Soy, cantalope, and Rice (gluten-free) Chex!

It's a like a new world has molded into mine. I love milk, especially with cereal, the cold vs. the crunch, I've always been a cereal kid, since day one. (Well, maybe not GERBER cereal, I'll have to ask Mom, lol.)

Yesterday I took the kiddos to Ream's Market with me and piled them all into a cart. We shopped around, I needed Lemon Pepper to make FANTASTIC Father's Day sandwiches, courtesy of Pioneer Woman and her "Marlboro Man's Second Favorite Sandwich". It was soooo yummy according to Cam, very manly and unhealthy, LOL. I couldn't have the cheese or the bun but still, the moist chicken and bacon strips... *droooool* check out this recipe! It's to die for! ("LITERALLY!" whisper our arteries...)

Anywho - we got lemon pepper, than chicken bullion for a bean soup recipe I was making - something I CAN eat. I also looked for a new dressing. You would be surprised how many dressings have sour cream or some hugely dairy item in them. And by "how many" I mean EVERY FRICKIN' ONE! It was ridiculous. I finally did find one, $2.50, but on the bright side it will only be me that will be eating it because it's Honey Dijon Mustard dressing. Which I love, and Cam hates, lol. (But he loves my previous yay-you-are-my-life dressing that I discovered has WHEAT in it. So sad.) Anywho, very good dressing. Brianna's I think.

I wandered over to the milk and actually bought some Soy Milk from Silk, the vanilla flavor. And I tell you... OH MY SWEET COMPUTER, it's HEAVEN! Just to have that cool thicker milky taste and to be able to eat cereal again! (Not all cereal, but hey it's an improvement.) I immediately went to look for cereals just from looking at the container I was craving it so badly. In the cereal isle we got Kix, no wheat or dairy, and RICE Chex, no wheat or dairy. And, surprisingly enough, NO GLUTEN. I'm not allergic to gluten but A LOT of people are. Sugar is the third ingredient which doesn't make it the perfect cereal for people with high allergies to life BUT, I called my mom anyway and she was amazed there was no gluten in it, she said she may have to pick some up for a treat! Pretty sad my mom and I are repeating mantras of "OH, CHEX... TREEEEATTT!" But hey, whatever works right?

Life is still going to be interesting. We have yet to go out to eat since this development... I'm not sure what I would even order. Probably would do a salad and bring my own dressing... it's so weird to think how some silly little thing changes everything.

Today is the kids' birthday party, Liv, Andrew and Kyla... so I really should stop with the blogging and go get dressed, dress the kids, get Hubbs to the shower, cause we've got a lot ahead of us today and grocery shopping, produce shopping, "etc." shopping ahead of that! Wish us luck. Pictures to come... :)

Snickerdoodles: FAIL.

As my children crunch their tiny teeth through these wonderful chewy cookies turned boiled biscuit I FUME. It frustrates me that I do everything right but because of dumb storage issues, things turn out wrong.

My previous kitchen, in Magna, had a BEAUTIFUL and LARGE kitchen. I could store everything I ever wanted AND more in that kitchen. Yes, the massive amounts of mold throughout the house - only a minor set back. That kitchen made it worth it! Okay, almost.

When we moved to West Jordan I was excited for numerous reason, personal and financial. For one, we were closer to places in GENERAL. There's a reason why our apartment in Magna was labeled "Rural" by UPS... and no, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that there were more cars on lawns then on the street, more empty vacated buildings then homes, or more horses than people. Maybe the few biker bars down the street or the Hispanic Spanish-speaking bar across the street (EBEN EZER was the name of that place, interesting...) that caused it. Regardless - we weren't rural anymore! We'd be just minutes away from Jordan Landing that had a Walmart, Sam's Club, Aeropostale, Roberts, Payless, Pier 1 (purely for drooling) and RESTAURANTS!

Now, we used to go out once a week, but then in order to go out we had to drive to W. Jordan to drop the kids off at the Wagner's house, and then go to our destination, just a lot of gas to even GET to West Jordan in the first place. So that turned into one date like every month. Now that we're closer it's a lot easier to go out and we've actually found more places off-the-beaten-path that we really like. One being the Thai restaurant, Thai Delight Cafe, that we very frequently take the kids to.

Down the street from Jordan Landing (the opposite direction as home) is Macey's (where we do most of our grocery shopping as of right now, when gas hits $4 a gallon we won't even be driving to the grocery store, LITERALLY, no joke.) and the West Jordan Post Office is right next door to that. Not to mention school and work are immaculately closer.

Funny how I get off topic isn't it?

So the point of all of that is that we are able to do more, transportation wise, and our gas bill has been cut in HALF. And when you're paying $3.49 a GALLON that's no joke. (Oregon's $3.67 and up and I think every time Cam comes home he's telling me that gas went HUGELY higher per barrel that day and I keep telling him... "$4.00 a gallon and we will be walking to Ream's on Saturdays for groceries. I will refuse to drive over to Macey's.")

So - GEEZ, still of topic. FINANCIALLY - better. Plus. Check.

The next was for personal reasons. Take a guess a number one...

DUH - MOLD! Gross it was awful.

Beyond that it was nice to be in a townhome. There's such a huge difference between a 3-bedroom flat and a 3-bedroom townhome. Even if we had gotten a loft, at least it would have felt a little better. Being in this townhome has been an absolute save. It feels so much more like a house, something Cam and I both want so badly, but it also is in a nice ward, good area, and has a GARAGE!

That being said, the kitchen SUCKS.

NO STORAGE, at all. So my wok, muffin pans, cookie sheets, pizza pan, broiler pan, and anything that doesn't fit in my teeny tiny hugely wasted space cabinet in the kitchen, goes outside.

This morning I made Snickerdoodles, was very excited for them (they're my favorite) and put them in to chill for the hour. Well I brought in the cookie sheets a little before I was ready to put them on and in the oven. I rolled the cookies into balls, rolled the balls in cinnamon sugar, and plopped them on the pan. Not only did I suddenly smell burning after leaving the kitchen, but they had only been in for 7 minutes! I opened up the oven and little bit of smoke billowed out and the cookies looked fine on top. I pulled them out anyway and they were BLACK on the bottoms. And by black I mean BLAAAAACCCK. Yes, FAIL black. And shiny, like it had something on it. The cookie sheets looked fine, clean, etc. I have no idea what happened. I scraped them off the sheet, cooled them on a rack and left the room. The rest of the dough went into the fridge again because I will NOT waste valuable Snickerdoodle dough.

I suppose after lunch, when things calm down, I'll scrape and scrub down the sheet again, see if I can get anything off and try again later.

It saddens me to post this. ME not being able to make Snickerdoodles. Blasphemy.

Cameron's birthday!

Cameron's birthday was on Sunday! We had a lot of fun together after church and dinner which included opening cards (his gift was the HUGE TV gracing our family room and a 3-movie DVD set which he opened during the kids quiet time, LOL. I guess he couldn't wait, oh well.) and of course, CAKE and icecream!

This year, I think possibly last year as well, I made him my Gma Cole's recipe for Sleuth Cake, YUM! I'll have to do a recipe of that on my cooking blog. It's fun to make because it's so different and SO much more satisfying that a simple box cake. And YUMMMMO is it GOOD!

Cam didn't want to waste 23 candles so he said to do a "2 and a 3". Well, I misunderstood and wrote "23" with the candles and got to use 23 anyway, haha. :) Good thing he loves me, cause I'm a nut. ;)

I picked out his orange Aero shirt, it's a GREAT color on him. :) So handsome. He got the shirts (a navy blue one as well, both from Aeropostale) using his birthday money from his parents. Pretty good lookin' present on him, wouldn't you say? I love my handsome hubby. :)

Hope you enjoyed the only photos I got to take of the event... lol. :)

Check it out....

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies... with a side of Livy & D photos. :)

http://desertedcheepchef.blogspot.com

My insanity is now progressive and useful.

The end.

Our Thanksgiving :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since we have a big family dinner this Thursday, we decided to have our family Thanksgiving on Friday, November 16th, 2007. It was a lot of fun and my first real Thanksgiving prep. [With a working oven.]

Our menu was as follows [a little less than traditional, we made it to fit us!]:

Turkey
Mashed Pototes
Sweet Potatoes
Fried Green Beans & Onions
Rolls
Vegetable Appetizers
Caesar Salad
Hot Gravy
Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Pie & Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies were served following dinner,
along with the traditional showing of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".

Notice only the veggie appetizers on Liv's plate...? *rolls eyes*

The famous olive-finger trick.
No Cole/Victor/[and now] Wagner Thanksgiving
would be right without it. ;-)

Behind Liv is her "placemat" from Nursery at church. Without contact paper though, we decided we would just give her chair a placemat.

Duncan popping a few olives during a game with Daddy.
:-O

Realizing you have another olive on your finger...?
Priceless. :-D



How cute is THAT?

We used my China, first time!, which was given to me by my Grandma Victor and belonged to both Grandma and Grandmother Belva [her mother], our Disney DVD Club free placecards [the kids were ECSTATIC!], and a nice musical woven cotton fabric for our table linen. [I knew having a fabric stash would come in handy one day... ;-)]

Duncan wasn't feeling well but other than that, all were fed and full of fun from our little Thanksgiving night. And you MUST write down this recipe, these cookies are to die for!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened [oops, I used regular, didn't even notice, so it works with reg and tastes GREAT!]
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin puree [if you buy the big cans of pumpkin, one can will make one batch of these and one pumpkin pie.]
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves [I didn't have ginger or cloves, I used allspice in replace of these two.]
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet [we used what I had on hand, semisweet...]
cooking spray or shortening, if you're not using a non-stick pan, just grease however you normally would

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets [unless non-stick].

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips.

Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared or non-stick cookie sheets and back for 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take cookies of of the pan and let cool on wire racks.

Cam added the chips, scooped them onto the sheets, and monitored the cooking while I was at work. Our oven is a gas oven and it only took ours 9-10 minutes to cook. So keep an eye on the first batch to find out your true cooking time. Makes 3 or more batches depending on your cookie size.

Enjoy! We love you all!

Day #2

This really is day #2. I swear. I wrote in my paper journal yesterday and I did very well. This morning, I picked myself up off of the couch after Cameron left for work and dragged my feet back to the bedroom. I had every intention of making our bed and laying down to write in my journal for the second entry and I passed out on Cam's pillow... without even making the bed... *smack* Ugh. Oh well.

Nothing really happened yesterday - of course besides getting the pleasure of eating the BEST Baked Beans EVER! I do not like Baked Beans and I found a recipe about 2-3 weeks ago and since then we get EXCITED to make them. It's just to die for. Here's the recipe:

Two cans Baked Beans (or Pork & Beans)
1/4 of a whole onion, diced or chopper (your preference)
1/4 cup of Ketchup
2 Tablespoons of brown spicy Mustard
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 cup of chopped bacon

You mix together the beans and onions in a saucepan over Med-High heat and cook for around 5 minutes. Add the Ketchup, Mustard, and brown sugar. Mix together very well and let sit for another 5 minutes or so. Right before serving sprinkle bacon on top.

We always use a little less mustard (Not Cam's favorite) and cook it for a little longer on a little bit higher heat (I don't like crunchy onions, I like them soft) and use WAY more bacon, lol. Okay, not really. We used 6 strips last night (smaller strips) and stirred them in at the end rather than just sprinkled on top.

It is... SO good... *drool*

The kids went to their new Doctor, Dr. Church. He's very nice and a LOT younger than I thought he would be. My Doctor when I was a kid was the same that Liv and D had in Portland, Dr. Alexander, and he was probably getting close to his 50s. I don't doubt for a minute that Dr. Church hasn't even hit his 30s but he was great with the kids. And he was also very interested - not too quick or impersonal. Nice guy. They found an innocent heart murmur on Liv, which I have yet to research myself, but Dr. Church said that it's nothing to worry over. Just something to note.

Mom just called, we were discussing preschool stuff. I was in preschool at three, just a home one with some other kids but it wasn't until I was 4 that I was in a real one, out of the house and all. We'll probably end up doing it through some little church or private place. My smallest sister, Sidney, went to Wee Wisdom at some little Christian church down the road from where we lived. We're LDS but it wasn't like they were teaching her church stuff - it was just preschool, we weren't too overly hyper about her experiencing other things and the ladies were so nice there. Because it was smaller and private with open-enrollment through that church, it was more attention on Sidney and less on pushing policy and just letting the kids play all day and do nothing.

Anyway... boring... :-P I better go, D's awake.

Love,
M