Spooky

I finally got around to reading the post secret secrets for this week. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this one:



It gave me the chills.

See, MY birth mother was 15 or 16 when I was born. She was LDS (mormon) and was strongly encouraged to put me up for adoption since she was too young to get married or take care of a child on her own.

That is according to the stories that I have heard. Long story short, my birth mom and I just happened to have the same Seminary teacher in high school. His name is Gary. Gary and his wife were in the process of adopting and since this is such a small town word gets around pretty quickly. My adoptive mom (Nonnie) became very close friends with them and helped them out the best she could. Nonnie knew Gary had taught Seminary at one of the high schools in the city I was born in around the time I was born. She casually asked Gary if he had known my birth mom (obviously she used her name) either while he was teaching or involved with the LDS church. He knew her and remembered that she had been pregnant. Putting 2 and 2 together he figured it out.

Shortly after that, Gary and his wife got the baby they were waiting for and had to move. Their baby's birth mom apparently was mentally unstable and they were afraid that if she found them she would try to take him back or something.

I didn't know that the conversations about my birth mother even happened until after I had turned 18 and by then Gary and his family had been long gone to somewhere in Utah.

I would give just about anything to be able to talk to Gary about my birth mom. It would be one step closer to finding her. I really don't know if I want a relationship with her, that is something I go back and forth on because it scares the shit out of me. I just want her to know that she did make the right decision and that I have never been angry about it. I want to know what she and my birth father look like. I want to know if I have any siblings out there.

Most of all, I want my medical history. I hate having to explain to doctors and dentists and psychologists and insurance companies why I leave all the answers blank when the forms ask for the parents medical history. The look of pity most of them give me pisses me the hell off.

Back before Hubbs and I got married, he took me to the city my birth parents went to school in. He found the public library where the high school year books were stored and made arrangements for us to go in and be able to spend all day searching through the year books looking for either of my birth parent's pictures. We did find one picture that matched my birth father's name but the picture was of a black guy and I am so white I am clear. While it is technically possible, I don't think it was really him, but it would totally be okay if it was.

I have to go pick up Hubbs from FIL's house in a minute. Maybe I will post more about the whole adoption thing tomorrow, maybe some other day, or maybe not. I don't really get in the mood to post about it very often and I usually change my mind and delete it instead of publishing it.

Snow?

All the weather forecasts point towards snow tonight.

In October?

In Arizona?

Unreal.

I already feel like I am freezing to death. Weatherbug says that it is 63 degrees but it feels a hell of a lot colder than that. It is pretty nasty outside.

President Obama and Swine Flu

President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring swine flu a national emergency

Seriously???

I can't even imagine the pandemonium this will cause. What the hell is he thinking! And to compare it to a hurricane? Stupid. Talk about fear mongering.

National emergency or not, we will not be getting the vaccine. There are still wayyyy too many things that aren't know about the vaccine for me to feel comfortable with.

Tuesday Dinner: Breakfast Rice & Rasin Toast

This is a very easy and quick dinner or breakfast.

1 serving = ½ cup instant rice and ½ cup water
I can never remember that ratio for some reason.

Bring water to a boil. Add instant rice to boiling water. Cover pan and let sit 8 minutes or until water is absorbed. Serve with sugar and milk.

Monday Dinner: Monster Mash Hash

(I doubled this recipe. There was enough for dinner and lunch the next day)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (8oz) stewed tomatoes, cut up
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 can (7oz) whole kernel corn
8oz. pasta (I used egg noodles)
Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

In large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add turkey, onion & garlic. Cook, stirring until turkey is browned.
To skillet add tomatoes, Ketchup, oregano, salt & pepper. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
To mixture in skillet, add corn & its liquid. Heat through.
Serve on pasta.

Sunday Dinner: Perfect Pizza

Ingredients
1 1/4 c warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbls olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp cornmeal
1 c pizza sauce
Assorted toppings
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Place 1/4 c warm water in a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over water and stir in sugar. Let stand 5-10 minutes or until bubbly. Add remaining water, oil and salt. Stir in flour until dough pulls away from side of bowl.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, 8-10 minutes. Coat large bowl with cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning to grease top. Cover loosely. Let rise in warm place until almost double in size, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 F. Punch down dough. Coat two 12 inch pizza pans with cooking spray; sprinkle pans with cornmeal. Divide dough in half. Roll dough to fit prepared pans; press dough against edge to form rim. Bake crust for 10 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and top with pizza sauce. Add the toppings and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, 15-20 minutes longer.

**Hint: The secret to rolling pizza dough is to let it rest for 10 minutes after it is about half the size needed. Then it will easily stretch the rest of the way

Friday Dinner~~Hillbilly Cheese Dip with Thursday and Saturday thrown in for good measure

1 lb hamburger
1 lg pkg of Velveeta (cubed)
2 c milk
2 small cans of green chilies (drained)
1/4 diced onion
1/2 pkg taco seasoning
1 can Rotell (or any canned) tomatoes (drained)
1 can refried beans
1 Bag Tortilla chips

In deep saucepan, cook hamburger and onion, drain, and set aside. In same saucepan, add milk and cubed Velveeta. Stir constantly (or else it will burn) until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and add taco seasoning. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients except chips. Put saucepan back on heat and stir constantly until well mixed and semi-smooth.

Serve with Tortilla chips.

Thursday Dinner: It was Nonnie's birthday so we had Mexican Food at her house. Hubbs brought Mexican Rice. Nothing special, just the Rice-a-Roni kind.

Saturday Dinner: Sandwiches
We had fried PB&Js and Doritos. It was deliciously nasty.

Tuesday and Wednesday Dinner~~Breakfast

Tuesday Dinner~~Eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns. Yummy!

Wednesday Dinner~~Blue Berry Pancakes
2 boxes Jiffy Blueberry muffin mix
Just follow the directions on the box for the pancakes.

Special Syrup
1 can evaporated milk
1 evaporated milk can full of sugar
Add both ingredients to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Serve over pancakes.

Monday Dinner:Chicken Alfredo and Parmesean Bread

1 jar Alfredo Sauce
1 pkg Linguine Noodles
4 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 loaf french bread
margarine
Parmesan cheese

Dice chicken breasts and pan fry.
Cook noodles according to Al-Dente directions on package.
Heat Alfredo Sauce and add chicken. Stir until mixed well. Add noodles and serve.

Slice french bread in half longways. Slather on margarine and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Bake in oven at 400 until margarine is melted.

Saturday and Sunday Dinner~~Baked Potato Soup

Peel and dice 5 or 6 potatoes. Boil until soft. While the potatoes are cooking, chop an onion and put in crockpot. Drain potatoes, mash and put in crockpot. Add 2 cans evaporated milk (not condensed), 3 cups milk, salt, pepper, 1 tsp crushed garlic, and enough water to cover potatoes. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Add a pouch of potato topping (found in produce section at grocery store) and cook on low for another 10-20 minutes.

You can substitute potato flakes for fresh potatoes. I can’t imagine it would taste any different. But it would eliminate all the peeling, cutting, boiling and mashing. I might try it next time.

Sunday Dinner: We had leftovers.

Friday Dinner~~Cheese Crisps

Ingredients:
2 flour tortillas for each person
margarine
shredded cheese
Directions:
Heat oven to 400. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Spread margarine over one side of tortilla and place on cookie sheet. Add a handful of cheese to one side. Fold tortilla over cheese. Repeat for 2nd tortilla.

Bake for 3 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. Flip tortilla over. Bake until tortilla starts to turn golden brown and cheese finishes melting. This takes another 4-7 minutes depending on the type of cheese used.

Use pizza cutter to cut cheese crisp and serve with dishes of refried beans, sour cream and salsa for dipping.

Thursday Dinner~~Pizza and Calzones

I resisted the urge to order Dominos and made pizzas and calzones instead. It was just cheese and pepperoni but really good. Pretty cheap too. I didn't have to go to the store for anything since everything was already in my pantry and freezer.
2 cans Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pkg of pepperoni
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
8 oz shredded Cheddar cheese
cornmeal
cooking spray
Preheat oven according to pizza dough directions on can. Lightly spray a rectangle cookie sheet with Pam and sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on it. Roll out pizza dough. For Calzones, cut dough down the middle, for pizzas leave intact. Spread 2+ Tbls spaghetti sauce over dough, leaving 1/2 inch unsauced all the way around for crust. Layer pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and then cheddar cheese on half of dough for Calzones, and over all the dough for pizza. For Calzones, fold bare half of dough over toppings, pinch and tuck under to seal on all 3 open sides. Cook for 11 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.

Meals

Whoah. Looks like I hit enter once too many times there.

I am working on getting our meals since last Wednesday all typed out. Each recipe is (hopefully) going to have its own post for easier reference.

Hooray

The internet here at work was down almost all day yesterday. I was SO bored. But I think I have finally gotten completely caught up.

Now to catch up on the blogging stuff.

Getting Caught Up

Who knew that taking a week off for vacation would leave me with so much stuff to catch up on when I got back?

I have been working all week to get caught up on last week. I finally got through all the stacks of last weeks junk on my desk yesterday.

Now I have this weeks junk to catch up on. Hopefully I can get it all done today.

If so, then I can catch up on my blog and everybody else's blogs.

Thread Memory is BACK!

Holy shitballs. Babycenter has thread memory again.

This is awesome news.

Dinners

I have really been slacking on the blogging since vacation started.

Whoops.

Catching up on dinners since Friday today. Lots of prices missing. I may come back to this post and add prices.

Friday Dinner
Fettuccine Alfredo
1 box of Fettuccine noodles (free when I bought sauce)
1 jar of Alfredo Sauce (2/$5 minus 2 $.50 coupons doubled)
1 loaf of garlic bread (2/$5 minus 2 $.50 coupons doubled)
Cook everything according to package/jar directions.
Everything was from the pantry and freezer. The sales were from a few months ago so I am completely going off memory on the prices.

Saturday Dinner
Green Chili & Tortillas
I have posted that recipe here before I think.

Sunday Dinner
Ham and Beans
1 lb sliced Honey Baked Ham (gift from FIL, $75-80 for huge ham)
2 cups dry beans (Hubbs family has something to do with a bean farm so free)
2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix (2/$1)

Soak beans in water over-night to soften. In the morning, drain beans, rinse and throw in crock pot. Add ham and enough water to cover. Cook on low all day. Bake cornbread according to package directions.

Monday Dinner
Hubbs and Monk Man had reheated ham and beans. Bobblehead and I had reheated green chili.

Tuesday Dinner
Mashed Potato Tacos
1 pkg corn tortillas
1 large potato each person plus 1 extra
shredded Cheddar cheese
Salsa or El Pato sauce
Boil a pan of water. Peel potatoes and dice. Add potatoes to water and return to a boil. Reduce to medium heat and cover. Cook potatoes until they slide off a fork when poked. Warm corn tortillas in hot vegetable oil. Set aside to cool. Drain potatoes and mash. Add 1 cup milk and cheese. Cover half of the corn tortilla with potato mixture. Fold tortilla over and fry in hot oil until crunchy. Serve with salsa or El Pato sauce.
The kids were full on 2 tacos each. Hubbs and I had 4 each.

Tonight's Dinner (Wednesday)
Huevos Rancheros
Left over green chili
left over beans (ham removed)
3 potatoes
1 pkg corn tortillas
eggs
vegetable oil
shredded cheddar cheese

Peel potatoes and dice. Fry until crunchy. Warm corn tortillas in hot oil and set aside. Reheat green chili. Re fry beans by putting in a skillet, heating and mashing with fork. Fry egg.
Huevos Rancheros layers: Tortilla, fried potatoes, refried beans, green chili, egg. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Career Stuff

Remember how I said I decided I wanted to be an Event Planner? I am actually following through with this idea.

Last week (before Hubbs went into Extreme Saving Mode) I was cruising eBay and came across the Knot's Ultimate Wedding Planner for $4.

Score!

That came in the mail yesterday. I leafed through it while I was waiting on the potatoes to turn into hashbrowns. But since I was trying to do 2 things at once, I didn't get too deep into it. I did notice some awesome checklists which is very appealing to my analness.

I am really excited to be able to sit down and really read it, hopefully tonight while sitting in the bathtub, sipping a Cosmopolitan.

Another sign that I just might actually pull it off? I have started talking about it face to face with some of my friends and famdamily. Now I have to at least try.

Low Cost Dinner

An Extreme Saving Mode post today.

In order to stay accountable in the whole "cooking from the pantry and stockpile" thing I talked about yesterday, I am going to have to blog about what I made for dinner and maybe how much it cost.

You all will keep me in check right? Spank me when I cave and get fast food or delivery, ok?

Last night I dug through the fridge to find dinner. Hubbs has already caved and offered to order a Dominos Pizza (one of my weaknesses). But I stood my ground and told him he was being a lazy ass.

We have so much in our fridge right now that it is almost impossible to find anything. Cleaning out the fridge is the first thing on my vacation to-do list.

So back to what I cooked for dinner. Bacon, eggs and browns. Breakfast for dinner doesn't happen very often at our house anymore so it was a nice treat.

I got the bacon on sale last week for 2/$6 and used 2 $1 coupons so was $2/lb. I used 1/2 lb last night. I got the eggs for free since they didn't get rang up at the register. I noticed it when I was looking over my receipt later that day and I did call Safeway but they told me not to worry about it. They should have been $.99 for 18 and used 6. And the potatoes were 5 lbs/$.99. I used 4 large potatoes so maybe 2 lbs. The bacon was pretty fatty so no other grease was needed.

1/2 lb bacon: $1.00
6 eggs: $.30
2 lbs potatoes: $.38
Total cost of dinner: $1.68 for 4 people.
The cost of the pizza Hubbs wanted to order: $14.00

Not too bad. I found a bunch of recipes yesterday that have ingredients I think I already have. Well, most of the ingredients. I think after I clean out the fridge tomorrow I am going to sit down with the Safeway ad and figure out what I need to add to the grocery list for Sunday.

Damn, I just realized that if it wasn't for Hubbs beer, I would have a teeny grocery bill. Maybe I will have to do a separate transaction for the beer and see how low I can get my bill.

Pantry Cooking

Hubbs has decided that we are going into "Extreme Saving" mode. He always freaks out a few days before payday. But usually he just rants about it for a few hours and forgets about it by the next day.

Not this time though.

This time he is actually following through with it. I was chosen to be in charge of the meal planning. Oh goody. I will probably have to cook it all too.

But instead of starting a fight about it, I actually started looking for recipes. I will post our meal plan in a few days, after I get it all worked out.

We will just have to take it like everything else, one day at a time.

We are going to have to focus our meals on what is already in the pantry and freezer. Luckily I have a pretty nice sized pantry of food stuff to work with.

Fun Fall Craft

I am soooo doing this craft with the boys next week. I think that the grandmas would appreciate it. Hooray for vacation and cheap Christmas presents.

From Martha Stewart: Leaf Print Tablecloth
Using leaves for craft projects is one way to capture the beauty of autumn. Fallen leaves can be used as stamps to decorate a tablecloth.

Collect leaves of various shapes and sizes, and use only the best specimens. You'll need fabric paints in fall colors, such as brown, dark green, and deep red. You can customize your own colors through blending the paints.

To make your tablecloth design, experiment by moving the leaves around on the fabric. You can create a border, but covering the entire tablecloth with leaf prints is also lovely.

Tools and Materials
Sponge brushes
Leaves of various sizes and shapes (make sure they are not brittle)
Fabric paint
Light-colored cotton or linen tablecloth, prewashed
Paper towel, parchment paper, or kraft paper
Brayer or rolling pin
Iron
Muslin or scrap fabric (optional)

Leaf Print Tablecloth How-To
1. Use a sponge brush to lightly coat the veined underside of your leaf with fabric paint.

2. Place the leaf, paint side down, onto the tablecloth. Cover the leaf with kraft paper, parchment paper, or a paper towel to prevent the paint from getting on the brayer or rolling pin.

3. Roll the brayer over the paper a few times, firmly pressing the painted leaf onto the fabric. Keep the paper as still as possible; if it shifts, the paint beneath the leaf will smudge. Lift up the paper and the leaf.

4. Repeat the process, using a different leaf and different piece of paper for each new print.

5. Before heat-setting the paint, wait 24 hours. With the pattern side down, press the cloth with an iron set at medium high. Protect your ironing board by covering it with a piece of muslin or scrap fabric first.