Egg Hunt 2008!

Moose's daycare had an Egg Hunt today at school. I was lucky enough to be able to attend. Here are a few snapshots I took:

What? Why...yes I AM enjoying iPhoto-this slideshow took exactly 3 minutes.

Happy Easter 2008!

Domestic Goddess Tip-Week #5

I actually haven't been to the grocery today, Cory and I attended a housewarming party for some new friends of ours, Andrew and Lauren. They were super-nice and we had a great time, plus I made two new friends! Looking forward to pursuing that friendship, it is so much easier when both Cory and I have a friend to talk to, if you know what I mean!

So-due to the party, M&D graciously kept Moose overnight, which meant Cory and I slept in like dogs, rolled through Panera for bagels 'round 11, and just got home from the mall. And we haven't made time for the grocery yet. I think we'll have to do it during the week unfortunately, which I hate-but we'll see.

I have an interesting tip this week, and a lovely new crock pot meal that was DELICIOUS.

Three weeks ago, I bought cheapo store-brand dishwashing soap for my kitchen, and a mongo-size container of antibacterial hand soap. I had received beautiful hand-painted glass containers to display on my sink that could be filled with anything-be it the exorbitantly over-priced Williams Sinoma hand soap, or Meijer brand hand soap.

Who would know if it was in another container? You won't tell anyone will you? I didn't think so-check it out:

I have a great new St. Patrick's Day recipe to share. I made it this week in the crock pot, because corned beef brisket was on sale at Meijer last week. This recipe was inspired by friend Charing's recipe, and pulled from my magazine All You.

Corned Beef and Cabbage
1.5 lb. small red potatoes or 4-5 Yukon Gold potatoes peeled, chopped into cubes
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 corned beef brisket with seasoning packet
2 tsp. ground cloves
1 small onion, chopped
2/3 package baby carrots
1 small white cabbage, chopped into small wedges

Arrange potatoes, onion, and garlic on bottom of slow cooker. Place corned beef on top of the potatoes, and sprinkle with seasoning packet. Sprinkle ground cloves over beef. Add enough water to cover beef, cover and cook on low until tender, all day, 7 to 8 hours.

When done, transfer meat to cutting board, and cover up with foil. Scoop out potatoes, and put in large bowl, and also cover them with foil to keep warm. Pour left-over water from crock pot into large pot on stove. (or scoop it out using a glass like I did) Add carrots and cabbage to pot, turn heat to med-high, and cook until veggies are tender, about 30 minutes.

While veggies are cooking, slice beef across the grain (that is important, or it may fall apart) and serve with potatoes, carrots, and cabbage on one platter.

This was so extremely yummy, I can see myself making it more often than just on St. Patrick's day! Moose and Cory loved it, and both asked for seconds and thirds, and we still had enough left over for two lunches, which heated up very well in the microwave. This would be complemented very well with a crusty French loaf.

Picture Friday!

It feels very weird to post these pictures after I wore a t-shirt to work yesterday... but I still thought you would want to see them!
Spring is quite odd in our neck of the woods.

I have begun what I can only assume is a lengthy affair with iPhoto, which came on my new iMac. It is so wonderful and user-friendly, even Cory can use it. There are so many bells and whistles, I cannot even express how wonderful it is. From automatically importing photos-to sorting them into "events" automatically seeing what days you took the photos on-to ordering prints and calendars and cards-all from iPhoto. Apple really did good things with this program.

And I haven't even investigated some of the other iLife products yet. I'll look at iMovie next-it should prove to be cool too.

My new computer is so cool I love it already-iMacs don't have a tower, all the computer info is in the monitor, the very flat monitor! I don't know how they do it-but it's cool.

Alright, enough bragging-on to the pictures!

Snow Day!

Here are a few pictures from our snow adventure. We had no idea the snow had melted so much! We would have gone out sooner. It suited our purposes, however:)



I have a few more, including a video, that I will share on Friday. It looks like my new rechargeable batteries will definitely fix things for a while. So Picture Friday is baaaack.

Domestic Goddess Tip #4

Somehow, even though I am almost thirty years old, I have contracted strep throat. So, the long and short of it is, I am not feeling well!

We did manage to go to the grocery today, and I am trying a new crock pot recipe tomorrow, which I am very excited about. I will share it if it is good.

For now, I wanted to share a very simple family recipe that I tweaked a smidgen.

Polska Kielbasa with Veggies
1 package polska or smoked sausage
2 large baking potatoes
1 can green beans
2 teaspoon chicken broth granules/or chicken broth cubes/or canned chicken broth

Fill a large stew pot with enough water to boil the potatoes (about five cups or so) and while that heats up, peel and chop the potatoes into cubes. Add in the chicken broth granules so that they dissolve in the warm water, then add in potato cubes. (I keep a jar of chicken broth granules and beef broth granules in my pantry, because they are an easy way to add flavor to a bland dish) Boil potatoes until they are cooked, and you can mash them on the side of the pot, about 30-40 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, slice polska into 1/4" slices. When potatoes are done, add polska slices, and canned green beans in to the pot. Cook about five minutes, or until they start to plump.

Use a slotted spoon to serve dish in bowls, salt and pepper to taste.

Moose and Cory love this dish, Moose loves the "big hot dogs". This also heats up remarkably well, there is typically enough left over for both Cory and I to have a "lunch serving" for the next day.

Big special thanks to Jenn, for buying me a super cool magnetic weekly menu list for my fridge. Thanks for thinking of me!!

Another special thanks to my Mom, who not only watched Moose while I trekked though the six inches of snow (a big deal for our area:) to get meds for my strep throat, but also sent home a meatloaf and hash brown casserole so I wouldn't have to make dinner!! Thanks mom!

No Picture Friday!

Well, I decided to buy a new computer instead of a camera.

I kind of had to, actually. My Mac that I had at home was my work computer, that I was to use anytime I had to stay home with Moose. Well, my boss decided that he wanted me and my fellow employees to have access to a laptop that we could take home as needed-but my work computer was to be returned.

Not a bad deal. Since I installed the new operating system, Leopard, it has acted more slowly. I think it was just too robust for my old G4. Nothing big went wrong luckily, but I feel better getting a new computer. (I have an external back up drive too.)

So my new iMac is currently on its way to me.

I. Cannot. Wait.

I'm sure some of you understand, and the rest of you are shrugging your shoulders! I was also able to order a new scanner/printer and speakers. I am SO PUMPED. It should be here at the latest next Friday.

Now-about my camera. I've decided to try and nurse it along, and buy some new rechargeable batteries. I think that will help it tremendously. And maybe I'll be able to afford the new camera I picked out at the end of Summer. Keep your fingers crossed!

Family news? Not too much going on here, except for the tremendous snow storm that is supposed to hit us. We are not too sure it is actually going to make it to us though. I actually hope that it does snow, so we can play in it.

Moose is good, nothing big there, and alas, no photos to share.

My sister-in-law has some fabulous news. She won an art contest. Read about it in their local paper here.

And here are a few pictures of her.

Domestic Goddess Tip #3

No ground breaking tips this week. I did find a wonderful recipe that we tried and loved, so I thought I would share it.

Southern Pop Pork Chops
Pork Chops
1 Cup Coke or Pepsi (mine was from a flat 2-liter)
1 Cup Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Quite simple isn't it?! Mix the ketchup and coke in a bowl, pour over the pork chops in a baking dish. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Actual reactions-
Cory: "Hmm. This is definitely a keeper."
Moose: "Mo CHOPS, Mo CHOPS!!" "PEEZE MO CHOPS!"

I will add that the sauce drenched the pork chops in my pan, effectively covering them totally, I didn't just brush it on or anything. When in doubt, add more sauce, that is my motto while cooking.

We all enjoyed this recipe, and the super simple minimal ingredient list might actually be a tip, now that I think about it! Sometimes simple meals are delicious and cost effective.

*for those of you asking about the crock pot recipe I made last week, and never shared-it was not good, that is why I didn't post about it:)