Tasty Tuesday - Super Scalloped Potatoes

One of these days, I'll put up a holiday recipe before the holiday so people can take advantage. Then again, there are some recipes that are good anytime and should be pulled from your repertoire more often. This is one of those.

There is just a teensy tiny bit of it left in our house. And a total of four people ate any. In related news, I really, really need to hit the gym tomorrow!

Super Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes (ok so since I was at my mom's house, I used Idahoes, which doesn't work as well but they do in a pinch!)
1 pint half and half (don't go skim milk on this one. Whole milk can work, as will heavy cream, so lets split the difference and use half and half shall we? Get it? Ok so I'm a little punchy today)
2 T butter - or less, this time I used right around a tablespoon or a little more
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 c Parmesan, fresh grated (don't use the green can, although again... I was at my mom's house and that's sadly all she has, so it's possible, but I highly advise against it)
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Butter the bottom of your casserole and preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Slice your potatoes super thin. I used my mandolin to do it, which gives them an even slice. Your food processor likely has a slicing attachment that will also work nicely. Or you can slice them yourself, which will take longer but works as long as you're more careful than I am!

Mince your garlic.

Place a layer of potatoes in the dish. Over this, drizzle your half and half just enough to lightly douse the potatoes (you want to save enough for each layer).

Cut your butter into tiny cubes. I find it easiest to dip the butter into a bit of garlic so that both the butter and garlic are distributed across the casserole dish with neither garlic nor butter sticking to my hands. Whatever your method, dot the potatoes with bits of butter and sprinkle some of the garlic atop that.

Atop this, sprinkle some of the cheddar cheese, then salt and pepper the layer.

Continue this layering until your potatoes are gone - mine is generally about four layers. On the top layer, sprinkle the grated Parmesan.

Cover the casserole dish with foil, and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and turn up the heat to 375 degrees, baking for an additional 15 minutes to get the cheese completely melted and the top nice and crusty.

Serve immediately, although leftovers are pretty darned good, too. Yum! Enjoy this and more at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed with Grace.

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The Innocence of Easter

This morning, the wee ones raced downstairs to check to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. They found baskets filled with Star Wars books (our Easter Bunny is apparently a little non traditional) and bubbles and Lego toys and Yummy Tummy lollipops (no HFCS!).

They were thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. They couldn't wait to show me what the Easter Bunny had brought them. They love the Easter Bunny. And to be honest, I love that they love the Easter Bunny.

My philosophy has always been that I only answer their questions... primarily with other questions about what they think. I don't lie to them directly, but I don't want them to lose their innocence too early. (Ok so too early in my mind might be something like 20 years old?)

Today was a close call.

While we were at my parents' house this afternoon, I picked up the paper. The comics were on top, and I skimmed through them - always interested to see what new comics are being printed now that I don't get the paper in print anymore and of course to see what my old favorites are up to.

And then I saw it. Comic after comic referred to issues parents had with regards to the Easter Bunny. Were the wee ones to see the comics, they would insist my dad read to them, as he does any Sunday we're at their house.

Seriously? The comics aimed at young children unrepentantly destroy some of the beautiful innocence of childhood. I had to hide the comics. Today was not to be the day.

So of course, that's when the wee one walked up and saw what I had in my hands. Ooooo, Grandpa! Grandpa! Read us the comics! they chanted.

My brain moved into high gear. What's called for in this situation? Distraction.

Hey, my monkeys! Who thinks they can hide an Easter egg where I can't find it? I asked in a gushy, overly enthusiastic tone.

They bought it. And that's how their Lego Easter baskets now have only six eggs instead of the eight eggs that went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Happy Easter to all celebrating!

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Wacoal br@ or shapewear giveaway here

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all who are celebrating (and for those who aren't, just enjoy the pictures).

I have a babysitting co-op in my neighborhood that rocks. We help each other out on a regular basis - for example both this coming and this past Wednesday when I need someone to get Little Miss off her bus. With over twenty women together, we can always find someone who is available to watch our children in exchange for hours.

It's more than just the babysitting though. Our monthly meetings are a great social outlet and a wonderful source of information about upcoming events, the schools, and more. We have periodic ladies nights to just get away. And we do holiday events, including an Easter Egg hunt that has become quite the tradition.

It starts off with an Easter Egg hunt, which they kindly hold off on starting until the four of us who attend the Catholic school that gets out later can make it to the designated house. Each of us provides stuffed eggs, and the kids are separated by age to go in search of their requisite number of eggs.

Note that I have no pictures of this. Although I recharged my camera before the event and put the battery back in, I apparently neglected to put the camera actually into my purse. Nice babysitting people lent me their camera, however.

We also have a visit from the Easter Bunny, who comes to visit all the children and is available for pictures. Usually the Easter Bunny is fairly stationary and put in a picturesque area, but this year he was mobile.

This may also be the last year we have the Easter Bunny. As disappointing as it was, I witnessed several of the older (and I'm talking early middle school age) children harrassing the bunny - pulling on his gloves, yanking his watch chain, pulling on his pockets trying to rip them off his jacket, lifting up his waist, and the like. I chastised them, and they looked suitably ashamed for being disrespectful to the bunny, but I caught them (and others) at it later, and I know other moms did, too. It's a shame.

This isn't all, however. After the Easter Egg hunt is over, there are cookies to decorate. Dozens and dozens of cookies are made, frosting and sugars and decorations are provided, and the kids get to go to town making and eating their creations. You'll notice no pictures of Little Miss here, as she was being Miss Crabby McCrabbypants and not listening and was taken home by my husband after the Easter Egg hunt portion.

The host for the past two years has added yet another bit of entertainment. She prints out all sorts of Easter coloring pages, and the children are then invited to color them for a contest. This isn't your typical contest, however, where the one artistic child wins every single year. Instead, all the pictures are hung up for their due admiration while the kids go run and play for awhile. Eventually, they are taken down, shuffled, and three random winners are drawn.

Mister Man didn't win, and he was disappointed, but he was thrilled that he was able to help other kids find eggs after he'd found his dozen. In fact, as he was helping one boy find thirteen of his eighteen eggs, one of the eggs he found for that boy had a special "E" label inside that meant the boy received a special prize. Mister Man couldn't have been prouder that he helped than if he'd won himself.

And really? Isn't that what Easter is all about? Helping others, sharing and celebrating as a community, and recognizing that we're all in this together trying to make the world a better place?

Happy Easter!

More Holiday Creep

Do you have or know a little girl? There's a brand new line of dolls out there, and I'm giving one away with my Hot Locks giveaway!

There is also an almost brand new giveaway for probiotics here.

Odds are really good... quick, go enter and I promise to wait for you.

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It's GingerBunnybread time, again! Yes, after the fun we had making gingerbread houses this winter, we decided to decorate houses again.

With Easter coming up, we found a neat one at Aldi (our Aldi still had some this weekend left if you want to go for this fun treat, too). Mister Man spotted it when we went grocery shopping last week, and we both agreed that it had to come home with us.

So what do you think? This was our house.

Wellll... at least this was how the house was supposed to look. On the box.

It went together fairly quickly, with no major issues. Once the construction was complete, the wee ones were ready to decorate. And notice the balls on top of the roof. Go back and look at the picture above again. Yep, my special little boy made sure we had them in the exact correct color order. It was a big deal.

They did a lot of decorating, and they were completely in charge of deciding what would go where and how to divide the candy amongst themselves. Well, once I kicked my husband out of the kitchen after he kept pointing to the picture and insisting they try to follow that exactly. They actually did a pretty good job of sharing.

Mister Man kept asking me to make it look exactly like the house on the box with the piping. However, without moving the premade icing to professional bags with professional tips, there was no way that the icing was going to come out looking that way. He was awfully impressed that I made the heart on the door just like in the picture, even though I explained that there was no way I could then outline said heart.

Their house looked somewhat like the box when they decided they were finished. They were very proud of themselves.

However, as time started to pass, I was reminded of the lesson we learned when making our gingerbread houses at Christmastime. Do the decorating first, then build because the premade icing slides. Ehhhh, now the window in the front of hte house just looks like a door - or so Mister Man says.

Do you like how the bunnies are playing soccer with their multiple multi-colored balls? Yep, these bunnies play soccer.

When they woke up from their naps, they decided they wanted to do some more decorating, so back to work they went.

At this point, Mister Man decided he could do the icing on his own, so I let him have at it. He actually did a pretty good job, too.

This time, they wanted to be sure they were in the picture, as proof of the good job they did making their house.

And really, I think they did a pretty decent job with it, don't you? At the very least, we had a very pleasant afternoon that we spent together figuring things out and working together.

And what's a house without landscape lighting anymore? This is an upscale bunny house!

Hippity Hoppity!

Happy Easter to all who are celebrating... and bear with me if you aren't!

It's been a bit of an unusual Easter, with some good tradition still thrown in there fortunately. I went to Maundy Thursday mass to sing in the choir, but I couldn't do two services today and Holy Saturday -- especially with my husband at the Brewers game and me without childcare.

It turns out that the service I missed last night had some drama to them. There was a bonfire outside the church that was contained in a container like what you would put beer or wine in. And it didn't stay contained and sort of spilled outside. And one of my fellow choir members accidentally set her bulletin afire when she held it too close to her taper while trying to read the text. Bummer!

Fortunately, the Easter Bunny did come to our house, although the wee ones were still sleeping when I left to go to church. That means that not only did I miss them finding and going through their baskets but there are no pictures of this. My husband doesn't exactly get it.



Oddly, the Easter Bunny in our house didn't bring chocolate this year, but he brought some stuff the wee ones definitely enjoyed: several new placemats (including a way cool periodic table one and a neat Spiderman plus a planets one), Spiderman activity book, Curious George dry erase board, a tiny sunflower container, a pair of big boy scissors, and the like. I believe everyone was happy with it.

After church, we went to my aunt and uncle's house, which is pretty traditional. Except that my parents and one other set of aunt and uncle were the only ones there. Two of my mom's five siblings didn't make it, and none of my cousins did. That's a first. One aunt and uncle did literally nothing for Easter but couldn't be bothered to come, so their three children (and spouses and children) didn't make the journey either. Sad, but what can you do. Even my sister didn't make it.

My aunt and uncle were going to have an Easter Egg hunt for the wee ones, but that fizzled somehow and instead they got presents. Two outfits and a swimsuit for each of them. Ahhh, clothes. My favorite kind of gifts nowadays.

And since Little Miss's swimsuit literally shredded in the water this past Saturday at swim lessons, the new suit couldn't have come at a better time. Again, I wasn't there and I'm going by what my mom said, but she came home a swimsuit short and claimed she'd never been more embarrassed in her life.





And then we all stuffed our faces, as normal. Ham with all the trimmings... and non-dairy foods for Little Miss. My aunt and uncle are good that way! I even have proof that it was a good day:



Yep, that would be my husband who had volunteered to shepherd the wee ones for awhile, sound asleep in a chair.

I think my aunt and uncle (who are childless) were ready for us to go by the time we packed up. The wee ones get a little riled up around Grandma and Grandpa, and then couple it with no nap and sugar that they kept eating throughout the day. Their poor cats -- who are also not used to having children around -- may never recover.

I'm thinking that after a good nap, I'll be just fine. And no tempting Easter candy to eat, either!

Happy Easter (or not)!

His Immortal Soul

I think Mister Man is going to hell.

I mean, we've tried. We're really tried. We go to church every Sunday. Mister Man goes to Sunday school before church. He has his own children's Bible. He's even singing in the youth choir.

But we have a problem. This morning, I asked him to tell me about the picture he was drawing.



On the left, we have the Incredible Hulk. Normal enough for a five year old boy, right? To his right, we have Jesus.

This is where the problem starts. The Incredible Hulk (who has some unknown red substance in his hand, possibly a rock? I was afraid to ask) is fighting Jesus. He's going to kill Jesus, in fact. And up in the right hand corner, we have Spiderman who's mostly out of the view.

Spiderman is going to spin a web around Jesus once he falls down. And you know that he's going to fall down because you see the arrow telling what's happening in the story that is the picture. I'm not quite so sure why the Incredible Hulk looks so happy to be killing Jesus, but I certainly understand the frown on Jesus's face.

I had a little chat with Mister Man to better understand this and then reexplained that while Jesus is killed on Good Friday, it was done by some very bad men, that Jesus allowed this to happen because He was making a sacrifice for us, and that He came back to life on Easter which meant that we are all saved.

Is there remedial Sunday School? Poor kid is really in trouble here.

Proof That I Need To Take Care Of Myself More Often...

I had my massage today. It was lovely. Especially after I went running this morning in 26 degree weather. Thank God it was sunny. And my friend made me go.

So I’ve apparently not been there in awhile. You’d think that I’d know this because I couldn’t tell you for the life of me the last time I was there. Or maybe because my knots had knots. Or maybe because I forgot how to get there and had to Mapquest it.

But nope, none of those is why I knew I hadn’t been there in awhile. The place I go to is a massage school, which means they’re students who need hours and therefore, it’s cheap(er). In fact, it’s $35 for an hour long massage, quite a deal. Errrr, it was $35. When I got my credit card receipt, I saw that it was $40. Now, keep in mind that I’m not complaining. A $40 massage is a wonderful and rare thing. But wow, it’s been awhile.

And when I went to go get my mani/pedi yesterday, I realized that it had been awhile since I’d had a mani/pedi. Again, I could possibly know this because there were people working that who I didn’t recognize – as a family business, the staff has been remarkably stable since its opening. Or maybe because I can’t remember what color polish I last had on my toes. Dark purple maybe?

But nope, once again, it’s because the prices have gone up. When I first started going there at least seven years ago, it was $25 for a manicure and pedicure. Considering I knew about – but didn’t frequent – places that charged $17 for the manicure alone, good deal. Plus, they give the greatest foot, leg, hand and arm massages as part of your treatment. That alone is practically worth the $25. But for the last few years, it was $30 for the mani/pedi. Yesterday? $35. The only good news is that there were two girls in there on spring break with me who I could overhear being shocked that it was no longer $25. At least my shock wasn’t as great.

Again, $35 for a mani/pedi is not something to sneeze at, but it still makes me sad that everything is getting more expensive because I’m turning into one of those old fogies who remembers when gas cost $0.98.

And quickly back to my massage: The therapist told me that I have perfect skin for a massage. Totally did a double take on that one and finally had to ask what exactly that meant. Apparently, that means that the knots in my back don’t adhere to my skin and make it so tight that the therapist can’t work with it. That or she was totally bs’ing me. Still a totally weird comment.

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And I know I promised the story regarding my in-laws. I will preface this by saying that they’re really nice people. Really sweet and caring people. They just aren’t always the most couth.

For Easter, they took us out to brunch (no comments on how this occurs only because the parents, two sets of aunts and uncles and the sister can’t agree as to whose “turn” it is to host a holiday so now all of them refuse to host anyone for any holiday). It was (to quote my husband) the nicest restaurant in Edwardsville, which really isn’t the strongest compliment. It was fine though.

They had a salad bar that consisted of iceberg lettuce, two kinds of shredded cheese, no veggies or other toppings, and three kinds of salad dressing. My in-laws were in front of me getting their salads, so I waited patiently while they made them. Since the dressing was on the wrong side of the lettuce, I had to watch what they were doing before I could even start to get my lettuce.

FIL lifted up the dressing scooper with some sort of dressing on it, brought it near his nose and sniffed. He then shrugged and held it out to MIL. She said she had no idea, so he urged her to taste it. This is when internally I began screaming no, but my physical body could only drop its jaw and stare. She dipped her finger into the dressing and tasted it. “Yep, thousand island.” At that point, he didn’t pour it on his salad, which would have been bad enough. Nope, he returned the scooper to the dressing, stirred it around and scooped up a full dipper full of dressing before pouring it over his salad.

Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck! Any guesses as to what kind of dressing I most certainly did not put on my salad? Seriously, in what world is it acceptable to put your finger in food that you’re sharing with multiple people? It’s a buffet. Put the dressing on your salad. If you don’t like it, go back, get a clean plate and try a different one.

Ok, done venting. Almost. We went to Max & Erma’s for dinner tonight after getting pics of the kids (awwww) and happened to sit right near the ice cream sundae bar. Three different families sent their kids back with their dirty ice cream bowls and no parental supervision to get more ice cream. One kid couldn’t get the sprinkles to come out so tried picking them out of the puncture holes. And my husband wondered why I wasn’t in the mood for any dessert tonight (although after eating an entire hamburger, there was no way I could have eaten anything else anyway)! Yep, now I’m done venting!

Have any of you run into situations like the above that just gross you out, or am I being way to picky?