Busy week ahead, so I'm cooking tonight

It's going to be a busy week, so tonight I took some time to cook and bake a few things:

First I made 2 kinds of turkey sausage. Hubs wanted apple sausage, so I made a pound of onion/apple sausage and a pound of regular sausage. I'll do separate posts with the recipes.

Next I started the fermentation process for some kefir I've been wanting to make. I bought some freeze dried starter grains (it's not grain, actually; it's yeast and bacteria) at Whole Foods (they were like $5 off, so only $.97 for a pack of 6) yesterday. I heated up some organic whole milk, let it cool to about 75 degrees, then poured some into 4 different containers into which I'd already put one pack each of starter grains. Now they sit, covered, for about 24 hours while the kefir starter grains "wake up" and ferment the milk. After that, I think I drain off the excess liquid and voila! My very own live and active starter grains. Throw them in some milk and let them get to business.

Then I made banana/strawberry egg-free and grain-free muffins. They are actually in the oven right now, and I'm not sure they are going to make it. This happens frequently to me when I try baking without eggs. It's really a gigantic pain in the ass, but I figured that since this particular recipe didn't call for eggs, there shouldn't be a problem. We shall see. I'm not opening the oven door for another 20 minutes...

I'm also going to bake some pumpkin-zucchini egg-free and grain-free muffins. And possibly some of those delicious brownies.

I'm feeling a bit sad right now, but it's nothing I want to talk about. It's something that's been going on for years, and it's something I guess I just have to deal with. As much as it sucks...

Oh joy! It's officially football season!!

My husband loves football.

When we were first living together, I would sit and "watch" (by watch, I mean ask questions relentlessly until he got so annoyed with me that I'd simply go somewhere else in the apartment) it with him. When my question asking started getting the answer "just listen to the announcers and you'll understand what's going on" I decided to take matters into my own hands and buy "Football for Dummies."

Clearly I'm no Dummy because I failed to understand football.

So let me tell you how overjoyed I am to hear him yelling at the television tonight...telling the PROFESSIONAL football players to "just put your head down and go!"

Four months and it will all be over, right?

I can do this.

Shit day turned great

Ever have one of those days that starts out super-shitty and ends up pretty damn wonderful? Today, for me, was that kind of day.

I think hubs has been on his man-period for oh, I dunno, the past year or so. Today I'd just had it with the anger, the moodiness, the "ME: what's up? HIM: nothing" bullshit, so I took the kids to the park just to escape the negativity in the house. They played, I figured out that I'd fucked up and told a lady I could make a particular chain maille bracelet out of the copper rings I currently have, but I really can't because the weave is too tight in all the sizes of copper rings I have.

As we were getting ready to leave, this lady walks up to me and says "Would you all like to stay and join us for our Easter egg hunt?" Let me insert a reminder here that me and the kids are not Christian, thus do not celebrate Easter...so I felt a bit strange saying yes. HOWEVER, the kids were all "Please Mommy? PLEASE???" So we stayed. And stayed. And stayed. I didn't realize that the Easter egg hunt wasn't until after lunch, etc.

But it turned out really nicely. The kids got to play all day long with kids their age, weren't getting yelled at or in trouble because they were out of our boundaries (we have boundaries set for them at the house so we know where they are at all times, but they go out of them...etc, etc), and I got to hang out on a nice day, walk around a lot, help people and talk. I even helped (and participated in) with the egg hunt.

Seriously, these people fed us, invited us into their celebration and made us feel very welcome today. We stayed for almost 5 hours with these folks that we didn't know. How wonderful is that?

AND...I got hit on by a lady...asked for my number. ;)

So despite the bullshit at home, it turned out to be an extremely wonderful day. And the kids behaved really well.

Best. Cake. Ever.

So today is hubs 40th bday. Yep...the big 4-0. Do you know what that means? It means he's known me/been with me for exactly half of his life. He was 19 (almost 20) and I was 16 (almost 17) when we met and started dating.

Anyboob, I'm making him the best. cake. ever. because it's his birthday and I like to treat people special on their birthday.

Why is this the best. cake. ever. you might ask? Well holy shit! Lemme tell ya friend. Better yet, lemme lay the 'cipe on ya.

1 box Swiss Chocolate or Butter Chocolate Cake Mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 melted Hershey bar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup oil
3 eggs

Mix and pour into 3 layers. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 min; or 2 layers for 30 mintues.

THEN...while the cake is in the oven...

Beat until creamed (heh...I said creamed):
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 c plain sugar
Add 2 8oz containers cool whip (softened, obviously)
Stir with your spatula; add 3 grated Hershey bars (I highly recommend freezing them before you try to grate them).

Ice that bitch and eat.

You can eat it off each other for that special happy birthday or just off a plate is good too. Have some milk available cuz it's chocolatey goodness.

This one gave me pause...

...I'm sitting at my computer in the kitchen, both the kids and the hubs are in the living room. All of the sudden I hear hubs say "please get off your brothers' head."

Kids are...interesting...creatures. Are they not? :D

Happy Kid

Hubs took the day off to put up the pool, and we were hoping to take him on his first trail ride at Harris...but it was closed due to wet conditions (as was Crabtree). So we decided to go ride the American Tobacco Trail again. He'd ridden it before, but not on the new bike. Since our older son was home (he's still tracked out from year round school), we took him too. He LOVES to ride.

Hubs and I figured it'd be a fairly short ride since M was coming with us, and we were right. We stopped probably 6 times for one thing or another, but all told, we rode 4 miles. I am SO PROUD of my kid for riding that far! He has never ridden more than a couple miles, so this is his personal best. He even rode almost all the way up the hill back to the parking lot (we parked at the closer trailhead...not usually where I park)! He got frustrated at the end because it was raining and he was tired and couldn't make it all the way up the hill, but I headed that tantrum off by telling him how awesome it was that he had ridden that far and what a proud mommy I was. Then...

...he told us about the frog he put in his pack. He was all excited about the baby frogs that were ALL OVER the place and picked some up during our various stops along the ride. Apparently he found a big frog and slipped it into the outside pocket of his hydration pack...once we found out about it, we made him let the frog go. It was a cool frog, though. :D Boys...

And on a more personal note, I rode up the damn hill...go me!

It was a good ride. Hubs got to wear his new biking shoes and clipped in for the whole ride. He liked it. Kid did a long ride. I got out and rode. All good things.

New addition to family & new kicks

New bike for the hubs...the 09 version of mine.

HIS:


HERS:


New kicks for me and the hubs...Performance had them for $50.