Ice Box Cake

4 sleeves graham crackers
1 large can crushed pineapple in juice (not syrup)
1 small tub (or large, if you're feeling feisty) Cool Whip

Give a nearby child a sleeve of graham crackers and let them smash them into dust. You may want to put the sleeve of crackers into a zipper top bag first as the ends tend to open and graham cracker dust will poof out all over your kitchen. Ask me how I know.

Repeat until all sleeves of crackers are finely crushed. If you don't have a child handy to do your dirty work for you, a rolling pin will do the same job nicely.

Drain the pineapple juice out into a bowl or cup. Save this - it is liquid gold and if you throw it out... well, friendship over.

Dump all of the graham cracker crumbs and the pineapple (but not the juice) into a large bowl and stir them together. Add a tiny bit of the juice only if you need it to moisten the last of the dust in the bottom of the bowl. I usually end up adding about a teaspoon or so.

Pour that mix into whatever you want to serve the cake in. I've used square, round, oblong and obscenely shaped pans for this - it's good no matter what shape it is, so go crazy. Use the back of a spoon (or your hands if you're like me) to pat the dough down firmly and evenly.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. While that's in the fridge, pull your Cool Whip out of the freezer (if you're like me and buy 10 of them every time they're on sale).

When you're ready to serve, you have a tough decision to make. You can either spread an even layer of Cool Whip over the entire pan or you can scoop the cake out and dollop topping on each individual serving. I'm a rebel - I like to cover the whole top and then add a little more to each plate or bowl.

This is not one of those fancy schmancy desserts you make when you want to impress people (unless your people are like my people and appreciate simple perfection). This is the dessert to make when your cupboards are nearly bare and you need comfort food.

This is the dessert to make when the great grey beast that is February has sucked away your will to move from the couch and you really just need a bit of summer.

This is the dessert you let your 4 and 7 year olds make because they want to feel like big boys, but you want to maintain some semblance of sanity.

Really, this is the perfect dessert.

Mom, I can't thank you enough for introducing me to this!


Oh, by the way, that leftover juice - feel free to drink it, cook with it, freeze it into delicious ice cubes or give it to the child that so masterfully crushed your graham crackers. Just don't waste it.

Some eat to live, I live to eat

As part of my autumnal decluttering, I've finally put together a recipe binder. I bought a big ol' 3 inch thick binder a few years ago, and it's been languishing in a stack in my bedroom ever since.

The thousandth time my printed recipe stack fell over and scattered, I got up the ambition to put them together in a binder. First, I dug out the three hole punch that Bryant had long before we got together (why? I don't know, but I ADORE it!) and punched every single page in my very large stack.

At first, I just stuck them all in the binder. There was no separation, order or design involved. My immediate goal was simply to keep them together and off my floor.

When we shopped, I bought two packages of divider tabs. Scooter and I sorted all the recipes into groups and then I labeled tabs and put them in the appropriate places. Now, whether I'm looking for Cinnamon Bun Pancakes, Rosemary Mustard Chicken or Honey Butter Caramels with Coarse Sea Salt, I know just where to look.

The following is a list of my current and ideal tab layout. The green ones are future tabs.

Breakfast
Pancakes and Waffles
Syrups and Sauces
Egg dishes
Muffins/Breakfast breads
Appetizers
Main Dishes
Beef
Poultry
Slow cooker
Meatless
Soups/Stews
Lunches (These are lighter meals, usually things the kids like that Bryant and I aren't crazy about)
Side Dishes
Snacks (Sides and snacks are currently occupying one tab, but they'll be split up eventually)
Pizza and Sauces (You may be asking yourself why I'd need an entire tab for pizza, but honestly, I could have an entire binder of pizza recipes)
Breads (May or may not be broken up later into categories such as yeast breads, quick breads, rolls, biscuits, breadsticks, etc...)
Salads/Dressings (Green Salads/Dressings)
Potato/Pasta Salads
Sauces/Dips
Desserts
Cookies/Bars
Cakes
Pies/Tarts
Brownies/Blondies
Candy
Ice Cream/Sorbet
Drinks
Ingredients (such as brown sugar, bread flour, taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, etc...)
Kitchen Crafts (like playdoh, gingerbread for houses, dried apple witches, etc...)
Tips/Hints
Non-food (such as glass cleaner, fruit and veggie cleaner, etc...)

So now I'm slowly going through my 3x5 boxes and various folders of printed or torn from magazines recipes. I'm trying to get them all into the same basic format (same font type and size) so they're easier to read through. Eventually I'd like to get them into page protectors, but for now, I'm using paper reinforcers to keep them from tearing apart.

What do you guys think? Any great tips or ideas to make my recipe binder even more wonderful?

Lazy Mom's Granola

Last summer I decided I really wanted to make granola bars, so I searched the web, went to my favorite foodie sites and perused my cookbooks. I settled on a recipe that looked easy, kid-friendly and was moderately healthy (I wasn't going for super healthy, just tasty and homemade instead of chemical filled and mass produced).

It was a disaster.

The "bars" refused to come out of the pan and ended up being nothing more than a mildly tasty, crumbled mess. I was discouraged and swore off making granola bars for a while.

But, that crumbled mess was pretty tasty sprinkled over ice cream or yogurt and the kids liked it just in a bowl with milk on top for breakfast. And so, my love of homemade granola was sparked.

Since then, I've tried a few different recipes and still have about 20 in my "to make someday" file, but there's one that we keep coming back to. This one is easy, delicious, customizable and aptly named - Lazy Granola.


Lazy Granola (Or, "I don't have time to cook in the morning, but want something delicious and homemade" Granola)
1/2 C brown sugar (light or dark, use what you like)
1/2 C oil (I use canola, but again, whatever you have on hand will work - but you probably don't want to use olive oil - the flavor would be off)
1/2 C honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 C oats (I use old fashioned, but feel free to try quick oats if that's what you've got on hand)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix brown sugar (making sure there are no lumps), oil and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Remove from heat and add cinnamon and vanilla.

Pour over oats in a large bowl and mix until the oats are all evenly coated.

Dump the coated oats into a 9X13 pan and just gently even out the top (this doesn't need to be perfect, just close to an even layer). Bake for 10 minutes.

Turn off the oven. Stir the granola around, then pop it back into the now cooling oven.

Go to bed. Seriously, walk away.

Wake up to a delicious cinnamon scent wafting through your kitchen. I typically just upend the 9X13 over a large bowl and scrape the granola out with a fork.

We eat this as is, with raisins or other fruit, over ice cream, over yogurt, with add-ins to make it more of a trail mix, etc...

I'm not sure how long this will keep as it never lasts more than a day in our house, but I don't see why it wouldn't last longer if you kept it in an airtight container. You could probably also halve the recipe if you didn't want so much - just bake it in a 9X9 or similar size pan.

Question answered

We spent some time today talking about Newton's Laws of Motion. I typed up a page with each of the laws and space for the kids to rewrite them in their own words. After printing several copies, we sat down and had a nice long discussion about them, followed by an experiment.

As we talked, I watched their faces and knew the moment they each understood what I was trying to teach them.

And that, my friends, answers the question I'm asked most often - Why do we homeschool?

Because there is nothing like that moment.

A walk in the park

Blessings in disguise

There are a lot of "every problem/failure is an opportunity" type sayings out there. And to some extent I think most of them are true. But, I also think that sometimes a failure or a problem is just that. Sometimes the only thing to learn is how to deal with disappointment.

I had one of those experiences yesterday. I had been knitting a hat for The Boy in the spring - it was a new winter hat and he chose the pattern and yarn. I had it nearly finished when I started The Project and so it hibernated for the summer, waiting until I was ready to work on it again. Two days ago I picked it up and, after a quick refresher on the pattern, dove back in. I finished it yesterday morning and knew, just knew in my heart, that it was wrong.

I was careful, I followed the pattern exactly. My yarn and needle sizes were as recommended, I measured and followed the tips given by the designer. And yet this hat barely fits Pookie. I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment.

There were no new techniques or concepts in this pattern, I didn't look at it as a learning experience. I don't understand what went wrong. The only thing I can make sense of is that the pattern itself is faulty. Somewhere in there, a number is wrong or the gauge is off.

So, while I'm not impressed with how this hat came out, I'm learning to deal with the disappointment of a knitting project gone awry.

And Pookie sure does love his new hat.

Smoothie disappoinment

Several years ago my Dad and his wife gave us a blender. Not just any blender, though - this one has a food processor attachment, so it can do double duty. Sadly, I've only used it a few times. I'm very much an "out of sight, out of mind" person when it comes to appliances and gadgets. No matter how great it is, if I don't see it on a regular basis, chances are good that I'm going to forget it exists.

Our kitchen is pretty large, as kitchens go, but it is very poorly laid out. There's just one counter - along one wall, with the sink in the middle. There's no real storage space except the cabinets above and below that one counter. Most of that space is taken up by dishes and food we use often, leaving little room for extras.

One of these days I'll do a whole post about my mental kitchen remodel...

In the meantime, there is one tiny cabinet at the very end of the room. It's a single wide (all the rest have a "partner" door) cupboard and we almost never open it. When we moved in, it seemed like a good place to put those appliances and things that we don't use often. It has become a sort of gadget/appliance purgatory. They sit there, waiting, collecting dust and spiderwebs and languishing until I decide I want to make something that requires a blender, a food processor, coffee maker or a fondue pot.

About a week ago I decided I wanted to make smoothies, so I found a recipe for peanut butter cup smoothies that looked pretty good and kid-friendly. This morning I dug the blender out of the cabinet, gave it a good wash and mixed up some smoothies.

The kids hated them.

In a little bit, The Boy and Pibb will wash the breakfast dishes and the blender will go back into the cabinet to wait, sad and lonely, until the next time I remember I own it.

Topical

I read a few blogs (read: quite a few) and one thing I've noticed is that most of them have a sort of theme each day. In one that I read, Mondays are always a weekend recap and sort of general plan for the week, Tuesday is always a recipe, Wednesday is always wordless, Thursday is a craft project and Friday is completely random. I can see the benefit to that type of setup if you're only reading the blog for the crafts or only for the recipes - you know what days to check it out.
As the person writing the blog, I wonder if that is freeing (no wasted time each morning trying to figure out what to write about) or boring (not spontaneity). So what do you guys think? Would you rather have some kind of structure here? Or would you prefer to just keep going the way we are and you get what you get? Or a compromise - one or two days a week, we stick to a specific topic or theme and rest of the time you get whatever pops into my head?
And is there anything you would prefer to see more of? I know the craft posts have been noticeably absent and I apologize for that. I'm hoping that when The Project is completed (very soon) I'll have more time to dedicate to crafty pursuits.
I'm looking forward to your input, so don't be stingy with the comments, people! : )

Oh, BTW, Mr. Wonderful is not in love with is moniker here, so I'm changing it. I'm going to continue to call the small people by their nicknames, but Bryant and I are going to go by our real names. It's just easier that way.

Electricity Drain

I have this problem: I burn out watch batteries crazy fast. My cell phone has to be charged about four times as often as the home phone (exact same phone as mine, bought at the same time, neither has had the battery replaced). My laptop battery drains much faster if it is sitting on my lap than if it's sitting on a table or if someone else is using it. Wii remotes need to be recharged far more often if I'm playing than if anyone else is.

For instance, I bought a watch (a Timex Expedition) less than six months ago. I took it in two weeks ago to have the battery replaced. I asked that they test the battery (I've had them tell me there was nothing wrong with a battery, even when it won't work as soon as I put it on) and was told that it was indeed dead. So a brand new battery was put in my watch and within four days I was losing time again. If it were only that one watch, I'd assume the problem was faulty manufacturing and simply buy a new watch. But this has happened for as long as I can remember. Things with batteries simply die faster when I use them.

When I Googled this phenomenon, I found tons of examples of people with epilepsy or other seizure disorders who burned out batteries immediately before or during seizures. I found examples of people with exceptionally high iron in their blood who wore out batteries faster than their normal iron level counterparts.

I don't have either of those things happening. To the best of my knowledge, I have no neurological disorder and I've never had a seizure. As far as iron levels, I'm borderline anemic.

So, while I wanted this post to be full of quantifiable information and scientific proof, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it...

Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast

This is a modified version of a recipe I found at http://www.kalynskitchen.com/. It's South Beach Diet Phase One appropriate (if you don't use carrots), but more than that, it's just really delicious! Everyone in our family loves this - even Midge!

3-4 lbs boneless beef roast, I usually buy chuck
1-2 Tbsp steak rub
black pepper to taste
1-2 Tbsp olive oil (how much depends on the size of your pan, you really just don't want the meat to stick)
1/4 C water to deglaze the pan
2-3 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1 C beef stock, reduced to 1/2 C
1/2 C balsamic vinegar
1/2 C tomato sauce (or a can of very well drained diced tomatoes)

Trim as much fat as possible from the roast and cut to fit your crock pot, if necessary. Rub both sides of meat with steak rub and pepper. Heat a large, heavy pan with a bit of olive oil and brown meat on both sides. This step takes a few minutes, but makes a big difference - don't skimp on the browning step.

While the roast is browning, reduce the beef broth by bringing it to a boil and letting it cook down. Cool the broth for a few minutes, then add the balsamic and tomato sauce. Deglaze the pan the meat browned in and pour the water and any bit from the bottom of the pan into the sauce.

Dump all those beautiful onion slices into the bottom of your crock pot, just make a relatively even layer. There's no need to be fancy here. Lay the browned meat on top of the onions and pour the sauce over the top. Set the slow cooker to low, pop the lid on and walk away. Come back in 6-8 hours for a delicious, tender roast.

If you're feeling feisty, remove the roast (cover it with foil to keep it warm) and drain the liquid out into a pan (save the onions!) and cook it down by 1/3 or so and serve the sauce over the meat and onions.

You can also throw some carrots into the pot with the onions, if you like.

Serves 6-8, depending on how big the appetites are...

Journaling

I love journaling. I love notebooks and pens. I love writing prompts. Really, I just love to write and color and leave my mark on random, unsuspecting pieces of paper.

Lately I've been using printed journal pages that have lots of questions, prompts and illustrations to color in. They give a brief snapshot of my life at this time and I think they are super fun!

Today I thought I'd let you all peek into my journal, just this once... (prompts are in bold)

Two things I'll do on my own: write lesson plans and work on The Project
One thing I'll do with a friend/colleague/family member: make dinner - with Midge

Three things that perk me up when my energy level is low: laughter, caffeine and movement (like taking a walk)

What I'm reading these days: Mostly blogs, very few books. I do try to read to the younger kids each day, but I haven't read just for my own pleasure in a long time.
One of the rules I live by: Be kinder than necessary.
One website I visit often: Spritestitch.com - geeky crafts make me happy!
Two things on my bookshelf other than books: Tragically, I don't have a dedicated bookshelf. We have shelves for the kids' books, but mine tend to just stack up here and there. I do have several on top of my dresser, so two other things on there are a Galileo thermometer and a candle holder that looks like a skeletal hand (is actually holding earrings and misc. tiny treasures)
A personal success I'm proud of: I've stuck with The Project for months - I typically lack persistence and stick-to-it, so I'm pretty pleased with myself for working on it even when I was sick of it or wanted to quit.

Stuff I think about before I go to sleep: I tell myself stories - about whatever happens to wander into my head...

Lightning Round:
# of hours sleep - about 10 (and I needed it!)
First thing I did when I woke up - turned off my alarm, then snuggled back in
What I ate, breakfast - Breakfast burrito
What I ate, lunch - Damn good dip and chips (obviously I haven't eaten this yet, but I will)
What I ate, dinner - Rosemary mustard chicken, sugar snap peas (obviously I haven't eaten this yet, but I will)
Who I saw - Mr. Wonderful and the kids, possibly my cousin and his family as they're supposed to return our car top carrier tonight (but only if Mr. Wonderful is going to be out of work on time)
Where I went - I wanted to take the kids to the beach, but it's raining, so I think we'll probably just stay home today.
One thing that's funny today - Pookie took his burrito apart and ate the filling with a fork, then folded his tortilla shell and made strategic bites in order to create a tortilla snowflake. It was pretty amazing!
One thing that's challenging today - The kids are all wound up, but the weather isn't nice enough for playing outside or going to the park.

So there you have it - my journal page for today. If you're interested in printing your own, head on over to www.graceisoverrated.com and look for the category "journal pages" on the right sidebar. The pages can be printed in color or in black and white (so you can color them yourself).

A Letter

Mr. Wonderful has encouraged me to share some of my poetry and I've decided to try. It is very hard for me to let other people read my writing - I'm quite sure I'm not that good at it and I fear being laughed at or told to stop putting pen to paper (so be gentle with your comments). This one is titled "A Letter from the Pirate Within" and has been languishing in my folder of completed poetry for over three years.

A Letter from the Pirate Within

My Love,

Today I found myself alone on an island, deep in the Bermuda Triangle of my heart. Interestingly enough, when I awoke from my dark slumber on the deserted beach, there was a fire burning and coconut drinks with little umbrellas. They spoke to me of their longing to be consumed and appreciated by me.

I will not go hungry. I will not be cold. I will not go without little umbrellas in my hair. And so, with their desire to sustain me, I will not go without love.

Did I choose to come here? Do dreams of coconut drinks and seaweed delude me? Yes, probably.

Tonight, My Love, while I lay in my hammock, gently swaying from the palms, I will not care where reality comes from or goes to...

I will simply appreciate a fire that burns just for me, coconut milk on my lips and tiny umbrellas that twirl in the breeze.

Love Always,

Alter Me Ego

S p a c i n g...Ornot...

By the way, I don't know why Blogger puts random spaces in for me, so please ignore the weird gaps between some paragraphs. It also sometimes removes spaces, so please also ignore the smooshed together, "looks like a giant run-on paragraph" spacing. Or lack thereof.

I suppose one of these days I should learn more about how to control what this blog looks like.

Yeah, I'll do that in my copious spare time.