Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I love to cook and I think everything tastes much better when it's homemade and not out of a can or jar. I ran across this recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce last year and it has had a place on our table ever since. It is seriously easy to make and once you taste it you'll never go back to the stuff off of the shelf!

Ingredients:

1 big can of whole, peeled tomatoes (96 cents at Fresh and Easy)

1 onion cut in half

1/2 stick of butter (I prefer unsalted)

Combine all of the ingredients in a large sauce pan and place the onion cut-sides down in the pan. Simmer on medium-low heat until the sauce begins to thicken (30-45 minutes). Remove the onions and serve on top of pasta.

I usually start the sauce as soon as I walk in the door and go walk the dogs while it cooks because it does take a little bit of time to cook. Enjoy!

Popcorn and Milkshake Night

Tonight is definitely a popcorn and milkshake night. My mom invented this type of dinner to fill-in for the nights where she was simply too exhausted from running herself ragged to fix dinner. So the popcorn and milkshake night was born. This night typically fell on a Sunday. Bags of popcorn were mixed and all of the ice cream in the freezer was thrown into a blender. Sometimes mom threw a little wheat germ into the mix to quell the guilt from feeding us ice cream for dinner. Tall glasses of frothy ice cream were poured and popcorn was piled high into bowls. I remember the big red Tupperware bowl we always used that was misshapen and a little built melted with the indents of steaming hot popcorn kernels indented into the bottom. We all gathered around the dining room table, dipping our popcorn into milkshakes and enjoying time together as a family.

Look What I Grew!

My wonderful father ordered the very best landscaping for our backyard when we moved into our first house as a couple. Included in this very-best backyard was a wonderful raised planting bed that I have used to plant my very own garden. There can be so much happiness found in playing with dirt and growing things with your own two hands. Nothing tastes better than a plump strawberry plucked off the vine and knowing that no pesticides have ever touched it. I have never really tasted a strawberry until I grew my own. Sweet and juicy, the perfect dessert on a warm Spring night. My carrot harvest was more plentiful than I would have imagined. I pulled carrots of all sizes and shapes, some big and some small. Much different than the ones found in the supermarket. Golden and crunchy, much more tasty than the bagged variety. Next I am fulfilling my wish for bouquets of flowers all over my house. A teacher's salary doesn't really support this desire so I'm hoping my little seeds will grant my wish.

My Babies

Our babies are just SO cute that I thought I should post a video of them. Our three dogs are Anabella, Henry, and Nicky. I've had Anabella since I was a sophomore in college and she is now 7 1/2 years old. She originally lived in my sorority dorm with me and had lots of "aunties" that babysat her when I was in class. She is VERY spoiled and has daddy wrapped around her little paw. I adopted Nicky about 6 years ago from the West Valley pound. He was going to be euthanized because he was deemed "unadoptable" due to his old age. According to his records he was 13 years old at the time, which would now make him 19 and he's still going strong!! Despite being blind and deaf he manages to take walks with us every day and play fetch (with the kitty's toys much to their annoyance). Henry is our newest doggie addition and was also on the euthanasia list at the pound due to being fearful (who wouldn't be terrified being in a pound?!). We adopted him shortly before Thanksgiving and he has been a perfect fit in our family. He loves snuggling and follows me everywhere, prompting the nickname "Shadow Dog." He is learning basic obedience and has so far mastered "sit" and "stay." Our kitties are named Viktor and Evan. Evan was adopted from Friends for Life and used to be a feral cat. He is now a huge lover boy and is always glued to our sides. He is (and will always be) terrified of strangers though and most people who visit our house regularly have never seen him! Viktor was a stray who wandered into our backyard one day. I promptly scooped him up and declared him ours, which Ryan surprisingly went along with. Viktor is extremely naughty and always up to no good. He loves running out any open door (our cats aren't allowed outside) and rolling in the dirt. He also knows the word"treat" and will beg like a dog until I give him one. Landen is his favorite person and he sleeps with him all night, spooning him as he sleeps. Not surprisingly Ryan has put the kibosh on anymore animals, for now.

Grandma's Lemonade

One of my favorite childhood memories was spending time at my Grandma Owens' house. She had raised four rambunctious boys and continued to have unlimited patience with her four also-rambunctious grandkids. Whenever we came to visit we would spend hours in the pool or playing "store" with her hundreds of poker chips. She would also always have unlimited glasses of her homemade lemonade available for us. Grandma hand squeezed the plentiful lemons that grew on a gigantic tree in her front yard and froze extra so that we could enjoy it year round . Drinking her lemonade can bring back so many memories of being young so I decided to get her recipe and make it for us. Here it is:
juice of 4-5 medium lemons (1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
medium pitcher
Fill the pitcher with the lemon juice and sugar then fill to the top with cold water. Stir before pouring. Enjoy!

A Goodbye

My Great Grandma passed away on February 2, 2009 from health complications due to a broken hip. On February 21, 2009 the whole family gathered together to say goodbye and celebrate her life. Although it was a sad occasion we had so many happy memories to share and we celebrated the fact that she had lived a full life of 92 years. It was so nice to be able to spend time together as a family since we are such a large one and aren't often able to get everyone together. My Great Grandma had two daughters, 6 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren! Pictured above are all of the great-children, my Great Aunt Joan's side of the family, and my Grandma Judy's side of the family.

Hilarious!

Rachel Foulger had this absolutely hilarious list posted on her blog and I thought it was too funny not to pass on!

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice !
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks... Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
5. In the memo field of all your checks, write 'for marijuana'.
6. Finish all your sentences with '...in accordance with the prophecy.'
7. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.
8. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
9. Specify that your drive-through order is 'to go.'
10. Sing along at the opera.
11. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.
12. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you have a headache.
13. When the money comes out the ATM, scream 'I won! I won!'
14. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling 'Run for your lives! They're loose!'
15. Tell your children over dinner, 'Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.'

Go Cards!!

While I must admit I am quite the "fair weather" fan, I too was extremely proud to see the Arizona Cardinals make it to the Superbowl this year. I have a huge soft spot for Kurt Warner and I adore the fact that he openly talks about his faith to everyone who will listen. I even made t-shirts for Ryan and I, which you can see in the above picture. We have such a dynamic team and they absolutely deserved to go all the way. We are SO proud of how far they got and the absolute sportsmanship they showed in the game!

A New Addiction

Anytime I am not taking classes I feel the need to take up a new hobby. My new addiction is making cute little onesies for our new nephew Justin. I took plain white Gerber onesies and dyed them using Tangerine RIT dye. Then I ironed on a cute picture ("Chick Magnet") by Plaid. Easy and cute! I'm also going to make some girly ones for one of my friends at work with ribbon.

Landen's First Protest

On Sunday, January 25th we took a trip down to the Arizona Capitol Building to protest proposed budget cuts to K-12 education. As teachers we are on the front lines of education and firmly believe that the budget cuts (that have now become reality) will have a devastating effect on education as we know it. According to recent polls Arizona ranks 51st in per-student spending, and now with a $300 million dollar "trim" to our 08-09 school budgets we face third-world status. As parents we felt it was important for Landen to witness firsthand people coming together to fight for a cause they believe in. We made an adventure out of it by taking the new light rail (Arizona's first mass transit system!) to downtown and then hiking a mile and a half to the Capitol building. Over 1,500 people showed up for the protest led by Dr. Nines, the superintendent of the Florence school district. Although the budget cuts were still made, we made the effort to make our voices heard and we hope Landen took away a good lesson from it.