Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Happy belated birthday to my mom! And other ramblings . . .

My mom's birthday was on Sunday, and I totally forgot to wish her a happy birthday here on the blog! So, happy belated birthday to my most excellent mom! :)

I'm thankful that I've had more energy today. I'm trying to pace myself and not go overboard, but I've finally had the motivation and determination to make granola and chocolate chip cookies (we'd been out of both since we got home from Ohio!). Sam was a great little helper with both things and we had a lot of fun. Julia played by herself for a while, then I let her get up on a chair and watch as we finished up with the cookie dough. I've also been working on the laundry pile. We have one of those laundry sorters with 3 fabric bins for the dirty laundry. A could weeks ago I managed to rip another grommet out of it (I've been a little rough on it over the years) and rendered it useless. Jim came up with the brilliant idea that I could just make new bins for it, rather than buying a new sorter. Great idea, and super cheap, to boot! Only thing is, it takes time . . . and means that I now have one more sewing project to add to my ever-growing list. :) Thankfully I had some awesome, durable home decor fabric that I bought years ago to make a futon cover, which never got made. So far I've cut out all the pieces and sewed one of the bins . . . just two more to go! They're not hard, just time-consuming. I'll take a pic of the finished project once it's done--hopefully by the end of this week. Anyway, all that to say that because I only have one laundry bin right now, a lot of the other laundry had ended up in a pile on the bathroom floor. Ugh. So that's why I'm trying to motivate myself to wash clothes and also work on sewing the other bins. :)

I just got the kids down for naps, a little late but at least they should be down for a while. I think I'll make an easy supper like pizza or calzone. Last night, I made 3 recipes out of the newest Simple & Delicious (formerly Quick Cooking). Fried fish, coleslaw, and steamed potatoes with garlic butter. The only thing the kids liked was the potatoes, but Jim and I LOVED the fish, and the coleslaw was excellent, too. I rarely deep-fry, and we don't have seafood often due to the cost, but boy was this good. It actually wasn't that expensive because I used a bag of frozen cod (about $3.99). It would be even better with haddock (my favorite fish in the world!). Anyway, it was definitely a make-again meal . . . even though it did make my whole house smell like fried food. I've been burning a Yankee tart all day in the hopes of getting rid of the smell. Baking cookies and granola has helped with that, too.

Well, I had more to write but it can wait till later. I better go do some work while I have some quiet time to do so. :) Hope you are all having a good week so far!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, you made me in a fish mood. I want FISH!

-Zan

Linda said...

Just a thought, you mentioned the house smelled like fried food. When we would fry, our house would smell also. However, we read that most oils can't take temperatures that high. It is beyond their burning point. We now use coconut oil and the difference is amazing.

Have a good day.

Love,
Linda

Mrs.T said...

Thanks for the birthday wish, Carrie! So sweet of you!

I was looking at that fish recipe last night, thinking that I probably wouldn't prepare it since I prefer not to deep fry. Then I noticed, up at the top right corner of the page, that the contributor of the recipe says the fish can also be *baked*, with good results! So I probably will try it.

Linda's thought is interesting, too. I had no idea about the burning point of different oils.

Anonymous said...

Normal canola oil is supposed to be good at high temperatures too. We have also tried a special high heat canola oil that was good.

I also don't check the temp of the oil before adding the food. I just wait until a drop of water added to the oil starts to fizz. Or I try adding a small piece of food and if it fizzes, then I add the rest. It may take longer, but we eat when the food is ready so it doesn't really matter.

I found a recipe yesterday for oven fried cod fingers that sounded good enough to try. It was in the 4 for $15 section of the Whole Food recipes.