Randomness (and first day back to work)

First day back to work ...

Just kidding ... today was my first day back to work and it was perfectly fine. No customer issues today and more than 1/2 the phone calls I initiated so that's always good! And, my boss was gone for most of the day so I was able to sort through the pile left for me by the temp ... God bless temps, by the way! My job isn't usually extremely stressful, but it is in the legal and advocacy field, which can be busy and definitely trying at times. I was happy to be back ... we'll see how the rest of the week goes! :)

These are just random photos of the kids taken over the past month!

Artwork and Doctor Visits

This is some artwork that was on display in the hallway of the school. After Ashley and Dennis' dr visits on Friday, I returned Dennis to school and brought Ashley home. I saw this on the way out and snapped a photo! :)

Ashley has a problem with her ear and it's all swollen and has a large pimple like thing on the outside of the ear canal. She won't let anyone touch it to drain it or put medication on it, so off to the dr we went. She got antibiotics and also a topical cream to put on it. Honestly, it's just as bad today, if not worse!

Dennis has a rash, so he got two different types of creams since the dr didn't know exactly what was causing it. As you can see he's as happy as a clam, though! He also has what appears to be a cancer sore on the outside of his lip, so we had to toss out all the old chapstick tubes and get each child their own color so they don't accidentally pick up the wrong one ... we certainly don't need cancer sores spreading through the house!

Since the kids didn't return to school until after lunch time, we had lunch together, the 3 of us ... at Chipolte! Ashley could barely open her mouth wide enough to bite her food, but Dennis did great and ate almost his entire meal, plus chips & salsa.

After returning home, we had to start cleaning up for the Supper 8 party (4 couples from our church), which is actually tonight (Saturday). Dennis was helping me with the laundry ... and as you can see happy to do so! He also helped me fold sheets and towels. For as much as they didn't do anything with him at the orphange, I think they must have taught him to fold sheets. I flipped the sheet out so it was flat on the floor and he knew to pick up the end opposite me, fold it in half, make it parallel to the floor again and then walk towards me to make the rest of the folds!

I'll try to get pics from the party tonight and post those tomorrow! I start back to work on Monday, so I'm sure there will be less new recipe cooking and less time for blog posting!

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Guest Chef Brian Macy: Day 2 - Varenyky (aka Perogie)

Borscht and Spicy Sausage & Chicken Casserole

I will defer to my husband's blog post on the borscht since he made it, however I wanted to post the pics here since this is the food blog! :)

Spicy Sausage & Chicken Casserole 

This next one is my own creation and by default it makes a 2nd meal to freeze for another meal sometime later. The general concept can be used for any size family, but there is 6 in ours so these quantities are to feed that size family.

• 6 spicy Italian sausage links (the large ones, not breakfast type links)
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3 slices each
• 1 package pasta (we used wheat blend spiral noodles, but penne would also work well)
• 2 bell peppers, cut into strips
• 1 onion, cut into strips
• 1 package fresh sliced mushrooms
• seasonings for cooking (your choice): salt, pepper, crushed garlic, dried parsley, oregeno, thyme, etc.
• 36oz jar spaghetti sauce (your choice, we use Classico tomato & basil from Costco)
• grated Parmesan cheese (as desired)

• Cook sausage in a LARGE skillet until slightly brown on both sides. 
• Prep veggies while sausage is cooking (slice up peppers & onions, wash mushrooms). 
• One at a time remove sausage from skillet to cutting board and slice down the middle. Return uncooked side to skillet and brown. Once browned on all sides, remove all from skillet and keep warm. 
• Add sliced chicken breasts to skillet (do not drain, the sausage grease will keep the chicken from sticking). Season as desired and brown on both sides. 
• While chicken is cooking, prepare pasta according to package directions.
• Keep chicken covered and cook on low until chicken is no longer pink on the inside. Once cooked thoroughly, remove chicken from skillet & keep warm
• In same skillet add peppers & onions. Cook about 5-7 minutes and then add mushrooms. (I like to add some crushed garlic to my onion, pepper, & mushroom mixture)
• Once pepper, onion mixture is cooked, add sauce + 1/2 cup water (put water into the jar and shake to get out the rest of the sauce). Simmer until slightly bubbling, stirring often.
• Add pasta to the skillet and mix to coat everything in the sauce.

For meal #1, place a scoop of the pasta/veggie mixture in the center of the plate & top w/Parmsean as desired. Place 1 sausage link (remember you cut them in 1/2 so you should have 12) and 1 chicken breast slice (again, you should have 12) on either side and serve.

To create the casserole for the freezer meal, slice the remaining 6 sausage links and chicken breast slices into bite size pieces and place at the bottom of the pan in which you will freeze it (I use the foil pans from Costco). Top with the remaining pasta/veggie mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesean (if desired) or other grated/shredded cheese of your choice (an Italian mixed bag works here). Cover in foil, label it with the meal and the date, pop in freezer for another time!

The "Macy" Version of Lasagna

Well, to be fair, this should be called the "Melissa" version, not the Macy version! The Macy version was emailed to me by my dear mother in law, who is an excellent cook and actually MEASURES food for recipes, unlike yours truly!

Since this my own creation, adapted from both the Macy version and the Lasagna Florentine from Mary's book, I will post this entire recipe! I was amazed that it turned out because I used way too much of some ingredients and probably not enough of others ... added a few things not called for in the recipes ... and the noodles were not pre-cooked ... they turned out very al dente!

I doubled this and made two tonight, cooked them both and will freeze the one we didn't eat for another meal in a couple of weeks!

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 chopped onion (I cheated and used a bag of pre-chopped onions)
• 2tsp minced garlic
• salt, pepper, and dried parsley to taste
• 32oz jar spaghetti sauce of your choice (I used Classico tomato and basil)
• 1/2 cup water (add to jar and shake then pour into cooking pot)
• 10oz package frozen chopped spinach
• 15oz container low fat ricotta cheese (or small curd cottage cheese, but I personally don't think it melts as well as the ricotta)
• 2 eggs
• 8oz package fancy Italian cheese blend
• 8oz package uncooked lasagna noodles

Thaw and drain spinach (most important part!!!!). Squeeze out excess moisture from spinach and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.

Cook ground beef. Remove from pan, reserving fat in pan. Add onions and garlic to pan and saute until onions are cooked. Add back ground beef and mix. Add spaghetti sauce and water and simmer until hot.

To thawed and drained spinach, add ricotta and eggs, mix together. Add 1/2 package of Italian cheese and combine.

In 7x11 foil pan layer sauce, uncooked noodles, cheese mixture and repeat until all noodles are used. End with sauce layer and top with remaining shredded cheese.

Cover tightly with foil (I'd recommend you place your dish on a cookie sheet) and cook for 1 hr.

Lo Mein and Mexican Bow-Tie Chicken

Hamburger Lo Mein

So, I had forgotten to put the correct noodles on the grocery list for Brian and I actually had intended to make the Mexican Bow-Tie Chicken pasta dish below on this night but ... Brian came home from the store with 15 lbs of ground beef!!! And the chicken I needed for the other dish was still slightly frozen, so I decided to do something with beef instead.

Back to the not having the right noodles part ... so, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to craft this dish that night, but I was browsing the book to see what else I could make with the ingredients we had in stock. Instead I found a tip somewhere in the book where Mary said that she had substituted top ramen noodles in place of a variety of other noodles when she didn't have them on hand ... and specifically thin egg noodles sounded about right to me!

This has in it 1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 onion, and 2 carrots. I buy the 6 pack of peppers at Costco and the bag of onions and then I chop up two peppers and one onion and place them together in a gallon size freezer bag and they work great for any type of stir fry dish at the last minute. I run them under the hot tap for about 5 minutes and they break apart very easily in the skillet. Pre-prep worked save me quite a bit of time and also fresh ingredients I otherwise would have lacked. I also used the carrot peeler to make the thin slices of carrots this recipe called for.

RATING: 5.9

And up tonight ... Mexican Bow-Tie Chicken

This one was a big hit with the kids and Dad! Dennis ate like 3rds (Dad gave him 2nds that was twice the size of the first serving he received)! Simple enough ... chicken in the skillet, bow-tie pasta in the pot, sauce of flour, milk, salsa, and cream cheese. Cook everything and toss together. Side of spinach salad (my choice) and valla ... dinner is served in under an hour!

Now ... I do not normally cut chicken into cubes or bite size pieces, generally because I don't think I have time. But, tonight since time wasn't an issue, I figured I would do it ... then I remember why I don't do this any more! Cutting boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite size pieces frustrates me to no end!!! The pieces come out too big or too small and I HATE touching raw chicken! The feel, the slime ... I won't go on so you can keep down your dinner! :) Sufice it to say that while I understand, Mary, I will be buying the chicken cuttlets that come pre-sliced and cost the same per lb and using those ONLY in my future recipes (unless it calls for a complete piece that I don't need to touch prior to cooking it)!

RATING: 9

Herbed Seafood Casserole & Parmesean Crusted Chicken

This post is about two different recipes I've tried in the past week. I put these together just to catch up on the blog since I am behind. I've been sick for two days with strep and finally got to the dr yesterday to get meds. No time for Mom to be sick, that's for sure!

Herbed Seafood Casserole

Although I think the name doesn't do this dish justice, (Shrimp Linguine would sound more appetizing) both hubby and kids liked it very much! Hubby gave it an 8, which is the highest he's given anything so far! It is basically angel hair pasta, a sauce made from sour cream, milk, and eggs with a bunch of different herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, etc.), layered with salsa, then layered with shrimp and topped with cheese (we used mozzarella).

TIP: don't use frozen shrimp or at least thaw and drain it before you use it. The extra moisture from the melting process made the sauce thinner than it should have been, causing the flavor to be less bold.

Parmesean Crusted Chicken Strips

The prep work -
4 dishes of things I had to mix together -
the flower mixture, the egg mixture, the crumbs mixture and then of course the chicken strips.



This is more than I usually am willing to do for a recipe, but my kids have enjoyed similar dishes in the past, so I figured I'd give it a try. Plus, I saved time by buying the chicken strips already cut in the package at Costco - and it costs the same per lb as the regular full size chicken breasts. Since I had several days off from cooking, due to being sick and having prepared meals in advance (just pure luck, not good planning), I was in the mood to do something extra tonight.

The cooking - now before you judge me too harshly on the frying of these, let me explain how I tried to make these a little more healthy than the average deep fried chicken strips. First, I replaced the saltines in the recipe with whole wheat crackers. Second, I replaced all the cooking oil with extra virgin olive oil (EVOL for those Rachel Ray fans out there). Third, I used only 1/2 the amount of butter it called for. I figured since it called for both butter and oil there must be some point to the butter.

TIP: I need to use more oil/butter for the 2nd batch of frying so that it doesn't stick. I also think my fry pan is bigger than the one the recipe is meant for since I can cook 6-8 per batch.

So, I'm elbow deep in chicken and frying oil and Brian comes in carrying Dennis. The kids had been outside riding bikes/trikes/skates in the circle at the end of our cul-de-sac and Dennis did a header over the trike and fell down the hill. He has a nice shiner over his right eye (see our other blog for the more "manly" details and a photo). A couple minutes later Ashley gets her skates off and comes inside ... leaving Sam & Amanda outside without supervision ... a big NO NO! {redacted} Sam comes in and says Amanda won't come. We tell Ashley to go back out and get her. She comes back and says she won't come, even though she "yelled" at her that she would be in big big trouble! That she will be!

I say I'll run out and get her and Brian suggests that I sit with Dennis and he'll get her. I told him I've only got a couple of minutes since the chicken is frying. SIDE NOTE: this is another area where I tend to mess up a perfectly good recipe ... LIFE gets in the way of when I want to cook dinner! Something inevitable happens and I get interuppted and I can't get back to the cooking fast enough before I have burned food or overcooked pasta!

Well, fortunately a little over frying didn't hurt this one and everyone liked it. We started a new rating system, one where the kids and Daddy both said my vote doesn't count! So, all votes tallied this one ranks 9.2 out of 10! Best so far overall. I will go back and rate the other dishes and post it on the sidebar so you can see them in order.

A Mother's Valentine's Day (weekend actually)

So Valentine's Day actually started on Friday the 11th, just in case you were wondering! I went to the church to help decorate for the annual father-daughter dance which was to take place that night. While I was there several women were dropping of their homemade goodies for the dance. In walks one with this bucket and everyone just gasped in awe about it!

Next up is the picture taken before the dance of Daddy and Amanda. Ashley, our 10 yr old, however is a tom boy and declined to go to the dance. Daddy took them both last year, but she refused to dance ... with HIM ... she danced around the floor playing with her girlfriends from church, but daddy informed her that wasn't the point! So, this year he said only the girls that would dance with him could attend. She declined. Only after I told her about a certain friend who was going with her dad did she want to go ... sorry girl, too late! So, Amanda got all dolled up and went to dinner with Daddy. He told her it was a "date" and then she said they would kiss and get married. Um ... sorry sweetie, but he's mine!! :) So, that was Friday.

Saturday Daddy took the boys out to run some errands and they came back with two bouquets of flowers. He said one was from "the boys" and one was from him. So, I guess he's trying to teach the boys how to treat a lady.



Then I went to pick up the babysitter. She was one of the helpers during the summer time swimming lessons that the kids took. On the very first day I could see she was great with Dennis, so I asked if she could be his helper every time and she agreed. At the end of lessons she gave me her number for babysitting. She's been once to babysit before we brought Dennis home. Just the mention of her name and Dennis remember her and started making swimming motions with his arms!

Hubby and I went to see Harry Potter at the discount theater that charges $3.50/person and plays movies that have been out for a few months. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant that he's been wanting to try. It was pretty good, actually and the best part was that the mariachi singers didn't come serenade at our table! I thought they were going to and I knew hubby would HATE that!

On Monday all the kids had class parties for Valentine's Day! I signed up to help out with Amanda's class. I bought decorations at the $1 store (yeah me for using tips from Mary's book that I've been reading) ... I'd have never thought about going there for V-day decorations and plastic spoons! I even got the teachers chocolate roses there. I easily could have spent $20+ on these items at Target, but I spent $10 ... and I used my "petty cash" funds to do it rather than trying to find cash that didn't exist.

Amanda and her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Brooks

 Amanda and friends playing V-day bingo


After the ice cream sundae making and V-day bingo, the kids passed out their Valentines and I took this opportunity to go visit Dennis' classroom and see what was going on over there. Dennis and his classmates were coloring after passing out Valentines. Daddy stating that this is Dennis' new favorite holiday is on our other blog here: http://macyadoption.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-favorite-holiday.html but honestly D hasn't celebrated any American holidays other than this one, yet!

Then I headed over to Ashley's classroom to see what was going on in the 5th grade! They were about to start playing the Wii, which is when I left. I got a photo of her and her teacher, Mrs. Roth, and a couple other students also. This is her friend Zoe, who she talks about alot.

Follow up to Blog Post: Wednesday, Feb 9, 2011

End of post dated Wednesday, Feb 9, 2011 ... More on what followed and how Dennis and I came to meet H at the train station tomorrow ... clearly I didn't get to it "tomorrow" but late is better than never, so here goes ...

After Brian and I agreed that we were both interesting in getting more information about "H" I started emailing my friends who are NHFC host families and volunteers. I found out who was hosting her and we started email communication. At the same time I contacted NHFC via email to get more info and to make our interest known since we expected other families to be interested in such a sweet girl!

Shortly thereafter, NHFC posted on facebook and emailed through their newsletter that families who could meet with the children while on the current host program would receive priority. This is because the situation with which orphanages allow hosting changes with almost every session, so it is never a sure thing that children will be allowed to return for another hosting session.

H and a friend listing to my ipod at the train station in Kiev

H's host mother and I become instant friends! I told her about our family and that we hosted a girl the same age last summer, how that led to our decision to adopt, and that I was currently in Kiev with our newly adopted son. After a couple of days, she told me that a total of 4 families shared their interest in meeting H for potential future hosting. We kept in contact and continued to share information about our families and of course all the info about H they could give me!

Finally, the day had come that H would have to return to Ukraine. I asked her host mother once again if a family had committed to hosting her yet. She said one of the families had met her, but that was it ... and that family was already hosting another teen girl and was waiting to know if she would like to be adopted by them. So, that left us!

Now keep in mind this was the night before Dennis and I would be going to America ... and we would need to get up before 4am to make our flight. Also keep in mind that H had left America the day before, flown overnight to another country (not sure where they txr'd at), and finally arrived in Ukraine ... tired ... hungry ... still hauling luggage ... emotionally unsure of what would happen in her future ...

Then this strange American woman with a Ukrainian/Russian speaking little boy arrives to meet her! I am a total stranger to her and (almost) everyone around her. The translator has to go do something else, so she brings me to H and then leaves! Now I turn to the two adult women who are nearby and they speak even less English than the children around them! :)

I told her I am a friend of her host mother, but the children mis-understand the word friend and think I am her sister-in-law! I got out our photo album (mostly from hosting) so they can see the kids in their NHFC shirts and know we are at least a NHFC hosting family. Now they being to look for my husband in H's photo album ... thinking I am married to her host mother's brother! No, no I said ... FRIEND ... oh ... they figured it out and then we just looked through my photos for fun. I told the girls who everyone in the photos are ... including D's biological sister, Snezhana. H asks D some questions and I think they figure out she isn't coming with us to America. I offer H my ipod and she smiles and takes it and share it with a friend nearby as they finish looking at my photos and show me theirs.

Now I find out their train doesn't leave until after 11pm and it's about 8pm at this time. I asked if they were hungry ... several teenage faces smile at me! Of course they are - they are teenagers! :) So, I motion for the H and the friend she has been sharing my ipod with to come with me. They follow and the adult chaperons don't seem to care. A couple more kids follow ... and we enter a fast-food type joint similar to McD's. As I start to look at the menu board on the wall, I notice that ALL the children are now inside this small restaurant with me! I ask if they want chicken and Coca Cola and they of course nod heads with excitement.

With chicken nuggets, french fries, and cokes in hand, they disperse and find seats in groups of 2-4 children per table. I realize that the host families back home might like to see some last minute shots before returning to their schools, so I snap a few. I sat D with H and her friend and I go about the business of getting napkins and ketchup for everyone. The left over food, if you can believe there was any, was offered to the 2 female chaperons and they accepted it gratefully ... might have been a while since they've had a decent meal since they've been traveling for probably more than 24 hours.

When I finally get back to the table and prepare to eat some chicken nuggets, D is silly from the soda and H and her friend are easily entertained by him. H notices that he cannot read the letters on the box of chicken nuggets, so she begins to teach him the letters, their sounds, and how to make them into the word. He cheers loudly and says the word incorrectly and both H and her friend giggle and D smiles at them. They chit chat about who knows what and I can see the children are all very tired. D and I have to get up early, so I need to leave.

I returned the children to the chaperon and said goodbyes ... D hugged H as we left and they spoke a few more words in Russian to each other before we left.

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"French" Cranberry Chicken

Ok, so pretty much the exact OPPOSITE of the book I'm trying to use, which uses homemade sauce and not bottled and canned stuff, but it's easy and has 5 ingredients or less, so I thought I would try it. I found this in the church cookbook that I was browsing last week as we waited for dinner before AWANA's. It is very similar to a dish made at my house at least twice a month, which I call Apricot Chicken and will blog about the next time I make it.

Recipe:

1 can cranberry sauce (I used chunky)
1 bottle French dressing
1 packet dry onion soup mix
4 large boneless skinless chicken breast (I cut mine onto 4 large slices)

Mix together ingredients for sauce. Lay chicken flat in a 9x12 baking dish and salt as desired. Pour sauce over chicken and turn to coat. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve over hot rice or with veggies as desired.

I actually changed the name slightly! It is just called Cranberry Chicken, but when Ashley saw the dish come out of the oven, she went "EWW What is that? It has raisins in it!" I told her it was something new and with an accent said it's "French Cranberry Chicken!" She said, "Oh, that's WORSE!" I had to laugh. In the end she said it was pretty good. Brian and Dennis said they both LOVED it ... well Brian did ... Dennis had 3rd's so I took that to mean the same ... or that he was just overly hungry!

I forgot to salt the chicken before putting the sauce on it and I also overcooked it just a bit, so next time I think it will be better!

Summer Hosting:

Well, I guess since my husband's blog has "made it official" there isn't any harm in my going viral with is either http://macyadoption.blogspot.com/.  We will be hosting two teenage girls this summer (que laughter about how crazy we are)!

It is a fairly well known fact that we hosted Dennis and his sister, Snezhana last summer, and moved forward with their adoption, bringing Dennis home for good in January of this year. Although sister declined to be adopted, she did accept our invitation to be hosted for summer 2011, but four days later told me she changed her mind. So, on Monday, Feb 7th, when the NHFC team asked her if she wanted to be hosted again for summer, we were not sure what her answer would be. To our surprise and delight, she said YES!!! So, we will be seeing her again in a few months and keep praying that she will be able to overcome the pressure she is experiencing to stay in Ukraine, and choose to become a permanent member of our family.

Dennis misses her a lot. At first he didn't seem to, and maybe it was just the adjustment of it all, or his own mental state that he didn't understand that she wasn't going to be around once he got to our house. But, last week he started asking about her being in America. We didn't know what to do or say at first, but finally my husband was able to use the Russian translation program on his Droid to communicate with Dennis that he could ask Snezhana on the phone if she would come to America. Dennis did just that on the Sunday afternoon, just before the Monday that she would be required to give her final answer to summer hosting. Isn't it great how God orchestrates things in just His timing for our lives and the lives of those we care about?

And, now for the "other girl" as Brian refers to her on the other blog. I'm not exactly sure why he's trying to protect her identity because her identity is pretty widely known through FB due to her previously being hosted by a family in the U.S. Nonetheless, I will also refer to her as "H." Isn't she a doll??!! :)

So, you may be asking how did we come to meet his beautiful young lady and decide to host her. Well ... I will tell you! Brian had already returned to the US and I remained in Ukraine for the 10-day waiting period and then to pick up Dennis and bring him home. I was pretty much done and Dennis and I were back in Kiev when NHFC put out the "still available" list from Christmas hosting. This is the list of kids that did NOT find a forever family during the hosting session.

I cannot honestly tell you what made me even look at the children posted on this link. We were still in pain from Snezhana's refusal and I needed to focus what little emotional energy I had left on Dennis and our time in Kiev, and what I needed to do to get us home. But, I still found myself up late one night, unable to keep my eyes off the precious children features on this website. Several kids in particular caught my eye, but I did not tell Brian which ones, or that I was even interested in hosting again period, much less this soon. I did, however send him the link.

From half way across the world, across a vast ocean, on a different continent where it was day instead of night, Brian was looking at the same beautiful faces. And, in the same manner that we selected Dennis and Snezhana, we selected this lovely young lady, H. Neither of us said a word to the other about our thoughts on who to host, which gender, what age, nothing. Then, suddenly as if hit by lightening, we both knew it was H. He asked me, "So, we're going to host the heart breaker?" I replied, "Who would that be?" And he told me and I agreed!

More on what followed and how Dennis and I came to meet H at the train station tomorrow ...

Family Portraits are available for online viewing!