Gonna Roast Me a Chicken...or not!

oh, I do love a good oven roasted bird...and in the winter it's nice to have the oven on and the smells of cozy food floating about...
but sometimes you need to run an errand...
or you know that the chicken will need to go into the oven half way thru piano lessons/baseball games/doctor appointments all the way across town....

how, oh how, to have a nice Herb 'Roasted' Chicken on the table for dinner when you will be walking in the door just minutes before you plan to eat?

...maybe Herb-Crocked Chicken is better...
so many...maybe all...of our time honored roasting recipes can be easily turning into crock pot favorites....

this is any easy chicken and so nice on a cold winter day...
and also very doable for a roasting July day when the concept of turning of the oven is horrifying!

you can use dried or fresh herbs for this recipe...thinking I might plant a herb garden this year....

Herb-Crocked Chicken
1 3-3/12 lb whole chicken (you can also use breast or chicken pieces...)
2 Tbs butter-soften
2 cloves garlic-grated or minced
if using fresh herbs
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup chopped sage
1/4 cup chopped thyme
1/4 cup rosemary-stripped off the stem
if using dried herbs
1 tsp basil-crushed
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
for both
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp pepper or lemon pepper

veggies-optional...potatoes, carrots, celery

1.  Rinse inside of chicken and remove all the gross weird parts, and trim off any excess fatty skin or dangling things...Place breast side up into crock...Rub chicken with softened butter and then rub garlic over the top.
2.  In small bowl stir together herbs and seasonings, rub onto chicken and if using fresh herbs place 1/2 of mixture into the cavity of the bird.

found the package of 'Poultry Medley' herbs at the store and added some basil

you may want to pierce the chicken a few times so the flavors will get inside

3.  If using veggies place around the bird.  Cook/Roast/Crock (not sure of the terminology for the cooking in the crock) on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

sure does look cozy in the crock

If you would like to check bird for done-ness uncover and place a meat thermometer into center of thigh (not touching a bone) and cover crock back up with lid or foil while the thermometer reaches the temp of 180. blog note...I had trouble with the meat thermometer take an accurate reading inside the crock, once I took the bird out and covered it to rest it read the right temp...
4.  Remove from crock, cover with foil and let bird rest for 10 minutes before carving.

to make a gravy
melt 1/4 cup butter in pan
whisk in  1/4 cup+ flour, salt and pepper until you have a ball
then slowly add the broth from the crock (about 2 cups)
cooking and stirring over medium heat, until you get the consistency and amount that you desire
if needed season with more salt and pepper.

our self-imposed-sometimes-vegetarian-because-meat-has-weird-textures daughter gobbled this up AND had seconds...

serve with whatever you want...
mashed potatoes or the potatoes and veggies you roasted with the chicken...
or a nice spinach salad and some bread
steamed broccoli or asparagus
potato or pasta salad....
baked potatoes...

have you 'roasted' a chicken in the crock pot before...did you use a time honored recipe or a newbie?

Put the Lime in the...Chicken!

side note...
this information may be incriminating for my mother-in-law...I have a wonderful image of my daughter and her Grandma Kathy singing, "put the lime in the coconut," while dancing around with panties on their head...and I chuckle every time I hear that song or a version of the song...

image from google images

anyways, back on track...
Pepper Lime Chicken with Pesto Pasta (recipe follows)
Chicken Breast (I make only 2 for my family, but you can do this for however many you want)
2-3 limes
1 Tbs oil
2 cloves garlic (mined or grated)
1 tsp dried thyme or basil
1/2-1 tsp ground black pepper (more or less depending on your taste*)
1/4 tsp salt

1. Rinse and pat dry chicken and set aside. Slice one lime into circles, juice & zest other lime...you will need about 1/4 cup lime juice & 1 tsp zest.
2.  To make glaze mix together lime juice, zest, oil, garlic, thyme/basil, pepper, & salt.
3.  Place chicken pieces on unheated rack (or pan) of a broiler**, brush with glaze.  Broil for about 10 minutes, turn chicken and re-glaze, place under broiler for another 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (I use a meat thermometer to tell when it's done, 170 degrees for breasts).
4.  Serve warm with sliced limes on top.
*I make my glaze with less pepper, and then while I'm glazing the chicken add more pepper to the chicken piece my husband will eat since he likes more pepper than everyone else.
**I have also used this glaze for chicken on the grill or for a whole chicken in the crock pot.

serve with Pesto Pasta or over rice with broccoli.

Fresh Pesto
1 -2 cups fresh basil-rinsed
1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts (I've only ever used pine nuts)
1/4 cup olive oil (or walnut oil)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
1-2 cloves garlic

1.  Place basil and nuts into food processor and blend until finely chopped.  Add garlic and oil, pulse until garlic in chopped and oil is incorporated into basil/nut mixture.  Slowly add the cheese until you have a consistency that you want.
Serve over cooked pasta or as a dip or spread.
this recipe makes enough to chill or freeze 1/2 for another time.  Refrigerate up to 2 days, freeze for up to 3 months.

We made the pesto recipe at church with groups of kids when we were learning about Italy.  All the kids helped in the process,  it's a great recipe for them to make all by themselves (with you in the kitchen) since all the cutting is done by the food processor and is nicely contained inside the processor bowl...then they ate it with slices of bread...

What's for Dinner?

so this was on my menu for this past week...
but with a house full of sickies we've been eating jello, applesauce, saltines and chicken noodle soup...

but I wanted to post because it's a fast easy dinner for a winter night.

Easy Ground Beef Stroganoff
1 lb ground beef (or 1/2 lb ground turkey & 1/2 ground beef)
1 onion chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 can cream soup (cream of mushroom would be traditional stroganoff but my family doesn't eat the fungus so we do cream of celery)
1 cup sour cream
can of fungus drained or fresh chopped fungus (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
rice or egg noodles (cooked to package directions)

1.  Brown meat with onion and celery.  Drain off fat and stir in cream soup.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
2.  Stir in sour cream and mushrooms (optional).  Heat until warmed thru, about 5 minutes.
3.  Serve over warm rice or egg noodles.

this is a great throw down meal with things I usually have on hand, I have substituted half & half for sour cream before, just used less....
I've also made it with cream of chicken when I've been out of cream of celery...
and I usually serve with green beans on the side, but any green veggie will do.

you can also make this in the crock pot (not that you need to, it cooks up so fast...) but just put the beef, onions, celery and cream soup in the pot in the morning and then add the sour cream about an hour before eating....

Saturday Confessions

Last weekend I took my kids to visit their cousin...my adorable niece Natalie...

oh, and Uncle Luke and Aunt Julie...

and the girl child woke up sick at their house on Sunday morning...

so yes, I brought a sick child into their home and exposed sweet Natalie to who knows what kind of germs...

on Monday I'm pretty sure none of us got out of our pj's
and when I went to the store (in my yoga pants aka jammies) to stock up on sick food (saltines, applesauce, jello) I bought myself some Valentines candy that was 75% off and ate the whole box...without sharing....

on Tuesday I only called and took the girl child to the dr because the husband suggested it, I was pretty sure she was on the mend...

yep, deep ear infection....

then made her walk with me around Target while her Rx was getting filled...forgetting again that she felt like crap...only to have her throw up once we got home...

Wednesday, another pj day...did get dressed around 2, dressed in my workout clothes...because since I wasn't going to see the outside of my house for another day I decided to do a Wii workout...the Wii Fit Plus...and I did, I hula'd it up for 6 minutes, did some amazing step aerobics, flew around the island, some yoga and strength all total 45 minutes of exercise...and yep, the Wii tells me how many calories I burned...

on Wed I burned 3 calories in 45 min of exercise....3 calories...

Thursday, sent both kids to school...FREEDOM!

hit the gym for the first and last time this week...

tried to bike, my goal was 6+ miles...I  made it to 5.2 and had a really weird leg cramp so had to stop, then went outside to run the track...it was so cold that I only made it 1.5 miles...

hoping and praying that I burned more than 3 calories on that one...maybe 10....

took my kids to piano, not realizing at this point that they are now BOTH sick, so exposed children at piano lessons to who knows what kind of germs...

Friday, decided to keep boy child home from school...

He didn't want a different blanket, my robe was just fine.

sent off girl child, still having no clue that she was sick...

husband takes girl child to school in our van, with the boy child's booster seat...and he stays there to work...

get the call that the girl child threw up in class...

so now I have to go get the girl child, so I have to take the boy child with me, in the car without a booster seat to pick up the girl that I sent to school sick...

oh, and when she threw up she was sitting at someone else desk and it went all over that desk...

exposing more children to who knows what kind of germs...

yep, I'm that mom...sent my sick kid to school!

my afternoon on Friday.....

yep...my week was amazing...

and also....

I may or may not have eaten my weight in girl scout cookies...

     (it's okay cuz I burned 3 calorie on Wednesday!)

I might have shaved yesterday morning for the first time in over a week...(was that too much information?)

I might still have all our Valentines decorations up

I may have forgotten to send my sister her birthday present

I might have never called my best friend on her birthday (and that was LAST WEEK)

and there is a really high possibility that I shop lifted from WinCo yesterday!

what is the world coming to

so much crazy happening all over the globe...
Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya...

and THIS is what someone invents to  make the world better...

the "Brief Underneath"...
and be careful...

that's a registered trademark...

seriously...
who thinks of these things...
lounge pants with, 'built-in briefs for an easy, no-bunch fit and support'
without...'the extra waistband.'

REALLY that is what is troubling the men in our world...
that pesky extra waistband....
I can't tell you  how many times I'm just walking around wishing I only had one waistband instead of two around my middle!...

and...just in case that wasn't enough to sell you on these...
"A fully functioning fly makes these more practical than other pull-ons"
....
I almost died reading that...
okay, first lets start with 'fully functioning fly'
I've been married almost 13 years and have a 5 1/2 year old boy...
and there is NO such thing as a fully functioning fly...
to the best of my knowledge no man or boy in his right mind uses the 'fly' feature on underwear...
(blog note; no judgement for those of you men not in your right mind actual using them!)
AND second...'other pull-ons'...
what man is going to buy & wear lounge pants that are now associated with potty-training diapers...and since they said it not me...I'd say the diaper ones are actually 'more practical' than these since you can't do your business in them....

now...from a wife's perspective...
my husband does have a pair of 'lounge pants'
and he does like to ditch the jeans and pull on the lounge pants when he gets home...
he might even spend a better part of most Saturdays in said lounge pants...
and since I do laundry ONCE a week...
said lounge pants are washed ONCE a week...
not sure about you,
but I think the 'brief underneath' should be washed more than once a week if your husband is wearing these lounge pants most evenings...
unless of course you buy him 3 or 4 pair...
and that's not going to happen for...$34.95!!!

...
too bad for the price, these were on my white elephant gift list for next Christmas...and there is NO WAY I would touch a pair of these if I came across them at a thrift store.

Menu for Feb 21st-March 6th

it's hard to make a menu when your kid is sick and all you can think of is chicken noodle soup...
but I'm going to try!

Dinner
Breakfast burritos
Black Bean Soup
Spinach Quiche
Ground Beef Stroganoff
Chicken Apple Sausages with potatoes
Pizza (boy child's choice)
Lasagna
Pepper-Lime Chicken with Pesto Penne
Chicken and Dumplings
Herb-Roasted Chicken (in the crock pot)
Minestrone Soup
Chicken Corn Chowder
Leftover Buffet
and Chicken Noodle Soup will go down as the girl child's choice... although she is NOT talking about food or menu's at all right now...poor girl is eating saltines, jello and fresca....

lunches
spinach salad
fish tacos
fried egg sandwiches
leftovers
grilled pb&j
....

hoping the girl goes back to school by Wednesday and I have a chance to go grocery shopping this week...or I'll just go at night when the husband is home...and when the stores are CRAZY!

road trip

it always sounds so fun to me...

I have visions of great conversations

good music

fun junk food

great coffee

and then I remember that I'm not in college anymore...

and road trips now include my kids...

and this last road trip was JUST me and my kids...

no other adult backup...

they start out fun...

with a surprise, 

the kids had no idea that I had been planning to take them on a little trip...

so much fun to surprise them...

and we turn the music up...and rock out for a few songs,

then the kids want some of the fun junk food...

but mom is boring and didn't pack tons of junk food, just some good-for-you snacks...

(the girl child gets car sick, so junk food is a no-go on road trips)

still that's okay, they're snacking away...

and then they're touching each other, 

and then not sharing the snacks

and then the hitting starts

and the whining

and the 'he/she is touching me-sticking out their tongue-looking at me funny' drama

and then I look at the clock and realize that we are only 20 minutes into this 4 hour road trip!

what the HECK was I thinking!

the next 3 hrs and 40 minutes is torture...I think I'd rather take my kids grocery shopping after school...then go thru that again!

I pulled out all the wonderful deep Cosby parenting lectures...

I brought you into this world I could take you out...

I WILL turn this car around...
The next child that makes a sound will get their tongue removed...

and then...

then...

I did it...I dropped the "s" bomb....

I said 'stupid!'....

I asked them why they were acting stupid (key phrase here, I didn't CALL them stupid, I asked why there were ACTING stupid....)

and then I told them I was going to have to call up Uncle Luke and Aunt Julie (our destination for this road trip) and say,
"sorry we can't come, I really wanted to come visit you, but my children are being idiots and I can't bring idiots to your house!"
yeah not proud of that one...
well, not too proud of that one...

I grounded them from dinner, told them that as soon as we walked in the door they would walk straight to the guest room and go straight to bed....

I tried to use the, "I am trying to be fun and to do fun things with you and this is how you repay me" card...

I also tried to reason with myself...

they are just being normal...

they are only kids...

they are excited...

they were in school ALL day and now you expect them to sit nice and calm on a 4 hr road trip...what were you drinking when you made these plans genius?! 

what I learned on this trip...

1.  I love myself kids too much to do that again without their father.

2.  pack more food...and pack the good stuff...and let them eat it...because really, why not...who cares if they ruin their dinner....and just make sure the road trip is a pretty straight (I-5) trip so the girl child won't get sick...

3.  when you stop for coffee get the kids a 'free drink'...water...

4.  I  love that my kids ask me a ton of questions about music...they have this deep desire to really truly understand the heart of the song...what is the meaning behind it....

5.  I hate really dislike thinking about music...I am just a shallow girl who wants to sing the words that I know and enjoy the music, but having to talk about the theology of the music with my kids takes the fun out of it for me...

6.  I love that my kids judge the distance of road trips by "Dick Van Dyke" shows...my kids love watching the old Dick Van Dyke shows and they will ask, "How many Dick Van Dyke's will this take?"

7.  I am really glad that my daughter knows how to use my phone and can place calls for me since I have yet to join this century and do not own a blue tooth or any other hands free device! 

8.  A sick girl child for the return trip sounded like a start to a horrible nightmare...but actual turned out to be a blissfully quiet trip home!...

9.  Giving your kids the camera to document the trip aka keep them distracted a little bit longer...seems like a great idea in theory...

     

 

 

Sick Day

made the choice to keep the boy child home today....
his symptoms...

not hungry and not wanting caring about watching tv...

and you ask how do these = symptoms...and how to those symptoms warrant a get-out-of-school-free-card?

the boy child's 1st words every morning...'what's for breakfast?'
if he's not hungry he's sick...and he has yet to eat more than a mini muffin by 11 am....

he has been known to try to stay home from school a time or two to cuddle with mom, reading books, coloring, making crafts...okay lets be real...playing video games and watching cartoons while sister has to go to school...(such was his life for so many years that it's hard to break the pattern!)

so when he claims he's not hungry and doesn't want to school...I know this ploy, as soon as the sister is out the door and the school van has left the driveway his appetite returns and it's all down hill from there!

I asked him if he thinks he's too sick for school,
          he claims yes...
I then let him know that if he stays home there will be absolutely 100% no screen time
     (tv, video games, ds, computer...etc...)...
that usually gets him...
the child is instantly hungry and healed and on his happy way to school....

not today, 'that's okay, I think I'll just stay in my room and rest!'....

and that's how I know the boy child is sick!

not that he hasn't tried to get me to turn the tv on a few times...but when I remind him he said he would stay home even without screen time, he goes back to reading some books or coloring....

oh...and trying to build a minion....
yes, he has decided to build his own robot minion....
a mini metal robot minion...

he scavenged thru the junk draw...don't judge you all have one!

found a hinge and drawer pull...
2 screws
and a screw driver...
he really wanted me to get the 'metal hole maker thingy'...told him I didn't have one and he was very disappointed...he was sure we had one on the porch aka craft tool mess....

but he worked thru the disappointment and made his minion

explaining to me about his minion

 discovering that minion is fun to take apart and put back together...

he has now decided to market his minion idea...
'mom, we can put all the weird metal pieces from our junk draw into bags and sell them as minion kits...'
not a bad idea...
and he even came up with a tv jingle...
'Put Him together and take Him apart...Minion!'
...'mom, all the boys will want to spend all their money on these, it's a great idea!'

hmmm...sick days might not be such a bad idea if the boy child can come up with great money making ideas!
and he is now designing a water minion!

How Do I Love Thee....

Let me count the ways....

your Buttery...Flaky...melt-in-my-mouth-crust
your chunky...fresh...creamy...filling
Oh, Chicken Pot Pie you are my one true comfort food!

I was scared of you for so many years...thinking that your perfection would be impossible to re-create...

but there was no need to fear you my belove-ed....
not only are you oh so delicious, but you are oh so easy to make...

just remember the one thing that makes this dish 'hard' is the prep...there is chopping and dicing and measuring....
but if you have everything prepped ahead and in bowls it goes fast and smooth...
and then you can have the bonus of feeling like a food network star as you make dinner....

this is also a wonderful dish to double and either freeze the 2nd one for later, or take to a family in need (new baby, surgery, sickness, moving, etc...I recently took to a friend whose family was quarantined with the POX...Chicken Pox...and we coined the name...Chicken Pox Pie....)

Chicken Pot {Pox} Pie
1 cup frozen peas (optional...I don't like peas...only veggie I can't stand!)
1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup onion-chopped

2-3 stalks celery chopped

1/3 cup flour

½ tea salt

½ tea pepper

2-3 carrots peeled and chopped

1 potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes (don't make them too big!)

1 ¾ cup chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

1-3 chicken breast, cooked and cubed up

Pastry for 9-inch Two-Crust Pie (recipe follows)...or you could go for the store bought kind....

1. Rinse peas in cold water, drain, and set aside.
2. Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions and celery to butter and sauté until tender.  Stir in flour, salt, & pepper.  Cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat.  Stir in broth, milk, and carrots.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Stir in chicken and peas; remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Heat oven to 425.
4. Prepare pastry (recipe follows).  Roll two-thirds of the pastry to fit a 9-inch pie plate & gently place into pan.  Pour chicken mixture into pastry lined pan.
5. Roll remaining pastry into 11-inch circle.  Cut out designs with 1-inch cookie cutter.  Place circle over chicken mixture.  Arrange cutouts on pastry.  Turn edges of pastry under and flute.
6. Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown; you may need to protect edges of pastry crust with foil.

Perfect Pie Pastry

¾ cup butter flavored Crisco

2 cups flour

1 tea salt

5 Tbl cold water

1. Mix together flour and salt.  Cut Crisco into flour using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the size of coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle with 5 Tbl water, and mix using fork until flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of bowl.
2. Gather pastry into a ball.  Cut dough in 1/2 shape into 2 flattened round balls...
3. Roll out to the size needed and place in bottom of pie pan...and roll out second ball for the top of pie.

serve up warm...and also wonderful as a leftover....

Sunday Night 'Dinner'

Sunday Night is a hard night in the ChambersMade household....
Sundays are a long day for us with the whole family having to be out the door by 7:45 because of church and then not back home until around 1....and then a late lunch....and then well I just don't want to make dinner a few hours later...
we usually settle on something like 'Brinner' (Breakfast for dinner)...or leftover buffet...
well today the grandparents were in town...
and the kids stayed the night with them last night in their hotel....
spent the morning....and early afternoon with them...
and met us at the movies after church
     (for us, not for them...skippers!)
and ate popcorn and candy....after the kids had lunch at Costco with the g-parents....

so when we got home at 4:30 NO one was thinking dinner....

then by 7 a few of us starting thinking they might be hungry....
and I was thinking that if I wanted the kids to NOT wake up at 6 am STARVING to death I needed to send them to bed with SOMETHING in their tummies....

so the smoothie is what won for dinner....
and here is my amazing smoothie recipe....

some yogurt
some frozen fruit
some juice

blend....

so tonight's recipe used vanilla yogurt, strawberries and mango were the frozen fruit, and a strawberry/guava juice (something that was in concentrate and cheap!)....

so a little protein (yogurt), a lot of fruit, and a little sugar (juice)...and you have a wonderfully easy dinner...

and my picture...well, um...they were all gone by the time I remembered to take a pic....

and you can make these for valentines day and call them 'smoochies' ....

tons of other options for flavor combos....
strawberry and vanilla yogurt are a good base
and then the frozen fruit options and combos are endless (I just would steer clear of the frozen cherries...even without the pits...even with major blender time the girl child said that there were 'fruit scabs'...yeah NOT what you want in your smoothie!)
and the juice, whatever you think would be good, or what you have in your fridge/freezer...or skip the juice and use milk....

enjoy!

some things I might have neglected to tell you....

okay, it's time for confession....
ready for all my dark nasty sins...

sorry, not gonna happen....

but I have made some horrible blogging 'sins' when I failed to tell you about two very important events in my life recently...

1.  We did it...we bought the mini...I blogged about my desire to own a mini van over a year ago....
it's been about a month and a half now...maybe 7 weeks...and I love my mini...we went and picked her out on the Monday before Christmas, picked her up on the day after...
broke her in by taking the family to see Christmas lights...
another trip about a week later I took my kids...and a few others...
sans husband or any other adult for that matter...to the snow...
that might have been the day that I fell in love with my mini...
she was wonderful, held all the kids and all the stuff needed for a day in the snow...
help me get them there and back safe...
had numerous places for kids to change out of snow clothes and into warm dry clothes...
she proved herself worthy of the name mini van!
don't know why I never told you guys about her...
wasn't trying to hide her, I'm NOT ashamed of her AT ALL....
I think it was just such a long process of us looking for and buying a mini van (we've been looking for over a year)...that I was just done by the time we drove her home!

2. okay...second MAJOR confession...
I can't believe that I have kept this to myself for so long...
I think I was too nervous to share the news with anyone, I didn't want it to be false, I wanted to believe, and I had prayed and hoped for this day for awhile and think I was just in shock over it actually happening that I kept it a secret just in case it was short lived...
the husband...my Beau...(he just gagged)...
is back on cheese...

I told him he should never have quit the cheese like that...
we are the family with the motto,

"Everything's Better With Cheddar"

...how can the husband, father, leader of our home turn his back on our motto...
well, he has come back home...
he is now eating cheese again, the world is whole again,
the birds have started singing
the flowers are blooming (no, they actual are blooming, in February!) ...

and Beau is eating cheese again!

Eggs from the Farm

Farm Fresh Eggs...
Ranch Eggs
Eggs that Farmers eat...Ranchers...eat...

whatever it means...
Huevos Rancheros* are yummy!
my mom would make these for us every once in a while as a kid...
I always loved them...and now my kids like them too...
the husband, well lets not push it...he's not a big fan of the fried egg and bean combo...

I have been making these for breakfast on the weekends or for my lunch during the week when we have leftover taco meat and beans from a meal earlier in the week.

Huevos Rancheros
corn tortillas (just better with corn, I've tried flour, but don't like it as well)
refried beans (pinto or black)**
taco meat
fried egg
cheese
salsa
cilantro (optional)

1.  fry egg, while egg is frying, heat up the beans, meat and tortilla (I didn't have any refried beans so I quickly 'refried' myself some black beans)**

2.  layer tortillas with beans, meat, and egg on top.  Top with cheese, salsa and cilantro....

**Refried Beans

1 can of black or pinto beans drained

cumin

salt

butter or bacon fat (optional)

1.  Heat up skillet and melt butter (if using), add beans and mash, season with cumin and salt to taste...

just a fast easy different way to serve up eggs for breakfast...or lunch...and to use up any leftover beans and meat...

*oh...and for those wondering
Huevoes Rancheros is Spanish for "rancher's eggs,"
huevos, pl. of huevo, egg + American Spanish rancheros, pl. of ranchero, ranch-style
although the more common translation is "country" or "country-style" eggs...

I think it means...delish!

set straight

blog warning...
the following post contains the words
tush, bottom and poop
and the brutal honesty of a 5 1/2 year old little boy!
end of blog warning....

conversation between the boy child and me the other day...
conversation followed me squeezing the tush of said boy child...

boy child...why'd you do that?
me...do what? (with fake innocent, 'who me?' tone)
boy child...squeeze my bottom
me...oh, well, because I like your tush
boy child...why?
me...because tushes are cute
boy child....um, no they aren't, they look like giant puffy lips that you sit on and poop out of!

yep...
ummm...
wow...
set straight by the boy child!

said boy child's squish-able tush...about 5 1/2 years ago

a Heartfelt welcome

or a heartfeltcrocheted welcome
yeah, I'm punny like that, watch out!

I decided to change up the door wreath again...wanted something Valentines'ish so I bought a $1 wreath at the $ store and wrapped it in red yarn...

lets pretend that I cleaned up my porch for this picture...that I don't have a bed frame leaning up against the side of my house and a battered old chair that I will someday refinish and make look really cool!...just be glad I'm not showing you the rest of the porch...SCARY...yeah, not lovely...and since this is a post in honor of love...valentines day...we just won't go there!

I crotched some hearts on a string...heart-strings....and let them dangle from the middle...was thinking of hand writing little love notes of pieces of paper and sticking them around the wreath...but I still haven't gotten around to doing that....(let me know if you want the heart crotchet pattern...very easy).

our entry way shelf...
and since we were pretending about the porch...lets pretend that I dusted before I decorated and took the pictures...
um...yeah...didn't happen...
the cute red mail box, vintage print clip board and 'I love You' milk vase (set of 3) were all from the $ section at Target...
wedding picture is from...our wedding...
and the pink Camilla's are from our tree...love the Camilla tree!

 and our heater...I like to decorate the top of our heater, since I don't have a mantel, and a mantel is over a fireplace...I figured the top of my heater was sort of like my mantel...a girl can dream right...
anyways...
my 'vintage' suitcases from Michaels years ago...
Beau's old teddy bear, not sure if it's vintage yet...
the ball of red yarn leftover from making the wreath...
one of the 'I love you' vases...
and the sweet tea valentine'ish towel is from my mother-in-law...

enjoy your month of love...
do you  have any decorations up for St. Valentine?  will you?

who makes waffles before checking to see if they have syrup?

me...yep...
and not mix waffles,
 but whole wheat, from scratch, low fat, applesauce waffles...
and not until the first batch is out of the waffle maker do I realize that there is NO syrup in the house!

husband's solutions...eat waffles with jelly...so, yea that would have worked....
but I remembered in the recesses of my brain that I had a chocolate syrup recipe somewhere....

and now my kids are singing my praise...
maybe not out loud, but in their heads they are....I'm sure of it!
because mom let them have chocolate syrup on their waffles!

and bonus just omit the cocoa and you have vanilla syrup...

Homemade Chocolate Syrup
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup cocoa
1/2 can (6 oz) evaporated milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 cup butter

In a heavy bottomed, tall pan, mix sugar and cocoa.  Stir in milk and heat to a gentle boil, stirring.  Add vanilla and butter, DO NOT STIR, let gently boil for 2-3 minutes.  After butter melts, remove from heat and stir butter and vanilla in.

top your favorite waffle or pancake...or ice cream...

or just eat with a spoon...probably not recommended...but it is that good!

Homemade Vanilla Syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 can (6 oz) evaporated milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 cup butter

In a heavy bottomed, tall pan, mix sugar and milk, heat to a gentle boil, stirring.  Add vanilla and butter, DO NOT STIR, let gently boil for 2-3 minutes.  After butter melts, remove from heat and stir butter and vanilla in.

one batch is more than enough for a few breakfast worth of waffles...

bonus...you can either double a batch or make a batch of each chocolate & vanilla from one can of evaporated milk...

double bonus...you can make this syrup twice a sweet by adding a cute little kitchen helper

you don't think his teacher minds that he had more than his share of vanilla syrup before school this morning...she hasn't called yet, so far so good!