It's The Simple Things: Life Passes In An Instagram (Week 6)

Week 6 has come to an end and I've managed to keep up with this whole 'picture a day' thing'.  I'm impressed with myself.

Thw entire week before built up to Sunday.  Superbowl Sunday.  I don't care one thing about the football, I'm just in it for the food.  And the commercials.  I like those too.  My favorite dish on our Superbowl?  A little Caprese Salad with toasted Sour Dough French Bread. YUM!

Sunday, February 5th

  I often refer to our kids as vinegar and baking soda.  When you mix them together, something usually bubbles over.  Monday, on the way to school, I happened to look up and see this in the back seat.  The boy was staring out the window and the girl was singing to herself.  They were holding hands.  Neither had asked the other to do it, it just sort of happened.  There's some sort of an adult life-lesson in there some where.

 Monday, February 6th

I've been complaining for weeks that it just doesn't feel much like winter around here this year.  Apparently someone was listening.  My car was completely iced over Tuesday morning.  This was my view of the sun from my window.  Thankfully, it didn't take too long to thaw things out.

Tuesday, February 7th

Our beach vacation is a ways off yet... about 6 months... I must not be the only one really looking forward to it.  Wednesday morning, the kids packed their bags and pretended to take a beach vacation in the kitchen.  It was really cute to hear Addison play 'mom' to Cullen.  I can't wait for August!

Wednesday, February 8th

The feather still exists.  I missed getting a shot of it for week 5, but it's still there.  It's starting to look a bit weary though.  I'm still amazed that it's laying in pretty much the same place it was two months ago.  We've had winds strong enough to take down banners and carry them out into the woods, but this little feather lays right there.

Thursday, February 9th

I spent Friday morning at my Dr's office.  I hate going to the doctor.  It's not my actual doctor, or even the visit itself, that bothers me.  It's the waiting.  And the germs.  I can't help but to sit in the waiting room and wonder how many germs other than the ones that brought me here are pouring into my lungs every time I take a breath.  Ick.  Anyways, the only tolerable part of the whole experience was getting to drink my coffee in peace.  I made a nice, big mug (in my sock monkey travel mug!) and kept it sealed tight until I was in the peace of the exam room.  I left with an empty cup, an RX for antibiotics and who knows what new germs.

Friday, February 10th

Two of my favorite people and I headed out for dinner Saturday night at Eez Fusion.  It's freaking delicious.  We had to wait about an hour for a table, so we ran down the way to Gymboree and shopped for the kiddos.  We managed to kill most of the hour and finally got the page for our table.  With a wind chill of 7 degrees, we were a little frosty by the time we were seated.  The cure?  A freshly steeped cup of Fruit Paradise Loose Leaf Tea.  It was amazingly perfect for such a cold night.

Saturday, February 11th

So, that was my week.  How was yours?  Are you doing a weekly photo summary?  I'd love to link to it next week!  You can link up your favorite photos from the week over at Simple As That too!  Just click on the image below.

Soaps On!

No, it's not giant jars of lard.  (Bonus points if you know what lard is.)  It does kind of look like it.  It smells a lot better though.

It's laundry detergent!

Seriously, one of the easiest things I've ever done.  If you can boil water, and use measuring cups and a veggie peeler, you can make your own laundry soap.  Obviously costs will vary according to your area, but from my rough calculations, we spend about $0.20 a load to use Tide.  This costs me less than $0.02 a load.  Really, closer to $0.01.  Those are gallon containers, and considering I use about a Tablespoon per load, it will last a looooong time.

We've always been a Tide family, and since the introduction of Tide Free and Clear, we've used it religiously.  I did try the Purex sheets at one point, but gave those up because they were leaving a residue on our clothes.  A few weeks ago, my friend Stacy made a batch of homemade laundry detergent and brought me some to try.  My husband isn't always on board with the do-it-yourself versions of things (he thinks I'm strange), so rather than tell him I was trying something new, I just sort of slid it in gradually.

We have major allergy issues in this family.  And by 'we', I mean my husband and kids.  My first concern was how their skin would handle the switch.  So, in an effort to test the theory, I tried the new stuff out on a load of towels.  After they were washed and dried, I put those towels back out in the bathrooms to ensure they'd be used.  I figured they'd be a great test since you rub them over your whole body.  At most, I'd have to collect and rewash towels if anyone had a reaction.

No one even noticed.  Not a word.  So, I washed another load in the new stuff.  A week and a half later, when no one had noticed, I switched everything over to the homemade detergent.  Not a peep.  Our clothes looked great, smelled the same as always, and no one was itchy.

After my husband added 'Tide' to the grocery list, I figured it was time to fess up.  

'Honey, I'm not buying Tide.'

'What?'

'I'm not buying Tide.'

'Well, what are you getting?'

'Um, nothing.'

'What?'

'I'm making our detergent.'

'This is Stacy's fault, isn't it?  She makes her own, doesn't she?'

'Yep.'

'I don't know how I'm going to like this.'

'You like it fine.  I've been using it for a few weeks.'

'Great.'

So, I'm making laundry detergent.

There are about a million and 1 recipes out there for making your own, so I'm not going to post another one, but if you're interested in specifically how I did it and what I used, just leave a comment or shoot me an email and I'll be happy to share.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Sweet Bread

Be still my heart, for I think we have found love...

I wanted to do something special for Valentine's Day.  I wanted to do something with chocolate and cherries.  So, I did this.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Sweet Bread

The Players:

Baker's Dipping Chocolate

3/4 Cup Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

3/4 Cup Dried Cherries

1 12 oz Can Dr Pepper (I used Diet because it's what I had)

1 Pkg Beer Bread Mix (I use Tastefully Simple Bountiful Beer Bread, but there are others out there)

Maraschino Cherries (for garnish, if you desire)

This could not be easier.  Prep takes less than 5 minutes, as does the chocolate covering portion of the adventure.  The bulk of your time on this is spent between the oven and the cooling rack.

The particular bread mix I use is a complete mix and only requires a carbonated beverage (typically beer), so if the mix you use requires something else, you'll want to add that.  For my mix, I simple started by pouring the Diet Dr Pepper into a mixing bowl.  I added the mix and both the chocolate morsels and dried cherries.  Once mixed well, I poured the batter into a greased loaf pan.  This baked for 40 minutes at 350, but you'll want to bake yours according to the specific directions of your bread mix.

Once baked, turn the bread out on to a cooling rack and let it cool completely before moving on to the chocolate.

One of my favorite things in the world is chocolate.  A close second is anything covered in chocolate.  Unless it's an insect.  That voids all relationships with the said chocolate. I could have done the whole double-boiler, melt the chips, thing here, but I went with Baker's Dipping Chocolate instead.  If you never used Baker's Dipping Chocolate, it is SO easy.  If you can use your microwave, you can melt chocolate without burning it.

Once the cake has cooled completely, place a sheet of wax paper or foil under your cooling rack.  Melt the chocolate according to the package instructions and simply pour it over the loaf.  Leaving the loaf on the cooling rack allows the chocolate to run down the sides and get that 'drippy' effect without the pooling at the bottom.  The wax paper or foil saves you a lot of clean up later.  You can pop a cherry (or cherries) on top while the chocolate is still warm to create a pretty finish.

As the chocolate cools, it will harden and create a delicious coating on the crust of the bread.  And, if you are so inclined, you can eat the delicious drippings that end up on the wax paper!

This is what you end up with inside.  Happy little chocolate covered cherry explosions that were fantastic with my coffee this morning.

Delish!