Category Archives yummy

Matzo balls for the Pilgrims

NHL’s kindergarten class will be having a Thanksgiving feast for all of the kids and their families later today. We were asked to send in an item that is special and represents our culture/heritage/religion. JL and I came up with a few ideas, but NHL made his decision the minute he heard the word matzo balls.  I know, it sounds strange sending in matzo balls to a Thanksgiving feast, but this group of Pilgrims will have them in their bellies.

It had been quite some time since we had made matzo balls on our own. I bought matzo meal and eggs and was all ready to go. Last night, we decided to make six times the batch on the package. According to that, it would make approximately 48 of the yummy wonders that would be one inch in diameter.

Here are 43 matzo balls just after they were put in the pot for their 30-40 minute "bath" in boiling water.

Starting off in the pot

Of course, JL and I had to taste test one to make sure they were acceptable. YUM! Our entire house smelled like Passover. . . in a really good way. These are the final products when they were cooling off to be put away for the Thanksgiving feast. 

Completed batch of matzo balls

Hopefully, they can be heated without killing them for everyone to enjoy. JSL and I will be heading to the festivities to see how things go and hopefully take some photos to share later.

 

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Giant pizza and chopping time

For several weeks we have been looking for one item that will be needed for NHL’s Halloween costume. You would think that it had to be something horribly complicated since it has taken us so long to find. The sad truth is that it was only a plain white turtleneck shirt. Who knew that this would be so difficult to find here?

Yesterday we were on a mission. We opted to go to the more "quiet" of the malls to see if Sears had the pesky white turtleneck that we desired. On the way there we stopped for lunch. We have been curious for a while about a pizza place that had opened on the route there back in the summer. We finally went in. They have what they call "The Big Mama" pizza. This pizza is HUGE by any standard. It is a 30" pizza and the slices are larger than our heads. The boys ordered some slices and I just had to take a photo of these monster slices. 

Big Mama Slice eating time

We really enjoyed the food there and the owners were extremely nice. We will definitely be going back  again.

After lunch we went to the mall. Our first shop was Sears. Once we made our way to the boys section we almost gave up. Then out of the corner of his eye, JL saw turtleneck shirts. We purchased a white, red and pattern one for NHL to stay warm this fall and winter. Next we wanted to head to one other store in the mall. NHL was exhausted. We think the pizza must have made him sleepy. Luckily JSL was antsy and wanted out of his stroller. So I decided to stuff NHL into the stroller and he was willing to go for the ride. 

One tired 5 year old

On our way back to the car we stopped at the Sears Portrait studio to make an appointment for NHL’s 5 year portraits on Sunday. Last week we had to cancel them thanks to his pinkeye. The appointment was made and I decided that I wanted to finally go through with something I had been thinking about.

What was that you ask?

I have been toying with getting my hair cut again for quite some time. I knew pretty much what I wanted to do, but I could not decide where to go to have it done. With the budget being smaller these days, I opted to go where the boys get their hair done. There is just something about not spending more than $15 for a simple hair cut.

When I went in I asked the hair stylist to take a photo of my hair before. I had not had it cut since I had 12 inches taken off for my third hair donation after JSL was born. Now my hair is finally bad to the thickness it was before the pregnancy and is quite long again. Thanks to this it is hard to work with and quite heavy on my poor head. 

Hair before

Please ignore the frizz, it is the story of my life (even with products made specifically to combat that issue). I simply asked to have my hair cut to about shoulder length so that I could still get it back and out of my face if I wanted to. She worked and worked and worked on it. You should have seen the pile of hair on the ground. I must have had at least 7-8 inches cut off thanks to the curl factor.

When it was done I felt so free. We went home and I immediately found my headbands to push it back (wearing the one that Airing Dirty Laundry gave me in our Swaparooni last year) . Here is what it looks like after. Please note I did not have my hair colored. The lighting in our dining room is that bad that it made my hair look really dark. The photo above is pretty accurate. 

After the chopping

So today we will have NHL’s portraits done and try for our first real family portrait. All of our red shirts and jeans are ready to go!

TheAngelForever

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New baking toy (Aloha 19)

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

 Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

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My question for this week is inspired by something new we bought for baking:

Do you have a new "toy" that you like to use to cook or bake with? What is it that you like about this item?

May I present you with our new favorite baking item:

These are the BEST!

Since the boys are really into muffins we thought it was finally time to try the silicone baking cups. I was hesitant for the longest time, but thanks to a 50% off coupon at Michaels I figured it was well worth the experiment.

We opted to fill the cups, use cooking spray to help things slide after baking, and put them into a traditional muffin tray to steady them. I was too afraid to put them on a cookie sheet in case they were bumped. I could just see muffin batter all over the kitchen floor.

Ready for the oven

Check out how easy it was to get them out of the muffin cup:

Coming out of their shells

And when they were all finished there was not a lot of mess to clean up. The little cups are dishwasher safe or I just cleaned them in soapy water and they were all set.

All done

We have used the silicone muffin cups at least 3-4 times now and love them. The 24 that we now have were well worth the money and we will only use the paper liners for special occasions when we want to decorate.

 TheAngelForever

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