Smaller is Better and Channeling Aunt Wanda

In America, the need for everything to be the biggest and best is ridiculously out of control. And I have discovered that, in many cases, bigger is not better. It starts with babies; they are the most beautiful creatures on earth, whether human or animal. And look how little they are! This rule also applies in the kitchen. I realized, really by accident, that little food is not only cuter and more appealing, but it also gives a feeling of contentment not easily found with larger foods.
I'll explain... It started a few years ago when I used to make 'Doggies in Blankets' (we started calling them this when my then three years old thought it sounded funny calling hot dogs piggies). I used to grab a package of eight hot dogs and a can of biscuits and make eight doggies. My three year old daughter and two year old son could demolish three or four of these doggies each, in one sitting. One day, on a whim, I cut each hot dog into three pieces and then then same with the biscuits and made a whopping 24 'Pups in Blankets.' Imagine my shock when my children, after eating only five of these pups (less than two whole hot dogs) were full and happy. Awesome!! So, now I've tried it with  hamburgers and taco pies. Last night I made cheese burgers sliders. I used one pound of hamburger and made the little buns with my white bread recipe (see Recipes). Absolute hit! Plus my whole family of five were full and satisfied on just 12 mini cheese burgers. When I make standard size hamburgers on the grill, my husband alone can eat two or sometimes three whole hamburgers. That meal usually requires two pounds of meat. So not only am I saving money by making everything smaller, but my family does even notice they are eating less.
I'll also share another secret with you. I started putting dinner on salad plates, instead of using the full size dinner plates. Martha Stewart would probably be astounded at this table setting, but my family is fine with it. I have a great aunt that said she used to feed a family of four on one package of hot dogs a week. Aunt Wanda, I don't know how you managed, but I think I'm starting to figure out at least some of your secrets!

Breakfast Boredom Rescued By Last Night's Dinner

We have been up at 5:30 am for the past three mornings, taking my husband to work. It's a temporary problem but still exhausting for the whole family. So, we come home half zombie and half starving. I have been trying to spice up breakfast to compensate for the fatigue and this morning, thanks to my mother-in-law, I hit one out of the park with some left over mashed potatoes. We are a potato loving family and I have often made my "Poor Mans Hash Brown" by just roughly chopping and frying potatoes for breakfast. However, during a recent visit, my mother-in-law told me about making potato cakes from mashed potatoes. I got really excited to try it. I had to look up the recipe and then, of course, I had to tweak it and make it my own. Here's what I came up with:

Mashed Potato Cakes

2 C. Mashed Potatoes (roughly)
1 Egg, well beaten
1/2 C. Flour (plus another cup for breading)
Salt and Pepper
1/2 Stick Butter
Vegetable Oil
2 C. Shredded Cheddar (or your favorite cheese)

In a bowl, mix your potatoes, egg, flour and cheese. In a separate bowl, stir 1 c. flour with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper for the coating. Take a large spoon and scoop the potato mix, form a ball with your fingers and then roll in the flour. Once coated in flour, you can flatten into 1/4 inch cake and place on a plate. Repeat until your have formed appx 8 cakes. It will be easier to cook these if your refrigerate for about half an hour. Heat a frying pan over med to high high. Coat the pan with veg. oil and melt about 2 tbsp of butter with it. Your don't want to use all the butter at once because it will burn and the cakes soak up a lot.  Place fry the cakes 3 at a time so you don't over crowd your pan. Cook for about 10 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Add more butter as you need it. Set them aside to cool for about 10 minutes. They will be super hot!

So, next time you have mashed potatoes left over from dinner, don't throw them out! Put them in the fridge and you know they'll get used up at breakfast. Plus, you know this is a budget-friendly way to make your potatoes stretch a bit further.

Nichole Nordeman Has A Standing Appointment At Tuck-in Time

My youngest has never been the best sleeper, so it took about three seconds to start singing to him. Even when he was colicky, it seemed to soothe him. I've have tried everything, from the Beatles, Show Tunes, to my own lyrics to the tune of Frere Jacques. More recently I've struck nap/bed time gold with a Nichole Nordeman song titled My Offering. He'll be two and a half next month and his vocabulary and his curiosity are growing every day, so it makes sense that this would be the song that sticks out to him. The verses are very visually descriptive, yet simple, imagining that the singer was grass or a cloud or a mountain, and how she would still give an offering of praise. My son always requests this during tuck in, with his adorable version of English, saying "Wait! We haf to sing my osserig!" Now, even when I'm too tired to sing, he requests it and I have to give in. And it warms my heart to have even the youngest of our family singing to Jesus.

Kid Food, Banana Peppers and A Dash of Wasabi

In my efforts as a stay at home Mom, I've discovered that summer lunches are more of a challenge. I have three children, with another one on the way, but my two oldest are in school. So, during school I tended to throw something together for my two year old and it was simple and easy. Then I would make something for my lunch when he was napping. When I have all three of them, lunch takes more effort and I often opt out of a separate meal and either skip lunch or eat kid food. I've gotten creative, though, because sometimes kid food is not so appetizing. The pregnancy cravings are probably giving me inspiration, as well. Today, I sliced up apple, and cooked some chicken nuggets. Boring! I decided for my plate, I would spice it up and made some wasabi-mayo for dipping sauce. It sounded good and tasted really good! I took some prepared wasabi paste and threw about 1/2 tsp in with 2 tbsp of mayo. It may have been more. I tasted it and kept adding the wasabi. If you are squeamish about spice you should probably add it gradually, to taste. I think next time I'll even get crazier and put my nuggets on a sandwich. I've also recently chopped banana peppers and put them in my mac-n-cheese. It was awesome, but I leave this to your discretion as to whether it was a craving or a stroke of genius.

You Know That One Lady In The Store With The Loud Kid & Frayed Nerves?

  Well, today it was me! The morning started off fairly well, but somewhere around 11:30, this train veered wildly off track and I'm just now recovering. It actually started to unravel last night. However,  just like that one annoying thread that you think will break off if you pull it just right, then in a matter of seconds your shirt needs a new hem, that was this morning. My mother's air conditioner stopped working around 8 last night, so we made arrangements for an HVAC service to come this morning and I was to let them into the house. I got a confirmation call this morning at 8:30 saying to expect the tech by mid-morning. I thought, "Great! I need to go to the store and I'll still be able to do that when the tech leaves."
  I'm sure at this point, my eternal optimism (or naivete) is painfully obvious. I know these things rarely go as planned, but I thought they would today. When no tech by 11:30 I called and found out he'd been delayed. OBVIOUSLY! They said he was about half an hour away. He did show and he fixed the problem, but the whole thing took until 1:30, and was a major distraction from our usual routine of lunch and nap. So, here I go loading my three children into the car during the hottest part of the day and sans nap-time. Oh, side note, my two year old is also feeling under the weather. Fast forward to 3pm, where we are standing at the checkout, my nerves are shot and my two year old, normally quite well behaved, has reached his sell-by-date. My daughter and oldest son are cranky and fidgety, while the ruler of the pack, is climbing out of the cart and causing a scene that I never believed would involve me.
  And now, my apology, to every other mother I judged so harshly, because she had unruly children or seemed overwhelmed. I am sorry. You never know the whole story and now I've had a large piece of humble pie for my afternoon snack.

Desperate Housewives and the Sliced Bread Affair

  Part of my experiment at home, actually a large part, involves the kitchen. I have been making my own pasta, tortillas and bread in an effort to cut out preservatives and artificial junk at every opportunity. It also saves money. There is something to be said, though, for the ready sliced, sandwich size bread that you can grab at the store.  So, here are some facts, for those of you who like trivia (for the rest of you just hang in for a paragraph because I'm going somewhere with this). While it was in the works by 1928, Wonder Bread first marketed sliced bread nation wide in 1930.[1] This new-found convenience quickly became part of the average household, so when the U.S. government imposed a short ban on selling sliced bread in January of 1943, it left many housewives in a bind. This letter from a very frazzled home maker appeared in The New York Times not quite a week after the ban.
   "I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that's ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!"[2]
  I found this hilarious! Don't worry, though, because while the ban was an effort to save on packaging cost during WWII, it lasted for a brief three months. I will tell you that, after making all our bread for awhile now, it does take more time cutting each slice as you need it. A warning, though, to anyone prepared to try this at home... I learned the hard way that home made bread is better stored whole, since it has no preservatives or conditioners and will dry out quickly if sliced. Now, having said that, if you are ready to forge ahead, I will gladly include the first recipe I tried and that we have come to love.
  Yummy White Bread
1/4 C. Milk
1 1/2 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp Melted Butter
1 Pkg Rapid Rise Active Yeast
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour
  Start with a large mixing bowl and yeast. Add enough very warm water, usually 1/2 c. or so, and whisk until well blended. Whisk in salt, sugar, milk and melted butter. Stir in 2 cups of flour to start. Keep working flour in until it get too sticky, then you get your hands dirty. Work the flour in and knead until it starts to feel smooth and no longer sticks to your hands or the bowl. Turn out onto a clean and lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. For the true amateur (like I was) kneading is like mashing and twisting the dough. Now place it in clean bowl and cover with clean towel. It needs to rise for at least an hour, in a draft free area. Warmer is better. I put mine atop the fridge. After an hour, turn out and literally punch down the dough. This lets the air out and you can now roll it out with a rolling pin. Once you've rolled out any air bubble, you can make a loaf by rolling the dough up (like you would roll up a poster only tighter) and pinching the ends together. Tuck the ends under to make a neat little loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan and let rise for another hour. The dough should be over the top of the pan and ready to bake. Bake at 400 degrees for appx 30 minutes. Since ovens vary, start checking it at 25 minutes. You're looking for a golden top and it should sound hollow if tapped with a wooden spoon. Let cool completely before storing.

Notes:
1.http://www.holsum.com/history.shtml
2.http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D15F63D59147B93C4AB178AD85F478485F9

2 Chicken Breasts & The Magic of Thanksgiving in July

So, today is lean Wednesday... It's the last day of my two week grocery budget and I always have to get creative for dinner. It seems that no matter how much planning I put into it, the pantry gets low by the 14th day. I've got two lonely chicken breasts left in the freezer and I have 3 children and a husband to feed. Time for the magic noodles! I don't know if everyone does this, but in our family, at least since my great grandmother's day, at Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, and "the noodles." That's not all, of course, but those were the staples and base for the whole meal. It's been tradition to make these egg noodles and boil them in turkey broth, salt and pepper. The broth thickens up and you have a delicious and hearty starch-fest that is soul-warming and delicious! I've discovered, though, that if you throw in some chicken breast, it can be a meal unto itself. Now we are on our way to the grocery store for one dozen eggs, because that is all I lack to start this magic meal. And the best part is, I'm going to share this recipe with you. Its one of the cheapest meals you can make and its always a crowd pleaser at my house. For the less picky family, you can always throw in some peas, carrots, celery, etc. to make it a more rounded meal.
Here's what you'll need:
Home Made Chicken and Noodles
A large mixing bowl.
3 Egg Yolks
1 Whole Egg
1 Tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Cold Water(use more as needed)
2 C. Sifted All Purpose Flour


Whisk your egg yolk, egg, salt and water until light and well incorporated. Slowly add in flour and stir until too thick, then knead with your hands. It should be not too sticky, but smooth and well combined. Your should knead for about 5 to 10 minutes until your reach the right consistency. Then wrap in plastic for a few minutes and let it rest. It will be easier to work once it has rested. Flour a large surface and turn dough out. It is easier to work with in smaller batches so you can divide it in two and roll it out separately. Keeping it well floured, roll out the dough until its appx. 1/16 an inch thick. Sprinkle flour over it, then roll it up, like a jelly roll, as tightly as you can. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into equal(eyeball it, doesn't have to be perfect) slices, about 1/8 inch each. If you divided the dough, repeat the roll and slice steps until all the dough has been cut. Now unravel the noodles on well floured surface and allow to dry. If your aren't cooking the same day, then you should let them dry out all day and then freeze in a freezer bag until you plan to use them.
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Today's batch laying out to dry.

Now if you are making chicken and noodles, here's the rest of the story:
In a dutch oven (or 5qt pot) coat the bottom of pan with veg. oil and heat over med-high. Salt and pepper both sides of 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breast. If bone-in is all you have, this of course works also, just an extra step of de-boning. Place the chicken breast in the pot and cook for a few minutes on each side, just enough to brown the outside of the breast. Once the chicken is browned, add enough water to cover the chicken. Throw in chopped onion or garlic to flavor the chicken. Bring to boil, then reduce to medium heat and simmer covered for appx. 30-45 minutes, or until the chicken is fork tender and easy to pull apart. Remove the chicken to a plate. You will need to add enough water to the pot to boil your noodles, so judge for your self. Bring to a boil and add the noodles. Because the noodles are thick, it may take about 20 minutes to cook. Just stir occasionally to make sure they don't stick to the bottom and burn. While noodles are cooking, shred the chicken into bite size pieces. Once the noodles are tender, cut one just to make sure they've cooked through. You are looking for any white in the middle of noodle. If no white, then you're good. The stock will thicken naturally during the cooking process because of all the flour and starch. Once thickened, throw the chicken back in, salt and pepper to taste.

I've replaced my finished picture with this far more appetizing one that my little sister took.
She went home after I showed her how I made it and did it herself!

I hope this was clear and easy to understand and that your family will enjoy it like mine does!

Spilt milk, peanut butter triangles and holding Barney hostage

Heavy negotiations ensued today during lunch, when my two year old, after spilling half a cup of milk on the table, insisted that he was finished with his peanut butter sandwich. It was at this point, in an act of desperation, that I threatened to turn off Barney. Harsh? Maybe. Selfish? Somewhat, since I really loathe Barney and his friends, but I promise, it was much more important to me that the self-proclaimed king of the world finish his lunch than that I not have to listen to a full 25 minutes of purple, fluffy we-are-the-world. While it may not sound thrilling to everyone, I can't help but find the humor in arguing with a curly-headed little cherub about peanut butter. I mean, who is he to make decisions? He's got a red juice-mustache and last night he refused to take a bath because he saw a tiny crack in the bathroom tile that he swears is a spider! This is not a new crack. We have discussed it at length during potty-training attempts. However, this particular night, that might-be spider became a terrifying, bubble bath-ruining spider. All composure was lost and I bathed the midget while he stood up, screaming in hysterics the entire time. Score one for Declyn. So, it was vitally important that today, during lunch, the score was evened, balance restored.