Christmas 2013, Part 1

It's hard to believe that we are at the end of 2013 already!  I have been a neglectful blogger this year...but I have plans for this blog in the new year, so stay tuned!

This Christmas was a blessed one, yet again.  For the second year in a row Dave is unemployed at the end of the year, yet we have seen God's grace so clearly and freely given to us.  Every gift under our tree was given to us by a friend, family member, or total stranger this year.  I bought the items that filled their stockings, as is our tradition, but the gifts were blessings from God given through others.  As I mentioned on Facebook on Christmas day, the lessons learned through our times of unemployment could not have been learned any other way, and the blessings from those lessons are worth more then any job.  Praise the Lord!  God has been working in our lives in very specific ways this year (which is a blog post unto itself!) and we are so thankful!

One of our special friends is Nancy.  We met at church and she just adopted our family as her own.  She has been such a blessing to us in so many ways.  When Nathaniel said he wanted to make cut out cookies and gingerbread men this Christmas, I knew Nancy, as a former home economics teacher, would love to help us out.  We enjoyed a fun morning together, and Nathaniel was in his glory.  We might have a future chef on our hands!

English Muffin Pizzas

We have been sans internet at home for a little bit, so I haven't been able to post in awhile...but a lot has been happening in the Fisher house!  Last week we had the privilege of having Aunt Sharon Metzger with us for the week.  She was such a huge blessing and help with the kids while Dave was away!  One day for lunch we made English muffin pizzas.  They turned out really yummy, and Benjamin and Nathaniel did all the work!  Here's the proof:

First the sauce...

and more sauce...

then the cheese...

and finally, the pepperoni...yum!

Grandmom's Pound Cake

Grandmom Christian's pound cake was a staple in her house growing up.  And because we lived overseas, when we were home, it was a really special treat.  I grew up hearing how ornery the cake was, because sometimes it didn't turn out as a pound cake--but as a ten pound cake--way too heavy and a waste of precious ingredients.  I have always been a little afraid of trying it, but I just got a hankering for it and, after calling Grandmom and getting some last minute advice, I tried baking it today for the very first time.  And, I'm proud to announce...IT TURNED OUT BEAUTIFULLY!  

just out of the pan

ready to be eaten...yum!

If you would like this recipe, it's in our Forever Family cookbook that we are selling as an adoption fundraiser...check it out here!

Awesome Cooking Blog

I just had to share this link with you: http://stolenmomentscooking.com/. It is a blog that I recently found that has the most awesome recipes that are economical and easy enough for this cook! The premise behind the title of the blog as I understand it is that the author has set out to make her meals during times of the day when she has a few stolen moments, in between being a home schooling mom of four kids. That way she can spend as much quality time as possible with her family. Many of the recipes make good-sized portions, especially the muffin recipes, which is great for our family of six big eaters. I have tried quite a few of the recipes on the blog already, and they have all been hits with my five men! Tonight we are having savory muffins with cheddar cheese and bacon...these stay in the fridge and heat up in the microwave so well as a quick breakfast or snack. I think you could freeze them, too, but they never make it that far in our house! If you try any good recipes from the blog, let me know! Enjoy!

The Cookbooks are Here!

Visit our adoption blog to find out how you can help support our adoption by purchasing one of these great cookbooks! Thanks for helping us bring Sophia home from Taiwan!

Baking Pies

Benjamin loves to help me in the kitchen. Last night I had to bake pumpkin pies for a potluck lunch at Dave's workplace, so Benjamin pulled up his stool and jumped right in to help. The pies turned out great!

Dumping in the spices

Mixing the dry ingredients

Pouring in the condensed milk...yum!

Imagine That!

Yesterday I spent a good part of the morning cleaning out and reorganizing my pantry in anticipation of my new, old, tupperware arriving later this week. I have not really done that since we originally move into this house almost two years ago, so I found many interesting things! Of extreme satisfaction to Sabastian was the location of a long lost Game Boy game and shark tooth; I was impressed with the spare coinage I found...it was enough to allow the boys to purchase lunch this week! I also threw out a bunch of stuff, and put some of my Longaberger baskets to good use...now I'm just awaiting my tupperware so that I can put my dry goods away properly. When it's all done, I'll have to post pictures...I know, not the most interesting thing in the world, but important to me! Speaking of waiting, I'm still waiting for my first Etsy purchase to arrive from Chile. The tracking website says it's still enroute to Miami, but that was almost a week ago! I check the mail with anticipation every day...when it gets here, I'll let you know!

Ebay-ing

Well, I have won and lost on Ebay the last few days. I'm currently waiting on a couple of more auctions to end this evening before I go to bed. The competition has been fierce on these tupperware containers (believe it or not!) but I'm close to having what I need to store my dry goods and my fresh home baked bread. Dave says he never would have thought that I would be baking and cooking like I am...I always knew there was an ulterior motive for keeping me at home...it wasn't just for the kids! The funny thing is, we are working on losing weight so I'm cooking more, but eating less--go figure! When my new, old (vintage sounds so much better!) tupperware arrives, I'll post a picture! Gotta run and check my auction standings........

Weekend Happenings

I sure wish the weekends were longer, you know? Dave's time at home is so precious after a busy week of work, so we try to maintain a family-focus on the weekends as often as possible. This weekend we invited one of Jonathan's friends from church to spend the night, which was a first for all of us, believe it or not! All three of the older boys ended up getting along pretty well, and we enjoyed having yet another boy in the house. Also, we took time to celebrate Benjamin's upcoming third birthday by going to Chuck E. Cheese in Lancaster. My parents were in Lancaster for a conference, so they met us there to help us eat pizza and watch the kids have fun. We were only there for an hour and a half, but for those of you who know Chuck E. Cheese, especially on a Saturday, it was long enough! Benjamin really liked his presents, especially the Hess monster truck from Mom-mom and Pop-pop! He's definitely all boy! We capped off the weekend today by enjoying yet another new, yummy recipe...Hearty Tuna Casserole. Dave and I really liked it; the boys tolerated it (too many "weird" veggies in it...you know, green onions and zucchini!). If you are interested in the recipe, let me know and I'll send it to you...it's definitely a few steps up from the tuna casserole you might remember as a child! So, all in all, it was a good weekend. I'll post photos of Benjamin's "party" later this week, so stay tuned!

Check Out Frugal Fridays!

The author of one of my favorite websites, MoneySavingMom, also has a website entitled, Biblical Womanhood. Every Friday, she hosts a post called Frugal Friday where she gives one of her frugal tips and asks her readers to do the same. Today I found a tip for creating homemade stuffed crust pizza...yummy! Check it out...you might learn something, too!

Not Much To Say

It's late...if I don't hurry up with this post, it will be tomorrow already. I just got finished cutting out and organizing a myriad of new coupons (thanks, Mom!) and watching the evening news. The boys have mixed feelings about the snow that is starting to fall...if they miss school tomorrow, they just have to make it up later, so what's the fun in that? The last two days I have visited three bargain grocery stores in our area, thanks to some new friends at my new church. It's been fun, and hopefully will help me save even more money this new year. And last but not least, I baked my first loaf of homemade wheat bread today! We ate it all before I took a picture, so you know it was good! I did the dough mixing with the bread machine, and then let it rise in a loaf pan before baking it in the oven. My hubby got home just as it was coming out of the oven...he was so impressed! It's a very easy recipe and can be found here. Check it out!

Weekend Cooking Adventures

Since becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom, I have found that I really enjoy cooking. I guess I didn't have enough time to really get into it before, and now I do. I really enjoy looking up recipes on-line and in my myriad of cookbooks (I always had good intentions!) and preparing new recipes for the family to try. After a new recipe is served, the boys and Dave tell me whether it is a "keeper" or not. It's a great way to get feedback on my cooking!

Well this weekend I cooked two great new recipes that are definitely "keepers" around here! To you more seasoned chefs, they may sound simple, but I was proud of my accomplishments. On Saturday night I made a whole wheat thin pizza crust recipe I found on SparkPeople. It was delicious AND healthy! On Sunday I made a traditional Chilean recipe called empanadas. They are meat pastries that really have a unique flavor. I had always been afraid to try anything with dough, but both of these recipes required it, and it turned out fine! I've posted some pictures so you can see my latest creations. Enjoy!

Perfect Pasta!

One of the really cool activities at the Sheraton Vistana Resort is what they call the "Florida Market". Once a week they invite artisans and vendors to come and sell their wares in a farmer's market type of setting on the resort property. There are many local artisans there selling everything from nesting dolls to knitted scarves to quilted bags to African woodcrafts. There are also vendors selling homemade jams, jellies, salsas, and such. But the best vendor of all, in our opinion, was a woman selling all-natural pastas, raviolis, and orzo. She was a vendor for Pappardelle's Pasta Company, based in Denver, which only sells its product through farmers and specialty markets, and on the internet. She allowed us to sample what she had available, which was only a fraction of what the company sells on-line. Some of our favorites were the dark chocolate linguini, the fanciful fruit blend (raspberry, tangerine, lemon and lime) and the sweet potato orzo. The first two are actually dessert pastas--a new concept for me. The vendor shared a recent issue of a gourmet food magazine in which Pappardelle's was featured, and told us that the website was full of recipes that featured their pastas, as well as Bella Sol oils and vinegars which complement the pasta well. We ended up purchasing two kinds of frozen ravioli to fix the next night (smoked mozzarella and spicy coastal crab...yum!) and the chocolate linguini, fruit blend, and tomato cracked pepper pastas to bring home. Well, tonight for dinner we had the tomato cracked pepper flat pasta (it's really wide...I forget the technical term!) with marinara sauce and steamed broccoli. As soon as the pasta hit the boiling water I could smell the pepper. With only 160 calories a serving and .5 grams of fat, this pasta was not only super tasty, but super healthy, as well. And an added bonus was it only had 20 grams of sodium--that is so hard to find in yummy foods I'm finding out! So, we will be placing an order in the near future for some of their other unique flavors of pasta, and, if you are a pasta lover and enjoy all-natural foods, you might want to check them out, too. I've never tasted anything quite like it!