Cooking with Jacquelle

Not that I'll ever have my own TV show (nor do I ever want one) but I thought I'd share a couple meals I made recently.

My kids are so tired of sandwiches I can't find words to describe it. I came up with this new idea and it worked great. I made four different kinds of sandwiches - ham and cheese; peanut butter and grape jelly; pb and strawberry jam; pb and honey. Then I cut them all into quarters. I put one quarter of each sandwich on the kids plates... so they each received 4 different quarters. Ben and Marissa traded one quarter but the other kids were more than happy to eat all their quarters. It was so fun! (Kemiah and I ate leftover soup because I needed that to get eaten and it's her favorite food.)

For dinner tonight I made pancakes. I started out with just cherry pie filling as the topping for our pancakes. Then I added almond extract to the batter, as well as shredded coconut. Ben asked if I could make chocolate chip smiley faces on the pancakes. So we had almond-coconut-chocolate-cherry pancakes. They were delicious! I mean really, how could you go wrong with so many yummy flavors all together?!

Like I said, I won't have a show but we are enjoying life as we eat!

I dislike it when I'm retarded.

I made Domonique's 2 month checkup for today. I dropped the other kids off with a wonderful friend and made my way to the appointment this morning. I got a little lost but finally made it. I filled out the paperwork for the new patient. When they called me back the nurse politely said, "Before you get her undressed I wanted you to know that she won't be getting her shots because she's not 2 months old until Saturday. So you can have the check up today and then bring her back on the 9th for shots or you can reschedule." Oh bother. You think I would know these type of things after having 5 other kids. I did think about it when I made the appointment but ended up making the wrong choice because of the holiday weekend. I opted to cancel today's appointment and reschedule for next Friday so that I could bring Marissa in at the same time to have some warts frozen. Both appointments are made and the same wonderful friend will watch the other kids again. Hopefully it all works out the way I think it will, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't.

Can I can?

We were very excited about the garden and all the produce it was growing. We bought a pressure canner and jars and lids and we thought we were ready. Kevin started picking corn and he just kept right on picking. The kids kept bringing in bags full of ears and then took more empty bags out to the garden. I finally went out and said no more!

Our new neighbor's daughter-in-law was visiting and came over to see what her girls were doing (they were playing with my kids) and she volunteered to help out. Everyone helped take the husks off the corn. I blanched them, she cut the corn off the cobs, and Kevin packed it into the jars. We pressure cooked them and it was pretty easy with all that help.

We ate some with dinner and it tasted yucky. Unfortunately, we picked the corn too late. Fortunately, the chickens don't care and they actually love it so I guess we canned some winter food for the chickens. At least it won't be wasted. We are moving on to tomatoes and salsa. Good luck to us!

This is often where Kemiah ends up when I'm in the kitchen. She likes to be with me, or at least near me.

8 weeks old!

I can't believe she is 8 weeks old. She'll be 2 months old on Saturday (Sept 4). She is really amazing, but I feel like I say that about all my babies. She goes to sleep at 10 every night and I wake her up at 6 so that I can get her first feeding done before I start the day with the other kids. She is really easy going and happy. The only time she cries is when she needs a new diaper, or when I'm taking a little too long to feed her.

Last night I had a dream that she was talking, peeing on the potty and swimming. I was not happy because she's only 2 months old - she can't grow up that fast. Although, I wouldn't mind not having to change her diapers but it's all part of the baby stage and I love this stage. I find myself wanting to hold her all the time because I don't want to miss out on this stage because I'm busy doing so many other things.

Another one bites the dust.

Actually, Ben was eating frosted shredded wheat this morning and pulled out his very loose tooth. I tried to pull it yesterday with floss but I couldn't get it out. Ben was afraid he would swallow it while he was sleeping, like he did the last one. I'm just glad it's gone!

Puzzling...

This is Kemiah's new favorite thing to do all day long. She'll say to me, "I don't know what to do." I'll list off several things - read, color, play with toys, take a nap, play a game - and she'll say no to them all. Then I'll say, "Get out a puzzle." She'll smile and run off to the cupboard where we keep them. She needs help the first time but then she can do them all by herself. At least with 24 piece puzzles. She hasn't tried the bigger ones on her own but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Really shouldn't have

Of all the things I' could blog about, I'm not really sure why I am doing this one. Maybe because I don't have a lot of time so this is the easiest one. Unfortunately for you, it's not really exciting, nor is it something you want to know about but I'm sharing anyway.

One of the recipes that really saves us at the end of our stay on the island was Peachy Oatmeal. I haven't made it since we left the island because, truthfully, every time I thought about making it I got sick to my stomach. A couple of the kids kept asking for it so I finally made it this morning. I made our regular batch and thought to myself, "Maybe you're making it up and you'll be able to eat it." I was fine until I sat down with the kids and starting serving them up. It was not good for me and I didn't even have a bite. So the picture shows how much we had left over.


I think we are really done with this for a long time. I'm not even sure why I get to feeling so sick because it really was good tasting. Weird.

Brings back memories

This is one of Kemiah's favorite things. She calls is "the Kelty carrier" and I know why. For 16 months of her young life I toted her on my back in a Kelty kid carrier. I called it "the Kelty" even though Kelty makes a lot of different equipment. It was the only Kelty thing I owned. She spent a lot of time in ours so it's only natural to carry her baby on her back. I like hearing her say, "Kelty carrier."

Marissa's third tooth is gone.

She would walk around the house wiggling it with her tongue. That's one of the things that sends shivers up my back. I tried to talk her into letting me pull it with pliers but she kept saying no. While my dad was here (back in July) she agreed to let him pull it for her. He tied a piece of dental floss around the tooth and after the first attempt slid off he was able to yank it out with a little tug. It flew out of her mouth and fell onto the couch. She was so surprised by how easily it came out and it didn't even hurt. The new tooth had already started to make it's way in.

Later that day she came to talk to me about the tooth fairy. She knows it's me - I have a hard time "making" my kids believe in things that are fantasy. She talked to me as if the tooth fairy was real. "Mom, if you see the Tooth Fairy, could you remind her that I didn't get paid for one of the teeth that I lost on the island." I went along with it for a little while, telling her I'd make sure the fairy made it up to her. Then I finally said, "You know who the Tooth Fairy is, right?" She said, "Yes, but I like to pretend." I'm cool with that. I did make it up to her and paid her for two teeth. Kids are great.

The doctor is in.

Yes, this is my husband and in a couple years he will be someone's doctor. I'm sure he'll wash his hands before each patient. This post is actually about his finger - the one with gauze on it (not the one up his nostril). Several days ago he noticed a red spot near the nail bed. Then it started to swell and he could squeeze puss out. On Tuesday he went to the doctor and they made a couple small cuts to try and drain it. There was no numbing stuff so Kevin could feel it and said, "ow" a lot. Fortunately for him it is healing just fine.

New sleeping arrangements.

Domonique spent her first night in her big girl crib last night. I put her on her tummy for the first time too, and she did just fine. I was going to move her into the kid's room the first night we got back from the family reunion but I couldn't. I needed to find the baby monitor because we have to sleep with our bedroom doors closed (window air conditioning units for the bedrooms only) and I knew I wouldn't be able to hear her. I finally found it but was a little sad to move her out of our room. I knew she needed to go though, mostly because she was no longer fitting in her first bed and I didn't want to set up the port-a-crib in our room. I'm sure we will all adjust fine. I had a hard time going to sleep because I kept thinking I heard something. She's getting so big, and yet she looks so little in the big crib.






This was her first bed - a laundry basket with flannel sheets for bedding.

Yes, we are trying to have a pacifier baby - after 4 thumb suckers and one who sucks two fingers. We'll see how this one goes.

Look what we came home to...

We went to our family reunion, my side of the family, for 10 days. It was really great but that's not what this post is about. When we arrived home, Kevin and I went right out to the garden to see what had happened while we were gone. We said hello to the chickens and did a head count. No one was missing. We were stunned by the garden. Here are a few pictures to show you how well it has done!

This seems to be the only head of cauliflower and we planted several. Oh well, I don't like it anyway.



There were several pumpkins so maybe we will be carving this Halloween - this will be our first time.

The jalapeno peppers that our neighbor gave us are all doing really well.

We have four cherry tomato plants and are very excited to see lots of little tomatoes.

Here you can see (from left to right) broccoli, regular tomatoes, corn on the cob, zucchini, summer squash, onions (on top), peas (in front). We also brought in some cucumbers. We haven't dug up any potatoes yet. I also saw some watermelons, cantaloupes and a couple green peppers.

This is what I found on our porch. I guess a few chickens are laying earlier than we expected.

Just to give you a better idea of the size of the zucchini that Kevin brought in...