Pot of GOLD! {King Crab Steampots}

I borrowed this giant pot about a month ago and we had a dinner planned with a couple of crab lovin' friends. We found out about my dad's cancer the day before the dinner, so I needed to cancel. The reschedule finally arrived! I am sure there are boundless ways to make different steampots, if there was ever any doubt, look up Joe's Crab Shack menus online. They offer so many different types. This is the Baeza version!

Step one:borrow the biggest pot on the planet! Ok, if you are only making this for a single family, you only need a big spaghetti pot. I was cooking for three families.

The next step is to boil red potatoes. They take the longest to cook. This huge pot was only about 1/3 of the way full. You don't want too much water, just enough to cover the potatoes and corn.

Show me the money! (annnnd sportin' the children's star wars apron! haha) This is called B.Y.O.C.!! Bring your own crab.

Usually the potatoes need a half hour of cooking before you add the corn. Just check the potatoes with a fork to see if they are tender. Add your corn and cook about 15-20 minutes.

Next we added Kilbasa. You can leave it out or add any kind of hot link or precooked sausage you want. Right after that, you can add the crab on top. The great thing is with the potatoes and corn in there, it forms a "shelf" for your crab legs. They will steam instead of boil. Put the lid back on after each food addition to the pot. The crab take no time, since they're already cooked. Depending on how much you're making, it takes only 5-10 minutes once you add the crab. All you are doing is making them hot....but not chewy with overcooking!

FYI...this is my turkey platter, it's HUGE and now covered in crab! =)

Usually I drain the water out of the pot, keep everything in it, and melt butter and mix it up. I don't have the world's largerst colander to match this pot, so I just used tongs to put everything on the platter and covered it with butter. Sprinkle season salt all over everything. Serve with clarified butter.

As soon as we sat down, Brandon spilled his drawn butter. Not one to waste, I went to work with my bread! =)

You can totally tell this is the first of many refill plates...it's so neat and shell free.

You totally need a trash bin on the table with this meal! We were flinging shells all over the place, I even had crab in my hair. I also put an entire roll of paper towels on the table..you'll need it!

Four sweet girlies eating sundaes...

I am convinced of one thing. At the end of a rainbow, is a giant pot of crab!

Guesses??

I am going to use this pot to teach you something today, but any guesses as to what it might be?

Princess Leia

When I announced that I was going to be Leia for Halloween, Cami started jumping up and down saying that she wanted to be Leia too. Of course, AFTER we bought her vet costume! Thankfully a friend of mine volunteered to let me borrow her Leia costume, so I was able to do TWO Leia costumes for free with what I already have and what I borrowed. I am wearing the borrowed costume, so I had the fabric I was going to use for mine to make one for Cami. I sewed it this morning in about 20 minutes...it's a good thing costumes don't have to be anywhere close to perfect! We'll probably throw a turtleneck under it...My hair is long enough to twirl my own buns, so I'm gonna have Cami wear the wig. Also, Cami is gonna use the belt, and I will wear my own belt.

Can you tell how much she LOVES the wig?? Haha!

Fall Table Runner

I love days when I actually finish a project! I've been slowly working on making this fall table runner, but I just haven't had much time to work on it. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Start out by cutting squares or rectangles out of fabric. Make them all the same size. Lay them out in the order you want them. I used red, orange, and natural berlap, mustard yellow felt, brown fabric with tiny white polka dots, an orange patterned fabric from Beverly's that I had laying around, and... my favorites: the fall trees and apples from The Ribbon Retreat! they've got some great fabric and it shipped the next day!

The next step, (not pictured) is to sew the short sides of the recangles together. Basically when I laid out all of my pieces, I just flipped them on top of the one I paired it next to and stitched along the one edge. After each set, I would replace it where I picked it up from and do the next one. Next, I flipped one set onto the the next set, right sides facing. Pin and stitch along the long side of the rectangle, where you pinned.

Here it is, all pieces stitched together.

I folded it from end to end and trimmed the edges to make them even.

For my backing, I used a plain brown that I had in my fabric stash. Face right sides together, and trim excess backing fabric.

Pin all around the edges. I put a few down the middle too, just so it wouldn't be tempted to move on me.

Sew along all edges except one of the short edges. Turn inside out and press with a hot iron. Turn in the edges of the one short open end, and press.

This was the end I used to flip it right side out. After you stitch it closed, continue top-stitching around the entire runner.

Top-stitching.

And here it is! I think it turned out pretty cute! Notice there are NO pumpkins on it so that I can use it thru Thanksgiving? =)

You can make it as long or as short as you want. I chose this length, because my kids are pretty messy with syrup! =)

Potato Cheese Cassarole

I must say...sometimes I feel silly for posting a recipe that a lot of people already know, but I just can't help but think "what if someone has never heard of this??"Well if this is the first you've heard of it, you are in for a treat! This is a go-to menu item at my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group! You will need: corn flakes, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup sour cream, lawry's season salt, cheddar cheese, frozen hash browns and 4 Tbsp butter.

As luck would have it, I have a foil pan on hand today...you know me and dishes. *wink*

Stir the can of cream of chicken soup with 1 cup sour cream in a large bowl. Shake in some season salt.

Add about 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Stir.

Add a bag of hash browns and stir well.

Spray your baking dish with cooking spray and pour the mixture in. Sprinkle some more season salt on top. The next step is to mourn the fact that you now have a huge bowl to wash.

Top with about 1 more cup of shredded cheddar.

Crunch up corn flakes and spread all over the top.

Melt butter in the microwave and drizzle it on top of the corn flake crumbs. Bake at 375 for 1 hour (or longer if potatoes are not cooked all the way), covered in foil.

I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture before it was dug into! It is sooooo yummy! Seriously, who cares what else is for dinner? I could just eat this!

A weather experience

The kids were outside for recess time a bit ago and I noticed it is a SUPER windy day today! I knew we were going to talk about wind today during science, so with quick thinking, I headed to grab the kites!

Here is Yoda, flyin' high! Haha.

It would have been easier if we didn't have so many trees, etc on the property. We had a couple of snags.

I told Emma to keep running toward the shop and the back of the property, because she kept turning around and her kite would crash.

After about 20 minutes of kite flying, we came inside and read a book I picked up at the Learning Center last week because I knew we'd be on the topic of weather. It's called "I face the wind". In the book it has a few experiments, and we decided to try the one where you get a plastic bag and take it outside and catch air in it, and quickly close the top of the bag and see how air feels when you squeeze the bag. Who knew they would have so much fun with a plastic bag? Cami was squealing with delight, saying "I caught wind!!"