Baked Ravioli (from the Kitchen of Ann K)

Baked Ravioli

What you need:
1         9x13 pan
1         package of rosetta ravioli (any flavor you like)
1         20 oz jar of spaghetti sauce
1         (medium size) tub of cottage cheese
1         4 cup bag of mozzarella shredded cheese

Cook the ravioli in as directed. drain
Spread 1/4 cup (or eyeball it) of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of the pan
Spread a layer of ravioli
Then a layer of cottage cheese
Then the mozzarella
Then repeat until all ingredients are used.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350.  (isn't everything baked at 350?)

Serve with a Caesar salad and I pick up the Texas Toast with 4 cheeses.

Parenthood (part 1 of 1 billion)

Yesterday at the dinner table I found myself a little overwhelmed. This happens sometimes when I allow myself to really think about the day-to-day responsibilities that Dan and I have as parents.

When I began this journey into motherhood I realized that I wanted my child (then just one) to feel that they really had no worries other than doing well in school, getting homework done, picking out what to wear and some fun activities that would keep them moving and healthy and overall just being a kid. This meant that I would be responsible for laundry, cleaning, planning and cooking healthy/balanced meals, cleaning up after meals, making and keeping appointments, driving all over God's creation to bring them to appointments and activities most every day of the week. Parenting also includes the opportunity to hang out with the kids for family time to help teach them that it's actually ok and pretty fun to hang out with your family. So...we dedicate every waking minute of our days to the kids and somewhere in between we find time to work so we can pay the bills and sleep.

Recently I have been having a mental block when it comes to menu planning which then makes cooking far less fun for me. If I don't have a plan for dinner than my day gets a little chaotic. A menu allows me to plan what to thaw, cook ahead and what I need to do immediately when I get home from work to get things going so we eat at a reasonable hour. I know it sounds like strategic planning for special ops and maybe I am feeling a little dramatic about it all but...again, feeling a little overwhelmed. I have one child who wants to eat nothing but fried, fast, fat filled and preservative filled foods. I can't seem to change this no matter how hard I try. I have consulted nutritionists, pediatricians and the like. I know all about the division of responsibility when it comes to providing the healthy/balanced foods and let her making her own choices but hey, what the heck do you do when she chooses NOTHING and just simply won't eat? I figure...well, she'll be starving and she'll have to eat but noooooo...she won't eat anything unless it's a quick and easy night and we're having take-and-bake pizza or if there is bread with dinner or some fruits.
It gets hard to keep "sneaking" veggies into things when she won't even eat the things I "sneak" them into.

This is the part that has gotten me overwhelmed as a parent. We work hard to make sure that our children have no worries and that they simply have to do a few weekly chores and occasionally feed/water the dog and let her outside after she has been whining at the door for awhile. We sit to the table after I have spent a LOT of time on dinner only to have one (or three) children push their food around on their plate and eat nothing only to ask for something else. Now, I will not prepare a second meal for these children, they now have a choice between yogurt, fruit or a bowl of cereal that they must get themselves. Am I the only person who is going crazy because of this behavior?

I feel like such a horrible mom when I get overwhelmed and wonder what is wrong with me that I can't do it all and do it all with a smile on my face all the time?

I realize that having all of these children wasn't supposed to be easy and if my mother were alive she would tell me "Rachel, no one ever promised you fair!" These things ring through my mind regularly but  I sure wish it felt a little easier some days, not that I want someone to do it for me but rather I just want it to come a little easier for me all the time!

As I sit here and take time to do one thing that makes me happy (blogging) that takes time away from the family I have one child behind me hurrying me a long so she can check her e-mail. Ugh! I guess some day I'll figure it all out and by then they will all be moved out and have children of their own (THANK GOD FOR SMALL FAVORS!!!!!!!).

So onward towards another day of motherhood! Tonight I am making pigs in a blanket with tater tots so EVERYONE will eat. YUCK! I'll throw a salad and some fruit in to make me happy!

Happy parenting!

Cream of Refridgerator Soup - From the Kitchen of Elaine Allen

Presuming that you have some vegetable stock sitting in your fridge  (sometimes I'll just add bullion to water if I don't have stock), start by warming it over medium heat in a LARGE pot.
make a roux: In a seperate sauce pan, cook flour in fat ( butter or olive oil), garlic, and as much as 1/4 cup diced
onion for each 2 cups of liquid you will be using. Add a little leftover white wine to a roux that has been cooking a few minutes;mind the steam.  add the roux mixture to the stock.This will thicken up the stock so that it looks and tastes creamy. ( IF by some chance the stock doesn't thicken up enough, I will look for left over cooked potatoes and blenderize with some stock to then add to thicken the soup.) Both methods will make the CREAM OF part of this soup.
check for seasoning: a little Tabasco and white pepper would be lovely;wait to add salt until close to serving. To finish this soup, open refrig and pull out  cut up chicken or sausage or ham, add some beans, any kind of vegies , noodles..whatever your family will tolerate in a soup.This is your moment to shine and experiment.
Keep the heat under control so the soup doesn't boil.  Taste and add salt.   This will go great with grilled cheese sandwiches, your refrig will have less things in it to spoil and you will have served a good meal that saved a few pennies.

From the Kitchen of Joanne Martinson

   PIZZA BURGERS

1 lb. hamburger

1 can tomato soup

1/2 can water

oregano to taste

4 cup bag pre-shredded mozzarella cheese 

hamburger buns (or choice)

~Brown hamberger in fry pan, drain excess grease. Add tomato soup, water, and

oregano. Mix together on low heat, and add a handful of the mozzarella cheese.

Open buns and place onto cookie sheet (for this amount, a bag of 8 is enough).

Spoon enough meat mixture on top of each 1/2, and top with cheese. I am very

generous with cheese, as I love them gooey!

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until just golden.

                                                      SLOPPY JOES

1 lb. hamburger

chopped onion

1 can tomato soup

ketchup

mustard

1 tsp. vinegar

hamburger buns

~Brown hamburger with onion, drain excess grease. Add tomato soup, squirt of 

ketchup and mustard to desires taste. Add vinegar, and serve.

                           ****These recipes can be doubled or tripled according to # of

         people eating.****

The Same Ol' Cracker...

Growing up I remember that the ladies in my family all really knew how to cook wonderful meals and I mean cook! I must preface the remainder of the story with the reality of my family. While growing up most all the women stayed home while the men worked outside of the home. The women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, making appointments, and the small people running around their homes. This is likely where I got my warped sense that my husband should manage all vehicle issues, outdoor work and I will handle the indoor work and appointments for children, etc. This also includes cooking for the family!

With all of that said I have absolutely NO idea how my mother or any of the other women in my family figured out how to make good meals that the kids enjoyed and kept up a good variety. I feel like I am making the same meals over and over and over again and soon the family is going to notice and there will be a mutany.

I work outside of the home, I have little to no energy when I return home...oh hell, even on days I don't work I don't have much energy to cook and do all the other stuff necessary. I really don't ever feel like cooking but child protective services would prefer I not starve my children! Recently I've started writing out a menu for a week and then grocery shopping specifcally for that menu. It not only saves my sanity when I know what I'm making and what I need to thaw while I am at work or the night before but it also saves us money to only get what is needed from the grocery store.

It wasn't until just a couple of days ago I e-mailed my childhood friend, Carrie and asked her what types of things she makes for her family for dinner. Carrie's mother and mine were dear friends for a very long time and very frequently cooked the same types of really yummy dinners. Eating at Carries was always just as good as Mom's cooking at home and even better during Lent (I used to be Catholic) when we didn't eat meat on Fridays and if you were lucky enough for an invite to dinner when they were serving waffles with ice cream! YUMMO!

So...Carrie makes a lot of similar meals but there has to be some different things that I just can't think of so I e-mailed her and then we talked about sharing our recipes through a weekly exchange. Then it dawned on me that I have this great recipe section on here where we can all share recipes! I would just ask that if you have a great recipe that your family loves that is easy enough to make after a long day of working or that can be cooked in a crock pot...PLEASE SHARE with me and the others who follow the blog. You can e-mail me your recipes at rachelperez01@comcast.net and I will share them if you would like. If you don't want me to share them on the blog but want to share with me...I'll be just as grateful!

This could be a great place to come to get those home cooked meal recipes that we all loved growing up or love because we've tried them in our own kitchens and they were a huge success. I have shared some of mine already and will add to that but I am excited to try other's recipes also. Please share so we can all make life a little easier (not having to really think to come up with something for dinner is such a nice little luxury).

Thanks all and happy cooking!

A Geo Metro, Grace and and a Chubby Chef in Training

We have had an inoperable golf cart in our garage for quite some time. Dan has had great intentions of making it operable but little to no time to get that project going. So finally, Dan decided he was going to get online and find himself an old Geo Metro in the classifieds and salvage the engine so he could turn this golf cart into a street ready hot rod (okay well not really).

The idea was to turn this battery operated golf cart into a gas powered golf cart, give it tail lights, signals and all those things you would need to have on a street if it were dark out. The reasoning behind this is he wants this golf cart to be our new Halloween mobile. Since he paints vehicles for a living he intends to paint the now canary yellow golf cart black and airbrush some spiders, bats and other cool creepy halloween things on it. Eventually it is what we will use to cart our kids around the neighborhood on Halloween night for trick-or-treating. Let me tell you the kids (and Dan) are nothing short of pumped for this thing to be done but...it takes time and we still had to find an engine.

Last fall Dan found a really inexpensive Geo Metro. One night after work we ventured with the boys to a REALLY rough part of Minneapolis and found the address we were looking for.

In between two other condemned duplex houses was a very shabby, falling apart duplex kitty corner from where I was watching a drug deal take place and surrounded by people that would normally make me run the other direction in day light or dark. Dan proceeded to get out and go to the door. I decided to sit in the back of the truck with the boys in their car seats (why I didn't pick the drivers seat with the car running is beyond me).

Dan disappeared into one of the doors of the duplex and then we sat, and we sat, and we sat. When I began thinking that someone had killed him dead, stolen the cash from his pocket and left him there I began to panic and thought about getting out and getting to the front seat to grab my cell phone and call him (again, not sure why I didn't have the phone with me already). It was then I realized that I couldn't get out because the child locks were on and I was so wedged into the door by the two car seats that I couldn't really move. I sat for a few more minutes watching several more drug deals on the corner and being completely scared for our lives. Dan finally came out and told me he made the deal and that we had to pull around to the alley to get the car on the car dolly. The alley? Really? Ok, let's go to the alley!

So we go to the alley and there is 75lb Grace, the woman who sold Dan the car and we have to get this thing onto the dolly. Dan gets in this car which is FAR too small for my 6'4" husband. Grace (75lbs) and me (a few more lbs) begin pushing this thing while Dan steers to get it on the dolly. HA, yeah right! So while we make several unsuccessful attempts at this Grace is telling me that her son is upstairs making her a birthday dinner. She explains he is a chef in training and I am picturing this scrawny guy whipping up some merengue or something. She then describes him as a 275+ lb guy and I'm all wondering "so why the hell isn't HE out here pushing this car instead of you since you might drop dead at any moment". Finally the son comes downstairs and he gives one shove and the car is on the dolly! WOOOHOOOO!!!!! Grace and the big boy went in after a quick exchange of courtesies.

This is when the shit really hit the fan! Dan decided it was a good idea to pull the car onto a flat surface to get the tie downs on? Even saying this I am wondering how in God's name he thought this was a good plan and I warned him, I really did but I trusted he knew something about a car dolly and it's magic hold on a car even when said car is not tied down so I went with it. Then it happened...the car rolled off the dolly and I stood there wondering how we would ever get big boy back downstairs after his very kind willingness to come down and offer his help before (aka: Grace yells COME DOWN HERE WE CAN'T GET THIS THING ON)!

Dan and I stood staring at the tragedy for a few moments before we looked around us and saw some of the locals walking down the alley, others standing out on their back steps having a domestic (yes, I mean a true domestic) and Nick sitting in his car seat groaning "I'm hungry, I want some french fries". This was bad, really bad.

So we pushed, and pushed and pushed and pushed. Grace and the big boy were NOT coming back out, the domestic was getting louder and a little scary, the locals were eyeing the truck every time they walked by like they might try to hop in and take off even though we were just 10 feet away. We pushed that thing until we were both about to die. It was when Nick started to yell louder "I'm HUNGRY, I WANT FRENCH FRIES" that Dan hopped up on the dolly started pulling the car with me pushing from the back end that we managed to get that Geo Metro onto the dolly and pull a shoulder and a lower back muscle. It's funny how all the scary things happening around you aren't near as motivating as your child becoming increasingly annoying about his demanding hunger!

We got that bitch tied down and we were outta there (almost two hours later). Nick got dinner and we had this amazing piece of shit in our driveway that would soon be cut into small pieces and thrown away to reveal the ENGINE!

As I write, Dan is out mounting said engine to the golf cart in hopes that he can get this project done for Halloween. In the end it will all be worth it but at that moment...I would have left the car and the cash and ran for my life without looking back even for a second. It was a pretty funny scene and leaves me chuckling each time I remember.

To Speak or Not to Speak?

It has recently come to my attention that my 18 month old should be starting to say a little more than "mama", "hi", "wow", "die" (which in Danny language means Daddy) and "uh oh".
Danny however much prefers to scream like someone is attempting to murder him. I have attempted everything short of swatting him with a rolled up newspaper in his snout to get him to stop. The noise he produces is painful and agonizing and he won't stop! God help me I can't make it stop!

I was talking with a co-worker who happens to have several grown children and grandchildren and she looked at me square in the face, chuckled and said "Why should he talk? He doesn't have to." It was then that I realized that she was completely correct. Daniel does not have to talk because EVERYONE in our house (and that's almost a baseball team) speaks for him. Why would he ever need to say anything when between his parents and siblings he just has to make a noise and he gets what he needs. Of course that also means his noises must be LOUD because everyone is always talking in our house. I have raised a household of talkers...imagine that!

Saying "hi" is funny and cute because it makes everyone laugh and pay attention and saying "wow" (sort of like (WOOAAAAHHH) is really great and everyone laughs hysterically. Why should he ever say anything else?

 I was completely convinced that he does not understand the english language (oh, and by the way screw sign language...he is the one kid that looks at me all like "whatever mom you look like a moron with all that hand shit you're doing).
I was totally wrong, he understands perfectly. Like when I say "Daniel please get your baby and bring it to Daddy (die)" HE DOES IT! So I try more "Daniel please get mommy your fire truck and show me the ladder" and HE DOES IT!!!! This little man knows exactly what words mean and how to follow directions, even those with several steps and he is CHOOSING not to talk to us! I have never had a child who doesn't love to talk. I am so confused and besides who wouldn't want to talk to me?

I guess I'll just chalk it up to the fact that he really is his father's son. Dan really doesn't talk much either (it's the whole opposites attract stuff). I guess we will see on his first day of Kindergarten if he screams at his teacher or simply says "hi" and expects her to start laughing hysterically in complete adoration. Oh boy! It's gonna be a long road.

All I can say is "WOW"