Binkies and Briefcases • Page 199 of 268 •

Date Night and a Special Envelope

September 4, 2011 By: Stephanie3 Comments

Friday was our 5 year wedding anniversary. Yay! (Everyone’s been teasing Eddie this week because he looks about 15 in that picture. He was old enough to drink the champagne, promise.)

We decided to celebrate by going back to the same restaurant where we had our wedding reception. We also decided, at the suggestion of my wonderful mother-in-law (whose birthday is today, so Happy Birthday!) to open the envelope that told us the gender of the new baby.

The last time I was pregnant, we had the ultrasound tech write down the gender and we opened the envelope on Christmas morning. We had been debating about whether or not to be surprised this time, but we decided that this would be a fun way to find out too.

So Friday night we dropped the kids off with Eddie’s parents and headed down to Baltimore’s Pier 5 Hotel for dinner at Ruth’s Chris.

We had to snap a photo on the back deck of my in-laws first, though, because that’s where we take all special occasion pictures. We have a picture of the two of us getting ready to leave for the high school prom right in this spot. 🙂

We were worried there would be a lot of traffic because the Grad Prix race is in Baltimore this weekend, but we lucked out & the roads and the restaurant were practically empty because the race was on other side of the city. The restaurant staff was very sweet and opened the ballroom so I could snap a picture of the room where we had our reception. The room was twice this size on our big day because the dividers on the right were open.

Eddie made me wait until the end of dinner before we opened the envelope. AGH, the suspense! We ordered the calamari appetizer, salads, filet mignon, wine (for him, not me) and they gave us a complementary cheesecake dessert for our special day. 🙂

Then it was finally time to open the envelope!!! It’s a…

GIRL!

I took a video of the envelope-opening process if you’d care to watch:

Peaches out the Wazoo

August 31, 2011 By: Stephanie2 Comments

As I’ve said before, one of my very favorite things about living in Pennsylvania is the local farms and orchards. Right now we are starting to see corn, apples, and peaches.

TONS

And TONS

of big ol’ peaches

(Hey, that’s about the size of the baby in my belly)

Yesterday I took the kids to Brown’s, my favorite local orchard, and bought a box of peach seconds. (Seconds are bruised or over-ripe fruit that they sell you at a large discount. They are great for canning.) Then I got home and saw that another orchard was having a great one-day sale on their seconds as well. My friend Korie kindly picked some up for our family while I was at my ultra sound appointment.

So now I have about 80 pounds of peaches (which I only paid $30 for, a big score considering that our grocery store is selling peaches for $2/lb this week. That’s a $130 savings.) The catch is I have to process them immediately or they are going to go bad fast, being seconds and all.

So far I’ve got 8 half pints of peach butter finished that I made using this Crockpot recipe. For the rest of the day I’ll be slaving away canning slices in syrup, jam, and maybe peach salsa. Any other peach canning recipes you’d care to share?

I’m also going to try my best to duplicate my Mommom’s peach cake recipe, which I think is just her hot milk cake with peaches baked in and topped with cinnamon sugar. If it turns out I’ll share the recipe.

This is my first year canning. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding and it does save a ton of money.

You might also want to check out:

Homemade Tater Tots

August 29, 2011 By: Stephanie1 Comment

I’m trying to get into freezer cooking. After all, that was my main argument for the purchase of our fancy pants new stainless steel refrigerator. I heard Tater Tots freeze well. Hence, I made some.

Homemade Tater Tots

To be honest, these turned out really well, but I’m not sure I will be making them again.

They were a huge pain in the rear. It took me over an hour to get two dozen to the par-done freezer-ready state. I was hoping 6 potatoes would yield about 3 times this many so that I could have a freezer batch or two for the future. For size reference, these are on a regular dinner plate. I’d say I made each one about double the size of your average Tater Tot. As it is, this batch will be eaten tonight with the BBQ ribs that have been simmering away in the crockpot all day & homemade Rice Krispie Treats, and probably some broccoli or something because, as you can tell, we’re obviously super healthy around here.

I Googled about a dozen Tater Tot recipes and took the tips and techniques from a lot of them to create this recipe. It’s most similar to this one from Food Network.

This is what I came up with right out of my regular ol’ pantry which does not stock fancy things like panko and coconut oil, which a lot of the other recipes called for:

6 russet potatoes, peeled & grated (that’s the biggest pain)
3 tablespoons of flour, plus extra for coating
1 egg
salt
pepper
Old Bay seasoning

1. Peel and grate the potatoes. It will take you a hundred years and make a giant mess. It would be way easier to use leftover baked or mashed potatoes.

2. Drain the potatoes really well. I used a strainer and then drained them again on paper towels.

3. Add flour, egg, and seasoning to taste.

4. Shape into tater tots and coat with some additional flour, seasoned if you want

5. Fry in a pan of oil (I used vegetable oil)

6. When each side is golden brown, remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

7. Let cool and freeze. The inside will not be completely cooked unless you used pre-cooked potatoes of course.

(In all my Googling I learned that Ore Ida, the inventors of the actual Tater Tot, par-fry theirs, and then they are frozen to be reheated by the consumer. Several other websites said their homemade ones actually improved in texture in the freezer.)

8. Freeze to be eaten later.

9. To finish: Take directly from the freezer and bake at 425 until fork tender. (15-20 minutes, depending on your oven) Turn them after the first 8 or 9 minutes for even cooking. The time may need to be adjusted, depending upon how large or small you make them and whether or not you used pre-cooked potatoes.

If you’re looking for another potato side dish, you’ll love my healthier version of boardwalk fries!

Healthy Boardwalk-Style French Fries from Binkies and Briefcases