A camping we will go...

My my my, it has been a LONG TIME!!!  I have had the blog on my mind a lot lately and have actually wanted to post! Live has been crazy busy!   The hubs and I each have a brother getting married. Today My M-I-L and Sister in laws did a shower for Rashelle.  I was in charge of the food and the decorations and providing the space.  Since we were doing a camping shower I decided to do dutch oven desserts.  It was raining and the oven had some issues but in the end we ended up with some scrumptious treats!  I was asked for the recipes for all 3 so I am gonna share them all here with you!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

	Topping		Cake Batter
4	Tbs. butter	1	yellow cake mix
1	cup brown sugar	1	cup pineapple juice
8	pineapple rings	1/3	cup water
8	maraschino cherries	3	eggs
		1/3	cup oil

Prepare Cake Topping: Melt butter in bottom of a 12" Dutch oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter being careful not to touch the sugar once it has begun to dissolve into the butter. Carefully place pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar, 7 around the outside and 1 in the center. Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. Prepare Cake Batter: In a mixing bowl combine cake mix, pineapple juice, water, eggs and oil; mix well. Spoon cake batter carefully over the top of pineapple rings. Spread batter evenly to edges. Bake: Cover Dutch oven and bake using 10-12 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 45 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes or so in the oven with the lid cracked. Next run a rubber spatula around the inside edge of the oven to loosen the cake. To turn the cake out, first lay a piece of parchment paper across the top of the oven so it lays flat and replace the lid so that it holds the paper in place. Make sure you have an available lid stand resting on your table for the next step. Using gloved hands place one hand on the lid and the other hand under the oven and carefully lift and flip the oven over so the cake falls onto the lid. Rest the oven upside down on the lid stand and tap the bottom and sides of the oven lightly with your hand to make sure the cake didn't stick. Then lift the oven off the lid. The cake will be resting on the parchment lined lid and can be cooled this way or slid off the lid using the parchment paper. Allow cake to cool slightly before service. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream as topping. Serves: 8-10 Chocolate Lovers Delight 1 1/2 cup water 1 (10 oz.) bag miniature marshmallows 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 chocolate cake mix; prepared as directed 1 cup light brown sugar 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips Line the bottom and sides of a 12" Dutch oven with heavy foil. Mix the water, cocoa powder, and brown sugar together and pour into the Dutch oven. Add marshmallows and spread them out evenly. Pour prepared chocolate cake mix over marshmallows. Sprinkle chocolate chips over cake batter. Cover oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 60 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream. Serves: 10-12 Raspberry Cobbler 1 cake mix yellow, white or vanilla 1 cup melted butter 2 boxes Danish Dessert 1 bag frozen or fresh raspberries Cook Danish Dessert according to filling directions and put in the bottom of a lined dutch oven. Sprinkle cake mix over top of the filling. Pour melted butter on top and bake in at 350 for about 40 minutes until top is golden and bubbly. I was going to post but my computer is apparently out of memory and won't let me load the pics off the camera.  Happy Dutch Ovening :)

Vomit.......

Warning this post may contain to much information of a vomitus nature. Yes I know that vomitus isn't a real word but I like it and it is my blog :). Consider yourself warned!! Also this post will contain no pictures as no one wants to see this!
So my eldest daughter who is 8 1/2 vomits a lot.  In the last 3 weeks or so we have had 3 episodes of her vomiting.  Let me just say that she is the worst when it comes to keeping it contained.  I have been projectile vomited on multiple times.  I do not handle this well. I do hope that she never takes up drinking because she doesn't handle puking to well.  If the Hubby is home it is his job, mostly because he would rather clean up 1 pile of puke rather than 2!  We are trying to figure out what causes this.  We usually lean towards dehydration which she seems to get dehydrated at the drop of a hat.  I am also wondering if emotion plays into her vomiting incidences.  School started 2 days ago and we are still in the thrill stage.  She seems to also have issues with eating to much junk.

So here is the point of this post.... Do you have any children that do this?  She is a very healthy child otherwise.  Any tips or advice would be great. We are starting a food journal for her, and we are going to start monitoring how much water she is drinking.

When Life gives you lemons, make Lemonade... No really

See that thing on the side bar that says "Tip of the Week"?  Yes you mean that tip that has changed oh 1 in the entire time?  Yep that's the one!!  Well this post was going to be a little tidbit for there but the more I thought about it the more I had to say.  Lemons!!  Lemons are great little buggers and are really pretty useful.  If you are anything like me I run across recipes that call for fresh lemon juice or lemon zest and I don't have any.  La sigh :(.  So usually the next trip to the store I end up picking some up and then they sit because I can't remember what I was going to use them for.  So then after about a week or so the skins start to look a little sad.....

This is where the tips come in.  My husbands grandfather is a chef.  He has studied all over the world and has won some pretty major competitions, (at least that is my guess his trophies/plates are all in French).  He gave me this fantastic idea to do with the lemons before they go bad.  Start by juicing them, then you freeze the juice.  I suppose you could even zest them and put the zest in with the juice if you desire.  Grandpa Hans puts his juice in ice cube trays and then when he wants a glass of lemonade one cube and couple spoonfuls of sugar and water, and TA DA you have a single size serving of fresh lemonade.

I put the juice in freezer bags and toss them in the freezer.  Then when I need it I thaw off as much as I need and away I go.  This can be done with all citrus juice!

Another thing that you could do with the leftover peel is to stick them in a bottle or jar and fill the jar with vinegar.  Wait one week and you have a completely green, chemical free, super cleaner that combines the power of citrus and vinegar.  Remove the lemon peels and  mix 1 part cleaner to 1 part water and use anywhere!  This could also be done with limes, oranges, or even grapefruit.

Garbage disposal a little stinky??  Next citrus fruit you peel stick the peels down the disposal and run.  Then your drain will smell much better!

Hope you find at least one of these tips helpful!

Calling all Moms

I need some opinions if you please....  I am scheduled to be induced 3 weeks from tomorrow if he doesn't decide to make his appearance sooner.  I bet you can all guess which one I am voting for!  Our infant carrier has expired and I am looking for a new one.  Since this is most likely our last baby, I am not wanting to spend a grundle of money but I also want style and safety.  So here is where I need your input, please.  Which style handle was your favorite??  I am open to suggestions.

For the other kids we used a Baby Trend car seat because we liked this handle.

These are a few of the other options out there.  Tell me what you liked and didn't like and why.  Thanks

Bed Head

Lainey lately has been waking up with lots of bed head.  Her hair seems to be in an awkward stage anyway as she is growing it back out.  I just took her in for a trim I was hoping that would help.  Not so much.  It seems like even after a shampoo and condition we still have the tangles.  And even with a leave in conditioner it still seems to be stringy and dry through out the day.  So I have been looking into some solutions.  I remembered as a child I had this same problem only my hair was very thin.  Lainey has thick hair.  I remembered that my mom used to have me sleep on a silky pillowcase.  These help to reduce the friction when we rub our heads against our pillows in our sleep.  I also learned that braiding hair before bed can lessen the friction and damage from rubbing our heads in our sleep.  A detangler can also help get the knots out before combing so we lessen the damage caused but combing it out.  I also read about hair conditions in children especially little blond children.  You can read about it here. If you have a child that has this problem or you do hopefully this helps :)

Nope I am not dead, and a great recipe.

So it has been months since I have posted.  This pregnancy at least in the  later stages has been extremely hard on me.  I am experiencing things that I have never had to in my previous pregnancies.  I basically have barely enough energy to make sure that my family is: fed, alive and the house not completely destroyed.  While it is driving me bonkers I have had no projects going just because I......  I am not really sure how to finish that sentence.  Anywho, I have absolutely no desire to cook whatsoever, so meals around here have been a lot lacking.  I went to the grocery store the other night without a meal plan in mind but we were out of the basics and so I had no choice but to go.  So I bought a lot of really random things hoping to be able to come up with some sort of meal out of them.  One of the things I bought was a turkey Kielbasa (Polish Sausage), I grew up eating these and like them.  My mom would just slice them into 1 inch hunks and make some bbq sauce.  This just didn't sound good at the moment and so I googled recipes for Kielbasa.  I found this one, Kielbasa and Potato Skillet.

Recipe:

• 5 large potatoes , cut in bite sized chunks
• 1 lb kielbasa , sliced
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups shredded American cheese

Directions:

1. 1
   In dutch oven, brown potatoes, kielbasa, onion and peppers in oil.
2. 2
   Add seasonings and water.
3. 3
   Bring to a boil.
4. 4
   Cover tightly and cook for 20 minutes on low, stirring occasionally.
5. 5
   Uncover and put cheese on top.
6. 6
   Simmer until cheese is melted.

I changed a few things, I don't have an indoor dutch oven or a skillet big enough to handle this recipe so I used a pot.  Second it is really hard to brown raw potatoes but I tried anyway.  Nothing turned brown.  I didn't have a green bell pepper so I used 1/2 a pablano pepper (cross between a jalapeno and a green bell).  After simmering it for the 20 minutes I drained most of the water off. Then added Cheddar cheese.  It was really good!!!!  The potatoes got a cheesy and almost creamy like texture.  Lance ate 3 helpings!  It was also really easy.  I will be making this again and loved how it smelled while it was cooking.

A bedroom makeover? Sure!!

So I have been really trying hard to get the girls to keep their room clean.  Which is somewhat hypocritical considering what my room looks like.  So I am making an effort to clean (gut the crap) up my room.  I have been making the bed every day etc.  Lance comes home the other day and says we need to paint our room :) WOOOHOOOO!!  PERMISSION to redecorate.  I kinda went through a phase of wanting to change up the colors a couple of years ago.  Didn't end up doing it.  Our bedspread is really stained, the dust ruffle was colored on with pen, and it needs to go.  I did beige as a neutral before but this time I am thinking white.  I want a down comforter with a duvet cover that can be taken off and washed/bleached.  Our bedroom is quite small so I want to do something that will open it up and give it a bigger feel.  I think the stark white with some splashes of color will accomplish this.  However I have the hardest time choosing colors ACK!!  So here are a few things that I am liking, tell me which one is your fave.  You will see a reoccurring color that I am quite fond of right now.

 I like the middle three.

 The coral and the gray.

 This one is a little more orange than coral but I love the blue and dark grey with it.

I think this is my favorite with the coral the dark gray and the white.

Tell me what you think!!