Toys And Ugly Days

My new pasta roller. Now that I had a key tool to making my own pasta, all I needed was a rack of some sort to dry the pasta out on. It gets too sticky on a towel. So I went down to Dicks Restaurant Supply and bought me a universal rack. It should do the trick.
Too many bananas.

A large pot of potato soup for a cold and gloomy summer day. Sad.

Toss in a loaf of artisan bread and let's call it good.

I've been feeling sick lately. And tired. Getting the motivation to do anything more than feed the kids has been hard. The past few months have been a roller coaster filled with ups and downs as far as energy. It's terrible!

Delicious With A Taste Of Delish

Fresh, warm bread.
Husband prepping the filet mignon. Letting it sit at room temp for a while helps the grilling of such a thick piece of meat. Drizzle some good oil over them and season.

Yummy corn.

Dear PETA - your so missin' out on this. Also served was creamy mashed potatoes topped with sour cream and grated cheese. This was the most filling meal we have made in a while. We barely finished what was on our plates.

Panick Much?

I feel panicky. I have less than a month left until Isabels 1st birthday party. It's the most important birthday ever, and Mia's didn't go so well. Although I'm pretty sure that my pipes won't freeze the day of the party and I've already tested out the cake recipe I'm using, so I'm sure that will all go fine. I'm also confindent that people won't be snowed in this time around.

What's got me panicked is food. I'm comfortable doing the cakes the night before. No problem. What's trippin' me up is my bold dare to make enchiladas, the highly top secret family recipe enchiladas. My mother gave it to me a couple years ago and I've taken special care to make sure nobody see's it, myself included, j/j! Do I dare make it for the very family it came from? When will I have the time to do it? Should I pull an all nighter the night before prepping, baking, cooking, grinding, simmering, and drinking? Maybe I should stock up on Kahlua and just get er' done!

Oh boy.

Stuff

Yayy for me I found some time to spend with my dresser project. Whom ever painted this, sucks. They painted right over old finish making the sanding very time consuming. My whole body was buzzing when I stopped for the day. Very nice wood though, can't wait to see it finished.
Sun tea time! I added some fresh mint from the garden.

A First

Today I finished my first baby blanket. It's very simple, and anybody could do it, but I can't help feeling proud of myself for not ruining it.

It's so soft - both sides of it. It will be great during the winter months. I will be gifting this this coming Sunday at a baby shower.

I didn't really cook today. My husband went into work early and so I made a small quick dinner for the girls and I. Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken and veggies. I'm loving my new Kindle. It amazes me how much faster I can read a book with it. Maybe because I look for time to read more often than at night while I'm laying in bed.

Happy 4th!

Today I..picked a few handfuls of Peonies from the garden. This is one of the vases I filled. They're so fragrant, my kitchen smells heavenly.

Then I baked a double batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The chocolate chips are few and far between. No thanks to me for sitting and eating a "few" the night before. It's kinda nice to get one once in a while instead of a mouthful.

My husband BBQ'd today. All I did was some prep work for the burgers and threw some steak fries in the oven. Classic American for a classic kinda day. Now for a relaxing evening of hearing other peoples fireworks.

I did buy what I though was "kid friendly" fireworks for the girls. I tried to hand Mia a sparkler and she freaked out. And then I set Isabel up, at a safe distance but with a good view to watch some simple "showers"...she freaked out. So, my relaxing evening will involve thoughts on how to de-traumatize my girls for next year.

Happy 4th All!

Getting My Shit Together

Slowly baking bacon in the oven, partially cooked and ready to be wrapped around chicken.

Chicken wrapped. Topped with fresh red onion, sliced tomato, minced garlic, and canola oil. Then you bake for 30 (ish) minutes.

Yumm. The chicken was cooked perfectly and soo juicy.

I made mac n' cheese. I wanted to do cheddar and mozzarella. Out of mozz. What? I hate being out of mozz, I use it for so many different things. So I used Dubliner cheese. Although I grated little of that compared to the amount of cheddar, because it's very strong cheese and I was happy with the result. Nice and cheddary with a spot of Dub. I made too much, and me and the girls ended up eating the rest with lunch.

I feel like today I got my shit together. I managed to do laundry, clean the house, vaccuum AND clean the floors. I kept my kitchen cleaned and even had it cleaned, again, before dinner was even ready. Thanks to the long oven time. So when my girls were full, bathed and tucked into bed, I had ZERO guilt about sitting to watch a show with a handful of chocolate chips. Zero!