Skip to main content

recipe disclaimer

first off, i am, by no means, a gourmet cook, or even a 'foodie'. i do not watch cooking shows or have any aspirations to become a 'good cook'. i have crappy knives and most of my pots and pans are not stainless steel. BUT, i have a family to feed, and i want to do it right. i try to do 'homemade' as opposed to packaged as often as possible. i like things to be relatively simple, have less than 100 ingredients, have mostly ingredients that i can pronounce the names of, and can find at my local grocery store. i like soups and casseroles and good old fashioned farm food. i try to find things that my whole family will eat, but with a 'chicken nugget and hot dog kid', that's hard to do. that said, i DO NOT make more than one meal per night. if my kids don't want to eat perfectly good food that is in front of them, oh well. they will not starve.

but i digress.

i am NOT a “by the book” cook. i have trouble following a recipe exactly and usually feel the need to ‘fiddle’ with it a little. if you have trouble with terms like “a bunch”, “some”, “a few good shakes” and the like, you might be frustrated by my recipes. i’ll try to be as clear as possible when it really matters!

for convenience, i have a list of links to recipe posts on the side bar.

you may like...

Road Trip Day 6

Yesterday was our last full day in Milwaukee. Shane arrived in the morning, but promptly went to bed and slept most of the day, since he had caught a flight at midnight to get out here. Matt took the kids fishing for a little while in the afternoon. Layla caught 1, Lauren caught 1, and Micah caught 4. They also did a little canoeing. Then there was some swimming, where Lauren, Madeline, Micah, and Layla were all trying to flip Dave out of his donut floatie. It took them like 20 minutes and was pretty funny to watch. Also, his toenails were stupid-long and some kids got mauled. Later Melissa, Doug, and Josh came over. We played corn hole, basketball, badminton, and an epically terrible game of kickball at the park. Until Josh kicked the ball over the fence and lost it. Good times. We brought Matt some Woodinville Whiskey from home. And then we impressed everybody with our $2 Harbor Freight tennis racket bug zapper. And Simon decided that Shane was a good enough human. License plate stat...

week 46 in pictures

sunday: when dave went in to wake up layla, this is how he found her. face, essentially, smooshed between the bunk bed rail and the mattress, and the covers pulled up over her head. monday: roscoe, chilling on the pooh couch. dakota figured out how to get it to open up to make a nice little doggy bed. roscoe just took advantage when it was vacated. tuesday: my 2 pages of allergy test results . the red ones have to go! wednesday: micah fell asleep during quiet time, snuggling a domino. he had been pretending it was a phone or a video game and insisted on taking it in with him for quiet time. thursday: the missing lug nut . friday: crazy busy day. kids had half days at school because of conferences. I has my workout in the morning, then came home and tidied up because tina was coming over at 11:30 to cut my hair, shane’s hair, and my mom’s hair. I even went to the bus stop w/ part of my hair clipped up because she wasn’t done drying it! then I had to run off to do back-to-back ...

2011 week 4 in pictures

sunday: I stayed home from church with the boys, who had colds, and dave took layla. after, they stopped at the brown bag for a brunch date. layla was double fisting her water and apple juice. monday: layla brought home one of these breyer horse books from the school loved it. so I looked up at the library to see if they had them and ordered a bunch. she was SO excited. and apparently this is what she does, when excited… tuesday: no picture, but layla drew a picture of her missing the bus to go along with this , which I included in the book. wednesday: tried out my dehydrator. dried apples are sooooo yummy! thursday: layla doing homework and micah ‘helping’. friday: it was moms night out for me, so dave took the kids to cold stone. they love it when I leave. saturday: a little game of sorry. micah is not really ready for it, but with some help, he managed for awhile. it’s tough because he really wants to play. there was also a 8x10 collage of extras and another which include...

Road Trip Day 8

We've been a full week on the road now. 2 more to go. We started our Sunday in church at St. Paul's, where Dave worked (and the reason we ever lived here in the first place) from 2004-2006. Then it was lunch at Hill's, a bit more driving around, and discussions of various places (the fairgrounds, the bridge that got blown up, etc.). Then we went to visit Fred and Brenda, and wound up riding around on 4 wheelers all afternoon. Then, back to Danny's for steak dinner - so yummy! And then over to the Lange's for some puppy time! And we finished off with soft serve in a baseball helmet at Frosty Boy. It was a great day. So awesome to see so many friends and visit important places. License plate and state stats are the same as yesterday.

how to cook a turkey–by layla, age 6

“you get the turkey from the wild, where the wild turkeys are. you catch it with a net. to prepare it, you cut off the legs and the bones, and the beak and the eyes, too. you can stuff it with stuffing that is made of chicken. then, you put it in a big pan and stick it in the oven. you cook it at 4 to 5 degrees for 11 minutes. then you serve it by taking it out of the oven, cutting it up a little, and putting some spices on it. then you put it on plates and people can dish up all the other food, too.”