Category: cooking – er something

Rachael’s Tea Party

Don’t let the silence on the blog two weeks ago fool you. It’s not silent over here. 😉

While Daddy was gone on the youth mission trip two weeks ago, Rachael hosted her first Tea Party. =)

She started out writing the invitations (obviously with some help):


Then came the welcome sign for the door:

Then she made the place cards:

With the help of Aunt Jes, we made the Tea Party treats and some teacup decorations. The menu was lemonade poured from the teapot, heart-shaped PBJ or Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches, applesauce, trail mix (PB/chocolate chips, pretzels, animal crackers, and raisins), and of course cookies (meringues, homemade chocolate chip, and sugar cookies with the puffed frosting from the store – mmmmmm, yes). 

Aunt Jes also helped in setting the table, even loaning us some of her extra teacups and her tea set.

Here’s Rachael’s tea party:

Each place setting had a piece of jewelry that all the guests could wear and a special cup:

 Yes, that’s a plastic ring for my two year old. 😉

 I didn’t have a tea cup at first. 

 Rachael’s Sunday School teacher who was unable to make it (hence Mommy stole her cup. hehe). 
[Actually this cup was given to my by my great grandmother.]

 Danielle’s Mom (to Rachael) and a dear friend (to me).
[She likes coffee.]
 Rachael’s Sunday School playmate and, for the longest, the only child in her age bracket/nursery at the church. 

 Aunt Jes brought a special teapot/spoon necklace for our little hostess.

 A new friend in Rachael’s Sunday School class whom we have welcomed with open arms. 

 Ava’s Mom, who’s in my Sunday School class and a new wonderful friend. 
 Here Vicki pours the lemonade form the teapot as Danielle (top), Rachael (middle) and Ava (bottom) enjoy their tea party treats. All the girls wore frilly, beautiful dresses to the party (most raided from their drees-up bins at home). 

Little Abi sports the “cover all” bib since her gorgeous frilly dress was a light/stainable pink.

The little girls had a blast and so did the Moms. And each party guest got to bring home a teacup picture to color and remind them of the fun at Rachael’s Tea Party. 

Rachael was quite the little hostess, tending to her guests and explaining where everyone would sit. Hehe. And Abi was thrilled to run after Rachael, Danielle, and Ava, as they squealed and played before/after our tea. It was a wonderful, frilly, girlie time indeed that ended with two little girls knocked out cold for an extended nap. 

– Successful indeed. 😉
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Meatball Soup Goodness

Tried this and thought it quite yummy.

“This meatball soup is easily made with frozen meatballs, beef broth, tomatoes, and vegetables, along with herbs and seasonings.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound frozen meatballs, Italian seasoned
  • 3 cups beef broth
  • 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes with Italian seasonings (I didn’t use Italian seasoned tomatoes and it was good)
  • 1 cup diced potato, about 1 medium potato
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 16 ounces (about 3 cups) frozen mixed vegetables

Preparation:

In crockpot, combine meatballs, broth, tomatoes, potato, onion, garlic powder, and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours, until potatoes and onion are tender. Stir in frozen vegetables and cook on HIGH for 1 hour longer.
Serves 6.”

I chose to put everything in at once and cook on Low for 5 hours and high for 1 hour. It turned out great. 

Mmm, this was tasty and cheap and easy and we already had everything thanks for some meatball and tomato can sales Matt had previously taken advantage of.

– just sharing.

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Normal Hum-drums.

A few fun pictures to share about our little world around here lately.

I’ve gotten a little creative in review techniques for homeschool.

Here Rachael, (who is not usually in her pajamas for homeschool, but we were having a lazy morning) is sorting capital and lower case letters into corresponding plates. I just used refrigerator magnets, Scrabble Jr. pieces, a few handwritten lower case letters, Word Whammer magnetic pieces, and Upwords (a stacking version of Scrabble) pieces. It did take her a handful of minutes to complete the task, but this allowed me time to spend some attention/love on Abi (after taking a picture or two, of course, so you all could witness this).

 Here Rachael’s using her Wax Paper Helper to distinguish b’s and d’s.

And we made Valentines day review cookies. If you look close you can see that I decorated with A, a, B, b, C, c, and D, d. Rachael and Abi are still enjoying eating their way through Rachael’s review. =)

 In other news, I attempted a pork stew (you can use any meat) to the success of the adult opinions in this household (since the sprouts have more picky moments when it comes to stews). My mom sent me the recipe and I had to get all of NOTHING from the store to make this. LOVE those kinds of practical recipes.

My mother’s recipe: [ “All you need is an oven pan with a lid (or oven okay bowl with foil on top). Cook meat (Chicken, cubed beef, turkey) in a fry pan to brown the outside, cut up potatoes, carrots, celery, onions. Put in oven pan. Add a couple of bay leaves, salt and pepper to your liking, a little steak sauce (A-1, Worcestershire, etc). Then add water about half way up the pot. Cover, bake at 350 degrees a few hours until the meat is done and the potatoes are fork tender. Longer for beef, shorter for chicken, turkey.”] 

I was running out of time before dinner so i cooked it on 375 for 1.5 hours. That worked quite as well, though I’m sure there would have been a thicker broth with the extra slow simmering time. 


Bravo Mom for the “pop it in the oven and forget about it” meal. 
Preparing at nap time is the way to go! 



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Family-Friendly Quiche

Everyone liked the quiche!!!! (Rachael was a little picky about the onions cause she bit into a big piece of one – my crying eyes could only take so much dicing.)

So from my skill-less kitchen to your skill-filled kitchen I give you the recipe.

Tuna Quiche

1/2 c mayo
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c milk
1 (7oz) can tuna, drained
8oz (or a little less) cheese (shredded swiss = nice and melty)
1/3 c onion, diced (optional) – red onion = good, but not so hide-from-kid friendly
1 (9inch) unbaked pie shell


-preheat oven 350*
– mix first 4 ingredients
– stir in tuna, cheese and onion
– put pie shell in greased (for easy removal) pie pan
– pour mixture into pie shell and smooth down
– bake 40-45 min or until done

*** Those of you who know me, know that cooking is in no way a forte, but this one was easy and tasty!
 
Enjoy!

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