Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Mommying magic #3: BBQ Sauce...and online recipes

If you are waiting on the edge of your seat to see what the 17 household uses for barbecue sauce are, you are about to be disappointed, because this is just a recipe. But your poor disappointed heart will feel much better when you have an amazing barbecue dinner made from scratch. Delicious scratch.
kinda like this, only more stubble

I really like to make things myself. I love the feeling of making something that I used to think you had to buy, and knowing that I can now have it whenever I want, whether or not I remembered to put it on the grocery list. Freeeeeee! This recipe is one I tweaked from Allrecipes.com(if you haven't discovered this site yet GO NOW), and so far everyone who's tried it has loved it. We had it with chicken the other night and Miles literally licked his plate. We're classy like that.
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BBQ SAUCE
(adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zippy-Barbecue-Sauce/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=barbecue%20sauce&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page )
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
4 Tbsp honey 
4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp yellow mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp hot sauce, like tabasco(I used part of a restaurant packet)
1/2 tsp granulated garlic(I'm sure garlic powder would work)
1/2 tsp black pepper

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool overnight if possible so the flavors can blend, and it will also thicken up a little, although never as much as some store bought sauces. YUM!
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Now, if you are really wanting a yummy dinner out of this, make a batch of sauce without the water(maybe a half batch, but I like a lot of barbecue sauce), put 3-4 chicken breasts in a casserole dish(I like to cut them into a few pieces so they get more saucy and I'm paranoid about things cooking through) and cover them with generous amounts of the concentrated barbecue sauce. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake ~1 hour at 400 degrees. Serve with mashed potatoes and salad, or other good things. Or if you have some buns you could shred the chicken into the sauce when it comes out and make amazing barbecue sandwiches.

the other best tip today: YOU CAN FIND A GOOD ONLINE RECIPE FOR EVERYTHING. Seriously.
...but do yourself a favor and promise to do four things before diving into an online recipe:
1)Read the whole recipe before you choose it, including all the instructions. There may be crazy amounts of time/work required that you aren't ready for, and I guarantee you can find another recipe without whatever it is that you don't like.
2)Always, aalllllllways read the reviews. A whole lot of them. When you start to see a theme, pay attention to that tip
3)Substitute. You usually do NOT need dijon mustard, rice wine vinegar, or cooking sherry. It takes a little experimenting, but really you can get away with substituting a whole lot of things and still get awesome results. And reading the reviews will tell you what you can substitute
4)Skip sponsored recipe sites(...foodnetwork.com, I'm looking at you)! Look for a "real person" kind of site with lots of reviews of people who have actually MADE the recipe instead of comments like, "this looks amazingly delicious!"







Thursday, August 22, 2013

Six months...halfway to ONE!

Time is flying. I feel like suddenly Miles and I are going to turn around and poof! we will be old and wrinkly grandparents. Crazy.
But for now, we're having SUCH a fun time with Colban. The older he gets, the more fun he is, with his little personality coming out more all the time. Most mornings he wakes up smiling and happy to see us, and will sometimes wait in his crib with his head down and eyes closed until he hears us move, and then pop up with a big grin.
In month six Colban's mastered sitting up alone, and his new big one: CRAWLING! Okay, it's still pretty scoot-ish, but he's so fast and mobile that I'm counting it for a crawl. Here's a video from a little while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM3OPirTUQ4

We also started him on some rice cereal, and he's getting good at eating from a spoon. He also definitely understands the word "milk" in baby sign. We haven't done too much baby sign yet, but I'm excited for when he'll be able to sign back!


First trip to the park, complete with a ride in the swing! He had a lot of fun pulling up the grass.





Travis, Kira and Jane came down for a visit, and we got to go to the Los Angeles zoo together--another first for Colban. We also slept over at the Marks's house and Colban went for a swim in the(not-so-hot) hot tub!
 His favorites this month:
--the computer mouse. He LOOOVES it, and will dive for it any time he's near enough
--spoons, and banging them on the floor, tables
--grabbing everyone's face. Ow!
--cars. He of course loves to be outside, but most of all he likes to watch cars and buses go by
--he really seems to like classical music. YAY!! He especially seems to perk up when the brass comes in.
--Daddy! He is soooo excited every day when Miles comes home, and yesterday crawled right over to him as soon as he came in. Aww my heart!




Friday, August 9, 2013

Mommying Magic #2: the packing list

Since almost all of our family lives in Utah, we travel back and forth from there a lot. The first year we moved I think we made the trip five times in six months. I always do the packing while Miles is at work, and of course I always  manage to forget something. One time it was toothbrushes, then razors, and after the time that I somehow forgot to pack Miles any underwear I knew I could no longer be trusted. Hence...

Now, this is the list I made, so of course if you don't have a baby yours will be a whole lot shorter and not include things like nursing pads and a pack'n'play, but you get the idea. It might seem silly to print off a list and check things off every time you're going on a trip, but at least for us it is a HUGE time and sanity saver! I can pack for a ten day vacation in less than 30 minutes and know that I haven't forgotten anything, because I just cross it off as I go. Lalalalalalaaaa!

I tried my best to put the pdf on here, or a link of some sort(even using Google Drive), but so far everything I've tried has failed. If anyone has a brilliant way to do that on Blogger, we should talk!

P.S. I know it looks like a ton of stuff, but usually some gets crossed off before I even start packing. And the rest usually fits into one big suitcase and a couple grocery bags, including the baby stuff and snacks. :)
Happy packing!!



Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Starting solids

Colban's been eyeing our food for a month now, grabbing for it every chance he gets, and even crying sometimes when I don't share. Now that he can finally sit up on his own we gave in to the temptation to give him some real food. Here's his first taste of rice cereal...

Monday, August 5, 2013

Aaaand he's mobile!

What a cutie! 
It's my favorite to see him figuring out how his little body works! SO fun!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Mommying Magic #1: dish soap

I'm toying with the idea of doing a weekly post on the little awesome things I discover while mommying. I just get really excited when I find things that make all my little jobs a whole ton easier, or when I find a legitimately no-fail recipe, so I'm going to start listing them on here in hopes that they'll come in handy for someone.

so...

TIP #1: DISH SOAP IS YOUR BEST FRIEND


Here is why:
1. A soaped-up sponge cleans all the junk off the stove like nobody's business. Super fast. Even the baked on burnt rice boil-over that you have been meaning to get to for a month(hypothetically, of course...)

***2. It is a magical fast scrubber-outer for all things laundry. Especially the big one: Baby poop. ***
I rinse the spot out, put on a little dishsoap, and scrub the stain against itself. Like you're washing your hands, only with half the stained part over each hand. Then rinse the soap out. If it's a reeeeally bad one, I might do it twice, but it never takes long. It probably will not look completely white by the time you've rubbed the clothes together a bit, but throw it in the wash and presto! Stain free! Even white onesies.

3. And while you are in the scrubbing mood, dishsoap also gets stains out of our carpet really well. Just a little soapy water and an old kitchen sponge and bonus! you get a quick bicep workout, too. I'm sure you should probably spot test before going crazy with this one, though.

4. Forget the hand soap in the kitchen--this gets you soooo much cleaner, faster. Even if you just greased a casserole dish with your bare hand(shh...). Also you can use the dispenser to squirt soap on your sponge when doing the dishes. No having to get under the sink...we allllll know it's creepy under there.

5. Super good for sticky countertops/walls near the stove top where grease has splattered. I wish I had known this in Russia when I moved into apartment #2 and discovered the oil-encased gretchka-cooking kitchen area.

6. It actually works surprisingly well for cleaning off the white rubber/fake leather parts on shoes. Go figure.

7. It is good for washing dishes. Haha.

I know there is a huge hype on Pinterest about blue Dawn dishsoap and all the wonderful things it can do for your shower walls, but so far I've been doing great with my huge bottle of cheap orange Ajax. But if there are any blue Dawn experts out there, I'd love to know if it really does have incredible powers worth paying twice as much for.

Let me know if there are other great things that didn't make my list!