Amish Cinnamon Bread, Day 10

Today is the day I'm supposed to bake this bread. Of course I'm working today and don't know if I'll have time when I get home. Think it will be okay for one more day?

Amish Cinnamon Bread, Day 4

I am on day 4 of making 10 day Amish Cinnamon Bread. I just added a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, and a cup of milk to the bag which is just to sit on the counter until day 10. Did you hear me? I just put milk in a bag to leave on the counter for 6 more days. I'm having issues with this.

Cheddar Broccoli Rice Cups

(found recipe on FaceBook)

2 cups cooked rice 1 10-oz. box frozen, chopped broccoli, thawed and excess water squeezed out3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided1/4 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing 2 eggs, lightly beaten1/2 teaspoon saltPepper to taste

Place cooked rice in a large bowl and let cool slightly. Add the remaining ingredients, using only 1/2 cup of the cheddar cheese, and stir until combined. Transfer mixture to eight well-greased muffin cups and top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees or until tops are lightly browned and edges are starting to get crispy.




 I tried this last night. All of the adults liked it. Stephanie would rather eat just broccoli because she loves it. Hayden and Meredith would rather eat plain broccoli even though they hate it. Phil refused to vote because he hates broccoli and this. I thought it was really good though and since I do most of the cooking, we'll probably have it again!

A Confession

...I hate e-mail.

Not as much as I hate voice mail but enough that I never EVER want to open my e-mail.

There's always so much ... CRAP ... in there.

Stuff I don't remember signing up for. Or stuff I had to give my e-mail to in order to get the ONE thing I wanted even though I've never gone to that website again. Or even stuff that I really would like to read and educate myself about if only I had an extra 14 hours in a day.

Today I am at work and it is slow so it was the perfect day to go into my e-mail and clean it out. There were over 600 e-mails in there! So I just went as fast as I could. I put everything in alphabetical order by sender, clicked on the first e-mail of each sender that I did not want to ever see again and scrolled down to "unsubscribe here." I did not read the e-mails and as soon as I unsubscribed from the first one, I deleted all the other e-mails from that sender. I also moved the old work-related and bill-payment-related e-mails to their respective "Save" folders. And I got rid of over 400 e-mails that way. YAY!

Of the not quite 200 that are left, a lot of those are from family/friends (like my MOM) and most are old or have a conversation thread several e-mails long. So next, I will go through all of those to make sure there is no pertinent information (like new cell numbers) and I will either delete or move them to their save folders. I imagine most of them will be deleted ~ not sure why I still have e-mails discussing last Thanksgiving's get-together, but, whatever, we'll be taking care of those shortly!

After that, hopefully, my e-mail will not be so crowded and I will not mind going through my new e-mails so much. I will probably have to do the unsubscribe thing again in a week or so to catch any I missed this time. Other than that, if this doesn't work, I'll be starting over fresh with a new account for friends and family only!



UPDATE:

I now have only 70 e-mails. Still too many but over half are for the kids' 4H and I will have to actually read those. And I'm done for the day so they can wait!

Time to Clean

Today I had this uncontrollable urge to go thru the basket of magazines. I have a large basket on the piano to stash my magazines in. The plan was to have them in one place so I could read them when I got the urge. The truth is I hardly ever get the urge to read a magazine at home. So they've been stacking up. There were probably close to 100 in there. And I don't subscribe to many magazines so they've been there awhile.

I kept the "Country" magazines and the "Taste of Home" but got rid of all the others older than this year. Except for the "National Geographics." I thought maybe if I put them on the bookshelf, the kids would read them. Then I thought again and decided they really would not ever read them but I couldn't just throw them away so I put them in the donate box instead. Hopefully, someone will enjoy them.

I Give Up

I give up. I quit. I admit defeat. I cry "Uncle!" already.

Ugh. None of my children will use the top sheet on their beds. I wash sheets and always put the top one on and make the bed all nice and pretty and the top sheet always ends up on the floor or squashed between the bed and the wall. My Type A personality is completely offended by this.

However, upon further review, I have decided this battle is not worth fighting. So, today, after I washed the sheets, I put the bottom sheets on the beds, and just folded the top sheets and put them away.

Another plus is now when I wash the kids' sheets, I will save an hour since I will only have to do one load instead of two. Yay!

A Quick Update

I don't know why my kids are so sickly this year. Last week I had a kid home nearly every day. The little guy is still running a temperature off and on. I've already advised the children they are all going to school tomorrow and they are staying there all day!

I feel like I haven't gotten anything done except care for sick kids, laundry, and dishes. I tried to vacuum one day but the vacuum wasn't working vey well and I didn't have time to tear it apart and clean it off and put it back together again (stupid pet hair and fur!) It may need a new belt which I have but, like I said, haven't had time to tear it apart.

Despite the feeling of not getting anything done, things did get accomplished. The real problem is I'm just fitting things in and not going in any particular order. I guess that's what happens when EVERYTHING needs to be done, like, last year! I built a bookshelf for the girls' room to fit between their closets. It helps but they still need more storage. I didn't even bother to make it pretty ~ it's just plain MDF. We'll probably paint it later but for now, function is outweighing beauty. Also, my mother-in-law's closet rod collapsed under the weight of her clothes. So I've got shelves cut for the side and I need to get those up and the rod and shelf above that sometime this week. I'm hoping there are studs in the closet walls ~ it sounds stupid to say that but the guy who built her apartment is well known for cutting corners so we'll see. I also cleaned up a little downstairs in the old store area ~ got all the empty boxes off the floor and on a shelf (we're hoping to move soon so I'm hoarding boxes right now!)

There's probably more and I hope I have time to do a real post this week with pictures and stuff!

Book Report

It has not been a great month for reading. I guess there is too much else going on right now.

I did try to read "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn. It wasn't what I was looking for. It turned out to be more of a story than a how-to book. That's what I was looking for so I've decided not to read this right now.

I did, however, read an ebook, "Dave Ramsey's Guide to Budgeting". That was very good. It made me actually want to start budgeting. We're small business owners so we never know how much money we are going to have coming in (or going out) but he had suggestions for that also. I don't see us doing the envelope system but if we start with the budgeting, maybe that will make more sense down the road.

The Flu, Skiing, and Cleaning

Told ya this month was going to be hectic...

Two weeks ago about half the family (the boys) had the flu. The younger girl got it a little bit but the older one and I did not. Yay!

Everyone was better in time to go on our vacation though. We went skiing last week.

This week has been a blur of trying to get everyone caught up on homework that was missed due to illness and/or vacation. I think just the little guy is left. We did quite a bit last night but then he just was fed up with it so, hopefully, we'll get it finished tonight. Or maybe not since I'm working. Maybe this weekend then.

Next week my husband and I are going out of town again for a business conference and the Grandmas will be running the place. So I need to get to the store this weekend and stock up for them.

The good news is: We got home late last Friday from skiing and I got everything out of the suitcases and in laundry piles or in the kids' baskets to be put away on Saturday. I did not get the laundry all done as I still had to go get the dog from boarding and take the older girl to her basketball game. Then Sunday I had to work. I did get the laundry done on Monday but just getting everything unpacked and the bags put away the next day counts as a SUCCESS for me!

Also, my mother-in-law's tv quit working on her. The only reason this is good is that meant we brought the one up from downstairs (which really hadn't been used for months) and that left the entertainment center down there free for us to bring to our living room. So Monday I also transferred all our electronic components from our old, crappy entertainment stand to the nicer, bigger one! Apparently, I even got all the speakers hooked up correctly! What a pain in the tushy, that was. All total, it took me a couple of hours. That includes vacuuming and revacuuming and dusting and moving. Then I even went thru all our dvd's and rearranged those and dusted the shelves and vacuumed under those shelves. It looks nice now though. Except I have a small pile of dvd's that we've replaced with BluRays just sitting on the top of one of the shelves. I don't like to just get rid of those without my husband's ok since he is the dvd person.

Tuesday I finished vacuuming the rest of the place. Which wouldn't be newsworthy except I had to change the bag in the middle of doing that and while I was changing the bag, something came up that I had to go take care of right away. When I went back to the vacuum I just turned it on and ~POOF~ all the dust shot out at me because I had forgotten to put another bag on first so I got to vacuum that area again. That was lovely. The dog just sat and looked at me like I was a moron.

Wednesday, I worked in my downstairs office all day. I cleared off the desk, scanned just a few things, uploaded a couple of cd's onto the computer. But the main thing I did was set up a mail center. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. I'm very proud. It's not pretty but I'm HOPING it works. I despise mail and I need this to work!

Check the Dates!

Last night I made grilled cheese sandwiches. I was going to have tomato soup (out of a can ~ sorry!) for one of the kids and me and chicken noodle soup for the others. Unfortunately, when I opened the can of tomato soup and poured it into the bowl, the soup was a brownish color. Yuck! Not at all what I was hoping for.

So I looked at the date stamped on the can - "2008!" What! I knew we didn't eat canned soup all that often, but  I swear I've cleaned out the pantry many, many times! I just don't think I thought to look at the dates on the soup cans. Normally, I'm just organizing what I have.

So cleaning out the pantry just got moved up to a higher priority! I'm also going to inventory everything and do a freezer/pantry challenge to get things eaten up. You know ~ BEFORE they go bad.

January

It seems as though January is going to be more of a holding pattern for me than a time to get much done. I had high hopes of doing some of the organizing challenges I see on other blogs but it seems that is not to be. I am getting ideas though and, hopefully!, in February I can start working on these things.

This January will be spent traveling or, in the case of this week, running the store while my husband travels to help out his mother.

I did get the Christmas tree down last week and the kids and I managed to get all the Christmas clutter and other toys out of the living room. The girls and I rearranged their room by taking the bunk beds apart. Now they desperately need some storage solutions in there because I had to remove a bookshelf to make room for the second bed. I've got the plans drawn up for that ~ I just need some time to actually work on getting it done! But, for now, I am working at the store every day until 7pm, then putting the kids to bed, and probably will just have the energy to keep the house from getting crazy messy. In fact, that is my goal for these 4 days my hubby will be gone ~ just maintain. I am not going to start on any projects now because I know I will not have the time required or the energy/patience to do it right. I will just want to get it done and over with. And I really want to do it well so I will grant myself some slack right now and just maintain until this month is over. Hopefully, February will not be quite so busy for us.

Book Report

Last year was my year for reading again. I used to love reading as a child but since I had kids, my own reading has been very limited and sporadic. So I made a conscious effort to restart the habit. Goodreads is a great website to help keep track of both the books I read and the ones I want to read! 2012 was basically a year for fluff ~ easy-to-read, not-too-stimulating, quick reads. Actually, no book is "quick" for me anymore, but you get the idea. I was just trying to get back into the habit and the joy of reading.

However, while I still intend to read fluff in 2013, I have decided to try and implement some 'real' books. Non-fiction, make-you-think books. Preferably ones that can help me out somehow in my my life goals. Books that have ideas that I may want to refer back to. Most of my books I get from the library so I will make my notes here...



"The Five Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, MD

Description from their website: To be their best, children need to feel loved. But if you and your child speak different love languages, your affection might get lost in translation, affecting the child’s attitude, behavior, and development. Dr. Gary Chapman’s groundbreaking Five Love Languages series has helped millions of couples communicate love more clearly, and Dr. Ross Campbell M.D. has applied the innovative system to children as well. The 5 Love Languages of Children gives practical suggestions for learning how your children interpret love and creating a sense of security in which they can thrive.

I really did like this book. In fact, I may go ahead and buy myself a copy to keep around. And I hope to implement some of the suggestions the authors' recommend. I also intend to read some of their other books. 

Basically, the five love languages are: Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, and Acts of Service. The definitions are pretty much what you would expect them to be. The premise is one of these languages is your child's MAIN love language and the one that will fill up their "love tank." Though you need to use ALL of the languages, you should concentrate on making sure you use the MAIN one often enough to satisfy their need for it. Also, when disciplining them, don't use the MAIN one as punishment.

There is also a chapter on anger - specifically how to teach them to manage it. This one will be hard for me. I don't think I'm that great at managing my own anger. Also, I spent several year in a state of depression (not clinical) and one thing I read later was that women who are depressed tend to shy away from confrontation and I can tell I haven't gotten over that particular symptom so dealing with my children's anger in a calm, rational way is going to be very, very difficult for me. (This is why I may buy this book, so I can refer back to this chapter!)

In the back of the book, they give you action plans for each love language as well as other things. Physical Touch I can handle. Words of Affirmation may be hard but I think I can do it. Quality Time will be tricky just because I never seem to have enough time for anything. One thing it recommends is to spend one hour a week with each child. Well, I have 4 children ~ however, I'm going to make this a goal for this year but I'm going to start out with every 2 weeks and see how it goes. Gifts ~ this one bothers me for some reason. Maybe just because I'm trying to get rid of inconsequential clutter? Maybe I don't want them to be spoiled and expect gifts for every occasion? I don't know but I'm afraid one of my children may have this as her main love language so we'll see how it goes. Acts of Service I think I have down. I actually need to start training the children in some of these things so they can become fully functioning adults. Luckily, there is always something you can do for somebody to make them feel loved.

How to determine each child's love language will be the trick. I need to keep track of the ways they express love to me and other people. Keep track of what they ask for. Look at any patterns of complaints. I can also give them "either/or" questions to try and determine which love language fits them best. 

Here's where I guess my kids' love languages now and, hopefully, in a few weeks I will either confirm or correct them:

13-year-old boy: Physical touch
9-year-old girl: she's hard but I think Quality Time
7-year-old girl: Gifts or Words of Affirmation
5-year-old boy: may be too young to tell yet (according to the book) but I'm going with Quality Time for now



Oh! ~ just saw there are free "study guides" on their website. Going to have to check these out!

Coffee Fudge

We recently had "Thank-mas" at my Mom & Dad's house.

I brought some "Coffee Fudge" that I made for the first time. My younger daugher (the one who likes almost everything) and I really liked it. Everybody else wanted regular old fudge. Oh, well...here's the recipe anyway. I got this from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.

Coffee Fudge

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1- 5 ounce can evaporated milk
• 12 large marshmallows, cut into pieces (or use 120 mini marshmallows)
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

1. Line a loaf pan with foil and grease. Set aside. (You can also use an 8×8 pan lined with foil.)
2. In a pan combine sugar, butter, coffee granules, salt, milk, and marshmallows.
3. Bring to a boil and continue cooking over medium high heat until it reaches soft ball stage, which is 234 degrees, on a candy thermometer. You will need to stir this to keep it from burning.
4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and chocolate chips until melted.
5. Pour mixture into lined loaf pan. Cool completely or overnight and let cut into squares.

Easy Manicotti

I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com.
Everybody in this house LOVES this recipe.

1 pound ground hamburger or sausage
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (16 oz) jar spaghetti sauce
12 manicotti shells
Italian seasoning & ground pepper (to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add manicotti shells to boiling water & cook about 8-10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Brown the hamburger or sausage; drain and keep hot.

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, 1 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning, pepper, and the hamburger/sausage.

Stuff noodles with cheese and hamburger/sausage mixture; place in 13x9 baking dish. Pour sauce over top of noodles and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Thin Egg Pancakes

We love thin pancakes at my house. (Except for my husband, who detests almost all things breakfasty.) I got this recipe from "Taste of Home's 2000 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes" (page 137) cookbook which I got from AAL.

I need to remember to DOUBLE this recipe the next time I make it.

----------------------------

5 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
Salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add milk. Stir in flour and sugar just until blended. Add butter, salt, and pepper. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into a hot greased 8-in skillet. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove and keep warm. Repeat.

Yield: 1 dozen

Parmesan Chicken

This recipe comes from "Taste of Home's 1999 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes" (page 78) cookbook.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cub grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Flatten chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and basil. In another bowl, beat the egg. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with crumb mixture. In a large skillet, brown chicken in butter and oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.

Yield: 4 servings

Super Easy Nachos

This is my own recipe! I know ~ amazing, right?!

Fajita Meat - you can get it in a bag at Sam's
Tostitos Scoops
Cheddar Cheese

First, cook the meat (microwave will work but I prefer the skillet).

While that's cooking, lay out your chips on a microwave-safe plate (or cookie sheet, if using oven.)

Cut the meat into small enough sections to fit inside a chip and put a piece in each chip.

Shred the cheese over the chips.

Cook in microwave for 30+ seconds until cheese is melted. You can also put it in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted ~ less than 5 minutes! I prefer it in the oven.

Yyyyuuuummmm!

You can also put refried beans in the chips before microwaving.
And, of course, you can also add salsa after.

Speedy Southwest Salad

1 pkg (10 oz) ready-to-serve salad greens
1 can (15 oz) whole kernal corn, drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup picante sauce
1 cup broken tortilla chips
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced tomatoes

Place greens in large salad bowl. Top with corn and beans.

In a small bowl, combine the salad dressing and picante sauce; spoon over vegetables.

Sprinkle with tortilla chips, cheese, and tomatoes.

Serve immediately.

(6 servings)
___________________

I have no idea where I got this recipe but Steffi and I both like it.
No one else will try it. Wimps.

It makes quite a lot so I normally only make this when we go to a pot luck.

But, really, I could eat this every week!

UPDATE: I got this recipe from TASTE OF HOME.

Recipe - Lasagna

I found this recipe on the back of the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Grain Lasagna noodle box and modified it slightly. We love the whole grain noodles!

1 lb ground beef

3 cups (26 oz) spaghetti sauce

1 1/2 cups water

1 3/4 cups ricotta or cottage cheese

2 cups (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I use Sam's Italian 4-cheese blend)

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 boxes Ronzoni lasagna, uncooked (the recipe calls for 9 noodles but I end up using just over a box)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown meat; drain. Add spaghetti sauce and water; simmer about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together ricotta, 1 cup mozarella, Parmesan, eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Pour about 1 cup sauce mixture into bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Arrange UNCOOKED pasta pieces over sauce (I make sure to cover the entire surface with the lasagna); cover with 1 cup sauce. Spread one-half cheese filling over sauce. Repeat layers of lasagna, sauce, and cheese filling. Top with layer of lasagna and remaining sauce; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil; bake another 10 minutes.

Let lasagna stand 10 minutes before cutting.