Cleaning out the Cupboards

So, I had a whole other post prepared on homemade baby wipes... and decided that I haven't had enough experience with them to fully post. So, I'll be holding off on that... and discussing another topic: Cleaning out the Cupboards. This is not so much a 'go green' tactic as it is a 'save some green' option. Call me lazy, call me poor, call me cheap... call me what you will, but this without a doubt is a great way to save some money every now and then.

How many of you have at least 1/2 a pantry full of non-perishables that at one point or another you bought and just have never used? Cans of this, boxes of that, a freezer full of something... however, even though all of this stuff is in your cabinet, you open your pantry door or freezer and think "I need to go to the store, there's nothing in this house to eat!". We are very guilty of this.

However, every now and then I put my foot down. I insist that whatever is in our cabinets will be eaten before I make another trip to the grocery store. This means mixing random ingredients to make a baked good of some sort, getting creative with dinner or snacking in new and interesting ways. I can pretty much guarantee that hiding in your cupboards is at least a meal or two (probably 3 or 4 - or more).

Just recently, we went at least a week on having 'nothing' in our cabinets. We had a little bit of meat in the freezer that we mixed with random ingredients, often making surprisingly yummy meals. For example, one night, I baked chicken in some cream of mushroom soup (I had a few extra cans from the last roast I cooked) and some red wine and it was oh so yummy. I paired that with some egg noodles (that I planned to make chicken noodle soup with) lightly tossed in butter and some herbs and there you have it! A meal. When Ryan wanted something sweet, I made sometime. I went through my cookbooks to find the perfect recipe that we had all the ingredients for (instead of setting my mind to a specific recipe and going out to buy the ingredients).

By the time I gave in and said "that's it, we're going to the grocery store", we seriously had nothing but condiments in our fridge. My brother had finished off the graham crackers left from a fire pit, Ryan had taken finger-fuls of decorating icing that was left from decorating a cake, I had made that box of pudding that had been hanging around and Jude had finished off the stray bags of frozen veggies in the freezer. Our usual supply of 5-6 boxes of pasta, a variety of sides, snacks and fresh fruits and veggies had been diminished.

If this is something you'd consider doing, allrecipes.com has a great tool where you can enter a list of ingredients you want to use (and those you don't) and it will spit out recipes based on what you've entered, making it even easier.

Seasonal Dessert #3:

The other day I was in the mood for baking. I knew winter would be ending and I still hadn't made my winter dessert, so I decided to tackle that.

I ended up making a gingerbread molasses bunt cake.

I put it in the oven while Jude was eating breakfast and towards the end of my mixing and prepping, Jude got a little antsy. So, I threw it in the cake pan and got him out of his highchair.

Before long, the house smelled amazing! After the expected baking time, I took the pan out and took a little taste - YUM! I then got distracted and came back about an hour later to take the cake out of the pan.

Well, I forgot to put the flour int he pan to keep teh cake from sticking, and I didn't take the cake out quickly enough, so it was stuck :( I tried to ease it out, but it wouldn't come. The cake ended up in a crumbly mess on the plate.

Even though it didn't look great, it tasted yummy.

Only one more seasonal dessert to go!

Question: What desserts to you think of when you think of spring?

Weekend

I am one of the few people who look forward to the middle parts of the week (as opposed to the weekends). Typically we have a variety of things to do during the weekend, maybe I have to work, etc and so Monday is usually the day that marks my five days of rest. Don't get me wrong, we have our share of errands and such, but for the most part we're in no rush for any of these.

This weekend was no different in that we were busy, busy, busy.

We started the weekend on Friday with a little quality family time. My brother Bryan was watching my younger brother Scott and so them and Katy came over for a little fire pit action. I don't see my brother Scott too frequently, so when I do, it's always nice to catch up (on things such as school, girlfriends, etc). This time though he kept telling me how 'grandma' I was :(





Either way, it was a good time. At one point one of our neighbors came over and complained about the fire. He didn't think it was a 'good idea' to have it and since he hadn't seen anyone with a fire pit before he assumed they weren't allowed? It bothered him so much, that he decided to call the cops... who showed up and told us we were fine.

After a wonderful evening, we woke up bright and early. I was invited to go to a "whale of a sale" in Wilmington with Meghan. I really didn't know what to expect, so brought a little cash a long just in case I came along something. When we got there, there was a huge line (that moved quickly) just to get in. When we got in though, we quickly determined that it was nothing more than a one day goodwill. However, others were unaware of this. There were people staking out huge piles of goods. I specifically was checking out one little item in a stack of goods and was advised that the entire pile belong to one woman. WOW.

Between the three of us (me, meghan and her mom) we found maybe 10 dollars worth of stuff and as we headed to the end of the line we decided it wasn't worth it. We would have had to waited in about 45 minutes worth of a line... so we just put our goods back and headed home.

After arriving home, I decided to make some 'homemade' spaghetti. A couple of weeks ago, I made meatballs for the Halloween party. Unfortunately most of them went to waste and so Ryan has been asking me to make more. I figured if I'd be making meatballs, why not do the whole she-bang. Once in the past I tried this and it was a huge failure. This time I seemed to get the double thumbs up (for any one who cares to know, 3 cans of tomato paste, 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 can of tomato puree, 7 cloves of garlic, a bundle of oregano, salt, pepper, basil and parsley gave it the perfect flavor. Meatballs were a blend of the same spices, about 3 pounds of ground beef and 2 cups of Italian style breadcrumbs fried in veggie oil, then added to the sauce).

In addition to making a fancy little dinner, we had a birthday party to go to that afternoon. Our little buddy Trent was turning one! It was a lovely party at the Woodland's. There was delicious cake, oodles of presents and plenty 'o food (unfortunately I think I ate too much considering the big pot of spaghetti sitting at home).

Jude and the b-day boy.

Trent (as with any 1 year old I'm sure) was very easily distracted during present time.

Yummmm

One of the cutest cakes I've ever seen

I was a HUGE fan of the doggy ears.

and so was Ryan...

After spending some time, we headed home to do a little yard work (blah). ALL of our neighbors rake their leaves... we never did last year, and used the "we just moved in" excuse to get away with it. This year, it was really on Ryan as to whether or not to do it. We did. Not exactly the whole front yard, but we cleaned up the driveway a little and some of the leaves around a tree in the front yard. Lucky for me, this allowed me to mark another item off my list! Jude and I did a little leaf playing/jumping!! I put items like this on my list of 101, not specifically to do it just ONCE, but to hopefully make these things part of our lives... I'm very eager to do such little things like this with Jude as he gets older and can do them on his own.

I can't really tell if he loved it or hated it. I was a new feeling, he was hungry and it was noisy...

but he sure thought they were delicious...(no I didn't let him eat them... but he sure got close)

Here I am "jumping" with Jude:

So, a birthday party, leaves, and yummm spaghetti dinner!

Finally came Sunday. I had to go to work and so Ryan was left to tackle some projects around the house. A few weeks ago we picked up some electrical goods and so he was attacking those projects today. I was glad I wasn't here, because these projects require a NUMBER of holes to be cut in the walls. Basically to get wires into our first floor walls, we need to come up from the basement. So, to get to the ceiling we need to cut holes to get there. I came home to a swiss cheese house. However, the good part of this is we will soon have hardwired smoke detectors, new receptacles, possibly some new lighting and much more. Even more exciting is that one of the main reasons I have not decorated most of the rooms in our house is because I knew these holes were coming. So, once the rewiring is done, we'll be able to patch the holes and I can begin picking out paints and decorating! I don't see it all being finished at once, but we're headed in the right direction!

In conclusion: it was a busy/lovely weekend mostly spent with the loves of my life and some dear friends.

Ahhh Autumn

Today, Ryan and I took Jude man to Milburn Orchards. It wasn't Jude's first trip to Milburn, but it was his first apple picking trip and we got him his first pumpkin. It was probably one of the most perfect days to go. The weather was great!

First we got some of their famous apple cider donuts and then headed over to the apple area to do some pickin'.

Afterwards, we came back to the pumpkin patch and got Jude his pumpkin - we sat him down in a patch of pumpkins and he started playing with the nubby one, so of course we got it for him.

Mommom and Poppop met us there

The Woodlands came along and the boys both likes the little pumpkin.

After all of the pumpkin and apple pickin' and choosin' the Woodlands came over to do some baking with us. I made my apple crisp (#2 of 4 seasonal desserts - winter and spring left to do). It was pretty yummy. The recipe made quite a bit and it's best when warm, so I can imagine quite a bit of it will go to waste unless it heats up well. I can't help but think it would be delicious with some vanilla ice cream... perhaps I'll get some before I make my apple pie later this week

It doesn't look like much, but it's pretty good.

Solid

As some of you may remember, at Jude's 4 month visit, we were told that around the time he's 5 months we should start considering giving him solids. She said if we wanted to, we could start him right away, but five months would probably be perfect. But of course we could just as easily wait longer

I knew I would not be starting them right away, but assumed Ryan would be ALL about starting them right at 5 months.

I plan to make Jude's baby food, so have recently been spending a good bit of time flipping through my baby cook book and browsing different information on line. I still need to purchase food storage containers and then I should be 100% ready for making and freezing fruits and veggies which I'm super excited about (yes, I'm aware how lame that sounds).

Well, the last time I was at the grocery store I took a stop in the rice isle. Typically it is recommended that you start with a rice cereal and then work your way through the other foods one at a time to test for allergies. In addition to picking up Ryan and I's rice I bought some whole grain rice for Jude. I was super excited and planned to start him on solids in the next couple of weeks.

At the mall one day, I was holding Jude while I was eating and home boy was keeping a good eye on my food and lately at home has been reaching for anything in my hands (edible or not). In the words of Barbie "if that's not a sign he's ready, I'm not sure what is".

So, I told Ryan about my purchase and how I wanted to start Jude on rice cereal thinking he would be thrilled! We just needed to find a good night we were both home to give it it's first whirl. He'd finally have more of a hand in Jude's feedings and it'd be a big milestone in our little man's life. I got just the opposite response. He actually suggested that we keep him solely on breast milk until he's six months old. His opinion is that Jude is growing fine and so there's no point in rushing foods. Being that I try to balance our parental decisions, I gave him this one.

So, our whole grain rice will have to hang out in the pantry for another month, but you can bet I will be super thrilled to start it once 6 months rolls around!!

Beef Stew - yum?

Recently I have become pretty tired of all the same meals. Every now and then I try to get creative and make something new, but really, we eat a LOT of chicken and pasta prepared in an endless number of ways; and our share of "quick fix" meals. So, while I was shopping recently I decided to expand my meat selection beyond chicken breasts and ground turkey and picked up a few things I'd have in the freezer for when I'm bored.

I picked up some beef cubes and thought I'd be able to find something fun to do with them.

I decided on a beef stew.

I knew I wanted something I could throw in the slow cooker and not have to worry about until dinner time, so I thought THIS RECIPE on allrecipes.com would be perfect.

OF course, I never follow a recipe 100%, so I'll mention that I made the following changes:

1. I used a little under 2 lbs of beef - this was not on purpose, I just didn't have enough
2. I didn't use the bay leaf
3. I used extra paprika and worcestershire sauce
4. I only used 1/2 an onion
5. I added A LOT more broth (and flour - to thicken the broth - and then added a little water b/c it was TOO thick)
6. extra potatoes
7. fewer carrots and no celery
8. added mushrooms
9. served it over rice

I must say it was pretty darn good! Perfect for the semi-cool fall day and even more perfect not having to cook after working in the yard.

In the future if I make it again, I'd go much heavier on the salt and pepper add much more than 2 pounds of beef and not add as much flour to keep it a little more 'soupy' (the extra broth was a must in my opinion, a cup and a half just wouldn't have covered the ingredients).

World Famous

I honestly don't think I'm an amazing cook (probably better at baking than cooking). I think there are a few things that I cook on a fairly regular basis that are better than other things and I'm very willing to throw something new together. I rarely work from a cook book or recipe of any sort, but instead will browse through cook books, get an idea and use that as a jumping off point to make something I like (usually adding or subtracting ingredients as I wish).

I always know when Ryan really enjoys a meal, because he will actually say "this is slammin'" or something along those lines. Other times he'll eat what he's given like a good boy. I'll ask him if he thinks it's alright and he'll say yes, but when I go to cook it in the future he'll toss out some innocent little comment about needing less of this, or more of that or request a totally different meal. He's too nice to just outright say it's terrible.

Well, when Ryan REALLY likes something I make, it becomes "world famous". There are three things in particular that are world famous according to Ryan: Pasta Salad, Lasagna and Mac 'n Cheese.

I'm not sure why, but in my opinion these are the most simple things to make! They require little to no effort and just about always come out perfect. When preparing for Delaware City Day this year, I was told I HAVE to bring my pasta salad. Let me show you how simple it is (remember I'm one of those "about" type of people, so I don't have exact quantities):

"World Famous Pasta Salad":

1.5 - 2 lbs of assorted pasta noodles

2 packs of cherry tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 pepper (green on red)

1 pack of pepperoni

1 large block of cheddar cheese (or a block of mozzerella to spice it up)

1-2 cans of large black pitted olives

2 bottles of (zesty) italian dressing

Boil noodles, strain and add 1 bottle of dressing to noodles (I usually do this while they're still warm so they don't start to stick together) in a large bowl. Cut tomatoes in half, dice cucumber, chop pepper, cut cheese into cubes, cut black olives in half. Add all ingredients to the noodle/dressing combo (again, I do this while the noodles are still warm, I'm convinced it helps to bring all the flavors together), mixing well between each ingredient. Mix in second bottle of dressing and cool over night. Be sure to mix well before serving as all the dressing tends to settle at the bottom.

Also, the glory of any salad is that you can add or subtract anything to your liking... extra tomatoes, less pepperoni, no olives, etc. - but it's my personal opinion that all of these ingredients together give it the perfect amount of color...