Wednesday, December 12, 2007

And the winner is...

Joansy. She was the first on to offer me cold, hard, cash. Well... Paypal... But still...

Of all the things I 'should' be doing today, I'm not sure this was on the list:
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Joansy, if it's ok with you, you get more 'package' less nipple. Just let me know if you want me to throw in some fragrance and I'll pop it in the mail. Jenny, the bow is yours, just email me (it's on my sidebar) and I'll send it to you.

Oooohhh... What a cute hair bow! Wait, is that a skull?
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Why yes, yes it is.

I tried to get it in my three year old's hair, but she shooed me away like I had a handfull of spiders.

As far as What's for Dinner Wednesday... You've got me... My husband will be late, so we'll probably settle on cereal or oatmeal. Otherwise, we'd probably have spaghetti:

1 lb ground beef or italian sausage, or a combination
a couple cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 an onion, diced so small the kids can't see it.
"Italian" Seasoning.
Can of diced tomatoes
Can of tomato sauce or puree
Your favorite noodles.

Put a tablespoon or so olive oil in a pan and warm it up, add the garlic and onion. Sweat it a bit, but don't brown. Add the ground beef and cook away. I like to cook it on a little higher heat. It takes a bit more watching, but browned meat tastes so much better. After it's all cooked, add a couple tablespoons of the seasoning. Since I buy the very low fat meat, I don't bother draining it. Stir the seasoning around and let it heat up. Add the tomato sauce/puree and diced tomatoes (or use two cans of the sauce if you're kids see a chunk of tomato and gag). Or three cans of tomato, whatever floats your boat. Allow to simmer while you go about cooking the noodles. I love making my own sauce. Not that it's anything fantastic, and it's not that I never use the canned/jarred stuff, it's just fun.

That's right. Fun. In the Kitchen.

Speaking of fun... A couple of neighbor kids have been coming over when school's out. I like to either have a fun (there I said it again) snack or a project. Yesterday, we made graham cracker houses. I hesitate to call them "Gingerbread," wait... They make gingerbread graham crackers this time of year... I just may be on to something...

1 box graham crackers
1 can frosting
3-4 assorted kinds of candy - the small checkout size is fine.

Divide up the frosting as evenly as possible in small (snack size) zip top bags. Snip off the tiniest corner, and let the kids go at it. I like to divide the candy up by kid, versus by kind. They each have their own bowl, and they're not trying to share.

This kept them busy for half an hour. Thirty whole minutes.

Best part?

Entirely edible.

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7 comments:

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

You are an amazing mom!! My kids would have been jealous years ago that other Mom's encourage this type of behavior!!

Frosting, candy and kids makes me a bit twitchy! I like a very clean kithen (yes, I am a bit OCD!)

Thanks for commenting about CJ - he has been so overwhelmed by the support he has received.

Jenny, the Bloggess said...

Yay! I LOVE the hairbow! It's so freaking perfect I can't even stand it and trust me, Hailey will be wearing it.

I insist on paying you back in drinks. Blogher 2008?

I'm emailing you now.

Gretchen said...

WWW - thanks. I'm generally not too concerned on the state of my kitchen - as long as I can cook! Fortunately, the frosting wipes up.

Jenny- You'll have to send me a picture!

Mitzi Green said...

we just had spaghetti monday night. so i have no idea WFD this W. it will not, however, be winsteads--moosebaby didn't seem to approve of yesterday's combination of mcdonalds for lunch and winsteads for dinner...

Loralee Choate said...

My dinner consisted of a Diet Coke and 1/4 a bag of stale Cheetos that were left in my car last week while I was driving to rehearsal.

:S

Gretchen said...

Mitzi - mcd's and winsteads? that would even make me sick.

Loralee - any meal is a good meal if it involves Diet Coke.

Mayberry said...

We did this today with an actual kit we received as a gift. I wouldn't recommend anyone except my kids eating it since my son licked each piece of candy prior to placing it on the house.

But it kept them busy for almost an HOUR!