Looking forward to a visit from Grandma & Grandpa.

My Husband The Almost-Grad’s family has been planning their visit for his graduation for months. That can be hard on a Munchkin who doesn’t understand the concept of time just yet, especially since she hasn’t seen these grandparents in almost a year, aside from our weekly Skype conversations. For weeks she’s been talking about “Gamma” & “Gapa,” “white boat” (the Hudson ferry), & “pinky cuppies” (pink Magnolia cupcakes). So as the day of their arrival has drawn near, I made her a paper chain to count down the days.

Every morning she gets so excited to pull off a new link & watch the chain grow shorter.

But I decided to add a new twist, to help her get excited about more things we’ll be doing with the grandparents than just boats & cuppies. Every time we pull a link off, we write the number of days that are left (you can see that for some of them I wasn’t awake enough yet to count…) & something she’s excited about for their visit.

Yes, the boat & cuppies are on there, & for the first several days we had to help her quite a bit to think of things, but over the last several days she’s started to verbalize more, stringing more words together: “ha-cops, pwanes… wwwwwon [with finger making a #1] moosem” (there are helicopters & planes at one museum, the Intrepid) & “dice bones” (dinosaur bones) at the other, the American Museum of Natural History. Plus, this morning she thought of one all on her own: “hand hand… Gapa” (hold hands with Grandpa). Yes, we’re all very excited to see them & go to the museum, the park, & Commencement. But this exercise has produced the remarkable unintended consequence of enhancing her verbal skills!

How do you help your kids get excited about big events like visits from family?

Mother’s Day in real life.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms, grandmas, moms-to-be, & women with a mother heart out there! I had every intention of posting something delicious that even your husband could make to spoil you with today, but then this happened:

This is how I spent the whole weekend, from our 5th anniversary on Friday (well, strictly speaking, I spent it awake starting at 3:45am with an ear-infected Munchkin & then attempting to recuperate for the rest of the day while My Husband The Soon-To-Be-LLM-Graduate took a final & The Munchkin watched more Disney movies than is healthy for a person her size) to Mother’s Day today. I’m still exhausted & hacking like a 4-pack-a-day smoker, but I think the worst may be over & I’ll be back to posting delicious recipes & fun crafts soon!

(I will say that My Husband The Also Sick & Studying For Finals But Still Thoughtful & Romantic did buy me two types of flowers to celebrate both occasions, made us lunch & “brinner” with The Munchkin’s help today, & has been showering me with love & concern all weekend. So Mother’s Day was a success in that regard.)

I hope that Mother’s Day was healthier & happier for you! How did you celebrate?

P.S.: If it wasn’t as happy as you’d hoped, do yourself a favor & try to track down the “Mother’s Day” episode of Season 1 of “The Middle” for a good laugh. (If you do find it online for free somewhere, give me the link! I couldn’t find it anywhere!)

Hamburger Vegetable Soup.

We’re sick. It’s raining. This calls for soup.

We’re not a big chicken soup family, so this is my go-to when we’re feeling crummy. It’s quick (less than 30 min.), delicious, & uses ingredients that I almost always have on hand. Plus, it has chicken broth in it, which is feeling great on my raw throat right now, but doesn’t have that chicken soup taste that reminds me of months of morningsickness.

My good friend Wendy found this on AllRecipes & brought it to us when I wasn’t feeling well. I asked for the recipe & then adjusted it to fit our tastes & family size a little better, & she actually prefers this version! This will serve 4; double it if you have a larger family.

• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 (1 oz.) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 small (8 oz.) can tomato sauce (if doubling, just use a 15-oz. can)
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (we ran out; pretend there’s celery in my picture)
• (I omit the onion it calls for because it’s plenty oniony with the soup mix. So that was on purpose, in case you’re looking at the original recipe & wondering.)
• 8 to 12 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1 cup pasta (I used rotini & farfalle tonight, but our favorite is the Ronzoni kind with a full serving of veggies in every ounce. If you’re using smaller pasta, like elbow macaroni, use less.)

1. Bring all but the last two ingredients to a boil in a large stock pot. This takes awhile, so that’s why I start it first.
2. Meanwhile, brown the ground beef in a saute pan. Season it well (I love this Garlic Pepper Seasoning) & drain it.
3. When the soup is boiling, add the ground beef & pasta, then simmer until the pasta is al dente.

What do you make when The Plague takes over your house? Anyone else out there have a pregnancy-induced soup aversion?

Freezer Paper Stenciling: How to be crafty when you’re really not.

I’m not crafty. I can’t draw, I don’t sew or knit, or paint, or even take pictures that well. But I can trace! & if you can too, you’re in luck! You’ll be able to do something like this!

My friend Marcia is having a baby girl next month, so I made this for her baby shower last weekend. It took less than 2 hours, & only $3! Oh, & zero artistic ability.

Here’s what you need to make a freezer paper stencil that looks like you screen-printed an article of clothing, but for a fraction of the cost:

• Reynolds Freezer Paper (find it near the foil & wax paper & stuff)
• X-acto knife
• Regular old acrylic craft paint (I got this bottle for 97 cents at Wal-Mart)
• Paintbrush
• Iron
• Article of clothing (I found this cute, feminine, organic cotton onesie at Wal-Mart for only $2! Not even kidding!)
• Picture to resize & trace

First, you need to find a picture to duplicate. The smaller your artistic ability, the simpler it ought to be. I tend to go for stylized illustrations with few lines. I chose those adorable chick stickers in the first picture for that very reason, & even simplified my chick further by doing away with the flower in her hair. (I borrowed the closed eye from the boy chick because I thought it was cuter.)

Once you’ve found your picture, resize it to the size you want. I just put one of The Munchkin’s sticker pictures in my scanner, cropped out everything else, & resized. I also used my photo-editing program to really amp up the contrast to make them easier to see. They’re not perfect, but they’re easy enough to trace around.

Next, print it out & use a black ink pen to trace your outline. You want a fine tip so you can really get some sharp corners. For any detail work, like the wing, eye, & legs, use something at least as thick as a Crayola marker; the lines will be much easier to work with that way.

Now get out your freezer paper & use a pencil to trace your design onto the matte (not plastic-coated) side. Be sure to trace around your thicker detail lines. Also, for interior details like the eye & wing, trace them onto a separate piece of freezer paper. You’ll be cutting them out & ironing them on separately, so you might as well make as little work for yourself as possible by spreading things out. Unfortunately, I was so excited to iron the stuff on that I didn’t take pictures of the next couple steps. So I hope that my instructions make some sense.

Now use your X-acto knife to cut out your design. Work slowly. But keep in mind that for long lines, like the curves of the chick’s body, it’s best to try to do it in one smooth stroke if you can to avoid jagged edges. For the wing on the separate sheet, I actually used scissors for a lot of it because I felt more comfortable that way. That works fine when you’re cutting around something, but when you’re cutting inside something (like the chick’s body) the X-acto is a must. I cut mine out on top of a cereal box panel to avoid slicing gashes into my table.

Now iron the design on, piece by piece, starting with the largest design (this should be your exterior outline), with the iron on the cotton setting. Take care to really get the edges down with the tip of your iron so paint won’t leak underneath.

Once the freezer paper has cooled (this won’t take long), put at least 1 sheet of cereal box cardboard inside your shirt to protect the back & start painting. For the vivid, screen-printed look on my onesie, I used a round brush & kind of just dabbed it on, & did one more coat once it dried. For a faded, vintage look, you can use short brush strokes (I did this to make an awesome Beatles t-shirt last year for free… please don’t tell their merchandising company). But whatever you do, make sure that you get all the way up (& over!) the edges of the stencil so you have crisp lines.

At this point, you need to resist the urge to pull it off & see your brilliant work. Let it dry completely, like overnight or more. Then you can pull it off. For finer details, like the feet & wing, work very slowly & have your X-acto handy to help free the paper from the paint & fabric.

Now you can admire your brilliance!

To heat-set it, just place doubled-up paper towels or pieces of scrap fabric on top of & underneath your design & iron it on the cotton setting again for several seconds.

Ta-da!

This project has so many fun & budget-friendly applications: birthday girl/boy t-shirts, personalized sweatshirts, canvas bags for teacher appreciation gifts… the possibilities are endless!

Union Jack shortbread cookies for the Royal Wedding.

I come from a long line of Anglophiles, so it seemed only fitting that I make something to honor today’s royal nuptuals. But I was having the hardest time thinking of a traditional British dessert to make! At the last minute, I was inspired by Hostess with the Mostess’s beautiful royal wedding shoot to make shortbread cookies.

I headed straight to Martha, & found a recipe for Scottie Dog Shortbread Cookies! How oddly apropos! I followed the recipe, except I added a Tbsp. or so of extra confectioner’s sugar at the end because it’s so humid the dough was too sticky, & I felt the dough needed more sweetness. I also didn’t add the cocoa powder. But if you felt like making these, you could make any shortbread cookie recipe you love.

Here’s how to make the Union Jacks:

While the dough is chilling, cut two 2.25-inch by 3.5-inch rectangles out of cardstock or a cereal box or something. Yes, I used a Skinny Cow ice cream bar box, & no, the irony of using that on a recipe with a cup of butter in it is not lost on me. Cut a cross out of one of them with stripes a quarter inch thick.

After chilling, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness (this takes some doing at first) on a lightly floured surface. Use a sharp knife to trace around the rectangle stencil, then use the blunt end of a skewer (I broke mine in half to make it more manageable) to make impressions on either side of the stripes in your cross. Then make diagonal impressions from corner to corner. This is surprisingly slow work, so I would suggest working in small batches to keep the dough from getting too soft. You can see the difference below; the cookies on the left were done right out of the fridge, & the ones on the right were with too-soft dough. You should probably space them wider than I did too; they spread more than I expected in the oven.

Bake at 325 for 13-15 minutes, let cool, & enjoy at your next British-themed tea party! We’re going to eat these with “princess sandwiches” (I have a surprisingly versatile tiara cookie cutter) for lunch today while we watch a rebroadcast of the wedding, just for fun!

(Ok, ok, I went a little overboard with the photos this morning.)

Did you/will you watch the royal wedding? Did you do anything fun for it? Or do you think it’s just silly to care so much about it?

Easter leftovers: Spinach Cobb Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.

If you’re like me, you probably have about 8 lbs. left of your 10-lb. Easter ham & are hoping that it doesn’t go the way of your Christmas ham leftovers, which may or may not have sat forgotten at the back of the fridge for, oh, 2 months or so.

Again, if you’re like me, you had the best intentions of making slow-cooker split pea soup, but waking up to a high in the 80s just didn’t make soup sound that appealing. (Completely forgetting about it until lunchtime may have played a role as well. Maybe.)

Enter the Cobb Salad. Now, there are different types of salad eaters out there. Some like the iceberg, some like more veggies than lettuce, some like ranch, some like vinaigrettes, etc. I, personally, am a lover of fruity spinach salads with sweet dressings. So this is my version. The honey mustard complements the honey ham quite nicely!

For starters, here’s the easy dressing recipe. I found it at AllRecipes.

• 1/2 cup mayo (yes, this is a lot… feel free to sub lowfat, fat-free, or even Greek yogurt)
• 2 Tbsp. dijon mustard (I used the cheap stuff, so it was a little on the bitter side; I compensated by adding a little more honey. If you have the good stuff, great. If not, you can always use regular old yellow!)
• 2 Tbsp. (plus a little if you’re using cheap dijon) honey
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1. Whisk ingredients together.
2. Chill until ready to use.

Easy enough, right?

Now all you need to do is mound some spinach on a plate, top it with some leftover ham, any fruits/veggies of your choice (think avocado, tomato, onion, etc. — I like Craisins), & one of your leftover hard-boiled eggs. Bonus points if it’s still got egg dye on it:

Top with the dressing, & you’re enjoying a perfect 80-degree-day way to use some of your Easter ham (& dyed eggs!).

Here’s what My Husband The Eloquent thought of it: “That was seriously good. & I’m a guy, so I don’t say stuff like that about salad.”

Can’t get any more rave than that!

How are you using your Easter leftovers? I’ve still got about 7 lbs. of ham to go!

Busy Mom’s Strawberry Shortcake.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny paid us a generous visit:

But man (& Munchkins) can’t live by chocolate & jellybeans alone. However, I really wasn’t interested in spending hours on an Easter menu for just us & some hungry missionaries, so here’s our quick-&-easy Easter menu:

• A Cook’s brand spiral-sliced ham I got for 79 cents a pound with my ShopRite card, with glaze packet included. (No mixing of honey with anything!)
• The easiest Funeral Potatoes (the Mormon term for cheesy potatoes — this came about because they’re often served at funerals for the families of the deceased) ever, found here & not even made with the cornflake topping. But still cheesy, melty, comfort food-y!
• Sliced pineapple — I didn’t even feel like making a salad because I was planning on using all my salad energy on Cobb salad with my leftover ham.
• Strawberry shortcake

 

This shortcake recipe comes from my mother-in-law… I don’t think My Husband The Persnickety would ever eat it any other way. It’s easy, delicious, & cheap. Win!

Just make a white cake mix using the whole-egg recipe (2 whole eggs instead of 3 egg whites). I poured mine into a Bundt pan to make it prettier, but you could just do a 9×13 even! Give it ample time to cool, then mash up a 1-lb. container of strawberries with a potato masher & add a little sugar to let it macerate. Then whip up some whipped cream (you know, powdered sugar, vanilla), & put it all together! My Husband The Devourer likes the 9×13 method because you can cut it in half & stack layers upon layers of cake, strawberries, & cream.

Last-minute Earth Day craft.

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Yesterday The Munchkin & I headed to Central Park for a free Earth Day craft sponsored by the Central Park Conservancy, & I thought I’d share it with you, in case you’re like me & don’t really go out of your way to celebrate this holiday but want to do something fun & educational today with your kids.

They supplied empty steel cans, magazine cutouts of nature-themed pictures, glue, potting soil, & marigolds. The Munchkin loved choosing her magazine pictures, picking which color flower to plant, & playing with the dirt & water. Once I recovered from the trauma of getting the darn thing home in one piece on the train with Munchkin, stroller, & diaper bag in tow, I liked the lesson that the craft taught: you can reuse just about anything to make our planet a prettier place.

Last month’s Ensign magazine had a great article, entitled “Sowing Seeds of Self-Reliance in Small Spaces,” about creative ways apartment-dwellers like me are growing small gardens. One suggestion was to use old empty containers like soda bottles, kitty litter buckets, & laundry soap containers. Old steel cans work great too!

Here’s how you can do this craft at home:

1. Wash out an old steel can (a larger can, like for stewed tomatoes, would work better for larger flowers). Punch a hole or two in the bottom for drainage.
2. Paste magazine cutouts around the can. Cover with Mod Podge if you want to make it last longer.
3. Plant a flower or seeds with some extra potting soil & place it in a sunny spot to watch it grow!

 

This project has been featured at AllFreeHolidayCrafts.com! Check it out!

Cheesy Beefy Stuffed Shells.

Sorry, no Martha pictures yet… My friend Halley took all the photos (she’s a professional, so I knew they’d turn out better than if I took them), so when she gets them to me, you’ll be the first to know! But I will tell you that we showed up for the 999th show (missed the big 1000 by ONE DAY!) & Jason Priestly was the guest, if you’re looking for it on Hallmark Channel. More details to come later!

The following recipe is probably my most-requested by dinner guests. It’s also one of The Munchkin’s favorite dinners, if not her absolute favorite, & one of my husband’s favorites too.

Oddly enough, it came out of a Pillsbury cookbook mini-magazine — you know, the ones in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. (It happened to be the only worthwhile recipe in the whole $3.99 thing, but it was worth it.)

You see, when I was first married, I was the queen of semi-homemade. Not like Sandra Lee — I didn’t even know who she was back then — but as a full-time student, part-time employee, & new wife, my version of cooking a balanced meal was adding a chicken breast & some frozen broccoli to a box of Pasta-Roni. (I think we’re all glad those days are over.) Fortunately for everyone involved, this semi-homemade recipe has enough different flavors that it doesn’t taste like you opened a jar of this & a box of that & mixed it all together.

These shells freeze well, reheat well for leftovers, & are just a great comfort-food dish that looks like you put more work into it than you did! I also like taking it, unbaked, in foil pans, with cooking instructions, to new moms so they can just heat it up when they want.

• 24+ jumbo pasta shells (in case of breakage, add a couple more. Also, some brands of “jumbo” shells are less “jumbo” than others. You may need as many as 30-32 if you’re shopping at, say, Kroger in, say, Indiana. Just saying.)
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 jar (26 oz.) chunky pasta sauce (I like the Ragu tomato & basil)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 container (8 oz.) chive & onion cream cheese spread
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese blend
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1 egg
• 1-2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cook shells, as directed on package, to al dente. A couple minutes before they’re done, add a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Rinse shells with cold water & drain (you may need to do this a couple times) to stop cooking & make them cool enough to handle.
2. While shells are cooking, brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. Season with a little garlic salt & Italian seasoning. Drain & let cool slightly.
3. Pour a little of the pasta sauce (about down to the top of the label on the jar) into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. (I usually split the recipe in half, using a smaller dish for the half I’m making now & using foil cake pans for the half I’m freezing until later.) Add a little of the water & spread it evenly on the bottom of the dish. Add the rest of the water to the jar, screw the lid back on, & shake to incorporate.
4. In a medium bowl, combine cheese spread, 1 cup of the mozzarella, the parmesan, egg, & cooked ground beef.
5. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the mixture (I actually use a table spoon, like from your silverware set) into each shell & arrange the shells over the sauce in the baking dish. (This is the most time-consuming part.)
6. Pour the remaining sauce over the shells, making sure to cover the shells completely.
7. Cover with foil & bake 40 minutes or until bubbly & filling is set. Remove foil; sprinkle shells with remaining mozzarella. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with parsley if desired.

If you choose to freeze part of your batch, use the foil pans for easy cleanup, cover with foil, & put the whole thing in a freezer storage Ziploc bag. Store it flat in the freezer. The night before you’re planning on making it, put the whole thing, bag & all, into the fridge to defrost. Then bake as usual (you may need to add 5 minutes). The filling will be a little less firm than the fresh batch, but otherwise, it tastes the same & you only had to do the work once for two meals!

Martha Stewart & other crafting & culinary geniuses.

Guess where I get to go tomorrow? I’m very excited. I plan to post lots of photos & neat things I learned!

But in the meantime, here are some great recipes & ideas I’ve found & tried from around blogland that I wanted to share: (All pictures are copyrighted by their respective blog owners because I didn’t take my own.)

This pasta with asparagus & marinara, from Gina’s Skinny Recipes, was a huge hit with our family! I saved time & money by using regular parmesan plus a pinch of salt in the marinara instead of Pecorino Romano, & making the marinara with the Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes with Basil, rather than having to buy & chop fresh. I also used whole-grain bowtie pasta for added protein & fiber. (P.S.: The leftover marinara tastes amazing as a breadstick dipping sauce.)

At the complete other end of the omnivore spectrum was the huge, delicious steak I grilled using The Frugal Flambe’s “Grilling without a Grill” method. It was perfectly done through, & without all the smoke of the stovetop method I found on another blog before. So great when you want a steak but you live in an apartment complex!

How cute are these free printable candybar wrappers from Anything But Perfect? I’ve already made some to give to the ladies I visit-teach! What a great Easter treat!

Speaking of Easter, Quit Eating Out featured a fabulous recipe to teach an object lesson about the true meaning of the holiday. These Resurrection Rolls are made of a crescent roll that represents the shroud in which Christ was wrapped. The marshmallow inside “disappears” while the roll is in the oven — “He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matt. 28:6) We’re definitely making these with The Munchkin on Sunday!

Last but not least, the only thing better than a great recipe is when one great recipe makes two great meals. I started with these fabulous barbecue chicken sandwiches from the Reluctant Entertainer. (I skipped the broccoli slaw this time, but doesn’t it look yummy?) I just tossed everything in the Crock Pot on low for 5 hours, then shredded the chicken & put it back in for another hour. The sandwiches were so delicious! But wait, there’s more…

The recipe made more than enough for the 3 of us. I saved the half we didn’t eat because I had another delicious meal in mind. My friend Kelsey shared this Barbecue Chicken Braid recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe with me some time ago, but I wasn’t so hot on taking the time or forethought for making bread dough ahead. But thanks to our fabulous local bakery’s Greatest Pizza Dough Ever for $1.75, & my delicious leftover barbecue chicken, I finally got to try it out. I’ll tell you what — I can’t believe I waited so long! These two recipes will forever be linked to one another on my weekly menu. 

Until next time, look for me on Martha!