H'ween and more!

Halloween was great :) The party was great.. not many people came.. The Bestfriends, and The Friends that used to live across the street. But between the three sets of parents there were 9 kids.. so it was pretty great. :) My friend, K, didn't get here till after 10.. so her DH, M, hung out with us pretty much all day and took their two kids trick or treating with The Husbands (that's when The Husband is with his bestfriend, who is mine's husband.. clear as mud? lol) and the twins. The Bestfriend and I even got over an hour of *quiet*.. just us, some wine and a movie. It was great.

The Husband did not come home with an earring this afternoon. But he tried. The ear piercer lady was at lunch when he went to walmart to get it done. So, when I went to walmart to pick up a few snacks... I also picked up the home ear piercing kit (only $5!!) and a pack of small silver ear piercing studs.. And I pierced The Husbands ear myself!!!! And then.. a little while later... I pierced Justin's ear, too. (JD, did your jaw drop??? LOL) I let Justin go to walmart today, and when I was picking out the earring for Dave and getting the guy to ring me up a piercing kit, Justin starts working me. He's wanted an earring for a lonnnnnng time. He he looked at me when he asked and it just hit me.. He really is getting older. He looks older. He finally ACTS older. And after 3 failed spelling tests, he totally cracked down and got a 110 this week. His behaviour has been mostly wonderful (no kid's perfect). So, I caved inside, but I didn't tell him. I called Dave and talked to Dave about it.. we both agreed. He was so cool about when we got home, too.. because I didn't have time to do it right away. There were cupcakes to make and frost, cookies to frost, meatalls to get in the crockpot (hell no I didn't make homemade meatballs this time), and kids to get in costumes.. which involved hot rollers for The Pretty Girls. And pink hair glitter. :D And he didn't bug me about it. He didn't ask "when are we gonna do it" one single time. He just played it cool, totally helped me bust out some cookies.. I did the icing, he did the sprinkles. Then, he asked if he could go ahead and go to his friend's house so they go start trick or treating. I said "what about your earring? Don't you want to do it before?".. he says "naaa. I'm wearing a mask and a hood.. no one will see it anyway.. We can do it when I get back." WHO IS THIS KID?!?!?! It just totally solidified my decision. He was acting so mature about it, so he deserved it. :)

Dave had me do his before he took the twins t-o-t'ing. He didn't even flinch.. Then when it was in, I loved it instantly. I think he did too. We had to take the piercing stud out, to put a gold hoop in (just for tonight).. and the original plan was, we'd just take the hoop out and let the hole close back up. But he had me put the stud back in instead. ;) He said he wants me to find him a wrench earring and I so am! I feel bad for jacking with it twice in one night.. you could tell that part is what hurt for Dave. We won't mess with it again until Christmas, when his 6 weeks is up. He told me that he wants a wrench shaped earring, and I am SO finding one for his stocking this year. :P

The other boys are kind of wanting their's done too. I'm not sure yet. I feel like I made Justin wait so long , it isn't fair to him that they get it right off the bat when he does. But, it's not as huge a deal as being the first to get an MP3 player, or his own PSP, he'll be the first to get a cell phone, a car, etc. But this isn't as a huge a deal as that, so I'm not sure yet. Plus it's kind of Daddy and Justin's thing right now. And they don't have much. Andy and Dave are tight. Andy is a little mini me of Dave.. and follows him around like a puppy. So of course since Daddy is keeping the earring and Justin got to have one.. He thinks he needs one too. I told him I'd think about it. I think I'm going to make him wait at least a few weeks. He already has tons in common with daddy. They already have all kinds of stuff that's "just them" because Andy is interested in everything Dave does (fishing, watching races and old westerns, and especially fixing cars). Any time Dave is out working on a car.. Andy is right there.. red shop rag in his back pocket and messing with daddy's wrenches. Jason is kind of off and on about wanting one. I think he is just caught up in the excitement. He's going to forget about it tomorrow and not care. Half the time he said he didn't want one tonight... so I don't think he really does. I think I'm going to keep it just a Justin and Daddy thing for a little while... at least a month or two. Maybe around Christmas, if Andy is still wanting it, one of his Christmas presents can be a box of piercing earrings. I don't know. Whaddya think?

Good Grief this turned into a novel. Eyes bleeding yet? I have no business being awake. I got 4 hours of sleep last night, and never managed a nap today. It's 2:2oam and I've been up since 7:30 this morning, yet I'm still trying to unwind. Pretty sure there is an email in my hotmail to read, though.. So with that.. Bonne Nuit, Buona Notte, Good Night :)

Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday to My Sweetie!!

So the big day is finally here. The kids could just pee themselves with excitement. LOL I had to get up insanely early this morning to take The Girls to a Girl Scout event. They earned their first patch today. Awwww :) I'm supposed to be taking a nap right now, since I was up late doing party prep stuff.. But what am I doing?? *eyeroll* LOL One our way home from the girl scout thing, we stopped and got Daddy some balloons and a couple cards.. and we brought him breakfast from a really yummy mexican bakery/restaurant that The Husband loves. I couldn't find him a clip on earring that he likes for his Mr. Clean costume.. so he's considering going and having his ear pierced today! :O I asked him if he was having his midlife crisis or something and just using the costume as an excuse. LOL I am going to DIE laughing if he comes home in a little while with an earring. LOL

I'm pretty excited about today. We decided to keep it simple for the food... there is too much to do just getting the kids ready and myself ready.. I don't have the time for ambitious party food like stuffed shells. Hell it takes 20 minutes just to break down a butternut squash. So.. We decided snacks instead. The Husband is going to make some Salsa, I'm going to make The White Dip (creamy garlic jalapeno ranch... MMM), we're going to do crackers with a couple toppings.. cream cheese with roasted raspberry chipotle sauce, pimento cheese salad, summer sausage and cheddar cheese... And I'm thinking sweet and sour meatballs.. So easy.. frozen meatballs, a jar of grape jelly and a bottle of chili sauce all in the crockpot. Maybe some deviled eggs, if I have the time.. and I think we're good. I've got two kinds of sweets (aside from bags and bags of halloween candy.. I promise I only ate a little.. well, maybe a moderate.. okay, I ate a lot of it.. but there is still tons LOL).. Anyway, back to the sweets I'm baking. Dave loves carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.. but I didn't want to have to deal with the whole cutting the cake ordeal and neither did dave.. So instead I decided I'd do carrot cake cupckaes, and I'm going to put a little candy corn on the top of each one..and then put them on my silver and crystal petite fours tray that The Mother got for me two Christmas' ago and I've never had an occasion to use. :) JD- Je n'ai eu l'orthographe française, là-haut et ici correcte? :P Anyway.. gonna do the cupcakes (and I'm hoping to find some cute Halloween cupcake liners).. and I made some big soft sugar cookies that I'm going to put some orange colored buttercream frosting on, with halloween sprinkles. :) I still need to make the cupcakes.. and all the frostings.. but that's about it. Everything else is just sort of open it up and put it on the table. :)

I'm excited, I think it's going to be a fun party.

Friday Five

Compliments of JD's blog...

1. What were you doing the last time you really had a good laugh?
Ummm.. I guess it's been a while since I had a really good laugh, because I can't remember. I'm sure the party tomorrow night will bring a few. ;)

2. Who was your first CELEBRITY crush?
Johnny Depp. Yum. I still have a thing for him

3. What is one talent that you wish you had?
I've always wished I could play the piano.

4. How often do you and your spouse go out w/o the kids? Is it frequent enough?
Not very often.. once every couple of months, maybe. Not very many people out there willing to babysit 5 kids. One of the downfalls of having a big family. I envy my friends who only have one or two kids and go out with their spouses all the time.


5. What colour(s) is your bedroom?
Well the walls are white (rental).. but all of my bedding and decor is red/cream/gold/chocolate.

Laundry Shame

This one's for JD. :)

So during my laundry renegade moment.. In the bottom of the hamper next to the washer (aka the black hole) I found a long sleeve shirt of Justin's that I haven't washed since LAST winter. Seriously people. Last winter. Top that!! LOL When Justin went to hang it up.. He says "Oh cool!! My yellow old navy shirt!! I thought it was gone forever!!" LOL Last winter. *hangs head in laundry shame*

Paula, Paula, Paula...

Paula Deen just made rice a roni on her show. Rice a Freakin Roni. C'mon now, Paula. They gave you a COOKING show. You should COOK. Not use Rice a Roni and cream of crap soup and a CAN of artichoke hearts. For real. *shakes head* At least Sandra Lee admits to using convience foods. I don't get mad at her. I don't really like her show, but I don't hate on her when she uses the prepackaged stuff.. It's the premise of her culinary point of view.. Her show is called "semi-homemade".. not Paula's Home Cooking. You ain't "home cookin" if you're just opening up a bunch of cans and boxes and throwing it all in a bowl. I mean Giada doesn't tell you she's going to teach to you make spaghetti sauce and then tell you to open a jar of Prego and "follow the package directions". Seriously, Paula actually said to just follow the directions on whatever brand of "rice mix" you choose to buy.. She got a chicken flavored one. LOL Maybe I'm just being a snob. But it's my blog. :P

Since my last post, I have done another 5 or 6 loads.. I have an 9 foot long dining room table that at one point today was completely full of stacks of clothes that were all at least 2 feet high. The Kids came in from school and one of them said "Look! The Laundry Fairy came". LOL This is a standing joke around our house.. Whenever I let the laundry go for a while and it is overflowing the hampers and no one has anthing to wear.. which is uhmm.. "quite often" *cough* ahem. Well anyway, whenever I go into laundry renegade mode and do 15 to 20 loads of laundry over a two day period (now remember..we're a family of SEVEN..looooots of laundry).. DH will say "The Laundry Fairy came" when the kids are around.. and when their not.. our private joke is "Hey look, Baby.. that bitch that does our laundry finally showed up!!!" LOL Sometimes I beat him to the punch. LOL

So I made Chicken Marsala tonight.. For the first time ever, actually. I've just never bothered to *look* in the wine section for Marsala wine.. and knew better than to get "cooking wine". Well, at The Grocery (I swear, it's my favorite place.. so many pretty things lol ) that has all my special ingredients that the regular store doesn't carry (fresh basil, low carb pasta, san marzano tomatoes, The Husbands low carb diabetes friendly milk.. and special sauces).. Well, my regular grocery store (Ok, I give.. it's walmart.. damnit, they're cheap and we're a big family) does not carry table worthy marsala wine.. so I've never made Chicken Marsala. Well The Grocery.. the one with an entire section of hundreds of imported cheeses *swoon*... happens to carry a couple of different kinds of Marsala so I grabbed it on my specialty item trip.

Okay.. can you tell I *really* like the grocery store? I mean I just wrote an entire paragraph talking about the things I like getting each week but can't find all in one spot. LOL That's kinda sad. LOL

Okay.. back to making Chicken Marsala. I consulted a couple of different recipes but didn't print anything out. I wanted to just go for it and see what I came up with. That's how my devine tomato sauce came to be.. And I've done it again! I measured stuff as I was going.. to keep track of it to write my own version over at Allrecipes.com. It was really easy, and to my amazement.. ALL the kids loved it. Even Justin.. The Pickiest Eater In All The Land...

Here's what I did. These notes are more for me, so I can remember what I did when I put it into actual recipe format... Jamie, you get my recipe writing style, so this'll probably make sense to you :)

I cut chicken breasts into medallions..lay it straight up and down and then cut it in half horizontally then lightly pound the thicker half so they are all the same thickeness. Season with salt and pepper and dredged through some seasoned flour. Shake off the excess and brown in olive oil over medium high heat until they're golden brown on each side.. turning just once and not fussing with them while they are cooking. Leave 'em alone for a least 4 minutes before peeking to see if they're getting brown. My family is large so I did this in two batches. Remove the chicken to paper towel. Add more olive oil to the pan to coat the bottom and crank the heat to screamin high.. then toss in some sliced baby portabella mushrooms. DO NOT SALT THESE YET! Lay them all flat in the pan and leave them alone for 2 or 3 minutes until they get really golden.. then stir them around to turn them over and brown up the other side. Once they're golden salt them with a pinch or two and grind in some pepper then grate in 3 or 4 cloves of garlic. Give it all a stir, be careful not to burn the garlic. Return the chicken to the pan and pour about a cup of sweet marsala wine into the pan to deglaze it. Add in about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken or beef broth, a handful of rough chopped fresh basil (a lot of people say to use parsley, but I like basil better)...Give it a taste and adjust seasonings as needed. I like a sweet Chicken Marsala because I'm a big fan of sweet and savory.. especially with pasta. So, at this point I would add a pinch or two of sugar if the wine isn't sweet enough. Give it all a good stir, pop a lid on the pan.. off to the side a bit to let some of the steam out.. Simmer it on medium-low for 20 minutes.. While it's simmering, boil up some linguini in heavily salted water. When it's al dente, drain it and toss with a few tablespoons of butter and a handful of chopped fresh parsley. When the sauce has reduced and thickened up nicely, stir in a couple tablespoons of butter (REAL butter, if you don't have it, just skip this... you're doing this for creaminess)and turn off the heat. Serve the chicken medaleons and sauce on top of the cooked pasta.. make sure to put enough sauce on each plate to coat the noodles well.. it's a YUMMY sauce. If ya make it, enjoy!!!

In the time since I started this novel..I think the dryer has finished. One more load before turning in, I think. :) Yep.. The Laundry Fairy was definitly here today. So was The Yummy Food Fairy ;)

This Week's Menu

Grilled Beer Brats, Potato Salad, Macaroni for the kids

"Mammas" Ginger Shrimp (that was last night and was freakin DELISH)

Chicken Marsala with Linguini a salad and bread (tonight.. can't wait)

Wild Mushroom Ravioli with from scratch tomato, basil, and garlic sauce (plain spaghetti for the kids.. they hate mushrooms)

Then with the leftover sauce (since I always make too much LOL).. I'm going to make some meatballs and do a Baked Ziti with Meatballs and chunks of mozzarella. Yum.

Sounds like a pretty yummy week, huh? :) Now I just gotta figure out what kind of snacks I want to make for the party Saturday night. And I'm going to make Dave a from scratch Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for his birthday cake. Oooh.. Maybe the Cheesy Autumn Deliciousness Lasagne would be good for the party.. Hmm. I will have to ponder this and consult with my partner in party planning crime..aka The Sister(who is actually The Sister-in-Law.. but when you love someone and are this close..you just sorta drop the "in-law" part). :) God I'm happy Halloween is on a Saturday this year. Makes it so much more fun for us. :)

ETA: Oh man.. I just went to check out this blog http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/and she made butternut squash stuffed shells... !!!! YUM!!! And how freakin good would that be for the party?? And way easier to serve than cutting a huge lasagne would be. OH. MAN. I think I just figured it out.. thanks to this bloggers yummy blog and my obsession with it! LOL I'm not going to do the same thing the blogger did for my stuffed shells, though. Just borrowing her idea and adding my twist. I'm going to take my ragu that I did for the lasagne, mix it with chunks of fresh mozzarella and stuff the shells like that. I can't wait to tell The Sister about this idea!!!