WIP Wednesday

Unfortunately the two WIPs I keep mentioning are still under construction. Frankly I'm a little sick of working on them. But I'm at least making progress!

First up is the monster. I've finished with the plain rounds (that got tedious). Now I'm onto the decreases, so at least it's gotten more interesting. I'm hoping to crank out the body by the end of the weekend.

Project two is the blanket. By my calculations I'm 65% of the way done. I've been trying to get a least one row done ever night so I can move onto the second blanket I need to work on.

Taco Soup

I'm a little late in writing this but we actually did try a new dinner idea in October so I can cross another thing off my resolutions list.

On Sunday I made crockpot taco soup. The recipe is super simple. It's basically dump in cans and turn on the crockpot all day. The only extra step is browning the beef ahead of time if you want it (we did). I didn't get any pics of the dish though.

Ingredients:
2 cans of corn
2 cans of pinto beans
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of tomatoes with chiles
1 large can of diced tomatoes
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 lb seasoned ground beef
Toppings

Directions:
Brown the beef and drain the grease. Season with whatever spices you usually use for taco meat. Add this to the bottom of the crockpot. Drain and rinse the beans then add to the pot. Add the corn and tomatoes (don't drain the liquid for these) and the dressing. Simmer on low for 8 hours. Add toppings after it is dished.

Notes:
I think the original recipe was looking for a six quart pot and mine's only four so it was a little too full - I had to take a couple spoonfuls out. Next time I will cut back accordingly.
E was the only one who ate it. C (unsurprisingly) and J (surprisingly) wouldn't eat it. I'm unsure of my vote as I didn't eat it (I had a bit of an upset stomach so I ate crackers instead). E and I both thought it would be better without kidney beans so we will probably try that next time (it will help with the space issue too!). I think we will end up trying this again at some point.


ETA: I just noticed this is my 100th post! Yay!

Happy Halloween!

Today we celebrated Halloween. C decided he wanted to be Wolverine so we had J dress up as Spiderman (or Spiderbaby as we dubbed him) to go along with. I had a realization that this may be the last year I can do something like this as J will probably want to have a say in his costume next year.

Our first adventure was a party at my office for all of the employees' kids. It was really fun to see everyone's kids all dressed up and having fun!

Our second adventure was at a local Trunk or Treat. In addition to the trick or treating they had music, a bounce house and a train ride. We were also able to meet up with the boys' cousin.

I think everyone had a good time today, although we have enough candy to last a lifetime!

Happy Halloween!

Homemade Oreos

I love Pinterest! Long story short I had to make treats for my grandma's birthday party tomorrow and work on Monday so I decided to make two different items so I could have some variety. Originally I was going to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars and double chocolate chip cookies. The bars were done without any issues. I did however run into problems with the cookies - I was down to my last cup of sugar and the recipe called for twice that.

So I decided to look through a few of my favorite websites and found this recipe pinned on Pinterest. Since I had all of the ingredients on hand it seemed like a winner.

Homemade Oreos

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Cookies:
1 cup sugar (note: the original recipe suggests between 1-1 1/2 cup but I found them plenty sweet with one cup)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 stick of butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (note: I just used very run of the mill Nestlé cocoa powder)
1 large egg

In a bowl mix all of the ingredients except the butter and egg. Once they are mixed together, add the butter and then the egg until it comes together.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough onto a greased pan and press them down slightly. Be sure to space them 1 1/2-2 inches apart - these cookies really spread out. I ended up with 32 cookies (these are quite a bit bigger than store bought Oreos). Bake for 9 minutes and let them cool. Once they are cool, it's time to fill them.

Filling:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 shortening (you can do half a cup of butter if you don't want to use shortening)
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups vanilla

Cream the butter and shortening together. With the mixer on low slowly add in the sugar, then the vanilla. Once it is mixed beat on high for 2-3 minutes. Take one a your cookies and spread the cream on with a spatula (pipping it with a pastry bag would work too). Press the second cookie on top and voila - homemade Oreo!

Then came the rain...

Sometimes I think rain can get a bad reputation. It is considered gloomy and unwelcome. But to me it is refreshing.

Tonight was a struggle. I dealt with exciting things such as a child getting sick to his stomach and a clogged drain. Needless to say I was ready for bedtime. But by the time it rolled around I was feeling anxious and was beginning to worry about things I can't control.

Then came the rain...

As I was laying here, worrying, the rain began. I felt immediately calmer. It's like all my worries flowed out with the rain. Thank you God for the rain!


Check out www.hesowsandshesews.com for other blessings.

The State Fair

E and I decided to take the boys to the State Fair today. Unfortunately it was about 95 degrees today (it's October - I'm getting really impatient for cooler weather!)

The boys are a little too young to go on many of the rides but we thought it would be fun for them to see some of the animals and have some funnel cake.

We first went to where the livestock were on display. The boys were amazed to see so many sheep in one place (and I thought about all of the nice wool that they were wearing). We headed to the poultry area afterward and C asked me if we could buy a chicken! Then we went to the petting zoo.

Here is C - he was a little afraid but we told him they wouldn't hurt him so he decided it was okay.

J wasn't afraid of them at all! He would walk right up to them and say hi and pet them. We had a hard time convincing him to leave.

Next we found our funnel cake (after thoroughly washing our hands of course!) We also let C try out a game. He wanted to play the balloon dart game. He popped one on the first try!



Here he is with his prize!

What an adventure today!

Project C.U.R.E.

On Friday some of my coworkers and I volunteered at an organization called Project Cure. The organization serves a very cool purpose - they provide medical supplies to hospitals in developing countries.

We spent a few hours sorting medical supplies that had been donated by hospitals and other medical offices. I was absolutely amazed how many different pieces of medical equipment there are and we weren't even dealing with any of the sophisticated medical stuff. Our boxes were mainly sutures, catheters, medical gowns and items like that. They leave the more complicated things to retired doctors to sort. They also have biomedical students come into test some of the equipment too.

We sorted our items into these boxes and then they were boxed up. The filled boxes are put on containers and shipped to the countries that need the supplies. This was a very worthwhile way to spend a few hours!