Hillbilly Wisdom

Supper time coincides with the witching hour at my house. That lovely transition time when the family is ravenous and Bubba is ready to grub and sleep. Add to the mix a hopelessly unorganized mama who has a tendency to turn even the easiest meal into a catastrophe.

My forte is baking. Even my niece tells me “I like your baking, but not your cooking”! It’s not that all of my meals turn out food for the garbage, but (hard to admit here) at least 30% of my meals don’t turn out like the pretty picture shown in (insert any website here) the tutorial. I really enjoy going to websites that show step-by-step picture instructions of the recipe so I can gauge how successful the meal will be. As it so happens (all too often I might add) the meal looks beautiful, just like the picture, but the taste is a bit off. I apologize to my family and tell them to suck it up because I’m not making anything else ( grabbing a bowl of cereal is not an option!).

You might wonder why I’m even writing about my lack of cooking prowess, but I DO have a few recipes that I cook which puts a smile on my ravenous family! I should state up front that Bubba is like “Mikey” from the old Life commercials…he’ll eat anything! So without further ado, I would like to present to you one of my favorite meals.

I have named this “Rocket Pasta” because my husband could eat this every day! This pasta is not heavy in tomato sauce and packed with spinach and tomatoes. I modified it from this recipe found on Tasty Kitchen. My modified recipe is not really all that modified, but the original name was too long for me..haha!

Okay are you ready to learn the easiest freakin’ meal you will ever make packed with good-for-you food? You are? Oh good..here we go!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Saute onions and garlic

Add Italian sausage (I do not use turkey sausage like the original recipe calls for)

I even took a really bad picture with my phone:)

After the sausage is thoroughly cooked, add mushrooms and sauté until soft

Add pesto (I use store-bought stuff because I killed my basil this summer)

Next add a LARGE can of whole or stewed tomatoes, juice and all! I found that I needed at least one large can of whole tomatoes or two small cans of stewed tomatoes to add enough liquid and flavor to the meal.

Don’t you just LOVE my lighting techniques and the professional look of my photos?

Throw some spices into the skillet and let simmer on low for 10-15 minutes. I use this great mix of dried herbs I bought at the farmer’s market.

While the meat mixture is simmering, boil your pasta. I use whole wheat penne…with a good amount of salt in the water!

Oooohhh ahhhhh…lookie there! It’s a picture of boiling water!

While pasta is cooking, cut up large block of mozzarella cheese. I bet using fresh mozzarella would take this to a new level, but that there fancy cheese is expensive here in Arkansas!

After pasta is al dente, drain pasta and put bag of fresh spinach into pasta pot. Layer spinach, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese. Pour hot pasta back into pot to wilt spinach and soften cheese. Add meat mixture, mix thoroughly, and place into casserole dish. Bake for 20-30 minutes until hot.

“Yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy”. Look at those tomatoes and spinach…hello!

Dig in!!! This is one of my knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark-meals! I hope you enjoy my version or even the original recipe linked to above:)

Do you see the melted cheese??? Mmmmmmm….

Here is the recipe

1 diced onion

1 package Italian sausage

a few cloves of garlic, minced

olive oil (enough to sauté onions and garlic)

1 package sliced mushrooms

1 LARGE can whole tomatoes or 2 small cans of stewed tomatoes

1 small jar of pesto (approx. 1/2 cup)

1 box whole wheat penne

1 bag fresh spinach

1 large block mozzarella cheese, cubed

1/2 c. parmesan cheese

Salt, pepper, Italian herb mix (dried)

Saute onions and garlic, add sausage and cook thoroughly. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Add pesto, mushrooms, and spices. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain cooked pasta (save some pasta water in case meat mixture is too dry). Mix spinach, cheese, and drained pasta. Add meat mixture, mix thoroughly, and place in casserole dish.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Please let me know if you make this and what you thought of it.

Have you noticed the grocery stores are carrying more baking pumpkins? I’m certain they’ve been around forever and my head has been stuck in the sand never noticing the itty bitty cuties next to the ginormous carving pumpkins!

Either way…I have discovered steroid-free pumpkins! Hallelujah!! I can happily plop down hard-earned cash knowing my purchase will not be absconded by costumed nearer-do-wells on Halloween, ready to be launched at the nearest car or house! There will be no punkin’ chunkin’ at my house…okay well maybe one or two Jack-O-Lanterns strategically placed on my porch might fall victim to the marauders.

So why am I singing the orange squash’s praises?

These suckers are GREAT to bake with, especially when you want to sneak in extra nutrients into your kiddos snacks!!! Hello! I’m kind of anal about my kiddos eating healthy (even though as I type I’m indulging in a Nutella sucker…what is that wonder you ask? It’s none other than a glob of Nutella on a spoon, clever huh?)

I know I could easily go to the store and pick up and can of pumpkin, but where is the fun in that? If you have a cookie sheet, a food processor or blender, and an oven….you are ready to roast your own itty bitty orange pumpkin and say adios to the canned junk FOREVER!

Here’s what you do……it’s difficult so pay attention! Oh and the pictures were taken by me, the exact opposite of a good photographer, on my iPhone.

1. Buy yourself an itty bitty pumpkin. Take it home and lop of the stem. Cut it in half (with a sharp knife)

2. Scoop out seeds, rinse pumpkin guts off of soon-to-be delicious morsels, set aside to dry and roast!

3. Slice pumpkin and set on baking sheet (preferably an old one you don’t use for cookies). Roast in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, after flesh is soft.

4. Let slices cool until you can easily peel skin.

5. When your hands are covered in pumpkin, holding a sharp knife mind you…is when you realize you have a “helper” that you have to remove….

6. Back to the star of the show…cut up peeled pumpkin and place in food processor

7. I added a bit of water during the processing to add moisture

(Wow, that’s my crummiest picture yet!)

8. Stare in wild wonder that you have made pumpkin purée!!!!!!

Off to make Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies…..oooooohhhhh they sound UH-MAZING:) I’ll post pictures of yummy morsels when they are done.

Now get off yer backside, go buy an itty bitty pumpkin, and make some pumpkin purée!!!

I’m thinking I should have used my onions sooner….

Who would’ve thunk an onion would start sprouting green fingers!

Think it’s okay to use?

Either way…it’s fun to turn into a character:)

This is a picture taken with my phone. My website looks like this when I log on….

I’m working on fixing it! For the one person who reads this site….hang in there:)

When GiGi started Kindergarten I had to fill out a questionnaire about our home life. One of the questions was “How many books does your child have?” I stopped counting after 300! If I had to guess, I’d say she had close to 500 books!!! I’m a teacher with a Master’s in Reading, of course she would come from a print rich environment. We are still overrun by books.

Fast forward many years when Bubba was born. I started looking for cute board books geared toward boys, or at least gender neutral. Each month when the Scholastic book order came out I perused the pages looking for books with brightly colored illustrations that featured simple, yet engaging text so I could introduce Bubba to the wonderful world of reading.

Above is one of my many purchases…cute book huh? Looks like it’s filled with engaging illustrations right? It is!

Look closely though…what do you see?

I had Bubba in the playpen with a few books and toys while I cleaned the kitchen. When I returned to retrieve him after several minutes of him loudly voicing his displeasure about being contained, I noticed white stuff littering the playpen. I searched high and low for the culprit, hollered at GiGi and my husband to come and take a guess, and was about to blame the dog! I have to admit I was starting to panic a bit as to the mysterious white stuff Bubba had obviously ingested, but being the rational mama I am, I knew there was a reasonable explanation…..

Upon closer inspection I realized what the white stuff was….

Can you guess?

Need another clue?

Notice anything? Maybe the moist area where the corner of the book USED to be?

Ahhhh now you can finally see what I saw….Bubba enjoys books…he enjoys them so much he EATS them! I’m so proud of my boy!

Do you think he can learn content by ingesting instead of reading????

When my daughter was two weeks old her father and I were driving back from somewhere and had a little over an hour until we returned home. Before we left I nursed Gigi hoping she would be satisfied and fall asleep for the long drive, but with an hour to go she woke up screaming. As a logical human being I knew she would eventually stop and be lulled back to sleep by the motion of the car, but as a first time mom, logic had been sent to the dog house. With each passing shriek my heart rate soared, milk let down, and I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin until I could soothe her, but her father refused to pull over. Somewhere deep inside of me my instincts kicked into gear and, void of emotion, I calmly told her father “if you do not pull this car over now I cannot be held responsible for what I will do to you”. Never in my life would I utter those words, but at that moment I was experiencing  a “primal instinct”. In my mind NOTHING was going to stop me from soothing my child! That comment led to a discussion with Gigi’s father (while nursing her in a parking lot after he realized I was serious and pulled over) about protecting your child. He did not believe he would die to protect her, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I could and would do anything in my power to protect her. If she were hungry and I could not provide food I would swallow my pride and go to a food pantry. If a rabid dog was after her I would jump in front of her, etc. Fortunately I’ve never had a reason to “jump in and protect her”. Now that I have a son, I would do the same for him! As a mother I would do whatever was needed to keep my children safe. Most parents feel the same way….

As I type there are parents who are following their instincts to save their children. Only they are not going to a pantry, or jumping in front of a rabid dog, instead they are walking over 100 miles through a desert to find safe harbor in a refugee camp. These parents are giving what little food and water they find to their children, even if it means they will die due to lack of nutrients. Right now the largest humanitarian crisis in a generation is happening in Africa. Somalia has been hit particularly hard. Parents are hoping to find refuge in Mogadishu, which has been described as “lawless“. Why would anyone walk TOWARD lawlessness? These people have a basic need not being met, parents have starving children!

…more than 100,000 people have walked in search of food: ‘ The people in Mogadishu we saw, many of those had arrived in Mogadishu very recently or a couple of weeks previously having walked from their villages for as much as 200 or 300km. They left their villages when their livestock all died – it is a livestock economy.’ They were trying to get to where they hoped there would be food and they would not have had food or very little of it on the way so children were arriving in a very bad state of malnourishment and sadly, some of them had been left behind along the way.’

Article here

Okay so people are starving, but we have hungry people here right? We do, but we also have a safety net (albeit not always the best, but enough to prevent starvation). We have states experiencing a drought and extreme heat, but we can go into our air-conditioned homes or go to a shelter to find respite from the heat (high here today..105 and that’s not as bad as my home state!). The people walking in Africa are not as fortunate. How can I, sitting here in my air-conditioned home watching my sweet chunky baby sleep, help those starving people in Africa?

As a child I always hated the “logic” of “there are starving kids in Africa, so finish your food”. I would offer my food to them telling my parents we could ship my serving to the starving kids, but that usually got me in trouble. It seemed logical in my mind at the time! Instead of telling my daughter to “eat all of your food because there are starving children….” I can now help those starving children and their parents!

There is the most amazing product…have you heard of it? It’s called Plumpy Nut.

About Plumpy nut…

Plumpy’nut^® was developed in 1996 by Nutriset and the IRD. It was the first ready-to-use food intended specifically for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition. It corresponds to the definition of RUTFs (Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food), recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the home treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

In 2009 Dr. Milton Tectonidis, the chief nutritionist for Doctors Without Borders, said this about Plumpy Nut in a 60 Minutes interview

“Now we have something. It is like an essential medicine. In three weeks, we can cure a kid that is looked like they’re half dead. We can cure them just like an antibiotic. It’s just, boom! It’s a spectacular response,” Dr. Tectonidis says.

A simple formula of peanut butter, powdered milk, vitamins and minerals can help stave off starvation! WOW!!! This means that my paltry contribution to Doctors Without Borders could help these parents keep their children alive! My donation could assist these parents in their most basic instinct, keeping their child alive….let me restate that. My SMALL donation can SAVE THE LIFE OF A CHILD!

I have written this post in the hopes that someone, other than my husband, will read my blog and feel compelled to click on the Doctors Without Borders link and then go a step further and donate knowing they will save a life! My family is donating . I cannot sit back as a mother and watch children starving. I HAVE to do something! Donating to a charity that is at this very moment providing assistance to these families took five minutes out of my day, but that simple click of a button on a computer will hopefully provide a ripple and others will follow suit.

If you are curious about what it is like on the “front line” check out Plumpy’nut Press.

I was all prepared to razzle-dazzle you with my baking prowess, forcing you to salivate on your keyboard….but now all I have to show for my hard days work is….burnt cake on bottom of oven

Let’s start at the very beginning (name that musical..)

Gigi and I were going to make this scrumptious looking cake from Sweetapolita (the chocolate cake, NOT the fancy asparagus fondant decorations). We got everything ready in the kitchen…set out the ingredients, she got her pink apron on, and I looked for the cake pans. Uh-oh! Seems as if I forgot one crucial element in my cake baking plans. I DO NOT HAVE A CAKE PAN!!!! I have no idea where my two crummy pans have run off to…guess they did not like me.

I found a set of three ‘fancy cake pans’ that have the detachable bottoms, so I figured I’d be fine. The girl and I were PUMPED! We were going to make this cake and decorate it with fondant…we had planned on sticking cute polka-dots of varying colors like the fancy cake decorators do, and even decided upon a fondant bow to top off the cake. Our house was going to be turned into a Food Network Cake Challenge, and WE were going to reign supreme! Gigi had her cue cards and I was to be her sous chef in the endeavor. Never mind that neither of us has ever used fondant, but we know how to bake! (Okay I do, she just thinks she does;)

I prepared the cake pan, mixed the ingredients, and let her pour the batter into the fancy cake pan. As soon as I picked that pan up to place in the oven I noticed liquid dripping all over the counter and floor. Oh well, so much for that pan. I found the next sized fancy cake pan and poured the batter in, after thoroughly checking for leaks mind you! Popped that sucker into the oven because we were good to go!

I cleaned up the kitchen while Gigi chased Bubba around the house. That’s about the time Murphy and his stupid law showed up. Here is the best of my recollection regarding the events that took place in a matter of seconds….

Gigi yelled my dress (actually a swimsuit cover-up, but it’s comfy during these dog-days of summer) was too short

A burning smell emanating from the oven…me realizing cake was oozing from the pan ALL OVER THE BOTTOM OF THE OVEN!!!!!

Bubba, who amazes me with how fast his supremely fat legs can take him places, was taking a bath in the dog bowl…saved in the nick of time from eating dog food

Me screaming at Gigi to get Bubba away from dog bowl all the while I’m flinging the cake pan from the oven to the sink while dripping cake all over the floor

What is Gigi doing during this time??? Stinkerbell is taking pictures of my BUTT!!!!!! REALLY? She cackled while telling me I need to see why I should not go out in public in this dress (well no kidding kid! I know if I did I’d wind up on peopleof walmart.com)

Bubba was cleaned up, pictures were deleted, and a bottle of wine opened! Cake is scratched until I get cake pans, which will not happen until I convince my husband we NEED to spend money on cake pans….

The cake challenge is still on…because we WANT/NEED a polka-dot cake with a BIG fondant bow!

Until then….

There is entirely too much crap in my house! Storage is severely limited and I am too unorganized to find where ‘a proper place’ should be for all of our stuff. If only I could get a professional organizer to come and clean out the clutter and help me, but alas, it’s not in our budget. Fortunately for me I stumbled upon a blog, Organize With Sandy, that provides a step-by-step approach to getting organized. I am making it my mission to get organized for several reasons…..

1) My husband is about to go crazy with the chaos.

2) Unfortunately I have passed along this curse to my daughter

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

The poor child thinks her room is clean, even with the mess!

3) I cannot find stuff I need!

4) It’s my gift to myself (coming up on a BIG birthday milestone…oh boy!)

5) I have no excuse…

I love to cook, so I will start with the kitchen. I will be going through Organize With Sandy tips one step at a time. My first mission is the kitchen…using Sandy’s tips.

Each week I will start with my goal and by the end of the week I will update my progress. I figure if nothing else, it will at least hold my feet to the fire!

Wish me luck and check out Sandy’s awesome blog on organizing!

Have you seen the commercials where adults are giving a play-by-play of their activities and the camera pans down to a child? The commercial is encouraging parents to talk to their children.

I’m sure you’ve seen the moms in the grocery store doing just as the commercial suggests.

“This is an eggplant. The eggplant is a vegetable and we eat vegetables” “Eggplants are purple”

“We need to get some milk, milk comes from cows, cows are animals and they Moo”

You KNOW the type of women I am referring to…..

I am one of those moms! There I admit it, and I am proud of it!

This evening I went to the super center with Bubba (he’s 9 months old). While walking down the aisles I never shut up! I pointed out what we were buying and why ad nauseam!

Here’s a little snippet of our one sided conversation

“We’re going to buy eggs at the store because I ran out of farm fresh eggs. Farm fresh eggs are tastier, but we need eggs so I will buy some here. Eggs come from chickens, chickens make the cluck, cluck sound.”

It went on and on and on and, oh you get the picture! Okay so now you know I’m a bit neurotic (an again..proud of that fact!)

The stares (half of the people staring could have been on the people of….website!) oh the stares! Shoppers thought I was off my rocker and on the drink, even when they saw who I was talking to.

Why would a seemingly normal person choose to act that way out in public?

It’s simple….children are sponges and will do better in school if exposed to language.

In education circles it is well-known that children who come to school with an extended vocabulary tend to do better than their peers with a limited vocabulary. I could bore you with link after link to study after study, but this is not an academic paper so I will refrain from references. If you would like a little something then…Check out this story

Gigi has a broad vocabulary, but I never knew the extent until I taught in a school that offered preschool. I took for granted the childrens’ knowledge of words and was shocked when I realized the truth! So many of these students did not know simple words such as left, right, up, down, forward, behind, etc. Imagine not knowing those words when you start school? I am a determined mama, so Bubba will enter school with a large knowledge base to pull from.

I am a talker with a captive audience during the infant/toddler years where I am fascinating to the audience! Without thinking in academic terms, I simply talk to my kidlets because it’s what feels right.

The talking will continue….let’s hope I’ll have something to show for it in a few years!

Parenting wisdom–you can wrestle a pig and win

I am worn out! Worn out emotionally, physically, spiritually, figuratively, literally, and any other adverb you could add…I am that!

My fat baby (I’ll come up with a better nickname, but it describes him perfectly!) is usually an easygoing kid, but not tonight. I don’t care what I did, he was NOT going to sleep!

Tonight I had grand plans…(since my husband was out for the evening)

* I was going to get him to sleep.

*Clean the kitchen.

*Watch a movie no one else wanted to watch.

Exciting Saturday evening…I know you’re jealous.

Sir Stinker had plans as well, which did not include any of my well thought out plans.

He was full, bathed, clean diaper, and even tired…a recipe for sleep right? One would think! Instead he fussed in my arms until I put him down, then Captain Destructo was on the loose. The dog and his food were not safe from his tiny yet destructive clutches, nor were any items in my living room for that matter. When I would pick him up, he’d scream and cry until he was free to terrorize once more. I knew he was not in pain and his needs were met.

After falling and crying I thought I had him ready to settle in, but no dice….fat baby was roarin’ to go another round. I put him in his crib where he proceeded to jump and squeal for 30 minutes. He soon got bored and thought it was more effective to scream at me (am I a bad mom for laughing while he was screaming/jumping?)

Finally I had enough!  I told him “I am the parent and you will do what I say son!” (a rational argument to give to a 9 month old huh?)

I wrestled the boy into a firm sleeping hold and fought like the ‘Old Man in the Sea’, only this felt more like wrestling a greased piglet. This kid is STRONG! He put up a brave fight, but finally gave up and started his old man snore and I knew I had won.

Feel like shouting “YEAH” but can barely eek out an oink!

Aren’t you jealous of my exciting Saturday night?