New Cookbook!

So, a little backstory. I love the show Masterchef. I watched every episode of the first season, and really rooted for Whitney Miller. She was southern, polite, and cute as a button! I was THRILLED when she was crowned the first "American Masterchef", and got really excited when I saw (while watching Season 2 of Masterchef actually) that she had her own cookbook. So, last week...I ordered one! I received it in the mail yesterday, and I've read through it 3 or 4 times already. It really makes me miss the south and the food that is easily accessible there (catfish, crawfish, okra, etc). But all of the recipes seem really simple, even if the names are daunting. Since it's my birthday next week, I've decided that I absolutely HAVE to do at least 2 of the recipes. For my birthday dinner I'm going to make the Shrimp bisque and grits. My birthday dessert is going to be the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Lemon glaze. I'm just a teensy bit excited, I'll be sure to let you know how it comes out! You really should check out this book, but you'll probably have to get your own copy. I might be too stingy to share ;)

No more Neverland

I must be growing up. I find that each dinner always has a vegetable, and often a fruit side dish (yes...it's taken 6 years for that to be a regular thing for us...don't judge me!), and I just vacuumed and dusted for the second time this week. I never vacuum twice in a week. Ok, not entirely true, if we company more than once a week I'll vacuum, but today it was just for the heck of it. I'm now looking forward to mopping my floors again, and if I have time I'll give our room a good deep clean.

The things I've been most terrified of (homeschooling for example), I approach with joy each morning. I can't wait to order Riley's "real" curriculum and do something more official. I am eager to teach her piano, her books will get here tomorrow. I love the 1 on 1 time I get with them while we work. If nothing else, we are guaranteed a good hour every day with nothing distracting me from them.

I made a decision a long time ago to make sure the girls saw me cleaning with a smile on my face. Lately, I've been telling them how it glorifies God. He gave us all of our things, and by taking care of them we are showing Him how much we love Him. Repeating that over and over, just drives it deeper into my own heart. The girls laugh as I dance while I clean, then they run to get rags to help me dust. Riley is an expert sweeper, and will often lock herself in her room only to emerge 1/2 an hour later to tell me she cleaned her room "because it's loving God!".

Yes, I love that I am growing up.

I am truimphant!!!

I have failed the past few days, I know...I have no excuses other than "Uhhhhhhhhhh". Anyways, I have to brag just a teensy tiny bit. I successfully cooked VENISON last night! That's right, one of the driest, gamiest meat ever (at least when I've cooked it in the past), and I succeeded. I based it on This recipe...but tweaked it a little. Mostly because I was out of Soy sauce, and I was too lazy to measure anything. So I kinda just threw the spices in as I wanted, and used garlic powder instead of garlic salt. I didn't take a picture, it looked kinda funny, but it tasted good. Even my kids ate it!!!! We served it along side my special mashed potatoes, and homemade "pull apart" rolls. Oh and plums. I was too lazy to put together a salad (I blame my ceiling fan...it wasn't turning the right way so it never really cooled off in here. It's been fixed), and I felt like we needed something on the more "healthy" side. So we had meat, carbs, carbs, and fruity carbs. It was grand.

Fathers Day 2011

How was your Father's Day? Good? I hope so. I feel like I kind of failed. The girls and I managed to not get a gift, and I didn't get donuts for breakfast. I didn't even cook breakfast. We aren't big breakfast people on Sundays, we like our sleep...and cereal :) I did however run to Safeway with my amazing man and we got some steaks. They weren't the fanciest ones...but we were happy. We also stocked up on BBQ sauce.

Since we had my Mother in law, and sister in law over for lunch (the rest of the crew was in Spokane) I made beef enchiladas for lunch. We had steaks marinating, but not enough to feed 6. We almost didn't even cook them last night, but we got bored and decided to anyway. So we cooked steaks, venison sausages, grilled corn, and I made some mashed potatoes. Oh, and let me tell you about a drink you might want to try. 2 liter of sprite, can of cranberry juice concentrate, stir it all up, pour some for the kids, then add Tequila to your glass! :)  While the Grill was heating up though, Tim and I got this huge craving for roasted marshmallows! So I ran out and got some before supper. I didn't get any pictures of the main courses yesterday (I know, fail right?), I did get a few of the marshmallow fun! The girls had so much fun roasting their marshmallows over the hot coals (with adult supervision of course!).

T

Tim's 3 biggest fans!!!

The past 24 hours.

A lot of cooking (well, for me) has been done the past day. It started when I decided I needed something slightly chocolaty yesterday. Chocolate+ripe bananas= Chocolate chip banana bread! My favorite part is that it is lactose free, so Nicole can eat it without lactaids (those are so expensive!)

See how happy she is?

Next was dinner. Now, I am particularly proud of this! I made burgers, all by myself! I dubbed them "Kat's corona surprise burgers". I used ground beef (obviously), egg, garlic and onion powder, Tony's seasoning, and a bit of corona. Now here's the surprise part. I made 1 thin(ish) patty, then placed some grated cheddar cheese and bacon on top, then topped it with another thin(ish) patty! Now I'll admit, I had Tim do the actual grilling. Oh, I also had him put some pineapple rings on the grill, and I cut up a bit of mango to serve on the side.

 Then when I woke up this morning I had to make the snack for Moms n Tots. I decided on Cinnamon Oat mini muffins!! I made 48, one broke coming out of the pan so naturally we had to eat it. The other 47 went to Moms n Tots, and we came home with none! That's a success in my book!

I'm also watching my 3 year old Nephew today. The kids have had a blast! So who knows what supper will be tonight :)

And Riley took this picture!

I was pretty impressed with her aim!

Tuesday/Wednesday Meals

So I know I'm not really a fancy meal person. I'll change that one day. Like when the girls are possibly a little older, and I'm not having to leave whatever is on the stove every 5 minutes because somebody needs to be rescued from outside, or at least until we get a door that my kids can open easily. Or like when I feel like we can splurge a bit more on the grocery bill. I know that I always have plenty of food that my family can eat when they are hungry, and that for the most part it is really healthy. But fancy meats and ingredients are not on the list. I'm just very thankful that what I do end up making they all love.Ok, I'm done with that. Let's go to the past few evenings.

Tuesdays meal was Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, and biscuits. I, however, did not make any of it. We had a KFC coupon we'd been holding onto for a while, and decided to use it. It was nice because I was having a rough day and not having to cook was just a wonderful break for me. It was bad because, well, I seemed to have forgotten how nasty KFC chicken was. Or maybe they've just gone down in quality. So while I thoroughly enjoyed everything else on the menu, the chicken didn't quite settle well with me. The rest of the crew was excited though...and only washing 4 plates, 4 forks, and 4 cups made it all worth it.

Last night was a different story. We love bacon here, and since I still had quite a few tomatoes and a bunch of lettuce from last weeks bountiful basket, I decided BLT's were a grand idea. I also sliced up a few cremini mushrooms and stuck them on as well. We had some zucchini left too, so I cooked it in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper. To top the meal off we had some oranges as well. Those oranges we've been getting are a little small, but oh my goodness....they are SSSSOOOOO juicy!! I have to peel them over the sink or garbage can. Maybe I just have really bad peeling skills, but juice always ends up going everywhere! I love it.

Tonight meal is gonna be fun...but I'm not gonna tell you what it is. You're just gonna have to wait until tomorrow :)

Monday's Meal

We have, yet again, not the fanciest meal. But everybody was pretty well pleased with it, so you get to hear about it!

First off, we have grilled cheese on homemade wheat bread. With some baked zucchini fries (zucchini came from last weeks bountiful basket). My kids even ate them, and when they got full...I ate what was left. But I felt much less guilty eating a ton of those than normal fries.

Next, and what is embarrassing, is the Alphabet soup... that came from a can. The plus side was my kids had a BLAST picking out the different letters and thinking of things that started with them, so that's kind of a win right?

Last, but not least, Mango (also courtesy of last weeks basket)!!!! It was ripe, and delicious, and no matter how hard I try and follow directions online I stink at cutting them. We still manage to get all the good parts, it just doesn't look very pretty :)

Sunday's Meal

Ok, it's time to turn this blog back towards food. Now, I don't have a fancy camera, so forgive the pictures. But I'm pretty proud of the weekends meal (we technically had the same thing Saturday and Sunday because my pizza dough recipe makes 2 crusts). So, here we go.

The main portion of our meal is a homemade pizza. It consists of a whole wheat crust, almost homemade tomato sauce (the sauce part came from a can...but I added the seasonings), thinly sliced cheddar cheese, pepperoni (because we love it), and freshly sliced cremini mushrooms and roma tomatoes (courtesy of Bountiful Baskets). It was quite tasty if it do say so myself :)

(Everything you see next is also part of our Bountiful Basket. Seriously...can't say enough about how awesome this thing is!)

 

Next we have salad with more mushrooms, tomatoes, along with some cucumber. Forgive the tacky "salad bowl". It's in a tupperware container because 1-I knew I'd be putting the leftovers in the fridge, and 2- my real salad bowl is holding the rest of my fruit :). We also had some incredibly ripe and juicy pineapple. This was technically part of last weeks basket, but we still managed to consume it in about 24 hours. Yea, we have mad fruit eating skills!

So while it wasn't incredibly fancy, and would be considered by most an embarrassment to post online...it got a big resounding "Mom, you make the BEST food EVER!" from both of my kids, so it's a major win in my book!

Baby Showers

I'm hosting my best buddies Baby shower on Tuesday (For those of you in Moscow...come help celebrate the birth of Thatcher Myers and the awesomeness that is his Momma, Jordan!). It's my first to do all by myself, I helped out with her shower for the twins...but this one is ALL me, and I'm REALLY excited :) So I'm going to post my menu rough draft...and hopefully get a few ideas from y'all.

Fruit and Fruit Dip
Straw Cookies (you know, those chocolaty ones? I can't remember their name brand)
Mint chips
Mini-Cinis (miniature cinnamon rolls I make. They are technically more of a brunch food...so I'm on the fence)
Cream Puffs
Punch
Decaf Coffee (on the fence about that too)

So that's what I got for now. Any input or ideas would be most welcome.

Enjoy your weekend! If you're in Moscow and are going to the Renaissance fair, there is a good chance our bathroom is open (portapotties are gross! My kids won't go near them).

Pictures!

Ok, I know I just put all of these on facebook. But I have a set of Grandparents who don't have facebook, so this is how they get to see them. Enjoy!

Here we have the NEW dining room light! It replaced the worlds ugliest chandelier.

 In the dining room, this will be painted white.

 The kitchen

 My Island, I love it!

 The new floors! It's not a great picture though, because they are really darker than this.

 The washer and dryer!

 Sun Room..also known as "unpacked boxes and extra wood room".

 The back yard.

 The Guest/entertainment room. Also known as, "tools and random stuff without a permanent spot yet" room.

 The GIANT closet in the back room. seriously, this picture doesn't show how huge it is!

 When you walk in the front door, you'll see Tim's desk.

 Lovely couch, that get's some lovely sun! Great reading spot.

 Living Room.

 The view of the living room from the dining room.

 More living room.

The "Kat and Tim love each other" wall.

 Dining room, no chairs yet..they'll reenter the room this evening.

cooking again!

In honor of having my kitchen back (and the fact that we are having company) I'm cooking today! Ok...so I'm using the crockpot for the main part...but I still have to cook later. So here's what's on tap for this week.

1- French Dip Sandwiches, homemade potato wedges, salad, and pineapple.
2- Pork Tacos (because I anticipate a lot of leftover meat tonight)
3- Taco Soup (Yes...I know another "taco" dish. But when you have somewhere around 5 guys coming for supper, you need an easy, yet yummy, dish! Plus I can make it Gluten Free for my sister in law!)
4- Homemade Pizza (well, that's what my family gets. I got a girls night out planned)
5- Probably more homemade pizza (because I always have enough dough for 2 nights)

I'm also cooking for Easter for the Nadreau family this year. We're gonna do Pork Roast with an orange sauce (because I got some great ideas from friends that I'm dying to try out!), Asparagus, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes. Plus an "appetizer" tray full of cheese, olives, pickles, and meats. I am debating on attempting a King Cake for Dessert...but we'll just have to wait and see.

Well, I'm ever so close to having my house put back together and picture worthy. So I should get back to it. I did promise pictures.

Here's what's new

So it's been a while. I figured nobody REALLY wanted to hear about how we keep getting sick, or the lack of cooking I've been doing.

It's hard to believe we've been here for over a month already. I am so incredibly grateful for Tim, who's put so much time and effort into our home already. Our wood floors are officially done! We can't move the table back in until tomorrow, but they are so pretty. We might take on a "smaller" project sooner than anticipated, which is painting the kitchen cupboards and the shelf/drawers in the dining room. I want to do them white. I'm sure it is something that I could do myself. But first I have to get the rest of this place back in order.

This place will be officially put back together by Wednesday, and when that happens I'll have pictures for you! The girls have officially accepted this place as their home, and are no longer asking to go back to "the 4 home" (our apartment number).

I'm anxiously awaiting a normal routine. I don't think it will be hard to get into. Cleaning has become such a normal thing for me, that it doesn't seem to take as much mental effort...which was always the hardest part for me to overcome.

Tim will also be graduating in May! Getting his Masters has been a long process, and I am so proud of him for doing so well. He'll be graduating with a 4.0, and his Thesis is on a topic that has rarely been done. Don't ask me to explain, while I've read his thesis to him multiple times, I still don't quite get it.


God is good, I am blessed.

Still moving

Well, we're mostly moved it. It won't really be complete until the floors are put down, and I can use my table on a regular basis :) So once that's all done, I'll post some pictures. I pretty much failed on the "before" pictures...but only because things went it a little crazy when Tim came down with a nasty sinus infection and pink eye in both eyes just a few days before our scheduled move. Leaving me to run back and forth, buy extra paint, and take care of the kiddos. I'm pretty sure I won the "super mom" award this past week an a half...not to brag or anything :)

Since it is a splendid day, I may take the kiddos outside for a while and perhaps paint the trim or the windows. That needs to get done. Not much else we can do today since, once again, Pink eye has plagued our house. Poor Riley finally got it. Though at the moment, thanks to a living room covered in Kilz, she's pretty distracted by coloring on the floor :)

Tim is off in Spokane picking up our wood flooring. Here's a tidbit...NEVER buy wood flooring online! The description might say "Brazilian cherry"...but what that really means is pink. Thankfully we were able to return the stuff, and get all of our money back (no restocking fee!)! So instead our dining room and kitchen will have oak flooring, which we have decided to keep it's natural color. If you do need wood flooring, and are ok with finishing your own Lumber Liquidators has some nice unfinished stuff for REALLY cheap. I'm talking around the $2.00 a sq. ft. range. They are in Spokane, which is why Tim is there.

We also discovered that out of the 6 (or is it 8?) phone jacks we have....only 2 are working right now. And that's only because my Father in law was able to put up some temporary wiring. We'll have to rewire the entire house for phones. But God is good, and my Father in law works for Frontier, and has access to perfectly good supplies that the company tosses for whatever reason. So he will fix it for us :)

I got my new Washer and Dryer. They are big, and beautiful, and front load. But my dryer vent is so incredibly clogged up, I can't use them right now because it might cause a fire. So I'm still a laundromat person for a little longer.

That's pretty much it for the house stuff right now, and that's pretty much our life at the moment. I'm excited to get back into a groove, to take my kids to the park (it is only 1/2 a block away), and to have many social events here. God is good, and has provided us with the perfect home, despite it's minor imperfections at the moment :) We have great plans for the place, and, God willing, many years to put them into action!

The Tortoise wins the race right?

I feel like this week I should have fun stuff to say. We're moving! A house! Yay!! However, I've been inflicted with Pink eye in both eyes, and what I'm hoping isn't Strep throat. So, I seem to be moving slowly. I am unable to go out and run the errands I need to finish getting this place packed up. I am however glad I took initiative and called Avista and Frontier yesterday, because today I can barely talk due to pain. I am also thankful for the internet, I was able to go ahead and give our new address to Macy's, Old Navy,  our bank Credit Card, and I think our bank statements, though I'll probably go into the bank and make sure it stuck.

A few unexpected twists have also occurred. We were told that since both bedrooms had hardwood floors, and taking in account the year of the house (which I don't know) that the living and dining room should have hardwood floors under the carpet. Not the case, which is really ok. We are ripping up the current carpet because the original owner (and the renter) had cats. So it's shredded in places, and kinda stinky. It looks like we'll do hardwood in the dining room area (yay!!), and new carpet in the living room. I'm very intrigued by Corn husk carpet. Apparently it's very stain repellent. Always good when you have kids right?

We will paint on Friday, because that's when Sherwin Williams is having a sale. We've picked the colors, and will only be doing the Living and Dining room area. Also high on the list, rerouting the Dryer vent. For some reason it's all twisy and turny, and held together with duct tape.

We also get to look at Washers and Dryers. It seems the ones that come with the house aren't in good condition, the renter even bought new ones...that's how bad they were. I know the ones I want...but I'll be happy with anything that has good reviews, and doesn't need quarters to run. :)

I'm most excited about our office/guest/entertainment room!! Mostly because...well...it's a guest room :).

Future projects include remodeling the bathroom and kitchen. Tearing down the wall separating the dining area from the sun/play room (if it's even possible), and putting up a nice new fence around the front yard. The bathroom is first on the list. I'm not sure when it will get done, one thing is for sure...we have to get a vent in there soon!

Thing's are getting done as quickly as we would like due to illness, massive snow, and the renter being stuck in Deary for a few days...but I know it will eventually get done.

We'll definitely be taking before/after pictures. We will, God willing, be in this house for many, many years!

Look what I made!!

I'm very proud. This is my first "real" knitting accomplishment. Granted it was an incredibly easy pattern...but I finished! And I didn't mess up!

She's gonna look so incredibly cute this summer! Or with a long sleeve shirt underneath it :)

So I didn't make Riley's outfit...but I did kinda make the kid so that counts right? Riley's shirt will be under construction starting this evening.

Happy Valentines day.

Happy Valentines Day! I have discovered that I was much more enthusiastic about valentines day when I was younger. It meant that whatever Sunday was closest to valentines you would find me, and many of my friends toting around big bags full of cookies, candies, and cards for each other. I think doing that instilled a very healthy view of valentines for me. Throughout my highschool days I never found myself "longing" for a valentines. I always had a ton!

Another thing that kept the valentine blues away was my Dad. He was always amazing at making me feel like his number 1 girl. A few months ago Tim started talking the girls out for daddy/daughter dates on Saturdays. It's something they really look forward to now, they even have the schedule figured out. I love it!

Tim and I have never been big on Valentines. But I'm noticing as the girls are getting older, my desire for the cookie, candies, and cards is coming back. I think it's safe to say that Valentines will be a family holiday for us. We will also continue the Nadreau tradition of buying the "big" valentines gifts the day after. I seem to have failed  on the "valentines DAY" part this year...but I have some grand ideas for next year!

The Countdown has begun!

I have 28 days left in the apartment. That is roughly 12 more laundry days, 4 more grocery trips, and numbering the cups of coffee/tea was just too much adding to do this early in the morning :) Only 4 more weeks of telling my kids "Stop jumping. Stop running. Not so loud".

One of the things I look forward to the most is setting my kids free!! Letting them dance and jump! Letting them sing as loud as they want! Listening to their squeals of delight without worrying about bothering neighbors. Letting them run free in the backyard when the weather is warmer. My children have endured "upstairs apartment living" well, but it kills me to think that I'm having the reign in their joy. They had so much fun at my Grandma and Mom's house. They were well behaved and joyful, and I know a big part of that is because they had so much more room. I'm just bursting to give my kids that kind of freedom! Only 28 more days :)

God is good!!!

I can't believe it, after 5 months of twists, turns, tears, and a LOT of praying, we signed the closing papers on our house yesterday. I don't think it will REALLY sink in until we have the keys (official closing is tomorrow), but the small stack of boxes in my living room is just filling me with joy. We've been in this apartment for 5+ years, and there were many times in this journey that it looked like we would have been here for many many more. God is good though, and I am so excited about this next phase in our lives!

*Disclaimer: the yard is not really that pretty at the moment...but we intend to change that.

*Whew*

Adding 1 set of "pee bedding" and 1 set of "nose bleed" bedding to your usual Monday laundry loads (yes..it's already plural) makes for a LOT of laundry. However it also makes this moment that much more enjoyable.

I decided I get 2 truffles with my coffee today.