Freezer Mashed Potatoes

I LOVE real mashed taters. It's true. They are amazing. But I have always hated the effort. Lazy, I know.

I've made this recipe a few times for others and am finally getting around to making a BIG amount to freeze later. Usually I half or even third the original recipe when making it, but this time I went all out with 11 small-medium potatoes. To save even more time, I don't cube them, I just toss them in whole. That's probably bad chef-fery, BUT I'd rather spend time in the kiddie pool with Sophia.

Ingredients

• 9 Large Potatoes
• 6 oz Cream Cheese (softened OR cubed)
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 2 tsp Onion Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper

Directions

1. Boil potatoes until tender but firm. (I have NO idea how things can be tender AND firm....but it sounds good.)
2. Drain.
3. Add the remaining ingredients.
4. Mash until smooth. (I usually get out my hand mixer, apply the lowest setting, and mix until everything is JUST combined.)
5. Spoon out into greased baking containers.
6. Seal up and don't forget to write the name, date, and "next steps" on your container.
7. When ready, thaw in fridge and bake for 30-40 minutes (or until heated through) at 350F.

This recipe filled two 9-inch cake tins (handy for storing sides, not just cake) from the dollar store. The author suggests using 1 and 1/2 cup servings for storage so that you can pull out exactly what you need, but again, the weather is gorgeous and that kiddie pool was calling our names.

I've Been Doing It Wrong All My Life!

Sally's Ingredients

I needed to whip up some cookie cakes for this weekend. Of course, one of my pet peeves about cookies is when they aren't soft. Cookies should ALWAYS be soft. ALWAYS. Most times, I can create a soft cookie, but chocolate chip cookies have always defied my best attempts. No matter what I add, I can't get it right.

But, I needed to get over that fear, so I decided I would make them as cookie cakes this weekend. Thanks to Google "soft chocolate chip cookie cake", I stumbled upon this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Great pictures. Great prose. Don't fail me now, Sally.

When I started to read through the recipe, something caught my eye. Do you see it? Right there after "2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour" it specifically says CAREFUL NOT TO OVERMEASURE. Sally goes on to explain the correct way to measure flour in her Measuring 101 post. Sally, you're my hero. Who knew all these years I had been measuring my flour wrong???

I got out my trusty food scale (thanks, sister Lindsay) and set off to finding out how terribly I'd messed up in the past. To get the most out of your scale (and avoid the math), you'll need to put your measuring cup on the scale and then press the "tare" button. This will set the scale to zero so that you don't have to subtract out how much your measuring cup weighs.

Based on the "normal" way I'd get a cup of flour (scooping with the measuring cup and then scraping excess from top with a flat edge), I was getting 161 grams! One cup should only weigh 125 grams. That's 29% MORE FLOUR than necessary. In fact, this recipe calls for two cups, so I would have used almost 60% more than I should have if I'd persisted in my naïve measuring.

Wow. Yep. That pretty much explains it. Thanks, Sally.

What have you been doing wrong all these years?

Crock Pot Hibachi Chicken & White Sauce Recipes

This isn't a common recipe on the web. Sure, there are lots of recipes for Hibachi, but VERY FEW for crockpots. So I wasn't really sure what I was going to get when I dumped all the ingredients into a gallon ziplock the night before. Here's the original recipe from Designed by Dawn Nicole. Here's my version.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (breasts work too), trimmed of fat and cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (optional)
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• 4-6 cups white rice (can be made ahead of time and frozen)
• 1 onion, medium and sliced
• 1 zucchini, large and sliced
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 cup cabbage or baby bok choy
• 2 tbsp oil for frying

Directions

1. Combine chicken, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and garlic in gallon bag. (Can be made ahead of time and frozen.)
2. Toss contents of bag into crockpot on HIGH for 2 hours. Your chicken may need to cook longer, but CHECK IT at 2 hours. It should definitely not need more than 3 hours.
3. Meanwhile, steam the onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and cabbage. (I don't really care for cabbage, so I just stuck with the other 3 for steaming.) When finished, toss into the crockpot to soak up some of that sweet sauce!
4. Fry your white rice in a bit of soy sauce for flavor and color.
5. Plate your crockpot creation over fried rice.

Clearly, you're missing the best part of the meal if you stop here. Please read on! Drizzle (or POUR if you're me) the coveted white sauce over the plate. Here's the recipe I used for mine. It makes just over a cup of sauce. You MIGHT have some left over after the meal depending on how much you love white sauce.

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cup Hellman's mayo (HAS to be Hellman's)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp tomato paste (HAS to be paste)
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• dash cayenne pepper (you can get away with skipping this, but it won't be perfect)

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and wisk together.
2. Refrigerate overnight. (But in a pinch, you can make it an hour before.)
3. Serve room temp.

DIY Ruler Growth Chart

It seems like these are all the rage! They are all over the blogosphere and honestly, I can see why. THEY ARE SO EASY! No really. E.A.S.Y. And they can be done over time without a lot of supplies, so you don't have to worry about your project junking up the dining room or garage or wherever you get your craft on.

Supplies

• 6'x6"x1" Board. You can find these at ANY home improvement store. Look for one with some fun knots. I got mine at Lowes for under $7.
• Small Can O' Stain. The stain manufacturers want you to think that stain is like paint. It's not. Go small. You'll seriously thank yourself later for not dropping a nice chunk of change on a big can you'll never finish. I used Early American 230 by Minwax 8oz.
• Brush and Cloth for Staining. I used a foam brush to apply the stain and then wiped excess with an old kitchen towel.
• Pencil.
• Scissors.
• Black Sharpie Marker.
• This FANTASTIC Template. (This is a Microsoft Publisher file. Every time I tried to convert it to pdf or xps, my page would shrink and not maintain the correct measurements. Since it is a tracing template, I assumed you'd want the template to be correct.)

Instructions

1. Stain your board. If you've never stained anything before, this is a great time to learn and make mistakes. Stain is pretty user friendly as long as you aren't in direct sunlight (the sun will warm your wood and make your stain a bit tricky to work with). Simply paint on and then wipe off the excess. I let my stain rest about 5 minutes before wiping. You might want to start with the sides or the ends to see if you like the color stain that you chose. Some woods suck up stain faster than others, so just make sure you are getting the color you want. If you aren't happy, try applying a wood conditioner first that will enable the wood to absorb a more accurate color. I probably applied 3 coats. And because I have 2 littles, I didn't wait between coats. If it felt dry, that was good enough for me. If you're planning to stain furniture, be a bit more picky! Out of my 8oz can, I probably have about 4oz left.
2. Print out the DIY Ruler Growth Chart Template. The font for the numbers is Century 200pt (almost 2" tall). As for the notches, I used 4 different lengths and made them as chunky as the numbers so they would appear proportionate.
3. Start with notches. Cut along the dotted yellow line. You'll need to decide where you want to start numbering. I started 6" up from the end of the board as my 1' mark. This will allow me to hang the board on the wall above the baseboards. It also allows me a few more inches above the 6' mark at the top (though I doubt any of our kids will come close to six feet tall). When you decide where you want your 1' mark, grab the notches print out! Turn it over on the back and scribble (with pencil) across each of the notches. Now turn the paper right side over and line up your desired 1' mark with the FOOT notch. The dotted yellow line should be flush with the edge of the board. Hold your paper steady and simply trace around each of the notches. This will transfer the scribbled pencil on to your board so that you can go back later and color them in with your Sharpie. You'll need to keep an eye out for HALF FOOT and FOOT notches, but the 5 shorter lines in between repeat just fine no matter what order. I found it easiest to simply mark all the HALF FOOT and FOOT marks first, then go back and fill in the 5 middle notches.
4. Now onto the numbers! Each number has a solid line running through it. These solid lines divide up your number so that it aligns properly with the numbers above and below it on your board. For my board, I centered my numbers 3/4" away from the foot notches. I've marked those in red dotted lines. You could space them further at 1" away, noted in blue dotted lines. Turn your numbers over and scribble away. Turn the paper right side over, align end of foot marks with either red or blue dotted lines and the horizontal solid line, and trace.
5. Finally, the most exciting part! Color in all of your traced lines with a nice Sharpie!

TADA! See, I told you it was easy!

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin Recipe

This recipe from AllRecipes.com was nothing short of AH-Mazing! We used the 2-pack of tenderloins from Costco and planned to have a good amount of leftovers....but that didn't happen. It went well with some mashed potatoes and broccoli (with cheese, because we are cheese lovers).

Ingredients:

• 2lb pork tenderloin
• 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1c water
• 3/4c red wine (or 1 mini bottle)
• 3Tbs minced garlic
• 3Tbs soy sauce, reduced sodium
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in crock pot
• Cook on High for 3.5hr

One special change you'll want to make is to cook this on HIGH for 3.5 hours, not LOW for 4. I think the original poster must have made a mistake. For the red wine, we used a cabernet sauvignon. Since we don't typically keep alcohol in the house, we usually buy the mini-bar bottles that come in 4-packs when a recipe calls for it. We've tried the "cooking wines" in the past, and those are full of salt (as a preservative). It's better to just get the real stuff in smaller quantities, albeit less cost effective. This recipe is a great freezer meal. Simply combine all ingredients in a gallon ziplock bag and freeze until you're ready. Thaw overnight. You can also freeze the marinade part separately if you want to make up a few bags using a full size bottle of wine. The marinade portions fit nicely into quart ziplock bags. If you've got leftovers, try pulling the pork and saving for later to use on sandwiches with your favorite BBQ sauce.

As a side note, let's take a moment to talk about fresh minced garlic. There. Is. No. Substitute. Do not use one of those bottles of minced garlic. Don't grab the dehydrated flakes. Fresh garlic is amazing and will change your life. When you go to the grocery store, buy a head of garlic (looks like a white ball with some roots coming out of the bottom). When ready to use, pull off a few small cloves (look like oval pieces). Next, peel them. You can easily peel the skin off of the individual cloves by pinching the clove or rolling it around on the countertop. Finally, place your skinless cloves into your press. I love my Pampered Chef garlic press, specifically because it comes with a cleaning brush that clips into the handle when not in use. If you don't have one of these, get one. ...And while you're at it, buy one for a friend too!

Toddler Neck Pillows Pattern

Last week as we drove my family back to the airport, Sophia did something that she rarely does. It's so rare, that I've never considered how I could improve the process....She fell asleep. In the car. What?!

We've all seen pictures of toddlers and children with their heads slumped forward while sleeping in carseats. I know I personally would get a ridiculous crick in my neck, but kids don't seem to mind. So on to Pinterest I went, in search of a toddler neck pillow pattern. Eunice at Mommy Sew Pretty has a free pattern and simple tutorial (cut, sew, flip, stuff). To print the pattern, open the link with Paint, select Print Preview, select Page Setup, and change the orientation to Portrait. The image should take up the majority of the 8.5x11" paper.

I used scraps of fleece from the girls' reversible carseat ponchos and pink broadcloth from Sophia's birthday dress. The project took less than an hour from start to (almost) finish to make two. Before stitching the pillow closed, I want to make sure that the amount of stuffing is just right when the girls use them in their carseats.

Reversible Car Seat Ponchos

Sophia isn't a fan of posing...

These have been a lifesaver during our unusually cold and LONG winter! I'd read all of the warnings before on how dangerous it is to put kiddos in their carseats with puffy winter coats. Here's a link for more information just in case you haven't heard/seen the possible effects if you're involved in an accident. Blankets are great, except that if your child can move his/her legs, the blanket stays on for about half a second. Then there's whining for "banket, myyyyyyy BANKET!" coming from behind the driver's seat and unfortunately, you can't grab the "banket" because you're driving.



Blob of Fleece - DON'T DO THIS (source)

So ponchos seemed to be the best solution. Most of the ponchos and patterns I found through my Google Images search started with a square of fabric with a hole in the middle. Not a bad plan as long as you don't mind hanging all that extra fabric around the carseat and making the child look like a blob of fleece.....actually the more I look at the Blob picture, I can't help but think how much space storing that big of a fleece blanket would require. Best case scenario, you've got a van, but still....it's just too much!

I decided that I would start with a rectangle instead. I quickly tossed Sophia in her seat (Britax Boulevard) and measured the diagonal length from the top of her head to her toes, then added about 8". I also measured the outside width of her carseat at her lap, then added 2". I repeated the process for Abigail. She's still in the infant carrier (Peg Perego), so her rectangle didn't need to be as wide or as long. One yard of the front multi-color and one yard of the back solid-color fleece was enough to make these two blankets.

After cutting my rectangles (purple and multi-color fleece), I sewed them together leaving a small opening for turning. (Turning isn't necessary with fleece, since fleece DOES NOT fray, but I like the look of hidden edges. I also stitched around the border of the rectangles to keep my turned edges clean.) Before turning, I picked a spot toward the top of the rectangle and traced a half circle using a random lid that was roughly 4" in diameter. Fleece stretches, so even if you think 4" is too small, start with that and expand if necessary. (To maintain the stretch, DO NOT sew around the neck opening.)

Sophia's neck hole was much larger...because I thought 4" was too small. Clearly I believe my child has a gigantic head, oops. So I figured it would be best to add a hood to her poncho. She LOVES hats and hoods, so I couldn't deny her of the joy! I made a hood using this tutorial, creating a pattern from a hooded jacket that she likes to wear. In order for all my edges to match, I had to sew the hood pieces together with right sides facing each other. (Only sew around the part of the hood that goes over the back of the head.)

Then I opened those pieces and put right sides together for the outside multi-color and inside solid color. Make sure to line up the two seams at the top of the hoods (illustrated by the pink circle) and also at the bottom corners. Stitch around the face only and then turn so that the right sides faced out.

Finally the trickiest and most annoying part, I folded all the pieces inside around the edges as I stitched the hood into the fabric of the poncho. That part was ridiculous, but my seams were so beautiful that I got over it!