Potty Procrastination

A Reason To Have Kids

Put 'em to work! Kids actually think shoveling is fun! Sadie was extremely happy to receive her very first shovel just so she could help Daddy when it snowed. Which as it turns out, is pretty often. We stayed outside for about 2 hours today and she never tired of shoveling! She was pretty good at it! The only thing that could convince her to come in was the promise of hot cocoa and "little pillows", aka, mini marshmallows. Also, we had a random act of kindness paid to us today. A man from a street over from us saw us digging out and offered to use his snow blower and free both our cars and our upstairs neighbors car. How wonderful was that? We couldn't thank him enough, he saved John's back! Man, spring is going to feel good this year!

Christmas Number Two

Using her oven mitt to take our her baking creation, "just like Mommy's".

Because of Mother Nature's apparent need to show who's boss and dump snowstorm upon snowstorm on us, we had to cancel our plans to travel to NJ to see John's family for Christmas. We just got a chance to go and see them and have our second Christmas. Which Sadie was very grateful! Thanks to Grandma and Papa, our little cook now has her own kitchen! She loves it and now one of her favorite things to do is cook us food (yes, I know, the definition of irony) and make us delicious coffees! I had to laugh at my stubborn little girl, as I tried to show her where the cream and sugar was for the coffee and she firmly told me no, to go and sit on the couch and she would do it herself. She proceeded to make an elaborate coffee concoction of coffee, salt, fresh ground pepper, chili powder, parsley and ginger. Yes, the kitchen has all of these spices! I was cracking up, and boy, it was the tastiest cup of coffee I had ever drank! She was very proud of it :) Cream and sugar are sooooo overdone anyways, am I right?!

She also got a toy that is fun for kids AND adults! Remember the piano from Big? She got one! A giant floor piano that you can run and jump on, she loves it! I love it! And I love that it gets some energy out of her. Now I just need Tom Hanks to come and do "Heart and Soul" on it with me. I loved that movie as a kid. :)

FUN!

It's All In The Accessories!

Look out Suri Cruise, another toddler can rock a pair of heels! Here is Sadie enjoying playing dress up with her "clickity clack shoes" from Nana!

This is probably something only I am going to think is funny, but she is an adorable little swisher and she makes me giggle!

Wordless Wednesday: You Know She Is Growing Up When...

... you can braid her hair!

Enjoying The Fruits Of Our Labors

Our Sunday pasta treat. Delicioso!

I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile but blogging got pushed to the end of the list during the holidays. In November, a few friends and I got together for a kid free afternoon of catch up, girl talk, nibbles........ and about 6 solid hours of ravioli and tortellini making! I have always wanted to learn how to do this. I even have a pasta attachment for my kitchen aid, but there it sits, sparkling new and unused in the box in the basement. I had good intentions when making out that wedding registry, I really did...... So, anyways, when my friend, Dana, invited us all over to learn how to make homemade pasta treats, I was excited. We each made a different filling and this way we each would take home a few dinners to freeze and we would get to try new and different ravioli's. I made a spinach/mushroom/mascarpone cheese filling, and other fillings were pear/cheese, pork/cheddar, lasagna, spinach/feta/sun dried tomatoes, shrimp, four cheese and butternut squash. At the end of our 6 hours, we had handmade about 100 (yes, you read right, ONE HUNDRED) dozen of these beauties! I will admit, it was a bit labor intensive because of the amount of filling we had, but I am so glad I learned how to do all of this from scratch. I think we are all masters now. We could rival any little old Italian woman! And the big benefit? Ready made meals to go in the freezer! I can't wait to try them all. Tonight I tried the butternut squash ravioli's. They were in a word: Awesome. I will have to call Nanette (who made the filling) and sing her praises. Delicious. And I got to go through my Big Binder Of Recipes I Will Someday Make and find a sauce to go with it- Giada's brown butter sauce with cranberries, toasted walnuts and fresh sage was something I always wanted to make. It was the perfect compliment! John even liked it, and that says a lot coming from him. This isn't "John Food". :) He admitted he was skeptical at first, but really did enjoy it. I am so looking forward to trying all the fillings. So is from scratch better than store bought? In this case, definitely yes! But realistically, will I search the basement any time soon for my pasta attachment? Probably not. But it's a pretty good way to spend a few hours with friends, however my patience level is way too low to do it alone!

Picture perfect butternut squash filled ravioli's. These are Nanette's and it seems as if she had found her true calling. Look at these babies!

Dana and Nanette hard at work. Look at that concentration!

Kate and Jen showin' us how it's done! Rolling out sheets of pasta. Many, many sheets of pasta. Did I mention we made 100 dozen???

I Never Knew....

... that quiche was so yum! Never had made one, but I had eggs and ham to use up and thought, eh, why not? I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I had remembered quiche not being all that great, but this was really tasty. I also for some reason thought it would be a healthy and light lunch to eat. Wrong again! In addition to the pie crust, all the eggs, cream, cheese, and ham made it so you needed only a small slice. Tasted great, but pretty heavy. And surprisingly, Sadie even tried some and liked it. That makes it a winner! Here is the recipe I used for a basic quiche, all I did extra was add the chopped ham. Would definitely recommend!