This morning

Kathryn is an early riser. She always has been. I don't know what I ever did to deserve such a fate. I am not and early riser. Getting up in the morning is torture. When she was really young I would sleep on the couch while she watched cartoons often from 5am until 8am....and then there would be the time change...oh how I hated when it went from 5am mornings to 4am mornings. The kids was killing me. I loved the day when she was smart enough to turn the TV on and open the fridge. I would put a sippy cup of milk in the fridge, a bowl of cheerios, raisins and mini marshmallows on the table, and leave the TV on CBC the night before. In the morning she would help herself to the milk and treats and watch CBC kids until mom got up.

Today Kathryn was up and making all kinds of noise in the kitchen at 6am. I rolled over to look at the clock and wondered what in the world she was doing in the kitchen so early. The past few mornings she has but her own lunch together before I ever get out of bed, but today she seemed to be making a ridiculous amount of noise. At 6:30am she came in and asked if she could make pancakes for breakfast since there would be lots of time. I told her to go for it. When I finally drug myself out of bed a little after 7am, I found the kitchen counters cleaned off, the dishwasher unloaded and the table set for breakfast. What a kid. I guess the early riser can come in handy some times. So we had a hot breakfast this morning in a tidy kitchen. A great way to start the day.

Orange Muffins

Kymberly wanted to make orange muffins today. So I went to my handy dandy 4-H cookbook and found a recipe. I know, surprise surprise, I didn't first go to Pinterest. But for muffins and the sorts, I find that my handy dandy 4-H cook book is very reliable.

Orange Muffins

1 whole orange
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar

Wash orange and cut into pieces. Place in blender with orange juice. Blend until finely ground. Add margarine and egg; whip gently to mix. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until moistened. Fill greased muffin tine 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes at 400F.

All the measurement were in metric, and though I am Canadian through and through, I don't do so well at baking with measurements in milliliters. Assuming all of you are much like me I did you the favour of converting them into what I consider "normal" baking measurements. This recipe make 12 muffins. We made 6 muffins with the addition of chocolate chips. Either way they were so yummy! I will be making these again.

If you make these muffins, let me know, do you like them better with or with out the chocolate chips?

My very own recipe

 I sometimes forget that there are other places to find recipes besides Pinterest, or in fact, that I myself am a decent cook and can come up with tasty meals on my own. For instance, last night I created what I call "Pizza Spaghetti" . I was going to blog about it and give you a recipe yesterday, but then I realized that I don't know how much of everything I put in it, because I just put it in. However it was so yummy!

Because now I have peeked you interest, I'll give you a basic, best that I can recipe.

Pizza spaghetti sauce
1L Jar spaghetti sauce( I used my home made tomato sauce)
1/2 lb ground beef
1/3 chub of summer sausage(or pepperoni) sliced thin
1 onion sliced thin
1 green pepper sliced thin
1/2 can mushrooms(I had an open can in the fridge left over from pizza a few days ago).

First fry the ground beef. I seasoned it with seasoning salt. Drain any fat and set aside.
In the same pan cook the summer sausage until crispy. Drain and set aside.
Add a little olive oil to the pan. When the oil is heated add the sliced onion and green pepper. Saute until tender crisp.
Now add the ground beef, summer sausage, mushrooms and spaghetti sauce to the vegetables and heat through.
Serve over spaghetti noodles(or what ever kind of noodles you like). Top with Fresh grated Parmesan or mozzarella cheese.

If you make my recipe, let me know if you like it as much as me and my kids did. I'd love to hear about it!

The first step

Now that I have a fancy shmancy sewing machine, I have felt the urge to create  the perfect creative space. Right now my space is crowded and chaotic. I have spent time looking on Pinterest getting ideas on how to create just what I want. Today I took the first step towards organization and created a cool place to store all my thread. Check this out.

Right at arms length when I am sewing. I love it. I got the idea from Grey Luster Girl(discovered on Pinterest of course). I used a scrap piece of wood from a side table that had fallen apart. I bought the trim and nails at the hardware store for a total of $13 and some change. The corners cost me the most at $2 a piece, but I love the look they give it. I had the black spray paint on hand and I had just bought the turquoise craft pant at Michaels for 50 cents. Eventually I think I want to paint the wall red and I'll add more turquoise shelves to put more of that mess on.

Comfort

Yesterday was the coldest day of the winter. Today was 10C colder than that. This morning it was -36C and a windchill dropping temperatures to -43C(which, for my american readers, is the same in fahrenheit). I had one thing on my mind, make warm food. First, soup for lunch. There was no question as to what kind of soup. Potato corn chowder was an obvious choice. I got to work making it. At 12:30pm I had to walk up to the school to pick up Kymberly from Pre-K. The two short blocks was all that I could bear in this kind of weather, even though I was all bundled up in complete winter gear. I was at the school just long enough to recover and then back down the hill for home. I had it planned out perfectly. I had water in the electric kettle already warmed up and ready to pour into the mugs for hot chocolate. The soup was done and simmering on the stove. I popped in a couple of slices of fresh homemade bread to make some toast. Kymberly sipped on her hot chocolate while I dished up the soup and waited for the toast to be done. Then I sat down at the table, dipped my toast into my potato corn chowder and took that first bite. HEAVEN. Suddenly I was sitting at the table in the kitchen of my childhood. Strangely in this vision I was sitting at the end of the table that my dad usually sits, instead of at the opposite end where I always sat. There sat my mother in her usually spot to my right. There are others sitting at the table, but I don't know for sure who they are; I can only assume they are an assortment of my brothers. All I see is my mom and I(in my teenage or young adult years) having a conversation over a bowl of her homemade potato corn chowder soup and fresh baked bread toasted to perfection. It is a good memory and I wished that I could hear what we were talking about. It must have been meaningful for this particular moment to be burned into my memory. I have eaten my mothers chowder on dozens of occasions, and yet, every time I make it and eat it, this is the memory that floods my mind and brings such peace and comfort. Talk about comfort foods, this one is my ultimate favorite.

Good News

Today, on the coldest day yet this winter(-28C, the windchill made it feel more like -40C), we headed to Calgary, thankfully in nice warm van so we didn't notice the cold so much+. Kymberly had her six month post surgery check up. We spent more time in the Doctors office than every before. But in the end, the news was good. Her eyes work together most of the time. Dr. Skov was very pleased and said that it was miles better than it was before her surgery. The only thing that she noticed was that Kymberly has developed astigmatism in her right eye. Kymberly was so funny. When the letters on the wall got smaller she said "Um, it's easier when they are bigger". Dr. Skov sent us home with a prescription for glasses. This was just what Kymberly wanted from the beginning. She is a happy girl and can't wait to get her new glasses.

Number one hits

So there is this thing going around on Facebook right now where you find out what the number one hit song was on the week that you were born. I thought it would be fun to look it up for me and then everyone else in the family. I also think it'll be much more fun to share it here than on my Facebook status.

So here we go in chronological order

Mandy

"Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band

Daniel

"Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry

Kathryn

"Complicated" by Avril Lavigne

Tansley

(OK, apparently Tansley was born in a bad week. I have found 3 different #1 hit songs depending on the chart you look at, and all three songs/videos are not suitable to be posted here. If you are die to know what they are you can look them up yourself  they are, "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani, "Candy Shop" by 50 cent and "Signs" by Snoop Dogg. All very terrible, nasty songs)....

OK, after much searching I found this on the Canadian Top 40 Charts

"Sometimes you can't make it on your own" By U2

Kymberly

"Hey there Delilah" by Plain White T's

James

"OMG", by Usher 

(and he actually says "gosh", that alone could turn me into a fan)

And there we have it, our list of Number one hits.