Apparently

Apparently when you're getting a new roof and they tell you that they'll call you a couple of days beforehand to let you know they're coming it doesn't mean anything. Yesterday morning- out of the blue- I hear a knock at the door. Since I was not expecting a knock at the door I was shocked to find a guy that wanted to park a ginormous dumpster in my driveway. "Why" I asked? Well, for the new roof, of course. And this morning at 7 am two guys showed up and blocked my driveway with their truck. By the time I saw it they were already tearing my roof off so I had to ask them to move so I could take Chloe to school. Wow. A phone call would have been nice but that's OK because we're getting a new roof. And that means that we're one step closer to having this house finished. Sometimes you've just gotta keep things in perspective.

I'll blog more about this later-with pictures- because I just don't want to take the time to do it right now. But I wanted to post something because it's Thursday already. Anyway, my brain thinks it's spring. Despite the frigid temperatures we've had lately my brain will not be persuaded otherwise. Maybe it coincides with my watching Martha Stewart lately. I don't usually watch the whole show (it's actually on right now and I'm not watching) but it's my only cooking show fix. As best as I can tell, Foodnetwork.com only has a limited amount of full episodes and I'm dying for some new cooking ideas. So my brain has been doing flip-flops with all of the things I'm dying to make- caramel (my body's disdain for sugar is the only reason I haven't made it yet), a pillowcase dress (I'm making myself finish two other projects first), finishing the aprons I started last week, etc. Actually, I finished the apron last night but I decided to make straps for them instead of using grossgrain ribbon. The first strap was easy-peasy and turned out just fine but my machine flipped out on the second one and I had a hard time getting it going again. Then I finished the apron but sewed the pocket for the strap too small so I'm going to have to go buy a seam ripper and do that part over. I like the strap for the apron much better than the ribbon because I think it's a little more durable and will be less likely to just slip out. All-in-all I'm enjoying sewing and when my sewing machine flips out it doesn't bother me like it used to. Now I'm off but I promise I'll have pics of a new roof and some sewing projects soon.

You Know It's Got To Be Good...

...if you start out with this much butter. I have to admit I've been in a colossal rut lately. I haven't felt inspired to do much. I haven't felt like cleaning or creating or cooking. Well, I did in theory but everything just felt like too much of a chore. " I don't feel like rolling out sugar cookies...I can't eat them anyway...Alfredo sauce takes too long...we'll just do leftovers". You get the idea. I had a bit of a feeling sorry for myself breakdown today and the Lord just sort of intervened and made some things stand out to me that I hadn't thought about. Like the new quote on the sidebar. I used to dream of owning a house and all I can see are unfinished projects and ugliness, a lack of counter space and less than stellar appliances. I've felt lost and unfulfilled and have found myself saying that 'this isn't what I prepared for, this isn't what I saw myself doing with my life'. But if I were doing something else I'd be missing it. I'd be missing my girls growing up and sharing life with them. So, with some help, I got things into gear. This is my job- and it's a really important one, so I should get on with it.


A few months back Christy linked to this wonderful apricot tart and I read that post again drooling over its yumminess. That tart wasn't in the cards because I determined that I was only going to use ingredients in the house for dinner but it lead me to a pie crust recipe which gave me the inspiration for chicken pot pie tonight. In the past I've made it with just a Bisquick biscuit top and my whole family loves it. But it doesn't have that great homemade flavor plus it has hydrogenated oil in it so I don't use it anymore. It was my very first time to make a pie crust and I haven't done it before because I thought it would be too difficult- but I was so wrong. Not only is it easy, it seems to be idiot proof too- long story. And even though it was my first attempt at making a pie crust I decided to do a 50/50 blend of whole wheat flour and white flour. It turned out perfectly. It was still buttery and flaky and delicious. I think it would make a great crust for apple pie or anything else you could possibly make with a crust. I really didn't even have the right veggies but I improvised with peas, corn, spinach and black-eyed peas- about 3.5 pounds of veggies for two pies. You have to feel good about that. Plus chicken breast. If it weren't for all the butter in the crust it would be totally healthy. But as it is you aren't eating *that* much crust since I only put it on the top.

I decided for a nice little surprise, I'd use some teensy butterfly and flower cookie cutters that I bought forever ago ($5 at Ross- score!) to top the pie.
Then I left the room for a minute and the girls decided to surprise me back. See how thick some of the cutouts are?

They begged to be able to roll out the dough too. I figured that they couldn't make *that* much of a mess so I let them... And they loved it. They were all smiles and didn't want to stop playing with it all to eat dinner.

But it all turned out very nicely and I felt happy and fulfilled. The girls were all smiles and they scarfed down the dinner that they "helped" make. I need to really tweak the filling because I wasn't totally happy with that but, whatever, next time...

Good Eats

I'm not actually talking about the show Good Eats- which is one of my favorites- but actual good eats, as in good food. I have a couple of recipes that I tried and highly recommend- and plus they're pretty healthy.

Trav's birthday was this past Saturday and he's been talking about eating better and working out and such. So when I saw Ellie Krieger's show about healthy diner style food I thought I'd give it a try. Well, I ran the idea past Travis who was all for it- until I mentioned that I'd also purchased some chicken wings. I bet you can guess what we had for his birthday dinner.

Last night I was finally able to give the recipes a try and not only were they the super-easiest thing I've made in a while they were also really yummy. So I give you stuffed turkey burgers & sweet potato fries. I don't really like sweet potatoes but I really liked these fries. There's also a sweet potato fry recipe from Giada De Laurentis & it's not supposed to be healthy but the basil salt and garlic mayonnaise sounded very intriguing. You could probably substitute reduced fat or fat free mayo though. I'm going to try it. You could also try a recipe that I haven't yet for oven baked onion rings. Yes, I know that according to Travis, onions are a scourge upon the earth. But I like onion rings and I actually bought the onions to try it out but ran out of time to make them; I was really busy yesterday. So if anybody tries them let me know how they turn out, OK?

And in the interest of posting a treat type thing that is not healthy but tastes amazing I give you no bake cookies. I call them crack because they're so addicting and I don't make them often but they're so simple and so very tasty. I've made them before with quick oats but last time I just used regular oats and I liked them better. It made them more substantial. And the really nice thing is that I usually have everything to make them on hand. Coco powder, milk, butter, peanut butter, sugar, and oats. That's it. Enjoy!

Approaching Fall

Finally. My favorite season is nearly here and I think I appreciate it now more than ever. I love the weather in Tennessee. Although the winters that are really cold I could live without. Since I'm from Florida I hate wearing lots of clothing. No, really I do. I hate layers and I really hate wearing a coat. Fortunately for me we've had a few mild winters and I've been able to wear sweaters mostly, with a coat occasionally. But according to the Farmers Almanac it's supposed to be really cold this year. The only consolation I have for the bitter cold is snow. Floridians pray for snow every time the temperature dips into the 30's. It seems silly I know but we do. So I always dreamed of living in a place with mountains, where the leaves changed colors, where the houses had more than one story and weren't made of cinder block, and where it snowed. I-have-been-gypped. We haven't had a decent snowfall since that huge storm we had almost 5 years ago. But I digress, this is supposed to be about Fall, right?

Since the heat wave embraced our region this summer I have been in a cooking slump. Really, who has been turning on the oven in the 105 degree heat. It was impossible to keep the house cool as it was without creating internal heat. So we've survived on salad, sandwiches and things I could stick in the crock pot. Which I discovered puts out more heat than I originally thought. I couldn't even light candles without it heating up the place. I guess it's just like that in a small house. So with Fall approaching (although I see that the forecast for the highs are still in the mid-90's) it opens new doors for cooking. My poor neglected family can eat again and I can cook. I'm looking forward to trying new recipes and hopefully working them in on a regular basis. Of course they have to have a reasonable amount of ingredients, which pretty much rules out anything in my Southern Living cook books. Any time I've made a SL recipe it tastes amazing but there are so many ingredients that I don't have on hand I end up spending a ton on stuff I'll use once. I need an herb garden. Maybe I'll get some little potted herbs to keep in the window sill.

When we first moved into this house I got several offers for magazine trials and accepted a few of them. One of them was Simple and Delicious. I opted to not get the subscription, I don't remember why. It seems like it was too casserole heavy but maybe not. At any rate there was a cute idea for the kids. So I give you Jack-O-Lantern pops. Since I really don't like Halloween (no matter how many times Pastor Davis tried to convince me to) I will make them just look like pumpkins. I'm sure the girls will have a blast making them with me and I'm looking forward to trying it.