Black Sheep Dancing

Why be like everyone else when you can be yourself?

Monthly Archives: February 2011


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Ah…peace and quiet.

So, today CBear was over to the house when out of the blue he said he had to go to the store…and he was taking Munchkin. Was I hearing this correctly? Munchkin off having fun while I get time to myself? Yes, please! So the two boys left and I had the house to myself!

First I ran. With Riley. He got tired before I did.

Then I came back and washed some dishes.

Did some laundry.

And ironed all my shirts.

How LAME am I?  I have an afternoon off and I iron shirts? Well, ironed shirts while watching girlie movies and dancing along to the music. It was awesome!

When the boys came back I made dinner (with the Baked Pears) and am now happily watching the Oscars.

It has been a good day. 🙂

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Baked Pears

 

I opted for a super easy, super quick desert. Who doesn’t love desert? Especially if it is hot out of the oven and not too bad for you?

Enter, baked pears.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pears, halved and cored.
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 2 Tbs brown sugar
  • 1 Tbs regular sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • dash nutmeg
  • Preserves

Directions

  1. Take a couple of pears. Cut them in half and core them. You can peel them if you’d like. I was too lazy too. Place them on a baking sheet. Line with foil if you don’t like scrubbing dishes.
  2. Sprinkle with some lemon juice to keep from browning.
  3. Throw a bit of butter in the hollow of each one.
  4. Mix brown sugar, regular sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle over tops of pears
  5. Put a bit of preserves in the hollow of each. I used pear butter because I had it on hand, but you could use strawberry, marmalade, whatever sounds good!
  6. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until tender.
  7. Serve warm or cold.

These were super yummy! We just ate them as is, but they would be great with ice cream when warm, or if you cool them, with a dollop of whipped cream. So yummy!


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I’m turning into a greenie

During a recent trip to the grocery store I needed dishwasher detergent. I hadn’t the need to buy any in over a year thanks to when I played the CVS game. Imagine my surprise when I went to the grocery store and saw how crazy expensive it is! So, this week I was doing my googling and found a recipe for make-your-own dishwasher detergent. I’d seen laundry soap, but never the dishwasher! So, seeing as I had used up my last Cascade tab and NEEDED to wash my dishes, I decided to make it.

Thanks Planet Green for the recipe! I will say, I left out the citric acid. For starters, I didn’t have any and secondly, I read somewhere the acid cancels out the cleaning ingredient. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but either way it worked for me.

  • 1 cup Washing soda
  • 1 cup Borax
  • ½ cup salt

Mix up, keep in an airtight container and use 1 Tbs per load with vinegar in the rinse agent. Everything came out lovely, including my glasses!

Recipes are fun, even the kind you cannot eat!


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Sweet and Sour memories

 

When I was a kid growing up my mother had her old standbys for dinner. Meatloaf, spaghetti, and everyone’s favorite, sweet and sour chicken. It’s not hard. It’s not fancy. But we all loved to eat it. Well, I loved it minus the chicken. Heck, I’d eat just the rice with the sauce and soy sauce on it.

 

So tonight I decided to make sweet and sour veggies. I have fake chicken in the freezer, but it’s been a long day and I’m too lazy to get it out, THAT’s how easy this recipe is. I can’t even be bothered to warm up some fake chicken in the microwave.

 

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/4 c. ketchup

1/4 c. vinegar

1/3 c. brown sugar

2 Tbs. soy sauce

1 c. pineapple juice

1/4 c. pineapple juice with 2 Tbs corn starch

  1. combine all but the last two ingredients in a small saucepan over medium low heat
  2. in a separate bowl combine the pineapple juice and cornstarch
  3. when ingredients in pan are combined, add in corn starch mixture a little at a time until a nice sauce has formed

Heat up some stir fry frozen veggies. If you used pineapple juice from a can of pineapple chunks, you can add in the pineapple to the stir fry!

Make some rice

Enjoy!


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Sometimes you fail

I post lots of photos of all the yummy, delicious things I make. But sometimes one needs to be taken down a notch and post a fail. Case in point? Granola.

 

So, not long ago I got it in my head that I was going to make my very own granola so I could have yummy cereal, and a sweet and crunchy treat for my yogurt. So, I googled “make your own granola” and found this recipe over at Food Network. Easy to make, for sure!

 

So yesterday I was at home with a sick kiddo, and said, I can whip this up, put it in the oven and get some work done while it bakes! An excellent idea! Except I have dark pans. And what calls for over an hour of baking, I soon found should only have been about 30 minutes. 😦

 

 

I quickly pulled my granola gold out of the oven in hopes of saving it. It LOOKED okay, but when I tried eating a bowl of it, my yummy granola was a smokey pile of not-so-yummy goodness. I was so bummed.

 

That’s kinda how my day went. I LOOKED okay, but really was bummed on the inside. We all have days like that. I blame the recent reemergence of snow.

 

On the upside, I received in the mail today my coconut oil! I’ve seen a couple of recipes that call for it, and as I get more health-nutty as I age, am excited about all the health benefits and uses as well. Anyone have any great recipes/uses for coconut oil?


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I heart hearts

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Love it or hate it, it comes around every year. I’m not one to really enjoy the day. I’ve had some pretty awful v-days, but you just can’t make it go away. However, anytime you have an excuse to make everything pink and with hearts, how can it be ALL bad?

 

I decided to get to baking. I made a valentine for my valentines, both at home and work. I don’t care who you are, it’s nice to know someone is thinking of you on this day.

 

I made:

 

Jam cookies:

 

 

Chocolate Cake Balls

Cupcakes, chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate raisin candy

And heart shaped chocolate chip cookies.

 

I then packed them for work:

 

 

And for my big valentine:

I put the goodies in one of my many hammered aluminum dishes and tied with some clearance ribbon I got after Christmas (yippee for 90% off!!!) I started collecting aluminum pieces after my grandmother gave me a casserole dish she had gotten as a wedding present.

 

And my little valentine. Of course munchkin was the most excited of all. Who doesn’t love cookies for breakfast? (Just for special occasions that is)

Recipes:

Chocolate chip cookies – made from a mix and then put down cookie cutter and dropped a spoonful of dough in and smushed it down.

Emily’s Cake Balls

Ingredients

  • 1 cake mix
  • 1 can complimentary-flavored frosting
  • bag of chocolate chips
  1. Bake cake according to directions. Allow to cool completely and crumble into a bowl. Put in the fridge if still warm.
  2. Mix in some frosting until it creates a dough-like mess. Freeze for 30-60 minutes
  3. Use a scoop to scoop out balls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Use hands to make into a more uniform ball and place back on sheet. Freeze for 30-60 minutes
  4. Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Add in butter if necessary to make it smooth.
  5. Use a fork to dip balls into chocolate, allowing extra to drip off. Place back on parchment paper.
  6. Cool in fridge until set. I like to keep mine in there until served.

Raisin candy and chocolate dipped pretzels – I had left over melted chocolate after dipping the cake balls so I dipped some pretzels first and then mixed some raisins in the remaining chocolate and spooned into candy wraps. Refrigerate.

“Christmas Stars” (Or Valentine’s Hearts)- Allrecipe.com

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons strawberry jam
  • 1/4 cup green decorator sugar (optional)

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. Refrigerate dough for three hours.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease several cookie sheets.
  3. On a floured surface, roll out 1/2 of the dough at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into star shapes using a 3 to 4 inch star cookie cutter. Using a 1 to 2 inch star cookie cutter, cut a star into the center of half of the big stars. Sprinkle colored sugar on the cookies with the center cut out if desired. Put onto prepared cookie sheets about 1 inch apart, and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
  4. After cookies cool completely, spread 1 teaspoon of preserves in the center of each cookie that does not have a star cut out in the middle. Place a cookie with a cut-out on top of the layer of preserves. Pack cookies in a covered tin to preserve freshness.


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Blueberry kind of morning

This morning was a classic pancake morning. Not just any pancakes, but I made the classic Betty Crocker pancakes from my grandmother’s 19__ copy. Half with blueberries. Half with apples and pecans. Mmmmm.

 

 

I’m not one for sweet foods. I don’t like to eat cookies or cake, but I do love me some pancakes. My senior year of high school I did post secondary enrollment, and I had extra time in the morning so for a whole year I made chocolate chip pancakes nearly every weekday for breakfast. It was awesome. I even had the recipe memorized.

 

Here’s the recipe:

 

 

I always add in vanilla extract and cinnamon as well. Now, what I find interesting is how recipes were written. Throughout the book they give you the basic recipe, and then variations on a theme. Some of the recipes also have terms that I really don’t know what it means. Luckily, it is usually in reference to meat, so they aren’t recipes I would try anyways.

 

I made a double batch, so we have breakfast tomorrow covered too!

 


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Goodnight sweetheart it’s time to go. No really, you gotta go!

I am so tired. Munchkin recently stopped taking naps. This unfortunately means I stopped taking naps too. Boooo. Anyways, he sleeps really heavy now. Great, right? Except he sleeps so hard he doesn’t wake up when he has to go potty.

 

The past week goes something like this:

8:00 – goodnight to Munchkin

11:00 – I go to bed

Somewhere between 2 and 3 I wake up because I can feel that creepy feeling that someone is staring at me. I keep my eyes closed for just a minute. Maybe if I keep my eyes closed it will all be a dream and I can go back to sleep! Or, maybe not.

 

Wash kid. Change kid. Change bed. Wash covers. By the time I do this I am wide awake, although tired. After a week of this, I’m ready for a good night sleep tonight. Going to potty five times before bed? Yes. No late night drink? Yes. Hoping for a full night of sleep? YEEESSSSSSSS!


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What planet is this guy from?

I recently read an opinion piece on CNN that wanted us all to know why airline baggage fees are a good thing. I thought I forgot how to read correctly when I saw the headline. Surely my eyes were deceiving me.

 

Now, let me tell you why this fee is a horrible thing. I weigh approximately 100 pounds. My luggage, when fully stuffed, weighs 30 pounds.

 

100 + 30 = 130 total pounds. That is still less than most people just by themselves.

 

And since my child is no longer under 3, I have to buy him a full-price ticket.

 

100 (me) + 30 (my luggage) + 40 (munchkin) + 20 (munchkin luggage) = 190

 

That is STILL less than a lot of people weigh, yet I get penalized for it. So no, Mr. Snyder, I do not feel these fees are justifiable when you tell me it’s a fee for the excess weight. It’s a way to milk as much as we can out of consumers and hide the true cost of flying. If you want to make it fair, make everyone get on the scale with their luggage and THEN charge a fee for the weight.

 

*hopping off my soapbox*