I'm FAST....

Oh good Lord in Heaven above. Please, please help me. I am so screwed. My kids, they've got my number. I'm sitting here at my computer after a long day of very hard work. Trying to just relax. My temper is short because I'm tired and Bradan kicks a ball across the room and it hits me in the face.

I jump up and take off after him and I believe in my heart that I might be whuppin' his butt tonight.

He takes off running. The fear of God in his eyes and a nervous giggle escapes his lips as he shouts

MOMMY YOU CAN'T CATCH ME! I'm SUPER FAST. YEAH. THAT'S ME. SUPER FAST.


Oh and I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hit you with that ball mommy ok? I'm so so sorry. So stop ok? You couldn't catch me anyway cuz I'm FAST!

Out of my Ever-Lovin' Mind!

Can someone please tell me WHO? (who wrote the book of love) oops (I did it again)

CRAP CRAP CRAP

WHO!?!?? WHO wakes up one morning and decides to have a garage sale in TWO DAYS? Apparently me.

I blame Grace. She woke up at 7 am and woke up the other kids. Which means I was up at 7 am. Which means I wasn't thinking clearly when I made the decision and PAID FOR AN AD IN THE PAPER...FORCING ME to get everything ready by SATURDAY AT 8 AM.

At 8am I started getting things together. That was 6 hours ago. Other than eating lunch and the occasional phone call to Brian to ask how fond he is of something, I haven't stopped.

I have nothing PRICED, but by golly I have a ton of stuff to put on my lawn and pray that someone wants to take it off my hands.



This is my laundry room, well part of it.....



Here's the other part.



And this mess is in my kitchen...



And my living room....




and my hallway....





oh and my bedroom, can't forget about that!




wait, how did they get in there????

This doesn't even include what's already in the garage and don't even get me started about all the CRAP in the attic. Anyone have oh say the next 42 hours free to help me price this stuff?

Outrageous Brownies!

Have I, as of yet professed my love for Chelle over at Brown Eyed Baker? She has so many awesome recipes that she shares usually adapted from somewhere but hey, isn't that how we all start our recipes?

I have never made scratch brownies. Scratch cakes, yes. Cookies, YUP! Brownies, no. I mean can you really beat Betty Crocker box brownies?

I'm here to tell you YES YOU CAN. And it doesn't take much longer than tossing in that egg and oil either. And OH MY GOOGLE. They are so worth it. But believe me, when this recipe says WAIT TIL YOUR BROWNIES ARE COMPLETELY COOLED BEFORE CUTTING.

WAIT TIL THEY ARE COMPLETELY COOLED. I cooled mine on the counter for about an hour and then put them in the fridge for another hour. These things are awesome!

So without further horn tooting from me, I share with you gladly

OUTRAGEOUS BROWNIES (recipe from BROWN EYED BAKER

(my notes are in italics...)

(Source: Ina Garten)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 pound (1 1/3 cups) plus 6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (I didn't have this, so I used 3 tbsp of Hershey's cocoa & 1 tbsp of Vegetable oil for each ounce)
3 extra-large eggs
1.5 tablespoons instant coffee powder (I omitted this ingredient)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 cups diced walnut pieces (also optional, I left them out because really...nuts and chocolate aren't my friend)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan. (325 degrees if using a dark non-stick pan)

Melt together the butter, chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler (I did this step in a glass dish in the microwave at 30 second intervals). Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and chocolate chips with flour to coat. (Since I did not use walnuts, I only used 1 tablespoon of flour to toss the chocolate chips.) Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not overbake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

I made a card! I made a card!

OK so technically I made a TON of cards but some of them are for the LOSTie Halloween Kit Swap so I can't show them to you.

However, I did make this beauty for stamp club and I must say I am very impressed with how it turned out. I think I'm going to mass produce some for this Christmas season.



and a close up of the snowflake. I used Stardust Stickles to make it sparkley!



Snow Swirled set
Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White paper and inks
Little Felt Flurries the snowflake embellishment
Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon
Oval Nestabilities
Versamark
Hologram Highlights EP

Space Cadet...are you surprised??

OK so I totally never made it back here to post my chili recipe and announce a winner from the last post. Jess...of course as my most favorite food connesiour you were right. Who could possible know me and not guess CHILI!

So I'll save my chili recipe and my chili pictures for another day, but Jess your goodie prize is on the way!

I gotta tell y'all a story (bout a man named Jed...) not really but dang it do you ever do that? Say a word or sentence and start singing? I do it all the time. Some people might call me crazy...(I could do it again but I won't)

Anyway so Kenz and Bradan started Sunday school at our new church. Peace Lutheran in Seymour in case anyone was wondering. www.seymourpeacelutheran.com It's awesome. I've never been one to LIKE going to church or to even really get anything out of it but I just feel so at home here. I enjoy going and love that my kids love it. So anyway back to my point about Sunday school.

The first day I drop the kids off, they are in the same class. I quickly introduce the kids to the teacher amongst the uproar of little children playing excitedly and take off for adult bible study.

Fast forward to later, after the donuts. (Yup, donuts and coffee between Sunday school and church service, how cool is that???) Miss Leta the Sunday School teacher comes up to me and says "I'm sorry what did you say your daughter's name was?"

Kenzie. Kenzie Jane. She might say it's Janie. She's got a few names. *chuckle*

She says to me "That's right, ok. Well I asked her what her name was during class and she told me it was Punkin' Pie. So I asked her brother and he said "You heard her it's Punkin' Pie"

I've called Kenz my Punkin' Pie for as long as I can remember. She's gotten to the point where if I don't call her that before bed, she will cry. I have to say "g'nite punkin' pie I love you" last thing before I close her door. TOO CUTE.

'cept, now she's telling teachers it's her REAL name. (she actually says that. It's my REAL name, my nickname is just Kenzie Jane) I can see her wedding announcements now...

Headache Schmeadache

Do any of you suffer from chronic headaches? I swear it seems like I get one everyday. Migraines, sinus headaches, tension headaches, pms headaches. It's ALWAYS something. I used to live on Tylenol until it started upsetting my stomach (Excedrin Migraine was my FRIEND) and these days I gobble ibuprofen like it's pez. (A little shout out to my niece Josie there...PEZ Lover extraordinare!!! ;))

You can't get sudafed these days without offering the first born of your first born, 6 oz of plasma and the most sincere promise that you aren't building a meth lab.

Seriously? My 12 tablets of sudafed do not a meth lab make.

I never really realized HOW often I get headaches until I went to Florida recently and only got 1 (Brian says 2) headaches the entire week we were there. This says something to me. I don't consider my life "stressful" here but something must be different because HELLO I've been back 2 days and 2 headaches. What is up with that?

Today I'm making my comfort food. Do you have a comfort food? I'm going to share my recipe once it's done. Post your guesses of WHAT it is and of the CORRECT answers, I'll randomly select a WINNAH of something cool.

I don't know what yet, but it will be cool ;) I promise.

Until then...

LATER TATERS (and wally gators) BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (LOVE YA SIS)

Such a Pretty Fat...

Right now I'm feeling like such a pretty fat COW. Oh my let me tell you, today my friend Jess said to me and some others..."I could really go for some Olive Garden; a never ending pasta bowl and some breadsticks."

I live over an HOUR from the nearest Olive Garden but she had me thinking. Pasta Fagioli. Oh how sweet it sounds. I'm a blog hopper. I have half a billion marked in my google reader ranging to everything from politics to cooking. Of course I have my stamping blogs and a few that I find just plain hilarious.

A while back I stumbled onto Brown Eyed Baker. Chelle posts some freakin' AWESOME looking recipes and I went through them all. At that time I noted HER recipe for Pasta Fagioli and vowed to some day give it a shot.

My friends, that day is today. I gathered up MY children (not the imposters from yesterday) and we went to the store and gathered all the necessary ingredients for the soup as well as for a caesar salad and some yummy looking fresh baked garlic breadsticks from the bakery.

Here's what I ended up with (Pardon the pics, we were trying something new with the camera and didn't realize til the food was GONE that it hadn't worked out well.



The entire spread...wow it was GREAT. Did I mention all three of my kiddos ATE the salad and didn't complain? In fact Bradan and Grace devoured it! I was THRILLED. We will be having a caesar more regularly now.



Here's my bowl, my, my, my it WAS as good as it looks. I'm definitely jotting this recipe down so I don't forget it.

Here's the recipe itself. I got it directly from HERE and I am noting my changes (which were very few)

Pasta Fagioli
(Adapted from Tricia’s Kitchen)

2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 package sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (**I used regular sausage and added my own italian herbs)
½ large (or 1 medium) onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 carrots, thinly sliced (**I grabbed the matchstick carrots from the store SUPER easy)
4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
64 oz. beef broth
28 oz. can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried parsley (I didn't measure any of the spices, just added to taste)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
4 oz. small dry pasta (I used ditalini)

1. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large stockpot over medium high heat, and brown the sausage, crumbling it as it cooks. Once brown, remove sausage from pot with a slotted spoon and discard any grease that remains in the pot.

2. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pot, and add the onion, garlic, carrot, and celery, and saute over medium heat until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add sausage back to the pot, add the can of diced tomatoes (do not drain), stir briefly, and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the beans, and add the beef broth and tomato sauce. Add in all of the seasonings, stir well, turn the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. Once it boils, turn down to low heat, cover, and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

4. Add the dry pasta and continue to simmer on low for another 30 minutes. Serve with your favorite bread or crackers.


THEN...Earlier this week my friend KIM guest posted a pie over at THE REAL PIE CLUB blog. Key Lime. My request. My favorite. While at the store today I got all I need to make it and Brian and I spent an HOUR (ok mostly Brian) juicing key limes. I don't own a juicer, extractor, etc. We did it by hand. I strained it using, well...I won't tell you what but it wasn't probably what a well stocked kitchen would have used!

I haven't cut into it yet, I need to digest a little of my yummy faux Olive Garden food first, but you can guarantee we will be cutting into it tonight.

Here's her recipe and a few pictures...just to prove we really DID juice all those key limes by hand.



Key Lime Pie
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002 (here’s the link you can use:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/key-lime-pie-
recipe/index.html)

Show: Emeril Live
Episode: Mr. Lou’s Desserts

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick butter) melted
2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
1 cup key lime or regular lime juice
2 whole eggs
Cool Whip
1 tablespoon lime zest

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your
hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until
brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to
room temperature before filling.

Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs.
Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pie shell. Bake
in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least
2 hours.

Once chilled, top with Cool Whip and add a little key lime zest to the top
for presentation.