A sloth, some skunks, and a sheet pan recipe.

I just got in from another one of my brisk walks.  I refer to them as brisk walks even though I've been timing myself and it takes me 40 minutes to go two miles.  That's not so much brisk as sloth-like. 

So, I just got back from one of my sloth-like walks.  I only walked twice this week due to doctor's appointments, car pool. and going to morning Mass on All Saints Day.  At least I have good reasons for missing my walk. I've been enjoying my walks (when I do them) though because I've been praying the rosary using an app on my phone.

The voice on the app has a British accent and it makes me feel very proper when I'm out walking like a sloth.  However,  I have received a few sideways stares from some neighbors who are walking their dogs.  I guess they've never heard a rosary being prayed in a British accent coming out of coat pocket before.  I should probably wear ear buds but I hate ear buds.  Say I'm  old fashioned.  Say I'm over the hill.....

And to completely change the subject, we have some skunks that like to hang out around here.  They dig holes all over searching for grubs and I am very paranoid that they are going to spray one of us or a cat.

It was very warm yesterday and we slept with the windows open last night.  Around 1:00 AM we could hear our old cat, who has the now unfortunate name of Kitten, which isn't at all confusing since we currently have an actual kitten who has an old man name of Wally. 

Anyway, at 1:00 AM we could hear that horrible growling/crying noise that cats make so Dan got up to let the cat in.  He thought he could see a skunk in our garden so he came in to get a flashlight.  By the time he got the flashlight, the skunk had meandered off and then we spotted a big orange cat curled up in our flowerless flower bed. 

I grabbed Kitten and brought her in and now I'm wondering where this orange cat came from.  I haven't seen it this morning so I am hoping that it has gone back to it's home because I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CAT!

Also this morning while it was still dark, I spotted the skunk walking between our house and my parent's house.  That makes three sightings in less than 24 hours because around 9:))  last night Peter and I saw TWO skunks frolicking in my parent's front yard.  TWO.  I guess I need to spend some time today Googling "how to deter skunks".

Before I head out to do a little house cleaning, I thought I would share another delicious sheet pan recipe that even my picky almost 15 year old liked.  It's called  Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken and the recipe can be found here at The Recipe Critic. 

I forgot to snap a picture when it came out of the oven but here is a shot of the little bit that was left that I will be enjoying for lunch today.  Also, I served it with a side of jasmine rice. 

I followed her recipe exactly except that I used snow peas instead of edamame and I did not add the pineapple chunks.  Please check out her pic because it looks so much better than mine.  It was really good though and I will be making it again!

And just for good measure here are some cat pictures.

Wally got into the leftover Halloween candy...literally!

And here's Kitten on the window sill looking inside.  Poor Kitten spends a lot more time outside now that Wally lives with us.  She doesn't love Wally as much as I do.

A trunk, a cake, and an uncarved pumpkin.

So, where were we?

Last I left you, it was Friday and we were about to embark on the weekend.  Let me just give you a quick update.

The annual Halloween Hullabaloo was Friday at Sarah's school.  I participated in the Trunk-or-Treat and handed out candy to all the little kids (and some of the big ones, too!)

 Here' my Dollar Store trunk:

I think it looks pretty good but you guys should have seen some of the other trunks!  There are some really creative people out there!  I had some white cotton that I've used previously to hang as spider webs with little plastic spiders hanging in ti  but didn't feel like dealing with it so I didn't.  And you know what? It was fine!

On Saturday, Sarah went to the mall and to the movies with some friends which meant I was in charge of baking Sunday dessert.  I made a copycat version of a Red Velvet Nothing Bundt Cake.  It turned out really well.  It was very moist and tasted alllllllllmost (but not quite) like the real thing.  My mom said it was better but I'm not sure.  Everyone ate it right up and I will be making one for Thanksgiving so I guess you could say it was a hit.  And the cost savings over a NBC is huge. The only downside is that I need a little practice piping the frosting. Hopefully I will have a steadier hand for the next one:

And yes, the entire center of the cake is filled with cream cheese frosting!

The recipe can be found here at Mom Loves Baking.  I followed her recipe exactly as written.  The only thing I plan on doing differently next time is not beating the frosting quite as long.  She said to beat it two full minutes after everything was incorporated but that made the frosting a little loose.  I like a firmer cream cheese frosting and I think it would make it easier to pipe as well if it weren't so loose.

Peter was supposed to have his last driving class on Sunday but right after lunch he had an allergic reaction to something and his right eye swelled to almost shut.  He had to take a Benadryl which of course led to a 2 hour nap so I had to reschedule.

Luckily the Patriots game was showing around here so we got to watch that.  It wasn't pretty but it was a W so we will take it! 

We were planning on carving the pumpkin but never got around to it.  Then yesterday Dan had his post-op appointment and came home from work immediately after so he was home early!  He needed a new coat so we went out to get it and on the way home discussed carving the pumpkin.  Ultimately we decided against it.  The kids could not care less, so why go through the hassle?  That sounds like the Halloween version of bah humbug.  Just call us the Scrooges of Halloween!

And with that, you are all caught up on life at the Cotell home!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!!!

7 Quick Takes featuring a game!

It's Friday so how about  Seven Quick Takes?

1.  First, let's play a game of Where's Wally?

Did you find him??

Peter was worried that he wasn't going to come down but he did.  But not until he climbed up even further!  Crazy cat!

2.  Last weekend, I made this yummy dessert (Classic Pumpkin Roll) for Sunday lunch since Sarah spent all Saturday in Confirmation Class.  I thought I would share the recipe. It can be found here on Mom Loves Baking.  I followed the recipe exactly except it call for a 13" x 18" sheet pan and mine was 12" x 17".  It was really good! Even Dan liked it and he's not a huge fan of pumpkin.

 3.  Fall swimming is over and I am very glad that for the foreseeable future we only have Scouts in the evenings.  It will be so nice to eat dinner at 7:00  instead of 8:15!  At the last practice last night they did a bunch of time trials and Sarah was excited that she shaved a full 5 seconds off her 100M freestyle time from this summer!

4.Tonight we have the Halloween Hullabaloo at school.  Sarah's class is selling pizza as a fundraiser, Dan and I are hosting a trunk in the trunk-or-treat and Peter is manning one of the games to get some service hours for high school.  It should be a fun evening!

Which reminds me, I need to go to the basement and pull out the Rubbermaid bin full of trunk decorations that I've used for the last two years and make sure everything is still intact. I did remember to stop by Costco yesterday and pick up some giant bags of candy.

5. Peter has his final in-car driving session this weekend!  I've already made an appointment at the DMV on a day following his birthday that he's out of school so he can take the test for his driving permit.  It's starting to get real y'all!

6.  Dan and I were watching an old episode of Dateline last week and low and behold my Uncle's stepson was the defense lawyer working on the case.  It was really cool to see him on the tv screen.  I am a Dateline and 48 Hours junky although Dan loves to joke that they like to pack 30 minutes worth of show into 1 hour.

I am also a huge First 48 fan.   I love to watch the (real) detectives solve the homicide cases.  I think I would have made a great detective if it weren't for the fact that you have to start out as a beat policeman, ride around the town in the middle of the night chasing down bad guys, getting shot at, and risking life and limb.  Yeah - I guess I'll just stick to my armchair detective work and leave the real work to people who are braver and more daring than I.

7.  Have you guys ever had a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes?  If you haven't and there's one in your area, go there now and get one.  They are sooooooo very good!  The only problem is that they are a little pricey.  I found a recipe for a copycat version and Sarah will be giving that whirl for this Sunday's dessert.  I'll let you know how it turns out next week!

Check Kelly's blog for more Quick Takes and have a great weekend!

It's official. I'm a crazy cat lady....

I never managed to get my walk in yesterday.  The rain hung around until late in the afternoon when heavy winds and a tornado watch took over.  But I did manage to get out in the fog this morning and knock out 2 miles. 

I'm usually an all or nothing person. So if I can't get in my exercise on Monday, then in my confused little mind, I think to myself "Self, what's the point of doing any exercise this whole week since you already blew day one?"

Or, as another example, if I eat something fattening in the middle of the day then I think to myself, "Self, this whole day of eating well has been ruined so I better spend the rest of the day eating more horrible food and then just start overeating better next Monday." 

All this to say, I'm glad I got a little exercise in this morning even though I didn't do anything yesterday.

There's not a lot going on around here this week thankfully so I feel like now is as good of a time as any to let you know that Dan and I have turned into crazy cat people.  I'll find myself texting Dan pictures of Wally doing adorable things throughout the day and I've even spotted Dan taking pictures of him as well in the evenings when he's home from work. 

I feel like the blogosphere needs more Wally pictures so here you go:

He loves to watch the computer screen.  Perhaps I should get him a video of fish or would that be a little too crazy??

He will sleep anywhere at anytime on anything. 

This picture was taken on October 21.

This one was taken on October 11th.  He's growing up waaaaayy too fast! He's losing his fluffy kitten-ness.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

The weekend in review.

Another weekend is in the books!  They sure go by quickly, don't they?

We went to the last home football game of the season.  Our team lost.  Peter always has a good time because all the high school kids sit in one section together called The Pit.

There's a hierarchy to the pit that you learn at the first game.  All the seniors are in the first rows, then juniors, then sophomores, and they waaaaaay at the top (well not waaaaaayy at the top because the stands aren't super high) are the lowly freshman.  And the seniors lead the cheers and chants.

As we were leaving, Peter was lamenting the fact that he missed two games because of camping trips and the fact that there were no more home games.  Then I reminded him that there's a pit in the gym for basketball games and he could continue to have fun on Friday nights during basketball season.

Sarah went with us this time because one of her friends from school was going.  This friend knows a lot of other kids from the other Catholic schools so Sarah got to meet them.  Hopefully a lot of these girls will be going to Bishop next year with Sarah.

Sarah had a Confirmation Retreat all day on Saturday and Peter had driver's ed.  While they were off doing their thing, Dan and I did yard work, household chores and we washed the cars.  The weather was beautiful this weekend and I really wanted to go to the balloon rally in Statesville but with the all-day retreat, there was no time.

On Sunday, we had our pictures.  If you will recall, this is the picture I posted of our outfits.  I feel like I need to clarify the OUR part because this was what I selected for the whole family:

Mom left a comment on Facebook that I should wear the burgundy shirt and navy pants.  When I read that I immediately started laughing.  I guess I didn't make it clear in my post but that's exactly what I was going to wear.  I'm a little worried that she thought I was considering wearing a polo and khakis or a button down and khakis! 

So just to be clear - the first outfit is Dan's, the second mine, the third Peter's, and the floral dress Sarah's.

Sarah objected to the floral dress and went with another dress that was burgundy with tiny flowers on it.  So the girls were predominately in burgundy, the guys had the blue, we had two prints and two solids.  I was feeling good about the whole thing.

Everyone got dressed and ready in time and we made it there on schedule.  The photographer was running behind but I figured that would be the case.  She was doing mini-session after mini-session from 11:00 - 6:00 and we were at the end of the day so I figured we would have to wait a bit.

No worries though because Sarah and I used the time to brush our hair and reapply our lipstick and the boys walked around.  It was almost our turn and Dan looks at me and asks, "What's on your shirt?"

I looked down and there was a small stain of some sort.  And then he exclaimed, "What the heck is THAT under your arm?"

I looked down and there was an enormous white stain underneath my left armpit!  It looked as if I had applied my deodorant directly to my shirt.  I honestly don't  know how that happened!  I almost burst into tears.  This wasn't a little deodorant mark this was roughly a two inch by three-inch swath of deodorant. 

I grabbed the anti-bacterial wipes from my purse (I always keep a pack in my purse for dirty hands, sticky tables at restaurants, and yes - wardrobe malfunctions) and got the white off my shirt.  It left a dark mark but I figured if I kept my arm down during the pictures it would be okay.  I didn't really want to mess with the stain on the front because I didn't want there to be a dark wet mark right on the front of my shirt. 

I'm just hoping that the photographer was far enough away that the spot on the fornt isn't noticable in the pictures.  She took a lot of great shots so I'm hoping that at least a handful of them turn out.

I will definitley be booking her again for another mini-session in the spring for another round of shots.  She's very affordable and she gives a photo release with the digital images so we can print the shots ourselves.  That's so much better than having to pick packages like we have to do with the kids school and sport pics.

After the pictures, we came home and the kids finished their homework and we watch the Patriots game and just like that - the weekend was over! 

I had every intention of going for a walk this morning but, of course, it was raining.  Maybe I'll get my act together and go after I get back from the grocery store.  I have spring pictures to get ready for after all!

Happy Monday, y'all!

Dressing room mirrors don't lie.

Last night was a swim night and I had to drive carpool so that meant a delicious crock pot dinner at 8:20 PM.  (Thankfully only one more week of fall swim practice so we will soon be back to our normal 7:00 or 7:30 dinner time!)

We were having chili last night and as we were eating, Peter said, "Why do you have to put beans and tomatoes in this?"

"Well, because if I didn't, then it would just be spicy hamburger meat."

And through the whole meal, Sarah kept coughing and saying between choking noises, "Spicy.  It's so spicy!"

So guess what on  next week's menu? A big bowl of plain ground beef.

Yum.

I have spent  two days - TWO DAYS - trying to figure out what to wear for our pictures on Sunday.  The kids and Dan were no problem.  I'm the issue.

The first day was spent trying on dresses and realizing that I hate everything.  In case you aren't in to fashion, let me enlighten you.  Florals are big right now. Guess what I don't like to wear?  And with every floral dress I tried on, I felt more and more like a fat flower garden.

I found a few casual solid color dresses but there was something wrong with each one of them: too low cut, too long, too short, too baggy, too tight.....  So I went home in disgust and ate a salad for lunch.  (And was shocked the next morning when I woke up and had not lost any weight.)

I headed out yesterday morning in search of a shirt or sweater or something that would look decent.  That's harder than it sounds but after much huffing and puffing and muttering under my breath in countless dressing rooms, I found a shirt that I don't hate (I don't necessarily love it either), that  goes with the colors of the other outfits, goes with a pair of pants I already have, and looks age appropriate (because most of the stuff I tried on was designed for either a 17-year-old girl or a 71-year-old woman).

Here's what we are going with:

And yes, it took me TWO DAYS to decide on a burgundy shirt. 

After spending two days in dressing rooms staring at my fat under florescent lights, I laced up the old sneakers this morning and went for a brisk 2 mile walk.  I'm going to attempt to start walking in the mornings.  Although, just three or four weeks ago I said the same thing and went exactly ONCE.

That morning several weeks ago, I talked to a neighbor who I would see when I used to RUN every morning and I told her then I was trying to get back into shape.  So of course, this morning when I'm out she's walking her dog and said, "Hello!  I haven't seen you in a while but then again I don't see everyone so maybe I missed you."

"Nope.  You didn't miss me.  I have good intentions but poor follow through when it comes to exercising."

We'll see if I lace up those sneakers again on Monday morning or if I just decide to wait until spring.

We've got another full weekend.  Tonight is the last home football game of the season and it's the News2  Game of the Week.  Maybe I'll be on TV!

Sarah has a Confirmation retreat all day on Saturday and Peter has another driving lesson.  And of course, we have PICTURES on Sunday afternoon.

Have a great weekend!

Redemption, a quick history lesson, and the outfit that does not exist...

Well, I think I redeemed myself from Monday night's raw chicken dinner.

Have you ever heard of the Moravian Church?  No. Well let me enlighten you.

The Moravian Church was established in the 1400's by John Hus.  He was against the idea of indulgences in the Catholic church.  He also did not believe in Purgatory and felt like priests should be able to marry.  Because he had these ideas 100 years before the Reformation, many historians say that the Moravian Church is the first Protestant denomination.  (It started in what is now the Checz Republic and eventually, a tiny remaining group of followers moved to Moravia, Germany in the early 1700s.  In the mid-1700s the Moravians led a small group of missionaries to Pennsylvania.  This mission was established on Christmas Eve and they named their town Bethlehem (now Bethlehem, PA).  About 10 years later they came down to North Carolina and founded Salem which is now Winston-Salem. 

And what do the Moravians have to do with my dinner?  Well, I was raised Moravian and every good Moravian knows what chicken pie is! 

Chicken pie is basically pot pie with no vegetables - just chicken and a thick broth inside of an upper and lower pie crust.  Every Moravian church has a ladies group that hosts chicken pie fundraisers throughout the year.  And what's funny to me, is that the Catholic church I attend has an annual Moravian Pie fundraiser!  Very ironic, don't you think?

My Uncle David is retired and actually helps with the chicken pie suppers at two local Moravian churches and has become quite the expert at making them.  And he kindly gifted us one this past week.

I popped that baby in the oven while Sarah was at swim practice and served it with mashed potatoes, homemade chicken gravy (my husband loves gravy and was thrilled when he saw this!), green peas, and I even went the extra step and opened up a can of cranberry sauce (luckily my family likes the canned stuff).  I also made a blue cheese brocoli coleslaw (that was delicious but no one touched but me. They don't know what's good.).

When the kids got to the table, one of them declared, "It's like THANKSGIVING!!!"

So, dinner was a hit!  Redemption is good.  Thanks, Uncle David!

This was not the acutal pie we had.  We were too busy eating it to take pictures!

And in other news - this Sunday afternoon we are having our family pictures taken.  It's been years since we've done it, actually almost 10.  Every year Sarah asks when we are going to have another one taken and every year I say, "This year!" and then I never get them scheduled.  But our PTO is having a mini-fundraiser and one of the moms at school who is a photographer is donating her time and talent for mini photo sessions.  So we basically have 20 minutes to get a couple of good shots. Hopefully at least one will be frame and Christmas card worthy.

The issue is finding just the right outfit for me that will take off 20 pounds of fat and 10 years of wrinkles.  Do you think Kohl's has an outfit that fits that bill?  I sure hope so because I have a 30% off coupon!

Have a great Wednesday!
 

They can't all be winners!

Every Sunday afternoon, I sit down with my grocery list app, my Pinterest boards, and my calendar and I meal plan. 

I look at the calendar to figure out which nights we will be eating late due to activities, which nights will need crockpot meals because of said activities, which nights we won't be home (my favorite because that means momma doesn't cook), and which nights we need a full-on meal.

And then I go through the recipes I've pinned or when I'm feeling old school, I get out my recipe binder and I figure out what we are going to eat on which nights and then I create my grocery list.

I do this every Sunday because every Monday morning I head to Aldi and Wal-Mart to get groceries for the week. I have done this for years. In fact, I guess I've done this ever since we had kids.  I have to have a meal plan or we would be eating Domino's pizza every night for dinner. Which if you ask the kids would definitely be preferable.

I'm not one of those talented people who can walk around the grocery store without a list and manage to make it home with all the ingredients for a weeks worth of meals and then actually be able to open up the pantry at dinner time and look in and think, "hmm, let's have chicken casserole, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner" AND actually be able to find all the necessary ingredients and cook them and have them on the table.  Nope, that's not me. 

I've always admired those people but that's not how my brain works.  I tell you all of this because last night, I went rogue.  Yep.  I veered away from normal meal plan and tried to be adventurous.

Typically on Monday nights, Peter and Dan go to Boy Scouts and twice a month Sarah has Girl Scouts.  But, last night, the Peter did not have Boy Scouts and in the afternoon Sarah's meeting got cancelled so instead of the chili I was planning on having, I decided to move lots of things around and decided that we would have a sheet pan chicken and veggie dinner since we would all be at home.

But then, and here's where things go really wrong, I decided to sub out the chicken from the sheet pan dinner with a chicken recipe that I just found that sounded really good.  The only issue was that the chicken wasn't cooked in the oven but in a skillet.  I hate cooking chicken in a skillet because it always (and I mean ALWAYS) takes longer than the recipe claims and then your chicken isn't done but everything else is and sits there getting cold while the chicken is still cooking.

But the marinade for this chicken recipe sounded really good and it got a lot of rave reviews so I decided to go for it.

The chicken breasts were different thicknesses (aren't they always?) so I pounded them out. Well, actually Sarah pounded them out for me because she said she had some aggression she needed to work out. There was one really big one that she didn't quite get pounded out thin enough but I decided I would just cook it longer.  No big deal.

I had the chicken in the skillet and the veggies in the oven and everything was humming along nicely.  Peter called out to me from the office and said the printer had a paper jam.  I went in to fix the jam and then he asked me for some help getting his math project printed out.  There were some spacing issues and I was trying to help him.  It was taking longer than I expected and I could hear the chicken sizzling in the pan.

The heat was up a little higher than I realized so when I finally got to it, the chicken was really charred on that side. I flipped it over and turned the heat down and let it continue to cook on the other side.  I used the meat thermometer and the smaller pieces were done so I took them out and let the two bigger pieces continue to cook. 

We finally sat down to dinner and I was very excited to try this chicken only to cut into my piece and one part of it was very undercooked.  Peter's had the same problem. 

Dan's and Sarah's were cooked all the way through so I guess perhaps when I was checking the temp with the thermometer I wasn't putting it in the thickest part of the two undercooked pieces. 

Dan gave Peter some of his chicken.  Sarah offered me some of hers but I let her eat it all and I just ate cookies after my dinner of carrots and potatoes and brocoli.

You know how you can think back to your mom's kitchen and recall the meals you loved her to fix when you were growing up?  Well, I think my kids are going to be reminiscing about all the times they almost got salmonella. But I guess that's what good family stories are made of!

The weekend in review....

It was a full weekend here in our little neck of the woods.

On Friday evening Peter, Dan, and I went to the Homecoming game.  Sarah stayed home because she's not a sports fan and she wanted to get her homework done because she too had a busy weekend scheduled.

Our plan was to hit the food trucks but when we go there, the lines were long and we didn't feel like waiting.  So, we took our impatient selves to Dairi-o and got burgers there.

I always love the thought of food trucks but in reality it's usually waiting in long lines to order, waiting in long lines to get the food, and then looking for a place to stand while you eat the food.  BUT - if you do go through all of that, the food is usually really good! 

On Saturday, Sarah had a Girl Scout biking and camping trip.  Unfortunately, we weren't good scouts and didn't even check the air in her bike tires until 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave.  And of course, one of the tires was flat.  Dan tried to pump it up and realized that lthere was a hole in the tube. So we lowered the seat on Dan's bike and she took that one. It's always good to have a plan B. 

Sarah had a great time.  They biked for 13 miles around Quarry Park and Salem Lake and then went to a corn maze and ended the evening with a camp out. 

 The girls are standing on an overhang that looks out onto the quarry and in the distance you can see downtown Winston-Salem.

Saturday afternoon was spent working around the house. Peter and Dan took care of the yard work while I did laundry and other exciting chores which included cleaning out the refrigerator. 

How in the world can a refrigerator get so dirty??  When I took out the bottom drawer to clean it there were enough crumbs underneath the drawer to keep at least one mouse full for the winter and several petrified blueberries.  I spent the majority of the weekend pondering how all those crumbs got in the fridge in the first place (it's not like we are eating in the fridge) and then how they got underneath the drawer.  If anyone has any answers, I'd love to hear them.

On Saturday evening, Peter headed to a friend's house to meet a bunch of other guys who were going to the dance without dates.  The friend's parents served them burgers and cherry pie before they headed out. 

Peter said he had a good time when he got home but I didn't ask a lot of questions.  I tried on Sunday morning and was met with terse answers and eventually, "Will you stop asking me so many questions!  Geez, mom." 

I will be glad when Sarah gets to that school next year so I can finally know what's going on!

On Sunday we went to Mass, had lunch at my parent's house, fixed Sarah's bike tire, watched football and ate queso and guacamole for dinner. 

I'd say it was a good weekend!  Happy Monday everyone!