Dinner Disaster

Did I miss a day again? Well, Josh stole the computer last night and I got some sewing done. I really am trying here. I am freaking out a little that Christmas is only 6 weeks away and I am very much not done. I only planned on 2 quilts for Christmas presents. Oh, and name towels for my family, and I need to finish the buttons on Rome's pajamas, besides actually shopping for other presents. Once a week is just not going to get it done.
Anyway, it has been so nice to just stay home. After such a crazy September and October traveling all over. I am enjoying staying home, playing with my kids, getting nothing done. My house is a mess and I don't care. I also slack on dinner. I think about it at 4:00, if I remember. So, dinners have not been very good. I am pretty stress free though.
Well, I decided to make a nice dinner for Saturday night. I was perusing Pinterest to see how to store some vegetables that we got and noticed this recipe that I had pinned. It might be a really good lasagna idea for gluten free or vegetarians. I thought I could do it. I even started with plenty of time at 3:00.
The problems started early. I chose italian sausage instead of ground beef(very greasy, even after draining). I used my mandolin to slice my zucchini, but there were so many seeds that the pieces were very holey and uneven. I chose to shred a block of mozzerella cheese instead of using the bag of pre-shredded resulting in chunks of cheese that did not spread evenly. I didn't have any ricotta or cottage cheese, so I used some cream cheese and only half the amount called for. I also did not have enough parmesan cheese and so used only half as much. I didn't want to make the sauce (running out of time already) so I used the spaghetti sauce I had in the fridge. It was good but only half the amount I needed. I did not add water to help it out.
It took me almost 2 hours to prep the stuff to put together. Needless to say it did not go together well.

Before baking. Not enough zucchini, sauce or cheese. Too much italian sausage.

After Baking:  Greasy, cheesy and watery.

 I do believe it was the worst lasagna ever. Even beat out the Poor Man Lasagna we made in college with cottage cheese and crunchy burnt noodles on the side. We didn't have garlic bread to burn with it this time. We ate it anyway. I wanted leftovers so I wouldn't have to cook Sunday, but it was so thin that we ate almost all of it. Ahh, I might get a hang of this dinner thing someday.

Lucky I get to hang out with these cute kids though. They don't care yet.

 Boxes are fun!

She laid all of this out to wear the night before. (even the orange tutu and sparkly hair tie)

Happy in the morning.

Yea, this guy too.

Dinner Du Jour

I have a few dinner stories and I thought I would put them together. It is long, but kinda funny!

The first is when I invited the missionaries over for dinner. I was worried they weren't coming because they didn't call me until 4 pm. Then they wanted to eat at 7. I told them that was okay, but we were going to eat at 5. Sorry, I cannot wait until 7 to eat, that is Rome's bedtime. Anyway, I invited my other friends, the Wallaces, over too so we could eat with them. I made a roast chicken that I got from my friend Alissa. It was so good and so easy! Then, I made a salad and my friend brought homemade rolls. It was so good. I also wanted to make a pie because there were strawberries on sale for $1. Yea, really! The strawberry pie was pretty easy. Just cut up strawberries, pile them in the crust and cover with homemade sauce. Done! So, I made the crust, but I use a box and it makes 2. So, I decided to also make a chocolate pie. Not too hard. I looked up a recipe in my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook. Here it is: 2/3 cup butter, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 cup melted chocolate chips. Yup, that is it. I really should have realized that it was not going to turn out, but my pregnancy brain must be starting early, because I didn't. We ate it, well, we tried. It was TeRrIbLe. How could it not be? It was only chocolate butter and grainy sugar. Yuck! Afterwards, I took out the yucky filling and made a different kind. 1/3 cup milk, 1 cup mini marshmallows, 1 cup chocolate chips. Melt in the microwave and add whip cream. Mmmm! Much better! Sorry Missionaries for making you eat gross chocolate-butter pie!
The Wallaces and the pretty chicken, strawberry pie and bad chocolate pie
the chocolate pie - fixed

#2. Dan, Clare and Abi were coming down to visit Clare's parents for Father's Day. (they live an hour away from me) They wanted to stop by and visit. So, I made them dinner. It was pretty easy (I am all about easy). I just did BBQ ribs in the crock pot, veggies and homemade rolls. (my friend gave me her recipe) It didn't turn out quite right however. The ribs are usually really tender and just fall of the bones, but they didn't. They were still tasty though, so it was okay. The rolls, just didn't want to work. I do not do well with raising things like bread or rolls. I put in extra yeast. It looked like it raised too much in the bread machine. I rolled them into rolls and tried to let them raise again and they did a little, and then they fell. They still tasted okay, but they looked really funny. I don't know what I did, but next time I am skipping the second raise. I also made a cheesecake from a mix. It called for a graham cracker crust, so I made one from scratch. Except, I don't think I measured and there was tons of crust. It was filling the whole pie plate. I kept taking it out until I decided to just make a second one. So, I made 2 cheesecakes. Luckily I had 2 mixes, Strawberry Swirl and Chocolate Heaven. They were supposed to have a whole tub of whipped cream added, but I only had one, so they both got half. They were good, but SUPER sweet. I ate the chocolate one and it made me feel yucky. I really have to quit doing that. I don't need any help feeling sick. Anyway, it was such a nice dinner! The babies played, we ate, we chatted and hung out for a while. Dan and Josh watched Boxing. Altogether, a very pleasant evening. We were so glad you guys could come and visit!

The babies playing, wish I got more pics of you guys and dinner, oh well!

Lastly, Father's Day. Josh's dad wanted us to come up and visit him. I was worried about seeing my parents too in such a short visit, but they were in Spain. I never heard they were going there, but they were not home, so I didn't have to worry. We got up early on Sunday and drove the 6, supposed to be 5, hour drive to Evanston, WY. Rome did not sleep, but loved his Baby Einstein videos. So, yay for DVD players! When we got there we played, showed off Rome's walking, and tried to get him to sleep (yea, right). Then we ate dinner. It was delicious! Steak, crab, asparagus, twice baked potatoes and peach cheesecake with ice cream. Mmmm-mmm. The best part was that Rome loved the crab. Who knew! We thought it would be a funny texture, but he liked it and ate everything we gave him. He did so well with out a high chair and just being tied up with grandpa's belt. Grandpa shared ice cream with him too. What a spoiled kid! It was fun and we are glad we got to see them for Father's day!