Too much cooking

Is there such thing as too much cooking. I feel like it's never over and I've been washing dishes 3- 4 times a day and I even have a dishwasher.
 Saturday I made banana bread because the bananas go bad before Savannah can get to them, double chocolate muffins because they are my favorite. Then that night I made Red beet pancakesfor Savannah which were very good, grilled cheese, and canned soup for dinner. After cleaning up that mess, I stuck a chicken in the crock pot because it's been a few weeks and Savannah is in need of more food.
 Sunday I tore apart the chicken and made chicken rice and carrots as baby food and chicken pasta wheels and sweet potato baby food, chicken salad for lunches, and pizza for dinner.
Can you tell I'm hungry.
I love the cooking part but I really need to hire people to clean up after me.

Valentines Day

 Savannah was going between Jake and I giving kisses tonight, it was too great of a moment to pass up a photo op.

 

As if you didn't know, Valentine's Day was yesterday. I made Savannah some pajamas a few weeks ago. These are from the Kimono Style Pajamas pattern in Amy Butler's: Little Stitches for Little Ones.

I had to enlarge the pattern because it only went up to 12 months. Surprisingly this was easier than I thought. All you have to do is measure the distance between the sizes provided on the pattern, tape the original pattern to tracing paper and draw a new one adding the new seams. Hope that makes sense.(I'll try to do a tutorial)

 

Showing off her teeth. So many of them now, they just keep popping up and because of it she is making about 6 stinky diapers a day and getting a constant rash. Poor baby.

 

 

My cutie pie. The pants are a little too short and I obviously messed up on the sleeves, so I had to add more contrasting fabric than pattern called for, I think it was a cute mistake though. If you make this pattern, make the ties a little longer than specified.

 Here is that nightmare dress again, it keeps coming back to haunt me. I have to hem it now. It looks super cute on Emily though.

Savannah had a check up yesterday. She is 20 lbs 10 oz and 30 1/2" at 17 months. She is finally creeping up to the 10th % for weight and still 75th for height. Still not walking much but with diaper rash and teeth coming in like spring flowers I don't really blame her.
I got her ears pierced on Wednesday and she let us know her disappointment about it as soon as we sat down. Let's just say Savannah is very stubborn and makes herself known to the whole world with an ear piercing scream. She does not like to be touched unless she authorizes it and if you are a stranger, don't even think about it. With or without the stubbornness she is still very happy and giggles and smiles at everyone. She loves attention.

Homemade baby food and laundry detergent

 The winter storm last Friday didn't qualify as 'Blizzard" in our neck of the woods. No surprise there, being in the armpit of NJ we don't get much of anything. We ended up with about 4" of snow and I couldn't wait to take Savannah out in it. Unfortunately she had a different felling.
It started out good with daddy pushing her on the sled, then she fell off face first into the snow and from then on it was all over. I don't blame her.

 Not a happy girl.

Ok so those who know me know I'm thrifty. I don't like to buy anything that isn't on sale, I go out to eat about once every 6 months and it must require a coupon, and I want almost everything in my house to be homemade. I am generous though, so that is why I don't call myself cheap. This brings me to my next great find, a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. Jake works on people's oil heaters all day and comes home stinking up the place. It requires a lot of detergent to wash his work clothes and since this is so cheap to make I can use more.
Recipe is from Pinterest. Laundry detergent
It filled a large mason jar, a 3 lb bucket of oxi clean and almost filled a very large canister.

 Another thrift of mine is making my own baby food. The stuff in the store is about $1 per container, the stage she is in now it's at least $1 at 3 containers or more per day I think not. Plus for store bought baby food I make sure I have a coupon and its has to be on sale, this is not always available. What you see below is about 2 weeks worth of food and it cost about $6.- $10.
Minestrone in the middle, mac and cheese on the right, and leftovers on left.

 These recipe's are from the baby bullet user manual and cookbook.
Minestrone:
1/3 c. green bean puree
1/3 c. squash or zucchini puree
1 c. marinara
1 Tbs. Olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. water
1 c. canned green beans cut
1 c. ground beef (optional) I don't use it
1/2 c canned kidney beans
1 c. veggie or chicken broth
1 c cooked mini macaroni

Add first 6 ingredients to blender or food processor, blend until smooth. Pour into saucepan, cook until heated.
Add beef, beans, broth, pasta. I added some Zucchini bits, and carrots also.
Savannah loves this! If you buy everything canned, you can make about 2 1/2 batches.

This is the mac and cheese. It's delicious and contemplating making it for family dinner.
Recipe:
1/4 c cheddar cheese
1/4 c. Ricotta cheese
1/3 c.zucchini, yellow squash, or cauliflower puree.
1 tsp. butter
2-3 Tbs. milk
1 c. cooked mini macaroni

Add all ingredients except macaroni to food processor, blend until smooth.
Heat this mixture in saucepan until melted and warm.
Toss in macaroni.

Fish Taco's

 

I promised my Facebook people I would post my recipe for fish Taco's. This is the amazing dinner I made the other night that Jake missed. If you like fish I suggest you try this recipe I think it's the best think I've ever made.

 

This recipe originated from an episode of Diner Drive In's and Dives, of course they don't give you the recipe from the show so I figured it out on my own.

 

Start by making fresh tortillas (just do it, it doesn't take that long) Put them aside but don't let them dry out.

Next make the sauce (shown below)

3/4 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat, still good)

1 c. mayo

juice of 1 lime or about a Tablespoon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. Chile Arbol powder (found in Ethnic food aisle) this is the hot one, you could get Chile Molido if you want mild.

1 tsp. Mexican oregano

1/4 tsp. dill

1 tsp. capers

1 tsp. cumin

Add all ingredients to food processor or blender. Set aside

This is beer battered fish. I made it without beer batter last time and it really did make a difference. Our favorite fish is Swai but you can use any mild white fish.

1 large piece of white fish about 1/2-1 lb. The picture below was one piece.
Beer batter:
1 c. beer
2 c. flour divided
1 Tbls. corn starch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Mix beer, 1 c. flour, corn starch, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.
Put additional  cup flour on plate
Pat fish dry, dip into batter then into flour.

I used a fry baby so fry as you would normally until golden brown about 5-8 mins.

 

 

Place about 2 pieces of fish into a tortilla, top with Salsa Verde, white sauce (made earlier), and thinly sliced cold cabbage. Enjoy!

 

Ingredients:
8 flour tortillas
1/2-1 lb white fish
oil for frying
beer
cornstarch
salt
pepper
garlic powder
flour
sour cream
mayonnaise
lime juice
Chile powder
Mexican oregano
dill
capers
cumin
cabbage
salsa Verde

I know it seems like a lot but this is all stuff I keep stocked in my kitchen anyway. This doesn't take very long to make, unless you have a crying teething child in the background.

I've been super productive lately so I have a baby food post, and some more sewing projects coming soon.

Girls hair and a Bag

Finally, a hair post!

This is my niece Emily 3. She has bangs so I tried to copy a picture I saw on pinterest for toddler hair.

 Another niece Lauren 5. I also tried to copy a picture I found on Pinterest for her. I've never been really good at formal hairstyles or updo's so I'm working on it and learning new tricks as I go.

 Her's was 2 braids on the side and fishbone braids all twisted into a bun. I am too tired to find the original picture right now but I can assure you the Pinterest picture was much better.

It was my sister in law's birthday a few weeks ago, so I made another purse as her gift. This is another new one for me, but it was really easy. The pattern came out of a book called Simple Sewing with a French Twist.

I will definitely be making this one again!

 

I have a couple more posts coming up soon. I've been so busy with my multiple jobs (mother, housewife, babysitter, and the 2 paid jobs on top of that) I feel so overwhelmed, I'm exhausted all the time and after reading another blog tonight I realized that I am constantly striving to have the perfect Pinterest house.
I have to move all my stuff around just to take a good picture and it's absolutely ridiculous. I highly doubt the houses these pictures are taken in are lived in. I don't have nice furniture, and I can't keep up with the mess my family makes, but I'm doing the best I can.
After preparing this wonderful delicious dinner last night, Jake called to tell me he had a meeting at work he forgot to tell me about, so he wouldn't be home for dinner. As I already had everything ready to be cooked it was too late to turn back. So I strived forward, with Savannah whining the whole time, I managed to finish 2 hours later. I put her to bed scarfed down my food then cleaned the kitchen.  Jake made it all better by calling me Super Mom!
It makes all the difference to have someone encourage you. Even if it's just one word, make sure you let people know how much they are appreciated. We forget this all too often.

Pillowcase Dresses and a Playdate

 Savannah and I got to have a play date this weekend. We got together with some work friends and their children, had Pinterest inspired snacks and had a great time. I made Ham and cheese pretzel bites and Salted caramel almond pretzel popcorn, Keo made Chicken and pot pie cupcakes, and Tanya made Mini Tortilla crust pizza's. Everything was absolutely amazing! I was very surprised how well everything turned out.

We've had so much going on at home the past few weeks. Jake is finishing up re-doing the ceiling in our bathroom (his first time drywalling) I finally finished painting my craft room and I made 3 beautiful dresses. I've been seeing these dresses everywhere lately and I had a pattern for them I just updated it a little. I was able to use all fabric that I had in my stash (yay for free!) and they really didn't take very long I just ran out of time.

 This one is Savannah's

 Tanya's daughter Abby

 

 Keo's daughter Joslyn

 

Here is a picture of all the kids. Joslyn 7 mos, Abby 16 mos, Micah 5 mos and Abby's brother, and Savannah 16 mos.

 

On the subject of beautiful crafts, my Aunt Roxanne made Savannah a beautiful knit sweater for Christmas. It is perfect and we love it!

Who knew that you could get a 3 yr old to help with the laundry? She loves sorting the socks and it is a great learning opportunity.

Savannah update:
No idea on height or weight
Taking steps on her own when she wants, not when we want.
Got 2 molars and a front tooth all in a month, and I'm pretty sure there are more on the way.
Loving peas and greens.
Still wont say mama but says "this" every time she wants something.
And cute as a button.

Christmas

 I hope everyone had a great Christmas, besides getting a stomach bug mine was great. Savannah had a lot of fun, especially playing with the batteries to the toys she got. Why do we bother buying toys, they like the boxes and apparently the batteries better. Please excuse the especially bad quality of photos, I am trying to figure out the manual mode on my camera.

 Her hair is getting so long, I can actually get a ponytail on the top and in the back but not both together. She took her first step the other day, it was with the ball popper but we are getting closer.

 She got her last tooth when she was 11 months old making it 2 on the bottom. She finally just started getting 2 more (at the same time) strangely though it is 2 top molars instead of the 2 top front. This kid has done everything opposite of what she is supposed to.

 So remember that nightmare project I was telling you about? Here it is! I think I have to hem it again before my niece can wear it but honestly I can't wait to see it on her after all the hard work I put into it. I also made a golf pillow case for my brother in law, tote bag that fits into a smaller monogram bag for his girlfriend, and 2 drawstring shoe totes for my nieces. I added a cute little surprise of ballet shoes inside.

 And here is the stocking that I had been working on for years. I would have gotten a better picture but Jake said he got one already. That wasn't true.

 

Savannah's new developments besides almost walking: She gives kisses all the time and it is soooo cute, she started falling asleep in my arms again and I just turn into complete mush when it happens, it's been about a year since she has done that.