Sick Boy

It's been a rough week here as Nate has had his first big sickness...a lovely stomach bug. There has been lots of fussing but also lots of cuddling.

Before the sickness struck Nate and I were able to travel to Charlotte for Jackson's 2nd birthday party! Once we got there and I realized that everyone had cameras I didn't even break mine out....check out 2 great blog posts about the party here or here!

Recipe of the week

I haven't been doing so well with cooking lately...but I got back at it this week. Italian Sausage was on sale so I started looking for a recipe to make and came across this recipe for Baked Penne with Italian Sausage.

BAKED PENNE W/ ITALIAN SAUSAGE
www.RecipeGirl.com

1 lb sweet and hot Italian sausages, casings removed
12 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese (about 1½ cups)
4 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil, divided
salt and ground black pepper
12 ounces fresh whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 3 cups
3 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1½ cups)
1½ lbs ziti or other short, tubular pasta
4½ cups Marinara Sauce or jarred tomato sauce
¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves (for serving)

1. Bring 6 quarts of water to boil in a large pot over high heat.

2. Meanwhile, cook sausage in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, breaking the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until the sausage loses its raw color, about 5 minutes. Drain the sausage on a paper-towel-lined plate and set aside.

3. Mix ricotta cheese, 2 Tbs. of the olive oil, ½ tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper together; set aside. In a separate bowl, toss the mozzarella and Parmesan together until combined; set aside.

4. Add 1½ Tbs. salt and the pasta to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Reserve 1½ cups of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta. Return the drained pasta to the pot and stir in the marinara sauce, sausage, remaining 2 Tbs. oil and reserved pasta cooking water.

5. Pour half of the sauced pasta into a 13×9-inch baking dish. Drop large spoonfuls of the ricotta mixture evenly over the pasta, then pour the remaining sauced pasta over the ricotta layer. Sprinkle the top of the penne evenly with the mozzarella mixture.

6. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400°F. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil that has been sprayed with vegetable oil spray (or use nonstick foil). Bake until the sauce bubbled lightly around the edges, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until pasta is completely heated through, 25 to 30 minutes longer. Sprinkle with basil before serving.

Cooking Tips
*If you’d like to make this dish ahead, wrap the prepared casserole with plastic wrap and then foil, and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to one month. (If frozen, the casserole must be thawed completely in the refrigerator, about 24 hours, before baking). Be sure to remove the plastic wrap.
**You can also divide this meal into two 8×8-inch casserole dishes (each will serve 4). Eat one and freeze one!

Recipe Source: The Best Make-Ahead Recipe

Read more: http://www.recipegirl.com/2008/09/21/baked-penne-with-italian-sausage/#ixzz0gTdTcihs

It made A LOT of food...I just saw the note about dividing it into 2 dishes, which I will probably do next time if I'm making it for just us.

11 months!

This is slightly late...our sweet boy will be 1 year old in 2 weeks! We can hardly believe it!

By at home weighing, he is still around 23 pounds. We can tell he is getting taller because his 18 month footie pj's are now fitting his feet and not hanging off. We had started him in those a little early because they fit his chunky monkey thighs better :-)

He is walking more and more every day and has stood himself up on his own a handful of times. No longer is he content in his jumpy (which is my go to place for him when I need to take Sammy our or run upstairs for a quick minute.) Maybe I'll part with it on his birthday :-( He's also become a bigger fan of the paci lately...not sure when I'll take that away.

Nate is a real social boy with no stranger anxiety yet. The other week at Gymboree he even crawled across the big mat, into the lap another mom (whom he had never met) and gave her a big hug. He has even been more clingy with us lately, wanting to be held more and snuggling before bedtime-complete with the cutest little sighing sound you have ever heard. I need to try to get that on video.

We're looking forward to warmer days and getting outside! He picked up his first stomach bug and was sick last night, but seems to be better today. It's a cold day here though, so we don't mind staying in for a pajama day.

Heartbreakers Playdate

Last Friday Nate and I hosted our first playdate for our friends Carlton and Micah and their mommies. We were also glad to have Mrs. Rebecca our Childrens' Minister and Carlton's older brother Harris come to play too! We had Valentines decorations and lots of brunch food for us to snack on!

They maybe, kind of "played" together a little bit :-) I did, however, wait way too long to try to take a picture of them all together which was met with much protest, screaming and crying (from Nate). So I didn't get to capture that :-( Lesson learned is to take a picture at the beginning! Here are a few that I did get!

Carlton reading a book with Mrs. Rebecca

Nate working some more on his walking
Micah playing with some links and Harris with a puppet!

We hope you all can come play again soon!

Nate's Walking Video

Chili Cookoff and Bakeoff

This past Saturday night our church had a Super Bowl Men's Chili Cookoff and Women's Bakeoff to raise funds for relief in Haiti! It was a fun time to get together to fellowship and eat some yummy food! Here are some pictures a friend of ours took at the event.

Nate wore his Panthers jersey...too bad they didn't even make it to the playoffs :-(
Sweet Carlton "leans in" when you take his picture

We always have a "baby table" with the Wallaces and the Neals

All the baking ladies- it was announced that Jared won 2nd place- Heather was so proud!

Joel and some of the chili entrants

Well it turned out to be a memorable day!

The turkey breast turned out well, so I'll share that in a minute.

But the big news of the day is.....

NATE WALKED!

Joel came home from work a bit early and we were playing in the playroom. We've been trying to encourage him to walk from one of us to the other, but he'd never done it. I let him go and he took about 5 steps from me to Joel! I love so much that Nate tends to save these milestones for times when Joel and I can both see it together for the first time and it makes me sooooo happy.

We'll work on trying to get this on video. After dinner he wasn't too happy and didn't want to agree to our numerous attempts to get him to repeat his performance.

Ok, Turkey Breast! It was yummy, easy (I don't know how it could get much easier) and I doubt you could really tell the difference if you had cooked it in the oven and basted multiple times. Once it cooked for a while I was able to replace the corningware with the proper lid.

Crock-pot Turkey Breast
source: Cedar Rapids Gazette, Desperation Dinners column

1 turkey breast (6 to 6-1/2 pounds), frozen (see note)
2 tsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves

Rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels. Rub the turkey all over with oil. Sprinkle the breast lightly with salt and pepper to personal preference.

Place the breast, meaty side up, into a 5-quart slow cooker.

Peel the onion, cut it into quarters, and place the pieces around the edges of the pot. Peel the garlic cloves and place them around the sides of the cooker. Cover the cooker and cook the breast on low for 9 hours, or until the meat thermometer registers 170 degrees. Remove the breast from the cooker and let the bird stand at least 10 minutes before slicing. (The internal temperature will continue to rise while the bird is standing.) Discard the vegetables in the cooker. Serve the breast sliced, preferably without skin.

Note: If the turkey breast is not frozen, check for doneness (170 degrees) with a meat thermometer after 7-1/2 to 8 hours of cooking on low. Be sure to wash your hands well with soap and water immediately after handling raw poultry. Wash sink and counter surfaces the meat touches with soap and hot water.

If you do not use the entire turkey in the meal you can refrigerate, covered for 24 hours before chopping the meat and freezing. Place the meat in a freezer-weight plastic bag and freeze for up to 2 weeks.

Kitchen Hack

Well today started off as a lovely day...at 5am Sammy was barking to go outside. So I drag myself out of bed and half awake take him out. And then I hear talking? This freaks Sammy out (as do most things) and I realize there are 3 women walking down the street. At 5am. In February. We have officially moved to the most active neighborhood I have ever seen! People are constantly walking (with and without dogs, which adds an added level of stress to Sammy) down the street. All. Day. Long. Which makes for a long day of Sammy barking at ever person that passes. We're trying to figure out a way to make this better...

After TRYING to get back to sleep and failing I get up at 6:30. Nate woke up shortly after that anyway....I was hoping today was going to be a sleep in day :-(

I was ready to go ahead and put my dinner in the crock pot. Joel mentioned the other day that he wanted to have a mini-Thanksgiving type dinner- turkey breast, sweet potatoes, etc. I found a turkey breast crock pot recipe that looked really easy- you just throw the turkey breast in a frozen crock pot add a lil garlic & onion and let it go!

Well, I knew my crock pot was on the smaller side (not the oval or roaster kind), so I got the smallest turkey breast they had. And here's how it fit:




Or rather, didn't fit! Great! I quickly google "cook in crock pot without lid" and found most people just saying to use a different lid or a Corningware lid. Ah ha! If there's something I have plenty of it's Corningware! So I fashioned this little extension for my crock pot. Now let's just hope it actually works!If this recipe turns out well I'll pass it along. Haven't been the best cook this week...only made a standard lasagna and bought an apple pie from Publix rather than making my own dessert this week. Nate has been teething again and my free time to cook has been quite limited.