Mountainair

Pasta Sauce as in jarred spaghetti sauce or just tomato sauce in a can. I will sometimes add a can of diced tomato too. Top with cheddar although today all I had for cheese was a pizza blend and that worked well too! Its an eady meal my kids will eat and it freezes good too for future use!

Saw the mention of Schlotzkeys a few pages back and I love that place! We don't have any near us it when I travel back home to visit my parents I always route the trip in accordance with the nearest one. Ironically, every.single.one has turned into a Zaxbys, which my husband loves. I do not. Word around town though is that we might be getting a Schlotzkeys 30 minutes away but hey! Otherwise I don't really do burger and fries. I'll go fast food for the kiddos and order a salad or grilled chicken something but mostly I stick to subs. Jersey Mikes, Jimmy Johns or Firehouse, in that order.

Not doing much here for dinner. Lisa's casserole for us. Someone named Lisa that my mom knew growing up used to make this, hence the name. Elbow Mac prepared, ground beef cooked, toss with pasta sauce and dried onion soup mix. Top with cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

I recorded North Pole as I was out last night. When I got home this morning I turned it on and watched the first half hour or so. I actually really liked what I saw. The commercials made me think the whole movie takes place in the North Pole which is not the case. I'm anxious to finish watching it but Sunday is such a busy tv day for me so I'm not sure when I'll be able to catch the rest of it.

Last night was ladies night. I went out with my MIL and her sister, and my two SIL's. We live in a highly desirable area with a great downtown featuring several nationally recognized eateries. We chose a Tapas Bar for dinner and it was the BEST!!! We each ordered several dishes, passed them around and shared. The salad we ordered twice it was so good! Mixed greens, goat cheese, apples lemon poppy mojo dressing, almonds, pickled onions, YUM! We also ordered Gnocchi which was stuffed with a cream cheese butternut squash filling. We ordered mussels, scallops, meatballs, braised beef, pig cheek, yum, yum, yum! For our party of five the bill was $200.00 split evenly we each spent about $40.00. We stopped by the Chocolate Fetish on the walk back to the car and each indulged in some fancy chocolates. We ended up back at my MIL's house (the husbands were on baby duty) where we drank wine, listened to Christmas music and decorated Christmas wreaths. We all had a big sleepover after. Had a great night, great food and company :)

Just one more mention of the IUD. I do hate the idea of the apocalypse outlasting my IUD but I have seen, on a reality show no less, someone actually remove their own IUD. Not something I would want to do but I guess it is possible. But again, I'm really ok not having sex until the whole thing blows over. No thanks, I'm good.

A lot of people do go with the IUD method for birth control. Depending on which one you get its good for 5-10 years. Now, it doesn't protect against STD's but should a zombie apocalypse happen tonight, I personally, won't have to worry about being knocked up for five more years :)

It's been years since I've watched MTV but I would occasionally read the boards to see what fame whores were still sticking around (not that I'm calling Diem a famwhore per say) which is how I found out about her recent battle with cancer. When Diem first appeared on my screen years ago I had an instant like for her. I thought her name was beautiful and I thought she was beautiful and someone worthy of being admired for all the health issues she had faced. I thought she deserved way better than CT but it sounds like they were back together and he had changed his ways a bit. Cancer scares the shit out of me. I lost an Aunt to breast cancer almost 10 years ago. She was 38 and had a two year old and four year old. The same age as my own children. Diem was only two years older than me and it just hits so close to home when you see people who are the same age as you dying so young to stupid cancer. I can't imagine having been diagnosed in your young twenties, what should be some of the best, carefree days of your life. I hope her family and CT can make peace with this and realize what a true fighter she was. One to be admired for sure!

It hasn't gotten out of 20s here today so I felt like some homemade soup. I made the kids canned homestyle chicken noodle with grilled cheese and for myself I made homemade French onion(my favorite soup). Hubby can have either when he gets home or leftovers from the other night :) The man, love him, is ridiculous! The other night I got home late from running errands with the kids so we stopped for fast food. Hubby got home and was pissy because I didn't call him to let him know I wasn't making dinner. Well, he never calls to tell me if he'll be home for dinner so..... He had the option of very yummy leftovers. The next night I made a four course dinner, he gets home and cleans it all up with out eating a bite. Whatever dude. Figure it out :)

TonightI made cubed steak, browned in a pan the baked In the oven with a Beefy Mushroom Soup gravy, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies with cheese on top.

I'm not a desert eater at all but a few years ago my BIL was the manager of our local Cracker Barrel and he brought over chocolate pecan pie. YUM!! I find myself so busy that by the time dinner is served I have no appetite. I'll make a big plate and eat nothing. After serving the meal, having family time, drinking a few beers (not a fan of wine),cleaning up getting family out of the house, kids put to bed, etc. I'm just not as hungry as I hoped to be. Midnight after thanksgiving is usually when I chow down :)

I finished it. I thought it was actually a really good story. It started off a bit slow for me but I easily got into it. I admit to multi tasking a bit while reading but it seemed to end rather abruptly where I wasn't sure what I had actually been reading the whole time. I get that there were three different stories going on. 1945, 1960s and Alien time. I just didn't quite grasp the point of the story.

I drink 3-4 sodas a year excluding the occasional root beer float :) When the mood strikes for a soda it's either Dr. Pepper or Cheerwine. If you are making me chose between Pepsi and Coke, Coke all the way!

We leave Santa a few cookies, the reindeer get some carrots but Santas favorite is chick fil a chicken nuggets. Gotta keep the big man happy :) I had never heard the Marshmellow World song until a few years ago. My husband made me a mixed cd with that song on it and I think it's cute :)

My MIL's (love her) idea of thanksgiving is canned veggies and box stuffing. This is why I took over the job of hostess. She contributes home made mashed potatoes and canned cranberry and rutebegga (don't know how to spell that). I grew up with a love of cooking so yea, I host :) I'm from the south but hate sweet potatoes so my SILalways makes the sweet potato marshmallow thing. For me as long as I have white meat turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy I'm good to go. I usually add in a good broccoli casserole and a good cauliflower casserole I have recipes for. It will be nice not to host this year. My parents are 5 hours away so the trip will be brutal but my mom is doing all the shopping so me and her will spend the day cooking while the babies play with grandpa and great grandparents. It's literally been 10 years since I've had thanksgiving with my family so I am looking forward to it :)

Thought I would start a Holiday Recipe thread! With Thanksgiving just around the corner what are some staples at your table? I'm sad to not be hosting this year however most of my recipes come from my mother who is hosting us this year. I'm sure she will have some new things but my favorite is the dressing! It has celery, carrots, green onion, mushrooms, sage, rosemary, chicken broth, bread, dried apricots, sausage. It calls for apple but I never add that. Yum!

Thanks! If I could get my kids to eat that would be another thing. Although, the past two weeks my kids have eaten 85% of what I have served. You know the saying, "go big or go home". Well, I usually host thanksgiving for my husbands side of the family,which is about 20 people. This year everyone seems to be spending time with their other halves and we have decided to spend thanksgiving with my family (first time in 10 years).so I'm not hosting a big event and I'm going home :) anywho, I was wondering if we should start a holiday recipe thread for the many dishes we will be making. Cookies, side dishes, main dishes, etc..

I have an ATK cookbook too ALenore. I've never had a recipe fail me yet however sometimes there are just too many steps that I don't even bother trying it. How did the stew turn out? I bet the veggies were nice and firm and not a big mess of mush! Last night we did homemade pizzas. I bought frozen dough and my husband prepped it (me and dough do not get along), the kids helped put on the toppings. It was fun! Tonight I made pork loin. My grandpa has a to-die-for marinade that I mixed up (cider vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, ground mustard, parsley, minced garlic) and let the meat soak 18 hours in. For sides we add four cheese Alfredo and fresh salad.

Haha! I watched that too last night! Mr. Mountain made fun of me the whole time for doing so but it was certainly your typical holiday movie except they added some cats in for good measure. Mr. Mountain, who was playing on the computer while I watched thought the premise was about 9 things that go wrong leading up to the penultimate moment but I don't think that was the case, would have added to its view ability though :) Instead I think the 9 Lives part of the title only existed because there were cats in the movie. Overall, lame but watchable. Who was the lead guy? Didn't he play Superman or Spider-Man in some TV show a while back?

Thanks! I have a 15 pound jack Russell so yea, a little bit of a weight difference there. I'm all about making my own stuff so you have helped me decide to look into this idea further!

HalcyonDays Your post intrigued me. I have a dog and cat and they both get wet food and dry foot. The dog is easier to ration so 8 pouches of wet food will easily last me two weeks. The cat on the other hand wants an entire pouch or can of wet food anytime I open the back door. That adds up! She's an outside cat for the most part and 14 years old. I know the dry stuff probably hurts her teeth so I'd be interested to know how you make your dog food and if it's something also suitable for a cat?

My book shelves are full so I stopped buying books and besides, in my house buying diapers replaced buying books. Also, I haven't had an author I really enjoyed consistently enough to actually purchase the books. My husband is a war book reader so besides that and some of the classics that is what our shelves consist of. The library has become my best friend :) When iTunes has good free books available I download them but I hate reading in bed with my iPad. I do like that I can change the font size, theme and don't really need a light on to read but it's impossible for me to get comfy in bed with the iPad. Other than that, like I said, my money goes to diapers now and not $12.00 (or more) books that I will read in 2 days and need a new one. I also hate that reading a book sucks all the juice out of my iPad and I find myself concentrating less on the book and switching constantly between PTV, Facebook, Words with Friends and my book. Paper all the way!

Hey, no problem! It's one of my favorite meals ever! Tonight we are taking the five year old to the planetarium. He is big into outer space so my in laws got us tickets for his birthday present. It's an hour away and they are going to watch the 2 year old for us. The tickets include a planetarium show, a "roller coaster" Mars Rover ride and then we get to visit the HUGE telescope they have on site and look through it. He is going to love it. Before hand we thought we would take him to a Japanese Steakhouse where they cook at your table. He has never been to one before I know he will dig it. So, that's what's for dinner tonight :)

Corned beef and cabbage with carrots and potatoes. Nice meal for a cold night!

Alright, I got the book today. Hopefully more people are reading it and just not saying so and hopefully they are more educated than I. It's a good book so far (only 50 pages or so in) but I do suffer from "mommy brain" and lack of mature adult conversation due to being a stay at home mom who doesn't get out much :)