Not so innocent

Know what this is a picture of?

Bet you think it's a picture of our 2 adorable dogs snoozing away in our not-so-clean bedroom.

Well you're only partially right. They're snoozing away because these two yahoos went on a little adventure.

We've got 2 curious. active dogs and a weak fence. So we have an electric fence run around the perimeter. Apparently someone doesn't think that shock is "that big of a deal" because he just chewed through the wire. That's the little yahoo's work guaranteed (he's about a year old and we adopted him in February (goes by Captain).

The big yahoo is the runner though (goes by Guinness). He's been around for about 7 years but you still can't trust him to not bolt out the front door. And of course little man just follows him everywhere! So these two geniuses managed to get the fence deactivated and then make a run for it. The genius in the scheme ran out though as they managed to get themselves INTO another person's backyard and then couldn't get out. Whatever kind of fence that person has- we need it. So the homeowner notices these two dogs in his backyard and calls animal control.

Good news- both our boys have lifetime licenses with the city which means free pick up from Animal Control. They even drove them back to our house for us. I tried to take a picture of them getting out of the paddy-wagon, but my camera wouldn't cooperate. It's like their very own car service.

Now here's the bad-parenting part of the situation. We'd left the boys out in the yard while we went to a baby gender-reveal party. We came home, heard a bark and just went straight to our individual couches for a little afternoon snoozer. Oops. About 2 hours later we go check on the boys as we're getting ready to leave again and then notice they're gone. We're rushing to the car to go drive around and find them when Animal Control calls. So then we're rushing around to look like we just got home and hadn't actually been sleeping on the couch while our dogs were roaming the neighborhood.

Oh well, all's well that ends well right?? Coach fixed the fence, we tightened up those electric collars, and now we're vigilant about checking on them first thing home every time! We've learned that they're too sneaky by far.

Sicilian Supper

Also called Poor Man's Lasagna.

No pictures- tell Coach I really need that new lens for my camera! So use your imagination here. I also don't have exact measurements. This is one of those family-learned dishes that you just make.

Ingredients:
Egg Noodles- about 2/3 of a big bag.
1 stick cream cheese
1-2 cups milk
~1/2 a container of grated parmesan
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb hamburger

So here's where I blow your mind: cook the hamburger (season how you want) and mix it up with your sauce. Then cook the noodles. I leave the noodles a bit more al dente since you'll be baking them in more liquid. That's like a second cooking, so leaving them firmer keeps the noodle from getting too mushy during the whole process.

As for the white sauce- you need to melt the cream cheese on a medium heat in a sauce pan with about 1 cup of milk. I use a whisk and patience for this. You want the cream cheese all combined and melted nice and smooth. Then add in your parmesan cheese- whisk till smooth! Ok, so here's where the whole do-it-how-you-think's-best bit comes in. You need to taste your sauce and decide how 1)cheesy you want it and 2) how thick you want it. I usually add a bit more parmesan and a bit more milk because I don't like the tartness of cream cheese. I like a more mellow sauce. You also need to salt and pepper at this point (something else I don't do since I salt and pepper my meat and I hate dishes being over-salted). You can garlic here as well (something I do since I love garlic). It's really your sauce, make it what you want!

Now for assembly: stir together your white sauce and noodles and layer those in a buttered 13x9 pan. I heavily butter but you could use olive oil spray if you care about your health (something I'm rarely cognizant of when making pasta). Then you spread your meat/red sauce combo on top of that. Sprinkle more parmesan on top and bake at 350 till hot and bubbly! You can also freeze it at this point. I like to make double batches, eat one then and freeze one for later. It's also my standard someone-died-or-someone-had-a-baby-or-someone-is-sick-take-these-people-a-meal meal.

You can also add in a layer of shredded parmesan and mozzarella between the noodles and red sauce, or use mozzarella on top. Once again, make it what you want.

I like this dish because it's cheap and easy. I get our hamburger from those super-generous parents (they buy a whole cow and just distribute the meat at will, we get all our red meat free from them because they rock like that). I use $1 red sauce and off brand everything else. About $5 for the white sauce ingredients, $1.50 for red sauce stuff, then if you add more cheese maybe $2 more. $2 for the noodles usually. So that's like a 10 buck meal that can feed 6-8. Done!

Tis the Season!!

HOLY SMOKES IT'S NOVEMBER 23RD!!!!

I don't know about you all, but I feel like this semester has just flown by. Normally that's not the case for my fall semesters. Usually it's the spring semester that just whips on through. With football this year though, it's been a much faster ride. I have exactly 17 days of teaching left before winter break! :)

Football is officially over. My sweet husband finished his last game on November 7th at the district championship game. While we're always sad to lose, I was secretly a little bit happy to have the season wrapped up. November 19th was the 4-month mark on our marriage and of those 16 weeks, 15 were active football season. Coach has a little bit more gray hair now but we'll never know if it was football or marriage ;)

We're going to my parents house for Thanksgiving this year (they live about 6 hours away) and a sister of mine will also be in town with her kiddos for the holiday. I'm excited at the chance to see everyone, to sleep in a couple of days, and best yet- to not cook! I've said it before but I'll say it again. My parents are super-generous people. The last thing they expect of their home-ec teacher daughter when she comes home to visit is for her to be cooking. They actually don't even expect it of me when they come visit us. I enjoy the break from the kitchen- especially in the throes of the school semester.

I'm excited to decorate our home for our first Christmas together; Coach is a little nervous. I had some décor up for Halloween and then a quick transition for Thanksgiving. I didn't take any pictures though because it really is so little (seriously, about 5 pumpkins and a silver turkey is it folks). I plan to go all out for Christmas though so look forward to that!

In the meantime, I'm going to get some posts up on those football dinners I did. The recipes are all good party/group food and tis the season now for parties and groups! We're also going to tackle some home renovation projects this winter. Last winter I re-did the kitchen, this year I've got my eye on the guest bedroom and master bath. Keep your eyes open- more is to come!!