Powerbait?... Ummm, I think not...

We had a really fun day today. Went fishing with my 3 kids and two more rental kids. We bagged 22 fish total. The funniest part is the fish would swallow the Powerbait and then spit it back out... it would float to the top of the water where we'd swoop it up and put it back on our hooks... Needless to say we did much better with the worms we had.

Skye, sitting & waiting...

Dakota trying to be patient...

Hunter going for the long cast...

Savannah bringing one in...

Maddie (sitting in style), Me, and Savannah

I won with 6 total caught (Maddie lost one trying to put it on the chain but technically it counts.)

Hunter was a close 2nd with 5 caught BUT his greatest catch of the day was using his survival knife as a fishing rod.

The Survival Knife fishing Rod, with catch attached.

Dakota, was finally patient enough to get one hooked and brought onto the dock.

Skye was the last one to bring her first one in but she finally got one then in the last hour proceeded to pull in 3 more...

Maddie, did a great job. She was also helping other people on the dock get the hooks out of their fish...

Savannah, was having the best luck at the beginning of the day... reeling one in after another... she got 4 and then let Skye use her pole because Skye's broke.

We had a picnic on the dock, Skye & Savannah made the sandwiches.

Hunter & Skye took on cleaning & scaling the fish when we got home.

And viola... dinner in the pan ala Papa John style! (Sorry, my camera had a yellow "effect" set and I didn't notice.)

Now, for the rest of the weekend here's just some random shots...

Skye got her learner's permit so I let her drive some to practice.

Isn't Kasey Kahne just the cutiest damn kitty ever? He loves his mommy's bed...

The last shots are some great ones of the sky & clouds just because I've really just been liking the clouds & sky lately...

The last photo here is of the brush pile I burned in my driveway... it's small because we were just adding from the bigger pile as it burned down. I kept thinking that if we were still in Seattle there would be no way I could do something like burn brush in the driveway without having a bunch of firetrucks show up when the neighbors called it in.

1-28-10 - Dinner & a Photo Session

Earlier this day I called Jeannie and Earl to please come over and take some photos for me for my one year anniversary of my weight loss journey. I made a post here for anyone who hasn't read it yet: A Year Ago Today I...

Grandma Jeannie generously volunteered to throw together dinner so I could totally focus on not looking like a complete dork in the photos and she quickly had dinner on the table where we sat down to eat. Yeah, Grandma to the rescue again because this day in all honesty probably would have ended up in the "needs to be made up" category.

It only took two shots to get something workable this time. Papa Earl always has this "I have no idea what the hell she's doing and why" look on his face but at least he humors me.

1-27-10- Imitating the Spaghetti Factory

Ok so I love the Spaghetti Factory's Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing... Tonight for dinner I made a sort-of version for pasta using a jar of alfredo sauce & some pesto and mixed it up.

Dumped it over the spaghetti noodles & threw some garlic cheese bread in the oven and it was all done in about 20 minutes. Yeah, because tonight I'm just wiped out for some reason.

Maddie set the table, Hunter & Boyce returned from Hunter's girlfriends house just in the nick of time and we sat down to eat.

Again, for some reason between my camera messing up and children taking turns on who's gonna look dorky, we had trouble in the photo area...

1-26-10 - Is There Anything Better Than Memory Foam?

Today I actually was on top of getting dinner cooked and on the table. I had a chicken thawed out in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I popped that into the oven and we had Roast Chicken & Broccoli.

Boyce, the rented neighbor child, set the table. We are still working with him to put the forks on the left side where they belong but he was the only one to step up to the plate (so to speak) and get it done so he gets points for that.

One of these days I'll get all the children at the table to look good in the photo at one time. For now they are taking turns of who looks the best in each frame.

I'm now planted on my bed with my laptop... I'm in heaven to tell you honestly. I sat at my table all day working today so to be horizontal on my memory foam feels so good.

Is there really anything better than memory foam in the world? I have my doubts...

~Jamie

1-24-10-Part 2- Even Better When I Don't Have to Cook Twice In One Day

The kids and I went to a friends house for Dinner. Had Salad, Spaghetti & a really good sauce that was nummy.... Oh and garlic bread...


I made something called Sin Cake that my friend Jessica gave me to make for dessert. It was really good also. Very rich but good. (Anything that has 2 sticks of butter to 1 1/2 cups flour for the crust should tell you something right there.) I didn't take photos while making it but I'll post up the recipe she gave me.... Did I mention that it is REALLY good?


Anyway, the kids all sat at the table and there wasn't room for my friend and I so we sat not far away. I'm still counting this as a Make-up meal because we were all in the same room.


The photo is pending because it needs to be emailed to me. I took it with my friends camera.


It was a fun evening...


(edited 1-26-10 to add the photos)

Eric's slowly getting the hang of submitting to my photos.... got the other 4 trained already... it only took Megan one weekend :-)

1-23-10 Not According To The Plan But Still A Good Day

So you may remember that as I went to bed last night I had great intentions of waking up early and making breakfast to get a Make-up meal in. We'll that was just a nice thought because it didn't happen. By the time I lounged around etc today I finally got dressed around 2pm.

I left shortly thereafter and met a friend of mine to go to a movie. We saw "The Book of Eli" and spent some time talking afterward. I had a very nice time... I can only describe the afternoon as comfortable for lack of a better word.

Tonights dinner was just Maddie, Dakota & Myself because Hunter went to a movie with Skye & Boyce. We had a pizza. I'm hoping to be able to sleep better tonight so I can possibly get in breakfast tomorrow but I'm not going to promise at this point.

1-21-10 Early Preparation Leads to Success

Around 4pm I all of a sudden realized I was absolutely starving so I went down into my deep freezer and found some ground beef & some veggie pasta mix stuff from Schwans.

I started dinner cooking early and when Maddie & Dakota, plus two rented neighbor children got here after school they quickly set the table and we sat down to eat (Hunter was at wrestling practice.)

This will be a short boring post tonight because I'm not really in the mood tonight to be funny or anything.

1-20-10 - Score!!!

So I only had 2 out of the 3 kids home tonight. Hunter went over to Skye's house to study for finals.

I was in such a state of shock that he's actually caring about his grades (finally) and had what felt like a very long day at work that I didn't want to really eat anything. I decided that I wanted just a cup of soup so the two remaining children went to Chick n Chop for dinner.

I had this Mexican Corn Chowder which was good; Tasted like a taco. Dakota had grilled cheese and Maddie had a Mushroom Swiss Burger. It was worth it, I'm not even sure what food is here at the house and need to make a plan for the rest of the week but I didn't feel like grocery shopping tonight at all.

Right now I just want to find Motrin and lie down horizontal.

~Jamie

Does the Woman Have a Single Bad Recipe?

I have a friend, JoAnne, who I've gotten quite a few recipes from. Every single one so far has been in the "Totally Evil" or "Beyond Great" categories. I promise you poor souls who had my under-cooked "JoAnne's Evil Potatoes" for Thanksgiving that one day I'll make them again the way they should be and you will see.

My mom cooks really good too but when I eat one of JoAnne's recipes it makes me wish I was one of her kids growing up.

Here's the newest one she passed on last week and I made it on Saturday during my "girls weekend" trip to Lake Coeur d'Alene with my daughter Madeleine & my friends daughter, Megan.

I'm calling it:

"JoAnne's To Die for Macaroni N' Cheese"

1. Start by cooking 1 pound of elbow macaroni until "el dente", drain & set aside.

2. Cut the crust off of white bread and line a very large baking dish (I ended up needing one large 9x13 pan and another 8x8 pan to fit it all)

 

3. Melt 8 Tablespoons of butter in Microwave then brush all over the bread. (YES this is one entire cube of butter.)  

4. Take the crusts & spread on a cookie sheet & put into a 200 degree oven until nice & dry. I deviated from JoAnne's recipe here and sprinked the crusts with a bit of Garlic Powder (Because incase you guys don't know it yet I happen to think there is no such thing as too much garlic in anything.) 

 

5. Put 5 1/2 cups of WHOLE milk into your pot and don't try to make it with skim milk. You just got done brushing all the bread with one cube of butter. Don't you think skim milk is pointless by now? (Also, make the pot a large one)

 

6. On a lower heat setting warm the milk a bit then slowly add 1/2 cup flour as you whisk to prevent lumping (you can also use another thickening agent like corn starch etc). 

7. Add 1/4 tsp White Pepper (you can use regular black pepper if you don't have white), 1/4 tsp Cayanne Pepper & 1/4 tsp Nutmeg

 

8. To the milk, flour, spice mixture you add 4 1/2 cups of White Cheddar (I used Tilamook Vintage White). Now I didn't want to shred it all so here was my conversion... 8 oz to a cup... so basically I just cubed up an entire two pound block of it and put it into the pot. I could be totally off but it turned out great anyway.

9. Add 1 cup Swiss & 1 Cup Romano

10. Keep stirring over low to medium heat until the cheese is melted & everything is mixed creamy together.

 

(Still lumpy.. keep stirring so it won't scorch)

11. When it's all mixed and creamy mix in your elbow macaroni.

12. Pour the mixture into the white bread lined baking dish (or dishes).

 

13. Crumble up your dried out bread crusts to make coarse bread crumbs.

 

14. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the macaroni mixture

 

15. Put pans into a 350 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes until bubbly & browned on top.

 

Sorry, I forgot to snap a picture right when it came out of the oven but here's part of one dish after we ate some for dinner.

 

If anyone makes this dish please post a comment on how it went for you and if you liked it. I'd love to hear from you!

~Jamie