not me! Monday

I wanted to do another Not Me! Monday post. (To read hundreds of other Not Me! Mondays, head over to Mckmama at My Charming Kids, who created this blog carnival originally. Hers are hilarious and involve many more pictures of cute kids than mine do!)

But today is Staff Day at the library, and this is all I could come up with.

I did NOT eat hundreds of calories' worth of snacks today in an effort to stay focused while being seated for much much longer than my job normally requires.

My mind did NOT wander during the presentations.

Nope, that's NOT that exciting. So I thought I'd give you the rundown on last Friday.

I did NOT leave my warm home and sweet husband in the late afternoon just to go out to my step aerobics class.

It was NOT snowing harder than it had in a long time.

Before I left, I did NOT subtly suggest that perhaps someone could shovel the driveway and scrape the car. Alex did NOT promptly proceed to do these things.

While I was gone, he did NOT start dinner and do the laundry.

While I was driving in, I did NOT almost skid out in my car. I did NOT think, Why in the world am I doing this??

While at aerobics class, I did NOT fall over. It was NOT during the easiest move of the night--shuffle side to side.

After returning home and finishing up supper in the same pan I had previously made grilled cheese and toasted nuts (separately) in, I did NOT drop Alex's entire portion of eggs 'n' noodles on the floor.

He did NOT pick it up and eat it. (I did NOT wash the floor that morning.)

After dinner, I did NOT find a container of homemade Chex mix that's leftover from Christmas. Yuck.

I am NOT still postponing proofreading Alex's paper. Nope, not me! :-)

Cheesecake presentation

I made this cheesecake a couple of weeks ago--partly as a practice run for my upcoming book group, partly as the snack for our connection group. Here are some thoughts from the experience.

1. Presentation makes a difference. I had individual slices on plates when the guys in our group came in, and they got so excited--"Is that for us? Did you make it? Wow!" I got the idea for the candy pieces while standing in line at Coldstone once. The reason their ice cream cakes look so fetching is because they stick a small cookie or candy at the end of each piece. I can do that!
2. Don't worry about cracks. All (2) of the cheesecakes I've made have cracked, even though I've meticulously followed the cooling instructions. Honestly, these days people are more impressed with flawed baked goods b/c they know they're homemade.
3. A sauce covers a multitude of wrongs. I learned this from Jen DB--Alex has repeatedly said to me, for years now, "Jen makes great cheesecake--maybe you could learn from her!" Well, we never got around to it, but she gave me some tips and I started making them anyway because I realized it was important to Alex. Anyway, this sauce is just melted apricot preserves. I have also used caramel and chocolate sauces.
4. Jen's other tip--it's okay to mix and match recipes. I like an oreo crust, so that's what I use (crush 20 cookies in a food processor, add 1 T melted butter, press into pan). For the filling I use a standard recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, similar to this one except simpler, I think (I'll post it when I get it typed up). Then I pick a topping.
5. You do need to let it cool for quite a long time--start at least 12 hours before you want to eat it.
Enjoy!

Cheesy Potato Soup--edited

(A faithful reader pointed out to me that this post was incomplete. Since it is my favorite recipe, I thought I'd complete it and repost it. Hope you like it!)

I would pick this as my very favorite recipe—I usually have all the ingredients on hand, it's simple, cheap, tasty, and freezes well.

Cheesy Potato Carrot Soup

from Anastasia Tuckness

4 servings

1 cup chopped onion (usually one onion)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2-1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Heat the oil over medium heat. Saute onions 5 min. Add potatoes, carrots, and broth--make sure there's enough liquid to cover the vegetables. Simmer at least 15-20 minutes, until all vegetables are very soft. Add cheese and milk. At this point, either a) blend with a special hand immersion blender or b) pour 1/3-1/2 of the soup into a blender and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Blend the soup in batches--it's important that the soup not be hot and that the blender be half full or less or the top of it will blow off. Add salt and pepper to taste at the table.

If you like your soup thick, reduce the amount of liquid. You can also add pureed squash at the end, or sliced parsnips with the vegetables at the beginning. This soup freezes well and is well-liked by almost everyone. If you like a more earthy flavor, leave the peels on the vegetables. I eat this soup both hot and cold.

Dirt

I have been working on getting stains out of our carpet and it reminded me of an experience a few years ago where I let a vacuum salesman come into our home because he said he could remove any stain and would do it for free. We have a pretty bad one at the top of our stairs that thus far has been invincible. So he did this demonstration showing us how much dirt our vacuum wasn't getting up and then wanted us to pay a very large sum of money that day to buy a new vacuum. I informed him that we don't spend that kind of money without taking time to think about it. He insisted this was our only chance to live a clean, dirt free life. When I kept saying no he then called his boss to report. The boss apparently told him to ask us if we realized how much dirt we would be living with. I then informed him that in much of the world living with dirt is a normal part of human life and that, yes, we were fine with dirt. At that point he informed his boss that we were ok with dirt and gave up. He didn't get the stain out, though I am not sure if it was because he couldn't or because he wanted to honor our preference for dirt.

Saving money on groceries

So, I've thought a lot about how to save money on groceries over the years, and particularly by following my mom's example. But I never got around to writing it out to share. Paige over at Team VanVoorst had a great post recently listing out the basics. I highly recommend checking it out, although I must admit I'm not as disciplined as she is--I just don't have the time right now. Let me know if you have other favorite tips.

Homemade toys

Here are a few of the homemade toys I showcased at my presentation a couple weeks ago. On the top left we have an oatmeal box covered in sparkly wrapping paper. They recommended contact paper, but this was sparklier. I suspect contact paper would be hardier. It can be used as a roll toy, a drum (with hands or wooden spoons), or you can cut a circle in the lid and drop clothespins in.

The top right is a roll toy made of an empty, dried out water bottle (you can also use 2-liter bottles). You can fill them with pretty much anything that looks or sounds interesting--pasta, beans, bells, foamie shapes, tissue paper squares. We have so much random stuff in the cupboards at the library that this one was a lot of fun with not much work and zero money. Secure the top with packing tape, duct tape, or super glue. You can also fill bottles with sand and little animals and whatsits for older kids to find--we call them I Spy bottles.

Bottom left are the vinyl clings. Cut a shape out of construction paper (use cookie cutters as stencils to make interesting animal shapes). Put all your shapes on a big piece of clear Contact Paper, leaving one inch between them. Cut them out so each has a 1/2" border of contact paper to seal them. When you get them wet, they will cling--for a long time. One stayed on the side of our sink overnight until I took it out the next day. I suspect they probably would stick to windows--let us know, Anna! They were presented originally as bathtub clings, and that would be great fun, but I think any sink or water play area would work well.

And the bottom right is a page from a Touch and Feel book I wrote. We used burlap, sandpaper, felt, tinfoil, and yarn to get all different textures.

These crafts are all taken from a manual I received at the BabyTalk conference training I went to last year in Decatur, Illinois. They teach a prenatal homemade toy class to expectant moms--it's just one of the many programs they have.

Enjoy the crafts!