Monday, May 31, 2010

Turkey Salad with Pasta and Garlic


It doesn't happen very often, but occasionally leftovers turn out better than the original meal. Take the turkey breast I roasted for a little Thanksgiving in May dinner last week--the mashed potatoes wound up gluey, the stuffing was Stovetop top and since I forgot to stick the can in the fridge, the cranberries were both store-bought and warm. Blech.

Faced with half a turkey breast and six starving people the following night, I quickly whisked together a garlicky vinaigrette and threw in a bunch of vegetables from the freezer and the crisper drawer. It was seriously good.

Turkey Salad with Pasta and Garlic

1 box mezzi rigatoni, cooked according to package directions
4 cups cooked, cubed turkey or chicken or what have you
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup frozen green beans, thawed and chopped into 1 inch lengths
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 sweet bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Romaine or iceberg lettuce, for stretching this out.

1 cup Quick Vinaigrette, as follows:

2 cloves garlic, or more, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
lots of fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil

Whisk together all but the oil until well combined. Slowly dribble in the oil, whisking continuously. Taste and add more vinegar or sugar, as needed to achieve a nice bold taste.

Toss the salad ingredients together. Add 3/4 of the dressing and toss again. Add more dressing if salad seems a little dry.

Toss again and shave a little Parmesan over the top -- and by shave I mean sprinkle and by Parmesan I mean the curiously never needs to be refrigerated Lowell cheese in the green can.

It ain't called Frugal Feasts for nothing...

Friday, May 28, 2010

SATC 2: Of Burkas and Birkins


If you are really looking forward to seeing Sex and the City 2, please don't read Lindy West's review in The Stranger.


You will find it impossible to suspend disbelief and actually enjoy the movie. Lindy West? Funny and mean, my favorite combination.

Sweet Treat: Garden Party Cupcakes


How cute are these? And, more importantly, how clever are Martha Stewart's minions?

Thanks to alert reader B*A*R*B for sharing the link.

Just make a batch of cupcakes, top with green sprinkles--or if you are not within driving distance of Chandler's Cake and Candy Supply-- frost them in chocolate and roll in crushed Oreos and then slice up some spearmint leaves and add a lolly.

Et voila!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

New Frugal Feasts Column: Fearless Volunteers Today Exclusively in The Concord Monitor!


Photo of Autumn's spectacular homemade breads by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor


Read it here or check it out on the New Concord Monitor Website


We’d like to start off today’s column with a little quiz: Can you guess which of the following questions the Fru Gals dread the most?

1. Mom! Where do babies come from?
2. Mom! Can I take your car to Boston to go to a concert?
3. Mom! Today is my class party; did you make the fruit salad?

Those of you who selected the third question have most likely experienced the overwhelming panic caused when one of your kids looks up from his Cheerios and casually mentions the commitment you made weeks ago but forgot to write down. Your plans for the morning ruined, you immediately go through all five stages of the Kubler-Ross grief cycle:

Denial: That party can’t be today. That party is on the 26th. Wait, today is the 26th?

Anger: I hate fruit salad. And kids.

Bargaining: I’ll just slice a banana into the two cans of that fruit salad packed in heavy syrup that Darling Hubby bought in 2003 because they were On Sale. I’m sure no one will notice.

Depression: This probably means I need to get bowls too .

Acceptance: Good thing I wore my yoga pants to bed because I’ve got to be at the market when they open if I have a prayer of pulling this off.

It’s some weird amalgamation of maternal guilt, peer pressure and sense of duty that compels the American Parent to grab the clip board and sign up to help apply make up at the school play even though we don’t do such a hot job on our own faces. We don’t have any time, and precious little talent and still we find ourselves obliged to volunteer. And it’s a good thing, too, because without volunteers, nothing in this town would get done. At the risk of giving our mothers credit, they were right when they told us that little things mean a lot and many hands make light work. Keep chanting that when you find yourself ironing 35 cloth napkins at 4:30 in the morning for the school staff appreciation luncheon so those dedicated professionals can get an inkling of the immense gratitude we feel for everything they do. And besides, you can sleep when you’re dead.

After all our years of reluctant volunteering, we have a few coping skills we like to call
The Fru-Gals’ Rules for No Muss/No fuss Volunteering:

Frozen ground beef can be anything you need it to be: International Country Night? Add some tomatoes and peppers and make American Chop Suey—because America is a country too! Boy Scout Jamboree? Add some beans and refrigerated biscuits and rustle up a Cowboy Pie! Book club reading Corelli’s Mandolin? Sauté the beef with oregano and a handful of olives, wrap it in frozen Phyllo dough and call it Greek Surprise!

Fake it if you can’t make it: Run out of time to make cupcakes? Buy them from the grocery store and do a frosting swap: scrape off the hot pink swirly mess they came with and add slather on your own frosting. Replate onto a decent looking platter. Bonus points are awarded if you also buy a little clamshell of strawberries and dot the platter with them. No time for even that? Grab a box of little Debbie brownies and smush them a bit as you open the little plastic wrappers and throw them on a plate. Screw the strawberries.

Divide and Conquer: If you find yourself in charge of an event, break it down into tiny pieces so that you can delegate lots of small tasks to a large number of volunteers. If the people you contact can’t commit to bringing a main dish, they might be willing to pick up a box of coffee from Dunkin Donuts, or iron 35 cloth napkins. Just make sure to send out a reminder or two in the week leading up to the event or you won’t sleep a wink the night before.

And the most important rule of all: Do not over-commit: No matter how many time slots are still available, sign up for only one. When Robin’s kids were tiny she volunteered to work in the church nursery on Sunday mornings. Five years later she emerged from the basement amazed at how clear the organ sounded when not muffled by the cries of 25 toddlers. Also? Hiring a babysitter so that you can volunteer your time is insane. There, we said it.

The recipes this week come directly from our most recent volunteer event: coordinating the Staff Appreciaiton Luncheons at Kimball/Walker School. With the help of a wide array of cheerful volunteers the dedicated and hard working teams of both schools were treated to an impressive buffet, which we think is French for “nothing matches”. These dishes are great choices for pot luck events because they are delicious and portable, but there is no reason not to add them to your family menu too.

Kristin’s Fiesta Salad
Beautiful, delicious, portable: the perfect pot luck salad!
1 red or orange sweet pepper, seeded and cut into half inch chunks
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved if large
1 15.5 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz. frozen corn, defrosted
1 bunch scallions, chopped (white and green parts)
1 avocado, cut into half inch chunks and drizzled with a little fresh lemon juice to keep it from turning brown
1 head of iceberg or romaine lettuce, chopped into bite sized pieces
Thin tortilla strips for garnish (optional, but they add a nice crunch...add these RIGHT BEFORE serving, otherwise they get mushy)

Layer a large flat platter with the lettuce then make Cobb Salady stripes out of the peppers, tomatoes, corn, black beans, and avocado, as in the photo. Sprinkle the scallions over the entire dish. Add the tortilla strips before serving. Serve the dressing on the side, or wait until everyone has oohed and aahed and toss with the dressing.

Kristin’s Killer Chipotle Dressing:
1/2 cup chipotle barbeque sauce
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
pinch of sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
6 dashes Chipotle Tabasco (optional)
1 c. canola oil

Add everything but the oil to a food processor (or blender) and turn it on. Slowly dribble in the oil while the processor is running. The dressing will emulsify to a thick and creamy texture. Thin if necessary with more oil.

Rebecca’s Blissful Cranberry Coleslaw
Crisp, refreshing and loaded with veggie goodness.
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
4 cups broccoli florets cut into small bite-sized pieces
4 cups packaged coleslaw mix with carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup onion, minced fine
6 slices bacon, crisp-cooked, drained and crumbled
For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar or more to taste

In a very large bowl, combine broccoli, cabbage, walnuts, onion, and bacon. Stir together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle over broccoli mixture; toss gently to coat. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Just before serving, gently fold craisins into salad.
Note: During the fall this is great made with 1 ¼ cups fresh cranberries. Just chop the fresh berries and combine with ¼ cup sugar before adding to the salad ingredients. Throw in a handful of raisins if desired.

Autumn’s Fennel Breadsticks
Worth fiddling with yeast and water temperatures. Seriously.

Adapted from A Montana Table by Seabring Davis
½ cup warm beer
½ cup warm water (110 degrees or so)
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 egg
¼ cup whipping cream

Mix beer, warm water and yeast and let sit until it bubbles, about 10 minutes. Add flour, salt olive oil and fennel seeds, then combine in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook or knead by hand until smooth. If dough seems sticky add a bit more flour. Place dough in a well-oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper and then grease with cooking spray. Flatten dough to about an inch thick and cut into 1 inch wide strips. Pull strips to make sticks about 12 inches long. Place the sticks on the prepared sheet. Whisk egg and cream together and use a brush to coat each stick. Sprinkle with additional kosher salt if desired.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Chuck’s Homemade Hummus Platter
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook
Far better than store bought Hummus, and frugaler too!
(1 ) 15.5oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

¼ cup tahini, thoroughly stirred
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup water
3 cloves garlic
¾ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
Pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Mince the garlic in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth (about 1 minute). Transfer to a serving bowl and chill overnight. Serve cold with an assortment of veggie dippers, crackers and breadsticks.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Number 4 Has Made a Decision FINALLY!!

From this beautiful dining establishment:


to this... what the heck?


After two years of angst and many journeys both long and short
and way too much money on college applications,
Ben will be heading off to St John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.

This is far away from our little kitchen in so many ways--

I bet the crock pot of dip never happens there.

No matter what the road they choose, children come home changed.
Sure, they still bring you the laundry, they still break the rules, they still use your car and all of your gas, but there is something new, a bit more confidence a tiny bit more acknowledgment of the job you have done.

This is such a wonderful phase of parenting. There is some distance, some room for a new kind of growth and discovery.

They are still yours but they are closer to becoming part of the bigger world.

We still have a hand in the process, but we must stand back and watch as they dip their toes, figuring things out.

Each time we see them they will be a tiny bit different and maybe if only for a moment will we glimpse their new self, but each time it grows stronger and we see the person we help to mold. (of course this could be a good or a bad thing :)
Like all of parenting this is a slow process and there will be bumps as we loosen our grasp.

I do hope that the little kitchen memories will be good ones as time goes by, and I am sure they will be,
for after all
home is where the heart is, right?

Will he be home to visit? Yes

Will he be different? Yes

Once again I question, did I teach him all he needs to know? Will he make good decisions?
I will forever ask the questions--that is what Moms do.
It is time for him to go. Ben and I are both ready
(I think)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Chili Time Again!!!

These eight simple ingredients will guarantee a meal to feed the crowd and leave you a little time time to spare (what's that?)

Once again, from my all time favorite cookbook: I hate to Cook Book and my hero the Peg Bracken--this is quick and I mean quick --start to finish in 30 minutes max.
Assuming, of course that is, that you have all the ingredients on hand...

Here goes:

Chili

1 pound hamburger
1 big onion, chopped
1 or 2 14 ounce cans kidney beans
1 can condensed tomato soup , undiluted
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin (my addition)
1 small can sliced black olives, if they're handy (never at my house)

Brown the meat and the onion over medium heat until the meat is brown-about ten minutes.

Add everything else and let it simmer, covered for half an hour or until ready to serve.

Come people how easy is this?
It almost feels like cheating, follow me:

open some cans



brown up the meat


throw it all in the pot


and there you have it:


CHILI!

Monday, May 17, 2010

On Having Children

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone



To have more than one is torture, I am just saying :)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Sweet Treat: Ina Garten's Banana Crunch Muffins


Ina Garten has put out about 10 cookbooks. In my opinon only the first one was any good. Not that I am the least bit jealous. Oh no. Not of Ina's shop, not of Ina's cookbooks, not of Jeeeeeffffreeeeey, not of Ina's kitchen. OK maybe a little green about her kitchen.

This recipe is a keeper. And one I turn to when the bananas get brown. And speaking of bananas both green and brown--was anyone else slayed by the Mother's Day episode of 30 Rock when Lutz's mom (played by Lutz in drag) says in shocked response to hearing that Liz Lemon is 38 "my son is looking for a greener banana"?

Banana Crunch Muffins
From The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten
Ingredients
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* 2 extra-large eggs
* 3/4 cup whole milk
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)
* 1 cup medium-diced ripe bananas (1 banana)
* 1 cup small-diced walnuts
* 1 cup granola
* 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
* Dried banana chips, granola, or shredded coconut, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line 18 large muffin cups with paper liners. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, and add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don't over mix.

Fold the diced bananas, walnuts, granola, and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each 1 to the top. Top each muffin with dried banana chips, granola, or coconut, if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.

Arrows to Nowhere




This is what happens when you go back to work full time. Your 5th grader joins a band. I'm just glad they are a few years away from being able to purchase and more importantly drive, a van.

That's the Theme from Peter Gunn. I think.

Who Doesn't Love a Nice Egg Salad Sandwich?

They call these things classic for a reason, yo!



but that doesn't mean you can't switch things up a bit......

Here is the secret ingredient in my award winning egg salad sangwich:



Go get yourself a bottle. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of this elixir from heaven above into your regular egg salad and well, let's just say it's pretty good. You know, for an egg salad sandwich. That you made because the turkey in the deli drawer of your fridge was kind of sticky and not fit for human consumption. Which is not to say I wouldn't stuff it into a lunch box. Because I would and I have. It helps to strengthen their immune systems. Oprah said so.


I'm sure all y'all could find some other uses for this magic dust, but I'm just happy sprinkling it on mashed eggs and mayo.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Classic Fried Chicken


Ya want finger-licking good? I got your finger-licking good right here!

Colonel Sanders was no idiot.

Fried Chicken is good. Really good. so I recently spent 2 hours in the kitchen making this chicken, which, needless to say, was time well spent. Have you met the Lee brothers, Matt and Ted?




They hail from Charleston and the great part of their story is that after moving to New York City 10 years ago they simply could not find the boiled peanuts of their youth. Feel free to insert your own joke here about why anyone would want to find boiled peanuts... So they started boiling up a storm their tiny NYC apartment on their tiny NYC two-burner stove. Word spread (via a small hand printed catalog) and the next thing you know they have a writing gig for the New York Times and a ridiculously good southern cookbook:




They clean up pretty well, don't you think?

Here is my attempt to make their Tuesday Night Fried Chicken. Which is not as involved as Sunday Night Fried, but damned delicious and worth the 43 paper towels I went through to clean up the stove and the counter and the floor and my face.

Tuesday Fried Chicken
- for 4 people -

Ingredients
3 cups peanut oil
1 recipe Lee Bros. All-Purpose Fry Dredge (recipe follows)
3 pounds chicken legs and thighs (about 6 legs and 6 bone-in thighs)

Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

2. Pour the oil into a 12-inch skillet and heat over medium-high heat until it reaches 325 degrees on a candy thermometer. If using a different-sized skillet or pan, fill with oil to a depth of 1/3 inch.



3. Place the fry dredge in a medium bowl or a 1-gallon plastic bag. Dredge the chicken thoroughly, by dipping each piece in the bowl or shaking it in the bag. Shake off any excess dredge.



4. Using tongs, transfer 3 legs and 3 thighs to the skillet, skin side down, and cover. Fry the chicken, checking the temperature of the oil and adjusting the heat as needed to maintain the temperature between 325 and 350 degrees, until the chicken is golden brown, about 6 minutes.



5. Uncover the skillet, turn the chicken pieces with the tongs, and fry 6 minutes more, until the chicken is golden brown all over. Turn it and fry for 3 minutes, then turn again and fry for 3 minutes more.



6. With tongs, transfer the chicken to a paper-rowel-lined plate and place in the oven to warm. Repeat step 3 with the remaining chicken.

7. When all the chicken is done, serve immediately. Or later. Or the next day if any survives.


Lee Bros. All-Purpose Fry Dredge
- makes 3/4 cup
enough for twice as much chicken as this recipe calls for--or just enough to feed a family of 7 without leftovers.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons stone-ground cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
A sprinkling of bread crumbs for quick browning, if dredging fish or oysters

Procedure
In a medium bowl. sift the flour, cornmeal. salt, and pepper together twice. Stir and turn out onto a flat surface. Press fish or green tomatoes or oysters or chicken or clams into the mixture on all sides and shake the excess loose.

Milled grains should be treated as perishable products, so if you're not using this dredge immediately, transfer it to a quart-sized plastic bag with a zipper lock and store in the freezer not longer than 4 weeks. Remove the dredge 1 hour before using so it can come to room temperature.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Salad Days: New Frugal Feasts Column Exclusively in The Concord Monitor


Oh the poor skinny girl. How we weep for her....


Today is Wednesday and that means one of two things: either this is Day Three of our new diet, or it is Day One of planning for the diet we will start next Monday.

Being American women of a certain age, pretty much our entire adult life has been spent on a diet, binging before we start a diet or lying weak and exhausted on the sofa with a carton of ice cream recovering from a diet. God knows we're not asking for much, just the complete reworking of about a thousand years of hereditary tendencies towards thick middles, chubby thighs and ravenous appetites. Our ancestors must have been one starving tribe because all it takes is one lousy cannoli and we can't zip our jeans for weeks.

Over the past twenty some-odd years we've tried at least a hundred cockamamie weight loss plans and have shed more pounds than Oprah and Kirstie Alley combined. Unfortunately those lost pounds always find their way back. Our GPS systems should be so good.

There is not a crazy diet that we have not embraced whole-heartedly for at least 48 hours, or until we start to scrape the kids' dinner plates, whichever comes first. Remember the Cabbage Soup Diet? Its premise was that cabbage burns more calories than it contains, so with each bowl your body creates a calorie deficit so severe the weight just falls off. Turns out the only thing severe about this diet are the stomach pains. We found out the hard way that humans can't actually digest cabbage. At least not in polite company. And what about that diet where you eat one single food for a whole day? It is an Obsessive-compulsive's dream. And we've got to admit, it went pretty well for a while. Beet Day was manageable and Tuna Day was actually pretty tasty. All was good until Banana Day. It was 10 years ago and we are still gagging a little just thinking about Banana Day. In fact, we strongly suggest that fruit based diets are to be avoided at all costs. Fruit is nothing but trouble.

Robin ran herself off the rails with that early 80s diet where you eat all the fruit you want but nothing else. She started Day One started with an entire watermelon, chased down with a couple of papaya and half a mango. Not only did this diet break her poor waitress budget, she spent most of her waking hours in the bathroom, "losing" all that fabulous weight. By Day Three she was down 12 pounds and feeling fine. Sadly Day Four was spent in the ER for emergency fluid replacement and by Day Five Robin had actually gained 3 pounds. See what we mean? Stupid fruit!

And melons also wrecked another brilliant diet plan. Back in college Suzanne went on a 3 day juice-only fast in an attempt to squeeze herself into her storky roommate's formal dress. When the zipper went up smoothly she celebrated with a Midori Martini. Suzanne just had enough time to glimpse her newly svelte self before passing out cold on the floor. Damn worthless fruit! That would never happen on the bacon diet. Ok neither would the weight loss, but you get our point.

Why is it that the hardest things to learn are the least complicated? In our heads we know that the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than our bodies can burn in a day. But in our hearts we want to believe that we can eat pork rinds and be stick-thin, if we simply never eat another carb as long as we live. Fat chance and we do mean fat. We know we should be comfortable with our bodies and just eat a sensible diet. Ha! About the best we can do is take comfort in the fact that no one trusts a cadaverous cook. Sure Giada and the rest of the skinny witches on The Food Network are easy on the eyes, but you know you'd rather eat what Ina and Paula are dishing up. One look at the Fru-Gals and you know we stand solidly behind our recipes.
Here's our new diet plan: salads! Everyone knows that the skinniest people live on salad so we've got two dinner salad recipes this week. And to round out the rest of the week's diet plan, please check out www. frugalfeastsblog.com


Photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

Frugal Waldorf Salad
8 servings @ $.85 each

Robin snagged this recipe from her friend Faye who took the original and switched things up making it less expensive but still delicious. It's a great way to use up leftover chicken. Use low-fat mayo if you're feeling virtuous.

Juice from 1 lemon, approximately 3 tablespoons, divided
3 apples, peeled and cored and roughly chopped
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup mayonnaise –or more or less to taste
6 stalks celery, thinly sliced, about 2 cups
3 cups leftover chicken, or 3 cooked boneless skinless breasts, roughly chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup salted peanuts
Lettuce for serving

Toss the roughly chopped apple with one tablespoon of the lemon juice and set aside. Whisk together the mayo with the remaining lemon, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl. Add the celery, chicken and salted peanuts and toss gently. Serve on lettuce.

Chopped Salad
8 Servings @ $1.11 each

Suzanne's take on the California Pizza Kitchen classic

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into very small, ½ inch pieces or 2 small cans of tuna, drained and flaked
1 15 ounce can chickpeas, roughly chopped
¼ pound salami, stacked and sliced into small matchstick sized pieces
1 heavy head iceberg lettuce, cleaned, cored and chopped into small bite sized pieces
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small can sliced black olives
3 sprigs fresh basil or flat leaf parsley
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Toss together all ingredients. Drizzle with dressing (recipe follows) and toss again. Serve with additional dressing and Parmesan
Dressing
Whisk together:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day



Just in case you didn't get any Hamm for breakfast in bed this morning...


Happy Mothers Day

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Gotta Love it !!!!!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Happy Birthday Ellie

Number 7 is 12 today Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone


Having 8 is just plain crazy


HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ONE


MOM