Who Wants to Cook Dinner for My Family?

I must be all baked/cooked out. It has been so difficult to get myself motivated to make dinner this week. I have made dinner; however, it has been very begrudgingly.

Monday we had breakfast for dinner (pancakes with syrup and over easy eggs).

Tuesday I didn't cook because we ended up not getting home until 9:30 so we ate drive-thru fare with KLB.

Wednesday night we had spaghetti with Meat Sauce (leftover Meat Sauce mind you).

Last night we ate the BBQ Chicken Pasta I made for the freezer club last month--PE heated the BBQ Chicken and cooked the pasta. It turned out better than anticipated so I will share the recipe below. I am also sharing the recipe for the Chicken Biscuit Casserole since I gave Cooking W. the recipe in the first place.

Tonight PE is taking me on a date up the canyon to eat bratwurst and s'mores by a fire. I can't say I have any definite plans for the kids' dinner, we will see how motivated I am when I get home. Such a change from a couple weeks ago.

If nothing else I will definitely be cooking on Wednesday (September 30) as it will be Moo's birthday and I promised her I would make Aebleskivers. I will also get to make her a cake, she hasn't requested a certain kind as of yet, I will be having her make the decision over the weekend. I know she wants steak for dinner so I will also get her to decide on some sides. Isn't she such a lucky girl that parent teacher conferences fall on her birthday this year? She sure thinks she is.

Moving on. . . I am going to share a file with you. I created a 2010 monthly calendar for the Christmas gifts I will be making and I thought I would share them. They do not have the months at the top as I am planning on stamping the month and adding some embellishments. Also, the format alternates between odd and even months. Odd months are portrait and even months are landscape. I wanted to give myself some options when making the calendars. Click here to view the calendar in Scribd. From there you can print or download the calendar. If you would like the month at the top, I could probably be talked into/bribed to add them.

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BBQ Chicken Pasta
from Dinners in the Freezer
Print Recipe

2 cans chicken*
2 cups onion, chopped
4 Tbsp vinegar
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
5 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups ketchup
1 Tbsp mustard
2 cups water
1 cup celery, chopped
cooked pasta

Combine all ingredients and pour into freezer bag. Freeze. Thaw, bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve over pasta.

*I will only use the chicken I canned. You could also use chicken breasts (whole or sliced).

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Chicken Biscuit Casserole
from Organized Home
Print Recipe

3 cups chicken, cooked and chopped
3 cups chicken broth
4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1-inch thick
1 onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, sliced 1/2-inch thick
8 oz mushrooms, fresh (optional)
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup peas, canned or frozen
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1⁄3 cup cold water
10 biscuits, uncooked (home-made or canned)

Bring chicken broth to a boil; add carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms and garlic; simmer 10 minutes. Add cubed chicken meat and peas; simmer 5 minutes more. Mix cornstarch with cold water in measuring cup; add slowly until chicken mixture has consistency of gravy. Remove from heat; cool. Pour into gallon size freezer bag and freeze.

To prepare: thaw casserole before cooking. Place in 400-degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and place uncooked biscuits (either from tube or scratch) in slightly-overlapping circles on top of casserole. Return to oven and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, until mixture is bubbling and biscuits are golden brown.

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I will end the post with a funny from Bob. Each night at bed time Bob tells us, "Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite." Well the other night he switched it up a bit and said, "Good night, don't let the squirrels bite your little acorns off." Where do kids come up with such things?!

The Time Has Come

Every year for Christmas I make my family and a few friends birthday/anniversary calendars for Christmas (eight calendars total). Prior to last year they were all computer generated. I would make a background and then I would add the dates and birthdays/anniversaries. I have always had to make two calendars because Nana prefers her week to start with Monday. So I format one for her and then I format another one for everyone else. (Lucky for her she gave birth to me so I don't deny her this request.)

Last year I stepped it up a notch and started making them using crafty crap (stamps, cardstock, and various other embellishments). I made the actual calendars using InDesign. I formatted them so they were 8 x 8 so I had to cut each 8 1/2 x 11 sheet before adhering it to the 12 x 12 background and adding the embellishments. Needless to say it was a big task (8 calendars multiplied by 12 months totals 96 pages). I am not complaining--I enjoy making something for my family and friends that is useful to them.

This year I am simplifying a little. The calendars are 8 1/2 x 11 so I don't have to cut them and so they are bigger--the 8 x 8 size made it so the font was pretty small, not to mention that my printer quit printing the colors correctly and when I took it to a local copy center two of the colors printed so light you could barely tell there was text. Last year I centered around four colors and had many small elements on each page. This year I am using more colors with fewer elements. I think they will look a little classier. I am excited for what I have planned and I hope everyone likes it.

I started the calendar pages this week. I have the format for both complete. I am now in the middle of adding the holidays and then I will get to work adding the birthdays/anniversaries. I have to decide on the colors for each month so I can color the birthdays/anniversaries to match. This year I will be using darker colors so I don't have a problem like last year. Maybe this year I will even make one for myself (I haven't made one for myself for several years).

I have very high hopes that I will be finished with these long before the the week before Christmas; however, I never know about me. I do have some recipe swaps I am in and I have to make 6 x 6 cards for them. I just did the math, I have 300 6 x 6 cards to complete. The earliest and largest set is due October 17 with the last one due November 1. That gives me over a month to work on nothing but the calendars before Christmas. I am feeling pretty good about that.

I will now end this boring post I am sure no one really wanted to read. Have a great Sunday!