When I'm a Mommy

My three-year-old said to me, "When I'm big, I'm going to have lots of babies."

"Lots of babies like Mommy?" I ask.

"No. You only have one baby, Hava (her little sister)." Then she says, "And when I grow up to be a mommy, I'm going to wear bigggggg panties just like you!"

hm.

Veteran's Day

I am not particularly patriotic. I do, however, want my children to be very aware of our history as Americans. Today we went to a Veteran's Day parade. It was very touching, the little cub scouts came to each vet, shook their hand and said thank you.

This picture also moves me. Here is my oldest son, who is determined to go in to the military, watching men and women walk by with photos of all who have died from our city in the past several years while in service to our country.

Red Neck Baby High Chair / Teething Ring

Saturday Morning...

My shabbat-ing family is still sleeping, that is everyone over the age of ten. The smart ones. My four youngest have been up for hours (ah, that time change really is a blessing, isn't it?) and, of course, so have I.

I made french toast for all who were up and then put some pumpkin bread in the oven for the Torah study that meets at our house later this afternoon. The house is a wreck, no one wants to clean anything up on Friday nights so there are still dishes in the sink, candles on the table and crumbs all around from last night's bread breaking.....

Although today is a day of rest, the truth is in that old saying, "A women's work is never done." I can relate!

I am, however, enjoying the fact that my little ones are playing well together and there is a wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen. As I pick up and tidy, I really am thankful for today.

Pumpkin Bread - makes three loaves

3 cups pumpkin puree

1.5 cups vegetable oil

4 cups sugar

6 eggs

4.75 cups flour

1.5 tsps. EACH: baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg

Preheat the oven at 350 and prepare your loaf pans. Mix wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients, then mix both together. Pour in to pans and bake for about 50 minutes. Loaf should spring back when touched.

Potato Party / Freezer Meals Part 2

This post is a continuation of freezer cooking day, see my previous post if you missed it this morning.

My potatoes were finished boiling and I gathered the ingredients for the freezer mashed potatoes. I realized how incredibly inexpensive this side dish is. I used ten pounds of potatoes to make two 9x13 pans of mashed potatoes. The bag was .98c at Safeway this week. Butter and cream cheese happened to also be on the three day coupon that came out in this week's Sunday paper for Safeway. The cream cheese was 99c for 8 ounces and the butter was $1.49 for the pound. I had bought sour cream earlier at Fiesta Foods, our local Mexican food store. It was also on special. The sour cream and butter were used in both of the dishes we made today.

This freezer paper was also was a great deal. I always check the clearance section of the grocery store and was surprised to find a whole cart of freezer paper at Albertson's one day. The sticker shows that I paid $2.48 each for these big rolls.

I really like freezer paper for freezer meals in comparison to foil pans or anything else. I place the freezer paper in my pans (shiny side up!!!) with a little bit of spray. I load my lasagna or casserole, or in this case, potatoes, in the pan, place them in the freezer and then when they are frozen solid I lift them out, wrap and label. If you do this, be sure to label which pan you used because even though these are both 9 x 13 pans, they are a little different. If I know which one it was frozen in, I can remove the paper before cooking or defrosting and place it in the same pan. It's just easier that way. These two pans are now in the freezer.

Next up were the twice baked potatoes. Doesn't this look great?

Here's the finished product, ready for the freezer. Yum! Twenty pounds of potatoes down, twenty to go!

Freezer Cooking Day

Today Money Saving Mom, one of my very favorite bloggers, is having a freezer cooking day. I love to check out her progress over the day and see what she's up to and how she's doing. There is an impressive line up for her today, and with three little children, I am very impressed with how much she's accomplished.

To join the fun, I too am working to stash a couple of things in the freezer. As you know from my previous post, I am up to my eye balls in potatoes. Thought I'd send out a little post about how I'm doing with that.

My first grader has finished his school work so I got all of my little ones to help out (read poke and put holes in) peeling potatoes for the freezer mashed potatoes.

This little guy here, however, has quite a knack for potato peeling and did at least four on his own. He was upset to see that the bag was empty!

We got them all done and in my biggest dutch oven.

Now I am on to those baked potatoes I did yesterday. They need to be hollowed out to be made in to twice baked potatoes for the freezer.

Back to work, someone is saying that my potatoes are boiling over!

Potato Patrol

At my Safeway today, they still had their 10 lb. bags of potatoes on sale for 98c each. Even though I already bought two bags last week, I couldn't resist and bought two more. Potatoes freeze well and are great to have on hand as a last minute side dish or even a main dish.

As I have mentioned before, often when I get a great deal on potatoes I'll throw chicken breast or roast in to a ziplock bag with some cut potatoes, carrots and onions for an easy crockpot meal. The morning that you want to use it, just dump the frozen contents of your bag in to your crockpot and turn it on. Add a little liquid and your ready to go. This time around however, I am totally out of meat and have to do things a little differently.

To get the potatoes taken care of quickly, I have two cookie sheets full of potatoes baking right now, to fill them up, I used one full bag. We'll have baked potatoes with chili over them for dinner tonight and I will be making this recipe for the freezer when the others cool off this evening.

With the second bag I will cut them in to french fries for oven fries. They are so easy. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a gallon ziplock bag. Throw in your cut up potatoes and shake them to cover. Pour potatoes and oil on to a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. Check on them after about 10 or 15 minutes to move them around and flip them over. Salt or season with Johnny's Seasoning salt and serve. If you want to do them ahead, just cut and freeze (Rachel has pointed out that they need to be blanched at this point to avoid turning brown.) When you want to use them, defrost overnight.

With the third bag of potatoes I will be making a big batch of mashed potatoes and freezing them in meal sized portions. I think it is best to season when you make them the second time around. If you want more of a recipe, Once a Month Mom has some great mashed potato recipes. Try this one from this month's menu or this one from last month's.

The last bag will just hang out in my pantry. I like to make potatoes and eggs for breakfast every once in a while or add potatoes to soups and stews, I'm sure that I will use them up quickly.