Gardening

Jalepeno, Green Pepper, Tomato, Watermelon, HoneyDew, Strawberries, Basil, Zucchini. We'll see how it goes.

Shoes That Tie

We bought Gabby her first pair of shoes that tie today. No more velcro here. We're big girls now! And she tied them on her first try!

Requests Granted

Whatever the sick ones want, the sick ones get.

Quote of the Day

Daddy: What's this? Hooligans?
Daddy: Oh, no it's Backyardagains.

First Time for Everything

Well, the sickness took a turn for the worse and we ended up in the ER with Gabby last night. We were there for about 5 hours. After some IV fluids, we were able to take her home. She seems to be resting comfortably now.

One Up, Two Down

It's making its rounds. The stomach flu that is. Josh seems to be better but is still not eating. The older two are fighting it big time! Fever, Chills, Vomiting, Diarrhea. Will the sickness in our home EVER END????? I don't think I can take any more bucket cleaning or middle of the night bed sheet changes.

Anyone know a good flu fumigator? I think we might need one over here.

Little AppleSauce Muffins

While the stomach flu kids were taking a well deserved cat nap, I decided to whip up some muffins. The kids aren't eating anything and I thought these might be light enough for their sensitive tummies.
The recipe comes from The Lancaster County Cookbook. Those ladies from Lancaster really know how to cook!

1/2 c margarine (I used butter)
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
3/4 c applesauce
1 3/4 c flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c margarine (i used butter)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. In large bowl, cream together 1/2 c margarine and 1/2 c sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in applesauce.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to creamed just enough to moisten. Spoon into greased miniature muffin cups.
3. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
4. Melt 1/2 cup margarine and pour into a small bowl.
5. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon in another bowl.
6. While muffins are still warm, dip tops into melted butter and cinnamon sugar. Serve warm.

I baked my muffins in my Demarle mini muffin pan. I just love everything from Demarle

I love how there is no greasing needed EVER! and everything bakes evenly, browns nicely and pops out perfectly every time!


I didn't use all of the butter or cinnamon sugar mixture but that might be because this recipe only made 20 mini muffins in the Demarle pan. Those Lancaster ladies must have extra mini muffin pans because the recipe said it would make 3 dozen muffins!

Made My Day

Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's version of American Idol. Be prepared to be amazed. Appearances can be and usually are deceiving.

Happy Birthday to Me (Yesterday)

My day yesterday wasn't all terrible. Here are the highlights.

A beautiful birthday card from my artist daughter

Icecream on the front lawn with my 3 kiddos

Flowers from my hubby.

SpongeBob cupcakes from my neighbor.

Thanks for a great birthday! :)

Sharing isn't always nice.

Josh decided to share. Zack has it now. So nice having 2 kids vomiting and diaper changes every 20 minutes. Oh yay.

And to top it all off, yesterday was my birthday. Happy Birthday Me.

More sickies

I thought we'd made it though (again!) but no such luck. Joshua woke up last night at 2am and had it coming out both ends. Yes, it was lovely. After a wonderful Mom's Night Out with B I got home and went straight to bed to be awoken to the sights and smells of a very sick 18 month old.
Am I being punished for taking a little time for me? I know it's not true, but it sure seems that way. My poor little guy is so clingy and so burpy. He's asking for food but when I give it to him, he takes one little bite and pushes the rest away. I HATE it when they are sick.
So, think of me as I care for and clean up after my little guy today. Oh, the joys of motherhood! :)

Mom's Cream Puffs

My friend B has this amazing blog called vertigobcooks. She's a wonderful writer and can make any recipe come to life! In one of her posts (of which I can't find!) she asked about cookbooks. If there was one that you just couldn't live without in your kitchen. Well, I have 2. The Lancaster County Cookbook by Louise Stoltzfus and Jan Mast and Betty Groff's Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. My mom was born and raised in Pennsylvania Dutch country. She can't cook for 2 or 4 for that matter...she has to cook for at least 10!
Mom made cream puffs all the time when we were kids. I never thought I'd be able to replicate them. She always did them from memory and they turned out perfect everytime. Now, she made the puffs and the cream. There is nothing store bought here.
So, when I got married 12 years ago, my hubby and I used to dig through the bargain book section of any bookstore. I came arcoss Betty Groff's Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. I bought it, just out of curiosity, never thinking that I'd find so many of my mom's "from memory" recipes!


Cream Puffs
1 cup water
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Put water in heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Add butter and salt. When melted, add flour and stir bristly with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat to med-low and cook till mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from heat. Cool 5 minutes. Beat the eggs 1 at a time until batter is smooth and well mixed. Drop by spoonsful onto greased cookie sheet, shaping the batter into a point. Place 2 inches apart. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and cook another 25-30 minutes.
Cool and fill with your favorite filling. Pierce a hole in the side of the puff and pipe in filling or split half way around and fill with a small spoon.

Vanilla Cream Pudding
3/4 c sugar
6 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 Tbsp butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
Combine sugar, flour and salt in a small bowl . Scald milk in a large heavy saucepan and gradually pour in the sugar mixture, stirring constantly over med heat until thickened (about 5 minutes) add butter and stir. Remove a small amount of thickened filling and pour it over the beaten eggs. Mix together and pour into the filling, simmering over low for 5 more minutes. Remove from the stove and add vanilla. Cool (place a piece of wax paper on top to prevent the top from drying)
Recipe taken from Betty Groff's Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I always have zucchini on hand. It's an easy vegetable to hide in just about anything. Pancakes, spaghetti sauce and of course bread. I was going through my vegetable bin last night and found a few left over zucchini. Some of them were too mushy to use, but I found 2 that could be saved.
This morning, I made Paula Deen's Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. I followed the recipe exactly except for omitting the orange zest only because I didn't have any. Reviewers had mixed thoughts about the zest but probably the zest gives the bread a little something extra. I bet the little something extra is YUM!
With or without the zest, the bread was delish! The kids gobbled it up and my 3 year old said, "Mommy, I don't even taste the kini"
Enjoy!

30 minute Potato Soup

With the sickies around here, I struggle with how to make dinner. Everyone needs my attention, all at the same time, including dinner. 30 minutes is about all I have at the moment to get dinner from the stove to the table!
I"m so thankful my mom taught me how to cook. Not just how to pull out a blue box of macaroni and cheese but really cook.
Tonight I made potato soup. Hardy yet soft on the tummy and warm on the throat. So easy and you can make it as vegetable friendly as you want. Tonight, I just made it the "old fashioned" way. But I've made it loaded with vegetables too. Just as yummy.

1/2 stick of butter
1 small onion
2 stalks of celery.

Saute these up. While it's simmering away, pull out your potatoes. I used 5 small ones because it was just me and the kids.

Peel and cut up your potatoes into small pieces and throw them into the pot with the butter, onion, and celery. Saute this for about 5-6 minutes. The potatoes should start to get a little soft. At this point, I added probably 1 cup of water and let this simmer again for 5-6 minutes. Now, take your potato masher and mash this all up. Not as smooth as mashed potatoes but enough to see small pieces of potato. Now, take some milk (i like to use 1/2 and 1/2) but if you don't have any, you can use whole milk or even 2%. Obviously, the more fat, the creamier! Pour it over the potatoes, enough to cover it nicely.

Let this simmer again for maybe 5-6 minutes. You should start to see it thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve!

You can add some shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and chives to make it more adult friendly! Remember, this recipe serves maybe 3 adults. I served 3 kids and 1 adult (i had 3 bowls...ok, I admit it!) and there wasn't a spoonful left in the pot.

Only Hiding

It's back. Back with a vengeance. It was only hiding.

The sickness that is.

Gabby started complaining about her ears hurting again last night and by 1:30am, there were tears and alot of moaning. By 2am, Zack was awake crying that "sissy" wasn't in her bed (they share a room) and by 2:30a the baby was screaming too. Daddy wasn't home from work yet so when he came tip toeing in at 3am, the drama had just ended. Zack was finally back to sleep, Josh had settled down and Gabby had just started to drift off to sleep. She was on his side of the bed, he crawled in on my side and I ended up in the middle. Within 20 minutes I was just starting to drift off to sleep and the snoring began. Oh great. I quietly as I could got out of the middle of our bed and started making my way to the guest room.

Tears again at 6am from Gabby, Josh was up at 6:30a and Zack at 7a. Off to the Dr. at 9:15a for a 9:45 appt.

Yep, double ear infections again. This time the pain is so bad that Motrin doesn't even take the edge off. He prescribed Robitussin with Codeine. Fever, chills, ear pain, no appetite, runny nose and cough.

Oh yeah, doesn't that sound fun?

Flat Stanley for Stellan!

We've been keeping up with this family and have been praying for Stellan. My sister sent a picture of Flat Stanley into their name gallery Now Flat Stanley is famous!

We're praying for you Stellan!

Flat Stanley Update

Flat Stanley is rounding out his trip around the US. These are some highlights from his journey!