The Connolly Family

Tuesday: It’s What’s For Dinner

Let’s try this again, shall we?

Tonight we made Swiss Enchiladas from Cooking Light (via PJ).Â I ended up with more ingredients than the recipe called for (which is completely normal for me) but this time I think that the overage was actually in proportion, so the recipe holds up pretty well.Â It was very easy to prepare; the thing that took the most time was shredding the rotisserie chicken.Â You don’t even have to drain the canned ingredients!Â The only modification I made was to add a little Mexican Cheese Blend (yes, there’s more) to the milk & flour mixture after it thickened a bit.Â It tastes great!Â Also, I don’t think I added quite the amount of salt that was called for (and it probably could have used a titch extra), but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little afraid of salt for a while…

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row:

Sauce in progress:

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row, with sauce:

Finished product:

Don’t pay attention to the rating given by the link above, this stuff is awesome.Â Also, if you’re wondering if we have any other pans, the answer is yes.Â If you’re wondering if we use any of the other pans very often, the answer is no.Â We’re a casserole/lasagna/pot pie/one-dish-meal kinda family and I make no apologies for that.

Turtle Boy

Turtle boy system comes complete with stylish green shell:

Shell doubles as a toddler transport box:

Kids (and aspiring superheroes) love it!

If purchased in the next 30 minutes, we’ll throw in a lid for free (shipping and handling not included):

Cute boy not included.Â May be purchased separately.Â Purchase of boy comes with two parents, four grandparents, 6 great-grandparents, and an aunt (sold only as a set).

Monday: It’s What’s For Dinner

Tonight I got adventurous.Â For starters I tried a recipe I saw made on television (which is something I’ve never done before).Â Secondarily, I tried a recipe whose main ingredient is something I’ve been known to greatly dislike.Â It’s called Eggplant Pasta and it’s apparently in Alton Brown’s new cookbook.Â I saw him cook it on The View.Â I decided to try it in an effort to find a way to make eggplant that doesn’t totally turn me off (Sherri Shepherd said that it was good, and I trust her taste because she always really likes all the stuff that I like when she eats it on the show (great reason to trust a paid TV personality, I know…) and Alton said that the salt that you pour all over the eggplant takes away the bitterness).Â You know that salt that I was told would take away the bitterness?Â It’s highly possible that it did take away the bitterness.Â It’s impossible to tell because the whole thing is so unbearably salty that I cannot eat it.Â I tried twice.Â I added more cream, since dairy neutralizes salt.Â I would need access to a milk cow in order to neutralize this much salt.Â My husband is convinced that he can eat it.Â I think he’s going to wake up in the morning and not be able to get his ring off or his pants on.Â We shall see…

Here’s a picture after I doubled the amount of cream:

Update:Â Matt made it through about 1/3 of the portion he served himself before he could eat no more.Â He made strange gagging noises for the next half hour while he was making himself a toasted chicken sandwich.Â With mustard, mayo, and cheese.Â Hold the salt.

Saturday Splurge

Tonight’s splurge is brought to you by some of Shannon’s favorite comfort foods: cheeses (yes, plural), noodles, and tomato sauce.Â We started with this Three Cheese Manicotti recipe, except that by the time we had finished we’d made the following changes:

The Publix brand ricotta inexplicably comes in 15 oz. containers instead of 16 oz. containers, so I bought 15 oz.
It called for mozzarella, but I already had shredded cheese for another recipe and it was that “Mexican Blend” variety, so we used that, even though it doesn’t have any actual mozzarella in it.
We measured the MB/mozzarella-substitute cheese that went into the shells, but Matt just sprinkled the portion that went on top until it looked good.
We used an 8 oz. brick of Monterrey Jack cheese because, again, Publix doesn’t sell cheese in 6 oz. bricks, and I figure: How could you possibly ever have too much Monterrey Jack in anything?Â The answer:Â You can’t.
We used about 4 TBS of sour cream and the sour cream we had was fat free.
We omitted the parsley.
We didn’t end up using any salt or pepper.
We added about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan to the stuffing mixture.
We added about 2 TBS of prepared pesto to the stuffing mixture.
The shells didn’t fit into one dish, so we used two, which necessitated the use of more tomato sauce.Â We ended up using about twice the amount that was called for.Â Also, if you want to get specific, we used Classico’s Spicy Tomato and Basil spaghetti sauce.

Also–a tip that never seems to be included in any recipe, but which I use for everything that involves stuffing is the plastic bag piping method.Â I use it for deviled eggs, icing cupcakes, filling pasta shells, etc. and it significantly reduces the amount of time it takes (and in the case of the cupcakes, makes for a much fancier product at the same time).Â We did this tonight with the shells, filling one half and then going at the thing from the other side and it was super-speedy.

Here’s Matt tending to the noodles:

Here’re the two dishes of finished product, fresh out of the oven:

Ready for grubbin':

Add a salad on the side, a glass of wine, and trashy TV on the TiVo and you couldn’t ask for a better evening.Â Change the game in mid-play and add peas, a cold beer, and Tech football on TV and you won’t have a better evening.Â Guaranteed.

McDaniel Farm

Today we traveled out to the wilds of Gwinnett County to McDaniel Farm in search of pumpkins.Â Despite the drizzle and cold, we had a great time.Â Here are some pictures:

Matt and Lynne show us how The War of Northern Aggression makes them feel:

Grammie’s a sucker (but can you blame her?):

Liam The Rooster:

Matt The Scarecrow:

Liam finds the pumpkins:

Liam finds the hay:

Liam The Farmer:

Pig, Goat, & Grammie:

Liam spies wildlife:

A walk with Grammie:

Umbrella:

A boy and his pumpkin:

“Grammie Kiss!!!”

“Look!Â Pop!”

Overheard At The Connolly Ranch

(Multiple times daily.Â Uttered by me.Â Over and over.)

“Liam, please don’t play in the recycling bin.Â Close it up.Â Right now.”

“Liam, please get out of the refrigerator.Â Mama needs you to stop turning out the light, she can’t see what she’s looking for when you do that.Â We don’t play in the refrigerator.Â We’re wasting energy when the door’s open.Â We’re not having milk right now.Â You may have water.Â If you throw a fit like that you can spend a little time in time out.Â Thank you for coming out of the refrigerator, you made a good choice.”

“Liam, please don’t take the lid off Mama and Daddy’s laundry basket.Â Please put it back.Â Please leave the clothes alone.Â Right now.”

“Liam, we’re not watching TV right now.Â Turn it off.Â Right now.Â 1….2….Thank you for listening, maybe next time you can be a helper a littler earlier.”

“I’m sorry Liam, but Mama’s hungry too and you have the same thing on your plate, so please eat yours.Â It’s exactly the same as Mama’s.Â If you keep that up you can get down from the table.”

“Library books are big boy books.Â You need to be careful with them.Â We can read them together, but please don’t spread them all over the house and try to tear them secretly.Â We’re putting the books back up on the shelf.Â We’ll read them together later.”

“Liam, don’t touch the buttons on the stove.Â You just turned off Mama’s timer.Â Now you turned off the oven.Â You know you’re not supposed to touch the stove.Â Time out.Â Right now.”

“Please stop rubbing the food on your hands into your pants.Â You don’t have enough clothing to change your clothes three times per day.Â Fine, you can eat lunch naked.”

“Liam, we don’t play in Mama and Daddy’s bathroom.Â It’s not safe.Â Please come out.Â Right now.”

You get the gist.

Toddler Conversation

(To preface this:Â Matt and I have been trying for months to get Liam to give us a kiss.Â Prior to this week he would only kiss his stuffed monkey (or dogs, or pillows, or the wall, but never his parents).Â This week he began kissing (after a brief fascination last week with our good-bye kisses in the morning, which he would ask us to repeat again and again) us, but only on the lips.Â His favorite time to do this is when he’s smeared with food.Â Licking me when I close in for the kiss is another favorite.Â When this conversation took place we were sitting at the table eating dinner.Â Liam was smeared with hummus from head to toe, quite literally.)

Liam:Â “Give Mama kiss?Â Mama kiss.”

(I lean in and pucker up and he kisses me on the lips.)

Liam:Â “Give Da kiss?Â Da kiss.”

(Matt leans in, but Liam won’t meet him halfway, and immediately turns his attention back to me.)

Liam:Â “Give Mama kiss?Â Mama kiss.”

(I lean in and pucker up and he kisses me on the lips.)

Liam:Â “Give Da kiss?Â Da kiss.”

(Matt leans in and puckers up and Liam won’t meet him halfway so Matt tries to get him to give a kiss on the cheek.Â This is yet another skill that Matt’s been trying to help Liam learn for months.)

Matt:Â “Why don’t you give me on the cheek instead?”

Liam:Â “No kiss cheek.Â I like kiss mouth.”

At least the kid knows what he likes.

Mini Wednesday Roundup

Today we hung out with Walker and Jessica.Â We got a few pictures of the boys, but as you’ll see it’s become all but impossible to get both of them in the same shot, looking at the camera and (at least) pretending to be happy about it.Â We gave it our best shot (so to speak):

“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Mama?”

Mini Tuesday Roundup

Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys:

â€œI didn’t come here and I ain’t leavin’.â€

This is the look that Liam gets on his face every time he sees Matt from afar.Â It’s like he’s just won the lottery (and basically — he has).Â Awesome.