Cupcake Wars

Shad and I have watched several episodes of Cupcake Wars on Netflix lately, and Tom and Katie have started playing it. Here's a video I took during breakfast one morning.

http://youtu.be/S4SeJSx8mcU

Summer Recipes

So this summer for my family reunion in Pine Paradise, KY, I had two meals that I had to cook for mmmm...45 people. Give or take a few. I don't remember the exact head count. I'm a big fan of getting by on minimal work when I'm on vacation, so I brought 2 crockpots with me. I signed up for a breakfast and a lunch, and here's the recipes that I know some relatives have been waiting for since July. Sorry, Suzanne! I think about you and your yogurt loving family every time I make a new batch...which is every other week.

Breakfast menu: crockpot yogurt with store bought granola and/or grape nuts, overnight oatmeal, omelettes in a bag.

The day before the breakfast, I started the yogurt. Typically, it should be started by or around noon and it'll be ready the next morning. The morning that it's fresh, it'll be warm, which is different, but my kids LOVE warm yogurt days. The night before the breakfast, we mixed the oatmeal. So then all we had to do in the morning was roll out of bed and chop veggies for the omelettes, and wash fruit.

Homemade Crockpot Yogurt

http://girlsguidetobutter.com/2010/02/crock-pot-yogurt/

Yep, I'm gonna make you go to that link. Seriously, making yogurt is simple enough, but she also tells you how to flavor it if you want to, and gives troubleshooting tips. So go there and learn some good stuff.

Overnight Oatmeal

Mix together in an airtight container 1/2 c oats, 1/2 c applesauce, 1/2 c milk, pinch of salt, cinnamon to taste. Put it in the fridge overnight. Warm it in the morning, or eat it cold.

I don't know how many times I multiplied this recipe for the reunion, but let me just say, "cinnamon to taste" should never amount to 6 or 7 tablespoons. I'm chalking that up to pregnant brain at 10 pm. Yeah, I had noooo idea what I was thinking.

Omelettes in a Bag

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. water

additional ingredients (to your liking):

• cheese, shredded
• ham, diced
• bacon, cooked & chopped
• sausage, cooked & crumbled
• tomato, diced
• bell peppers, diced
• onion, chopped
• mushroom, sliced
• (whatever other toppings you like)

Optional Toppings:

• Salt & pepper
• Sour cream
• salsa
• avocado
• guacamole
• (any additional topping ingredients you like) *I always use Montreal Steak Seasoning for my eggs.

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (appx. ⅔ full)
2. While waiting for the water to boil, crack eggs into a Ziploc heavy-duty, large (at least quart-sized.. preferably gallon-size) freezer bag and add water.
3. Seal and shake, smash, squish the bag... whatever you can to get those eggs really beaten up.
4. Add any remaining ingredients that you would like, press as much air out of the bag as you can and seal tightly. Smoosh the ingredients around a little bit to get an even distribution.
5. Place bags (up to 6) in the boiling water and cook for 13 minutes (adding 1-2 minutes per additional egg if people want bigger omelettes). ALSO, cooking times vary depending on elevation-- check your eggs every few minutes... once they are no longer runny and feel like they are set, they are ready!
6. Make sure the tops of the bag don't hang out over the edge of the pot, especially if you are doing it over a fire-- you don't want the plastic to melt. One of our readers suggested clipping the bags together with a clothespin and draping over a skewer or stick placed across the pot to keep them from falling over the sides-- a great idea!
7. Carefully remove the bags from the water. When you open the bag, the omelette should easily slide onto the plate. Top with any additional toppings and enjoy!

*On a mass production scale like what we did, I gave instructions for everyone to write their name in Sharpie on their bag, then fill it with ingredients. I had whipped up 24 eggs in a bowl, and poured approximately 1/3 cup into the bags. Then I carefully dropped the labelled bag into the pot of boiling water, checked the time, and wrote down on a piece of paper who's omelette bag I needed to pull out at what time. I had a pair of tongs that I used to find the right bag and pull it out.

Lunch menu: chili dogs and fruit.

I started the chili the night before so it would cook in the crockpot. In the afternoon all we had to do was heat the dogs and wash fruit.

Wendy's Copycat Chili

2 lbs ground beef
29 oz tomato sauce
29 oz kidney beans, drained and rinsed
29 oz pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, any size, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can diced tomatoes
½ cup diced green chilis
4 garlic cloves, minced, or 4 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp cumin powder
3 T chili powder
1 ½ tsp black pepper
2 c water

Brown beef and onions together. Combine all ingredients and simmer. If stove top, stir every 15 minutes for 2-3 hours. If crockpot, LOW 7-8 hrs or HIGH 3-4 hrs. Makes about 12 servings.

I let this simmer well over 12 hrs, and it was delicious. I probably turned it on around 10 pm, and we had lunch around noon the next day. Also, that batch of chili was extra meaty, with probably around 4 lbs of beef because we had extra that needed used.

November

November has now been long enough ago that I hardly remember it. Here's a few pictures:

We hung a fruit basket, and Dancy realized that she could now try to get her beloved bananas.

One day for school I told Tommy I wanted him to build a temple from a picture on the computer. The kids had to get their gear.

And they swapped some tools. They built something out of those bricks, but picture replicating is too difficult a task without some adult direction. We'll try it some time when I'm not looking for a "do it yourself" education day:)

Dancy's hair is long enough for fixin'!

Cute girl with pigtails made so many people smile that day.

We had Thanksgiving at Paul and Mallory's house with their family, their minister, Larry, and his wife, Kathy, and a girl from their church, Hayley, and her niece. Dancy really took a liking to Hayley and we've since had her babysit a few times.