I love teaching my girls to cook or at least to love trying new foods. If they choose not to love preparing food, I hope that they will understand and appreciate the fine art of good food and all that it takes to prepare a meal.

Yesterday I offered to let my daughter prepare supper, which she excitedly accepted. I had her sit down with recipe books and decide what she’d like to make. She found one recipe in a book, and the other one she found online by searching Google. We live in a new era, don’t we?!

Next, I had her make a grocery list and then check it against what we already had in the refrigerator and cupboards. Then we looked at what was on sale this week and headed to the store. She shopped for the ingredients, did the preparations, made the meal, served everybody, and then helped with clean up. She did a fabulous job!

She made a sausage and cheese Stromboli, which is a fresh bread baked with meat, cheese, and seasonings inside.

She also made stuffed green peppers topped with cheese. The recipe she chose had hamburger, rice, onion, garlic, tomatoes, green chilies and cumin. I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but you get the idea.

Not only did we talk about life skills like shopping, budgeting, and healthy living, we also got an opportunity to do math, science, and most important in my book, sanitation. We talked about handling raw meat, washing hands, and sanitizing the kitchen during and after cooking.

I tried a new recipe tonight for supper, and it turned out great. As usual I altered as I went to keep the recipe tasty and frugal. I guarantee you this tasted like a gourmet restaurant recipe. It was devine!

Chicken in Cream Sauce Recipe

 A couple chicken breasts split in half (technically you could use any cut of meat with the skin removed)

1 packet of corn beef (like the inexpensive little Hormel packets)

1 container of mushrooms

1 onion finely chopped

1 TBLS veg. oil

2 TBLS margarine

2 TBLS flour

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch salt and pepper

1 TBLS chicken broth granules

1 cup milk (this is appx. I just add slowly from the carton until I have the saucy consistency I want)

Cook the onions slowly in the veg. oil until they are soft, then add the mushrooms. Add the salt, pepper, chicken broth granules, nutmeg. Melt the margarine and add 2 TBLS flour, then the sour cream and enough milk to make a creamy sauce. Cut the chicken breasts in half the long way (again) and wrap in corn beef. Place in a baking dish and top with the sauce. I cooked mine in this great clay dish, for a nice presentation (we had dinner guests) Bake at 350 for about 1.5 hours until chicken is cooked and the sauce is bubbly. I topped my serving dish with a little paprika and green onions. It was melt-in-your-mouth good!

Some close friends of mine are traveling to Rwanda for 11 days and leave tomorrow. I am in awe of their courage and faith. The opportunity presented itself, so my friends and their  two sons are going to spend time in orphanages there. This isn’t their first time traveling abroad; in fact that is how I got to know and love them. We traveled to China together back in 2004, and formed a bond that continues today. If you’d like to follow this amazing blogging mom’s journey, you can find her journey at http://www.nowthatihaveseeniamresponsible.blogspot.com/ 

I will be following closely, as the Internet and all its wonders offers me the chance to travel to Rwanda with them in spirit. I am excited to hear about their trip when we see them this summer, and gather once again to bring each other up to speed on all that has happened in the past year.  If you feel so compelled, I’m sure they could use your prayers of safety and protection. I also pray this trip is all they’ve planned for it to be, yet I know a piece of each of them will be left there once they’ve seen and experienced all that is to come. It is impossible for your life to continue as it once was once you’ve seen.

God Bless you Jan, Greg, Ben and Sam. We love you.

A few months ago, I wrote about our family considering switching to an alternative heat source for our Minnesota home. We are convinced that a flex fuel, corn stove is what we want, and our decision to move forward is prompted by three key factors: our current fuel bill,  the projected rise in fuel costs next year, and the money saving opportunties available to families like yours and mine.

Our Current Fuel Bill

I’m sad to say that we currently pay over $800 to fill our gas tank (we live in a rural home), which lasts us two months during the winter season, if we’re lucky. I estimate we spend about $3,000 /year filling our fuel tank.

Breaking News

I welcome all ways to save on heating costs; a relief with the recent news about gas prices. Oil is projected to go up to $100 a barrel, and the tax bill that passed its first hurdle this week, the Cap & Trade Bill-HR 2454, is threatening to raise everyone’s home heating bills by up to 60% this next year! This worries me. A lot.

Earn Free Fuel for a Year

According to American Energy Systems offering this opportunity, your entire fuel bill could be free in 2010 just by referring your friends and family to their website. If they purchase one of their products, you will get a reward check in the mail. Refer 50 friends (and if they buy) that is $2500.00 in YOUR pocket. To get started, fill out the referral section here.

Bonus Tax Credit

Some alternative energy appliances, like flex-fuel stoves qualify for a major tax refund (up to $1,500) making this option very affordable for us. We will be selecting a stove or fireplace that qualifies for this tax credit.

Extra Bonus Heat Savings

Flex-fuel stoves, like the ones that burn corn, often save owners up to 60% on their heating bill. I’ve taken the time to talk to several corn stove owners, who all love their stoves and verify the savings. Any way that I do the math on this one, I calculate that the savings from these three facts (referral reward, tax credit, lower fuel cost) will help us pay for the cost of our stove in a year. The cost of the Magnum Baby Countryside stove we are considering is about $1,800. I would like to have the Magnum Fireplace Insert, but I’m not sure if it will work in our existing gas fireplace spot yet or if it will be enough to heat our entire home like the Baby Countryside. I’m excited for next week, when the owner of American Energy Systems is coming to our house for a visit. I’m even more excited to embark on our journey to use corn to heat our home!

You can follow along on our jouney, as I plan to blog our way into a greener way of heating our home and saving money. Like you, I have more questions than anything about how this will all work. I do know this, we can NOT use popcorn in a corn stove.

I love duct tape.

I’m probably the only mom on the planet who keeps milk, eggs, bread, diapers, and duct tape on her grocery list. I simply must have duct tape in the house at all times.

Today I used duct tape to fix my daughter’s doll stroller. The seat kept slipping off, causing her to scream and ask me to fix it about a dozen times a day. I finally grabbed the duct tape and fixed it for good. No, I don’t think it looks tacky. I think it looks creative and frugal. Why dump a toy in the landfill, when my daughter plays with it constantly and it can be fixed for pennies?

Last week I duct taped my mailbox. Yes, you heard me correctly. After the last snow storm, the snow plow hit our mailbox and broke the 4×4 inch thick post in half. Since the bottom half was cemented in three feet of solid snow and ice, there was no removing it for repair. I didn’t feel like standing on the road in the ice with power tools. With the box sitting in the snow bank, the mail lady wasn’t able to deliver our mail. So I did the next best thing. I duct taped the two halves together. It is holding up great!

What have you duct taped lately?

Guest Confession by Kristina Neild: June Cleaver and Carol Brady would be aghast, but contrary to what my invited guests might presume is an immaculate abode, reality is, if you were to stop by unannounced you would get a much clearer picture of what my house ‘really’ looks like. (On second thought, Carol Brady’s opinion really doesn’t count; after all, she had good ol’ Alice at her beck and call.)

Mine is a home where occasionally, like something out of an old Clint Eastwood Western, dust bunnies tumbleweed across the ceramic and hardwood floors. If you were to step onto one of several area rugs you might find yourself hip-deep in enough cat hair to make a creepy (yet warm) fur coat.

Venture into the kitchen and you’ll probably encounter last night’s pots soaking in a sink full of cold, stagnant dishwater – you know the kind where orange blotches of hardened fat float aimlessly around as if lost at sea? (Did you know that baked-on lasagna residue requires at least two days of submergence? Seriously.) Ultimately, the aforementioned pots will sit idle and dirty until some brave soul gives in and reluctantly plunges their trembling hand into the murky depths to pull the plug and begin the cleaning process anew.

My family room is guaranteed to contain at least three pairs of dirty socks whose owners have removed and subsequently abandoned them under various pieces of furniture. They are stuffed in between couch cushions, thrown behind the television, kicked under the coffee table and once, surprisingly, craftily hidden behind a collection of Disney DVDs on the bookshelf. Locating a matching pair is kind of like hunting for eggs at Easter, only smellier and not quite as rewarding.

Let’s not forget what I affectionately refer to as ‘Mount Laundry’, a mammoth hill of clothes, bedding and towels that teeters precariously on the brink of collapse. Its bulging girth encroaches into the hallway, threatening to expose itself to unsuspecting passersby. To one day be able to conquer its tower of hampers is something I can only fathom is akin to scaling Everest.

As you can imagine, I am not one of those people who gives my family and friends a standing carte blanche invitation to ‘stop by any time you want’. I guess in a way I’m kind of like a convenience store…No shirt, no shoes, no phone call, no entry!

Kristy Neild: Kristy is a Canadian domestic goddess extraordinaire with three cats, two kids, one husband and zero desire to grow up. She is a former legal secretary and daycare worker (not at the same time) who has rediscovered her love of the written word and is currently working on her first novel. You can visit Kristy’s blog at: http://khaosbecomesher.blogspot.com/  or to follow Kristy on Twitter, go to: http://twitter.com/KristywithaK

Here’s the Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe I  referred to in my last post about Cheese Wontons. I’ll admit that I sometimes buy a jar of sweet and sour sauce, but if I have the time and ingredients, I prefer the real deal.

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 can Pineapple chunks

1 Tbls rice vinegar

2 Tbls brown sugar

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

cornstarch, water

Drain the pineapple juice into a small sauce pan, and set aside the pineapple. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the cornstarch/water) and bring it to a boil. Add a little corn starch to a little water and slowly add to thicken the sauce. Add the pineapple chunks back in for a fantastic, authentic sauce.

*Hint: If you love Sweet and Sour Chicken, you can do the same thing by adding some cooked chicken and green pepper! Serve over rice.

Yesterday we were snowed in; three kids, no school, and no vehicle. I decided to treat the kids to cheese wontons for lunch and it occurred to me that I could post my recipe for cheese wontons and sweet and sour sauce, both are my original recipes. So original, in fact, that I don’t use a recipe. As I have posted before, I rarely use recipes. Therefore, I have to stop, think, and estimate the best I can how to replicate what I make.

If you love cheese wontons or crab rangoons as they are often called, you will love these. Make them with or without seafood, depending what you like.

Recipe for Cheese Wontons

Wonton Papers (similar to Egg Roll papers, only smaller)

4 oz of cream cheese

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1 clove grated or finely chopped garlic

(chopped crab or shrimp optional)

canola oil

Mix the ingredients together and put a small tsp size or smaller in the middle of each wonton paper. Wet the edges with water using your finger and press together tightly. Heat enough oil in your wok or small pan to float some wontons when added. It should be quite hot, as each wonton will only take about 30 seconds per side to be golden brown/crispy.

The Chinese New Year shares our American (Valentine’s) holiday this year. As always, we will celebrate the CNY again this year with our children. We are having a large Chinese New Year celebration at our Chinese restaurant in town. They are designating one large back room to all those in attendance, which is up to over 35 people. Many of our International adoptive families in the area are invited, so it will be very fun.

So, what do we do?

Celebrate: It’s the new year and many new families have been formed by adoption. We celebrate all new family additions; biological and adoptive since we last gathered.

Play: The kids play, laugh, and have a ton of fun. We often have fun crafts for them to do at the tables.

Outfits: Many of us have beautiful Chinese silk outfits and other items that we get to wear. The array of colors and styles is so fun to see.

Pictures: It is always a “scrapbookers” dream to have a yearly event to photograph and journal.

Oranges and Dumplings: It is Chinese tradition to have oranges on the table for good fortune. Dumplings are also a food served at the Chinese New Year, and my kids LOVE dumplings. See my recipe for making Chinese Dumplings at home here.

Red Envelopes: Each year children receive “red envelopes” with coins in them to celebrate the new year. It is similar to Valentines cards and treats.

Decorations: We will often decorate, using traditional red and gold colors.

Learn: Our Chinese friends are so helpful and willing to continue to teach us about the Chinese culture. We learn a lot about traditions, families, and geographical locations/customs. Many of our kids take Chinese language lessons and have an opportunity to speak Mandarin.

Food: Of course, we eat plenty of great food and hot tea.

So there you have it; I wish we knew someone who did some traditional firecrackers or Dragon dances, etc. but we will have a fun time anyway.

If you live around the Hutchinson, MN area and would like to be included, send me an email. We’ve tried to contact as many people as possible, but fear we may have missed a few.

photo credit: eb0la

Here’s a great Family Valentine’s Day Activity:

Years ago when I worked as a counselor at a girls’ group home, we invented a fun activity to boost self-esteem. The girls decorated boxes and left them in the living room for each other and the counselors to leave fun notes each day. We’d leave self-esteem boosters, compliments, memories, etc for each girl. It was so much fun to watch them open and read the notes that had accumulated.

Last year around Valentine’s Day, I was remembering this activity and thought I could adapt it to our family. I had our kids each decorate a “mail box” with a slot (mom and dad each did one too) . We placed them in the family room and took turns leaving notes, pictures, coloring pages, etc. for each other for 1-2 weeks prior to February 14th. Then on Valentine’s Day, we all opened our boxes and read the notes. We had to help read to our youngest, but it was fun to read things like:

• You look so cute today in your purple outfit
• Thanks for helping mommy set the supper table
• Thanks for reading me a story daddy
• And, of course, pictures our youngest drew to depict what she wanted to say

This was definitely a fun activity that the kids still talk about and ask to do again and again. I hope you can adapt it to your family and let me know how it works or if you do something similar.