Yummy finds from Food Gawker

 Have I said a thousand times that Fall is my favorite....and that I sometimes like to cook but it has to be short on ingredients and super easy? Food Gawker has some (thousands) awesome recipes for yummy Fall recipes. Especially if you can go to a u-pick farm and get your own potatoes and apples (ok, mine are from Trader Joes... but if we can make it back I will be getting lots and lots and lots of potatoes from the farm!!!) The Jelly Roll Pancakes can be filled with yummy apple cinnamon filling for a great breakfast/brunch/snack/just because you can't stop thinking about it idea to get you into the season and plus your house will smell DELICIOUS. In fact I think I am off to make them right now for Lo&me. Potato soup for dinner. Or maybe that chicken. No, soup... I think I will make these for dessert tonight. I have a serious sweet tooth and I really need dessert! However I will be cheating and using a box mix from Trader Joes....

1. Baked Potato Soup

2. Jelly Roll Pancake -Fill these with any seasonal filling you like 

3. Mushroom and Cheese Chicken

4. Johnny Appleseed Bars

5. Spinach Pasta

6. Family Apple Pancake

Skyscrapers

And when it falls down you build a new one.

Carseats

There's a downside to being obnoxiously careful about car seat safety. Your kids insist of buckling their toy in "just right".
ETA to add I totally locked myself in the backseat waiting for her to finish buckling her puppy. Both of my back doors have the child locks on because my niece and nephew sit next to the doors LOL what would a persondo if they weren't able to climb up front like I did?!

The health hazard in my kitchen that may be lurking in yours too

It sounds like I have been watching too many news programs and taking notes but I can assure you I have done neither. 

So to the point. I have to resist my gag reflex even thinking about it. I saw on a blog HERE that I'm supposed to clean my dishwasher. I live in an apartment so I figure hm, they probably do this but it's been a few months so I'll wipe it out right quick. (While proof-reading I saw I typed "right quick"... I know I live in Va and lived in Atlanta for 8 years but I have NEVER knowingly uttered those words before)

THIS IS WHAT I FOUND

*shudder*gag*GROSS*

I made the picture as small as I could to try not to make you throw up. I almost couldn't clean it without throwing up and my stomach is still sore from knowing that was in there. That is the underside of the meshy thing. I took it all apart and cleaned it with half a gallon of vinegar, soap and scalding hot water. 

I thought i would just have a ten minute cleaning spree. How wrong was I? Now I am running it full of vinegar and detergent on sanitize with it empty. And suffice it to say this picture wasn't the worst nightmare in the dishwasher. There is also a link to show you how to clean your washing machine. That will have to wait until next week for me, I need to recover from the horrors I saw today.

That was interesting....

This morning I was getting Lo and myself ready to head to preschool. It started drizzling so we got our rain gear out. By the time we were half way to school it was starting to really rain hard. I parked in the driveway of the school like I always do and we started on our way up to class. 

I don't remember why I looked behind us but I see two HUGE wolves dogs running right for us. They were each well over 100 pounds and I ran through a billion ideas of how to handle this situation. The dogs looked perfectly friendly but also like they could eat us in one bite and considering their size and the short distance I didn't have a lot of time to react so I froze, still holding Lola's hand and the copper colored dog gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as they continued past us. And then I finally took another breath. Disaster (passively) avoided.

They looked like the two on the left, but they were even prettier than these- and WAY bigger. The copper one had piercing blue eyes.

Hey look!!! Stephanie got a picture and sent it to me :) That's Koda on the left and Chief on the right. They were drenched but those special coats of theirs really keep the water on the top layer of fur!

Lola was giggling about the dogs. They kept running off to the side of the playground fence and I started my guilt of letting the dogs run off without trying to catch them and find their owner. We kept on our way to the Activities Building (which is also the way into the playground) to go potty and wash hands. Another mom opened the door to the building as we were on our way out of the bathroom and instead of kids walking in the door, in ran the two dogs! They had a similar effect on most of the parent's as they had on me- freeze, assess, stare confusedly. Then one mom started to corral them, so I joined in. Lucky for us they were very well mannered and they laid down while Amy looked at their collars. Chief and Koda's owner was called and given directions and told that his dogs were currently at preschool. He would be there in 15 minutes.

But it's raining, so it took longer than that. Amy said we should find something to use as a lead and I remembered the kids had dog leashes upstairs to "walk" the toy dogs. so we sat outside with them, Koda was definitely the calmer of the two and I think Chief, who I was holding onto, must have been the ring leader in this adventure. He would sit for a minute but then wanted to explore and boy was he strong.

We ventured up to the front of the church as the dogs seemed to trick us into thinking they recognized a car that pulled up. So when I saw a little blue Mini Cooper I half joked "I bet that's him" and of course it was. A very tall man in a business suit jumped out and thanked us profusely as the giant beasts happily jumped in the tiny car. It was like a scene out of a circus cartoon. He explained that they had a 6 foot fence. That they added 2 feet of lattice to the top of because the dogs jumped the fence. I think they must have a buddy system worked out where one stands on top of the other, climbs over, throws a rope to the other and pulls him out of the fence. I forgot to ask where they lived, they panted for a long time once they were resting so it was probably a good distance.

Just another day at preschool....

PURPLE POTATOES! And a Recipe

 Ok, I am a little TOO excited to try these purple potatoes.
I found the "potato medley" at Trader Joes and I think it just makes roasted veggies look so pretty!
I guess I was surprised to see they were purple inside.
Red potatoes are still white inside, right?

So my ideas for dinner were bigger than my oven tonight, just like my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Roasted chicken, veggies (carrots, three kinds of potatoes and onions) and what I call "Lazy Sweet Potato Casserole"

Now, I'm not saying I'm a genius but I enjoy it and I "thought" of it on my own, on the first Thanksgiving Eddy and I had together. Since it was just the two of us that year I didn't want to go crazy, so I bought chicken breasts on the bone and did the must have green bean casserole, and instead of making sweet potato casserole I made up my own and I didn't dirty an extra dish.

Lazy Sweet Potato "Casserole"

Bake your sweet potatoes. I cook them for 20 minutes (do NOT poke holes in them! It helps them steam if the skin is intact) at 450 degrees, place them straight on the rack with a baking sheet with tin foil to catch drippings. After the 20 minutes reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to cook for about hour. They will be so soft and delicious! 

(I did a google search a couple years ago on cooking a perfect sweet potato and found the directions above- on THIS site)

                                           Now comes the good part!

So I slice them down the middle, add butter, brown sugar and top with two marshmallows and put them on the lined baking sheet, pop them back in the oven on broil for 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows are puffed and golden on top.

These weren't huge potatoes, Lola rarely eats them... She is a bit of a freak, she didn't even eat the marshmallow! Eddy would rather eat an entire plate of meat so when I looked at his, plate he pretty much handed me the other half of his. sweet potato Which means I ate 2 1/2.... Lola picked at the half I gave her but didn't come close to finishing it.

Dinner, baby-style

Easiest Hair EVER

I ran across this amazing technique for a no-heat, barely any effort way to curl your hair. While you sleep!

Click Here to see how it works! It seriously takes about five minutes. Plus lately I am doing it because my hair isn't in my face while I sleep but it is way more comfortable than sleeping with it pulled up in a pony tail. 

Try it, I dare you. And then you will thank me ;)

Somewhere, over the rainbow *Tutorial!*

It's almost fall and it's starting to feel and look like it. Fall is by far my most favoritest season of all time! I love cool, crisp air, apple pies, cider, stews. Crunchy leaves, Halloween costumes (and candy!) I'M SO EXCITED! And I even love days that start like this:

Did you wake up to something like this, this morning? That is the view from my living room window, that is open by the way, because it is the perfect temperature outside! Overcast is a bit dull though so I decided to add a splash of color to the day and make a rainbow hair clip!

  First things first. Supplies:

Ribbon 1/4 wide- Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white for the clouds and to line your alligator clip. Five pieces of each color (add more or less depending on how big you want it). I cut my pieces like this, Red- 3 inches, I think it should have been more like 3 1/4 inches though. Orange- 2 3/4, yellow 2 1/2 and so on, decreasing each set of color by 1/4 inch. I didn't measure the white, oops! You need enough 1/4 inch white to cover your clip and a couple inches of 5/8 inch white for each cloud

Scissors

Lighter or what you use to seal the ends of your ribbon

Hot Glue Gun

Alligator Clip 

Once you have every thing cut and ready to go, heat seal all the ends of the ribbons

If you are like me, your ribbon won't be exactly the same length so line them up according to size, longest to shortest. *Start with the purple- it is easier to to work your way up from the bottom but I forgot to take a picture of purple....

Start by gluing the two smallest purple ribbons together, making sure they are overlapping each other as close to perfect as possible. Once they cool (not completely, just enough to not burn your finger!) wrap them over your finger to make the curve.

 

 Once there is a couple layers of ribbon you can keep it on your finger (hopefully) without burning yourself. Line up the next ribbon, holding one end between your thumb and index finger. Apply the glue to the top of the curve, and press the loose ribbon down, making sure it is still lining up correctly.

 Now you should have something that looks a like this, just dab some more glue on each loose end and press!

 Then add green, then yellow, orange and red
...do you see my secret? I didn't have any solid red ribbon left so i had to use white polka dot. The dots don't show on the back!

Don't be afraid to ask for help... As a matter of fact, I can rent out my helpers for a couple hours for a nominal fee...

Done? Now you should have something similar to this! Mine is a little rough, I was making it up as I went along.... Let's add some clouds to hide the not so perfect ends.

I used 5/8 inch ribbon for the clouds. Make a french knot, trim the ends, leaving a little extra to secure to the bottom of the "cloud" then glue to one side of the rainbow. Repeat for other side

Line your alligator clip with the 1/4 inch white ribbon and attach the rainbow- remember to keep in mind which side your daughter (niece, granddaughter, random child on the street with hair in her eyes) parts her hair

And this is what you will end up with. Ok so the contrast on the picture is a little screwy so you can't see the clouds that well... Lemme fix that....

 

Annnnd now the colors are weird but you can see the detail of the knots!

This tutorial thing is fun, Maybe now that Lola is back in school I can do more... I can keep with the rainbow theme and do a tutorial of my niece's birthday party invites :)