And now, to celebrate Thanksgiving, some Halloween...

For Halloween, Little Bear and I had a couple of other madwomen and their little ones over for a wee Halloween party.

It was fab and we were lucky enough to have a shutterbug in the group!

Being a mom, I pretty much never get to be in pictures with my tiny human. Like ever. So it made me extra happy to have a couple of shots of the two of us.

Maybe now the hubs' Flash costume makes a little more sense to ya'all.

Or not. He's a brave daddy.

We'll be fully into the swing of thanks and turkey over the next few days so I'm not sure if I'll be able to hop on and post much here. Check the Facebook Machine for updates.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoy as much family time as you can... No matter how bananas your family may be. 

Meatless Monday - Homemade Pasta!

This weekend I was given a lovely surprise by Ma. After hearing that I had hand grated an insane amount of summer squash and made gallons of pesto using a not-so-hot blender, Ma took things into her own hands and got me a lovely food processor! I had borrowed a processor from a friend during my baby food making days but had never gotten around to actually buying one for myself. Since returning the loaned one, I had avoided recipes that required processing and done my best to convince myself I really didn't need another kitchen gadget.

Good thing Ma has my back.

Sunday night was spent Googling "best uses for a food processor". Google has my back too.

Pasta kept popping up on lists so I decided to check out what the cookbooks had to say. They agreed.

I went with a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook because it had pictures and a whole lot of extra info on how the eff I was going to do this... and spinach. I like spinach.

I added the flour, salt and eggs and got to processing. It worked! Things looked cornmeal-esq. Next the spinach. Things looked green. I kept it running and poured in the oil and water.

Suddenly, dough! (I later explained this process to my darling husband to which he responded quite confused, "Wait. That's all noodles are!?" It's OK hunny, I was amazed too.)

I pulled it out and got to rolling.

The dough rolled beautifully. Seriously. It was smooth, not sticky and a little springy. I had trouble getting each ball rolled into 12 x 12 squares and getting it super thin but I did my best.

From there I rolled up each sheet for cutting into noodles.

All that was left was to hang the noodles. Hmmmmm.... but where? And on what?

I fashioned a string line in the kitchen and pulled out some hangers. That'll do.

Now, what to do with these fab little green noodles? I didn't want anything too flavorful because I wanted to make sure the noodles could be tasted. (Because I assumed there would be a taste to them, more on that in a bit), I tasked myself to a basic white sauce with the intention of adding some of my now dried herb harvest and garlic.

Creamy herb garlic noodles, yeah that sounds good!

And then I forgot to add the garlic. You know, the most important thing when you're talking creamy herb garlic noodles. Son of a...

So I threw in some peas. That makes sense, right?

No, not a great pic, actually quite nasty looking... but you get the idea. 

The sauce was borderline flavorless. As were the noodles. Which leads me to believe that if HAD done the sauce correctly, this would have been a home run... or at least a triple.

Next time. Next time.

Also next time, I need to try and get the dough a little thinner since the hubs complained the noodles were a bit "chewy" (he's right, they were). Also, I might go ahead and add a bit of herbs directly to the dough, just 'cuz.


So yes, I made my own noodles! And it wasn't that hard! And I think they could be good!



One more thing. Did you know you can make your own butter with a food processor?! AND buttermilk!? Google said so. That might be a little too ridiculous though.

I say that now but wait until we're in the dead of winter, I might get antsy enough to try...

Thanks and Welcome!

It's been a while since this has been said so I would like to throw it out there...

THANK YOU! 

For reals guys and gals, thanks for digging on the madness!

For ya'all that are new here, welcome! This is my place to get out some of the things that are rattling around in my brain. I mostly post on the Facebook Machine (because it's easy and takes all of 4 seconds with my phone) but the good stuff gets out on here.

On here I vent about random happenings, share my few proud homemaker triumphs and chronicle the things and stuff that make my world go round.

I generally have at least a couple blog drafts in the works (that I have kind of sort of started but may never complete), several blog ideas in my head (that I'm feeling but not sure of), and countless things that seem like I should look into them further and start writing (but I usually forget what the hell they are before I get on the internets).

I like to write. It feels good. It is a new discovery for me. I love being a SAHM but I miss communicating with people. Oh, how I loved scripting up a good email and knocking out a stellar conference call with well organized information and spreadsheets..... Mmmmm that was good stuff.

Since my life is more PBS Kids than Microsoft Outlook now, this is where I get my communication jollies. I hope you enjoy! 

I Have Never Been This Excited To Do A Meatless Monday!

I was looking forward to doing this Meatless Monday pretty much since the first bite of last week's Meatless Monday. As soon as we realized that Belgian waffles are more savory than sweet, I knew they had to be used in delicious egg sandwiches.

Yep, it was a good idea.

Last week's waffles were frozen so I popped them in the oven for a bit to warm up and make them a bit crunchy. Then I added cream cheese to one half and stuck spinach to it and added regular sliced cheese to the other half.

I like my sandwich eggs runny and all kinds of gooey so I added two eggs to my sandwich, one with the yolk broken and the other intact to be broken upon sandwich assembly.

The hubs and Little Bear like their eggs a little more intact so I left the spinach off the waffle and instead chopped it and added it to the whipped eggs to be cooked all together.

The end result was delicious! The waffle made a perfectly crunchy and sort of fluffy egg sandwich bread and since they were already in the freezer, it was minimal work. Little Bear opted to have us remove the egg and add syrup to his plate (ugh, fine, just eat it) which gave me an idea.

What would syrup be like with the whole thing?

A-Mazing!

Syrup is completely necessary and will for sure be slathered all over the damn things next time! Add some breakfast potatoes to the side and you have yourself a glorious Brinner!

Here's hoping next Meatless Monday is equally exciting!

Roasted Sunflower Seeds

Late last winter, Little Bear and I went to a green expo. Home Depot had a seed planting booth that we were able to have some fun at and we were lucky enough to bring home a lovingly planted sunflower seed. We added her to the rest of our seedlings and hoped for the best.

Come warm weather, she joined our Backyard Farm.

Yeah, that sucker grew!

Come harvest time, I thought I'd try something new and roast up the seeds from our pretty lady.

First, I cut the flower head and let it dry for a couple of weeks. When the back had turned yellow and the seeds were wiggly, I flicked them out and gave them a good rinse.

From there I soaked them overnight in saltwater. The seeds floated so I had to get a little creative to keep them under.

The next day I cooked the seeds for 4 hours at 200 degrees.

They smelled nice. They looked pretty. I was excited!

And then I cracked one open.

Empty. 

And another.

Empty.

And ten more.

Flippin' empty! 

Are you kidding me!?

And another.

Empty.

And another.

Seed! Yes! Delicious, seed!

And then another.

Damn! 

And the rest.

Son of a bitch. 

How is that even possible!? 

And into the trash they went.


Bastard seeds.

How are thiiiings?

Oh, hey guys! Sorry for the delay in posting, the fam and I have been down and out with a cold bug since Saturday and things are finally starting to smooth out enough to be called normal. Here are the latest updates.

• Daylight Savings Time happened, which anyone with children knows is just kind of a pain in the ass. Extra hour of sleep? Super! But then not because children do not understand that and will wake up whenever they damn well please. Which is exactly why we effed up giving Little Bear cold medicine early Sunday morning. Due to some daylight savings confusion (we thought it was still too early for him to wake up, it was... and wasn't), I groggily told the hubs to give Little Bear another dose of his PM meds instead of regular daytime goods. And then we realized what time it was and thought it would actually somehow be ok and we would get to sleep longer. How wrong we were. The hubs was nice enough to let me sleep in while he dealt with an abnormally amped up Little Bear. The kid literally walked around the house talking non stop for two hours. Lesson learned. 
• Halloween came and went. Little Bear had a wee kid Halloween party with his friends. It was adorable. He also went trick or treating. In the rain. And I am still answering questions each day regarding why we cannot put our costumes on and "go trick or treat more!

• 

  Cat#1 does Halloween quite well

  

  Dog

  

  Screw Papa Murphy's, my Jack O Lantern pizza is way cuter!

  

  The Flash! (The hubs is a dedicated Daddy)

• Also, in Halloween news, I figured out a way to combat the teenage bastards that don't dress up and beg for candy. (Effers.) Mini-Tootsie Pops. You're going to come to my house with a backpack FULL of candy that you have collected? Fine. But I'll only giving you one crappy sucker. Cute little kids in costumes, on the other hand, get gummies and stickers and smiles. (Sure, I could give those bastard teens nothing... but they scare me a little.)
• I finally got out and planted my tulips, three days before the first snowfall hit. Most are planted over Izzy's grave which I feel is pretty fitting. Girl loved to garden with me. I've never done bulbs before but I'm pretty excited to have my fave flowers ready to pop up and greet us with pretty colors in the spring. 
• We've finally decided it's time to start trying for another tiny human (Oh lawd!) When we were trying to get PG with Little Bear I watched my cycle and became a pro at temping and charting. This time we're thinking we'll just roll with it. (I say that now, knowing full well that a few months in I'll probably crack and become a chart freak again.)
• Another Meatless Monday success came and went! (Hells yes!)
• The mental Christmas countdown has began. I love me some Christmas joy!

And that's about it. Here's hoping for less illness in the house and an influx of blog fodder! 

Meatless Monday Brinner Waffles Remix

Monday came and I set myself to put SOMETHING together. It had been a while since we had cooked up some waffles so that seemed like a super choice. Buuuuuut, waffles have been done. How can I switch it up? The Joy of Cooking knows!

Yeast! In waffles!? Yikes! O...k....

I'm glad I gave Belgian Waffles a shot but I think they will be a one time thing. The main issue? Rise time. Cooking up a full batch of waffles takes long enough, let's not add 90 minutes for the batter to rise. Also, by the end I was really sick of that yeasty stank. They were good but not nearly as sweet and yummy as classic waffles.

I was left with a dozen or so to freeze so we will definitely be eating them in the future, just not fresh.

The plus side, since Belgian Waffles weren't as sweet as regular ones, they would make a rockin' egg sandwich. So basically, I know what next Meatless Monday will bring!