The Balloon Gal's Blog

You know we like to get creative with our celebrating.

When planning St. Patrick's Day dinner, I asked my husband for suggestions. Thinking about cabbages, potatoes, he said what sounded good was stuffed cabbage. Mmmm.

At the time, I was listening to an audiobook set in Ireland, and they kept mentioning brown bread. So I figured brown bread would be good and a side of onion roasted potatoes.

As I was looking for a recipe for brown bread, I found one for German Brown Bread, and the creativity light bulb came on. 

So for St. Patrick's Day, we had Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, German Brown Bread (recipe from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again), Irish roasted potatoes (onion roasted potatoes but with seasonings you would use in Ireland), and Utah lime green jello with whipped topping (because it's green. We did skip the carrot shaving this time).

For dessert we had Shamrock Shakes (adapted from Jordan Page's A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1).

Yeah. Creativity is fun when it comes to celebrating. 

 

January 31 was both Eat Brussels Sprouts Day and National Hot Chocolate Day.

We didn't have any Brussels Sprouts so I made Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies (from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1) with other vegetables instead. Yumm. Good with Brussels Sprouts. Good without.

Later on, I went to sleep while others in the family had hot chocolate. I obviously didn't get pictures because I was asleep. 

My friend, Stephanie, sent me Hot Chocolate Day greetings and a picture of hot chocolate she enjoyed that day. She knows how to celebrate, too. 

 

Earlier in the day, Lucky went to a friend's birthday party. He helped Jeremy build a balloon sculpture for his friend. His friend had a really good, "Whoah!" reaction when Lucky got to the party. Heh Heh. 

 

I'm thankful I know how to bake and cook. Sometimes the things I bake and cook are simple, sometimes they're more complex.

I'm also thankful for food bloggers and cookbook creators and for the recipes they produce.

French bread rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe are my go to rolls for making sliders.

 

I love A Season of Family Meal Plans (all four volumes) by Jordan Page where I got the recipe for Cheesy Chicken Sliders (in volume 4- Fall).

I'm thankful I've gotten better at learning substitutions in cooking or learning I can just leave things out. Only one pan of the sliders had cheese (based on family preference) and that's okay.

I'm also thankful I don't always have to follow a recipe when throwing dinner together. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad is something everybody in my family will eat.

I made sure to use the garlic and onion spaghetti sauce since November 8 was Bram Stoker's Birthday and Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day. It's tradition to cook with garlic that day. 

Other things we did in October:

Nichole, our friend, and I went to support another friend at her faculty recital. She is a voice teacher at BYU. That was a beautiful event.

 

I was letting a blanket air dry and since it was a big blanket, I spread it across several chairs to create a fort. I thought Jet and I would read books like we've done in the past but Lucky used it for playing a video game and Jet sat on the outside of the fort in a chair while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas because... "this is Halloween."

Jet really wanted to have a lunch in his lunchbox so for dinner one night, I put his dinner in his lunchbox (it's okay, it was a sandwich, etc.) and we set out a picnic towel in the living room. Lucky requested watching The Mandalorian so the kids got to watch that while having their picnic. It's fun. 

I wanted to play MarioKart one night (I don't always get to play video games) and Jet wanted to "help" me. It matters more to have fun time with my little one than to win the races. I love being a mom.

We continued trying recipes from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page with substitutions and adaptations.

Woo hoo! Yay for October. 

We got Jeremy back!

After 2 1/2 weeks away, Jeremy got back from his South Carolina fair on October 22, National Color Day.

Look how cute we are with the different colors we're wearing.

Speaking of colors, I got out that morning for a walk with some colors. 

I also finally wore a bright red shirt I got a while back that says "Bake the World a Better Place." You know I love baking but I'm usually wearing an apron while baking. I finally wore this shirt (and an apron) while baking bread and got my picture with the shirt and the bread.

Jet brought home a cute little "Monster Spring" (that's what he named it) from school so I showed him how it pops and he loved it.

We got multiple colors in our dinner. Creamy Beef Enchiladas from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, by Jordan Page. Because these books are all about this, I saved some of our French Dip meat from when we had French Dip sandwiches while Jeremy was gone (also from that book) to use in the enchiladas. Oh and we substituted a pork roast for a beef roast (substitutions are encouraged). We had a spinach salad side dish.  

Nice celebrating Color Day and the best part of course was getting Jeremy home. I missed him.

While Jeremy was gone to South Carolina, I let the kids request foods they wanted to eat since normally I care more about fixing food Jeremy likes (I do take into consideration my kids, don't get me wrong, but if I think Jeremy will like it, I'm more likely to fix it when he's around).

Nichole loves chicken drumsticks so I made sure to make some for her. 

We had Copycat Crunchwrap Supreme (I had been wanting to make it for weeks but hadn't gotten around to it) from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Lucky loves Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps so we had some, of course, along with woo-woo for FHE treat.

Jr. Jr. helped me with menu planning for October (including using A Season of Family Meal Plans) and one of the things we planned and made was French Dip Sandwiches. Mmmm. I made this last year and liked it and I liked it again this year. 

 

Late night baking. I had some bananas that needed to be used so I made Calico Bread from The Fablehaven Cookbook. The neighbors upstairs texted that it smelled good. The next morning I brought some up to them.  
Also from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4, I made apple cider muffins. It did not take long for them to get gobbled up.

Jr. Jr. really wants to make juggling balls so he and I have been working on that project- making juggling balls for everyone in the family. It's slow going but we'll get there.

Jet heard us talking about making juggling balls and told us he wanted to make "chocolate balls" so one day we made Oreo mint truffles like we did for St. Patrick's Day, except we didn't bother to make them green this time.

Jet is doing well at school so he's been able to pick something from the treasure box a few times. The first thing he brought home was a little water color paint set so I printed out a picture for him to color. He did a good job. 

I still try out new recipes from time to time, some from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page, some from something I see on Instagram by my favorite food bloggers. I made Slow Cooker Loaded Chicken and Potato Casserole from Six Sisters' Stuff and it tasted so good to me. I didn't have whipping cream so I combined some sour cream and milk to get the creaminess (#shelfcooking).  

 

We had an amazing storm one night. I was concerned that my bedroom floor was getting wet. I went outside several times to check the window well. There were pools at the top of the stairs outside and in front of our front door. I checked my bedroom window and realized it was open. Rain was getting in and getting on my floor. Sigh. 
Luckily it dried up quickly after closing the window. I put towels down and kept checking them.

When I went outside in the pouring rain, the lightning and thunder were flashing and booming every few seconds. There was so much of it. 

 

It's amazing how calm the next morning can be after a storm.

 

When Nichole was the last one at home before she started school, she and I got to have some bonding time, going to the library and for a drive up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls this time. 

Who needs pictures of people when you can have pictures of food? 

June 17 Eat Your Vegetables Day

We're still using A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page. Love those cookbooks. We had Sausage Potato Hobo Packs and made cornbread (a recipe I have in a recipe box) for a side dish. Yumm. 

June 18 National Splurge Day

We decided to have a barbecue and spent money on some things for it. We had Polish Sausages and Jeremy brought home some marinated veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, onions) from Marcus' barbecue which we put on skewers and grilled. For dessert we bought waffle cones to make waffle cone s'mores. One of the activities for library Summer Reading was "make something tasty together for a BBQ." A friend stopped by and joined us for a while. It's nice to share.  

June 19 World Tapas Day

We tried some new Spanish appetizers. We had a different version of Pan Con Tomate. We had Orange and Avocado Salad. We had Spanish Garlic Cauliflower. 

June 20 Vanilla Milkshake Day

We had vanilla milkshakes but with chocolate powder and peanut butter in them, so our usual woo-woo drink. I also told people they could make fluffernutter sandwiches with whatever bread they could find since it was the Summer Solstice. We had baguettes left over from our tapas.

June 21 National Selfie Day 

I didn't take any selfies that day. I was planning to celebrate, it just didn't happen. 

June 22 Meryl Streep's Birthday

I wore my bow earrings. I did not wear my pirate ship necklace because I couldn't think of any pirate movies she was in.

June 22 was also National Kissing Day. Jeremy and I celebrated. 

June 23 Detroit Style Pizza Day

Detroit Style Pizza is kind of like upside down pizza. The sauce goes on top after the cheese and toppings. 

June 24 International Fairy Day

We kept it simple with Easy Fairy Folk Tortilla Pizzas from The Fablehaven Cookbook.