Lily and Grace are about a month into their 2nd grade and Kindergarten school years. They're both at the same school, which is exciting. There's only one school events calendar to keep track of, and they get to ride the bus together in the mornings.
Lily and Grace are such different kids, though. Lily is outgoing and makes friends easily. She's never been shy, and has no problem joining in and having fun wherever she is. Grace, on the other hand, while friendly and talkative, fancies herself as shy. I mean, I guess if you think you're shy, then you are shy. I guess that's how that works. I try to convince her that if she just goes ahead and talks to people, then she won't be shy and she'll make friends. No dice. Last year in preschool, Grace had one friend: Gwen. If Gwen didn't want to play with her at recess, Grace just moped around. I was a little concerned going into this year because unlike last year when Grace was already friends with Gwen before school, Grace didn't know anybody in her class this year. I've never wondered if Lily would make friends (only if she'd make friends with nice kids instead of hooligans), but with Grace, it's a concern.
So every day I ask Grace about her day at school. I ask what she learned in class, if she went to art or library or PE, and I ask who she played with on the playground. Every day she tells me that she played with Lily on the playground. I ask if she's made any friends in her class, and she says she hasn't because she's too shy. We talk about how to make friends, and how it's important to have friends in one's own grade, but every day it's the same story: she plays with Lily every recess.
This has kind of been weighing on my mind more and more as the school year goes on. How do I teach Grace to make friends? She's such a sensitive girl, and if someone hurts her feelings, it pushes her more into her shell. The funny thing is that she is a loud, talkative, fun, silly girl. Who wouldn't want to be her friend? But she won't talk to anybody and meet anybody. Worry worry worry. It's a mother's lot in life.
The other day, my concern reached a point that I decided to ask Lily about it. I asked her if she really does play with Grace every recess, and she said she does. I asked what she thought of going to the same school as her little sister, and her answer was an unequivocal, "I LOVE IT!!!!" Lily doesn't mind sharing her friends with Grace during morning recess! Lily loves getting to see and play with her sister every day! Why wouldn't she? They're best friends!
I breathed a sigh of relief. You know, we're still going to revisit this "making friends" topic with Grace. It's a skill she needs to learn, and she needs to learn that she doesn't have to be shy, and that people really will like her. But for now, I'm happy that she has a nice playmate at recess, whose parents we even happen to know. They're kind of weirdos, but they raise nice kids!
Monday, October 12, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
Josephine Eleanor Klein
Just over four months ago, the Klein Family was completed with a brand new bundle of joy named JoJo. Why has it taken me four months to blog about it? I'll go into more detail in another blog, but it has to do with a new house and lack of internet until today. (Future JoJo, if you're reading this, you should feel honored that my first act upon gaining internet access was to blog about your birth. Ok, full disclosure: I did a little celebratory Facebook status update first...but NOW I'm blogging about your birth!)
The week before JoJo was born, I went to the doctor. I was dilated to 4cm, and Ronda stripped my membranes and told me she wouldn't be surprised to see me that night. She didn't see me that night. The next week, I went to see the midwife on a Tuesday, and this time I was dilated to 5cm and almost completely effaced. Ronda stripped my membranes again and wished me luck.
Very early the next morning, around 3:30, I awoke to that familiar feeling of my water about to break. I hopped up and ran to the bathroom, and my water broke! Woo hoo! Now let's back up. All my previous labors have been sooooo sloooow, and I *hated* having to be at the hospital for hour and hours, hooked up to the machines (for reference, from the time my water broke, my labors were 46, 18, and 16 hours long). So this time around, I was GBS negative, which meant hat I didn't have to take prophylactic antibiotics, and was allowed to labor at home, instead of having to go to the hospital. So when my water broke, I woke up Jim and we did a little happy dance. Then we decided that we'd go back to sleep, and call for back up in the morning.
Jim put some towels down on the bed, and we went back to "sleep". Yeah...we were way too excited to sleep. After an hour, I'd had a few contractions, so I decided to shower and get the day going. While I was in the shower, I had three decent contractions where I had to stop and breathe. I don't take that long of showers, so they must have been somewhat close together. Jim called Katrina to come sleep at our house so we could go to the hospital. By the time she got there and we were heading out the door, it was about 6:00, and the contractions were pretty strong. So strong that I remember yelling at Jim for something, and then feeling slightly embarrassed that I snapped at him within earshot of Katrina. But then I thought, "Meh, Katrina loves me. Jim loves me. And women in labor get a free pass! Woo hoo!"
On the way to the hospital, I cursed the shocks on Jim's car. And Jim's driving ability. Why was every road so BUMPY!? Why did he have to brake so HARD!? Curses! Jim dropped me off to check in at the ER. Some well-meaning folks waiting in the ER saw that I was in labor and were excited for me. They expressed their excitement by asking me a million questions about my pregnancy. I probably wasn't very nice to them. Thank goodness for the free pass to be crabby while you're in labor! My contractions were pretty intense and pretty close together while I was checking in, but luckily Jim showed up and answered all the questions for me.
We headed up to the maternity ward, and met our nurse. By this time it was about 6:15. My water had only broken 3 hours ago, but I was in pretty heavy labor. In previous labors, my contractions were few and far between after only 3 hours. When I got settled into my room, Katy the midwife checked me and I was dilated to 7. I was really having to breathe through the contractions, and wasn't very comfortable laying down, so I did a lot of laboring standing up, leaning against Jim. At around 8:45, I felt like I needed to push. The nurse asked the midwife if I needed to be checked, and the midwife said that if I felt like I needed to push, then they should trust my body. So push we did!
I think because the whole thing happened so quickly (just under 6 hours from when my water broke to when JoJo was born!) I wasn't quite mentally prepared to push a baby out. So for a while, I kind of dwaddled and didn't give it my all. Apparently Jim noticed that the baby wasn't coming, and he started to worry, which affected his queasy stomach, and at some point he turned white as a sheet and nearly fainted. He sat for a minute, and the nurse got him some chocolate, and he was back in the game. Eventually I realized that if I got serious about it, I could get her out, and those painful contractions would STOP! So I pushed and pushed, and suddenly she was crowning!! And then everything stopped. Katy said that with the next push, I'd push her out and she'd be born. So go ahead and push her out. Any time. Whenever you have a contraction. Just go right ahead. Go on and push her out....any time now. After my contractions being on top of one another, they fully stopped for several minutes. Riiiiight as she was crowning. Mercifully, they eventually started again, and at 9:13am on February 25th, 2015, Josephine Eleanor Klein was born! She weighed 9lb8oz (actually just barely under 8oz, but they rounded up) and she was as adorable as she could be!
I spent the night in the hospital and went home around 9:30 the next morning. Then, two and a half weeks later, we moved! But that's a story for another blog!
The week before JoJo was born, I went to the doctor. I was dilated to 4cm, and Ronda stripped my membranes and told me she wouldn't be surprised to see me that night. She didn't see me that night. The next week, I went to see the midwife on a Tuesday, and this time I was dilated to 5cm and almost completely effaced. Ronda stripped my membranes again and wished me luck.
Very early the next morning, around 3:30, I awoke to that familiar feeling of my water about to break. I hopped up and ran to the bathroom, and my water broke! Woo hoo! Now let's back up. All my previous labors have been sooooo sloooow, and I *hated* having to be at the hospital for hour and hours, hooked up to the machines (for reference, from the time my water broke, my labors were 46, 18, and 16 hours long). So this time around, I was GBS negative, which meant hat I didn't have to take prophylactic antibiotics, and was allowed to labor at home, instead of having to go to the hospital. So when my water broke, I woke up Jim and we did a little happy dance. Then we decided that we'd go back to sleep, and call for back up in the morning.
Jim put some towels down on the bed, and we went back to "sleep". Yeah...we were way too excited to sleep. After an hour, I'd had a few contractions, so I decided to shower and get the day going. While I was in the shower, I had three decent contractions where I had to stop and breathe. I don't take that long of showers, so they must have been somewhat close together. Jim called Katrina to come sleep at our house so we could go to the hospital. By the time she got there and we were heading out the door, it was about 6:00, and the contractions were pretty strong. So strong that I remember yelling at Jim for something, and then feeling slightly embarrassed that I snapped at him within earshot of Katrina. But then I thought, "Meh, Katrina loves me. Jim loves me. And women in labor get a free pass! Woo hoo!"
On the way to the hospital, I cursed the shocks on Jim's car. And Jim's driving ability. Why was every road so BUMPY!? Why did he have to brake so HARD!? Curses! Jim dropped me off to check in at the ER. Some well-meaning folks waiting in the ER saw that I was in labor and were excited for me. They expressed their excitement by asking me a million questions about my pregnancy. I probably wasn't very nice to them. Thank goodness for the free pass to be crabby while you're in labor! My contractions were pretty intense and pretty close together while I was checking in, but luckily Jim showed up and answered all the questions for me.
We headed up to the maternity ward, and met our nurse. By this time it was about 6:15. My water had only broken 3 hours ago, but I was in pretty heavy labor. In previous labors, my contractions were few and far between after only 3 hours. When I got settled into my room, Katy the midwife checked me and I was dilated to 7. I was really having to breathe through the contractions, and wasn't very comfortable laying down, so I did a lot of laboring standing up, leaning against Jim. At around 8:45, I felt like I needed to push. The nurse asked the midwife if I needed to be checked, and the midwife said that if I felt like I needed to push, then they should trust my body. So push we did!
I think because the whole thing happened so quickly (just under 6 hours from when my water broke to when JoJo was born!) I wasn't quite mentally prepared to push a baby out. So for a while, I kind of dwaddled and didn't give it my all. Apparently Jim noticed that the baby wasn't coming, and he started to worry, which affected his queasy stomach, and at some point he turned white as a sheet and nearly fainted. He sat for a minute, and the nurse got him some chocolate, and he was back in the game. Eventually I realized that if I got serious about it, I could get her out, and those painful contractions would STOP! So I pushed and pushed, and suddenly she was crowning!! And then everything stopped. Katy said that with the next push, I'd push her out and she'd be born. So go ahead and push her out. Any time. Whenever you have a contraction. Just go right ahead. Go on and push her out....any time now. After my contractions being on top of one another, they fully stopped for several minutes. Riiiiight as she was crowning. Mercifully, they eventually started again, and at 9:13am on February 25th, 2015, Josephine Eleanor Klein was born! She weighed 9lb8oz (actually just barely under 8oz, but they rounded up) and she was as adorable as she could be!
I spent the night in the hospital and went home around 9:30 the next morning. Then, two and a half weeks later, we moved! But that's a story for another blog!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Life Update: Mysterious Ways
Well here I sit FINALLY blogging after a 10 month absence. There's no big reason I haven't blogged in a long time, but a lot of little ones add up. One reason is that I certainly do have a lot of little ones running around. Also, I had some problems uploading photos for a while. Then once I missed one event, I felt like I had to blog about that before I could move onto current events. Eventually the pile up of happenings was so insurmountable, I figured I'd have to just skip them altogether and start over. So maybe I'll post a 2014 photo recap at some point. Who knows.
Ever since we moved to Hayden, we've wanted to eventually move into our "forever home". We called our current house a 5-10 year house, and always had our eye on the housing market. In May of 2014, we found The Perfect House. It's in Dalton Gardens, and has tons of main floor living, and it's situated on an acre lot. I could go on and on about its amenities, but suffice to say it's just right for us. So we put an offer on it, contingent upon selling our house, and then we scrambled to get our house market-ready. We rented a storage unit, and packed up boxes and boxes of odds and ends, and spiffed up our house to go on the market. Our summer was spent showing the house, and keeping it clean, between visiting camp, hosting a foreign exchange student, having house guests, and traveling to Connecticut.
Oh, and another big life event happened this summer: We found out we are expecting baby #4. At this point, her arrival is immanent! I'm 35 weeks along, and hopefully Josephine Eleanor Klein will make her debut on or about March 1st. So this summer during all these going ons, I was also as sick as a dog with morning sickness.
Well, our house wasn't selling, and the one in Dalton Gardens was just too lovely, and was purchased by someone else before we were able to sell our house. We kept our house on the market a bit longer, but we never found another house we liked as much, so we decided to sit tight for a couple of years.
Around September, I actually met the lady who bought our Dream House. Her daughter goes to the same school where Grace is going to preschool, and we met at school registration. As it turns out, they don't like the house that much. They bought it because they had a particular family situation where they needed a main floor guest bedroom, and since that house fit the bill, they bought it. Well, the family situation ended up changing, and now they're in this huge house with just one kiddo, and it's just too big for them. I found out that they planned on selling it after two years (to avoid being taxed on profit, I think.) So we figured we'd wait around for a couple of years, and who knows, maybe we'd still have a chance to buy our dream house.
But sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways, and he certainly did so this weekend. My friend, Kim Borsheim, who was our real estate agent when we bought our rental house, called me up to see if we were still interested in selling our house, and if we'd want to show it. She had a buyer who she thought would love our house. Our house was nowhere near show ready, in fact, we'd just emptied out our storage unit the week before, and had boxes everywhere! But we cleaned up a bit, and figured, "what the heck! Might as well!" Well, as it turned out, they loved the house and made an offer! We signed the papers last night and are under contract. We'll close mid-March, and they're letting us rent it through May 15, which is MUCH better than having to pack up and move while simultaneously having a baby!
So now we need to talk to the family who lives in our Dream House to see if they'd be willing to sell us their house before the two year mark, otherwise we'll find somewhere to rent for a while until either they're ready to sell our Dream House, or we find a better Dream House (unlikely).
It's funny because we've thought and prayed about this house thing for a long time now, and we've pursued a few different avenues that haven't worked out. We figured God might be leading us elsewhere, but it's looking like God had a plan that was just a little different than our plan!
It looks like 2015 will be a year of changes. A new sweet baby will be arriving in a few weeks, and our housing situation will change, but is still yet to be determined! So pray for smooth transitions and good decisions on our part!
Ever since we moved to Hayden, we've wanted to eventually move into our "forever home". We called our current house a 5-10 year house, and always had our eye on the housing market. In May of 2014, we found The Perfect House. It's in Dalton Gardens, and has tons of main floor living, and it's situated on an acre lot. I could go on and on about its amenities, but suffice to say it's just right for us. So we put an offer on it, contingent upon selling our house, and then we scrambled to get our house market-ready. We rented a storage unit, and packed up boxes and boxes of odds and ends, and spiffed up our house to go on the market. Our summer was spent showing the house, and keeping it clean, between visiting camp, hosting a foreign exchange student, having house guests, and traveling to Connecticut.
Oh, and another big life event happened this summer: We found out we are expecting baby #4. At this point, her arrival is immanent! I'm 35 weeks along, and hopefully Josephine Eleanor Klein will make her debut on or about March 1st. So this summer during all these going ons, I was also as sick as a dog with morning sickness.
Well, our house wasn't selling, and the one in Dalton Gardens was just too lovely, and was purchased by someone else before we were able to sell our house. We kept our house on the market a bit longer, but we never found another house we liked as much, so we decided to sit tight for a couple of years.
Around September, I actually met the lady who bought our Dream House. Her daughter goes to the same school where Grace is going to preschool, and we met at school registration. As it turns out, they don't like the house that much. They bought it because they had a particular family situation where they needed a main floor guest bedroom, and since that house fit the bill, they bought it. Well, the family situation ended up changing, and now they're in this huge house with just one kiddo, and it's just too big for them. I found out that they planned on selling it after two years (to avoid being taxed on profit, I think.) So we figured we'd wait around for a couple of years, and who knows, maybe we'd still have a chance to buy our dream house.
But sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways, and he certainly did so this weekend. My friend, Kim Borsheim, who was our real estate agent when we bought our rental house, called me up to see if we were still interested in selling our house, and if we'd want to show it. She had a buyer who she thought would love our house. Our house was nowhere near show ready, in fact, we'd just emptied out our storage unit the week before, and had boxes everywhere! But we cleaned up a bit, and figured, "what the heck! Might as well!" Well, as it turned out, they loved the house and made an offer! We signed the papers last night and are under contract. We'll close mid-March, and they're letting us rent it through May 15, which is MUCH better than having to pack up and move while simultaneously having a baby!
So now we need to talk to the family who lives in our Dream House to see if they'd be willing to sell us their house before the two year mark, otherwise we'll find somewhere to rent for a while until either they're ready to sell our Dream House, or we find a better Dream House (unlikely).
It's funny because we've thought and prayed about this house thing for a long time now, and we've pursued a few different avenues that haven't worked out. We figured God might be leading us elsewhere, but it's looking like God had a plan that was just a little different than our plan!
It looks like 2015 will be a year of changes. A new sweet baby will be arriving in a few weeks, and our housing situation will change, but is still yet to be determined! So pray for smooth transitions and good decisions on our part!
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Lily and Clementine's Birthday Party
This year, Lily and Clementine agreed to having a combined birthday party. Well, really Lily just agreed, and CC wouldn't know the difference either way. I think I'm supposed to feel guilty about combining birthdays, but I don't really care! Clementine probably just wouldn't have gotten a party otherwise, so including her was good! We went to Funtastics for their party again this year, which was where we had Lily's 3rd birthday party. The kids had a ton of fun running around the gym equipment, and we only had a few crash and burns!
The kids got instructions on gym etiquette before they were let loose. I think maybe one of them is paying attention.
They started playing some games to get the kids used to the equipment. Here's birthday girl #1.
And the big 6 year old!
Party people!
The obstacle course begins!
The foam pit was much loved, and much hated. It was a lot of work for little bodies to get out!
Clementine about to go down the slide into the second foam pit.
Grace landing in the foam.
All the kids watching Lily who is about to go up in the big bungee jumper.
Weeee!!
I was surprised at how brave Clementine was going on this!
Grace's turn!
Time for cake!
Mommy and the birthday girl.
Lily opening gifts. They did their gifts at the same time, and I was down helping Clementine, so I had no idea what Lily got until we got home. It was madness!
Well, there you have it. We have a 2 year old and a 6 year old now! Happy Birthday, sweet girls!
The kids got instructions on gym etiquette before they were let loose. I think maybe one of them is paying attention.
They started playing some games to get the kids used to the equipment. Here's birthday girl #1.
And the big 6 year old!
Party people!
The obstacle course begins!
The foam pit was much loved, and much hated. It was a lot of work for little bodies to get out!
Clementine about to go down the slide into the second foam pit.
Grace landing in the foam.
Weeee!!
I was surprised at how brave Clementine was going on this!
Grace's turn!
Time for cake!
Mommy and the birthday girl.
Lily opening gifts. They did their gifts at the same time, and I was down helping Clementine, so I had no idea what Lily got until we got home. It was madness!
Well, there you have it. We have a 2 year old and a 6 year old now! Happy Birthday, sweet girls!
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Clementine Turns TWO!
My sweet baby Clementine is TWO years old, and I can't believe it! Well, I kind of can because she certainly acts two! She has her opinions, and lets them be known to all. She has the best angry face of any kid I've ever met, and she uses it to let you know what's up! She also has the best smile ever, and uses it far more often! She talks All. The. Time. There's not a thing this girl can't and won't say. She asks questions, answers questions, tells stories, tells you what she wants. There is no question how Clementine feels about anything. She stormy, and she's sunshine.
Clementine loves to help. Really, she insists on helping me with everything. She's not terribly patient when I try to find a part of the project she can help with, and has taken to stomping her foot to get her point across. We may have to work on that. But she has a good heart, and really does want to help out...and have fun! She's a cuddly girl who loves her Mama, Daddy, and sisters. When she wakes up, she usually asks where all the family members are and what they're doing. When we get in the car to go somewhere, she asks me about 400 times where we're going. Apparently her short-term memory isn't fully developed. She loves to go on adventures, and do whatever her big sisters are doing! She'll eat anything, and do anything, and loves everyone (when she feels like it).
Clementine is a hilarious bundle of joy, and we are so glad she is in her family! Happy Birthday, Clementine! We love you!
Clementine had a short cord, and it took them a while to cut it. In the mean time, it was too short for them to turn her so I could see her face, and it felt like forever until I got to see her!
Daddy loving on his new baby girl!
Her sisters loved her from the start!
What a beautiful bright-eyed baby!
Christmas jammies!
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Loving the stairs on her first birthday!
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First birthday party with her (almost) birthday buddy, Mylea!
Easter with cousin Madison!
Goofy kid crawling while I'm trying to take her picture!
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My pumpkin girl!
Happy birthday Clementine Sue Ellen Klein!! We love our little super girl!
Clementine loves to help. Really, she insists on helping me with everything. She's not terribly patient when I try to find a part of the project she can help with, and has taken to stomping her foot to get her point across. We may have to work on that. But she has a good heart, and really does want to help out...and have fun! She's a cuddly girl who loves her Mama, Daddy, and sisters. When she wakes up, she usually asks where all the family members are and what they're doing. When we get in the car to go somewhere, she asks me about 400 times where we're going. Apparently her short-term memory isn't fully developed. She loves to go on adventures, and do whatever her big sisters are doing! She'll eat anything, and do anything, and loves everyone (when she feels like it).
Clementine is a hilarious bundle of joy, and we are so glad she is in her family! Happy Birthday, Clementine! We love you!
Clementine had a short cord, and it took them a while to cut it. In the mean time, it was too short for them to turn her so I could see her face, and it felt like forever until I got to see her!
Daddy loving on his new baby girl!
Her sisters loved her from the start!
What a beautiful bright-eyed baby!
Christmas jammies!
Loving the stairs on her first birthday!
First birthday party with her (almost) birthday buddy, Mylea!
Easter with cousin Madison!
Goofy kid crawling while I'm trying to take her picture!
My pumpkin girl!
Helping make her birthday cake! (She calls a cape a "superhero" and is always wanting to be a superhero.)
Happy birthday Clementine Sue Ellen Klein!! We love our little super girl!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Recipe Reviews
Yup, I'm a slacker. It's been two months since I blogged. I keep thinking I need to post pictures of Halloween and Christmas, but I don't have much time, and those kinds of blogs are the least fun to write, so I just haven't buckled down and done it. And I'm not going to to today!
For the last few years, I've been experimenting with cooking and freezing meals. In the last year, I've found a group of ladies who try to get together once a month to cook and freeze together. One thing we discovered was not cooking, and then freezing. By that, I mean that you just chop up the raw ingredients, freeze them in a ziplock bag, and then when you want to cook the meal, you throw it in the Crock Pot in the morning and have a hot meal in the evening. On Monday, I froze 5 different meals to try out, and I've cooked two of them so far, and I want to review them.
The first one we had was Hawaiian Chicken. Here's the recipe.
I was a little nervous about this one because a friend of mine said she'd tried it and it was really gross. She said the soy sauce overtook the whole flavor, and it was nothing but overly salty. I'm not sure if her recipe was slightly different, or what, but mine didn't turn out salty at all. I wouldn't say it was my favorite recipe ever, but it wasn't too bad. I'd even make it again and try a few modifications.
First of all, I should tell you what modifications I already made. The whole "add this much pineapple and this much pineapple juice" was just too much work, so I just dumped in the whole can of pineapple, juice and all and called it good. Then, when there was about an hour left of cooking, I saw that the sauce was very thin, so I ladled some of it into a bowl, and whisked in a couple tablespoons of corn starch, and added that back to the crock pot to thicken it up. Then I served it over rice. I will admit that the flavor was pretty one-dimensional, and that dimension was TANGY. It's a very tangy dish, but I like that, so I didn't think it was bad. Next time, however, I might add some onion and green pepper chunks (either to the crock pot, or stir-fried at the end). Overall, I liked it though. A nice tangy chicken dish.
What I have in the crock pot for tonight is Beef Burghandy (is that really how you spell it?)
We haven't had supper yet, but I sampled it, and it's really good! I think if I were making it fresh, I'd sear the beef so that it would be braised. But I'm not sure if you're supposed to cook or partially cook food that you freeze, so just freezing the raw beef is fine. This dish is rather yummy and savory and mushroomy. I also added a little corn starch to the broth to make it more gravy-like. If you're not a wine drinker, like me, and you're in the habit of buying cooking wine instead of the real stuff, I'd recommend going for the real stuff on this recipe. The sauce has a strong wine flavor, and it's really delicious, and in my experience, cooking wine doesn't deliver as much as the real stuff.
Lily is signed up for swim lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it's nice to have something in the crock pot when we get home from a late evening of swimming with hungry kiddos. I have three more recipes to try, and I'll review them here. I'm pretty nervous about the chicken curry dish. I love curry, but it had some interesting ingredients!
For the last few years, I've been experimenting with cooking and freezing meals. In the last year, I've found a group of ladies who try to get together once a month to cook and freeze together. One thing we discovered was not cooking, and then freezing. By that, I mean that you just chop up the raw ingredients, freeze them in a ziplock bag, and then when you want to cook the meal, you throw it in the Crock Pot in the morning and have a hot meal in the evening. On Monday, I froze 5 different meals to try out, and I've cooked two of them so far, and I want to review them.
The first one we had was Hawaiian Chicken. Here's the recipe.
I was a little nervous about this one because a friend of mine said she'd tried it and it was really gross. She said the soy sauce overtook the whole flavor, and it was nothing but overly salty. I'm not sure if her recipe was slightly different, or what, but mine didn't turn out salty at all. I wouldn't say it was my favorite recipe ever, but it wasn't too bad. I'd even make it again and try a few modifications.
First of all, I should tell you what modifications I already made. The whole "add this much pineapple and this much pineapple juice" was just too much work, so I just dumped in the whole can of pineapple, juice and all and called it good. Then, when there was about an hour left of cooking, I saw that the sauce was very thin, so I ladled some of it into a bowl, and whisked in a couple tablespoons of corn starch, and added that back to the crock pot to thicken it up. Then I served it over rice. I will admit that the flavor was pretty one-dimensional, and that dimension was TANGY. It's a very tangy dish, but I like that, so I didn't think it was bad. Next time, however, I might add some onion and green pepper chunks (either to the crock pot, or stir-fried at the end). Overall, I liked it though. A nice tangy chicken dish.
What I have in the crock pot for tonight is Beef Burghandy (is that really how you spell it?)
We haven't had supper yet, but I sampled it, and it's really good! I think if I were making it fresh, I'd sear the beef so that it would be braised. But I'm not sure if you're supposed to cook or partially cook food that you freeze, so just freezing the raw beef is fine. This dish is rather yummy and savory and mushroomy. I also added a little corn starch to the broth to make it more gravy-like. If you're not a wine drinker, like me, and you're in the habit of buying cooking wine instead of the real stuff, I'd recommend going for the real stuff on this recipe. The sauce has a strong wine flavor, and it's really delicious, and in my experience, cooking wine doesn't deliver as much as the real stuff.
Lily is signed up for swim lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it's nice to have something in the crock pot when we get home from a late evening of swimming with hungry kiddos. I have three more recipes to try, and I'll review them here. I'm pretty nervous about the chicken curry dish. I love curry, but it had some interesting ingredients!
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Flush With Copious Amounts of Water
Today I was looking for a new notepad, since my grocery list notepad is down to it's last sheet. I never found one, but during my search, I came across some glow sticks. I figured the girls would enjoy playing with some glow sticks, so I got them out and started cracking them open. Unfortunately, my third glow stick blew up in my face. Literally.
I'm no stranger to cracking open glow sticks. In my youth, we'd break them open and splatter the glowing gunk everywhere, so I knew the stuff wasn't going to melt my skin or anything, but this one squirted directly into my eye. It stung a little bit, and I've read enough MSDS's to know that if you get something in your eye, you should flush with copious amounts of water. (In fact, in college, we came across an MSDS for water that said the proper procedure when you got water in your eye was to "flush with copious amounts of water." It seems like you'd get stuck in an endless loop if you did that.)
So I went upstairs and washed my eyes out, and reapplied my mascara.
I was reminded of the eyewash bottles they had in the labs in college. It was a regular eyewash bottle with a picture of a lady on it, who was demonstrating how to use the eyewash bottle. But on her eyewash bottle was a picture of herself demonstrating how to properly use an eyewash bottle. And on that eyewash bottle? You guessed it, another picture of the same lady! It was like an episode of The Twilight Zone. We always laughed about it in college, but I was telling a group of people about it recently, and I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even tell the story. I don't know why.
Anyway, there's really no point to that story except that I need to go to Michael's to get some new magnetic list notepads, I squirted glow stick in my eye, and there's nothing funnier than a good eyewash bottle.
I'm no stranger to cracking open glow sticks. In my youth, we'd break them open and splatter the glowing gunk everywhere, so I knew the stuff wasn't going to melt my skin or anything, but this one squirted directly into my eye. It stung a little bit, and I've read enough MSDS's to know that if you get something in your eye, you should flush with copious amounts of water. (In fact, in college, we came across an MSDS for water that said the proper procedure when you got water in your eye was to "flush with copious amounts of water." It seems like you'd get stuck in an endless loop if you did that.)
So I went upstairs and washed my eyes out, and reapplied my mascara.
I was reminded of the eyewash bottles they had in the labs in college. It was a regular eyewash bottle with a picture of a lady on it, who was demonstrating how to use the eyewash bottle. But on her eyewash bottle was a picture of herself demonstrating how to properly use an eyewash bottle. And on that eyewash bottle? You guessed it, another picture of the same lady! It was like an episode of The Twilight Zone. We always laughed about it in college, but I was telling a group of people about it recently, and I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even tell the story. I don't know why.
Anyway, there's really no point to that story except that I need to go to Michael's to get some new magnetic list notepads, I squirted glow stick in my eye, and there's nothing funnier than a good eyewash bottle.
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