I started writing this post last week and then forgot to post-date it so that it would post while I was at the game last Saturday. How many times can I say the word "post" in one post? Soooo, you get two weeks worth of my Pinterestings!
But first! Since it's Game Day, I wanna share this picture of Baby Girl in her GO HOGS finery from a few weeks ago:
Hopefully by the time she's old enough for us to drop $waytoomuchbutstillworthit for her to go to a game she'll realize that heels aren't exactly the best choice for Game Day foot apparel!
Yummies:
Frito Chili Pie - Hi, I'm southern. I grew up on frito chili pies so this is nothing new. Nothing quite says fall and football like a chili pie. Remember when they used to sell them at Sonic? Mmmm.
Anyway. Fall (temporarily) blew into the Midsouth a week and a half ago. Rain and grossness brought along temperatures hovering around 50. Brr. Perfect weather for CHILI. I love chili. One of my favorite foods. And I've been ready to tweak the recipe I normally use. It wasn't until after I pinned this particular recipe that I realized it was from Pioneer Woman.
It was a pretty good chili recipe. Eddie and I both liked it, Zhariah was CRAZY about it (the little kids refused to eat it). I'll probably make it again and, when I do, I WILL MOST DEFINITELY ADD MORE CHILI POWDER. Gahh. I was simmering in the crockpot all day so I only added a couple of tablespoons. Next time, there will definitely be more. And there will also be some onions.
Dulce de Leche - Okay, the pin tells you to boil a can of sweetened condesed milk for four hours, let it cool in the fridge, and all the sudden - voila! - you have caramel. I was intrigued. And slightly suspicious. Do you ever think about posting the most ludicrous thing, going on and on about it, and then pinning it to see if someone takes the bait? No? Oh, uhh, me neither.
Anyway. I was curious about this but I decided I'd definitely Google first. Google taught me that you're not making caramel but actually dulce de leche. Google also told me that it's considered "white trash food" which is a total lie because if it were white trash food, I'd have known about it long, long ago. See above re: frito chili pie.
I decided to give it a try. Lemme give you the step by steps:
1) Take your can of sweetened condensed milk and remove the label.
2) Submerge it in a pan of water -- MAKE SURE THE CAN IS COMPLETELY COVERED WITH WATER
3) Boil. Keep checking your water levels. If the water gets too low, your can can explode and then you'll have a Big Ass Mess.
4) I boiled for about 3.5 hours then let the can sit in the hot water for another 30 minutes. As a result, my dulce de leche was extremely thick. I'm assuming boiling for a shorter amount of time will result in less thickness.
5) Remove from pan and allow to cool.
6) Open the can and - like magic - you have dulce de leche!
It tastes pretty good -- like a slightly milkier caramel. We've had ours on brownies and apple slices.
Meatball Sub Casserole - Fail. Fail, fail, fail. The flavor of this was good (and I skipped the cream cheese/ mayo step as Jaidan and I are the only ones who eat mayo and no one really cares for cream cheese. I spread some of the Kraft Garlic Herb mayo on our portions but that was it) but the bread was SO SOGGY. I was really disappointed because I had high expectations for this one . . . especiallly since it was also in my new
French Chicken Broccoli Supreme - I made this the night after I made the meatball sub casserole and . . . totally redeemed myself. I don't even like broccoli but this was THE SHIT! So cheesey and yummy and just . . . trust me, make it. The only thing I did differently was use about half the Ritz crackers the recipe called for. I'm not big on the crumble topping being TOO much. But, in this case, I think it would've enhanced the dish. So I'll go ahead and use all it calls for next time. I had big plans to make this into a BIG dinner. I was going to fix rice and streamed asparagus (and reserve some of the cheese sauce to go on it) and bread to go with it. I ended up fixing . . . just the bread. But it was a plenty filling dinner.
Crockpot Apple Cake - Okay, I was psyched about this recipe. No oil and the blog author said it was moist and yummy. Um . . . no. It was not moist and it definitely was not yummy. Adding a little Cool Whip helped a bit but I will not be making it again. Healthy cake. I shoulda known better.
Halloween/ Kid Stuff:
Ritzy Halloween Spiders - I was not going to cover mine in chocolate so they really look nothing like the pin. The kids thought they were fun though -- even though every single one of the turds pulled the pretzels out and refused to eat them. What the?
Cute Little Witches, Scarecrows, Bats:
Those bats kept the boys entertained for nearly an entire morning! They had so much fun playing with them.
We also did some of the activities from 1 + 1 + 1 = 1's pumpkin preschool pack (love this one because the activities can easily be adapted for the kindergarten age and the young pre-k age) and pumpkins on the vine (and a few other printables from this site).
We've started doing a science "experiment" every afternoon. This week we made mini volcanos and lots of fun stuff from Science Bob.
Karis is always a bit of an, um, issue when it comes to doing "Learning Time" with the boys. I decided to try giving her a strainer full of pipe cleaners to play with one day while the boys did their worksheets and stuff.
It kept her busy . . . for a little bit anyway. She's just one so I figure anything that can keep her attention for at least ten minutes can be considered a success. (However, when I tried to give it to her the next day she threw it on the ground and yelled, "NO!")
And, finally, my personal favorite activity of the week . . .
The World Series interfered with our ability to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Thursday night. Yesterday morning was cold and gross so we decided to make our very own drive-in theater in our living room and watch Charlie Brown. The kids LOVED it. We'll definitely be doing this more often!
I shall leave you with this:
I want a sister wife.
