Projects

I'm going to brag, so everyone either look out or stop reading!

For the past few weeks I have been working really hard on some projects and have finally finished them. I am really proud of some and cried over the others. Here is the list that I have been accomplishing

Caught up on all my scrap booking

Organized my 50 states project

Made a book just like Julies for finances

Made mothers day gifts

Tried a new cookie recipe

Cut old jeans to make shorts

Made a maxi skirt (and failed horribly resulting in me never wanting to sew again)

Fixed the said maxi skirt as well as I could

Paint 4th of July wood things

Work on a baby shower and a birthday party

Made a slip lace extender which I was going to give to my sister because she is super tall, but I was afraid           she wouldn't like it and I loved it so I kept it for myself

I have been able to do so much because Kels has recently understood the concept of nap time which frees up my afternoons. It has been glorious and so much fun to work on some of my hobbies. I am trying to love it up now because I have been told that my time just slowly starts to slip further and further away as Kelsey gets older and as more kids come. For now, bring on the nap times!

 so this is the slip and I love it!! The dress goes like mid thigh which is way too short, but now I can wear it comfortably

 Mother's day gift for Diana. thanks for the help Karolyn

Mothers day gift for mom. thanks for the help Shara

North Dakota Knophela

Before it got too warm, I wanted to make sure I made all the soups, stews, and chills so that we were not eating those in 100 degree weather. Good thing May is playing a trick on all of us and has given us plenty of chilly days to work with and so I finally have finished all the soups. North Dakota was the most recent state and I can easily say that it was the funnest to make. I made Knophela soup. It is a German dish apparently very popular in the Dakota area (Carolyn, correct me if I'm wrong)

Here is how I made it:
First you just do the basics that you would any other soup, cut, peel, boil, mash, pour, dice, add, etc, and then it was time for the fun part. Knophela is a type of bread/pasta. I mixed the ingredients to make a sticky dough. I rolled it out like a snake and then cut little pieces.

 Once the pieces were cut I let them boil in chicken stock, which in turn cooked the pieces of pasta/bread.

 Once they were double in size, puffy, and floating at the top, I added them to the soup!

It was so different and so much fun. The soup itself was delicious but very unhealthy. I don't know if I will make it again because we essentially drank a stick of butter and whipping cream, a habit that I don't want to get into.

West Virginia

I found in several places that West Virginia is a big fan of ramps (pictured below) and pepperoni rolls! 

Since I did not know where to get ramps and pizza is my favorite thing in the whole world AFTER pasta salad, I naturally made pepperoni rolls.

A pepperoni roll is a pizza rolled into a roll with no sauce because that is for dipping.

Gotta say though, that I didn't love this as much as I thought I would. I mean I just sound picky and ridiculous because whats not to love: its bread, cheese, and a pepperoni stick! There was just something about it that made me miss my flat pepperoni. Despite my picky weird food critic side, it was a state well done. 

Minnesota

There were two suggested meals for Minnesota. One was Hoddish aka tatter tot casserole and the other was a Jucy Lucy aka a cheese stuffed cheeseburger. Because neither of these were new to us, we decided to go with the Jucy Lucy. Hoddish sounded fun to make just because it was called something cool, but in the end I just didn't want to eat tatter tot casserole.

With Minnesota off the list, we only have 38 to go! 

Ohio

Cincinnati Chilli... Super easy, super delicious, and super messy. For us it was more fun than normal chili because Cincinnati chili is eaten over pasta noodles and is made with baking coco, cinnamon, and sugar. I personally have never COOKED with these ingredients, just baked,so it was especially fun.  We thought it would be fun if we put everything on one plate and share it. That was not as fun as we thought but whatever, we all loved it and I will probably use this recipe for all my chili nights from now on.

 So the recipe called for A POUND of cheese!! We couldn't really afford a pound of cheese.

Can't get enough

It feels like every day Kelsey gets cuter and cuter. As she slowly destroys our house, she learns new tricks that are just so cute. I just thought that these pictures were too good to pass up

She has learned that she can see things out the window. She loves to watch our neighbor mow the lawn and gets so excited when she sees Ethan come home.

 These are not our space heaters (longer story that I don't want to explain), but Kelsey LOVES them. I find her like this multiple times a day and recently she has learned...

 that if she reaches far enough she can touch her other toys. This was fun for one afternoon, but I have recently moved it because she tried to stand up which led to falling which led to tears which led to an unhappy baby. I mean we all see that coming, but I really wanted the picture

 Just a cute pic of Ethan and Kels on our picnic

 Nothing new here except that I love this dress Ainsley is letting us borrow and it finally fits!

Washington

Because I am from Washington I felt that I could personally cook Washington very accurately. As I was thinking of a meal I had several things come to mind:
1. Zips- but because there are no Zips or shake of the week around town that got bagged
2. Apples- now this should have been the go to, but we eat apples all the time and that felt really boring for my home town
3. Starbucks- This also should have been a go to, but we really can't enjoy too many things at Starbucks
4. Salmon/seafood- Alaska was higher on the salmon totem pole and so we did not do salmon.

So that left me with only one option for Washington

CHEAP CHICKEN AND PASTA SALAD!!!!!

 For those who many not understand, many years growing up my family would go take a picnic by the river and eat fried chicken from Albertsons. Some where in those years it became a tradition and we started calling it cheap chicken. We would take our chicken and fruit and pasta and whatever, set up a plate for the bees so they would leave our food alone (because FYI bees love meat) and then enjoy our picnic followed by a walk on the river.

And pasta salad. Past salad has been my favorite meal like forever. It has noodles, brocoli, pepperoni, olives, and tomatoes covered with cheese and italin dressing. The ideal way to have it is with nothing more and nothing less. I loved this so much I would take it to school, I would take it on camping trips when I needed a meal, and I would take it to any ward function or party when I needed a salad. I love this stuff so  very much.

So there you have it, to me there is nothing that says Washington like cheap chicken and pasta salad.
8 down 42 to go!