Made from Scratch

For a variety of reasons, I've become more and more interested in making all of our food from scratch. Mind you, it doesn't make them less fattening (most of the time)... but at least they are a bit more natural. :)

Today I made more pasta (I'm still excited about last weekend's success!), mozzarella-stuffed meatballs, marinara sauce, and french bread for dinner:

Followed by German-Chocolate Cake for dessert:

The picture doesn't do it justice!

I love eating something that I know didn't come from a box or can or mix. It does take a bit of extra planning and time, but it is so worth it. :)

Pasta

I have wanted to make pasta for months. For some reason, I've been nervous to try it. This weekend I decided to tackle my fear.

I made Herbed Fettuccine noodles Saturday for Grilled Vegetable Fettuccine.

Delicious! It required a bit of time (for drying, not so much in the prepping or cutting... that part was pretty fast), but was so worth it! And, not nearly as hard, or scary, as I thought it would be. 

So, today I made bow-tie pasta noodles for our Beef and Noodles dinner. 

I feel so accomplished! :)

I have fallen in love with fresh pasta... and can't wait to try making ravioli next weekend!

Crafty Collaborative

Some ladies from work have created a crafty collaborative - an opportunity to get together and work on craft projects while hanging out together. Of course, there will be food. :)

I'm pretty excited to join the group!

I have a bit of a problem, though... I don't really have a crafty project! I no longer have any of my scrap-booking or stamping-up supplies, and I don't own a sewing machine. I haven't crocheted or done cross-stitch in years, and I don't paint or draw.

My "craft"? I bake. That's harder to do when I don't have a kitchen.

So - I'm on the lookout for fun, easy, crafty projects that I can do in an afternoon. Any ideas?

Christmas Vacation / Kids Visit

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation, and loved having the kids here!

A few of our highlights: playing games, watching movies, bowling, mini-golfing, and eating (both at home, and out!). A few pictures of our fun:

 A peanut butter milkshake... never as good as Grandpa's, but I still order them! :)

 Can you believe how tall Donovan is?!?!

 

We're looking forward to Spring Break!

Christmas at Our House

We had a wonderful Christmas. We actually started a day early, enjoying lunch together as part of our gift from Grama Kelly and Grampa Dave.

This morning, we awoke to a present-filled house:

And the chaos commenced!

 Josh has perfected fried rice, and really wanted a wok. He was so excited to open it!

Audri loves jewelry!

Donovan wanted a "big candy cane"... Audri gave it to him. :)

Donovan had also asked for a belt buckle and some hair gel - he has a mohawk, but didn't have the gel to fix it. 

Josh loved his Batman shirt from Holly!

Josh has wanted a hula-dancer for his car dash for a few years. I finally gave in. :) 

Audri thought Beckham gave her the perfect gift. :)

 

Donovan is pretty sure that he'll be able to attract the ladies now... thanks to Chase. :)

Audri, wearing her gift from up north!

Donovan fixed his hair for us. :)

We spent the afternoon playing games together - we actually played an entire game of Monopoly! After some quiet time (reading and/or napping) I started dinner. 

For dinner, I made beef wellington:

And I have a cheesecake ready for dessert. :)

We've had a food-filled day, but we've enjoyed every minute of it!

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread People

We love to decorate gingerbread. It's one of our family traditions. :) We've tried houses in the past, but can't ever seem to make the houses stay standing. This year, I found a gingerbread people kit, so we tried that instead!

The kids, hard at work:

Our completed people!

 Josh's masterpieces...

 I got hungry, and had to eat a foot... :)

After Audri finished her people, she got into the icing...

It got a little messy. :) 

We did let the kids eat their people once we had some pictures:

It was a fun-filled night!

Decorating for Christmas

Tonight we decorated for Christmas! Audri hung the ornaments on the tree, while Josh and Donovan prepared the entryway.

I hung the stockings, which are our favorite holiday decoration. :) We love knowing that Gram took time to make them, just for us.

Our finished tree - we love the Christmas lights!

Once we finished the tree, we made sugar cookies!

I don't have cookie cutters, so we each made the shapes we wanted, cutting out our shapes with butter knives. I'm pretty impressed with us!

We had a great time decorating for Christmas, and being together!