Never too late to give thanks

Down-Home Mom here, giving thanks for...

Clean toilets

t

$2.40 turkey

Homemade bread and jam


Pomegranates...my new obsession


Mature family relations


Offspring


Adoring love

Best Policy Days...Laundry & Kids

Best Policy Days: Days when I've completely lost my mind and my older, wiser Granny comes for a visit. She stops by to share a nugget of wisdom that usually knocks me back into reality.

Honey, laundry fairies are not real. They're just a figment of a housewife's imagination. These are your children for crying out loud! They're only 1 & 2. At least start them out with 1 load to fold...not 9!

Honesty is always the best policy!
Love you,
Granny

10 more

9 loads of laundry to wash, 4 poopie diapers to disburse of, 6 time-outs to forget about, 1 tortured kitten to protect, 8 bills to pay...-$49.34 to pay it with, 3 loaves of bread to bake, 1 pan of granola bars to make, 2 toilets to clean, 1 batch of laundry soap to make, 3 PB&J sandwiches to slap together, 5 letters to mail, 1 hubby to miss, 2 kiddos to kiss and only 10 more cups of coffee to drink.


I wonder what happened in People today?

Foot in Mouth

I was busily making dinner the other night while my wonderful husband was sacrificing himself as a punching bag to my boys upstairs. Things were going as planned until a little toddler came into my kitchen domain begging, "food mommy food". I told him kindly that dinner was almost ready so he needed to wait. He asked again and again and again. I tensely pushed him from the kitchen before I burned the burgers.

About 47 seconds later my lovely husband came prowling into my kitchen
with the 1 yr old in one arm and the toddler on his heals. "Hey honey, how long till dinner?"

A little impatient, I replied " only 20 min". Now get out of my space and let me work!!!

"What can we eat to tie us over?"

Now visibly irritated I snapped "You know this would never have happened in my house growing up! We were never allowed to snack before dinner! Sheez." Appalled at their lack of patience, I threw some cheese at them and shooed them away. I mean come on, can't they just wait a few minutes until I have this wonderful, nutritious dinner on the table? Is that so hard? Am I the only one with any self-control around here? I then went back to cooking. Chop went the onions, sizzle went the burger, pop went the little frozen cookie dough ball into my mouth. Mmmmmm, was that really the last one in the bag? bummer, those were good.

Silence..........wait a minute.......Oh crap!

Is "practice what you preach" really important when cookie dough is involved?

No

FYI- Never say "this would never have happened in my house growing up!" to a man in his own home. Definitely not the smartest words that have come out of my mouth. Zip it woman!

Frittata & Coffee Cake

My wake up call came at 5:13am this morning from a 2 yr old who was crying over a kitty scratch. Thank goodness he was delerious enough to go back to bed after kisses on the booboo were applied....however, mommy was not. Perky and awake, that was me. Why does that always happen on the weekends when a few extra minutes of sleep is actually possible? Well, I made the best of it by surprising my darling hubby with a nice breakfast.The frittata is a great throw it together breakfast. Fast, easy and as soon as you throw it in the oven you have 20min. to sit down and have a cup of coffee before the troops come in to devour it. I usually change most of my recipes according to what I have on hand therefore this morning's frittata was filled with sausage, pepper, onion & mushroom (just replace the veggies in the original recipe with what you have available).


Breakfast Frittata
(Original recipe from Val @ Collecting the moments...One by One)

2 Tb butter
6 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 onion
1/2 C broccoli florets cut into small pieces
5 mushrooms
salt & pepper

Put butter into oven safe frying pan. Saute onion, and broccoli, adding in mushrooms a bit later as they take a shorter amount of time to cook. Once all are tender, salt and pepper generously and turn off heat. Mix milk and eggs, and pour strait into the still hot frying pan over the veggies. Add cheese and mix gently. Put in a 400* oven for 20 minutes.

My coffee cake recipe hails from Martha Stewart Living Nov '06. Now, I've got a bone to pick with Martha but, I'll save that for another time. For now I'll just say that this is one of the only recipes I've taken from Living that actually works without needing some special equipment or out-of-this-world ingredient that costs $20 and you can only find at a little mom & pop shop in downtown Manhattan. I mean, come on! We're normal people. We shop at Safeway and Winco. We buy milk, eggs, vanilla! Ugh...like I said, that's for another time.


Yum Yum Coffee Cake

Batter mix:
1/2 C Butter, softened
2 C flour (I've used white, wheat or a combo. All work well)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1tsp salt
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C sour cream

filling mix:
3 Tb sugar
4 1/2 tsp instant coffee
4 1/2 tsp cocoa

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 10in. bunt pan & dust with flour. In medium bowl, whisk flour, powder, soda, salt. In mixer bowl whisk butter & sugar until pale and fluffy(3-4min). Reduce speed to medium and mix in eggs. Add flour, sour cream and vanilla and mix for 1 more min. Make filling mixture in separate bowl.

Spread 1/3 of the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the coffee filling, repeat. Spread the last 1/3 of the batter on top. Take a knife or long skewer and swirl through the batter to lightly blend the filling.
Bake 35-40min. Let cool for 30 min, invert onto plate, enjoy!

Now that's a weekend breakfast for Champions!

Good days

Good days in my world tend to start with the sun peeking through the trees, a warm cup of coffee in hand, silence throughout the house, a clean kitchen and living room. You know, nothing out of the ordinary, just simplicity and peace. Definitely NOT this............

Mom: "What a glorious morning! Boys are still in bed, coffee is in my hand, iGoogle is catching me up on my daily news. Such a sweet, sweet day this will be."


Rascal Cat: Jumps on table, flies through 4 feet of air, lands on Mamma's head, engulfs self in a web of hair. "What a way to start the day! Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"


Mom: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, grrr, owwwwie! you stupid cat, get off my head or I'll leave you outside with the coyotes tonight."

We can't expect every day to start out with peace and quiet now can we?

And that's how life is for this down-home mom.