was something completely new to me I wanted to follow the recipe exactly (alterations can always be made at a later date, however this recipe was so good I probably won't need to). I had lot of fun making this for some reason. Another plus with this recipe the whole time it's in the slow cooker the house smells AWESOME!!! I had everyone's mouths watering all day (including the dogs)!!!!!

Here's the recipe:

1 Onion (chopped fine)

2 TBSP Garlic (chopped fine)

1 TBSP Tomato Paste

2 TBSP Dijion Mustard

1/4 Cup White Vinegar

1 TSP Paprika

1/3 Cup Ketchup

2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 Cup Jack Daniels Whiskey

1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1 TSP ground black pepper

1 Bay Leaf

3 LBS Pork Shoulder Roast

First thing you do is combine ALL ingredients (except the meat) into the slow cooker

Once they are all mixed you drop the meat in

Cover the meat with water

Place the lid on the slow cooker

Bring to a boil

After it boils reduce to a simmer

Let simmer for 2 hours (I actually let it simmer for almost 4)

Take meat out

Take roughly 1/3 of the liquid out

Pull meat apart and place back in slow cooker

*I actually did vary from the recipe on this part*

The recipe said to let it stay in for an hour, then serve, I however added a some Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and let it sit for the rest of the afternoon (another 3 hours) then all day the next day before we had it for dinner that night. Added a little bit of BBQ sauce every once inawhile for some flavor.

Favorite Appetizer

Thought I would share with you all one of my favorite appetizers and the best part is it is SUPER easy to make!!!!

What you'll need is the tubes of cresent roll dough, a block of cheese, margarine, chopped garlic, and italian seasoning.

First thing you do is take your cheese and make a bunch of small cubes, the type of cheese doesn't really matter it's really your preference. You'll need one cheese cube per serving so the number of cubes you have will depend on how many you're going to make. Also, the size of your cube is up to you, a bigger cube will make a cheesier appetizer.

When you open the package of dough you're not going to separate all the triangles, normally the triangles are paired up to make a rectangle (4 rectangles per tube). You want to keep them in the rectangles. Since there is a bit of a perforation in the rectangle you'll want to squish the triangles together to make it so there is no seam.

You will then take your rectangle and cut it into 4 equal strips.

Take your cube of cheese and place it at the top of the strip and then roll the strip down so you have a bit of a square shape. After that you'll want to press the sides together so they are closed off.

As you finish each one place on a greased cookie sheet.

Once you have made your desired amount melt butter.

Add minced garlic to butter.

Spread garlic butter over squares.

Sprinkle italian seasoning on top.
Bake at temperature on cresent roll tube, you may have to cook a couple extra minutes than tube says.

They should be a nice golden color when they are done.

I can't tell you how many times I have served this and they have always been a crowd pleaser!!!

Coach Interview

Well last night I had my interview with some of the little league board members.
For some reason I was nervous, weird right?
I remember growing up when they needed it was coaches it was really simple, pretty much if you raised your hand you could coach (well not really raising your hand, but you get the idea).
Well now you have to fill out a lengthy questionare, consent to a full background check (which I totally get), and have an interview with some members of the league board.
So my Mom drove me over to the meeting because Sean was till job hunting at the library with our car. I'm glad she was there, she kept me calm before my meeting started!
The guy in the room before me kept dragging his meeting on and on and on I could hear the 3 League people several times trying to end and each time he'd ask something else or say something else - bit of a power trip, but that's ok some guys need to do that ya know!
Well the 3 people I interview with her awesome, one of them I've been emailing with a bit, the other I've talked on the phone, and the last guy was a new person, but all were very nice. They asked me a few questions all of which were very good questions "What will my coaching style be" "How will I handle a parent who is harrassing the kiddos, or umpires during a game" "How would I handle a kid who was squirly during a game or practice" "What is my history or expertise with baseball/softball" They liked some of my answers a lot so that was good news!!
Turns out the lady who is the player agent is also a Coug and she was also in a sorority so she and I had a common bond so that was cool!
Next Monday I have a coaches meeting and I'll get my roster and all that good stuff.
Now, I need to compose a small packet for my parents with team expectations, things the kids need, etc etc etc!
I'm so exctied to coach I have literally been waiting for this since Lilly was born. I always LOVED softball growing up and have wanted to expose Lilly to how much fun it is!!!!

New Shoes!

For those of you who know me you know that shoes are not something I wear on a day to day basis. For the most part I wear flip flops - rain, hail, snow, sun, whatever it's doing outside I generally have flip flops on.

Flip Flops are comfortable, roomy, and most importantly my feet never get hot! Also you can have a pair in every color imagineable to go with every outfit you own and at only roughly $3.00 a pair it's quite affordable!

My love for flip flops aside my Mom pointed out to me that to coach T-ball I was going to need some real shoes. She's right, trying to run after stray balls and rogue T-ballers in flip flops just isn't going to work.

So off we went in search of sneakers - I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought a pair of sneakers. I have a vague memory of buying a pair of Nikes at Shopco in Pullman during the college years, but I don't know if that's the last pair I bought or if there was a pair after that.

Part of my problem with shoes is my feet are GINORMOUS I used to be a size 9 to 9 1/2 then I had Lilly and I'm around a size 11 - Thanks for that Lilly! So trying to find shoes that aren't super ugly can be a bit of a challenge!!!!

At the store I looked at all the shoes, then I narrowed it down to Nikes since generally those are the most comfortable (in my opinion) there was one pair I REALLY liked (they were pink and grey) however there wasn't anything bigger than a size 8 so that wasn't gonna work, but I settled on a grey and dark purple pair.

Now, my main concern is getting them nice and broken in before T-ball starts, I've already played outside with Lilly in them and been on a 3 mile walk and so far so good!!!!

Sunny Saturday

Well it's only the beginning of March and already our weather here in the PNW has been glorious!! We've had several sunny days!! When it's nice out I like to get Lilly outside and play not matter what it is we do!!!!!

Today was another one of those beautiful sunny days and since were hanging out at my parent's house while Sean was at his test we had all kinds of stuff we could do!

We started out the day playing a little T-ball in the front yard. This is quickly becoming one of Lilly's favorite activites! I have to say she's getting pretty good!! Her hitting is pretty good, and she's got an arm on her! We've just go to work on the catching the ball in the glove thing, but we'll get there! I also taught her some basic baserunning, for example if you're on first and the ball gets hit where do you go and she figured that out pretty quickly - I'm glad she's such a smart cookie!

After baseball Papa was going to wash Gramma's car and Lilly wanted to help. So the 2 of them spent some time making sure Gramma's car was all sparkly clean! She had a great time with that.

Once the car was all clean I fixed Lilly her lunch and let her eat it outside in the sunshine, something we did a lot of last Summer and she LOVES!!!!!

Lilly finished her lunch and hung out with Papa some more before her nap and then Mom and I went one our daily walk and enjoyed the sunshine!!!

We ended our day celebrating Anne's 65th birthday with the Varsity @ Dick & Kay's. The party I kid you not was planned in record time last weekend with my Mom & Kay calling the Varsity and I was in charge of rallying the JV! It was such a fun night! I got to spend a lot of time with my fellow JVers as well as time with the Varsity! Such a wonderful group and so awesome that they've all been friends for 20+ years now! Sean, Lilly, & I stayed until 11:30.

I love simple days like today. I am so grateful for my great family, especially my wonderful daughter! Just spending time with her is one of my greatest joys in life. I also love being able to just hang out over at my parent's house all day (their yard is bigger and more fun to play in!). Then ending the night with all these people that I've known and loved for most of my life just makes me smile!

Sean's Test

Today Sean took the physical and written tests for a job as a Snohomish County Custody Deputy! It's a step in the direction of law enforcement, which Sean has decided is his career goal. One that I fully support and am behind!!!

The physical test consisted of a 1.5 mile run which needed to be completed in under 17 minutes, also how many pushups he could do in 60 seconds (the maximum they needed was 23) and how many situps in a minute (the maximum was 18). If an individual passed the physical test then they had to wait around a bit and take the written exam which had a few "story-type" math problems, some word placement, ability to read graphs, and a few other things.

Well I'm happy to say that Sean did the run in under 13 minutes, and got the maximum for the sit-ups and push-ups in under a minute!!! GO SEAN!!!

So then he had to wait around to take the written. He thinks he did pretty well so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will get the results!! If he is one of the top 50 guys then he has to take the oral boards which is a very intense 30-60 minutes where he gets grilled and asked a zillion questions!

Knowing that Sean would be stuck up there most of the day with no place to go, nowhere to get lunch I packed him a lunch, which now explains the picture at the top of the blog. The best part of the lunch might be the fruit snacks! Lilly said that Daddy could have one of her Scooby Fruit Snacks so they could help him do well! How cute is that?

I'm so proud of Sean, now that he's taken one test I'm sure the others will be much easier! I was so nervous for him all day today just hoping it was going alright and that he was doing alright.

Whew! I'm glad today went as well as it did!!

I had an eventful day today, but man I'm really sleepy so I'll post more later about what a great Saturday we had!!!

Hit, Drop, Run

Hit, Drop, Run - sounds simple right?
In preparation for the upcoming T-ball season Lilly and I have been spending quite a bit of time outside learning the basics. Already she can hit and throw the ball quite well - we're still working on catching.
Today while we were outside it occured to me great, she can hit the ball but does she know what to do next. Of course this is just something I kinda took for granted having played many years of softball and of course being an avid baseball fan and watching my fair share of games.
So today's big T-ball lesson was Hit (the ball), Drop (the bat), and Run (to first (our first base was a dust pan, but you get the idea)).
So after we got our home plate and first base positioned just right we began practicing this little drill. First I showed her what I meant when I said Hit, Drop, Run. She then tells me ok Mom I got it!
Not quite, she hit the ball, thought about it for a minute, dropped the bat, and then started running. I'm sure you're thinking that sure sounds like she's got it to me. Well she started running toward the ball that she had just hit. Not exactly the goal. It was extremely hard to keep a straight face because it was so the stereotypical first time base-runner scenerio and here it was in my own front yard. Not wanting to laugh at her and discourage her I managed not to laugh and explain to her what she needed to do one more time.
So back to the T we went and after we checked our feet position, hand position, shoulder position, and gave the ball a good stare down we were ready to try again. I stood back held my breath and watched as she hit the ball, paused for a second, and took of toward first base.
This was better, we're making improvements, however carrying the bat down to first base is not good and might scare the poop out of some little kid playing first during a game to see another excited little kid running towards them with a bat.
So back to the T we went and I reminded her of the ever imporant step of dropping the bat. She looks at me and gives me that ok Mom I've got it this time face.
So I sauntered back to my position in the lawn and watched her check her feet, check her hands, check her shoulders, stare the ball down, take her swing and.......................................
She hit the ball, dropped the bat, and took off toward first!!!!!!!!
To ensure this was not a fluke we did it several more times and each time she did it perfectly!
Days like today always make me smile!!!!

WolfMan

So Brad my totally awesome friend for a zillion years now is also quite handy when it comes to computers, and last week when my computer decided it didn't want to start up I frantically got a hold of Brad who of course came down from Marysville, worked his magic, and fixed it. So to thank him we decided we'd see a movie on his next day off (which was yesterday) my treat. He got to pick the movie so we (Brad, Sean, & myself) saw Wolfman.
Going into the movie I had no expectations of it being an Oscar contender or anything even close to that because really when you're going to see a movie entitled Wolfman you want to see people getting decapitated, lots of action, and a lot of those quiet scenes with sudden loud noises or movements that make you jump!
Well Wolfman did not dissapoint, several decapitations, good action scenes (including a wolf on wolf fight that was awesome!), and I think I jumped a minimum of 10 times, much to the amusement of my movie going friends!
The cast for the movie was pretty awesome, Anthony Hopkins who we all know plays an excellent creepy guy and Benecio who I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!
We saw the movie at the Cinnebarre, Brad & Sean had never been to this wonderful establishment where one can order a beer, wine, or delicious snack foods from a kitchen. It's a completely fun way to see a movie!!!! So we ordered a pitcher of beer sat back and watched the movie!

Eliptical

Whew!
So today I opted out of the afternoon walk because I have a GINORMOUS blister on the bottom of my foot that was caused by the stupid brace I have to wear from when I messed up my foot back in January.
I however didn't want to waste my afternoon doing nothing, my parents have an eliptical in the garage and the thing doesn't get used that often so I thought to my self A-HA! That is the answer.
I spent a total of 45 minutes on the eliptical today and roughly 21 minutes using the free weights. It was a good workout let me tell you I was all kinds of sweaty when I was done (ok you probably didn't want to know that)
The best part of my workout today was my workout buddy, nope it wasn't my Mom it was Lilly! She helped me count to 25 for my reps and sang along to the Beatles songs that were playing on my I-Pod while I was on the machine! She was so cute!!! She even "worked out" with the weights!!
Tonight I am looking forward to a munchkin free evening! Lilly is going to stay at my parent's house while Brad, Sean, & I go see Wolfman - I'm sure I'll have a post about my thoughts tomorrow!
Currently I'm enjoying some peace and quiet while Miss Lilly is up for her afternoon nap. AHHHHHH the sounds of silence can be so wonderful sometimes!

Quiche!!!

So one of my new goals is at least once a week to make something new and delicious for dinner (I have 2 weeks of previous experiments and recipes to post on a slower blog day!!!

Last week I decided that this week's challenge would be quiche, since I have never made one.

My first step was to find a recipe that not only I would like but would also be a fan favorite for the fam! I of course went to my favorite recipe webiste (http://www.myrecipes.com/) and searched for quiche. I found a couple on there that looked good, however being my grandmother's granddaughter I altered them! Here are the recipes for both (the altered versions of course)

Bacon, Ham, & Swiss Quiche:

6 - Eggs

1 1/2 Cups of Half & Half

1 - 9" Pie Crust

1/2 Lb. Cubed Ham

1 - Pkg. Cooked Bacon

1-2 Cups Shredded Swiss

1/2 Cup Chopped Onion

1/4-1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro

1 - Cook Bacon & Chop

2 - Beat Eggs

3 - Add Half & Half to Eggs

4 - Add Onion, Cilantro, & Bacon to Egg Mixture

5 - Place Pie Crust in Dish

6 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into pie crust

7 - Put Ham on top of cheese

8 - Pour Egg Mixture of top of Ham

9 - Top with remaining cheese

10 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done (to test if done stick toothpick in center and when you pull it out and nothing is sticking to it that is how you know it's cooked all the way)

Crab Quiche Florentine:

12 oz. Crab Meat (in small pieces)

1-2 Cups Mozzerella Cheese

1/2 Cup Onion (chopped)

1/4 Cup Garlic (minced)

*Tarragon

*Nutmeg

*Old Bay

*Pepper

1 - Cup Evaporated Skim Milk

6 - Eggs

*Spice Quantities are subjective, add as much or as little as you want

1 - Saute Onions in butter or margaine for roughly 4 minutes

2 - Add Garlic saute for additional 2 minutes

3 - Add Tarragon, Nutmeg, Old Bay, & Pepper and saute for 2 more minutes - Set aside

4 - Beat Eggs

5 - Add Milk to Eggs

6 - Place pie crust in dish

7 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into crust

8 - Place Crab Meat on top of cheese

9 - Pour Egg Mixture on top of cheese

10 - Top with remaining Cheese

11 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until done

I'm happy to report that both quiches turned out AWESOME!!!!!! Personally I like the crab one a little better than that ham & cheese, but both were delicious. Everyone went back for seconds! I guess the sign of a good meal is the lack of leftovers!!!!

Thank You Kia

I'm sure you all remember those random commercials leading up the SuperBowl with the life size Mr. Machine, Sock Monkey, and a couple other toys. The commercials didn't make a whole lot of sense until the main commerical at the Super Bowl.

During the commercial we see the toys as toys after their big night out in the Kia where they felt like life size people partying like rock stars.

Ever since Kia aired this little gem of a commercial Lilly got the sock monkey stuck in her head and she wanted one. Great! I'm not joking (I actually wish I was)! I thought it would pass, one of those random requests that after about a week will just go away - no such luck because as you all know once a commercial airs during the SuperBowl it then airs quite frequently.

So last week I decided how hard could making a sock monkey be, really? The first task was trying to find some sort of pattern or how-to guide. Well thank goodness for Google not only did I find a step-by-step guide with pictures there were also several how-to videos on You Tube. I'll be honest some of the videos were pretty funny!

Once I determined that this was something I could do I took Lilly to the store to pick out some socks in which to make her sock monkey. Now this was a process there were soooooooo many pairs of socks in sooooooo many different colors. Lilly would pick one pair, walk down the aisle some more, then find another pair she liked better. Finally she settled on a pink & red argyle patterned pair. Then we had to pick out some buttons for the eyes! After our sock experience I simply took her to the small craft section at WalMart where there is one rack of buttons instead of taking her to Joann's where there is a HUGE aisle of them!! Smart move on my part! She decided after careful reviewing to go with some pink flower buttons.

We got home from the store and I got busy! I made the first cut on one pair of socks and sewed up the legs and my sewing machine broke! This is status quo for projects though something that should take 5 minutes takes and hour and something that should take a couple of hours takes 3 days. So for the rest of the night I worked on sewing Miss Sock Monkey (it's a girl because the socks are pink) I continuted to work on the monkey while we watched TV that night, the next night, and again the following night. Man, did I miss my sewing machine, but I was bound and determined to finish it for Lilly!!!

Well after 3 nights of sewing limbs, and eyes, and a mouth, and even adding some pink hair Miss Monkey was finished. Lilly LOVES it! Which when it comes down to it is all the matters! Seeing her smile makes everything ok!

New Beginings

Today is the day I re-vamped the blog, changed my pic, and decided on a new way to format the blog! YAY!!!!
I've come to the realization that some people think that stay at home Mom's don't work, that they just sit around eating bon bons and watching soap operas, for those people I'd like you to come spend the day with my very opinionated and independant 5 year old which doesn't allow for soap operas unless they involve SpongeBob!!
I have some fun stuff to blog about in this new format, but I want to spread some if it out, like Lilly's new found love for the Beatles, the sock monkey, and Lilly's favorite Olympic Events!
So stay tuned for daily stories and goodies!!!!!