Make Ahead: Baked Penne Spaghetti

So I'm normally at class right now but during the day the teacher contacted us all and said she was very ill so class was canceled so gave me time to throw up another blog. (I think I'm becoming addicted to this blogging thing.)
So here you go, basically a very cheesy spaghetti you can make ahead of time and it takes about 45 min (Oven warm up time and bake time) once you get home and doesn't require you to hover over it so you can do things like help kids with homework.

1 box penne (or any thicker noodle if you prefer different)

1 can of sauce (whatever is your family's favorite will be fine)

2 cups mozzarella cheese

Cooked Meatballs

Cook noodles according to box directions. You don't want them super soft though. Al dente.

Drain and rinse with cold water. 

Mix pasta, pasta sauce, meatballs and 1 1/2 cups of cheese together in a large bowl. 

(You can do it in the dish itself but I find it's harder and I tend to spill things because it will fill a 13x9  to near over flowing. If you have a bit bigger baking dish it won't want to over flow but this makes a lot so it's easier just to dirty up another dish.)

Pour mixture into large baking dish (this one is the size up from the 13x9 I'm not sure the measurements) and taking the remain half of cup of cheese and sprinkle it over top. 

I also sprinkled a little bit of oregano and dried parmesan on top. Dried parmesan like you get out of the little craft containers won't melt so keep that in mind. 

You can add whatever cheeses your family likes my family just tends to be a bit picky. (Sadly)

Alternatives would be mixing in pepperoni's to give it more of a pizza like taste (make sure you cut them into quarters so they are bite sized and mix well, you can also cut up your meatballs for the same reason I was just in a hurry). 

Place foil over the top and store in the refrigerator.

To cook: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place foil topped dish into oven for 20 min. Remove foil and cook for 10 min. 

 

Garlic Rosemary Pork Loin

So it's Monday and I'm doing my crock pot dinner. I know strange right? Well there's no particular reason other than the sides I have planned will take too long to make Tuesday and this was suppose to be Sunday's dinner but I forgot to defrost the loin! So Sunday my husband went out and picked something up and I was getting ready to protest that and that I'd find something else to make but I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I'm horrible right?

So here we go.

Garlic Rosemary Pork Loin
1 1/2 - 2 lb Pork Loin
Garlic - Cloves are best but all I had in the house was minced. Amount will depend on how much you like garlic.
Rosemary about 4 tsp fresh or around 2 tsp dried
Salt & Pepper
Butter or Olive Oil

After rinsing off your pork loin (you do know you are suppose to rinse things like roasts before you use them right?) you may want to cut slits or holes into the loin, fat side. It is optional but I like my flavor to get more through the meat.

You then take your garlic and stuff it into the holes. This is where clove garlic works much better but you can do it with minced it just takes some patience.

Salt and pepper your roast. I don't personally use much salt as we eat so many canned or prepacked foods that my belief is we get enough salt already but we do use a generous amount of pepper instead.

If you are using fresh rosemary then you will want to mince it. I prefer fresh which is why I have a very wild rosemary bush trying to take over everything. Seriously it's scary! One of these days it's going to stop me and demand my lunch money!

You then want to spread the rosemary and put it into the crock pot. All of the ingredients should be rubbed over the whole roast.

Now I'm showing this fat side up and if you want to do fat side up then I suggest extra oil or butter at the bottom of the pan. This will create more drippings but will help so that the roast does not burn onto your crock pot.

I am actually cooking fat side down for 60 min* and then going to flip it to fat side up for the rest of the time.

Cook for 6 hours on low or whatever is required for the size of roast that you choose. I'm doing about a 2 lb roast and 6 hours will be fine. I also prefer to cook things on low because I think it allows more time for the flavor to sink in.*

*I would estimate only 30 min if your crock pot is on High.

*I had said 8 I'm used to 8 and walking away but then it comes out more like shredded pork. 6 hrs is probably plenty just temp it before you pull it out.

Making Candles

Stacked Heart Candles

So today is the day every year that I make candles for sure. I do it here and there throughout the year but the first day of Spring this is my little tradition. Making candles at home isn't very hard but it may seem a little daunting at first. It doesn't even have to be very expensive. It's all about what you want to do. 

You can go down to your local craft store and buy wax or you can even recycle old candles. If you have some old candles in jars put them in the freezer, over night at least (though I forget them in there and come back a month later). Carefully, patiently work the wax out of there. I've heard of glass shattering so you might want to do this gloved. I've never personally had it happen but most my containers are normally thicker glass.
Now I'd like to relay the story of today before I continue. I had gotten a bunch of wax donated to me by asking around on a free site if anyone had any old candles they wanted to get rid of (if you don't know of any free sites try looking for a freecycle in your area). A very nice lady had a whole trash bag of them for me. One of bits of wax was a babyfood jar filled completely! Well since it was filled completely the freezer method wouldn't work so I tried slowly heating it in water just below lid level. This would have all been well and good but I tried to hurry the process by carving it out a bit. Well after a while I put too much pressure and the bottom was melted and it came spraying out! Thank goodness my body reacted by closing my eyes before I could even comprehend what was happening and thank goodness I had the wax on low heat so the wax itself wasn't hot enough to burn me but I was completely covered in wax! My eyes were sealed shut, it got all in my hair too! The lesson of this is don't rush things and be smarter than I was! I've been making candles for several years now and this is the worst accident that I have ever had and it was a wake up call that anything done improperly can be dangerous. 

The wax donated minus the babyfood jar of wax.

Now cleaning candles is pretty easy. lightly wash off any dust, cobwebs, what have you and it doesn't need to be perfect and I'll tell you why. The particles are normally heavier than the wax itself so much of it will go to the bottom of your melting pan. Sometimes if you have a lot of gunk you'll have to use something to try and capture it. I normally use a wooden spoon or something.

Now you can have a big pitcher like you see to the side but you can also just use a can. Mine is a Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce can. The object here is to build a poor mans double boiler. You use a pot under with water and a pot inside to melt in. You'll notice the spoon I have under the can that's because of the rim on the can the water under it will evaporate, you'll get a nasty ring on your pan and things just don't go well just make sure when you remove the spoon that your hand is gloved! Otherwise you run the risk of getting burned. 

So it's simple you melt it and then if you want to use it for later you can pour it out into a dish. Once it's hardened a bit but not completely. It should still be warm to the touch. You can take a knife and just cut through it, let it dry the rest of the way and break it apart. There you go little manageable bits you can melt down as needed. 

There you have it! Cleaning and prepping wax. Now for pouring wax you use cans or the pot in the double boiler like set up like before. I suppose it would be easier to explain with pictures I may have a part 2 to this if the kids are good tomorrow since most of my day was spent cleaning wax. 

I did make some stacked candles during the process though and it was my first attempt. 

I cut out hearts from a tray of wax after the wax had start to harden but not completely with a cookie cutter sprayed with vegetable cooking oil (suggest only using metal cookie cutters I'm not sure how plastic ones would react). I stacked my hearts and used a skewer stick so that I could put a hole for my wick straight through and it all be in the same location. 

For my wick I took bulk wick, dipped it in wax, ran my fingers over it to get off the excess wax and repeated this process 3 times and then let it dry hanging and straightened it so I could feed it through. I took bulk ends and using needle nose pliers I attached the end to the wick. Now I've read a few suggestions on how to adhear the different levels together I couldn't quite get it to work right so mine are loose but I'm still very happy about it and don't plan to be picking them up a lot so it's fine with me. 

Now for the different colors I did two trays. One white and one red. For the red I used red old crayons. They work pretty well though if you see your colors not blending well you might need to look into a product called vybar which is good for making sure that color and scent evenly go through the wax and helps especially if you are doing molded candles. It is pretty expensive in my book so I don't use it often. Because I was using the O'Charley's crayons though I did end up using vybar. Crayola crayons seem to be the best but I just use what is on hand.

I would not doubt if I'm being a little confusing or skipping over some parts so just let me know and I'll be sure to answer any questions to the best of my ability or try and point you in the right direction.

My Own Pinstrosity

"pin·stros·i·ty \pin-ˈsträ-sə-tē\: a pin of great and often frightening size, force, or complexity." -http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/

http://www.duitang.com/people/mblog/15741337/detail/

So I had this idea months ago before even getting onto pinterest and then I see that it is completely doable! The pinterest site took me to a Chinese website but not to worry the instructions for this were wrote in English on eHow and it's all over the web! 

Sadly it's only been a few days and it's already an epic fail! To top it off I see it's been just enough time for my broccoli to sprout and some how I have to transplant everything because I don't have enough seeds to do it all again! 

 So here you see I just got as many plants as I could into my tray! Things like tomatoes have to be transplanted a couple times sometimes to get a nice thick stem before putting them outside, lots of peppers because they don't take much space and broccoli because it was my first time trying to grow it.
I probably went over board and the potting soil I got I had to dampen myself which probably means I got it too wet. I know it didn't look uniformed.

So here's the problem.... MOLD! Perhaps I should have left the green house cover off? EEP!

I get the feeling I'm going to be quite busy fixing this mess. Personally I would say just spend the money and buy the actual stuff and skip the toilet paper rolls. It was worth a try trying to save money but let's just hope it didn't just cost me extra.

DIY: Laundry Detergent - Good Clean Fun

Sorry I finally got batteries! Horray! Though I did miss out on lots of things I would have loved to take pictures of. So what did I do with my new batteries today? Well take a picture of the flower that's come out from bulbs I forgot I planted.

Pretty!

So this past  weekend I was busy and I didn't get my 'To Do List' taken care of. Dusting and cobwebbing kinda hit the back burner. 

Saturday we took the kids out to the Science museum and they got to play with soap bubbles filled with CO2 which was neat. They loved all the dry ice experiments. Sadly no pictures. 

Sunday I did take my camera and we got a few snap shots made. First we made laundry detergent which I'll go over in a moment and then we tried to make liquid dishwasher detergent which I won't be going over it's a work in process as we try to figure out amounts and how cost effective it is. 

Laundry Detergent!

Sarah graciously hosted and showed us all how to make it. It was great fun and there was more chattering than actual work. 

Step 1: Grate the Cheese (with generous amounts of coffee in you if you decide to do this in the morning)

Step 2: Get a big pot ready and start setting up! And measure ingredients. *Cues Dramatic Music for Sarah*

1 Bar Fels-Napha Soap

1 Cup of Borax
1 Cup Washing Powder
1 pot of water heated to boiling

Add in order. 

Mix finely grated soap into boiling water while stirring  Continue to stir until dissolved.   

Add the 1 cup of Washing Soap. Whisk in until well blended.

 Then add 1 cup of Borax. Whisk in until well blended.












Thanks to Carrie our note card maker and additional helper!

This is where my camera died. So here we go. Take your 5 gallon bucket fill it half way with hot water then add the soap and whisk until well mixed. Fill the bucket the rest of the way, lid and let sit 24 hrs. It will jell pretty thick on the bottom and at the top you'll have to re mix it all I suggest gloves for this because hands in soap for too long I found out is bad and maybe safety glasses so it doesn't splash up into your eyes like it did poor Sarah. Separate out into smaller containers and there you go. Use about 3/4 cup per full load and best to shake the bottle before each use to make sure it's well mixed. 

There you go! Laundry Soap! 5 Gallons worth :)

Sliding into the Weekend

Well it's Friday though it doesn't quite seem like it because at 5:15 this morning we got the phone call that school was canceled and since my husband and I had talked it over the night before he went ahead and called into work using some of his vacation since he has more time off than I do.
When I got up and looked out the window this morning you don't want to know the string of curse words that went through my head they were really embarrassing because all I could think was, "They canceled school for rain?!" After a short rant on Facebook someone told me that though it looked wet out there that was really a sheet of ice. So it was understandable after that.

After waiting til nearly 9 o'clock to go into work thinking the extra time would let the ice melt some (which it couldn't have hurt) and knowing I got held over at work yesterday so today was going to be a short day I braved going out to the van. It was all fine until I hit the drive way and decided to do the splits. I've been sore all day! It probably would have been humorous had someone been watching, my legs going in two different directions and one hand going down to try and stop me from falling on my face while the other one was flung upward I suppose to help support my balance but my keys went flying and I probably looked like I should have been in some dance scene thrown into some sort of show like Glee (though I'm guessing as I've never watched that show). Other than hurt pride and being sore though I was okay at least.

I had Peter put the girls to studying math as both girls needed the practice and even though there was no school today it didn't mean they shouldn't study.

Got home this evening and had the simple meal of sloppy joes and chips. Sometimes it's best just to take it easy.

This weekend I'll be going to my friend's house as she's been making laundry detergent and she's going to show me how. I'm pretty sure I could do it myself but it's much more fun in a group and who needs 5 Gal. of laundry detergent laying around the house when you can split it up and everyone can save money and have fun. I've talked to her and I really wanted to try making the dishwasher detergent I've seen online too so we are going to also do that. In the thought of doing all this I washed out a vegetable oil container we just got done with. I really wish I could have some fancy labels though for my container but adhering things onto plastic seems to be a very difficult thing to do but I decided after web searching that I was going to try a couple different ways.

 This one I tried with a glue stick, a picture I found online and reversed it, a wet sponge and a spoon. It actually has a neat papery textured feeling and I think it'll last longer but didn't come out very even.

 This one I finagled a way to print onto wax paper, used a glue stick and a spoon with the same picture (just larger as you can tell). It came out better but I think it will wipe off easily so I'll have to figure out a good way to coat it. I also tried alcohol with paper but it did not come out at all!
(The liquid in it by the way is just soapy water like I said it held oil so I've been trying to get it cleaned.)

Well that's about it for my Friday and now I'm facing the weekend so yup I have a 'To Do List'.

 Thankfully it's not a crazy one, just mainly catching up from the week. The only things of note really are we are looking at taking the kids to the Science Museum for the 'Dry Ice Show' because my kids really love science, on Friday and then that evening going to the local gaming shop for the pre-release of the new set for Magic the Gathering (it's a card game). And then of course Sunday a play date for the kids while the women folk make soap.

Well that's about it folks. I already warned my friend, Sarah, that I'd be bringing my camera along and that, "I'm so going to blog this." So more to come Sunday or Monday!

Last Weekend's To Do List

So I never got back to how I did on my 'To Do' list. Saturday I was pretty productive and knocked out a chunk though Sunday not so much as I ran a friend of mine a favor to kill two birds with one stone because the other is he wanted me to see his house and I had been putting off getting the time for awhile. Monday.... well that was crafts plain and simple.
The List:
General

• Catch up dishes (had odds and ends that needed to be hand washed that was the main goal because dishes will always be there)
• Laundry (Which I'm already behind on again!)
• Clean Kitchen Floor
• Clean Bathroom (I'll say it's done but truthfully I didn't scrub the bathtub out but I got the rest done.)
• Vacuum
• Litter Box
• Fill Fish Tank Water
• Take down ceramic Christmas lights (Yes, I still have more stuff I'm trying to get put up. I started trying to take these down Sunday but it was so cold I couldn't stand it.)
• put up wreaths (Which are now in their nice nifty wreath container still on my living room floor but are off my walls outside. I just need to carry it up to the attic so job is 90% done.)
• enter coke points (I needed something easy to accomplish)

Kids

• make V-day bird feeders
• make heart chain
• make wax paper sun catchers

Opt. 

• See how new cleaning formula works on floor grate (I already posted on this because I really had wanted to see)
• Read a chapter in a book (still working towards my goal of finishing 1 book this year so easy to have too many things going on so I'm trying to keep my goals reasonable.)
• Sewing pile
• Put up blinds (I'll call this done but we have 1 more to do. I can't take credit for the work though my husband actually took it upon himself to do it.)

Family

• Movie night (We've been making it our goal to watch a family safe movie every Saturday night. The children love the time with all the family in one room doing something together and having popcorn.)

I wish the list would disappear forever once thing were done sadly a great deal of this will come creeping back into my next list.

As I said, Sunday I didn't get much done because I was over at my friends getting the tour and talking because well that's what I do when I get out. 

Monday was craft day with the kids but I did grab one of my "Shove it all in there, clear the surfaces for company" boxes and got pretty far in there throwing things away and putting other things away properly. I've got lots of those boxes floating around and slowly but surely I'm combining them down as I go through them. By golly I think if I didn't have to go to work I'd probably have the most organized house EVER.