Easter with the Critter Family

The family came over to the house and had a nice Easter together.  I just think my Easter could have been better if it wasn’t missing somebody.  The girls and I missed sharing Easter with their daddy (2nd year in a row now).

Other than that we had a blast.  Papa Bear’s parents came over, my parents were here and my brother, sister-in-law and the kids came.

Here are the eggs the Easter bunny had to hide.  Auntie and the kids had the bright ones and Silly Girl and I had camo colors.

Silly Girl’s loot.  She was having a ball even though I woke her from her nap.  She was finding them every where.  If you notice her finger is black from Papa’s tail pipe where she found an egg.

Some of Lil’ Monster’s eggs.  I put her on the grass and just let her go crawling.  Some of the kids brought her some too.

A nice group shot after to show what was all collected.

This is the very first time Lil’ Monster sat up by herself.  I went just nuts with excitement to see this.  Now she crawls around and then pushes herself up.  So cute.

Dinner was great.  Everybody brought something and we just pigged out.  Then Papa Bear’s brother and his family came over and visited for a while too.

We hope you all had a great and awesome Happy Easter.  Enjoy Spring, we are.

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Homemade Refried Beans

I have been trying to find a way to make our own refried beans.  I really hate the canned kind.  And when I told DH about my idea he really loved that I wanted to try this.

So far this is the two options that I have come across that sound the most promising:

Homemade Refried Beans

Start with approximately 2 pounds of dried pinto beans. It’s important to rinse the beans and pick out any stones or chaff. Fill a deep, heavy stock pot with water and dump the rinsed beans in. Over medium high heat, bring the water to a boil and boil the beans for about five minutes. Cover the pot and let it sit for about an hour. After an hour, rinse the beans thoroughly and put into a six-quart Crockpot. Fill the Crockpot of beans with water up to about 2 inches below the top. (If your Crockpot is smaller, just scale back on quantities.)

Stir in:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 t. ground cumin
• 1/2 t. oregano
• 1/2 t. ground black pepper
• 1 T. minced garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes (optional)
• 2 anaheim peppers, diced (optional)
• 2 jalapeno peppers, diced (optional)

Cook for approximately 12 hours in the Crockpot. Stir periodically and add water if necessary. Don’t let the beans dry out. Eventually, as they cook, they will absorb most of the water. You’re not shooting for soup here, so don’t add too much water. After the beans are mostly cooked, add salt to taste.

Refrigerate overnight and serve the following day.

Here is the other one:

Ben’s refried beans

For this recipe you will need:

• 1/2 lb Mexican chorizo
• 1 small onion
• 4 cups cooked pinto beans drain
• Chicken broth (if needed)
• 2 epazote leaves, finely chopped(remember our stinky friend?)
• salt (if needed) and pepper

Preparation:

1. Peel the chorizo casing (it is the thin skin of the chorizo tubes) and fry it in a hot cast iron skillet or heavy skillet until it browns.
2. Add onions and sauté in the chorizo fat until translucent (actually they will turn red).
3. You can either smash the beans with a potato smasher or with a blender, food processor or hand blender. Smashing them with any kind of machine will result in smoother refried beans. If you use a potato smasher add the potatoes to the skillet and smash them. If using a processor, blend them with a little bit of chicken broth before adding them to the skillet.
4. Add epazote and adjust seasoning. Cook for 20 minutes over medium low heat stirring constantly.

I would really love to hear how the rest of you do refried beans.

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Vroom Vroom……………Now We’re Riding

This last Christmas Santa brought Silly Girl a big girl bike with training wheels. We could get her to sit on the bike but have not been able to get her to peddle. Until now ………

We spent Sunday down at Papa Bear’s parent’s house watching Conference and letting the girls just play and have all kinds of fun. After dinner Grandma spent about five or ten minutes with Silly Girl and then she was riding. I was so excited for her.

Then on Monday Silly Girl climbed back up on her bike and rode it into the railing on the front porch. Humph!!!! Now if I can just get her to get back up on her bike. Soon!!

Just wanted to add a little update to my earlier post. She now rides her bike like an old champ. But the funny part, she now stays away from the front porch railing.

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Getting Organized…………If that’s Possible

For the last week have been reading a really interesting book about helping to organize your house. The book is Confessions of an Organized Homemaker by Deniece Schofield. I requested the book from the Paperback Swap. The good is that some of the ideas are really good and I can’t wait to put them to use. The bad is that at this very moment I am sitting at my crazy piled high computer desk.

But back to the point. Some of the ideas I found is keeping a well informed calendar. Are you asking what is a well informed calendar? Well it is really called a planning notebook and has a calendar with several different parts and personalized sections. The personalized sections hold what kinds of information you want it to hold, obviously.

The funniest and most interesting part of the book is that I was already doing what it suggested and other parts were great clarifications and awesome ideas. If you want to check out my book notes here they are.

If you want to know more get the book. I just saw it on eBay for $1.99 plus $2 or $3 for shipping. I requested the book from the Paperback Swap for free and then sent the book back out when I was done for $2.23. It might even be at the library. Check it out.

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