Cooking and Crafts

Last time I cleared my photos, I said I would try to include the 7/7 recipe, and I remembered!! California Chicken Fricassee!

A wild tip I learned from this book was cooking an onion whole, and nailing a bay leaf to it using cloves, to make all three easy to take out before making the broth into a sauce!

Alice made some pancakes from a recipe in her Pusheen cookbook.  They were good, but way more work than a traditioal pancake, and tasted quite similar.

One dinner we had "clean out the freezer" night, and ended up with fish sticks, cinnamon toast sticks, corn dogs, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, and tater tots!  It wasn't the best dinner, a lot of brown, so I served it with apples, but getting all of those packages out of the freezer felt good!

A while back, I got a roast on sale, which was also in the freezer, so that was another dinner.  It was also tasty!

Emily made special cookies for Senior night!

I added twirler to her jacket, at Molly's request, but her jacket was so heavy, and my machine so old, it took three runs, and was still not perfect.  It's good enough though.

Because Molly came in with her Bedazzler and made everything shiny!!

Jack-o-lantern burgers!

Emily made some Halloween M&M cookies!

Another night was monster tacos!! = )  I loved these, because I got to use tomatoes from my garden!

I finally cut out the UW logo for the van!  I also found a windshield cover for snow, with suction cups at a rummage sale.  I'm excited that we get to try it out without the expensive price tag!!  I also cleared out the pipe cleaners and beads, which made me sad, but the "My Little Ponies" stayed.  There is also an updated first aid kit.  

While we were improving the van, we got a new battery for the Kia, and next step will be adding air to the tires, then adding it back to the car insurance policy, and then registering it with the state.  We have until March to get it all done, but I'm hoping to drive it for a little while before passing it off to Emily on her birthday!!!

It feels appropriate to add our 0/0 meal to the same post as our 7/7; so, may I present to you: Tuna Pie.

Tuna and Swiss on rice didn't sound awful, especially with the seasonings, but it was not good.  The presentation was an A+.  This was one of the 'Susan' recipes, but so far, we've not been impressed by those.

The taste was not inedible, just not good.  I'd love to see what Gordon Ramsey would do with it!  In the meantime, I recommend staying far away from this recipe.

On the MSU thrift store free porch, I found a giant football!  I had intended to make it into a yard sign for Leon, but it was too big for Avia's suitcase, so we ended up making it Holt, and giving it to the twins' history teacher, as he is one of the Jr. High Football coaches.

Another dinner win was "monster" pork roast sandwiches, on ciabatta bread. 

More cookies: chocolate chip from Emily and peanut butter from Alice!

On Monday, the other side of our repaired cooler bag strap broke, so I only had Tuesday to make the repair, before we needed the bag for our Canadian adventure!

We've done lots of cooking and crafting during the fall, and I'm sure plenty more to come as the weather continues to cool!

later days

Marching Band

We only have one more football game before the season is mostly wrapped up!  They will still march in the Silver Bells Parade, but only one more Friday night for this year!  Emily has loved every minute of it! 

Molly was still working on bedazzling her custom uniform for the season, so for this early game Emily was wearing one that Molly had in her closet.

For Senior Night, Molly ordered "Haven tattoos" for everyone to wear, but sadly only 12 came instead of 14.  I think Haven still felt pretty special even with just Emily, Molly, and Katie wearing them.

I think this was the night I finally finished sewing all the new appliques onto the uniforms!

Seeing Alice's discarded tag from long ago made me sad all over again. = (

Sporting her custom uniform for the first time!  It was so shiny under the stadium lights!!

Emily and Kyla like to do the dances with one hand each. It's entertaining for sure!

And on this night, Emily got a HOCOposal from Malichai!  It was so sweet!  She was very surprised (and so was I!)

She said yes, of course!

Alice has been working as a volunteer at the football games for community service hours, and the Junior drum major always come over to say hi to Alice, since they have health together.  I'm so thankful for her!

Goofing around before Molly reminded Emily how delicate the beadwork is!

Homecoming, with even more shinies!

Full hands after halftime!

It's been a wonderful season watching Emily do what she loves! I'm so excited for next week, since she will be out there with all three of her younger siblings for light show!!!  Emily is also slated for a fire baton, and I can't wait to see it!

I've also chatted with Molly about maybe starting the twins on batons, to see if they have a proclivity for it, and then I could have three twirlers on the field when they start high school!  William is not completely sold on marching band, but luckily, his first year is a band trip year, and I think he will be all in. Time will tell, who knows what the future will bring!

later days