Review- Green Mountain Coffee

Half-Calf for the Keurig is the BEST. I am hooked on this stuff. Kohls sent out $10.00 gift cards to credit card holders and so I got this 18 pack for $3.09 ;).

Review- Trader Joes Irish Breakfast Tea

Yes, it's strong and dark as it claims but not bitter.
  I love this tea. Hands down my favorite now.
 Red Rose has been demoted to second best.

Manny is 3!

 

And he's loving his Hulk hands.  We didn't have a big party cause of illness in the house.  Yucky coughs and runny noses.  We love you little Manny!

Taking a Break..

Haven't been posting much here.  I have been quite the Pinterest junkie in my free few minutes.  Trying to find good recipes and plan meals on a by-weekly schedule.  I also have a few sick children on top of that.

I Love Chalkboard Paint!

 

Just a little project I did on my pantry doors.  I'm working on a binder for by weekly recipe planning and wanted to post the menu somewhere.  Trying to simplify things for myself a little so I have more time to do "school" work with the kids and also so I remember to take the meat out of the freezer and put it in the fridge in enough time to thaw so I don't get stuck buying pizza.  Don't get me wrong I love pizza but for 7 people I have to budget it in, one just isn't enough!

Doctor Who

Pumpkin Swirls Cheesecake

 

Okay, so I know that isn't the best picture but I wanted to get a quick one taken so that I could type the recipe while I had a few minutes.  I have been making this recipe for years.  Its came from a friend about 10 years ago-thanks Jennifer.

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

Crust-

1 1/4 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup of melted butter (1/2 stick)

2 Tbs. of sugar

 

Mix and press in springform pan

 

Cheesecake batter-

 

Cream these 3-

 

3 packages of softened cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

 

add-

 

1- 15 oz. can pumpkin (2 cups fresh)

4 large eggs

1/2 cup evap. milk (1 use 1/2 and 1/2)

2 Tbls. cornstarch

1 tsp. cinnamon

 

beat till combined well

 

melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips and add 3/4 cups of the pumpkin batter and stir well

 

pour pumpkin batter over crust in pan then swirl chocolate mixture over the top and swirl down in a little with a knife

 

bake at 350 for roughly an hour.

 

 

Pumpkin Scone Recipe

 

Starbucks-ish Pumpkin Scones
Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
ground ginger -few dashes
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons half-and-half
1 large egg
Powdered Sugar Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
Glaze:
Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.
When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.
Icing:
Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

HERE is a link to the original recipe that I changed a bit.  These are better than the real thing because they are more moist.  The two times I had them from Starbuck's they were dry so I won't be trying them from the store again.

Broccoli and Mini Meatball Soup Recipe

 

I had cooked down the remainer of our whole chicken from dinner the night before with spring water to make stock and to that I added -

1/2 lbs of homemade mini meatballs-meat, 1 small egg, parm. cheese, little garlic powder

1/2 bag of frozen broccoli

the rest of the shredded chicken meat

1/2 bottle of tomato paste

salt and pepper

1/4 cup of uncooked rice

 

Let it all simmer for a bit till broc. and rice are tender and meatballs are cooked.

 

All the kids liked it and we sprinkled some cheese on top.

 

 

Icon Tour- St. Mary's Monessen, Pa

 

This was my home church till we moved so I didn't take many pictures here.  Its mostly stained glass windows which are really hard to take good pictures of ;(

Icon Tour- St. John the Divine Orthodox Monessen, Pa

Icon Tour- St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Monessen, Pa

Icon Tour- St. Michael's Antiochian Orthodox Monessen, Pa

Icon Tour- St. Spyridon's Greek Orthodox Monessen, Pa

Mason had to go to the dentist- yuck- 3 cavities need filled.  The upside for him was we need to go back another day for that so we got to go to the Olive Garden for lunch. As you can see he was thoroughly enjoying his meal. 

Let's Race

The boys are filling up the trucks with leaves for a race. We are so happy that the weather is finally cooling down. We love to play outside when its under 75 degrees.

The Holy Twins

By Tomie dePaola

Excellent book. Marlee and I have been working on her reading by taking turns, one page for her, one page for me. This was our latest book and we really enjoyed it. He has some great books on the Saints and the Blessed Mother.

We The People - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JVAhr4hZDJE&vq=medium#t


Please watch ;)

I'm so excited!!!!

Romney did so well in the debate tonight I could just cry from happiness. There is real hope! Keep praying people please that we can get our beloved country back!!!! I can't wait to see the vice presidential debate cause we know Paul Ryan knows his stuff too.

Inspired by the Avengers

Shawarma (sorry I had already taken a bite)

 

 

Recipe from About.com edited to how I made it.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut in thin slices
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• juice from 1 lemon
• ___________________________
• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 1 cup sour cream or yogurt
• couple dashes of garlic salt
• couple dashes of dill
• 2 tablespoons of finely grated cucumber
• ___________________________
• PITA FILLINGS:
• Naan bread from TJ's
• thinly slice cucumbers
• thinly sliced onions (red)
• thinly sliced tomatoes

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients except for chicken, fillings, and sauce ingredients to make marinade. If it seems a little dry, add a little olive oil (a tablespoon at a time).

Add chicken, cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

 Make sauce and refrigerate too.

 

                                          
In a  large saucepan, cook chicken over medium heat for 25  minutes or until done. Be sure not to overcook! If chicken becomes a little dry, add a few tablespoons of water throughout cooking duration.

 Assemble and enjoy!  This is a new family favorite (except for Marlee and Mason)

 

Near the very end of the movie, Ironman is just beat down and confused and asks them if any of them have ever eaten Shawarma and suggests they go get some.

 

If you watch Avengers through the credits you see them all in the restaurant eating Shawarma. 

 

A Little Rant

My cuties before the scout meeting

Okay, so we took him next door to the scout meeting and the girls and I were sitting in the livingroom watching something on tv when I here something hitting the house.  So I get up and look out the window and two girls  who were maybe around 12, old enough not to throw rocks at peoples houses, were sitting up on the otherside of this tree you see in the photo throwing rocks down at the house!  There were two grown women standing up on the sidewalk to Mannys left in the picture who were just gabbing away.  Soooo, I open the door and say to the girls, "could you please stop throwing rocks at the house?"  to which they of course reply, "we're not."  Now I say, "yes, you were.  I saw you out the window."  (I'm holding up three rocks in my hand I picked up off the ground when I walked out.)  No reply, I go back in.
Time to go get Mason and Manny and I walk out and there are a bunch of rocks all over the sidewalk in front of the house.  The woman is getting in the car across the street with her kids so I walk over with Manny and say, "Excuse me, are those your girls?" to which she replies "yes" and I say "I  didn't mean to be mean but we take care of the property here (she says "OK" and I continue) "and if you hit a rock with the weed wacker or lawn mower it can fly out and break a window, it happened last year."  To which she says, "OK"  So at this point I'm really frustrated because I tryed twice to be kind and to give her a chance to apologize for her children throwing rocks at the house and not her or the girls admitted any wrong, she actually responded to me like I should be apologizing to her!  At that point I just said, "an apology would have been nice." and walked away in to the meeting.  Now I know kids will be kids and do things they shouldn't and even lie about it cause its easier than saying I'm sorry, that was wrong but for a mother- a grown woman- to first, ignore her children throwing rocks at a house, second to let them lie instead of saying that they should apologize and offer to pick them up and thirdly to not then apologize yourself is just plain rude.  Then to top it off they waited outside in their van for 10 mins. while I was getting Mason just so they could yell out the window at us, "don't worry, we won't be back!" and drive away.  How mature is that! 

Last week my friend was kind enough to gift us 2 5 gallon buckets if paste tomatoes.  I love fresh sauce. It just tastes so much better and you know exactly what's in it, how they were grown and glass jars are so much better than cans.