ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Yeah, I don't know either but I know that I will be eating breakfast 6 months from today at Cinderella's Castle at Disney World w/Blake, Kami and Reaghan. Planning meals 6 months in advance is absurd but it's a necessary evil when traveling to Disney especially when you want to eat in the castle. We also have reservations for our meals for every other day of our trip - most all of them we can cancel if we feel like but many people get to Disney World without any reservations and are left with almost nowhere to eat! Anyway, I floated through today with excitement at getting the Cinderella's Castle reservation but 6 months is going to go by soooo slow now. I'm DYING to tell Blake but it's just too far in advance for him to know. Some pics of the last time I was at the castle eating breakfast with Payton and Katrina:

Just a random reminder that you can get your credit reports from all 3 bureaus for free once a year by going to annualcreditreport.com. You will need to type in some identifying information so they know it's you but it is free and very useful. The site will try to get you to purchase services that do cost money but you can decline them if you aren't interested and still get your free reports.

On Wednesday, we had breakfast for dinner and everybody ate a ton. On the menu:

• Scrambled omelet - made like an omelet but instead of letting it set, scramble it. This goes over much better than omeletes w/my family. I put 6 eggs in a bowl, at least a cup of shredded cheese, green peppers, onions and ham. Salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Pancakes - made with Bisquick but when you add the eggs, put the yolks in the mix and keep the egg whites separate. Beat the egg whites until frothy and then fold in with the rest of the pancake mix. This makes the pancakes more light and airy and yummy.
• Fried Potatoes
• Cinnamon rolls - canned, refrigerated kind

I intended to also slice up the pineapple to have as well but forgot. Overall, very yummy and not too hard!

I have a friend who is dealing with an illness that could shorten her life and land her on the bone marrow transplant list. She also just lost her job which just compounds the difficulties she is facing. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

We have 3 porch/patio areas - one in front, one on the side and one in back. I've been trying to get them all cleaned up this week. I did the front porch first and Blake liked it so much that he decided he wanted to eat lunch out there today. "Kind of like a picnic but without the blanket" he said.

Some pics of the front porch area that he decided to take.




Next, I tackled the side porch but this mama bird wasn't happy with me at all. We've left this basket hanging long after taking down the others because there's always a mama bird in it w/her babies. Today I got all up in her kool aid* when I sprayed water that blew in her direction.


*just learned this term that the kids are using now and felt compelled to throw it in

Although I went to dinner w/friends, I made dinner for Andy and the kids before I left. Only two more days to go in my promise to cook our food everyday! Today's recipe was for enchiladas. Andy said they were good so I'll take his word for it since I wasn't here to eat it.

Slow Cooker Enchiladas
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx
My suggestions: cook them in the oven for 90 minutes at 350 or so and use only one can of soup.

Chicken and Bacon Shish Kabobs
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-and-Bacon-Shish-Kabobs/Detail.aspx
My suggestions: this recipe is great as is and is the best tasting chicken ever! We actually did it in the oven instead of the grill and it worked well.

Apple Cinnamon Turnovers
http://recipes.tasteofhome.com/eRMS/recp.aspx?recid=10868&r_d=y
My suggestions: we were out of applesauce so I replaced it with butter. I'd prefer to have used the applesauce but it worked well w/the substitution.

After not cooking at all last week, I cooked this weekend and vowed that we won't be eating out at all until Friday. Here are two recipes that I made.

Shrimp Etoufee
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shrimp-Etoufee-III/Detail.aspx
My suggestions:

• Instead of water, use chicken broth.
  
• It probably won't take the whole 20 minutes for the celery/green pepper mixture to get tender. I only cooked mine for 10 minutes.

Cabbage Rolls
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cabbage-Rolls-II/Detail.aspx
My suggestions:

• Double the sauce mixture.
• Before taking the leaves off of the cabbage, either freeze it and let it thaw overnight (this wilts the leaves and makes them easier to work with) or steam the cored head of cabbage (leaves will be softer and easier to work with).
• Serve with mashed potatoes and corn, using some of the tomato sauce over your mashed potatoes.
  

Payton attended a school "dance" on Friday evening that was just like school dances we remember except that they required them to all wear the same t-shirt, all had to wear jeans or denim skirt, most parents stayed, there were silent auctions and a build-a-bear station. Ok, I'm being sarcastic and may be the only parent who thinks it was absurd to call it a "dance" instead of a school festival. The kids were really looking forward to having their first dance but I don't think it should have been sold that way to them. Nonetheless, here's a picture of Payton and her friend Kristen before heading out to the "dance."