REMODELING!!!

While at Home Depot the other day I found a great deal on the cabinets we wanted (in 6 months). So now it is full steam ahead to get sheet rock up before the cabinets come in. We have to order by July 10, so as soon as we are home from Wyoming we will be ordering. We are focusing on the Bedroom to Laundry/Bathroom redo and then we'll remodel the whole kitchen...with a 7 foot island!!!

During the remodel I have a feeling there will be a lot of grilling and frozen pizza....sorry! No new recipes probably this summer...but once I have a new kitchen...then we can talk!!

We are heading to my parents' land in Wyoming for a week and a half tomorrow. Ian and I will stay the whole time and James will head out and back both weekends to drop us off and get us.

Ian has an ear infection, so that should be fun on a vacation. We took him to acute care tonight because he has been tugging on his ears for a week and today started running a fever. Sure enough...Momma's right! Ear infection. Just a single this time so hopefully because it's just the ear infection instead of everything he had before he'll heal just fine.

Little guy is on the verge of walking...he walks next to everything and can stand without holding onto anything (if he doesn't notice.)

Off to pack!! Have a great day!!

Whew! I'm exhausted!

Ian is taking a nap, I have a few seconds...blog I shall!

Very busy few weeks...

I did a gall bladder flush. Sorry to disappoint, but I have no pics of that!

I weeded this 8x4 area for an herb bed...by hand!

James put down the retaining wall. I couldn't get the dirt level so I "let" him do it!

 We still don't have dirt.

I made some garden picks to label my seeds and plants in my garden.

Don't have a finished picture yet..they are cute though!

I'll try to get a picture up when I get my other projects done.

Ian was loving being in the garage with me. He just LOVES being outside in general!

 Chicken Florentine...Delish!

Chicken Florentine Recipe

 Packed and ready for Grandma's house!

Ian went to Grandma's because....

I took a motorcycle safety course that focused on familiarizing yourself with a motorcycle.

I only crashed once before passing the class...SUCCESS!!

Not the greatest picture of Ian..but "His Royal Cuteness" still shines!

"MOM!! Are you looking at me!?!"

He walked the whole edge of the couch!

**Gasp! There is stuff on the floor!**

I'm a grown-up now with a Sam's Club membership.

Guess what they give you for your $40 donation???

**That hamburger on the front is Yummo! It involves marinated fresh basil and mozzarella cheese.**

Last picture...Ian likes grass! He was afraid at first but now enjoys it.

**Look at them lil toes!**

Umm...not what we were expecting!

 Ian helping himself to his Easter Basket.

It wasn't a super exciting basket, just juice, peach yogurt bites, biter biscuits,

sippy cup, and a banana masher thingee.

 "See mom! I'm ready for a sippy cup!"

 Trying out his banana masher with an orange...didn't have banana's.

Apparently, not a huge fan of oranges yet.

My new recipe this week sounded delicious...I was so excited to try it! I watched Rachael Ray make it one morning and it sounded like something we would like. Doesn't Pasta Ribbons with Peas, Prosciutto, Cream and Spring Pesto sound amazing? It wasn't. Maybe our palette just isn't sophisticated enough...but yikes! I thought it tasted more like mint and citrus gum mixed with noodles.

 It looks yummy....

 What we really had for supper...frozen pizza...and it was AWESOME!

In other news...Ian is crawling. I try to get pics of him as he goes but he's very stubborn (much like Daddy). So this is what I got of him today...he was crawling across the living room to his empty bottle.

 "Ready Mom? Here I go!"

 "See...I am the cutest kid you know!"

 ZOOM!

 "Mom, you should totally try this! It is so much fun!!"

 "Don't you dare move...I just crawled all the way over here to get you!"

 "Ha! Gotcha!"

"Num. Num. Num."

Yesterday my mother-in-law and I sat down to draw up my gardens. It was so fun...but now James is mad. I was planning to just do my garden I had last year and maybe an herb bed...yeah I'm not doing that! I am building another main garden near my old one, an herb garden, and a little flower bed down the edge of my garage. They might not all end up "built" this year but I will still plant stuff there. It's expensive to build new beds...sad face. Anyway, I have a plan and my rhubarb is planted, my chives and some leftover garlic is coming up, and my next order of business is to find my "new" strawberries.

Due to a change in plans it appears that we will be starting a remodel on the house this winter/next summer. So now I don't know what to do...do I finish the bathroom and rip all my hard work out in 6 months-1 year...or do I just leave it as is and save the money for my new bathroom, laundry room, remodel?? This is why there have not been pics of my new bathroom up yet...it's not finished!

Roast, Eggs and Babies...oh my!

A couple weeks ago I tried a new recipe but never put it on my blog. It was the day we took Ian to acute care so a friend actually finished it for me (thanks Angie!). Anyway, it was a shredded pork recipe that was delicious!! It was called Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork, from the Pioneer Woman's blog. It was very good! I tried a little straight out of the pan...awesome!

I ate it on hamburger buns with a little Swiss cheese...amazing!

I think my favorite was to eat it was on tacos...with some of my canned jalapenos from last summer!

I think the only adjustment I would make for myself is to use chili verde sauce instead of the chili peppers in adobe sauce. Also, next time I'm going to cook it in the crock pot. Gives me a little versatility to leave the house as it cooks. I actually only made a half recipe and it lasted our family of two a week! Definitely try this one!! It's PORK people!! Those of you who don't know me might not know that I as a general rule don't like pork...but this was SO GOOD!!

See the baby play! He is feeling like his old self again! Ever since he's felt better he has not stopped. He started by getting up on his knees...and then rocking on his knees. Then it progressed until now...he is in his crawling position and then he stands on his back legs! He is SO SMART! I'm going to try to get a video of it posted...as soon as I figure out how to get my camera hooked up to the computer!

Here are some pictures of Ian being himself...

Eating like a pig.

Exhausted from playing so hard!

 Thinking about causing chaos with his bottle...

Causing chaos with his bottle!

This picture is so dark because I had to walk away before he would play...stinker!

The last thing I wanted to share with everyone on this "catch-up post" are the Easter Eggs I made. I made them following this tutorial by Samster Mommy. 

The materials you need...plus toothpicks and paper! They didn't make the picture.

My pretty glitter!!

My eggs in all their glittered splendor!!

Aren't they beautiful?

I layered them in a bowl with some basket filling.

I love my eggs! Thanks Samster Mommy for the great idea!

That's the end of my "catch-up post", hope everyone has a great week!

Remember...all that glitters is AWESOME!

Meds and Flops

Ok...So this week we will be doing baby things first. Ian has been doing nebulizer treatments for the past three weeks and seemed to be doing really well with them.

Thursday night, before I put him in bed, I noticed he had a temp, he's teething now so I didn't think it was anything to worry about. Friday morning he woke up with a low fever.

Look at those eyes...

His temp continued to go up, even with Tylenol, so I called his pediatrician. They called me back right away and said to take him to acute care so he could be seen right away. We packed up and headed to the big city. Checked in...waiting...temp 102.8.

Poor baby!! Looked him over, took blood, did chest xray, nebulizer treatment. Turns out his white count was fine, his chest xray showed he still has fluid in his lungs and the different nebulizer meds worked better for him. They also found a double ear infection. Looks like the ear infection is what was causing the fever. They sent us home with baby Advil, an antibiotic and the new nebulizer meds.

Today my little man is feeling WAY better! Hasn't had a fever all day either!
**Sorry about the horrible quality of the pictures...used my cell phone.**

On to the "apron" part of my week. I made some Asiago Hash Browns with the leftover cheese from an earlier recipe. I made meatballs to go with it for a little protein. My "smelly brother" was over for supper on a break from loading piggies. Overall the boys (Dirk and James) liked the hash browns, I didn't. The meatballs didn't turn out AT ALL! They just weren't...right.

Asiago Hash Browns (found on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
30 oz bag hash browns, thawed
1 1/2 cups grated Asiago cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz sour cream
8 oz heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
paprika to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium casserole dish, mix the hash browns, Asiago cheese, onion, sour cream, heavy cream and butter.
Bake 1 hour or until hash browns are fully cooked and the top is lightly browned. Season with paprika, salt and pepper.

I don't even want to get into what I did to the meatballs. I'll try them some other time and make them correctly then...hopefully! The flavor of the hash browns wasn't bad it was more of a texture thing. So...

Since I'm new to this whole cooking thing, I'm wondering if anyone has tips on how to get your fresh onions in baked hash browns to get soft??

Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi-Week 12

Week 12 of my year of recipes! Can you believe it?!?! With all the stuff going on in my bathroom this week I didn't think I was going to get a new recipe done. However, I decided to pull on my big girl panties, buckle down, and get to work...more work! I hung my cabinet doors, put in drawers, attached handles and hinges and put away all flammable materials. So...my kitchen was a little less hazardous to  cook in! My mom said pasta ai quattro formaggie would be a good, easy recipe to try, since I didn't even think to look for a recipe before going grocery shopping. I thought, "Seriously, she must be kidding!" I can't hardly cook, much less cook something so fancy sounding. Apparently, pasta=noodles, ai=have no idea, quattro=four, formaggie=cheese. So "noodles with four kinds of cheese", she should have just said that! Mom told me the main ingredients, I bought them and made dinner for my hubs last night. Mom found this recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog and has tried it at least once.



Mom said I could just use three cheeses. She recommended cheddar, asiago and Parmesan. Pioneer Woman says you can use whatever four cheeses you want. PW even uses goat cheese! I think someday I might acquire a taste for it (maybe) and try to use it in my cooking. I just really don't like it cold on a cracker and have never had it IN food.

TA-DA!!

James grilled chicken while I made the pasta. We just cut it into chunks and ate it on top of our cheesy noodles! I really liked it with the chicken, but I think it needs more garlic. That could just be me though 'cause I LOVE GARLIC! Anyway...Mom is coming over to watch little man while I work on painting my bathroom today. Almost done!! Gotta go so I can get pics of bathroom posted...SMILEY FACE! Bye!

Lime Herb Chicken

 Ian's "first" trip outside. He's usually under a blanket!

It was actually fairly nice. We look cold but his carrier was up in this picture.

It was really fun to listen to him giggle about Harley (the dog to the right) running around.

He was getting kind of hysterical!! It was really sweet!

Ok...so this is Week 11 of my recipes. I forgot that last week I made one of my favorites (a cross between Salisbury steak and strogonoff) with a few variations. I will try to put that up later this week...so yummy! Anyway, tonight I made Lime Herb Chicken. It was fairly easy and really tasty! Plus, we made it on the grill so that got us all out of the house. Fresh air does the body good!!



Lime Herb Chicken

Ingredients

1 cup lime juice

2/3 cup Italian salad dressing

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 broiler/fryer chicken (3-4 pounds), cut up

 This was the whole chicken. I have never actually cut up a whole chicken to cook, just to make into soup or eat off, so it really didn't matter what it looked like. So I tried my best and I thought the pieces turned out well. I was grossed out though when I got to the guts! I think I would buy the stuff that's already cut into pieces next time.

 How did I do?? The thighs are a little small but overall it went good.

 In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Pour I cup of marinade into a large resealable plastic bag; add the chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat; marinate for 15 minutes. Set aside remaining marinade for basting.

 Drain and discard marinade from chicken. Grill chicken, covered, over medium heat for 40-45 minutes or until juices run clear, basting occasionally with 1/2 cup reserved marinade.

 Brush remaining marinade over chicken just before serving. Doesn't it look just delish? It was very good...a little limey, if I would have had time to make the rice I was going to, it would have been perfect! Unfortunately, there was a cranky kiddo when it came time to make rice and carrots. Carrots were good with it though! It didn't take the full 40 minutes to cook, only about 25.

My beautiful lime/lemon juicer...that I bought for $2. I was really excited about my bargain...until I finally used it tonight. Two halves of lime into making dinner and the handle cracked right off!! So I had to juice all my limes with a fork...sad! I guess sometimes a bargain isn't really all that great of a deal :o(