Monday, March 23, 2009

No Sense a'Tall

That's what Gi-gi says, often.

Today it definitely applies.

But first; my Saturday.

Saturday was nice.  I had the house (downstairs, anyway) fairly presentable before Saturday began, and we were expecting a houseful for dinner.  Our cousins and their 2 boys - 'best friends' pretty much, but they hadn't been over for a year!  Life has been busy for them - and then the wife's sister and her two kids, and the grandma to those kids...  All had converged upon our cousins for the weekend, and we were happy and excited to have them all over.  Total count was 6 adults and 7 kids.  Awesome.

In any case, I spent the day straightening up those kitchen counters (I think they have a chronic clutter condition) and getting dinner ready.. I browned up 2 lbs of young beef (1 year old) - very tender, maybe not the best option for spaghetti sauce, but oh well - adding organic tomato paste, (not organic) tomato sauce, homegrown (of course organic!) tomatoes, organic italian seasoning, etc etc, and FILLED a 6-qt crockpot to simmer all day.  I mixed up some msg-free ranch dressing mix (that actually tastes good), and minced garlic for the garlic bread.

The kids were on the edge of their seat all day... FINALLY they were on their way, and the girls staked out the driveway in anticipation.  After their arrival, it was an outdoor free-for-all of chasing poultry and running from the dog, piling on the all-safety-features-removed trampoline, and other fun kidstuff.

It was so nice to have everyone over, and though they left shortly after 8, it was really just right.  I headed to bed about 9, and let me tell you:  I didn't notice until just then, but I think I overdid it.  My whole body was hollering, "hey!  Don't you know there's gestation going on here?!?  It takes effort!  It takes energy!  Slow it down, wouldya?"  Of course, at that point, the only option was full-stop, and thankyouJesus for my bed.

That was 2 days ago.  You'd think I'd have learned something.

Apparently not.

Today I got up to my soaking-bread-dough and my soaking-breakfast-cookie-dough (don't know what soaking is about?  That's cause I'm a crummy blogger.  It's awesome, and good for you).  I added the last of the breakfast cookie ingredients, and baked them.  I warmed the bread dough, and finished that recipe, and over the course of a few hours baked 4 loaves of bread, plus one lower-gluten loaf for Organique, plus let the girls each make a 'bread bear' for tomorrow's breakfast.  That was all a lot of work.  But then I decided to try out some casserole recipes and freeze a few things 'for later.'  So I browned 5 pounds of beef, and defrosted a package of organic genoa salami that I got on clearance (no nitrates!).  I've had a 5 lb bag of mozzarella languishing in the spare fridge for too long, and thought that would be good to use.  I made a batch of pizza pockets.  Interesting, but tedious.  We had a couple for lunch, and they were delicious.  Oh, yes, I made pizza sauce, obviously.  Then I boiled some noodles and made a 'pizza casserole' with the sauce, some noodles, some beef, some of that salami, mozzarella... I think that's it.  Then I boiled more noodles and made a 'lasagna casserole.'  It looks tasty.  Then I broke out another giant can of tomato sauce and some corn tortillas and made an 'enchilada casserole.'  With mozzarella, of course, not cheddar.

I thought I could quit then.  But I couldn't.  I had to wrap the casseroles in plastic, label them, and put the rest of the mozzarella, tomato sauce, enchilada sauce, and ground beef into ziploc bags to freeze for later use.

And then I threw it all into a box for Hubby to lug to a freezer when he comes home, because I can't.

I think I'm dead.

:)

6 comments:

Jess said...

When I was pregnant with Christopher I would have a BIG cook up every Friday - then it would take me until the next thursday to recover and completely clear up! The projects aren't the hard part, it is the clean up after that gets me!

EllaJac said...

Jess, *so far* the cleanup hasn't been too overwhelming. My oldest empties the dishwasher each morning, and I've found that a handy place to put some of the big items that I end up handwashing anyway. My big mixer bowl, cutting boards, things like that, I just handwash and let drip dry in the dishwasher rack, then I put them away in time. Those big items out of the way have really made a difference in the cleanup, for me!

Rachel said...

Take a nap!

I had a dream the other night that I was visiting you and we were driving around in a van... and that's pretty much all I remember. Huh.

EllaJac said...

Rachel, May It Be So!

I've been so bad at blogging, even emailing, because ALL. MY. COMPUTER. TIME. has been taken up with searching for a van! All that will work are a 3 or 4 hour drive, and I just don't feel like doing that, just yet. Hoping and praying to find one closer! :)

home handymum said...

Congratulations! I must have missed the post where you made your pregnancy public.

Being a gestating mummy myself, I hear ya! Fortunately my 2 year old still sleeps in the afternoon, and my 5 year old is pretty self-sufficient so I can have a nap on the couch.

But I'm finding even the usual daily routines exhausting, and can't even contemplate big cooking or baking missions. So well done to you!

Hopefully the iron tablets I've just started taking will make a difference.

EllaJac said...

Handymum,

Congratulations to you as well! Iron is a biggie, along with protein and salt, according to my midwife. I have a sheet for both protein foods and iron foods on my fridge. And a graph showing how much using cast iron cookware increases the iron! Especially for acidic stuff like spaghetti sauce...

I do hope the increased iron helps though!