Forced study break and blackberry cobbler!

Helllooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I was recently forced out of my cave. Well, I was lured by a large mocha and the promise of some company in the kitchen. My friend Mindy told me she was coming. Just like that. I had no choice about the matter. I was going to have to actually brush my hair and put on a shirt without stains.
 (Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. I brushed my hair that morning.)
                                          
 Since we were out of bread and milk and peanut butter and all the other food that children live on, I went to the grocery store before she arrived. And there, I saw blackberries on sale! Score!
 When my college roommate visited a few years ago, she made Pioneer Woman Cooks blackberry cobbler and it lives in my memory as a dish of sugar-crusted perfection. She also gave me her cookbook, along with a picture of them together! Whoohooo! She's met Pioneer Woman!
Since we had everything we needed, we decided to throw it together while her boys and my kids were chasing each other around the house with mini laser guns. (Thanks, Christalee. I'll get even with you someday...)

 Ok, doubling this recipe because... you know... lots of people.
2 sticks (1/2 lb) of butter
2 1/2 cups sugar, and 4 TBS extra
2 cups self rising flour (or normal flour plus 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder per cup)
2 cups milk
2 cups fresh blackberries

 Mmmm. Sweet cocaine.

 Melt the butter and whisk in the flour and the sugar.

 Add the blackberries and sprinkle with sugar.

 Into the oven they go at 350F for one hour!

 This is about 30 minutes in, and they're starting to puff.

 This is about 45 minutes in to the cooking. About now, you can sprinkle the remaining 2 TBS sugar over each one. Or you can misread the directions and do it before they start cooking, like I did. Apparently it doesn't make much difference.

 MMMMM.

 The picture is fuzzy. Probably because I was elbowing kids out of the way so I could take the shot. Suddenly, everybody was in the kitchen!

 After it's cooled about 10-15 minutes you can dish some out and add any leftover berries. It was plenty sweet enough that it didn't need any vanilla ice cream, but PWC says you can add any toppings you so desire.

Closer, closer... YUM. This is probably the easiest recipe I know for a dessert and next time I'd like to try a peach version. Not sure how it will be but I'll keep you updated!

And speaking of updates, here's a final picture of the book nook. I think the last time I posted, we weren't quite finished...

So, the bean bag arrived and at first I was worried. It was about 1 ft square and rock solid. The directions said to cut it out of the wrapper and put it in the inner bean bag pouch. It supposedly would start to expand over the next few days. Huh?? The bean bag was going to grow? 

But, it was true! The environmentally friendly bean bag material indeed started to expand and soon, within hours, it was two feet wide.

By the next morning it was 48 inches wide and completely soft. We placed in the book nook, right under the origami dragons. (Here is Edward looking at St. George and his shiny sword.)

With all that reading, little boys need a bit of a nap. Minutes later, there was quiet snoring. Ahhh, double duty book nook! Napping and reading, what a life!

One more picture of the before, for contrast:

I do believe this wasn't a Pinterest fail, for once! Also, the kids had a great time working together to make their ideas happen. Okay, until next time!

Starving artists and turning a closet into a reading nook.

Hellloooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and we're going to get crafty today!

 We're all sick here, so mostly we've been sipping hot tea and clear broth. I could take a picture of the tea package and call it a post, right??? I'm sure wishing I had some of Julie's home made chicken stock right about now.
 Anyway, I thought we'd show you an update on our closet-turned-reading nook.
Now, some of these pictures are a little shocking. Just remember that I have six kids.

Fine, that's no excuse. Just remember I'm a pack-rat at heart and I have passed that trait down to all my kids. But we're determined to be more organized and donate what we don't use. Because if we don't love it enough to put it away, then someone else needs it more!

When everything is out of the closet, where does it go? And why do we have so many toys? Oh, the questions that will remain unanswered...

Why, why, why??

 So, closet is cleaned out, doors off (they were perpetually broken and you could only squeeze in your upper body to grab a coat or two). The painting begins!

 The work crew.

 He can look cute and paint at the SAME TIME.

 The closet was a 'home made' project from the previous owner (who also built the house, sometime in 1930 or so). I like his shelves, so I'm keeping them.

 Drying. Watch carefully... something may change... any moment now...

 Shelves painted, dried, and replaced.

 I bought a drill at Home Depot and put up some shelves. Not really happy with the quality (of the product, not the work, smarty pants!) but they will do.

 The kids picked out the curtains... Hanging on a tension rod above the frame of the doorway.

 Closed curtains. Cool. Another changing spot. Toddlers may not be running naked quite so often. Unless they just use this space to strip and then return to the world deshabille.

 The kids picked out some wooden trim and painted in the vine scroll pattern. Pretty!

 Ana plans her space. Everyone has made requests for the artwork. She and the others will take turns making it become a reality.

The castle is outlined.

Putting up some of our Fisher Price toys. I want to get rid of an old shelf in the room, so I'm  rearranging.

 LED strip lights were next. I bought a kit at Home Depot. It came with everything I needed, including little sticky pads for the plastic runners. Plugged it in and... pretty!

 I like the soft glow.

 I did manage to install it upside down. Ugh. But, it still works and the kids figured it out really quickly. So, they can adjust the lighting themselves.

 A dragon takes shape.

 I bought a lot of Martha Stewart sparkly craft paint. Grrrrr. It's basically a clear overlay. So we had to go to Walmart and buy standard craft paint. Lesson learned.

 More dragon.

 The door is painted, Rapunzel in the left tower. A poor prisoner to the right.

Now he was somewhere to stand.

 More soft storage boxes arrive from Amazon. They were $5 (not the dragon, but he was too cute to resist) and an excellent deal. You never know what the quality will be like, but they aren't tissue paper thin, but actually woven fabric.

 Some paper origami dragons that we found in a book. Easy and fun!

 Another origami dragon.

 Ana giving me her "je suis une artiste" look.

 Not sure what these characters are. A mouse and someone flying a bat?

 So, now the shelves are little more tidy. I still need to sort out books. So. Many. Books.

All in all, this has been a really fun project so far and it's definitely been worth the struggle of sorting and scrubbing and painting. After the bean bag arrives, we should be putting on the finishing touches and letting the littlies settle in. I've heard talk of camping out in there, but we'll see how that goes. All those dragons and the shadows might be too scary!

Until next time (when I promise to have an actual recipe)!

Happy New Year!!!! (Easy enchilada soup and the UGLY TRUTH)

Hellooooo, everybody!! Happy, happy New Year!! I loved 2013 (like really, really loved it) but I am even more excited by 2014! It's time for planning ahead, dreaming big dreams and making all those awesome resolutions. 

(First of all, I promise not to use so many exclamation points. Unless I'm really, really excited. *ahem*)

Let's get to today's recipe and then I'll drop the ugly truth on you. 

What's that, you say? You're not aware of the ugly truth??

Well, it's all around us, including in this recipe (and I don't mean the chicken, Kav!) and sometimes we have to smudge a few of those sharp lines to make the world a bit happier. Are you with me? No? Well, let me start and maybe you'll catch up on the way.

Behold. Shiny enameled stock pot. The cast iron stock pot left a HUGE rust ring on my lovely, vintage sink so it went to a good friend. (Something about leaving the bottom a bit wet and setting it on the white enamel. Whatever it was, it kills me that this sink has lasted a long, long time and I was the one to mark it up. UGH. Ugly truth, right there.)

 Apparently, enameled pots will NOT harm the pretty vintage sink. 

Unless I drop it. 

Which I won't.

 So, ingredients needed: one big bag of chicken breasts (fresh or frozen, but since this is a quick meal, the bag came out of the freezer). Corn tortillas. Cheddar cheese. Enchilada sauce.
You can make this with red sauce but I've never really liked red enchiladas.

Fill your stock pot half full of water. Add the sauce. Add the chicken. Turn it on high. (Sorry these pictures are so dark. It's winter. I need a sun lamp for my food pics.)

 Boil the chicken.

 Add ten to 12 corn tortillas. Let them boil with the chicken and stir a bit so they're in fairly large pieces. Ovoid over-stirring. That would make enchilada mush, which is still tasty but rather icky looking.

 Add about five or six thick slices of cheddar cheese and let that melt into the soup. This gives it a really nice, creamy flavor.

 Remove the chicken and chop into small pieces. Now is a good time to taste for salt, pepper, etc. I usually add a bit of salt and some cumin powder. MMMMMMM.....

 Turn the oven on broil. Cover the top of the soup with thick slices of cheddar cheese. I saw this recipe with Pepper Jack cheese and it looked GORGEOUS. But I don't like Pepper Jack. Put the stock pot in the oven (make sure it's oven safe, of course).

 After 3 minutes or so on broil, pull the pot from the oven. The cheese should be melted very nicely over the top and a bit crunchy. Think onion soup. Think lasagna. Think enchiladas...

Now, here's where the ugly truth comes in. I could just pop this on the table and everyone could  serve themselves, but you know I'm a FOOL for ramekins. I love how they provide a bit of portion control (all that late night writing and eating and writing and eating has not been kind to my rear end). 

But the recipe I saw had the ramekins put in the oven on broil, so they cooked separately.

 Two problems with that:
One- I don't want to clean off the baked-on cheese from a bunch of tiny ramekins. Nobody got time for that.
Two- the ramekins would be incredibly hot. I have toddlers (okay, and older kids who grab their food without thinking) so I avoid handing out 300F serving dishes.
 Here we'll blur those rough edges of truth and make a little happy in our world. Nothing dishonest, just... easier.
Dip the soup from under the layer of cheese and add a bit to every dish. Then, using a knife, cut a bit of the cheddar and lay it on top. Ta-DAH! Baked enchilada soup and nobody is going to the ER. It's still plenty hot, but not enough to hurt you.

 I added a bit of green onion to mine. A friend put corn in hers. The flavor is really amazing and if I had time, I think I might want to experiment. But as it is, I'm sticking with what I know...

 Now, the only ugly truth (cleaning up) involved here will be with this baby. And since I've made this dish three times now in this enameled pot, I'm confident in saying I won't be scrubbing for hours. Not even ten minutes. One dish dinner! Great for a crowd and it keeps well in the fridge. Leftovers!

And now, time for some more of the UGLY TRUTH. This is one of our closets, disemboweled. The innards of the little boys' closet was so tangled and so jumbled that nobody even knew what was in there. Sometime in May, my husband "sorted" part of the laundry room and "stored" things in this closet.
Yeah... Scare quotes and all.
Disaster.
 (And yes, I realize it's January, but what can I say? I've been too busy to deal with the closet problem. Until now.. Now is the time of reckoning...)

 One day, I'd had enough! (Specifically, Sunday evening.) We took everything from the closet and sorted it out. Bicycle helmets stayed, but girl backpacks from ten years ago? Out. Booster seat from 7 years ago? Out. Hallowe'en costumes for little girls when I've had only boys for the last ten years? Out.
You get the idea.

 Also, this ancient old house had 'do it yourself' closets made by the previous owner/builder. Note the awesome paneling. This was all over the house when we bought it 12 years ago. I think this is the last remnant. The closet doors never worked right. EVER.
(P.S. Like my home made light switch covers? One Lego magazine, one layer of mod podge. La voila! Lego light switch cover that made little boys squee with happiness.)

So, everything out. (Sorry, this pic is pre-clean up. Before we swept and scrubbed. Gross, eh?) In preparation for the new carpet in this room, I've got a new plan for this closet. No more ugly truth behind closet doors. No more heaven-knows-what in this space.

Ready??

Here's the plan:

A reading nook!!

You can find a hundred ideas like it on Pinterest here. Go check it out and see what I mean. And next week I will update on our progress! The little people are VERY excited to have their own reading space. We have bookshelves in every room, and they have two in their room, but THIS will be fun. I'm letting the kids decide among themselves what sort of design it will be. So far, I'm hearing a lot of dragons and castles and Legos. We shall see!

 Have a wonderful start to your NEW YEAR!!! I've partied hardy over on Seekerville last night for their New Year's Eve party so I'm going to need a nap.

But first, we're going to open our 'Good Things Jar', which we've been filling of all the wonderful things that have happened this year. We started January 1st 2013, and we'll open it today! We'll read each slip and applaud every small success, rejoice over every blessing, and reminisce over every good memory. 

From my family to yours, may this year bring peace and joy! Happy New Year!