Category Archives: This & That

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely and meaningful Easter with your family! And if you don’t celebrate Easter, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. This year we headed down to Drew’s mom’s for Easter, and it was a very nice, laid-back day.

Poor Jake wasn’t feeling the greatest, but the boys still looked totally cute in their khakis and jackets. Both Jake and Noah actually wanted to wear ties — ha! And I thought Laura looked so sweet in this dress she got for her birthday last year. Perfectly springy!

Drew brought his new guitar and was able to play for everyone without a zillion distractions. While I love hosting holidays at our house, it’s so hard to try to really relax when you are a host, so he really had fun. I think you can tell that from this photo, too. I love it; it’s just him if that makes any sense!

My mother-in-law and her sister, as always, cooked us a wonderful dinner. They picked up a sweet Italian Easter bread at the bakery and oh my word was it ever delicious!

The rest of the meal was fabulous, as well… baked ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and cole slaw. I was stuffed! But of course I left room for dessert

As is tradition, the kids had a little egg hunt in my MIL’s yard. The boys were great — they let their little sister get most of the eggs.

And we even managed to get a semi-decent family photo, too! That is no easy task, LOL…

By the time we got home last night, everyone was just so exhausted. I got into bed around 8, put on the TV, and I am pretty sure I was out cold by 8:30.

Today it was right back into the swing of things, although lucky for me we were sent home with a ton of leftovers so dinner is pretty much ready to go Hope your week is off to a great start!

Well, hello there Spring! Nice to finally see you! OK, so it wasn’t terribly warm or anything, but the temps rose above 50, which meant I was able to crack open the windows and let in some fresh air. Ahhh! Much-needed! I also woke up with a ton of motivation today, so I took advantage of that and tried to get a lot done.

Started the day with a yummy breakfast and a cup of coffee. (You’ll have to bear with me — I got my new 50 mm lens, so expect a whole lot of photos as I play around with it!) Then it was on to laundry, changing sheets, and various chores around the house.

I’m so ready to start my spring cleaning, but until the weather is reliably warmer I’m going to put it off. Instead, I just switched out some linens and moved a few things around. Also, I think the piano bench could use some new foam padding, but I’m not quite ready to tackle that yet, either.

Made lunch for everyone, and Drew and Jake headed down to the comic book store for International Tabletop Gaming Day. They were there for fun, yes, but also to represent Drew’s game Mad Science. While they were out I made up some horseradish deviled eggs to bring to Easter dinner tomorrow. Oh, they are so good! I had to hide them way in the back of the fridge so I won’t devour them all.

Then it was time to iron clothes for tomorrow. Easter is the one holiday I don’t cook for. I mean, I certainly would,but we do Thanksgiving and Christmas Day here, so… sometimes it’s nice to be a guest

Thankfully, I thought ahead and made a dinner that required very little prep: Crock Pot chicken tacos. Oh, this is our new favorite way to make tacos. The chicken is so moist and yummy, and I love that I don’t have to pay attention to a pan. Just shred some cheese, chop some veggies, and dinner’s ready to go. Oh, and the kids wouldn’t let me forget the Glitter Grapes for dessert — LOL. I used mango Jell-O this time. I still like the melon fusion best, but this was good too.

Alas, now it’s time to clean up the dishes (though, truth be told Drew is doing that as I type… we have an unwritten “you cook, I clean” rule) and get on with the evening. Think I might have to lend my egg-stuffing skills to the Easter Bunny

I am not ashamed to admit that I have a not-so-secret guilty pleasure: a gooey, messy Big Mac from McDonald’s. There. I said it. I know, we’re all supposed to eschew fast food establishments (especially McD’s), but whatever. A few times a year I indulge in this treat and feel no need to apologize. But what about when I have that craving, but don’t want all the grease? Easy: I make my own version.

A number of years ago I bought a cookbook called Fast Food Fix by Devin Alexander. It features a number of made-over fast food meals. Not only does it show how to make them healthier, but obviously it instructs you how to make them at home.

I’ve adapted her recipe to suit my own tastes. I cut down the sugar even further and I think the difference is barely noticeable. And let’s be honest: I rarely measure the onions and pickles. I just eyeball the amount and mix them into the sauce. So now you can enjoy that signature McDonald’s taste at home, but using better quality ingredients. That’s the best of both worlds!

Copycat Big Mac Sauce

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. chopped dill pickles (or dill pickle relish)
• 2 tsp.ketchup
• 2 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1 Tbsp.+ 1 tsp. finely chopped white onion
• 1 tsp sugar

Combine all ingredients in a jar and stir well. Can be refrigerated for up to 1 month.

I seriously cannot wait until it warms up and we can grill on a regular basis. Despite cold temps and snow flurries on Saturday night, we fired up the grill to make these burgers. And it was totally worth the freezing fingers!

I’m linking up with Sandra at Diary of a SAHM
because it’s Cooking Thursday!

Ah yes. Well-played, Mother Nature. Well-played indeed. Spring may start tomorrow, but oh we had one (hopefully) final winter blast overnight and into the day. The kids’ school had a two-hour delay and just as they were settled into classes, a second wave of snow blasted through the Hudson Valley. Ugh!

Also, it was one of those days when everyone decided to get up at the crack of dawn. (More like pre-dawn!). Laura started calling for me before 5 a.m. and despite my attempts to settle her back to bed, I found myself watching “Timmy Time” at about 5:20. At least there was a pot of coffee.

So, it was a rough start. But then, around lunchtime the doorbell rang. It was FedEx with a delivery for me!

Those beautiful roses that Drew gave me for Valentine’s Day? Yes, well… they were beautiful for a day or so, but then almost none of them opened. So the buds just kind of withered away. Drew wrote a letter to the customer service department of the company he bought the flowers from and was issued a credit. He ordered me that beautiful succulent garden! What a lovely surprise on such a yucky day.

But it just got better. On a whim,  I joined a Twitter party, sponsored in part by Clever Girls Collective (I’m sure you’ve noticed that from time to time I do sponsored posts as a member of their blog network). Well, I ended up getting chosen for one of the prizes — an American Express gift card. Crazy!

We ended up opening a bottle of wine to have with dinner. Yes, this was a little bit fancy for our Crock Pot chicken tacos, but that’s OK. It wasn’t doing any good in the wine fridge.

And then it was time for Jake to get ready for Boy Scouts. It’s his first Court of Honor ceremony tonight, and I feel so bad that I’m missing it but trust me — I’d be doing no one any favors by bringing a tired three-year-old to this meeting. There will be another time.

So now the dishwasher is running, Laura is fast asleep, Noah is reading in bed and as for myself? Why, I do think a bit of crochet is in order. I haven’t done much over the last week, so I think I’ll take advantage of the quiet time, make a cup of chai and grab my yarn and hook and see what comes of it.

Have a great night!

Ah, finally time to relax a little. It was a busy day and I feel like I’ve been going non-stop. Tuesdays always start out early because my oldest has a before-school program and I drive him to school. Now, I don’t know about you, but hate, absolutely hate Daylight Savings Time. Losing that one hour sets me back for so long. Not to mention, I love my early morning light and now I miss it terribly.

After that, I came home, got my other son ready for school and on the bus, then it was off to story hour at the library. Of course, I enjoy hanging out at story hour as much as my littlest does so I guess that doesn’t really count as a “to-do” on the list

This afternoon I took care of many baskets full of laundry, fielded several e-mails and phone calls, put all the patches on Jake’s Boy Scout shirt, found a toggle clamp for Drew, and still managed to get dinner (roast chicken, potatoes, and steamed snap peas) in the oven, get the kids fed, get Jake dressed in his uniform, and make up a plate for Drew so he could quickly have a bite before taking Jake to scouts.

Whew!

So much for my wonderful idea of spending this rainy afternoon crafting. Yeah… that didn’t happen at all. Well, now I plan to have a cup of tea and curl up in bed with the final season of Weeds. Tomorrow should be a little less chaotic. I hope!