Potato Casseroles

I've been craving potato casserole.  Sorry I don't have links for these, but I copied down a couple of recipes (onto paper!), one for the crock pot and one not for the crock pot. I haven't started early enough in the day to use the crock pot, but I thought that recipe had better ingredients, even though I don't really measure the ingredients and I added extra veggies.

This was the first one I made earlier in the week:

Picky eater #1 liked the first casserole enough for one small plateful. He liked today's enough for two small platefuls.

So, yeah, I made it again today, but this time instead of using red potatoes like last time, I used tater tots. Also, I sauteed an onion and some garlic in butter, then added the tater tots to that and a bag of frozen mustard greens and then some frozen corn. Then, I removed it from the heat and added 3/4 of a rectangle of cream cheese. I didn't have sour cream this time, so I used plain yogurt, and butter and about a cup of cheese and seasonings like lemon pepper, seasoned salt, parsley, sesame seeds. I think that's it. Then, put it in the buttered cake pan and popped it into the oven at 375F for 20 minutes, and then add more cheese on top and cook another five minutes.

Delicious!  Well, Picky Eater #2 wouldn't even taste it. The first time, he didn't even want to be in the same room as it, because he didn't like the way it smelled. Today, I cooked him some plain frozen corn, so he happily ate that. See how happy he is?

These two liked it, both times.

I think tonight's was more flavorful because of the onion and mustard greens, and probably because the processed tater tots were already flavored. Oh well.

She liked it! She was the last one at the table.

Caramel cookie bars

I was looking for a way to use some of the salted caramel that I made too salty. Today, my son's Pre-Algebra class was having a party for the last day of class, so I made caramel cookies for him to take.

I used this recipe to begin with: caramel-bar-cookies, and then I added the salted caramel on top along with some drizzling of sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut. Kinda like Magic Cookie Bars, but with a more cookie like base than the graham crackers with melted butter.



Also, it is made as a bar on a cookie sheet. I didn't get it spread all the way to the edges, but it expanded to fill the whole cookie sheet as it baked. I probably could have baked it a little longer as they are very soft, but the ones around the edges were getting crunchy. Picky eater #1 volunteered to eat all of them and he doesn't even like caramel! He really likes Magic Cookie Bars, though.



I made some no-bake oatmeal cookies last week and he wouldn't even taste them. I told him he wasn't doing his cookie eating duty. He said, "Mo-o-om, this is a weird conversation."



My son's teacher said they were delicious and thought about asking for the recipe, but then she figured that she would make them and eat them. So, I think they were a hit.

Still moving in after 14 months

My husband went out of town without me, so I was inspired to make some home improvements while he was gone.

I finally hung up the shelf that holds the recorders that has been on top of the piano pretty much as long as the piano has been there. That's the one on the right.

Then, I made another recorder shelf and hung it on the left. They are both made from an Ikea shelf that I cut in half and drilled 1/4" holes through and cut a 1/4" dowel into about 4-6" pieces and pushed them into the drilled holes.

I also cut another shelf in half, well a little more than half, because of the light switch, and hung both parts of it up to hold various other music paraphernalia. Where are my ocarinas? I think they are still packed in the garage. Someday... I've gotta go through more boxes in the garage and get rid of stuff and consolidate other stuff. Mostly I need to purge, give away and lighten our load!

I'm pretty happy that I got the shelves all hung up and not bothered at all by the fact that I couldn't find my level when I was ready to hang them. Spencer said it wouldn't matter as long as they were all crooked the same way or opposite or something.
You can't tell that they are crooked, can you?

However, I knew I would be bothered if my TV hung crooked, so I bought a level for that, only to discover that the wall hanger thingamabobber had a tiny level in it! My stud finder wasn't co-operating very well which was frustrating, but it worked just long enough to find two studs after much pushing of the button with nothing happening. I also didn't have the right size drill bit for pre-drilling the holes in the studs, so I used a slightly smaller one and ended up breaking two of the screw heads off. I didn't think I was that strong, even though the instructions have a warning about that very thing happening. So, I used two other anchored screws on each side of both broken screws, because I didn't want to have to drill four new holes!

I think all that took three trips to two different hardware stores. Well, I also hung the bulletin board to the right of the TV that is covered in fabric that will hold necklaces once I put the tacks in it and unpack the necklaces. And I hung a mirror in the family room and put a wall guard behind a doorknob in the bathroom where the lock was making an impression in the wall and spackled a few holes in the walls.

I have plans for more improvements, but that was all I could accomplish in two days.

April Flowers

I loved finding that one yellow flower standing out in the midst of these beautiful pink ones.

What caption would you give this pic?
Bloom where your planted?
No one can be the you that you can be.
Don't be afraid to be unique.
Why be normal?

Museum Trip

We went on a homeschool field trip, yesterday. The museum gave us free admission, like they would for a school group. It was fun to get together with a few families we hadn't seen in a while.

This is a picture of Trevor two years ago at a different museum.

That was his favorite part, he really wasn't very happy during the rest of our wanderings.

By contrast, yesterday, Z was pretty happy during our museum trip. We mostly cruised at her speed through the exhibit rooms and she would stop to look at things, though not usually long enough for me to read the little signs, unless I kneeled down and held her on my lap while I read to her.

But what was her favorite part?

"I-can't-help-it. It's-so-beautiful." -A Bug's Life

Which begs the question, what is art?

I love that quote, "Nature is a revelation of God - art is a revelation of man."

The second floor of the museum had sayings like this all around the stairs, way up high near the ceiling. I love it when there are beautiful things way up high, where you might not even notice them, unless you take the time to look up!

I had to zoom as much as my camera would zoom on some. I'm glad they turned out readable.

It reminded me how much I've missed going on field trips this year; we've done hardly any, because Geneva is in public school this year and it seems rather rude to go off and have fun learning, while she's stuck behind a desk. Too many field trips can be a bother, but it is fun to remember that learning can happen anywhere you seek it.

Knowledge is thine forever!

Peeping Baby

On Easter Sunday, we were in the backyard while the kids were doing their egg hunt and I found my one-year-old peeking through a hole in the fence and I thought it was just too cute. There's really nothing to see, just the neighbor's yard, nobody was there.

Of couse when she hears me coming, she has to stop and look at me.

Spencer convinced her to look again.

Is the grass greener? It's definitely shorter with less weeds.

I think this last pic is my favorite.

Feeling Creative

My Z babe has two dresses that fit, which is certainly sufficient for her needs, but I had some yarn and a need to create something, so I made her a dress. This picture was taken before I finished the edging on the sleeves.

I don't think she likes it.

I started at the bottom, with the solid purple yarn and a shell stitch. She was asleep when I began it, so I didn't know how wide to make it. I worked in the round for a few rounds, then switched to single crochet, so I could narrow it a little. Then, I tried a new stitch, which was super easy, that goes: single crochet (sc) and double crochet in the same sc, then skip one sc and repeat.

I switched back to single crochet again to reduce stitches as I don't know how to make it smaller in that other stitch. Then, I realized I was going to run out of purple yarn way too soon, so I took a sample of it to the store to find something to match.

I tried to keep it attached as I turned my crocheting to the side and did horizontal ribbing, but it wasn't coming out smooth at the point of attachment. So I gave up on that and started fresh unattached 'til it was the same size around, then joined it.

Then, I had to try to figure out how to make a bodice, so I looked for help on-line and found this free Sweetie Pie Pattern, which seemed perfect, since I often call Z my sweetie pie. I didn't follow it exactly, but it showed me how to shape the neck and arms approximately.

Here is the finished front

and the back. I suppose I should have rotated those pictures so they both face the same way, sorry, not gonna happen today.

I hope she likes it next week, when she'll wear it to church for the first time. How does that saying go, about "Your Mother dresses you funny"? That's what we're going for here.

Then, I had a lot of the multi-colored yarn left over, so I decided to make a twisty scarf, they are so easy and fun.

It's a pretty short scarf, can't really fold it over and stuff, but since it is so curly, I just twisted it a little and it seemed like it would stay. I haven't weaved in the ends, yet, because I'm not sure I like how I finished the ends. How do you keep the end of the yarn from showing even after weaving them in? I'm tempted to put a little glue there to keep it in place, but then it's not so soft in that spot.

My four-year-old took this picture of me, not bad, eh?