::recipe:: Our House Dressing

My favorite grocery store sells this fabulous dressing. The only problem is that it's seven bucks a bottle. And, we're not talking a big bottle, like the one you see here. It's a little bottle, and let me tell you people, it goes fast. So, I was in a mad race to figure this one out. How hard could it be to whip up a garlic essence vinaigrette?

This is what you will need...

Start with your garlic. You will need five cloves.

Do you know the secret of how to loosen the outer shell of the garlic clove? Put the clove underneath your knife, and give it a whack. The outer shell will loosen, making it much easier to peel.

Peel your garlic cloves. Garlic makes everything better...don't ya think?

And, then drop five of them into the bottom of your dressing jar.

For the next part, I use a big tupperware bowl that has a really good seal. Add your vinegar, oil, sugar, pepper, salt, granulated garlic, and oregano flakes to the bowl. See the recipe below. Give it quite a few shakes, until all is dissolved and mixed well. Pour the contents of the bowl into your dressing jar. Eventually, the garlic cloves will sink to the bottom of the jar...

The Douglas House Dressing {garlic essence vinaigrette}

5 cloves garlic

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp. sea salt

2 tsp. granulated garlic

1 tsp. oregano flakes

Yields about 2 cups

It has a nice honey color, is sweet and tangy all at the same time and is WONDERFUL on salads. It can also be used as a marinade for meat, chicken, fish, and roasted veggies. I've used it on pasta salad and on a summer salad, filled with tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, red onion, and cantaloupe. Usually when I make it, I double or triple the recipe. We use it on everything, and it keeps well in the fridge.

If you give it a try, I hope you like it as much as we do. It's the only dressing that we want in our house these days.

So dear south Texas grocery store with your name of three initials,

I've got you beat on this one. All of the gourmet products that you sample, with all of the nifty little recipe cards, really are wonderful, but are also so good at turning a hundred dollar grocery bill into two hundred...fast. I'm done with your gourmet, over priced dressing, but I do plan to keep on shopping with you. I'll just be mixing my oil and vinegar at home, for at lot less dough.

love,

mother of two

who on occasion does "eat lunch" via all of those samples...

Emma and Carson do too.

Just The Two Of Us

It's just been us this week. Sister's at her Mama C.'s.

We've had fun together...playing & snuggling.

And, every afternoon, I let him sit in my lap while we eat cheerios together. Oprah usually joins us too.

We've built block towers and knocked them over. And he even learned to wave and say "bye-bye" this week. Do you think that's coincidence? Or do you think it's because he's been my only one this week?

It hasn't been all fun and games. On this morning, we were shampooing our carpets. I get a little weird about my floors when my little ones start crawling. Well, he's crawling, so let the o.c.d. begin. Thank goodness for my sweet hubby who did most all of the work. It was a fun and very productive week, but I think we're all three ready for Sister to come home. It's just not the same without her.

oops...

let me start by tying up a few loose ends.

for starters, i've been working on the blog a bit lately...reformatting and whatnot, and i realized that i forgot to post about our thanksgiving week. so here they are...

our trip to the farm

thanksgiving with my family

i'm not really sure how that happened, but it did, so let's move on.

i promised y'all i'd let you know about the pioneer woman's meatballs, so here ya go...

they were fantastic! i'll admit that i was a bit skeptical. i mean, the ingredients were super basic, but in the end, that recipe is a keeper. it's sort of a man's dish. rob loved them and emma did too. it's not the fastest thing that you can make for dinner, but it will definitely be made again at our house.

okay, i think that's it. really.

i'm working on a few more things for y'all, so i better run...

you're eleven months, buddy

My time with you just keeps flying on by. Here you are in a nutshell...

• you might want to read your 10 month post first. needless to say, i'm a little behind...
• you can get up on all fours now, although you aren't crawling (like on the diaper commercials)...yet.
• you can get anywhere you want by either rolling across the room, scooting, or doing this kinda weird army crawl thing. when you army crawl, your belly never leaves the ground, but somehow, you manage to make it work :)
• we just celebrated your very first Christmas, which was oh so special.
• you are still in 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. although once the 3's are gone, we are onto the 4's.
• you cut your second tooth on january 3rd. it is the bottom, center, right one. so, now you have a pair. trust me when i tell you that teething is never a pleasant experience for either of us.
• i was so desperate for teething relief that i bought you an amber teething necklace, and i think it's working.
• you can say uh-oh now. and today, when you dropped your sippy cup, you chimed in with your "uh-oh." although it sounds kind of like "uh-ah."
• da-da, ma-ma, and bye-bye are also a part of your repertoire.
• occasionally, you will give me kisses when i say "kissy, kissy."
• and your daddy says that you have signed "more" and "all-done," although i haven't seen it.
• usually instead of signing, you scream. could you please stop?
• on my birthday, you slept until 7:45 in the morning. can we say, "best gift ever?"
• you have kept it up and continue to sleep 12 hours each night. 7:30 to 7:30. pure heaven.
• about two weeks ago, i cut out a nursing session. so, we are down to a 7:30 am, 2 pm, and 7:30 pm feeding.
• naps are at 10 am and 2 pm.
• you eat all three meals with us now, and you just love people food!
• you got your first haircut on january 5th. you can see pics here.
• you can sit yourself up in your crib now which has been interesting. new tricks always are.
• i've also seen you on your knees a few times trying to reach for something.
• and because no post is complete without a photo, here you are with sister, just a few days before your 11 month milestone...

she's always got some sort of plan for you. i rescue you when i can :)

love you little fellow!

::craft:: rainy day valentine fun

emma started by decorating the window with her valentine's day gel clings.

while she did that, i got the stuff together to make these...valentine lollipop flowers for emma's preschool class.

this is what you will need: a bag of tootsie roll pops, 5 cupcake liners per sucker, green pipe cleaners, wire, and green painting tape (i found it at home depot), and a card for each lollipop.

to start, fold a cupcake liner in half and punch a hole in the center. you will need four of these per lollipop.

next, fold a cupcake liner in half, but this time, punch the hole half way off of the paper.

this way, when you open it, you have one single hole in the middle of the cupcake liner. you will need one of these per lollipop.

this is what you should end up with...

add the folded liners to the lollipop stick...

overlapping one quarter as you add each one.

keep going... once you have added all four of the folded cupcake liners, finish by adding the unfolded cupcake liner to the back.

you could always enlist a sweet helper to help out...

to make the leaves, sandwich a piece of wire in between two pieces of the green tape.

next, cut out a leaf shape.

after that, i added one pipe cleaner (that i had folded in half ) and one green leaf to each sucker. just twist to attach them both. the pipe cleaner served as our tag holder.

that's it...you can't beat spring flowers on a cold and wet wintry day! If you want something a little less involved, you could try the butterfly lollipop valentine's that we made last year.

Inspired by and adapted from: Skip to my Lou!

Dear Carson & Dear Emma

Dear Carson,

I owe you a 10 month post, but it's been a little hectic around here, so for now, this will have to do. You are the best little thing since sliced bread and we all love you to pieces.

Dear Emma,

You are so sweet. And, you have been such a big helper to me lately...cleaning up your and Carson's toys, clearing the table after your meals, using your m'ams and sirs, helping me in the kitchen. You are growing up, which just breaks my heart. You won't wear jeans. You. really. really. hate. them. You insist on leggings. And, leggings only. You are convinced that you taught Carson how to crawl, even though he's not crawling yet. And, your latest fascination is our food and where it comes from. Your prayer before dinner the other night was...

Warning if you are a vegetarian, a member of PETA or anti NRA, you might want to stop reading here.

Dear God,

Thank you for all of the animals, so that we can kill some of them and eat them.

Amen.

I almost died. Before you eat chicken, it's ,"Mom, did this used to be real?" "Yes, Emma it was real." I think you're sort of okay with all of this, but you are holding onto the fact that we don't kill ALL of the animals, just SOME of them. Cam killed a deer, just before Christmas. Emma saw the pic, and the rest is history. So, dear Cam, thanks for the life lesson :)

And to the both of you,

The two of you together is priceless. Y'all crack up at each other constantly... It's fun to be your Mommy and I love each of you to the moon and stars and back :)

Now, onto the daily grind...My laundry is finally done. I do believe I will have to come up with some sort of laundry system in the near future. It. Just. Piles. Up. Any suggestions? My dinner is already semi-put together. I am giving the Pioneer Woman's Meatballs a go, so I'll let you know how they stack up. My house is in the best kind of order that it's been in since Christmas, but don't get too excited, we still have a ways to go. Anyway, we're not in shambles, so I thought I would catch up on a few old posts. I still have a few more Christmas posts to do, so I'll be back soon. I hope.

Here's what I've been working on...

cookies for santa...

On the eve of Christmas...

he came.

it was a family affair

still opening...

And, just because I am type a, the above photos were taken on 12.31.10, not today :)

xxoxxo, j

snip, snip

my sweet little boy's hair was in his eyes, so i gathered up these and got to work...

we used sister's smock and the bumbo too.

sister was there for support. i didn't want to cut your baby hair, but i did want you to be able to see :)

i didn't dare touch the back. i have this thing with cutting baby hair. i prefer to wait. and wait. the proof? emma's first haircut wasn't until she was two years and three months old. well, buddy, you are boy, and sticking a pretty bow in the part that needs cutting just won't cut it. so, after the big ole wiggling fiasco, you can see, and i can see your pretty blue eyes again. a haircut at only ten months old. geez. thank goodness for the curly hair. i make no promises that it is straight.

i read her blog.

and i've found so much inspiration there. i don't know her, but i am sure that she's wonderful. today is her birthday, so i wanted to wish her a day filled with laughter, blessings, and fun. i am pretty sure she could use a fun day, because just before Christmas, her house burned to the ground. her and her family were left with nothing but the pj's they were wearing.

can you imagine? i can't. truly, my brain can't even begin to wrap around what that must feel like. they lost it all, but they still have each other. which at the end of the day, is all that really matters. we all have so much to be thankful for, and we should all give thanks today. let's delight in it all today, even the things that are oh so small.

for me, it's...

emma and her giggles

carson and his snuggles

my sweet husband

the health of my brood

my sisters

my mom & dad

all the rest of my family

and

all of my good friends

especially this one

i'll even be thankful for the cheerios on the floor. because cheerios on the floor means we've been blessed with a home and food to feed our family, but most of all it means we have a baby in the house. a happy, healthy baby~one that makes all three of us smile each and every day.

so, when you say your prayers tonight, could you please say one or two for Edie? if you want to send birthday wishes her way, you can jump on over to her blog right here. i pray that in the midst of all of the grief, she finds encouragement and strength.

two hundred and forty three.

that's how many pics are on my camera. right. now.

geez.

little buddy won't nap. he's teething. and we have the:

your children just got 800 presents for Christmas and there's nowhere to put them/hubby's been home, so you've been hanging out with him instead of tying things out/need to go to the store, because you have no food/need to put away all of the Christmas stuff before it's Valentine's

are you all in the same boat?

i will be back soon, but i'm the "can't blog until most everything is semi-under control" kind of girl.

love y'all.

jenn

still opening...

our sweet aunt charlotte sent our whole family gifts this year. there was a big box at our front door when we got home from our Christmas travels. emma gladly agreed to open it...

she was SO excited about her new raincoat, boots, and umbrella. one of her very favorite things to do is jump in puddles. aunt charlotte even sent me a new red fluffy robe. i was still wearing the one she had given me as a child. seriously. think i might need a wardrobe update? there were gifts for the boys too. carson's was a little people dump truck. no photo, but both kids love it! and rob's was an lsu t-shirt, which he can wear proudly, considering their most recent win against a&m. yay!

so...

dear aunt char and uncle steve,

thanks for all of the goodies! we are WAY behind on our thank you notes to everybody, but we are grateful for all of our gifts. thanks for thinking of us, and we hope to see you soon!

love you,

the douglas house

rob, jenn, emma, and carson