Meal 3

BBQ!!

Really easy,

1 qt beef

1/4 t garlic

1 c. ketchup

6 T vinegar

2 T Worcestershire sauce

4 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground mustard

Combine all and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. That's when I added my canned beef so it would get hot. I was going to make rolls but I had fresh bread. You should go to my aunts blog for that recipe. She took a lot of pictures of the process. The only difference is that I put in 1 less cup of wheat and add a cup of oats. I usually put in some flax seed too. We had green beans on the side. (and cantaloupe, but that's not exactly food storage:)

In another note...I'm torn whether or not to get Claire the flu shot. Not the swine flu, just regular flu. She's going to start nursery in November. Her next well baby appointment isn't till November either. Do I wait till then, or call the doctor and get her one, or not worry about it at all? AHH!!

What are you doing? Flu, swine flu, or nothing at all?

Relief Society Conference

There's nothing like a conference to make you feel inadequate, but loved and motivated :)

It was a good conference. Brian was nice enough to watch Claire. We had a nice salad dinner and some cheesecake before. It was really good to visit with other women.

My new motto

Or at least something to make me feel better when I get overwhelmed with my house ;)

----------------------------

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow....

for babies grow up,

we've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs,

dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby,

and babies don't keep!!

---Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Sweet and Sour-Meal 2

It's definitely a keeper.

1 pt chicken---I used my canned chicken for the first time. One didn't seal on Monday so I stuck it in the freezer. Very tender and very yummy! Better than when I boil it on the stove :)

2 cups rice

4 cups water

1 can pineapple (reserve juice)

2/3 cup vinegar

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 T cornstarch

4 T soy sauce

1 tsp molassas

1 T dried onion

1 can water chestnuts

1/4 cup dried bell pepper

(I have freeze dried bell pepper. I put 1/4 cup in a bowl with 1/4 cup water and let soak for a while. It seemed to be good)

combine rice and water and cook. Put pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, soy, molasses together and cook. Cook till thick.

Saute veggies. (I also put in some fresh celery because I had it), add chicken and heat, add pineapple if you want it warm. Serve

I usually put the rice in a 9X13 pan, put the meat mixture on top and then put the sauce on. We dish it from that.

In other news...I'm excited for Bones to be on HULU tomorrow!!!!

Meal 1

I'm going to cook through my 21 meals...just to make sure everything is good before I go buy a bunch of stuff. Today was the easiest one since I had to go VT and I had to can some more chicken. So we had macaroni and cheese! Kids love it and heck, I do too. It's not extremely filling but with bread and peas or green beans I thought it would be a nice easy dinner. (Claire actually eats it *shock*) I may not do it 21 days straight because I need to make up some mixes and I just ordered dehydrated celery, mushrooms, and carrots from Waltons. I am jealous of people who live close to this store. Shipping is a killer!

Playing in the laundry

Someone had a good nap

Playing in the kitchen, waiting for the chicken to be done.

Class 1

Well I went and had a ton of fun! There were only 6 of us in the class. The teacher is deaf but wasn't born deaf. She had meningitis when she was 5. She didn't even learn sign language until she graduated from college! I cant imagine going through high school and college not being able to really communicate except for writing. She was hard to understand at first but then we got used to it and it was better. Still not all the way though. I knew most of the signs we did today but knowing them and being able to quickly do them in a sentence or read what someone else is signing is totally different. We did numbers too. I have to do my phone number for next week :) I'm going to enjoy this~

Signing

I am going to a Signing class tomorrow!! I registered at Peninsula College for a class that they are doing in Sequim. A lady from my ward told me about it and even has the text book that I can borrow. It is Tuesday nights from 6-8. Is it silly that I'm kinda nervous? I hate doing things by myself...I'll let you know how it goes!

(got some chicken canning right now..yay!)

Stuff from Arkansas

These were what I took on the phone in Arkansas

My rainbow cake

Claire in the bath

Jumping with Uncle Ethan

JC Pennys dressing room

Silly with Grandma

Good Weekend

Well, we have reached an end to a very good weekend. It started off on Friday when I decided to make a nice dinner for Brian. I went to the store and got everything. While we were there Claire started SCREAMING! A guy who worked there actually came up to me and gave me a cookie from the bakery to give to her and patted me on the back and said "good luck". Ha. You know your kid is bad when that happens. lol. It turned out very nice.

Aren't you jealous? :)

I've also been working on a new food storage system. (I hear it all now....not food storage again?!? Hey, it's MY blog :) I know my strengths and I am NOT a creative cook. I can't look at my pantry and say, oh, I'll take this and this and this and make that. Uh uh. Not me. So, I came up with 7 breakfasts and 21 full "foodstorage" meals, sides and everything, and figured out how much I would need to have a year supply. So I times every breakfast by 52 and the dinners by 17. I figured out how much I would need to make a loaf of bread a year and also came up with about 9 different desserts to make 6 times a year so we would have a dessert once a week. I figured on making granola every other week and I have a hot chocolate recipe for the winter months. EVERYTHING down to the last teaspoon of salt. I have a little wiggle room in the recipes, such as I could make tostados instead of bean burritos and such. I added in fruit too. So anyway, I put everything down in alphabetical order and so now I know how much I have and how much I need. It looks like a ton, but slow and steady does it. I mean, a YEAR of food is a LOT. But this way I know exactly what I can make and I don't have to stress about that. When I first heard about this system the lady only had 14 dinners. I thought 21 would make it a little more diverse and I have things like chicken pot pie, green chili, lasagna, Navajo tacos, tuna casserole, meat and potatoes, a good variety. Not all pasta, not all Mexican. I think it will be good.

ANYWAY, the point of that is that we have been going around to all the different stores with a list of all the ingredients and pricing them out to see what is cheapest where. It's been a lot of work but I think it will pay off. We did that Saturday. Chicken was $1.88 at Albertsons so I bought about 20 lbs and will be canning it tomorrow. My mother in law made me insanely jealous when she told me today that she got chicken for 99 cents a lb!!! AHH!

Our church switched over to 9 am today. I LOVE IT! We wake up and go and come home and put Claire down for a nap. It is glorious! We had a girl come over for dinner and the missionaries too. I thought it turned out pretty good. Now, Claire is in the bath and I'm ready for everything to calm down :) A good weekend.

Here are some videos to enjoy

Our Dancing Queen

The day of the VMA shenanigans we looked up both Taylor Swifts video and Beyonce's video and found out that Claire really likes "Single Ladies". haha.

More dancing

We went to WalMart and she found a microphone that did Beauty and the Beast and it was SO CUTE!

Claire updates

Claire is so stinking fun lately! She has started waving to everyone we see. She loves dancing to Beauty and the Beast and she is starting to love 101 Dalmations. :) She loves blowing bubbles and playing with sidewalk chalk. She gives the best kisses. She loves it when we count to 10 and say the alphabet. Her favorite songs are Popcorn Popping, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Wheels on the Bus, and Little Bunny Foo-foo. Her vocab is growing by leaps and bounds! She repeats everything we ask her to say. *I* think she is the smartest little girl :) The other day she pointed up in the sky and said moon. I corrected her, saying no, its the sun but she kept saying moon, so I looked up and it was the moon! You could still see it. She knows what is a horse and what is a goat. She points to every part of your face and most parts of the body. Eyebrows are her favorite :) She still loves signing. She loves shoes and carries them all around the house. She also loves jumping. We absolutely love playing with this silly, fun little girl.

Now, if only she would start sleeping through the night *sigh*

French Bread

I found this recipe on Marins Creation...and I just had to pass on the love. It's super easy and tasty. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, just like French Bread should be! I've made it three times and it's been perfect each time :)

Ingredients:

3 c. flour (2-3 more needed later)

2 T. yeast

2 c. warm water

2 T. oil

1 T. Suger

2 t. salt

Combine all in mixer and mix for 1 min.

Add 2-3 cups more flour one at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl.

Knead for 10 minutes (seemed long to me but do it)

Roll half the dough out to a 12x15 rectangle. Roll up longs ways. Slit the top a few times.

Combine 1 egg white and 2 T. cold water, brush on the top of the bread

Let rise till doubled

Bake for 20-25 min. at 375

Makes 2 loaves

I'll never buy french bread again!

Back!

Well Claire and I made it back from our trip yesterday. It was a very long flight. We flew out around 4 pm which is new for us. All of our other flights have been in the morning. Our flight out of Little Rock was a little late and we only had a 30 min layover as it was. But as we stepped off that flight our next one was boarding so all was well. Funny thing about the flights this trip was that they were very misleading. Down to Little Rock I bought a "direct" flight. Who knew that "direct" meant stopping in Albuquerque, then Dallas, then Little Rock! Same on the way back! I was not a happy camper. But Claire was 99.9 percent angel. She fell asleep the last 20 minutes of the flight (of course) and didn't even ake up when I changed her diaper and clothes. Poor girl was exhausted. The really annoying thing on that last flight was the kids I was sitting next to. The girl was in HS and the guy had just graduated and they were making out and groping the WHOLE flight. I mean, puhlease people. uck.

Anyway, my trip was awesome. I saw a bunch of people. My Grandma McGrath was there when I first got there and then the last few days we were in Gulfport Mississippi at my Mama's 87th bday party. My Aunt blogged about it HERE. We hung out and Claire loved my family. The boys loved her too. It was so fun to watch them. My mom has some stuff on her blog HERE, HERE, and HERE. Yes, I know I am lame. I didn't take my camera. I did get some stuff on my phone thought so I will have Brian get it off for me. A great thing about visiting my family is that I can make all the desserts I have wanted to make but not have to eat the whole thing. I made a rainbow cake and a 14 layer cake. Both were very yummy, both very time consuming.

I was sad to leave my family but very excited to see Brian. I missed him tons. He took off half of today and tomorrow. Yay! So now, we are going to have to get back into a routine and find something to do. One thing I'm going to do is get all Julie and Julia on a cookbook. This one

My mom got it for me. It has a bunch of recipes in it. I figured I would cook through the whole book and see what I like. So far we have done pita bread, red beans and rice, and Santa Fe lentils. Gotta use that food storage and put it in our diet so if something happens it wouldn't be a shock.

I promise to be a better blogger :)