Dinner tonight

Baked Chicken Fajitas

We've had a little lull in after school activities in December and January which is over this Friday. That adds to the stress of what to make for dinner . . . being out of the house and not able to cook in a hands on way.

I found this recipe & it seemed great because I don't have to do that much after school. (Having children who can preheat the oven & put things in helps, as well).

This was really good and we're planning on repeating this one. We served with leftover rice, black beans, tortillas and guac. I substituted Ro-tel tomatoes for the tomatoes and green chiles and left out the chili powder. It was spicy enough but not too overpowering for the littles who don't appreciate heat.

How many? Fall 2013 canning edition

How many?

Times in the past 3-4 years have I had trouble getting my pressure canner up to pressure?
No idea, but my guess is between 20 and 30

Times have I wondered if I needed a new seal for it?
20-30

$ does it cost to replace?
 $11
(How often are you advised to replace it? Once a year, or more if used heavily . . . ahem).

Stores in Fort Collins carry them?
One that I know of, Ace Hardware.

Times have I canned in the past 10 days?
4

Jars?
14 pint size chicken
16 pints black beans
15 pints Great Northern beans
14 pints garbanzo beans
10 pints light red kidney beans
=69 lovely little jars of food. . . .
-one to my mom, and two to our family (What can I say? Canned chicken recipes are the best)
=66 little jars of food.

I had kids home on TH, so they helped.

My family canned & grew a garden. Nathan's family really canned and really had a garden. (What I mean is that their temperate climate and large lot made it possible for them to grow a giant garden--and then they had to store that food).
We hope to pass those skills on.
If my kids are home, I try to include them as I can. Although not shown in the picture above, I try to have one child help me at a time. (A lesson I learned in the Neuffer kitchen). It makes it much more manageable for me. This time they each did 3 jars of beans for me. So helpful.


Dried beans are a good place to start with helping kids learn to can. The prep and cleanup are easy. They can pour them in without my worrying about sticky everything. Love eating home canned beans, too.

What time did my last canning session end?
1:15 am . . . . should have started earlier in the day!

Peach season

One on one time is so nice.

We ate some, gave away some, and put 5 quarts in the freezer.
One week later, our 40 lbs of peaches is gone. More are coming next week.

Oatmeal + half & half + peaches + almonds = Breakfast of champions

First Day

7th Grade

6th Grade . . . First day was yesterday

4th

1st grade . . . full days away from home. She's ready!

My daily companion . . . see my photo talking self reflected in the balloon?

First day of school balloons . . . keeping tradtion

Not sure why I continue this, but I feel it obligatory to take the first day of school pictures. They are almost all excited. Somehow the older you get the less you look forward to it???

Bryn begins middle school--exciting & scary all at once. Diana also moves on by being gone for full days after half day kindergarten last year. We will miss her.

We went on our morning walk & shopping and enjoyed a quiet lunch, just the two of us.

There's a box of peaches calling my name and I have to plan & execute dinner early since I will be driving around this afternoon.

One year older

For our birthday(s) this year I had an idea to see what was playing at Red Rocks. I found out that they show movies. Most are not our taste, but there was going to be a showing of Princess Bride just a few days before our birthday. I booked my mom as our babysitter, since I knew we'd be out LATE and Nathan got tickets.

It was a sold out show--5,000 seats.

They also offer yoga and give tours, so you can go even if it's not for a concert. We left around 4 and stopped for dinner on the way. Nothing fancy, but nice to eat alone together.

I just loved this parking lot.

38 yr old us. His version of this photo turned out better because he has longer arms.

Tons of steps. Some people come here to work out.

This large group of "Men in Black"a few rows down was great for people watching. The thing about Red Rocks is that you have to go early. There is an expensive section in the middle roped off. But all the other seats are first come/first served. We got there close to when the gates opened. There was some LOUD music playing for the first hour and a half . . . not our style, but part of the package of getting a good seat. This is the view from our seats . . . . except more focused on the people in black than the stage.

Amazing view . . . . this is closer to the top. Weather was perfect.

When Tara & Stephen came to visit last year, she met a friend for breakfast. They introduced us to the Silver Grill's Cinnamon Roll french toast. We've been a handful of times--it's your typical local diner. Nathan had also been invited there for a work breakfast. We took our whole family one morning and most of us ordered the C.Roll french toast. After getting the bill, however, I decided we'd try it at home. We went the day before Nathan's birthday to buy the rolls & everything else we had at home. It worked really well and we saved about $50.

 

 If you try this at home, (which you should), I have two tips.
1)Put the cut side of the roll down first in the pan. It works better.
2)Get cinnamon rolls that have more of a glaze than a frosting . . . like what's picture below.

It will probably be your best breakfast all year, and you don't need syrup or anything else. We put powdered sugar on the table but you don't really need it.

For Nathan's birthday we bought a used backpacking type backpack from Craigslist for not very much. He is our new scoutmaster, so will be using it lots with all those boys.

Scoutmaster is Nathan's dream calling and I am hoping he's not still in when it's Eddie's turn.

He asked for zucchini and squash for dinner, so along with other things I made him this:
Zucchini Gratin

He went easy on me for dessert. Oatmeal raisin cookies from the freezer made into an ice cream sandwich.

I wanted a new helmet for my bike. My former one was from 1993 and looked like it. Bike helmets have changed a LOT in the past 20 years. I've already been out with it and plan to ride more frequently. Maybe someday I will ride to a store????
I found a sour cream angel food cake on sale so I bought it and made this fruit dip to go on top, served with berries. It was exactly what I wanted.

Happy birthday us.

No place like home

The day after we got back from our trip we enjoyed dinner on the porch. Loved these guys and that food.

Homemade chicken nuggets, Rhodes rolls, lettuce from the garden. Pasta came later.

Asian Slaw

Recipe from our Elementary School cookbook 2012-2013

Dressing:
3/4 C oil
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C white vinegar
2 packets seasoning from Chicken Ramen Noodles

Salad:
1 package broccoli slaw
1 C sliced almonds
1 C sunflower seeds
1 small bunch green onion, chopped
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, (NOT COOKED), broken up into chunks

Mix dressing well; pour over salad. Let sit for 2 hours before serving.

MY CHANGES:
1/4 oil, 1/4 sugar, 1/4 vinegar
No Ramen seasoning. 1 tsp salt instead.
1/2 C almonds, 1/2 C sunflower seeds.
1 Package Ramen noodles
Cilantro--1/4 cup or so
(Didn't try this time, but I think rice vinegar would be great. Also red pepper).

I've seen this salad before, but it was cabbage instead. I prefer it with the Broccoli Slaw since I am not generally a fan of raw broccoli but like it this way.
My husband commented, "This is my favorite use of broccoli slaw."
Will be taking to all the summer "bring a side-dish" events.

A few December details

1)One Monday night we watched the Polar Express for FHE.
When Edwin saw Santa, he said, "That's God."

2)For Andrew's December request, I made Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs. This time, I substituted onion powder because
      A)I didn't want to cut an onion and
      B) I wanted my girls to try it.
They all did, and I will use it again. One of them may have even commented, "This is good."
I like the idea of using ground turkey but in reality I've only got a couple of recipes that I love with it. Send me yours if you have any that are worth repeating.

3) If each of my family members went to the dentist twice and the doctor once a year, that would be 21 appointments . . . pretty close to an appointment every two weeks. That doesn't count the orthodontist, which we are starting soon, or any sick visits.
Conclusion . . . . I better increase how often I pick up the phone to make appointments.

4) We are a hula hooping family. Today they did some timing and . . .

Andrew     9:26
Caitlin    9:39
Bryn stopped herself at 15:04. She chose to stop there--who knows how long she could keep it up. Her goal was to beat the standing record, which she easily accomplished.
Nathan 15:18
They have also learned to walk, run, and jump up and down while hula hooping. We will only post photos if we upgrade our camera. It's too slow for hula hooping photos to turn out.
I still can't hula hoop, but I'm practicing.

5)With several struggles and a little prayer, I figured out how to print address labels for Christmas cards. Not much less work this year, but it will be next year, and the year after, and so on.

6)Meal planning is much easier and less stressful than not meal planning. I've tried both ways.

7)We never carved our pumpkins. I planned to throw them out and spoke openly about it before they made it in the garbage.
Diana said, "I don't want to throw them out, I want to see them decay."
Thankfully, they had decayed enough by the time Nathan was throwing them out that he pointed to a rather unpleasant part of the pumpkin and said, "Look, Diana, DECAY."
He carried 4 of them to the garbage and saved the others for pumpkin soup. The first installment was last night. It's good. We had twin 11 year olds boys over and they asked for more. Try it.
Somehow, we'll have to fit "carving pumpkins" into the schedule next year.

8) Last December I got a card from employees at Nate's work. It said, "Thanks for the luncheon!" referring to a luncheon put on by physicians' wives. It was the first I had heard about it. I felt bad.
This year, I found out in time to contribute. I made dozens of oatmeal raisin cookies and was able to attend. I loved talking to and meeting Nathan's co-workers. They employ over 200 people.

9) We bought & decorated our tree today. Then we sang "O Christmas Tree" and some other carols. Great family time.

10) Nathan straddled the b-ball hoop at the park to put the net back on. Unfortunately, no photo, use imagination.

11) This week my mom watched Ed & Diana so I could go on choir tour with Bryn's early morning choir, the Treble Makers. They toured two nursing homes, two banks, and ended up with lunch at the mall. One boy in our group brought $29 with him. It was probably the first time Bryn ordered food for herself. My mom brought the little ones to the second bank so they could listen, too.

This Treble Maker is awesome!!!!

Though I'm not . . .

a chocolate cake fan,
this one was the best I've ever had.

Of course, this is not my photo. We used a whipped chocolate frosting, instead.

Here's the link.
Chocolate cake seems to be the favorite of most of my children. I think we will use this again in the future. The fudgy filling makes it not so dry--my complaint with most chocolate cakes. More expensive than a regular mix, but definitely worth it.
Making a second one tonight for the "friend" party.