Cooking 101

As a young lady, I never showed much interest in learning to cook. I never even really learned how to boil an egg until I was already a mom. I mean, I understood the basics. Start with cold water make sure egg is already in water and then bring to a boil. That was the extent of my knowledge concerning boiled eggs. Then again, I had never really had much use for boiled eggs until after I was married seeing as I don't like boiled eggs. I like devilled eggs, but I had never been in charge of preparing them.

Now, as a mom living in an area where everyone knows how to cook, I get picked on quite frequently for not knowing how. I have begun to push myself to learn how to cook. I have learned to prepare quick meals and also to do many slow cooker recipes.

One of my favorite slow cooker recipes is Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak. It takes a little bit of prep work, but it turns out so good it just melts in your mouth!

 Picture from allrecipes.com

I also love Lawry's marinades and my favorite is their Steak & Chop marinade. I know that I can throw some pork chops or steaks in a zip lock bag in the morning with some of the Steak & Chop marinade and put it in the fridge to defrost and marinate at the same time. Then, when I get home from running errands, I can just pull them out and grill, broil, or pan-fry them. So tasty no matter how they get cooked! I try to pair it with easy sides that are kid-friendly like mac & cheese, baked beans, green beans, or corn & peas.

Happy Cooking!!!

November Changes-More Than Just The Leaves

Okay, well "Reece" has been saying "peepee" a lot and every time he says it he goes to the bathroom or I'm changing his diaper and he touches his "peter-bob." So today, after his nap, I took off his diaper and put cloth training underwear on him. I then took him to the bathroom and set him on the potty and said "go peepee" and then turned on the water in the sink. I took a cup (we keep two in the tub for the boys to play with) and dipped it in the warm water from the sink. I poured it over his "peter-bob" a little at a time and waited a couple of seconds. Sure enough, he went peepee and that was that. I jumped up and down, and clapped and "Ray" came in and celebrated and told Reece good job. We went in the living room and played for a while. He had an accident so I ran back and forth with him saying "no peepee in our pants peepee in the potty" about 4 or 5 times. After putting him on the potty I put new training pants on him. He had 4 accidents before I decided that wearing underwear was not going to work. After the fourth time, I took him to the potty and this time I left him bare-bottomed. He had one wet accident on the floor, but the rest of the day was much better and we went to the bathroom about every 10-15 minutes. At one point, I realized that he smelled, but there was no poop anywhere on the floor around us. I looked and he was just beginning to have a little accident. I took him to the potty, but once seated he did not go. By this time, it was dinner time, so we ate dinner and he remained dry and clean throughout dinner. After dinner, I put him back on the potty and he went peepee while I ran his bath water. After his bath, he sat on the potty again and went peepee, then I put a pull-up on him. I got him dressed for bed and read him a book. After reading him a book I put him in his toddler bed. We put the toddler bed in his bedroom at some point late in the summer (August/September). I wanted him to be familiar with it before I transitioned him out of the playpen and into the toddler bed. He laid in the toddler bed for about 1 minute before decideing that he wanted to get up and play. When he got up, I picked him up and put him back in bed. I spent about 10-20 minutes repeating this process over and over again. At that point, I got tired of putting him back in bed. I then picked him up and took him into the dining room where we keep the computer and turned on youtube. I found a 2 hour long video of Mozart music with calming moving pictures. I played it and waited as he fought sleep eventually giving into it. Now, I have to get my 2.5yo, Ray, to also go to sleep.... I guess it's back to Mozart.

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN

I feel like I'm in a never ending cycle. I get one room clean and move to the next and by the time I get that room clean I have to go to another room to clean and when I think I'm done I have to start all over because the boys have destroyed the first room already. Ugh! I wish Ray would help clean instead it feels like they devised a plan to divide and conquer. I need a vacation. Who's with me?

Back Story

I grew up thinking I was from The South. I am from The Carolinas and I lived on a farm for the first few years of my life. I never realized how privileged I really was. My mama always told me that we didn't have any money. I thought we were poor. I never understood how we could live in a nice house and still be poor. My daddy always took me to church and one day after church he took a homeless man lunch. I knew then how poor people actually lived.

I never had a country accent like most of my family but I thought that was because I spent my summers in Texas and California and Colorado. Now, I live in the true country. When I was a child I would have referred to people like my in-laws as rednecks or hicks. What's so funny, is that they call themselves rednecks. Now, I go home and my mama asks where I got this thick southern accent from. Well, I guess I must be turning into a Southern Mama…