October 29, 2011

Outside Temp: 41 F

What I cooked today:
Hamburger Tomato Soup:  So, I was all set to make Goulash tonight.  I had the onions and green peppers sauteing with some garlic (okay, so that's not how most people make it, but I was kind of improvising) and I'd thrown in the ground beef to brown, when I reached for the macaroni.  And some little mouse (okay, so it was my husband, but the same thing) had eaten almost ALL of my macaroni!  I searched high and low, and couldn't find any macaroni in my house.  I knew Connor didn't like my Spanish Rice (which would have added rice and water and tomatoes at this point), so I figured I'd try something else.  I just added some Worcestershire sauce and some Tomato soup and a little extra tomato paste.  It made it soup, but was still like a chili with the ground beef.  Although it wasn't that cold, it was really nice to have a soup.  Of course, Connor still didn't like it (I think it's the green peppers), but everyone else said it was great.  Maybe next time I'll try celery or some other flavor and see if he likes it more.

Biscuits: I wanted to try the recipe in Better Homes and Gardens instead of Alton Brown's recipe.  There wasn't much difference, but the BH&G recipe called for cream of tartar (I have no idea what this does) and 3/4 cup butter.  I barely mashed the butter into the dough and there were still chunks of butter in the biscuits when I cut them and placed them on the pan.  As they cooked, the butter melted, so the bottoms of the biscuits were essentially frying in the melted butter.  They turned out great and the kids really liked them.  I actually broke mine up in my soup, which I thought was awesome. 

Update:Oh boy, this was one of those days.  From the time I woke up, I felt like I was running.  Of course, I didn't wake up until about 9:30, so I shouldn't complain.  And I should apologize right now, because I totally forgot my camera today, so there are no pictures... I'll make sure to get pictures tomorrow or Monday.

Patrick, Allen and Connor moved the 50 bags of pellets from the garage out to the shed in the backyard.  He chose the furthest shed, because it's on a slab that's about a half a foot off the ground.  I can just see the complaints while the kids are trudging through the snow to get bags during the winter, but oh well.  So, Allen was loading three 40 lb bags into a wheelbarrow and wheeling them out to the shed.  With the wind and the cold, it was slow going.  So, after the first 10 bags or so, Patrick felt like rescuing them.  The backyard has a big fence, large enough for a car, so he had the boys load about 20 bags into the trunk of his car, and drove it out to the shed.  Then they unloaded and did it again. 

And, because he's a cool dad, he let Allen drive the car from the shed back to the garage.  You should have seen the grin on his face!  I know, he's 13, but around here, he should really know how to drive a car.  Every other 13 year old has already been driving a tractor for years, so it's really time.  I've heard that you can actually get a licence at 14 1/2, so we need to get started. 

Then we moved a few remaining boxes around in the garage and now, I can fit 2 cars in my garage!  We've had the Miata in the garage for the last few weeks, but with the snow and the cold, I really wanted to get my van inside.  Patrick's Aveo will just have to suffer in the snow.  Of course, the garage door opener needs batteries...

Then we rushed back inside to get ready for church.  Patrick took all 4 kids to church, while I went over to the community center to help set up for the kids party, which started right after church.  As soon as church was over, I picked up the kids and brought them back home to rush into their costumes and head over to the party.  For a town as small as Raynesford, they attracted kids from all the outlying areas!  There was probably 50 kids there!  Some of the older kids were helping run the games (cake walk, bean bag toss, bingo, bowling) and then there were some games I would never have seen in CA, like the rubber band gun shooting game, and the balloon darts (with real darts!).  Kids as small as 2 and 3 were aiming and firing the rubber band guns (complete with scope).  Ryan LOVED the rubber band guns, and couldn't get enough!  He even was able to throw the dart and get a balloon!  Of course, he was about 6 inches from the balloon by that time, but who's counting!

An hour and half later, we rushed back home and changed, cleaned up the face makeup (Connor was a vampire), got our stuff together for the basketball game, and rushed out the door again for the basketball game.

The game was at Stanford, which is about 30 minutes from the house.  Because the Geyser school is pretty small, they co-op with the Stanford team to make 1 whole team.  So, in this case, the game was at HOME, even though it was 30 minutes away.  Then again, when the games are at Geyser, they are still 15 minutes away, so what's an extra 15 minutes?

The boys played great and they won, again... 26-10!  Both boys got to play for at least a quarter and they did great.  After the game, we stayed to watch the 7/8 grade boys play for a while, just to have the boys watch how the teams played.  (The teams are separated into Elem: 5th/6th and Junior High: 7th/8th.  But, since Allen has never played before, he plays on the Elem team.  There are two boys who play on both teams.  The Junior High team has only 7 players, including the 2 6th graders who play). 

We had a great conversation about how certain plays worked and how aggressive some players can play.  Allen was really interested, but Connor really just wanted to get home and relax.  I can understand that.

We got home and I made a quick dinner (see above) and they get a few hours to relax before tomorrow.  There's another Halloween (October Fest) party in Belt tomorrow afternoon, so I guess we get to be social, again.  Then, of course, the Halloween Parade at school on Monday, and trick or treating in Belt Monday night... When is this silly 'holiday' over????