Wicked wicked allergy week around here, I stocked up on some benadryl today, for me and Patrick and. Bryce. It's been fabulous outside though, which helps mitigate the allergy suffering.

Curently I am on a sandwich kick, for dinner I adapted a recipe for Brie and bacon panni that I found on the Trader Joes website http//traderjoes.com
So here is my interpretation of the panni

Take 2 slices of bread and brush one side of each with tastefully simple Roasted Garlic Infused oil
On the other side of the bread spread our new Bold &Bossy Honey Mustard
On the other slice layer thinly sliced apple (I used A fuji apple
Then on top of the mustard slice layer the ham of your choice, I used Hilshire Farm Brown Sugar Ham.
On top of the ham put slices of Brie cheese.
Pit the slices together to make your sandwich and grill in an iron skillet about two minutes on each side and then it is YUM!

All day today I thought it was thursday , I guess tomorrow will be Deja vu!

Facebook | Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

I have a soft spot in my heart for the mac and cheese in the blue box. It never disappoints. The only mac and cheese that could rival my love for Kraft Mac and Cheese was Annie's Homegrown Organice Mild Mexican Shells & Cheese. Which I have not seen  in a store for a few years.  :-(  Anyway back to the Kraft.  Not too long ago Jewel had a sale on the kraft and I stock up on 10 boxes at 79 cents a box.  This was quite the deal and we have just a couple left.  Now when I was a kid I swear there was a lot more in the box, but I do enjoy the noodle shapes that they have now.  We are big fans of the Spongebob and the Spiderman boxes.  Today I was checking out Rachel's mashup mom site and she had on there the scoop on how you can get a coupon for a free box of the new Cheese Explosion Kraft Mac and Cheese if you are Kraft  Mac and Cheese's facebook friend.  Obviously I friended the Kraft Mac and Cheese a long time ago and took this opportunity to make it facebook offical! I put a link to the Kraft Mach and Cheese facebook page on here as well as a look at my fav mac and cheese that they apparently don't make anymore.




Facebook Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

Upromise Guest Shopping for Victoria

Upromise Guest Shopping for Victoria

I went and checked my Upromise account balance today and found there is $45 in there. I guess each kid can purchase a notebook or 2 for college with that? Maybe a really cheap used book? Anna has informed me that when she grows up she wants to be an artist. So no need for college for that, she needs to leave home as soon as she turns 18, and find a muse. Or go stake out a spot at Navy Pier and paint pictures. Bryce wants to be a police officer, so I told him he can go to Moraine Valley Community College and live in the basement. Patrick wants to make video games. He told my friend that he wants to go to college via online classes so he doesn't have to leave home. I will have to remind him of that when he is a teenager, I have a sneakingsupicion that he will change his mind about not wanting to leave home.

Today I am making lunch for dinner. So we are having soup and sandwiches. I found this recipe in my Food Network Magazine Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese. Yum right? Now I noticed that the recipe called for Taleggio Cheese







And I said to myself, man that doesn't look like a cheese that they sell at Jewel or Aldi, I better go to Trader Joes since they have a more varied cheese selection and their cheese prices are lower than Jewel for the cheese in the cheese section.  Anna was even willing to go to Trader Joes and behave since they have mini shopping carts for the kids, they also always have a food demonstrator and she likes to try the samples. 
 
Well we went to Trader Joes and they didn't have any Taleggio Cheese.  I didn't know what would be a good substitute cheese, since I wasn't sure what kind of cheese Taleggio Cheese was (like hard, semi soft, soft) all I could determine from the name was that it originated in Italy.  Given that I bought Asiago Cheese, Brie Cheese and Guyere Cheese.  I skipped on getting gouda for some reason, I usually get gouda if I am buying cheese esp. if I am at Trader Joes.   Today I found a website that is my new favorite website it is called foodsubs.com and guess what, Taleggio Cheese is a semi-soft cheese not a hard cheese and so substitutes for it include Gouda and Fontina Cheese, not Asiago or Guyere Cheese.
 
Making an exectutive decision I am redoing the recipe as Ham-Guyere Grilled Cheese.
Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions thinly sliced
8 thin slices white bread (Im using Trader Joes Italian Country Loaf)
10 oz of Guyere Cheese shredded
*note Tom won't eat Guyere Cheese so I am making his Ham-Swiss Grilled Cheese. The Swiss will be sliced
8 oz thinly sliced ham
1 green apple thinly sliced.
 
melt 1 tbsp butter with the olive oil in a large skillet over med-low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes :-(  thats a long time.  For a short cut use onion marmalade in place of the caramelized onions.  *I wonder where one can purchase onion marmalade???
 
Lay out 4 slices of bread. Top w/ 1/2 the cheese, then 1/2 the ham, layer the onions and apple slices the the remaining ham and cheese on top, then the remaining bread slices.
 
Wipe out the skillet, melt 1 tbsp of butter over med-lowheat.  Add 2 sandwiches and cook, pressing gently with a spatula, until the bottom is golden and the cheese begins to melt, about 4 minutes.
Filp and cook until golden, about 4 more minutes.  Repeat.
 
We'll have the sandwiches, I am also making Lipton Soup because the kids probably won't go for the sandwiches and then baby carrots and Tastefully Simple Sun-dried Tomato Veggie Dip.

I am testing to see if I can blog from my iPhone. Test one two
Today we are at baseball practice and it is cold and overcast so I am very glad I can stay in the car.

Patrick is bummed that fast food Thursdays have ended along with choir practice, but I distracted him with a snack of flaming hot cheetos. I don't know how he can do it but his fav snack is hot cheetos and claussen pickles. Only classen pickles for Patrick and if I don't watch him the pickles are gone in one day. I can relate , I completely agree that Claussen Pickles are far superior to all other pickles on the market, however eating a whole jar in one day is so not good.

Back to baseball, the dads that coach these teams must really like baseball, the boys are so squirrely, I can watch closely or I feel compelled to yell at Bryce : stop messing around and pay attention to the ball!

I am going to get back to my book: Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter, Bryce is up to bat.

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day

I found out through mashupmom.com that you can go to participating Comic Book Stores and get a free comic book on May 1st. That is Bryce's 1st communion so I don't think we'll be able to take advantage of the special.

It's all rainy today, and I think that soon Tom is going to have to mow the lawn. Probably that won't happen until April 30th (ie the day before Bryce's first communion--since we will have people over.) Yes I know I am perfectly capable of mowing the lawn myself.  Well mostly capable, I do tend to trip and fall a few times a year, so odds are good that I might trip in a gopher hole if there is one to be tripped upon in our back yard.  However, I am not going to go ahead and mow the grass because I'm always busy washing dishes, cooking food, folding laundry, yelling at small children and running a successful business from my home. :-D
*All* Tom does is go downtown to work all day in a small cubicle doing stuff for his company, so I leave the yard work to him. LOL

A bit late but on Monday I found the time to make Easter Bread, it was actually pretty easy. :-D

Here is the recipe I used:

Easter Bread

NOTE: I skipped the decorative eggs.

Original Recipe Yield 1 - 1 pound loaf


Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

5 whole eggs, dyed if desired

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1.In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast; stir well. Combine milk and butter in a small saucepan; heat until milk is warm and butter is softened but not melted.

2.Gradually add the milk and butter to the flour mixture; stirring constantly. Add two eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

3.Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

4.Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal size rounds; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each round into a long roll about 36 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick. Using the two long pieces of dough, form a loosely braided ring, leaving spaces for the five colored eggs. Seal the ends of the ring together and use your fingers to slide the eggs between the braids of dough.

5.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place loaf on a buttered baking sheet and cover loosely with a damp towel. Place loaf in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Brush risen loaf with melted butter.

6.Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until golden.

Easter Bread

Spring...

It's warm enough today to have a window cracked open in the kitchen and to force young children away from the TV and outdoors. Thank goodness because it has been wall to wall fighting here. Overall Anna instigated 83.6 percent of all the fights that happen.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, so much to my dismay, I have been assigned the making of the layered Jello so Patrick can take it to school. Patrick considers St. Patrick's day his other birthday.

I had to end my boycott of Jewel because
1. It was a real pain not to be able to go to the closest store to me.
2. Fairplay's non sale prices are just as high as Jewel's no sale prices.
3. Jewel has a new savings program called your bucks where you get coupons for $ off your next order when you buy certain items and what is way better about this vrs. their other deals is it will say buy 2 Lean Cuisine get $2.50 on your next order instead of spend $20 and get $5 and then I have to figure out what the participated products are and make sure I have spent $20 blah blah.

So I am back going to Jewel, and I find that many of the cashiers make you feel like you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes when you hand them coupons, they don't just start scanning them, they read them and check to make sure you purchased the right items.

I'd try to shop Trader Joes more because they have good customer service, but a. it's further away and b. the last 3 times I went there, the cheese I purchased got moldy b/4 the sell by date. That's so not cool!
******
Today Anna came home from school and said that Mohammed's mom told him that if you tell a lie your tongue turns black. She told me a lie and I told her yes, her tongue did turn black. Then she said I am going to go in the bathroom and look in the mirror and lie to myself so I can see it.

Dang, she's too quick!

Coffee and Confession

I love Dunkin Donuts coffee. To be fair, I also enjoy Starbucks. You see I really like my coffe black, so Dunkin Donuts black coffee with Cinnamon flavor is my fave, a big cup is just under $2.00. When it comes to Starbucks, I really don't like to get their coffee black, it's too burnt in flavor, so when I go to starbucks I get the Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Tall, which means that it's all full of skim milk, which makes it,IMO, more of a dessert than a cup of coffee. Plus the Dunkin Donuts is closer to my house and they mail me coupons, so they get more of my business consistently.

When we drove down to my brother's last June I was super suprised to find that highways littered with Starbucks and completely devoid of the Dunkin Donuts! Who knew.

So I am a member of Starbucks Rewards and Dunkin Perks, I really really love coffee.

do you love coffee? Get a free Sample of Dunkin Donuts Turbo Coffee here:




Last night we went with Patrick to Reconciliation, which is what used to be called confession. It was a family Reconciliation so Tom and I had to reconcil with the priest as well as Patrick. The rest of the 4th grade ER class was there as well as the kids that go to school at OLOR, and we weren't free to leave after confessing, so we were sitting in the Church for about 1 hour waiting for our turn and then waiting for everyone to finish.

During all that waiting time, I was reminded that women can't be priests. And then that made me mad because IMO it's just stupid. Women would be great priests. Married Couples would be great pastors and pastresses. My mom has worked for the catholic church at the church level and the dioceases level (which I don't know how to spell, it's like the state or county level) and she has a masters from Notre Dame and she is always reading and philosophying about the scriptures and all that.

I think she should switch over and be a Lutheran and then she could be a pastor, but that isn't going to happen. Too bad Catholic Church, you are losing out great potential priests because you are ahh, narrow minded, too greedy with power, too antiwomen.

Okay I am done. Now I have to run off to Anna's school!

Food Holidays - National Food Celebrations

Food Holidays - National Food Celebrations A food for everyday, A food holiday for everyday! It's the little things that make me happy. I'm looking forward to so many! Like April 17th, National Cheeseball Day, that is like a Tastefully Simple Holy Day of Obligation. LOL Oh and April 23rd, National Cherry Cheesecake Day, y-u-m, and let's not forget, May 6th, International NO DIET Day!

Speaking of diets, I received the latest Weight Watchers Magazine in the mail yesterday, lots of stories, not enough recipes, IMO. I guess I am expecting it to be more like the Food Network Magazine which is chockful of recipes, and really WW magazine is supposed to be more inspirational and motivational than a recipe magazine.

Today Anna wanted Cheese and Crackers for lunch, and I gave her crackers and Dubliner Cheddar Cheese which is white. She didn't want to eat it because it wasn't orange, so I told her it was from Ireland (which is true) and that Leprechauns make it (which is highly debatable) and she ate it up, literally and figuratively.

I made a recipe and pretty much substituted everything in it.

With the arrival of Lent, I'm keeping my eyes out for new meatless or seafood recipes. So I found this recipe in the March Food Network Magazine and made it for Ash Wednesday because Tom likes shrimp and I was thinking he would have leftovers to take to work on Friday. I went to the store to buy ingredients for this recipes of which the store didn't seem to stock several so I started substituting and the next thing I knew I'd pretty much substituted everything in the recipe.

GRILLED SHRIMP AND NOODLE SALAD
14 OZ flat rice noodles. I couldn't find any flat rice noodles so I bought an 8oz package of really long thin rice noodles.

1/2 cup fresh lime juice, well patrick had gotten into the little plastic green lime I had and there was only 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice.

1/3 cup of fish sauce, I didn't have any of that, so I used Tastefully Simple Sesame Teriyaki Sauce.

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, I had reg. brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped. I used 2 tsp of Garlic Garlic

1-2 teaspoons Asian chili sauce, I didn't have that so I used 2 tsp of a ginger chili sauce I had from Aldi.

1 pound medium-large shrimp, peeled and deveined I had a bag of frozen shrimp I used that and left the tails on.

1 med. bunch of asparagus, trimmed I got this part right

5oz shiitake mushrooms, trimmed, I used sliced baby portabella mushrooms instead.

1 med carrot shredded, I thinly sliced some baby carrots.

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, I had this on hand, but Tom doesn't like cilantro, so I was going to put it on my plate, but I forgot.

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook as the label directs; drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic and chili sauce and 1/3 cup water in a medium bowl. Transfer 1/4 cup of the marinade to another bowl and toss with the shrimp. Toss another 1/4 cup marinade with the asparagus and mushrooms in a third bowl. Let the shrimp and vegetables marinate 10 minutes at room temperature. Toss the noodles with the remaining marinade.

Now at this point is where I realized that this recipe involved grilling. I know, I know, it is clearly stated in the title of the recipe GRILLED SHRIMP and Noodle Salad, but some how I missed that part! So I got out the wok pan and made it a stir fry.

Wubba's Nutty Rice Noodles

Golden Double Stuffed Oreos are soooooo Good!

It was an eventful day of little events. This morning we received no calls from the school district canceling school! So all the kids went to school! Yippee! Then I shoveled the driveway so I'd be able to back out of the driveway and go to the store.

I like shoveling, it's a good workout, burns lots of calories, you get to enjoy the results, the sun was shining I had my iphone it was all good. Then I had the car running, and I took out the scraper to scrap the windows, my purse and my 2 store returns were already in the car. I got the windows all cleared off and most of the top too so that the snow wouldn't slide down when I was driving. I grabbed the door handle and pulled.

And the car was locked! Running, my keys in the ignition and I was locked out! ARG! I called Tom to see if we had an extra key in the house and we don't. He suggested calling the local Hyundai dealership and I did, and the girl said to call the roadside assistance! I forgot we had roadside assistance from Hyundai. Call them, and they said it would be 3 hours because my area was so busy, will all the snow and all. But less than 45 minutes later and nice young fellow showed up and opened my car and told me that cars do that sometimes. Which was great because I was sure it wasn't me making the car lock...

I was finally off, I returned the stuff Tom bought for me last night to use for the Kindergarten Valentine's Day Ice Cream Social Craft. I got some better crafty stuff and got to use my FREE Golden Stuffed Oreo cookies coupon!!! The lady at WalMart cheerfully accepted it. Okay, well she wasn't cheery, but she took it w/o any problems and I got the $2.98 OREOs free. I noticed that their reg. price on Oreos was $1.00 cheaper than Jewel...

Then I had enough time to go to my new local grocery store Fairplay where I got 1 lb of Sara Lee Honey Turkey for about 1/2 of what it costs at Jewel which was nice. And a 1/2 lb of smoked Gouda YUM!

Tonight I made a recipe from my latest edition of Weight Watchers magazine. Either I added too much rosemary or it should be made w/o Rosemary in my opinion.

In any case, here is the recipe:
Filet Mignons with Creminis and Rosemary
4 1/4 lb Filets Mignons about 1/2 inch trimmed
1/4 tsp koser salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
12 small cremini mushrooms, quartered (i used an 8oz package of mushrooms which was 15 mushrooms
1 med. red onion quartered, when making this again I am going to use shallots vrs the red onion, the red onion was a bit too sour. IMO
1 cup dry white wine or low sodium beef broth. I used a cup of chardonnay that I didn't taste b/4 using or I wouldn't have used it, it was a bit sweet.
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, this IMO over powered the dish,
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat parsley.
and I used Tastefully Simple Everyday Grilling Seasoning on the filets.

Sprinkle steaks with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over med. high heat. Add steaks and cook until an instant-read thermometer insterted into side of each steak registers 135F for med. rare, about 2.5 min per side. Transfer to large plate; cover loosely with foil and keep warm.
2. Add onion to skillet and cook,stirring frequently, until browned, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and remaining 1/8 tsp salt and pepper; increase heat and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms release their liquid and begin soften about 3 minutes. Add wine and 1 tsp rosemary; bring to boil. Cook, scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet, until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are lightly browned about 3 minutes. To serve, stir in parsley and remaining 1 tsp rosemary; pour over steaks.