Frozen Taters Anyone?

Recipe time! This week I baked several different yummy things and I want to share with you the recipes, so today let’s talk taters. I had a whole bag of Russet Potatoes that were soon going to be staring at me if I didn’t do something fast.  I went to Heavenly Homemakers because I wanted to try her method for storing hash browns in the freezer. I tried to make hash browns once upon a time…it did not go as planned. The “hash browns” turned into one solid mush pile that was quite unappetizing.

At Heavenly Homemakers, she recommends baking the taters first. Say what? Oh yeah, bake ‘em baby. Starch was the culprit that caused my big , mushy, gunk pile of “hash browns” (quotes because they were NOT hash browns in the end!) I cleaned those dirty taters up, poked holes in them, put in a pan that I lightly oiled and stuck them in the oven on 350 for 1 hour.

Hot taters

Then you wait. You wait for them to cook and you wait for them to cool. When you are ready to shred, dice, or slice them, wait longer.  You want them to be very cool. I would say from my dicing and slicing the 3 main things to remember:

1) Don’t overcook the taters. I think 45 to 50 minutes would have been enough. You do not want them to fall apart while you are shredding them.

2) Let them cool completely. You could burn yourself and again, they will fall apart.

3) Use a very sharp knife or shredder depending on what you want your end result to be.

I decided not to go with the shredded hash browns. I didn’t want to pull out the food processor so I got my trusty knife and cutting board out and went to work.I diced half of the taters and froze them. I did not peel the potatoes because I like tater skins. Lots.

Then I sliced the other taters into fries. I oiled those puppies up a little, put sea salt on them, and baked them in the oven on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes to 1 hour on 400. Turn them over several times while they are in the oven, careful not to break them.

Before their second baking

Hubby raved! He loved them and said that they are the best ever. They were a huge hit and they were almost all gone at the end of supper. Have a blessed day peeps!

yummy taters!

Sleepwalkers'R'Us

I have to tell you about last night. Hubby and I finally lay down to sleep at 11:30pm. We were tired (as usual) but we still chit-chat and make each other laugh with our silliness. I won’t go into detail about our conversation but it did include Luke and Yoda. Yes, from Star Wars.  Anywho, as we slowly calmed down and drifted to la-la land, we heard the baby gate crash to the ground. The baby gate is at the end of the hall blocking our 12 year old pug from coming down the hall and waking the entire house. Pugs snore loudly. I used to be able to look past it, but after the children, I value sleep more than gold.

Brian jumped out of bed, knocked his lamp over, failed to turn it on twice, and took off down the hall. I got in the hall in time to see him disentangle Dylan from the gate. Hubby, “Are you okay?” Dylan, complete silence and that creepy sleepwalker stare. Of course he needed to use the bathroom, but he was asleep!

This is not an uncommon occurrence in our house.  Hubby once called me at work when we had a new puppy, the poor dog needed to go outside and Hubby is calling me at work saying, “I think the dog needs to print, I don’t know what to do.” I told him to go back asleep. I woke up once to find Hubby patting the wall down on my side of the bed, I said, “What are you doing?” He answered with a whimper; he was asleep and had made a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom. There have been many instances of sleepwalking over the years. Dylan completely freaked us out the first time he sleepwalked he just came in the living room and mumbled intelligibly then he tried to pee in the foyer. My little brother would sleep walk as a kid. He would come in the room, turn the light on, and stare at you. Creepy.

Naomi has recently joined the ranks of the sleepwalkers. She is scary. She will laugh uncontrollably and never wake up. She does not remember anything the next day. Now if we hear a noise we head down the hall wondering who is roaming the halls. Have a blessed day peeps!

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Lots Goin' On!

I hope the grapes have pollinated each other. I’m doubting it seriously though. I think that the new plant is just not mature enough. I have to weed today. The carrots are screaming out for help,”Here I am to save the day!”.  



Carrots in need!



My tomatoes are still a little green around the gills but they are growing and I am taking heart that they will be able to survive.

All of my potatoes are thriving, although, birds like to potty on my trash can potatoes, I don’t know why but I sure wish they would stop!

I know it's a bad picture but help please! The ugly dirty stick thing in the middle is the green bean plant.
Something ate it!

Some of my green beans are growing, others never had a chance. Do you know what killed them? Leave me a comment if you do, I want to prevent this with my second round of beans.

The onions are growing pretty well even though Hershey likes to run them down when she chases squirrels. On a side note, Hubby forgot where the girls and I planted the sunflowers and he MOWED them down. It is rare that he mows (I like to mow) and the one time he does he viciously murders my baby plants J

Oh, I just had to add some pictures of my lovely flowers, they make me happy!

For more gardening fun go to Getting Freedom, Smockity Frocks, and The Finer Things
Now to my list from yesterday, I have marked the accomplished items off:

1)      Dishes

2)     Laundry

3)     Vacuum

4)     Make homemade hash browns to freeze

5)     Bake lunch bread

6)     Bake Strawberry Bread

7)     Bake Strawberry Muffins

8)     Freeze Strawberries

9)     Weed-Eat

10)  Weed the garden

11)   Unclog the bathtub

12)  Return stuff to Target

13)  Trim Dylan’s hair

14)  Dye my hair!

I think I did great! Today I may bake some muffins and freeze the rest of the strawberries. It’s going to be hotter than snot today, so if I work outside it will be early this morning. Here are some pictures of my breads:

I froze one dish of diced potatoes. The chore of getting out the food processor to shred the taters for hash browns seemed like a huge mess waiting to happen, so instead I diced the potatoes and froze them that way.Homemade French Fries were my choice for the rest of my taters and man they were a huge hit! All gone except for one little helping. I'll have pictures of these tater-happenings as I post the recipes.

The girls and I had a kettle corn disaster but other than that the day was  perfect. I’ll post recipe some recipes tomorrow. Have a blessed day peeps!

Today's Agenda

I have a lot of things that I hope to accomplish today. Hope. Here is a list off the top of my head:

1)      Dishes

2)     Laundry

3)     Vaccum

4)     Make homemade hash browns to freeze

5)     Bake lunch bread

6)     Bake Strawberry Bread

7)     Bake Strawberry Muffins

8)     Freeze Strawberries

9)     Weed-Eat

10)  Weed the garden

11)   Unclog the bathtub

12)  Return stuff to Target

13)  Trim Dylan’s hair

14)  Dye my hair!

I think I’ll be doing good to accomplish 5 or 6 of these things. I’ll update you later on how I did and how my baking goes. I’ll post some recipes if they are any good. I better get moving!

Foamy Soap Epiphany

I have had an epiphany. Pay attention because this does not happen often. My kids all received some foam bath soap in an Easter bag from their Granna. They were so excited, me…not so much. I knew that they were going to go batty with that stuff and try to use it all at once. When bath time came, I washed the baby and let him play with his foamy soap. I could control his portions, all was well. Then the 9 year old had his bath and I have no involvement in that (unless he stinks or wastes my water) and bath #2 was done.

Then the dreaded girls bath. My Naomi is a wild 5 year old. She can do a lot of things by herself now, like brush her teeth and squeeze the foam out of a can. She has very little of the moderation gene at this point in her life. I tried to explain that if they used all the foam it would be gone (duh) and they would have none for the next bath. The playing commenced.

As I sat there watching the girls, having heart palpitations over my perceived wastefulness of the foamy soap, the epiphany hit, why do I care if they waste it all? Is it really even waste? Do I really need to conserve foamy soap? Will God be angry at me for not saving foamy soap? Where did my crazy come from?

You have got to understand that I save a lot of things. I can’t help it, it’s in my blood. Thank you Granny and Mom. I also think that saving things is great and beneficial, not only to be a good steward of this earth that the Lord entrusted to me, but to my wallet! I save aluminum foil, newspapers, egg cartons, plastic grocery bags, freezer bags, old socks, etc., etc. This drives Hubby bonkers. He often says in a whispery, creepy, slow drawl, “throw it away”. But I can’t. That’s waste and I may need it later on, you never know when a holey sock may come in handy, rags anyone? So I keep it. I have gotten better about keeping things that could be given away to Goodwill but really, who wants my used aluminum foil? My grandmother and mother were poor. And I don’t mean kinda poor, I mean stinking poor. I am who I am, and live where I live  with the life that I have because of their determination and frugality. I try hard not to lose sight of that fact.

BUT… does this include foamy soap? I decided no. First, I was driving myself nuts. I was totally missing out on the fun! It was their gift, so why not let them enjoy in the way they chose. If that meant one gigantic foamtastic bath, then so be it. I believe  it is my job as their Momma to teach them good stewardship, reduce, reuse, recycle and all that good stuff, but I will no longer freak over the little things. Well, at least I will try to be a better Momma and not freak over the little things ;) And I have concluded that the good Lord is probably more disappointed in me for not enjoying my children's joy, than he is worried about our foamy soap consumption.

So the other night I said, “Have fun!”, then I walked out of the bathroom and let them play. When I came back this is what I found:

And you know what? They didn’t use all the foamy soap. There is still plenty of it for another day. Apparently Naomi thought squeezing it into her ears would be great fun!  Have a blessed day peeps!

Grow Baby Grow

First of all, my feet are freezing this morning. I want socks or house-shoes but I would have to ninja dance down the hall trying desperately not to squeak, or crack, or pop the floor and wake a baby. Guess I’ll be cold.

It is time for a garden update people. I have pictures. Go me. The potatoes are growing like mad. Love it. My tomatoes are kind of an unhealthy yellow green. I really think they just are not getting enough sunlight. I had a tomato plant in the same spot last year that produced grape tomatoes until October. I guess these are more finicky. We’ll see if they make it or not.

I have carrots, lots of cute little carrots. I made the mistake of not thinning them enough last year and it really hurt them. Well to be real honest, I had one whole carrot that we were able to eat last year. It was a stunted, pitiful little thing, but we ate it and liked it. I really did not weed the garden enough and it totally killed my carrots. We are determined to get those little boogers growing this year. I’m weeding them and thinning them every other day or so, trying to keep just the carrots growing.

Okra is a growin! I replanted the areas that just were not producing plants and I plan to thin those as needed. My friendly little plant munching rabbit is wearing my poor green beans out. I do have a few bigger plants that are pulling through so I will re-seed as it warms up more. The cucumbers are doing great and the zucchinis are so-so. All of my strawberries have been eaten by that rascally rabbit.

My herb garden is so sad. I think I’m growing trees in it better than herbs, but that’s what happens when your dog wants to dig in it. I have a plan though…Muuuhahaha! My hubby will not like it, but I get whatever I want anyway (except for chickens, he truly did put his foot down on having chickens…at this house ;). This will require work from him but in the end it will save us some mowing time. I’ll let you know when my idea comes to fruition.  Have a blessed day peeps!