A Family Tradition

For a few generations my mom's side of the family has always welcomed a new baby with a basic quilt made by the family.  Each woman is mailed a piece of muslin with a pattern and embroidery thread.  Then they back stitch the pattern and mail it back to my grandma.  She pieces them together.  This year my mom had the honor of helping her.  I hope one day to have the honor of helping my mom when Little Man, Little Miss, and Littlest Man have their own children.

For many reasons, Littlest Man's quilt took a bit longer.  I like to call it the 'Third Child Prevention'.  Life just gets busy and getting out of the house to pick out the thread and fabric takes time.  I think I was 8 months preggo when my mom and I finally started shopping.  It's a complete miracle that Littlest Man's quilt was finished this past week.

 The finished product.  Soft, cuddly, and made with lots of love.  

Below is and example of the embroidery.  It's nothing complicated, but each square has a special purpose.  The woman who made it puts her initials on the square.  The one pictured, cousin's wife did.  She always does a beautiful job, even though she's rockin' four girls at home!

  

A special thanks to all the women who took time to make Littlest Man's blanket so special.  We love the finished product!

Classic Croque Monsieur

Who doesn't like a ham and cheese sandwich? Okay, I know one.  Steven.  He is NOT a ham person.  I don't know how we ended up together because I love ham.  Love it like a fat kid loves cake.  Even though Mr. doesn't like ham, I took my chances on this sandwich because it has a French name.  Steven loves to pretend he can speak French so as long I told him the name he would be distracted.  Distracted by pretending to be French and saying, Croque Monsieur over and over and over again.

Thankfully, my plan worked.  I told him the name, but didn't tell him what was in it.  I think the conversation went like this...

Phone rings


Me: "Hello."

Steven:  "Hey Babe.  I was wondering what's for dinner?"

Me:  "It's a new recipe.  A French sandwich called Croque Monsieur."

Steven:  "Ohhh, Croque Monsieur...I like it."

See how my master plan worked.  It was pretty simple.  French...it's a great tool when distracting my husband. Heck, you should see him when the Target commercial comes on. You know, the one where the people jump out of the hot air balloon? He loves that one.  You know why?  Yep, you guessed it.  It's a French song.

Enough of my husband's fetish with trying to speak French, here's the deets on the way I did the sandwich...

Croque Monsieur


8 Slices of French bread
2 Tbsp spicy brown mustard (or dijon)
1 Tbsp mayo
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 ham
4 slices Provolone cheese

• Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Melt butter in 9x13 dish.
• Mix mustard and mayo together.  Spread on each slice of bread.
• Slap on the ham and cheese and build the sandwich.
• In a shallow dish (I used a pie pan), wisk eggs and milk together.
• Using tongs dip each sandwich, on both sides, in the egg mixture.  Allow the bread to soak up the liquid.
• Place in melted butter, and bake for 5 minutes on each side or until bread becomes golden brown.

This really was a nice surprise.  Warm, delicious, and easy to make.  Plus, it's French!  An added bonus at the Torres house.

THE Menu (Finally)

Yikes!  The days go by so fast.  I think I need a time machine so I can go back to each day and finish off those last little tasks I just don't get to.

Here's our menu for the week.  A few new recipes we are trying out thanks to a new cooking magazine from my mama.  I'll be sure to share what's good.  I can definitely say Monday's sandwich is a great twist on a classic ham and cheese.  The link is not the recipe I used, but you'll get the gist.  I'll share what I did tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Monday-Classic Croque Monsieur, Salad, Fresh Strawberries
Tuesday-Chicken Tacos with Mexi-rice and Corn
Wednesday-Honey Balsamic Salmon with Steamed Veggies and Brown Rice
Thursday-Chicken and Roasted Red Potatoes, Buttered Bread, Asparagus
Friday-Monterey Chicken, Green Beans, Cheesy Biscuits, Fruit Salad
Saturday-Homemade Pizza with Veggies and Dip
Sunday-Dinner out or dinner @ mom's

Er-

A little hiccup this week.  No Menu Monday.  How about a Menu Tuesday? We had way too much fun as a family this weekend.  See you tomorrow!

Garlic Tip of the Day

I may be sharing information that the vast majority of you know, but it was news to me.  I have often complained that I can't stand the stench of garlic on my fingers after I've minced a few cloves.  For some strange reason I was talking about it with some of my friends I volunteer with at church.  Those lovely gals let me in on a little secret that I'm going to share with you today.  Are you ready???

After mincing your garlic cloves and realizing your fingers are stinky all you have to do is wash them with dish soap and rub them on something that is stainless steel (like your flatware), and VOILA!  No more stinky fingers.

There you have it folks.  The best information you will receive all day.  I know, you're welcome!

No Good Rotten Mama

It's Spring Break. A rainy Spring Break for our area.  I have enjoyed the rain, but it's left some little guys inside more than they are used to.  It's hard on them.  It produces undesirable behaviors.  It produces slight bickering (which is new to me).

Despite my efforts to plan fun activities, we've only done them two out of four days I had planned.  The reason for distracting me from carrying out our activities comes in a form of one little baby who has decided he only wants to be held while he sleeps.  Thankfully he's only decided to do that two days, but it made for two days of  a no good rotten mama.

During those two nights I laid in bed and cried to Steven about how I felt.  Since Littlest Man took up so much of my time, the older two took advantage of my lack of attention.  They bickered.  I nagged.  They jumped on the couch.  I nagged. They got entirely too loud.  I nagged.  They tried to have fun together.  I nagged.  I was way too short tempered.  I was way too annoyed.  I was way too rotten.

I wasn't their fun mom.  I wasn't their cuddly mom.  I wasn't there patient mom.  I wasn't a whole lot of things to them for those two days.  Balancing my time between the kids has to be the hardest part of having three kids.  I want to be everything to them all the time and not the nagging mom.  I want to find a happy medium between giving them the attention they need and the guidance they crave, but with a newborn that attention and guidance gets diverted a bit. I know this time will pass, but feeling like I haven't been the mom I desire to be for them.  Thank goodness for grace, because on some days I need a whole lot of it!

Thirty Something

 

I remember being in my elementary and middle school years and thinking thirty was old.  I would even see previews for the show Thirty Something and wonder why anyone would want to watch a show about middle aged people.  How depressing.  Somehow I suspect I would really enjoy the show now.  Even more depressing.

Anyway, being thirty something isn't so bad.  In fact I really enjoy my thirty somethings.  I have a pretty good set-up over here.  Great husband, beautiful home, good kids, fun part time teaching gig (gymnastics), and cool church, but it's really our wonderful friends I'd like to talk about today.

We have two sets of friends that we go to dinner with.  One set Steven and I have known the wife since high school and the other set we met when the wife became our babysitter to Little Man and Little Miss when I was working.  I'm not disclosing their names on here because I'm going to tell a story of one of date nights with both couples that makes me chuckle every single time I think of it.

About a year ago, Steven and I convinced both couples to try a new restaurant in a popular area of our city.  Steven and I had been there before and the food was really good and the atmosphere was quaint.  We decided to all meet there around 6 without kids so we could enjoy an evening out.

Unfortunately, the restaurant didn't live up to our memory, but we weren't going to let that spoil our kid free evening.  We decided to try the coffee shop two doors down where one of the couples knew the owner.

As we stepped inside it was packed out, but it was very apparent we did not fit in with this crowd.  It was one of those young hip, earthy type coffee shops where environmentally sound individuals sit and discuss saving trees and recycling.  Not for thirty somethings like us.

I believe the live music up front consisted of a small group of women and men who may or may not have arrived with shoes.  Nonetheless, not one musician was sporting any.  It was also very apparent that we were the only couples who seemed to mind that people were just hanging out with no shoes in a place where beverages were being served. Call me old fashioned, but I like the "No Shoes, No Shirts, No Service" saying.

Even with the earthy crowd and  non-shoe wearing musicians, Steven and one of the other guys were determined to get some coffee.  One of the other guys hates coffee, but he was peer pressured into ordering some.

Now I'm not a strong coffee type of girl.  I'm more of a foo-foo drink girl.  The kind of girl who likes a little bit of coffee with my creamer.  I should have ordered our friend's coffee.  Not the 'I like my coffee like I like my women (black and strong)' boys.  They ordered him up the strongest coffee.  They are mean.

After our friend had been slowing sipping on his coffee, Steven ventured to ask how he liked it.  I believe our friend's exact words were, "It taste like a$$."  Then he told us of a story where he went to breakfast with his co-workers.

Our friend is an engineer and is the youngest guy in his group of co-workers.  When they went to breakfast our friend, not liking coffee, ordered a chocolate milk.  After placing his order he went to the restroom.  When he came back his found his chocolate milk had been served...in a sippy cup.  After he got up to use the restroom, his co-workers asked the waitress to bring his milk out in a kid's cup.  Too funny!

And that my friends was all it took to get me laughing.  It still makes me laugh.  It all goes to show that we are not as young and hip as we would like to think we are.  We're just a group of thirty somethings who enjoy our time together whether we like where were at, whether we fit in, or whether we like coffee or not.