Napkins

I have had this fabric for too long. There is a coordinate fabric that goes with it but I don't have much of that left over. It is a beautiful French print actually produced there. I decided it would make great napkins so yesterday I cut and sewed 6 napkins. I still have quite a bit of fabric so maybe I will make them for gifts. I also did some mending, sewed a button on Miss K's jumper, sewed a button on my coat, and sewed up a hem that was coming undone.

Travel Swap

The scrapbook group that I am part of meets once a month and we often have a swap. April's theme is travel. I had some time this afternoon and wanted to see what I could create. I was pleasedwith the outcome. I started with a pocket envelope, then stamped a world map using the watermark pad and then used my fun travel stamps around the edges and then added some hint of colour with my chalks.

I made 12. I think that should be enough for the swap.

Need to Create

Yesterday I was feeling the need to create something. It seemed like life had gotten busy and I had not been doing anything creative. The easiest thing was to do some beading. I had fun with these two pieces. The one is pink and black beads with a bit of silver just perfect for for a pink and black skirt that I have. The other one is just blue seed beads with some other colourful beads that I have. I can always find something to wear with blue.

Carrot Cookies

Today's was the mom's group Easter party. I decided to make some fun cookies for the kids. I think I had about 45 in the box and would you believe I actually brought cookies home. Last night I taught Miss K how to lick the beater. Hey, it is therapy. That is one of the things that we special needs moms do label just about everything "therapy". I can find all kinds of things to buy as long as it is "therapy". Now if I could figure out how to have my scrapbook supplies considered therapy I would be set.

We are working on licking in speech therapy so I thought why not practice at home.

Menu week of March 26

I wrote the menu on Friday and ended up changing things around.

Monday - pizza with the leftover sauce from meatball sandwiches and fresh mushrooms instead of canned since I had those that needed to be eaten.

Tuesday - Chili con corn - I have the tomato sauce leftover from making the spaghetti sauce and everything else.

Wednesday - might be leftovers as I am going for tea with a friend in the afternoon. It is a buffet from 3:30 to 6:00

Thursday - Chicken and pineapple over rice

Friday - Asian beef stew only because we have not had beef for a while and this is one of our favorite beef dishes

Meatball Sandwiches

I was really hungry for a meatball sandwich. It is just a bit too far to run for a good V&S but if I were going for a V&S sandwich I would probably go for a ham and cheese. Anyway, I decided to make meatball sandwiches. First I made the rolls. I just made bread dough and shaped it for the rolls.Then I made the meatballs and added them to the sauce.
They were yummy. Now we have the sauce without meatballs and will have pizza this week for dinner.

Weekly Menu 3/19

We have been eating this week. I am getting back into posting my menu and doing a bit more planning.

Monday - Chicken with peanut sauce and couscous - it was yummy
Tuesday - pork chops, noodles and asparagus
Wednesday - meatball sandwiches
Thursday - enchilada chicken casserole - I am going to use up all the bags of corn chips that we have
Friday - Chili Con corne casserole

This week's meals didn't leave much in leftovers so lunch has to be created. We had quiche and then a few other things that we could find around here.

Pasta with pesto

This is one of our favorite quick meals. It is a combination of a recipe from a missionary friend in Italy and a restaurant entree in Asia.

Cook pasta. After a few minutes of cooking add green beans and cauliflower. Cook until done.
Drain. Mix pesto according to taste preference. Serve. If it is lunch, we just serve ourselves out of the pan.

Crustless Quiche

Yesterday, I tried a new quiche recipe and this is a winner in my book.

Ingredients

4 oz	Bacon
1/2	Yellow onion
6	Eggs
3/4 cup	Cream
2 boxes (10 oz	Each) frozen broccoli or spinach
1/2 pound	Shredded cheese
1/2 t	Salt
1/4 t	Pepper

Preparation

heat oven to 350

Butter a 10" tart pan or 9" deep pie plate, or muffin tin

in large skillet over medium heat cook bacon until crisp. drain on paper towels; coarcely chop.

Remove all but 1 T bacon dripping from skillet. Add onion and cook minutes until softened but not brown.

In large bowl combine eggs, cream, broccoli, cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in bacon and onion.

Pour mixture in prepare pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes (tenting with foil if necessary to prevent over browning) or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before cutting or removing from pan.

I found it here.

As usual, I made some modifications to the recipe. I didn't have any bacon and so I skipped that and fried my onion in a bit of butter. I used spinach and honestly just added some cheddar and Emmental cheese (it is some French cheese with holes).

Bargain Find

The other day I was in the grocery store and saw the Play-Doh Fun Factory and thought it looked neat but wasn't really going to pay the full price for it. They say that Miss K loves playing with play-doh at BSF but the last times she did it at home she ate it.

Well, later I was in the store and saw the crowds of people crowding the clearance bins and look what I found at almost 50 percent off the original price. I grabbed two one for Miss K's birthday and one for my gift box.

The results

It wasn't the best of weeks in a number of ways. Emotional up and downs and my steady husband was halfway around the world. His plane is supposed to land in about an hour and we here are excited.

So I did manage to get rid of probably 60 things. I took a bag of craft things to a friends house which probably had about 20 things in it. I gave lots of paper to two friends who were wanting to start scrapbooking. That was about 20 things. I did get rid of a few other things as well. I have a few things that are sitting here to go to clothing recyle and also to be mailed.

I was going to say that next week was back to normal but we have a staff conference the first few days and then we have Keswick that we want to attend. Oh, and I have been asked to bake for Keswick. I do enjoy baking. I made 9 loaves of banana bread already. They were just little loaves and my freezer is full.

February Results

It is hard to believe that it is the beginning of March already. It is time to reflect on how I am doing on my goals for the year.

Exercise - I found a walking partner. We go out 2 mornings a week. That is good but I still need to find 2 more times a week for some exercise. I really should get back to do Slim in 6.

At the beginning of February I picked a book to read and evaluate if it is worth keeping. I didn't start reading the book until the 26th or maybe even the 27th. I think I ready enough to know that I don't want to keep it. I did read a few good quotes but not enough to keep it on my shelves. I need to find some place where I can donate books.

Using & Reducing fabric and paper - I scrapbooked a total of 20 papers in February which used up some paper. I will confess that I orderd some Asian paper some of which I already have and some which I won't receive for another week so I guess paper is a wash as I used some but I also bought some. I used some fabric and didn't buy anymore even though I was tempted.

I am continuing to have my quiet time in the morning. I am in Romans and Psalms.

February was a good month. We had a big holiday in there and had company for a week. I am looking forward to March.

Carrot Soup

The inspiration for this soup came from a can of Marks & Spencer Carrot and Corriander Soup. Years ago I bought a can and loved the soup. I cut the ingredients off the label and kept that for years in my recipe box. Last year I had leftover chopped carrots. I decided to try to make carrot soup. I went online and looked at a few recipes but didn't find one that reminded me of the Marks & Spencer. But I was able to combine a number of things and come up with a recipe that maybe even tastes better than the Marks & Spencer.

Here is my recipe:

Saute onion in butter

Add chicken broth & chopped up carrots and cilantro

Cook until the carrots are well cooked

Put everything in the blender and puree

Add some whipping cream

Pepper to taste

Here is lunch. It was yummy. Now I am living in a Marks & Spencer city but have decided that I like my own soup better than a can. I do have a can on my shelf that I will need to eat.

100 in 10

We are moving again this year. It is not a simple move across town either but another move overseas. Don't ask where we are moving because we don't know. Knowing that we are moving has moved me to begin the sorting, decluttering, tossing, and basically getting rid of things.

So here it is Bo is traveling for 10 days and during that time I am going to get rid of 100 things. Hey, that is just 10 a day.

The things have to be out of my house. So if I am going to give it to someone, I need to give it to them. If I am mailing it, I need to mail it, etc. I want my house to have 100 less things when he gets home.

This begins on the 1st and ends on the 10th.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I enjoy baking but one of the challenges is if I use my hand mixer I have to mix things in the office. Okay, let me explain. My hand mixer is a 110w and our house is 220 but in the office we have a transformer that is huge and can handle our 110w printer as well as a few other things like my hand mixer. Bo doesn't mind when I use the mixer in there unless he is in the middle of a conference call but going back and forth can be a challenge.

I have a 220w food processor and so I decided to try it to make cookies. It worked. Yeah! I can mix up the cookies in my kitchen.

BBQ at the Beach

I know it sounded like a fun and maybe even a bit exotic to have a BBQ at the beach in February. In many ways it was an event for my husband's work. I will say it was a bit better than I thought. The hot dogs were good as well as the beef. It was a cultural moment.

Menu 2/19

This week is a holiday week and we have company so the menu is a bit flexible depending on what we are doing.

Sunday
Baked Ziti

Monday
Hoppin' Johns which is black beans on rice with lots of toppings eaten with corn chips

Tuesday
BBQ on the beach

Wednesday
Greek Night

Thursday
Lentil & Barley stew

Friday
planning to go out for the day, so we will eat out

Saturday
hmmm need to think of something

Pausing

and thinking. I just found a hotel room that is 200 square feet more than our apartment. Okay, at it costs 200 less a night than we pay in rent for a month.

In a way that is making me think that our apartment is small but in another way I like my small apartment.

Kababs

I have eaten Kababs but never made them before. I might have made them once with my mom on the grill but being totally responsible is something else. It was requested as a birthday meal so I pulled out my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe. We added a bit more in vegetables because we like lots of vegetables.

They were good and were easy to make. I would do it again and put smaller pieces of onion.

Grocery Shopping

Where we used to live I was 5 minutes walk from 2 grocery stores and one outdoor market and a 10 minute walk from the baking/western grocery store. Now I am adjusting to a 20 minute walk to the store and 30 minutes walk back home. It is uphill and I am pushing a stroller with a 20 pound toddler and groceries hanging off it and falling out of the basket (don't tell my father it is over the basket limit.) Oh, that is usually only enough for 3 or 4 days so I do that twice a week. When you include the time in the store it is an hour and half.

This week I tried something new. I ordered my groceries online from the store where I usually shop. I got a cup of coffee and sat down at the computer and clicked away buying canned good, laundry detergent, drinks, fruit, veggies, and even milk. If I ordered by 2pm, I could have delivery the same day between 7-10pm.

It worked great. My groceries were delivered around 9:00. The sad thing was Miss K and I missed sharing the bag of chips on the way home. Oh well, without the walk I can't justify eating them.

They were out of stock on a few items -- Arnott's Mint Slice cookies, Organia, and BottleGreen Cranberry Presse. None of those were really necessary so it wasn't that important.

It was easy. I got everything delivered to my door, and I didn't have to spend the time walking.