Fun Dip

I never know whether to start with the cute or the disgusting. I would rather leave you thinking of the cute so I guess I will do the gross first:



These children...



love



Fun Dips.

Fun dips are pretty much just pure, slightly chemicalized sugar poured straight into their little systems. Did you ever read Calvin and Hobbes when Calvin was eating breakfast. Calvin eats Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. (Whenever I see Cocoa Pebbles, I think of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, by the way.) Fun Dips would probably make a pretty good substitute for CFSB. It amazes me that they can stand still and not just jitter across the floor when they get down from eating it. *It should be noted that they went upstairs and had a racuous session of jumping on the bed after this. However, they do that almost every night, Fun Dip or no.

Now, on to the cute. We have a new look in our house this autumn:



Layered shirts. Somtimes Pnut comes down already dressed in the morning, sometimes I get her clothes out, but either way, lately she has been putting a short-sleeved shirt over her long-sleeved one. I used to do that a lot. I don't think she is ready to give up her short-sleeved shirts yet.

Aren't they cute in this picture? They were dancing if you can't tell:)

Tomorrow is cleaning day. There is also a man coming because something is wrong with our phone line. And I have to make a cake for Saturday morning. And Lyn is coming tomorrow evening and we will be practising a few wedding favors (yay!). It will be a fun but busy day.

Stop the Rain!

We haven't even gotten to November, not to the beginning of winter, and we are already going stir-crazy. I think on all days that are not rainy or -40 we will be going outside.

Today was a rough day. I have been having to change my work schedule around because there is no longer any work in the early morning. It makes it really hard to work because Pilly is anti-work. She plays so nicely with Pnut at any other time and is as happy as a lark, but let me turn on those work programs and she goes crazy. I typed much of this morning with her in my lap. That slows me down, which is frustrating. So if anyone wants to volunteer to just start giving us money every month, I'd be happy.

We played play-dough for an hour this afternoon. That is a lot of play-dough time. It is fun to see the things the girls come up with. Pilly mostly takes hers in and out of the container. She puts the lid on and then tells me "open door, open door." Anything that needs opened is a door, by the way. Pnut today was focused on chocolate eggs which would hatch candy chickens or something like that.

I got some good work done on my Pay It Forward last night but still have a ways to go until I am finished. I am chomping at the bit to get this done! I won't let myself start anything else until I finish it.

So, as there is not really anything to say tonight, I will go before you all start crying tears of boredom! Have a great night:)

Hash Brown Casserole

I made this for Bible study this morning. It disappeared rather quickly! The top was perfectly crispy-crunchy. I now have a request to make it for our retreat.

This is also from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur on page 109.

1 26-ounce bag frozen hash browns (I used shredded)
2 c shredded Colby cheese
1/4 c minced onion
1 c milk
1/2 beef stock or canned broth
2 T butter, melted, separated in half
Dash garlic powder
1 t salt
1/4 t ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 and combine hash browns, cheese, and onions. You will have to use a relatively large bowl. Mix all of the other ingredients in a separate bowl with only half the butter. Pour over the hash brown mixture. Melt the other half of the butter in a skillet and pour the hash browns in. Keep on oven until cheese has melted then transfer to a 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes until crunchy and slightly browned.

I omitted the onion from the dish. There are dishes that onions add to, but I do not think that baked hash browns is one of those items. I could only find a 30 ounce bag of hash browns so I just guesstimated how much was 24 ounces. The cheese seems like a small amount when compared to the hash browns, but it turned out perfectly. This really was a great dish!

Children, would you like to know how to charm your parents and make them think that you are the sweetest kids ever? Gather your nearest sibling and listen closely:

First, ask your little sister if she wants to read a book



Then invite her up on the couch beside you and proceed to read to her.



*Sigh* They love each other :)

I wanted to update you on Grace and thank you for your prayers. She was able to be extubated yesterday morning and is recovering. She is hopefully soon going to be moved out of the busy part of the burn center to a room with a door because it is hard to sleep with all of the noise. Her throat, from what I gather is understandably sore. Pray for continued healing and patience for her and Lamar. Praise the Lord for what he has done!

In other news, quite bad, the final season of Lost is going to be split up because of the Olympics. How lame is that?! We don't want to see the Olympics. We need to know what happens to the people on Lost Island!!

Well, tonight I am going to try to finish up a lot of my Pay It Forward. How long have I been saying that? But really, I am tonight. I have two hours to work until I head upstairs so I need to get on that!

Chicken and Dumplins

This is adapted from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur on page 114. He came up with a recipe for Cracker Barrel's Chicken and Dumplins.

What you need:
1-1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or strips
6 cups chicken broth
1 Bay leaf
1 T lemon juice
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper

For the dumplins:
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1.25 t salt
1 c plus 2 T milk

Bring the broth to a boil. Slice the chicken into long, thinner strips...not too skinny though. Once boiling, add all ingredients. Proceed to mix all the dumplin ingredients together in a bowl. It will be sticky. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. Turn out onto floured surface and roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Make sure your rolling pin stays well floured. Cut into small squares, 1/2-1 inch. Try to keep them uniform. It works well to flour your fingers and your knife! Add the dumplins to the boiling mixture and cook for 25-35 minutes. Stir often. Remove bay leaves and serve!

In the cookbook, he boiled the chicken and made his own broth and all that. Umm, if I have an extra three hours, sure. Or not. I cubed my chicken, but Joel says that at the restaurant they are in larger pieces because they fall apart so easily and it can be hard to pick them up with your fork if they are too small. They really get tender, and this dish has such nice flavor! It thickened up really well and made quite a bit. Joel and I will be having it for leftovers one night this week. Once Pnut was forced to try it, she liked it. You would think we try to poison her daily with how she responds to anything besides chicken nuggets or peanut butter and jelly. Pilly liked the chicken but was not too keen on the dumplins. I think she tried one while it was really hot and wouldn't try it again. These are better than dumplins made with Bisquick (sorry Mom). I liked using the chicken breast because I always thought that the dark meat in chicken and dumplins got too slimy. I do not like dark meat to begin with, let alone when it is slimy. Gross.

In other news: Pilly peed in the potty last night!!! Every night when she is taking a bath, she gets out of the bathtub about forty times to sit on the potty. It is a wonder she ever gets bathed as she is constantly hopping in and out. I haven't begun to potty train her, and she has never gone in the toilet before. I tend to let her get out and try because she has pooped in the bathtub on many occasions, and I like to avoid that when possible. So last night she was sitting there and I heard a tinkle. We were all so excited. We called Daddy and Gramma to tell them, and Pnut and I both praised her! I guess I need to start doing it more in earnest because she gets upset when she goes in her diaper sometimes, and I think she might be ready. Wow!

This picture is so Randa can see Pnut's outfit from church yesterday. I love this little pink dress with the white leggings!



And this. Well, I think it speaks for itself:



Honest to Pete, how can she be so messy? I just don't understand!

Well, I am making a hash brown casserole for Bible study tomorrow morning so I am going to go shred my cheese to reduce the flurry I will experience around 8:00. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and beginning to their week!

Almost Famous Breadsticks

These are from Food Network Magazine and are a replica of Olive Garden breadsticks. They are good. Jackie made them yesterday so I had to try them today because I liked them so much!

For the dough:
1 package active dry yeast (2.25 teaspoons)
4.5 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon fine salt

For the topping:
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch of dried oregano

1. Make the dough: Place 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of a mixer; sprinkle in the yeast and set aside until foamy, about five minutes. Add the flour, butter, sugar, fine salt, and 1.25 cups plus 2 tablespoons warm water, mix with the paddle attachment until a slightly sticky dough forms, 5 minutes.
2. Knead the dough by hand on a floured surface until very smooth and soft, three minutes. Roll into a two-foot-long log, cut into 16 1.5 inch-long pieces. Knead each piece slightly and shape into a 7-inch-long breadstick; arrange two inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with a cloth; let rise in a warm spot until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Make the topping: Brush the breadsticks with 1.5 tablespoons of the butter and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Bake until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. meanwhile, combine the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt with the garlic powder and oregano. Brush the warm breadsticks wiht the remaining 1/5 tablespoons melted butter and sprinkle with the flavored salt.

I just have a terrible time with yeast. I really do. I tried three times to get my yeast to be active. Not happening. So I just made them anyway, and they did rise in the 45 minutes they rested. Next time, I am not going to look at the yeast or talk so it doesn't know that it is me trying to get it to work. How could it not work three times?!

I divided my dough in half and put half in the freezer. However, because I like to use my brain a lot, I put it in before I let the dough rise so I think that I might have killed the yeast and won't be able to use it. Jackie, help me out here...did I kill it?

Alright, well The Office is on so I have to go!

Diaper Bag

I finished the bag this morning in time to take it to Jackie's. Maybe I just work best under pressure. I don't really think so but that seems to be how I operate lately!



The design doesn't show up very well in the picture, but if you click it, you might be able to see it better. I am really pleased with how it turned out! My bag had grommets in, and one of them ripped out so I sewed the straps on this time so hopefully they will be a little stronger. I hope she likes it. I always get nervous about that part! What if the colors or the design aren't right? Aagh. I am kind of glad I won't be there!

This was happening today also:



A one-year-old can fit very nicely inside the lid of a sewing machine.

I ate well today! We had cooking club, and I am going to have to kick it up a notch next month. Last month we had an awesome Margarita pizza, and today Jackie out-did herself. It is fun because our husbands won't eat these fun things we make so we get to try them out on people who really enjoy them! We had a salad with yummy goat cheese, walnuts that Jackie candied herself, and poppy seed dressing. Then we had homemade breadsticks, which I could have just filled up on! She made two kinds of soup, a vegetable beef and a cabbage. Oh my. It was one of those meals where you just don't want to stop eating! For dessert, we had a pumpkin creme brulee. We got to toast our brown sugar with the little, umm, fire thing. You know what I mean. It was delicious. Pumpkin is an awesome flavor! Alright, I will stop making you all drool:)

Tomorrow, I am planning on taking the girls on our last picnic for this year. We are having really nice weather this week so I want to do it one last time. They love picnics!

I need to get working on a card so I am not up until all hours! Have a wonderful evening:)

Weird

Do your children abuse the furniture?



Or stick their tongues in their noses?

We have some real weirdos here!

Well, I didn't finish my project. *Sigh* I should have it done before Friday's shower, but we will see. I didn't realize how long it would take to attach the fusible stabilizer to the lining. It took like an hour.

I'm trying to type and talk to my sister on the phone at the same time. I'm trying really hard to not type what we are saying.

We all walked to the playground today, and the girls took an awesome nap for two hours!!! I think I am going to make them walk a mile every day!

I'll leave you with this now:





Have a great night!

*Edited to add: I forgot to mention Wormy Worm. How could I forget Wormy?! Tonight the girls were outside in the back area and called me with such fervency that I thought someone's leg had fallen off. When I went out, both girls were crouched down on the ground around a worm who was making his way across the cement. They were fascinated! I tried to get them to touch him, but they weren't having it. I touched him and finally Pilly touched him. Wormy squirmed like crazy and Pilly jumped back. Then she laughed about it. Finally we put him in the dirt and went back inside.

So tonight Pnut was wigging out at bedtime, and I went up and she was crying for Wormy. I left. Joel ended up going up and praying with her for Wormy Worm. Good night! What a silly girl:)