Breakfast Pie

When I started freezer cooking with my friend Kathy the first thing I suggested was a breakfast pie that my mom makes. It’s easy, it’s quick and it’s always a hit.

It really does great in the freezer (I used anchor storage/cooking dishes. You can buy individual ones at the Container Store, disposable aluminum trays also work if you don’t want to tie these up in the freezer). I just take it out the day before and put it in the fridge. I make up more than one now when I do these, and decided three jumbo sized ones would be great for when the baby came! I am really loving that I had the foresight (by that I mean crazy intense urge to get things done) to do these up ahead of time.
It’s one of my mom’s recipes so I’ll list out what she said, with what I do in parentheses.
Breakfast Pie – serves 6-8
8 slices bacon cooked crisp – reserving 1 tablespoon drippings (I save a bit more…)
1/2 cornflake crumbs (I use a little more)
5 eggs (my mom notes that she uses extra if she’s serving a hungry group, and so do I!)
2 1/2 cups frozen hashbrowns (note: yes, they have to be frozen. It’s one of those weird freezer cooker rules, otherwise they will blacken up when you cook them)
1 1/2 (4 ounces) shredded cheese (we use Tillamook Medium Cheddar)
1/2 cup cottage cheese (note: I HATE cottage cheese, but I put it in, I never notice it after it’s cooked)
1/3 cup milk
1 green onion, thinly sliced (Tuesday is a green onion freak so I use a whole bunch of these)
1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 drops tabasco sauce
 
Crumble cooked bacon and set aside.
Mix cornflakes with drippings and set aside.
Beat eggs until foamy (upon Bj’s request I’ve started doing this part in the Kitchen Aid mixer, since I do big batches it does work better, you’re right honey!), then stir in remaining ingredients.
Pour into a greased 9 inch pie pan (um, I totally use the bacon grease for this)
Sprinkle with cornflakes and bacon.
Cover and refrigerate overnight (like I said I freeze this and just move it to the refrigerator the day before).
Preheat over to 325 degrees.
Uncover pie.
Bake 50 minutes or until knife comes out clean (waiting for it to cook this long is the hardest part!).
Serve with toast or other warm pastry!

Seriously so good. I hope you try it! I like that it doesn’t have a full heavy crust, just a nice sprinkling of some bacon goodness. I don’t mind making this just for our little family, I keep pulling cooked pieces out of the fridge for a couple of days and microwave them. Tuesday loves this as well so it’s an all around hit! I do think I made them a bit thick this time, they took too long to cook.
I’m not the only one still rocking that gold dust counter top in my kitchen, right?

Saved by the Bucket

So Tuesday loves her little sister. But sometimes she LOVES her little sister. The, “Don’t squeeze quite that hard!” variety. And I’m a wee bit nervous about having Tuesday roaming around free while Bennet is sleeping. She started loving the shower (finally) and will happily play in there with me, perfect solution! Well I started thinking if she liked being in there with me, maybe she would stay in there a little longer? Turns out she’ll pretty much stay in the shower indefinitely. The problem is the water issue. It is certainly nice to brush my teeth and blow dry my hair while she makes pretend lattes, but I feel a little guilty for the extra water just going down the drain. Enter the blue bucket.

(yes she also got my used peri bottles!). It may be silly to do a whole post about this, but I have not had such relaxing get ready periods in a long time. No one is squirting out all my lip gloss, getting who knows what on my powder brushes or trying to steal all my Q-Tips. Instead she and I are having nice conversations about all the pretend things she’s making me (soup, salad, and lots of ranch on everything). I’m sure it goes without saying that I wouldn’t recommend leaving the bathroom while you have a three year old and a bucket of water, but just in case, I’m saying it. I wondered how long it would take her to realize she fit in the bucket (2 days). Usually she fills up various containers and dumps them back out for ten minutes, gets a bit cold and gets in her bucket for the remainder.
Have any other random ideas like this to keep a three year old from loving to death her little sister?

Curls


Oh how I have loved Tuesday’s curls. They were such a wonderful surprise from two straight haired parents! But had become a source or tears for poor Tuesday. She told me she wanted her hair SHORT. I did not really want her hair that short, and I really thought she didn’t know what she meant. She had been on a big, “I want it down to my vulva” kick. Ha! I know 🙂 But after telling me again that Nana should cut it SHORT when she visited I gave in.

So excited! Lucky girl with her personal traveling hair dresser!

Hey Tuesday, what is Bennet doing while you get your haircut?

“Bennet is sleeping like this!”

 
(Before)

(After) thank you Nana!

Still a little wave on her cute little head.

She loves it! And this is much easier to deal with since she does not like to put it up. I did have Nana leave it a little long so I could get it up in piggies for dance class.
In the same vein as yesterday’s post… doesn’t this make her look old?!?!

One Month Old

Yesterday Bennet turned one month old!

You don’t have to tell me it’s going to go fast, oh my goodness do I know!

I’m going to attempt to take pictures all year long in this cute sleep sack from Sciarrino (like this). I can’t remember who found this cute idea for me, but I love it! Here was my initial attempt (note baby is crying). Then I got the sleepy picture I posted first. Of course she decided not to sleep so I was able to get some open eye pictures too.

Speaking of her eyes.

They are going to be blue! At least that’s what the eye doctor told me. I went to my check up and took Bennet with me. At one point I had to cuddle her while figuring out my new prescription. The doctor said she had pretty eyes and I said something like, “I can’t wait to see what color they’ll be.” He asked me my husband’s eye color (green) and said, “Oh, they’ll be blue. When they are that blue they stay blue. They might turn a little blue-green.” We’ll see if he’s right. I could have a blond, blue-eyed, straight haired girl on my hands. How funny how different kids can be!

And guess what Bennet you may be one month old but your sister is 43 MONTHS OLD. Holy moly. Sciarrino texted me that fun fact 🙂

Here is something I want to ask. If you have three (or more) children does time speed up with each one? I mean Bennet’s first month definitely seemed to have gone quicker than Tuesday’s!

Vintage Sheet Quilt

I don’t know why this never made it to the blog… at least I don’t think it did. Probably because when I made it up (last summer I think), it went right into use. Here is a little bit of the fabric I used, and I also participated in a vintage sheet swap that helped make up this quilt.

Really, if you’ve never quilted you could still make this quilt. It’s so dead easy. Big blocks, stitch in the ditch, and a nice solid binding. I did take the time to do a hand stitched binding, which gives even a simple quilt a nice finished look.

It’s actually more of a blanket because the batting is flannel instead of actual batting. It makes it so soft and light. Plus easy to fold up and take along. I might do another “quilt” like this with favorite fabrics that I want to see a lot of the pattern. I know I have readers that haven’t quilted at all, but want to. Might I suggest something like this? Give it a try!

Trellis

Here goes the broken record: Oh my poor yard! Oh the neglect this year! I have tried, but really third trimester + late spring/early summer = totally horrible for the garden. One area that got completely, completely, never even ventured over there, neglected was our tiny little side access. Thank goodness for my wonderful neighbors on the opposite side. We are such good friends with them we have a gate going between our yards in the back. And when we need anything big to come out of our back yard (like garbage cans) we just go through their yard. Did I mention they are the best? So this tiny little walkway is little used. It doesn’t help that it’s overgrown and a big drop off to the other neighbor.

I “built” that little support to try and encourage my jasmine, but they were not having it. So I finally got a book from the library, picked out a plan and paid someone to make me a proper trellis.
I had to clean out the whole area before he came, and let me tell you with the belly that was NO small feat!

We’re so classy with our forts on the front porch, and hanging baskets that I tried to make myself this year and FAILED at. Why don’t the flowers grow down? I don’t know what I did wrong. Anyway with some help from my mom (“Hey mom remember when you said you could come do some weeding? How about today.”) and our handyman I don’t feel so bad about this area. I can’t wait for the Jasmine to really fill in and have that wonderful smell wafting up to the porch. We already have a similar thing going on with jasmine up our back deck and I love it!

Looking from the neighbor’s yard:

You can see the big drop off that I was worried about. So much safer, and more private. I love it!

Bj planted one more jasmine to help fill in the area. I would have except I bought the plant the day before I gave birth so instead I got to come outside and see this (and some other plants) planted all fresh for me. Thanks love! Very excited to see this grow up and fill in. I’ve been given the all clear to get back to work in the garden/house, as long as I take it easy. I haven’t had a chance though, since I don’t want to take Bennet out in 100 degree weather! That’s right summer finally came! Now if it could just ripen up our tomatoes…

Lately

The “second child doesn’t get its picture taken as much” syndrome is not in full effect. But that’s only because I have an iPhone.

Sciarrino (Oh, hey Sciarrino I stole this photo from you). One of the few people Tuesday will tolerate. Oh yes, we’re deep into, “I don’t like ANYONE!” Except for me. And some days papa and occasionally Bennet. Too bad mama can’t be everywhere and do everything…

It’s been hot… and I’ve been lax on diapers!

My cousin and her daughter came by. Bennet was her usual enthusiastic self.

Air out time on the play mat.

Goal was to get to the mall today for a birthday present. And we made it! At one PM, well, we got out of the house at least. Also, Air Jordan’s with that outfit Tuesday, really?!?

We had to get Bennet these glasses, because you know, FLAMES ON THE SIDE!

This is the old, “mama you don’t know it yet, but I’m about to spit up all over EVERYTHING and then you’ll get poop all over your hand and then you’ll change and I’ll pee all over you” look.
Classic.