Copycat Recipes

Years ago, I tried a copycat recipe of KFC's coleslaw. I don't know why, but its the ONLY coleslaw I've ever liked. I'm weird, we know this.

Anyway, it turned out perfectly. So I went hunting for it again after buying (insert ridiculous number here) large containers of coleslaw out of laziness, only to find this last time, that KFC had changed their packaging-and the amount they give you. They tried to tell me it was the same amount, but I see through their lies. There's no way in heck that's even close to the same amount. Pft.

After finding a copycat recipe that looks right on (haven't tried it yet), I started looking for others. And naturally the first one I thought of was Panda Expresses orange chicken. Excuse me while I grab a rag....

I have found numerous copycat recipes for it, many of which people rav over the sauce, but in every single one they say that the chicken itself never cooks up the same. I kept looking and looking with no luck. Then tonight, two things occurred to me. One, if you can't get the chicken right, why not just buy precooked and battered chicken?? Its not much more than plain chicken breast and the hardest parts been done for you-and done well. So this is my plan of attack. Buy plain popcorn chicken or something along that line, and throw together the sauce.

So what was the second thing I realized? That Panda Express sells their orange chicken sauce. In grocery stores. How did I remember this? I went hunting in the fridge for stir fry sauce...and there was half a bottle. I have no idea how I forgot this. I feel about as bright as...a burnt out light bulb. Yeah, that's all I can come up with.

In any case, I now have a sure fire copycat recipe for orange chicken. Sort of. Whatever, it'll taste good.

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Road Trip Done. (part 1)

I feel the need to put this out there. We drove over 3o00 miles, 46 hours, with 3 kids in the backseat of a car. We did it. I know, I'm surprised too.

We did exactly what you shouldn't do...we drove straight through the night. By the time we got there (and home) we were utterly exhausted. But, driving at night was the best thing we could have done, as the kids slept like logs for 8+ hours of peaceful driving.

During the day, we had a wonderful rotation of movie watching, stopping to pee, Mieke screaming (and puking. Yeah. Fun.), stopping for gas, stopping to pee, stopping for food-despite my hope to avoid fast food, we ended up eating almost nothing but fast food both ways, as it was an opportunity to get the kids out of the car.

Now, as for the actual drive. We went through eastern Washington (been there, done that, was just as boring as the other times I drove through), Idaho (mountains ho!), Montana (hills and mountains and then hours upon hours of wide empty fields), South Dakota (fields. That's it, I swear. Oh and more tourist attractions then they had people), Iowa (an entire state of road construction. And an exciting detour due to the interstate being closed down, at 3am), Missouri (I won't lie, I slept through Missouri), and then a bunch of other states that looked like green, grass, treey areas, slowly moving into more green, but with lots of that wonderful loving plant, Kudzu. Eventually we made it to NC (mountains) and into SC. Where we discovered that Mieke was very much constipated. "Hi, we missed you, Mieke needs to poop!" Yep, thats us.

I'll finish this later. I'm hungry :D

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Road Trip. Sort of.

Its Saturday, 5 days before we head out on our trip to South Carolina.

We're driving. With 3 kids. In a rental. We're trying to make good time, so we won't be stopping much and we're going to be trading off driving. And that's the part that makes me nervous...Mieke is not a fan of the car seat. Being stuck in one for around 42 hours? I just can't see that going over well. But, this was over half the price of flying, so we're going to make it work. One way or another.

Anyway, I wanted to chronicle our experience. Most people I've spoken to insist that this just isn't going to work, the we will have to stop, etc. Maybe they're right. Maybe not.

Since we'll have 3 kids, we will be stopping for short breaks for potty breaks, diaper changes, run around time, etc. We're bringing 2 dvd players (with a total of 3 screens, so Mieke can watch too), a bunch of activities for the older kids, treats/snacks for everyone (but especially Mieke-choo), and a couple of new and exciting toys for Mieke to pull out one at a time if things get dicey.

We're leaving on Thursday, Scott has to open that day, so when he gets out of there at 4, he'll head home and we'll eat dinner quickly and head out. I'm going to start out the driving and he's going to try to sleep for awhile...once I'm too tired to drive, he'll take over and drive through the night. If I figured everything correctly, we should be just getting out of Montana when everyone starts waking up and be through Wyoming around breakfast time (~10). Not a bad start!

I'm not planning stops, with the exception of Wall Drug if we feel like it. South Dakota is the 2nd biggest stretch in one state (Montana is the longest, but we'll be sleeping through that) so I'm pretty sure the stop will be welcome, but we'll see. Beyond that, we'll just be stopping when we feel like it. I think we'll stop at a McD's with a Playplace for dinner that night too.

Anyway, thats my plan. Now to see if it actually works...haha

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Project: Living Room. Go.

Starting with the living room today. This room shouldn't be too bad. This and the kitchen have already been decluttered quite a bit. I'm taking before pics now-note that the living room IS a mess, because I haven't cleaned yet today, but try to look beyond that. :P I'll post before and after shots once I'm done.

My method right now is to take everything I definitely don't want and put it in one plastic bag, take everything I do want and put it in another, and put things I can't decide on in the last bag. Things I want get put away, things I'm not sure about go into my closet so I can mull it over.

K, enough procrastination, I'm off!

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Wow, been awhile.

Mieke is now 15 months old. Time flies. My pretty little girlie :)

We're moving cross country in a year now. As part of that, I've been decluttering and packing stuff we don't need at the moment (and trying to take a wee bit of that stuff with us next month when we go visit). But, I have far to go.

I've come back to this blog to help motivate my butt and finish the decluttering. I'll be posting before and after pics. I also want to organize a bit better, get my fabric sewn up, get my yarn knit, and deep clean each room. One step at a time though-so I'm starting with decluttering each room, one at a time, and then deep cleaning each room.

We're going to be moving our whole 3 bedroom townhouse in a 6x12 trailer (or possibly a slightly large moving van, as I'm leaning towards getting a station wagon instead of an SUV now. Darn you gas prices!). This means we need to get rid of a LOT of stuff. Books and DVDs/CDs can be mailed cheaply (ty media mail), but beyond that...yeah, lots of stuff to get rid of. I'm selling the kitchen table and getting an outdoor, folding table and chairs from Ikea. They won't take up much room and have the benefit of being used outdoor once we're in a house. In someplace that doesn't rain 467 days a year. I'm getting rid of my desk, most likely, our bedroom furniture, and the girls bedroom furniture. All of this stuff is junk and needs to be replaced anyway. But, that still leaves my giant entertainment center, the couch, my cedar chest, a toybox, and Eriq/Kai's big bunk beds. Oh and another small dresser that's Mieke's. Box space will be at a premium!

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Mieke is here...

...and almost a month old. LOL

I'm a terrible blogger. I'm going to post on her blog in a few with her birth story, but I'll copy it over here as well.

I haven't finished her diapers, not even close, but its ok because I need to mess around with how I make them. I was trying to sew them all the way around but with OBV being so stretchy, well...it isn't working well. And trying to make them with just a layer of OBV and a layer of bamboo jersey does NOT work-the jersey refuses to stay in the same spot and ends up being all wonky. I think doing it with 2 layers of OBV might work though, I'm going to try that.

Regardless though, I'm loving using cloth for her and I've only used disposables when I've ended up with some-like from the hospital-and even then, mostly at night. But cloth is working so well this time, I'm so happy!! :)

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Waiting for fluffy mail

It takes too long :(

I have a ton of fabric on the way. I finally decided that I'm going to make Mieke's diapers myself, though I'm still ordering some Flips/inserts once they get back in stock, and I also ordered a dozen preemie prefolds. But I decided the only way I could get cheap diapers that I liked and had everything I wanted was to make them myself. So, I'm awaiting some chocolate brown cotton velour for the inners (along with my OBV I already have), a bunch of bamboo/cotton jersey in a few colors, and a pair of snap pliers and snaps.

And of course, I'm waiting for yarn. Yep, I'm going wool. Not ALL the time, as I can't really afford a full wool stash, but at least part time. I'm very slowly knitting a gown for the baby out of some merino I dyed myself but I really need to hurry up-I have some gorgeous yarn on the way!

I'm waiting for a nice amount of Comfort Wool Co. *Tweet* and trim, Mosaic Moon *Woodland in Spring* with trim and *Chocolate Lollipop* scraps (I've got solid dyed Cestari on the way as well, to use with those scraps), and I found a DBK coop. If I get in on that, oh my....I HAVE to get some Storybook Ending, Peppermint Forest, and Jungle Chic, and I like You Jane as well, I'm just not sure I have much to go with it. And I'm still on the hunt for some MM Birthday Girl. I wanted some Purewool as well but I'm looking for a coop instead...they were trying to rip me off on shipping via email and it made me mad.

I should probably start cutting stuff out and such, but I think I'll just keep procrastinating until I get the house all clean before baby :)

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