I Made Butter

I know, that's make you go "What did she say? Did she REALLY MAKE BUTTER?" Um, yeah, I did. I'm rather proud of it too! I came across a recipe for it via a friend of facebook who directed me to Bella Cantina and this post. I also made the PW Potatoes the other day. And that Apple Dumpling recipe looks so yummy and easy.

Anyway, I made butter. I used the food processor like the directions said. Instead of doing it by hand, I then tossed the butter in to my newly aquired Kitchen Aid Mixer (thank you Income Tax Return!) and worked it that way. After doing all of the washing and letting the mixer work it a bit, I added some honey. It is OH SO GOOD!! Jayden helped with the food processor part.

Considering I have a small processor that only holds 3 cups of solid at a time, I bought it more to help with making puree out of veggies and fruits for baby food, I had to do it three times. Put in the cream, then hold the button for about 5 min until it got to the butter/buttermilk stage. Out of the quart of heavy cream, I'd say I got about a pound of butter (yes a pound!) and close to 2 cups of buttermilk. I have another quart in the fridge so I think that next time I'm going to try the whole thing with the mixer, first with the whisk, and then the mixer beater. I figure if you can use a Kitchen Aid to make merengue you can use it to make butter, and it would save me a few steps considering the bowl is 2 1/2 or 3 quarts, something like that. With the next batch I'm going to do garlic butter.

OK, I know this may seem like a trivial thing to be super geeked about. However, at Thanksgiving, I'm always searching for honey butter and I have such a hard time finding it. So now, I no longer need to search. I can take about 45 minutes and make up some myself! We went through a 9 pack of Thomas' English Muffins this morning enjoying our butter! Next time I do it, I'll take pics to share the process with you all.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and find joy in the trivial things! Prayers and blessings everyone.

Hello Beautiful

That right there, starting out this post is my Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Can you say yum yum? I'm going to share how I make that beauty.

1st off, you need some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I like the ones that come frozen in the bag from Wal-Mart, however you can use fresh or whatever brand you prefer. Depending on the size of the batch you want to make will determine how many breasts you need. I just used 2, because it's just me who eats this deliciousness, though James REALLY wants to.

Boil the chicken until it is cooked all the way through. Let it sit, in the water until it is cooled down enough you can touch it with your hands without burning yourself.

Take 2 forks and shred the chicken. You'll just rip the chicken apart with the forks, and you'll notice it comes apart in little chunks and strips. Just keep ripping the chunks apart until you have a lot of strips. This part takes SO long, but it is worth it.

Take your favorite buffalo sauce, I personally use Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Sauce, and generously coat the now shredded chicken in a bowl. Mix it all together until all the chicken is covered.

Get yourself a hamburger bun. You could use bread too, but I like how the bun makes the sandwich a bit easier to handle. Add as much chicken to the bun as you want.

Go to the fridge and get some cheese. I usually use colby jack slices, however I have no slices in the house, so I used shredded. Whatever floats your boat is what will work best. You can also choose to add some blue cheese or ranch dressing to the chicken or the bun at this time. I don't, but I imagine it will taste mighty good.

After adding the cheese, wrap the sandwich and plate with paper towel. You should be using a microwave safe plate for you sandwich. It's a bit messy so you'll definately want a plate. Pop the paper towel covered plate in the microwave for about 35 seconds. This will just melt the cheese.

Devour. You'll want a few sheets of paper towel to clean your hands. The ones you used to wrap the plate should work well. Keep a drink handy. Enjoy. This is what it looks like when it's all gone. Trust me, it makes for one happy mommy.

Tasty Tuesday and Voting Too!

We voted. We made a family affair of it. We walked over to our polling place. We didn't have to wait very long at all. James and Jayden looked at our ballots. It made a little more sense to James because of what we had been working on, elections, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, voting, that kind of thing. I showed him where you could write in the name you wanted. He confirmed that mine and Jason's ballots looked exactly the same. We all got stickers and came home.

I made donuts on Sunday or Monday night. I used the left over dough from the first batch that I had made. These pics are in chronological order. Jayden kept wanting to help. She and James got to roll the dough a bit, and they each pressed out some of the circles. The pics should tell the story. I didn't take any pics when I originally made the dough. They were good when they were first done, but seemed to go stale quicker than other donuts I've had. It was my first time and I learned a lot. I even learned some stuff that I'll be trying the next time around. I covered the donuts in powdered sugar when they were done cooling. I think next time I'm going to try to fill them with pudding.













Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you enjoyed your Tuesday. Go eat a donut for me!

Randomness

In order to post every day, I'm going to be doing a lot of random things. OK, I admit that pretty much EVERY post on here is pretty damn random, however the INTENT will be just random. How about them apples?

Jason is reading to the kids. Lord of the Rings. It's what he was reading. Jayden wanted him to read to her. And there you go.

Izzy keeps taking things off of my counter in my kitchen. And coloring on himself with markers. He also got stark naked. He didn't need a clean diaper. Jason went to put his jammies back on him and Izzy fought him off, which leads us to believe that Izzy just wanted to be naked.

James went to his first appointment with Doc. O, the psychiatrist. One of James' meds is out the window, to be taken no more. Another is having the dose changed around a bit. We'll see how it goes with it like that. Larry is going to be working on getting James in to getting a full Developmental Evaluation. It will be an all day affair. Oh fun.

We had shredded chicken for dinner. I made a smaller bowl with Buffalo Sauce. I made a bigger bowl with BBQ Sauce. I never knew there were so many uses for shredded chicken! I'll be making that again. It went over REALLY well!

Tonight, we are going to do donuts again. Actually, after this post is done, I'm going to go find space on the dining room table to roll out the dough. Pics will be taken and posted tomorrow.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Enjoy the rambles!

Weighty Wednesday

This is for Momzoo and her Weight Watching Buddies, of which I have become one. This week hasn't gone so well at all. No exercise. Not enough sleep at the right times. That means staying awake all night and the next day and then the following day sleeping TOO much and it all starting over again. I know that those are my TWO big things. Sleep and exercise. I also know that getting good amounts of both, regularly, will do WONDERS for myself. I have a deadline in mind. My sister is getting married at the end of April. I am the Matron of Honor. What does this mean? It means that I am going to be getting my picture taken, A LOT. I would like to be down at least 20 pounds by then. More than that would be AWESOME! I am going to get a tummy flatner so I have a bit of a "smoother" shape. I'm not expecting miracles. I am figuring about a pound a week.

On another issue, I'm making raised donuts from scratch. I have had a SERIOUS craving for donuts lately. Tomorrow (well, later today) I'll be making them up. Right now I have the dough sitting, covered, waiting for 8 hours or so to raise. Wish me luck, I've never done anything like this before! I'm trying to find that Domestic Goddess. She seems rather elusive lately.

I slept most of the day today, so it will once again be an all night thing. I'll go work on the dining room while I'm awake. I want to make a nice dent in it. I still haven't started James costume. I'm hoping that it will be cold enough that he would have to wear his winter coat and then no one would see the costume anyway. He has boots and a hat, and he can wear those anyway. I know, it's a total slacker way out. I feel ALMOST ashamed by it.

Prayers and blessings everyone. I'll update later when I've made the donuts. I'll take pics of the finished product and let you all know how the fam likes them!

Saturday Morning and A Purse

Around these here parts, weekends mean I sleep in and Jason gets up with the kids. This includes breakfast on most occassions. On some days I can be persuaded to rise before 11 and make the coveted "Big Breakfast" myself. OK, persuaded isn't the right word. Having a 2 year old cry right outside your bedroom door (having your bedroom just off of the kitchen SUCKS some times) is well "persuasion" enough.

Jason is THE pancake maker in the house. I taught him how to make them long ago and in a galaxy far far away. Well, not quite like that. It was about 6 years ago. He's been making them ever since. Aside from pouring a mean bowl of cereal, it is his breakfast contribution to this family. Eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, breakfast bagels, all of that are all on me. On occassion Dad can be asked (read: BEGGED) to make pancakes. And he does an AWESOME job!





While Jason was standing there, watching the pancakes cook with an every present mind, I asked him to model Katy's purse for me. He has always been a good sport, and ever so goofy and laugh inducing while he was at it! It is the style that I am using when I make the winner's purse. Oh wait, no one has entered! Jenn has said she wanted to win. She thinks she should get a 2nd one. What do you think?





The purse won't be in the same color for the simple reason of I'm rather sure I don't have enough of that color left. I was thinking a soft rose and cream. I have a lot of those colors. Or a variegated blue bucle. Yeah, I know, if you don't know yarn, that makes NO sense. It's SUPER soft and SUPER pretty.

Prayers and blessings on your weekends everyone. I'm being called to the table to enjoy the pancakes now. Maybe tomorrow we'll do Big Breakfast Mommy Style?

What should I write?

I'm just wondering, what do you, the reader (or readers?) think I should write about? Seriously, I'm looking for suggestions. It's obvious my blog has no rhyme or reason to it. Why should it? Hell, I'm Serial Mommy. There is quite a bit of disorganized insanity running around this head of mine.

Here are some suggestions. Would you like to see, would you read, about me cooking? Yes, I know that is very "homemaker". Um, HELLO, I AM a HOMEMAKER. Though I've always wondered why it's called that. I can kind of see it. I mean, we make our house a HOME, and hence, HOMEMAKER, but still. It's almost insinuative (is that even a word?) that I'm building something. Am I?

How about my religion? Well, that would be good, I guess, if I even knew what my religion WAS. I have a basic idea and I'm still exploring and learning. You want to explore and learn with me?

How about more of my dreams? Oh come on, you know you enjoyed reading about David Beckham. Don't tell me you didn't. Even Jason thought it was funny.

Oh, should I give the kids psuedo names? I know I haven't even listed their middle names, let alone last names (and sadly enough, they ALL have different last names, don't ask, it's a LONG story). How about Jason. He could be Serial Daddy. Though that really doesn't fit him the same. How about Guy I Married This Time 'Round Who is Crazy Enough to Stay. So for abbreviation he would be GIMTTRWCES. Yeah, that's not a mouthful at all. James could be Screwy Brain Wiring Boy and Jayden is Princess Fart Blossom (again, don't ask, unless you REALLY want to know) and Izzy would be Hurricane Ike (he even has all the wet to go along with that name, every time that boy gets a cup he either dumps it or spits it or a combo of both) and Katy could be Lady Monkey Frog Lover (she has a thing for frogs and monkeys). Eh, screw it. It's easier for me to keep it this way.

Ooooh. Damn, I had it, and now I've lost it. Yep, that's how I roll.

Looking at my horrid mess of an office, I am reminded that I need to pick up some phonics materials for the kids. We are in the process of doing a deep clean on the entire main floor of the house. And of coarse when I say WE I mean ME because while Jason is WONDERFUL in helping maintain the clean, he isn't all about reorganizing and taking the hose and vacuuming the nooks and crannies and actually MOVING stuff around to clean around, over, under, and on top of it. I'm anal like that.

The living room is done. Now I'm building up the courage to go in to the dining room. The room that Izzy trashes all the time. With his food throwing and spitting and dumping of drinks and ripping of books and taking things off of shelves and tipping of chairs and....well, the list keeps going and going. There is one room in the house Izzy trashes. And it's my dining room. UGH.

I can write about what I'm reading. Or what craft project I'm working on. Right now, it's decorative letters for the upstairs. Or homeschooling projects. Or how to deal with a 9 year old boy who drives you insane and you love so much and has the brain wiring that is SO screwy. Or relationship things, like talking it out and how to fight fair, and unfair. Or finding ways to pay attention to a 6 year old middle child who believes she is the most neglected person on the planet and needs you to just look at her!

Or, OH, I remember now!, parenting stuff. Like all of that I just listed. All about parenting a bunch of kids and juggling their needs and not losing yourself in the mix! Or my struggles with weight loss and homemaking and finding my purpose and direction in my life.

Oh wait, I just listed what I do already. Oops, sorry. It was supposed to be different choices. I do want to know what you would like to read more of. Oh, and would it be all right if I posted more pics? Of coarse of the family, but of like food and projects too? I know it sounds so Pioneer Woman but I swear it's not a copy cat kind of thing. It's all I've got so I want to share it!

Well, that's the post for right now. Prayers and blessings everyone. Join me tomorrow at the same bat time and the same bat channel for Thankful Thursday.

Made From Scratch

Later today I'll post pics of our home made pretzels. We made them last night, around 10 at night. One thing I have learned about having James and Jayden help me cook, I need to double check to make sure all of the ingredients are put IN to the bowl. I'm pretty sure we forgot the sugar in the recipe. They came out tasting all right, like biscuits, I expected them to be a bit sweeter, hence the belief that we forgot the sugar. We will also be attempting mini popovers later today, and for dinner I am going to try out a potato and mini sausage recipe. To me, the popovers look like sweet fruitless muffins, one of the main ingredients is honey, so we'll see how those turn out.

Brandi over at Mountain Morning is giving away another book. She sure does like to do that! The book is all about things HOMEMADE! I'll be trying to do a lot more of that in the coming weeks and months.

Jason and I have talked and we decided that it would be best for our family right now for me to, once again, take up the mantle of full time stay at home mommy. Jason worries that I may go insane, hell, I'm already there! All kidding aside, I can set up a night a week to run away, either with MF Jenn or to the library or something like that.

This will free up my schedule to allow for scouts for James on Mondays, and trips to Muskegon for Katy, and all sorts of things like that. Oh, and one of Jason's fav things, me cooking home made dinners. And him not being left with the kids by himself, especially now that I'm watching Allen and Jessi three times a week for pay while Jack and Christina's schedules over lap. I need to ask permission from them if I can post pics including their kids here on my blog (not my kids, so I'm not going to assume it's all right, though I think it should be, as no last names are used and other identifying things are kept out of the limelight).

On Thursday we are going to my in-law's for dinner. Why? Well, Jason really wants to go down and spend some time with them. That's why. That sums it all up right there, the whole ball of wax. I can understand that desire, though I usually don't share in it with my own famly. I'm not really sure why that is, but it's just how it goes around here.

Jason is still working on the pieces for our giant map of the U.S. I've gottent through Maine in my flash cards of the state maps for James, and I've completed the state name/capitol ones and Jayden's sight words. James sees his ped tomorrow (we overslept by A LOT for the appt that was this past week, so it was rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon) for a med check. James is happier without taking the Strattera, however the Super Hyper Mode is going to drive me absolutely batty, I tell you! I want to talk to her and see if there are other med options available, or if we can try a lower dose and taking it in the mornings again. I don't want to supress his personality, but I do want him to be able to sit still for longer than 15 seconds. Tonight I told him to go to bed at 11:20 because I was DONE. I just couldn't handle the CONSTANT activity anymore. UGH.

Izzy has his Early On teacher at 11 in the morning. Once he is old enough to go in to the classroom situation, I *think* I will be taking him out of the public school system. He has to be 3 then, and I will see how he is progressing at that point.

I'm thinking this is all for this post right now. It's going on 2:30 in the morning and I'm getting pretty tired. I need to wash dishes tomorrow, try to get my tomatoes replanted (still working on that project), clean up the living/dining rooms, and find my ball of yarn that Izzy hid on me. I'm working on a great blanket that will make a wonderful gift, except Izzy picked up the ball, with the needles stuck in it, and carted it off somewhere. That boy is more and more mischevious as the days go by.

Prayers and blessings and have a wonderful day.