The London Broil and Happy Birthday, Michael!

Yesterday, I showed you my Top Round Roast and how I prepped it to become a London Broil. Well, tonight we had this lovely steak with some basic buttery mashed potatoes. I preheated the oven to broil and set my roast on the counter to bring it up to room temperature. Then I broiled it for 4 minutes per side and let it rest on the cutting board for 10 minutes to redistribute the juices. I then sliced it at a 45 degree angle going against the grain of the meat. It came out perfect!

I boiled the remaining marinade and served it on the side but, I didn't think that it really needed anything extra. Since it was his birthday, we gave my husband the "You Are Special" plate tonight. Dinner is served on this plate to the birthday person, a special guest, someone who has done a good job or has been extra kind, someone who needs cheering up, or just because. I try to rotate it to keep it fair. You can buy a plate like this but, I made mine at the local Pottery Pad. I painted the words and the detail on it and Caleb painted the middle blue with white dots (about 8 or 9 years ago). The Pottery Pad glazed and fired it for me.

Here is the birthday boy taking his first bite of London Broil.



Here he is being all dorky and dramatic.

We pause here to insert my husband's theme song. I hope you enjoy! When he calls my cell phone, this is the song that plays.



This is what happens when you set a plate of tasty meat on a table of carnivores. Notice Michael's plate is also empty.

Here is the birthday boy after he has eaten too much. His words: "It was totally worth it!!!" Do you like the shirt that I got him for Father's Day? It says, "I may be left handed but, I am always right!" We'll let him think that for now.

I was planning on making a chocolate butter cake with a layer of sweetened peanut butter in between the cake layers and chocolate butter cream frosting. However, we are on our umpteenth consecutive day of temperature about 457,000 degrees so I was not baking and heating up the house. We went to Bruster's for ice cream. I love this picture of Caleb and Judah! They are so cute! I wish Jeremy was in it but, he was spending the night at his friend's house.

Pay no attention to the 13 year old wearing an old man hat. He thinks he is Indiana Jones. I wouldn't care except that he is wearing it with black basketball shorts (with paint on them) and a Super Mario Galaxy t-shirt. Oh Well!

This child is a mess with Cotton Candy Explosion ice cream running down his chin. Don't let that angelic face fool you. He makes me very tired.

Here is the birthday boy again. He was very excited because they had his favorite flavor today . . . Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye! YUM!!! I also had some Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye as well as a scoop of Banana Chocolate Chip. My day is complete.

SO . . . Happy 35th Birthday, Honey! I love you!!!

Tomorrow, I will be making quesadillas with the leftover chicken from yesterday and the fresh veggies from my friend, Tanya's garden. Stay tuned!!!

Chicken, Pickles, Frogs and GOOBERS!!!

Well, I am back! So many things have happened since my last post. I will be sure to post pictures later this week of vacations and graduations and other happenings around here. For now, I want to share about my awesome trip to Sam's Club. I hit the jackpot of "Reduced For Quick Sale" Meats yesterday! Today, I processed it all. I purchased 12 large chicken leg quarters for about 8 dollars. They were so large, I didn't realize they were leg quarters until I got home. I thought they were breasts. I guess I didn't read the package because I was blinded by the bright sticker that said "REDUCED"! Pardon my fuzzy picture, my camera is dying.

First, I separated the drumsticks from the thighs and packed all 12 drumsticks together for a dinner (with planned leftovers). I will probably either fry them or baste them in BBQ sauce and grill them. YUM! For now, they are in the freezer. I then peeled the skin off the thighs and removed some of the large fat pockets. I put 6 thighs each into 2 gallon sized freezer bags and one went right into the freezer. The other bag was bathed in a marinade using these ingredients below and THIS Robin Miller recipe as a starting point. Of course, I changed it. I don't think that I have ever followed a recipe to the letter.

The original recipe called for orange marmalade which makes me want to gag so, I substituted peach preserves. I doubled the amount of soy sauce and added a teaspoon of ground ginger. I mixed all 4 ingredients in a bowl until smooth and then poured it all over the chicken thighs in the bag. Don't they look happy in their sticky bath? I bet they will be delicious tomorrow after church when we eat them for lunch! Right now, they are marinating in the refrigerator overnight and tomorrow I will bake them for 35 minutes at 400 degrees just like the recipe says to.

On to the next cooking project of the day. These monstrous beauties are supposed to be pickling cucumbers. They are ginormous! They came from my mother's garden and she asked me to make pickles with them. They are far too fat to leave whole so I decided on sandwich slices. You may only need one slice to cover your whole burger with one of these pickles.

Here are the ingredients I use to make some awesome garlic dills very similar to Claussen Pickles. In case you can't read the labels in the picture (have I mentioned that my camera is dying?), there is minced garlic, salt, vinegar, dill seed (not weed), and Mixed peppercorns (pink, green, white and black).

The cucumbers were so big that each one filled its own quart sized Mason Jar. I even had to gently fold the larger rounds to get them in the mouth of the jars. So, I loaded each jar with cucumber slices, 1 Tbsp of dill seed, 1/2 Tbsp of Peppercorns and 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic. You could use 3 whole peeled cloves of garlic per jar but, I was out of fresh garlic so I used the jar stuff.

While I was filling the jars, the brine was coming to a boil on the stove top. The brine was 8 cups of water, 4 cups of vinegar and 1/2 cup of salt.

Once it was up to a rolling boil and all the salt had dissolved, I carefully topped each jar off with the brine. I then sealed the jars and let them sit on the counter until they reached room temperature. Then they went into the refrigerator to brine for at least a week but 2 weeks is better. If you can wait that long!!!

In unrelated news, these creatures decided to hang out on the glass sliding door last night. For at least 20 minutes, they didn't move. I thought for sure the frog was going to eat the moth but he never did. We all got bored and walked away.

In other unrelated news . . . this child is a GOOBER!!! He is wearing an undershirt (inside out I might add), goggles, a cowboy hat (backwards), dog tags and he is holding an Indiana Jones whip. He is just as adorable as can be but . . . I am not quite sure what this whole ensemble is all about. He went outside to dig in the red Carolina clay barefooted and dressed like this. Not the backyard . . . the front yard . . . so all the neighbors could see him and wonder what in the world goes on in our house. Strange but I love him!

Stay tuned for picture from our trips to the Creation Museum and the Smokey Mountains. I also have pictures from the above GOOBER'S graduation. I will do my best to get them all posted this coming week.

Strawberry Picking 2010 and a Delicious Meal

Yesterday, we went strawberry picking with a group of our homeschool friends. It was a gorgeous, breezy day and the berries were sweet and perfect.

I just love the little white blossoms on the strawberry plant.

This is a 1 gallon bucket full of lovely ripe strawberries. We took home 4 of these buckets filled to overflowing.

Judah stayed home from Pre-K so he could join us. He did pretty well. I didn't find any under ripened or rotten strawberries in his bucket.

Later that evening, we went out for BBQ for dinner. Judah wanted to ride this ride before dinner and was told that he could ride it after dinner if he behaved and ate all his dinner. He didn't like that answer . . . so he pouted. Isn't he cute? Don't you want to have 12 just like him someday?

The boy knows how to hold a grudge, ladies and gentleman. I apologize for my husband . . . I am still trying to figure out what happened to him.

Judah did get to ride the ride after dinner and then we went home. When we got home, I made Freezer Jam using about 2 gallons of strawberries. We have 8 large jars in the freezer, 1 in the refrigerator and I have given 2 away. I just used the recipe on the back of the packet of Ball Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (found in the spice/baking isle). It is so delicious!

Tonight, for dinner, I made these yummy buttery dinner rolls and some homemade cinnamon honey butter. The rolls came out so good and were the perfect vehicle for the jam and/or honey butter.

Here is the recipe for the rolls. I made mine using the bread machine but you could certainly mix and knead by hand.

1 cup warm milk (no hotter than 110 degrees F.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast

Place all the ingredients into the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. I listed the ingredients in the order that I loaded them into the machine. Most bread machines have a dough only cycle that does all the the mixing, kneading and rising for you. Set the machine on the dough cycle and walk away. Mine takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. When the cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 24 equal portions. Shape the dough into balls and arrange in a greased 13 inch by 9 inch baking pan. I used two 8 inch cake pans. Cover the pans with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled. I set mine on top of the stove while the oven was on and they doubled in 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Mmmmm! So good with the honey butter. You can find the recipe in this post.

Although it was tempting to just have rolls, butter and jam for dinner, I did make this lovely roasted chicken and a baby spinach and carrot salad to round out the meal. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the salad.

It was all very delicious! The entire chicken breast as well as part of a thigh were leftover. I shredded them meat and out it in the fridge for use later in the week. The bones and some veggies and seasonings are simmering in the crockpot for some homemade chicken stock. We still have a gallon of strawberries to finish off so maybe, we'll have smoothies for breakfast.

Caleb Got Braces!!!

This morning we had an 8 AM appointment at the orthodontist's office. Caleb had braces put on his teeth this morning. This month is a constant reminder that I am no longer as young as I would like to believe that I am. My baby will turn 5 on the 10th and start Kindergarten in August. Caleb got braces today and will enter his teenage years on the 23rd. Where did the time go?

Here is our before picture.

And here is the finished product.



Before I know it, he will be driving and wanting a cell phone and going out with friends without a parent. OK . . . I need to go find a paper bag and some chocolate to console myself.

Snow Cream . . . Fresh Off The Grill . . . The Breakfast Of Champions

So, it snowed again last night and all through the night. We got about 5 inches of really good snowman making snow. The kids were all excited. Yesterday, we went to a friend's house for lunch and the boys begged for their friend to come home with us and stay for dinner. It started to snow before dinner so Mack spent the night. We had popcorn and watched Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

This is the view from our front door this morning. Beautiful, isn't it?

See how the snow os sticking to all the tree limbs? I love the snow and I am so glad we are getting a real winter this year.

This is the view out the back door. Just out of the frame of this picture is our grill and when I saw all that clean snow, I thought to myself, "I am going to be the coolest mom ever if I make snow cream for breakfast!"

So, I collected 8 packed cups of snow in a large bowl and quickly added a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 teaspoon on real vanilla extract.

I stirred it all together trying to break up the snow clumps and get everything blended without getting too soft.

Our guest thought I was a little crazy as I stirred snow in a bowl. I don't know . . . maybe he was expecting waffles and omelets.

Here are some of our sticky toppings.

We cannot forget the chocolate crunchies and rainbow sprinkles.

Here is the crew tasting breakfast for the first time.

This is Mack. He thoroughly enjoyed eating doctored up snow for breakfast.

Caleb loved it.

I think Jeremy has more Hershey's syrup than snow cream in that bowl. He stirred his up to make chocolate snow cream.

Judah was still trying to figure out why I was serving ice cream for breakfast. I hardly ever buy ice cream so they really enjoyed it.

The recipe I used is Paula Dean's recipe. I had never used the sweetened condensed milk for snow cream before but, it held together better than any other recipe I have ever used. It was not soupy.

So, in case you missed it earlier in the post, all you do is mix together:

8 packed cups of snow

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

My husband just came into the office and told me that today is the first time in a generation (at least 50 years) that there has been snow on the groung in everyone of the fifty states (except Hawaii). It snowed in Florida yesterday. Global Warming? Hmmmmm???

Eureka!!! No More Clumps In The Laundry Soap!!!

Back in April, my husband and I ventured to Lowe's probably 10 times in one week. Every time we were there, we asked a ton of questions and spent at least an hour with pad and pencil trying to figure out which washer and dryer were the best bang for our buck. Our washer and dryer was a stack mates set from Maytag that was 20-25 years old. It still worked but was starting to make this crazy noise when you started the dryer. It was also too small for all the laundry I was doing every week. It took forever. You can read more about the whole experience here.

So we opted for the Maytag Bravo set. It is gigantic and I was beside myself with glee when I did my first load of laundry. Now I only have to do 1-2 loads per week. When we bought it we were told that we had to use HE detergent so on our way out of the store, I grabbed a bottle of HE detergent. I have been making my own laundry detergent since 2006 after finding this recipe on the Internet. I haven't purchased laundry soap since I bought a laundry soap making kit for $17 from Soaps Gone By in 2006. It has lasted that long! Well that one bottle of HE detergent that I purchased in April is just about gone. I have been reading on other people's blogs that the homemade stuff is safe for an HE washing machine because it is low suds.

Last night, I got out all my supplies to make a batch of laundry soap and was wondering if there was something I could do about the gloppy consistency since my new machine has a dispenser. I was thinking that the clumps of gel might be an issue when it was put in the dispenser. Plus, I thought that a smoother consistency would make it easier to measure out and pour. So, I thought about the homemade hand soap that I made just recently. You can read about it here. And I thought, "What if I used the same amounts of water, soap, washing soda and borax but just changed the way that I put them together and make it more like the hand soap?"

So here is what I did:
* Pour 1 gallon cold water in a large bucket. Set aside.
* Pour 1 gallon of water into a large pot and bring to a steam (you should just see tiny bubbles on the bottom of the pot and steam coming up off the top of the water.
* Add 1 bar grated soap. I used Zote (Pink and smells nice).

* Stir until the soap shavings are dissolved but do not boil.
* Add 1 cup Super Washing Soda and 1/2 cup Borax. Give the pot a stir, turn off the heat and stir until the powders are dissolved. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes uncovered.
* Use your immersion blender and blend until smooth and creamy (no little bits of soap should be left).
* Pour your soap mixture into your bucket of cold water and use your immersion blender again until smooth.
* Leave the bucket to cool and gel overnight UNCOVERED.

* In the morning, you will have soap jello. It will be springy to the touch but not wet. Use your immersion blender again and blend well. Break up all the chunks of gel. It should turn the consistency of liquid laundry detergent. Even and smooth. At this point, you can add 10-15 drops of essential oil to scent your detergent, although this is not necessary. After the addition, blend well with the immersion blender.

* Use a funnel to pour your liquid into old detergent containers for easy pouring. Shake before using if you want to but you shouldn't have to. Those large clumps should be a thing of the past. Use 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup for HE and front load machines and 1/4 to 1/2 cup for top load and non-HE machines. I wrote directions on some masking tape and put it on the bottles.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen last night after making my laundry soap, Michael called me into the family room where I saw this little four-year-old boy "watching" TV.

This is what he was watching . . . the backs of his eyelids! He was completely asleep propped up on his elbows. So cute!

This is what we had for Sunday lunch . . . Chicken Parmigiana with Linguine. YUM!!!
I used the sauce that I made here. It was delicious!