Sometimes you just gotta give it up.....

Boy am I glad that God did not call us to be perfect. He just called us to love Him and others. Today has been one of those days. Preston started bleeding from his ear so I took him to the doc and found out he has a double ear infection. Poor little P. Anyway, the house is a wreck....and when some of you call your house a wreck, times that by 100, and that's my house! So, I called Wes and told him the truth. I told him to expect a dirty house, a sick child and his pregnant wife sitting on the couch when he got home. Now I could have rushed around and exhausted myself just to appear that I have everything together. But I'd much rather Wes know that sometimes I don't have it all together and that I just need understanding. When you have a wonderful husband like him though, he comes home and supports instead of criticizes. Yeah for you man!!

For the Ladies.....

I know that some of you don't have a lot of time on your hands, but for those of you that do, have I got a neat survey site for you!! It doesn't pay anything, but it is more interesting than all those other sites put together.

The site is called http://www.shespeaks.com/ and I have had a lot of fun things lately to do on it. My first survey that I did for them was to review 2 Martha Stewart type magazines, I can't remember the name of it! They send the materials to you and then all you have to do is log on and give them feedback.

My second survey is for Ore-Ida. They are sending me a package of their new Steam 'n Mash potatoes and I am supposed to cook them up and then get online and complete a survey about them. They are also including money-saving coupons. Eating mashed potatoes.........darn!!

The third survey that I just completed was for the Food Network. I was able to watch two shows that haven't even premiered yet and give feedback through a survey about what I thought! They were really good and just up my alley. In exchange for doing the survey, they are mailing me a Food Network DVD of Alton Brown's Good Eats. Pretty neat, huh?

So, anyway, it's free to sign up! I don't know how often they send out surveys but it's just a fun little distraction for my day. Enjoy!

My little lip-syncher.....

On our way up to Warren Dunes for a weekend of camping with Wes' parents, we learned that Preston knows how to lypsync. He is doing it right as the video begins. Enjoy!!

Frozen Pizza Pockets: Taste Test Tuesday

Hey Everybody! I thought it would be fun to start a weekly feature on my blog called "Taste Test Tuesday." The concept is that every Tuesday I will post a recipe that Wes and I have tried the previous week. It will be a brand new recipe to us and we will rate it for you!! The idea came about after a few weeks of feeling like we were eating the same thing all the time! So, here's the first installment, enjoy! And if you have suggestions, leave me a comment.

Frozen Pizza Pockets

adapted from Advantage Freezer Cooking

Here are the casts of characters: 1 pound frozen bread dough (thawed), 6-8 slices deli ham, pepperonis, 1 cup pizza sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and an beaten egg.

Recipe:

Assembly Directions: Thaw bread dough. Pinch off pieces about 1/3 – 1/2 C. Each loaf should yield about 7 sandwiches. On a floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle. Don’t roll it too thin or the filling will seep out. Put filling ingredients in a line down the center. Fold the long ends into the middle and pinch them together. Fold the short ends up and pinch into the folded long ends. Turn the sandwich seam side down and flatten it with your fingers. This will cause the dough to “stick” and keep the sandwich from coming “unraveled”.

Filling: You’ll have to “play with” your ingredients a bit to figure out what is “just right” for you. A little bit of peperonni, cheese and ham goes a long way in these sandwiches. Use up your cooking day leftovers!
The hardest ones to fill are the ones with sauce. It wants to seep out but you’ll get the hang of it.
Non-pizza sandwiches taste good with a sauce in them – I used either a mayo and mustard combo or some Thousand Island dressing on the ham sandwiches. Yummy!

Cooking and Freezing Directions: I only tried cooking the sandwiches and then freezing them. The dough will rise in the oven so the sandwiches will come out cooked much larger than when they went in (a real revelation for someone who doesn’t bake “from scratch” very often). Lay the sandwiches seam side down on a sprayed, foil lined cookie sheet. I also did an egg wash (one whisked egg brushed on the top) on mine to give them that great color. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned about 15-20 minutes. Cool completely. Wrap individually in foil. Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw. Reheat for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees or in a toaster oven. Reheating in the microwave will cause you to lose the “crispness” but using a wrapper from the store purchased hot pockets can help.

Stacy's comments: These little things were more difficult to assemble than I expected! They ended up shaped like dog bones....haha. Oh well, we can't all be Julia Child. They baked up very nicely and had a nice color. I used bread dough that had some whole wheat flour in it. Here they are right before going into the oven.

Here was the finished product. Some of the pockets leaked a little but not too bad. These went right onto the dinner table, but you can also let them cool completely and then freeze them.

Wes' rating: 5 stars....He really liked these.

Stacy's rating: 4 stars.....I wasn't sold on them. They were good, but a lot of work! :)

Markers Markers Markers.....

Being the good mom that I am and wanting to make sure that Preston gets lots of artistic ability when he is older, I let him go wild with the markers! Little did I know that he would try to eat them!! Yeah, orange teeth are so cute! So is orange drool in case you were wondering. So, enjoy this picture of Preston feeling triumphant for getting as messy as he could! Gotta love him!

Creation Museum

We just got back from a wonderful time in OH/KY. For Mother's day/Father's day, Wes and I decided we wanted to go on a mini trip to KY to go to the Creation Museum and then also go to the new IKEA about 20 minutes away in OH. We decided to camp near Cincinnati at a wonderful campground. They had 2 playgrounds, a splash park for the kids and a small lake where you could rent paddle boats. It was perfect! Preston had fun sweeping the campsite and Wes had fun trying not to have a heart attack whenever Preston would get close to the fire. The Creation Museum was really neat. I think we will have to go back once our kids are 8-10 or so. It was really neat to see Biblical events dramatized. They also had a petting zoo that Preston really liked. We highly recommend it.

Free Day at the Children's Museum

Once a month, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis has a free kid's night. We decided that this would be perfect for little P. He loves the room they have especially for toddlers. Lots of stuff to play with.
Mmmmm....who doesn't like plastic food??

If you know Preston at all, you know his "wheels on the bus" obsession. While we were there, they were having a sing-a-long with that song. How perfect! He's supposed to be doing a steering wheel right there. Let's hope he gets better at that by the time he hits 16!