Molly Piper

I basically don’t even need to write this post, because you probably kinda get it after the title.

I’m making one of the Thanksgiving turkeys this year and I’ve never brined anything before, so I’m basically just curious if I should! I’m usually not very fussy, culinarily-speaking, so brining feels kinda fancy to me. But trying something new is also kind of appealing.

Whaddayathink? Should I brine the bird? 

I’m also kind of in love with this idea:

I probably won’t brine this one.

The other day, I made my kids chocolate pudding. (I promise I wasn’t just trying to use up nearly-expired products from my baking cabinet. Promise.)

But I thought it would be funny to let the babies have a go at it after dinner. I got them started and they were doing really well! Whit especially is very good with a spoon. My girl…she struggles. But whatevs. They were doing pretty well with the pudding and I handed the rest of the time off to Abraham so I could go upstairs for a few minutes.

He yells a few minutes later, “You owe me big time for this one!”
“What do you mean?” I holler back.
“This clean-up! They have pudding everywhere!”

And he wasn’t kidding. It was on the walls. It was on the backs of their necks. It was in their ears. Honestly, it’s been a few days and I’m still finding dried flecks of pudding.

But instead of stopping the insanity, what does Dad do? He takes pictures.

The twins also love to “tell” knock-knock jokes.They hear the big boys telling them all the time, so naturally they try it too!

(P.S. I have no time to video edit, so you get what you get.)

I’ve heard about a million theories about how to avoid crying while chopping onions. Unless you’re like my mother, who doesn’t cry when she chops onions (I didn’t know that was even possible), you’re looking for something that actually works.

Perhaps you’ve found something already, but personally I don’t want to have to hunt down my goggles every time I need to chop an onion. Or one of these:

I want little effort, lots of payout.

I’ve been browsing articles about why onions make us cry, and it’s a about some crazy acidic compound in the onion being released into the air and irritating the lacrimal glands (the ones that produce tears). “Very scientific, Molly…”

So what you’ve been waiting for… (the imaginary voices ask me all kinds of questions that I feel obliged to answer publicly)

“How do you do it, Molly?”

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you…The Molly Piper Onion-Chopping Method!!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• lungs
• a mouth

As soon as you’re gonna cut that bugger, start breathing deeply in and out through the mouth ONLY. Focus on mouth breathing for the entire time you’re cutting and working with the onion. Rinse your knife, cutting board, etc. as soon as you can and you should be good.

(Note: this may be one of the few times in life that being a “mouth breather” is acceptable.)

Also, I use my Pampered Chef Food Chopper pretty religiously when I chop onions, just because it’s faster. I quarter them and chop the heck out of them! (That might be my favorite Pampered Chef item of all time, but that’s probably another post.)

If you deviate back to nose breathing, you’ll start crying. Just get back on track with the mouth breathing and the crying should subside. This has been my method of choice for years now, so I hope it works for you too!

Do you have an onion-cutting tip to share? Let’s hear it!

So I made these really yummy ribs in the Crock Pot today. I haven’t made this particular recipe in a couple years, just because I forgot about it! (Don’t you love when you kind of forget about a good recipe and then it crops back up?) Anyway… it’s super good, and the ribs are so tender that the meat literally falls off the bone.

I’m sitting here typing this, smelling the yummy goodness and already hungry for supper. Which leads me to ask:

If you’re cooking in your Crock Pot, do you eat more that day?

I feel like I’m smelling delicious food all day and salivating, and therefore I want to EAT!!! So far I’ve avoided a full-0n pig-out, but I don’t know if I can make it till 5:30. That’s HOURS from now!!!!

If I cooked in the Crock Pot regularly, I feel like I’d gain weight. Agree? Disagree?

Talk amongst yourselves.

So we’re trying to eat healthier. We’re not unhealthy around here, we’re just trying to be healthier.

Like this week I made beef stroganoff (not so healthy), but I served over brown rice (in the past I’ve always done white rice).

Little changes, ya know?

I bought the mega jumbo bag of spinach at Costco this week and I’ve got to think of some creative ways to use it. I like spinach. I really am learning to be a big girl and eat it more often.

I was going to make a fancy new lasagna recipe tonight for dinner which incorporates spinach, but I’m feeling pretty thrashed by mothering four children this week. So the new revised dinner plan is BLTs.

[from travelingmcmahans on Flickr]

Ummm…make that BSTs. Doesn’t have the same ring, but we’re doing BaconSpinachTomato sandwiches tonight.

Anyone ever subbed in spinach for the lettuce? A friend of mine subs spinach in for lettuce when they do tacos, so I figure this is the same idea. It’s mostly just for crunch anyway, right?

And I suppose if I were really going healthy we’d be doing turkey BSTs. But I can’t go that far. My poor husband might cry.

What other suggestions do you have for using spinach?

I know this is probably something many moms rely on, but I’ve found it very necessary in this season of twin babies to

COOK MEAT BEFORE I NEED IT!

(Also, if you have twins, this doesn’t apply to you in the first 3 months. If you’re just eating a lot of frozen pizza or takeout, that’s okay!)

Here’s what I do:

CHICKEN

• I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts when they’re on sale. I typically buy 2-3 large packages.
• I bake mine on 2 large pizza pans.
• Let them cool.
• Cube about half, shred about half.
• Bag it in 3 & 4 cup quantities in quart-sized freezer bags.
• Great for lots of different soups, fajitas, enchiladas, casseroles (or hot dish if you’re in Minnesota), chicken pot pie.

[from Kimberly Belle on Flickr]

*Last time I did this, I was just going to do shredded chicken, so I used my crock pot with a little bit of water in the bottom, and they were so tender, I was able to shred them with my (clean!) fingers. Super easy!

GROUND BEEF

• Buy a few large packages when they’re on sale.
• Typically I try to cook it with diced onion (I have a Pampered Chef chopper thingy and that makes onions easier). Since most recipes that call for ground beef typically call for sauteed onion as well, I just do them together from the get-go.
• Freeze in quart-sized freezer bags in 2 & 3 cup quantities.
• Great for spaghetti, tacos, taco soup, chili, shepherd’s pie, sloppy joe’s.

[from Mike on Flickr]

HAM

• Buy a half-ham when they’re on sale.
• Since they’re already cooked, you just slice it, cube it, whatever!
• Freeze in quart-sized freezer bags in 1-2 cup quantities.
• I use this for ham & bean soup, wild rice soup, egg bake.

[from Deb on Flickr]

Notes
*Make sure you write the quantity on the bag. Very helpful!
*I keep the kinds of meat separated in my deep freezer in plastic shopping bags. It’s just easier than rifling through the freezer when the time comes. And then you don’t lose any down in the abyss of the deep freeze!

Basically, if I didn’t do this, we wouldn’t eat. I know there are probably greener and/or cheaper ways to do it, but this is how it works for me right now.

This has really cut down on my cooking time. What other pre-cooking hacks have you found helpful with multiples or many young children?

If you have twins you are not going to have a lot of time for meals. It’s just reality. I know they tell you if you’re nursing that you need to eat healthy, well-balanced meals and snacks. The more children you get, and the closer they are to each other in age, the chances of that decrease almost exponentially.

So I’ve taken to always having snacks in the van. Some of you might be thinking, “Duh! I always do that!” Well, I suppose I’d often have snacks in my purse, especially when I was pregnant, but I never had the quantity necessary for how often I need them now that I can rarely get a spare moment to eat at home. And most of the snacks weren’t for me, but for the kids.

Here’s what I consider for mom snacks:

• They have to have a shelf life. Anything perishable is not gonna work for me and my brain right now. I just need to be able to get in the car, realize I’m starving, and have something available.
• In my arctic world, you have to pick things that won’t freeze!
• Decently healthy. I’m not a super-duper health nut, but I’m not a junk food junkie, either.

I find that my private stash of snacks often includes crackers and nuts. They fit my criteria quite nicely.

My quick cracker of choice is Cheez-Its. I have to be careful not to gorge on them, but they’re still my faves, and if I just eat a few, I figure it’s okay. I’m sure I’ll get emails about how bad they are for me or how they’re made with carcinogen-soaked cow stomachs or something. Whatevs, I guess I must like carcinogen-soaked cow stomachs. And Cheez-It people, if you read this, I love you and will not believe the haters!

Anyway…if you’re a mother of twins, stock the car with snacks for you. You’re gonna need them!

What are your favorite on-the-go mom snacks?

For Christmas, my awesome BFF got the babies an amazing contraption that I’m convinced will make my life easier with twins:

This, my friends, is the Boon Squirt Baby Food Dispensing Spoon!

So, here’s how it works:

1. Unscrew the colored soft plastic portion (it’s squeezy).
2. Fill that with baby food or cereal.
3. Screw it back onto the clear plastic spoon.
4. Squeeze the desired amount onto the spoon (there’s a small hole at the base of the spoon).

We have two of them, one for each baby. Here’s why I think I’m gonna love these (and you might, too):

• You can throw them in the dishwasher.
• There’s a little cap (not pictured) that fits on the spoon portion for travel.
• When you’re feeding two, things get kinda crazy, especially if you have to mix one baby’s cereal with soy formula and one baby’s with regular (like me). If you get two different colors, you can keep them separated easily.
• Less chance of spilling (if you’re anything like me).

And here’s a short video presentation, brought to you by Whitsun & Cadence:

I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around having the time to give them solid foods. Right now we’re only doing it once a day, around dinner time. If you have any tips on this topic, please share how you did it with twins!

Bon appetit!

You know you’re a nursing (read starving) mom when you’re going through your feed reader at 7:30am and are DYING to make this recipe as soon as possible:

Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn

Also, you don’t have to be a nursing mom to want to make this at 7:30am. You basically just have to be human.

And I just realized, you’re a pretty nerdy blogger if you throw the phrase “going through your feed reader…,” into a post without thinking, like everyone speaks this language.

By the way, you should subscribe to this blog, Our Best Bites. So many good recipes, and nothing too complex. I haven’t actually been making any of these good recipes as of late (just drooling on my computer screen), and probably won’t be for a little while still, but you’ll find some good stuff there if you’re in a rut.

When I was pregnant with my first, a good friend told me a funny way to know how close your due date is:

Look at the date on the milk carton.

When she was having her first baby, it was what officially freaked her out. She looked at the date on the milk and it was dated for after her due date!

I have since marked the coming of all my babies by noting the dates on the perishables. Thank you, Liz.

Today it was the milk. It’s dated for August 2nd (my official induction date). Here’s hoping we make the 2 gallons I bought stretch until then, because I’m not feeling the whole grocery shopping thing right about now!

The sour cream doesn’t turn until after August 12th. Hopefully our babies will be 10 days old by then!

Okay, I’m officially freaked out.