Porcupine Balls and Apple Crisp

Porcupine Balls

Ignore the name, they're just meatballs with rice in them that puffs out the sides, hence the "porcupine" moniker. This is a family favourite, passed down to me from my Nana, but I've tweaked it a lot over the last 4 years and finally have a perfected recipe. Enjoy

Prep time: 15 minutes

Bake time: 1 hour

Server: 5 to 6

Ingredients (measurements are a little rough, but this part is very hard to screw up)

Meatballs:

1lb lean ground beef

1 large handful rice

1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs (or regular breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning mixed in)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbl milk

Mix all above ingredients in a bowl with your hands until very well combined. The mixture will feel a little wet, but not dripping. If you think it's too wet you can add a bit more breadcrumbs. Roll into meatballs, I usually do them the size of a ping pong ball, and place them into an oven safe baking dish (yeah corning ware).

Sauce:

3 cans tomato soup

2/3 tomato soup can of beef broth

1/2 tomato soup can of water

1/3 c rice

Whisk together all sauce ingredients in the bowl that you mixed the meatballs in (this will grab any of the little bits left behind. Pour the sauce over the meatballs, then spin the meatballs around a bit to cover them in the sauce.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 1 hour in a 425 degree oven. Serve this up with bread to dip in the leftover sauce and you're laughing! Leftovers are fantastic the next day for lunch too! 

 What's left of our porcupine balls. I was hungry, so no photos until we entered leftover territory.

Apple Crisp

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bake time: 45 minutes

Serves: 8

This is by far the best apple crisp I've ever had, another of my perfected recipes! Bo and I like lots of topping though, so if you don't you're weird you can cut it in half.

Ingredients:

10 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup water

Put the apple slices into a large oven safe dish (I use a 9" x 13" corning ware). Whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour the sugar mixture over the apples, then toss to evenly coat. Pour the water over the apples, do not mix. (If you like your apple crisp more juicy, you can up the water to 1/3 or even 1/2 a cup without ruining the crisp, I just prefer mine only a little juicy, with apples that still have some bite).

2 c quick-cooking oats

2 c all-purpose flour

2 c packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter, melted

Whisk together everything except the butter so it's well combined. Pour the butter over the mixture and combine with a fork or your hands (which is way faster), until there are no dry bits left and it comes together is small clumps in your hands. Evenly sprinkle the topping over the apple mixture.

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until brown on top and bubbling at the edges. Let cool slightly, and enjoy!

Monday blues

Well, week two of work had started and it was actually, somehow, harder then week one for me. I don't know what I had convinced myself of subconsciously, but my mind was not up for going to work for another week. Especially with Oliver sick. Thankfully, Nana's coming to watch him today (and tomorrow), so at least that's not an issue.

Bo got to leave late today because he had a meeting at 11 in Owen Sound, so  he didn't have to leave our house until 8. Nana showed up at 7:15, with plenty of time for Bo to go over where everything was, and thankfully, Oliver woke up without a fever today, so it FINALLY broke!

Work was work, I had a meeting that kept being pushed back and didn't end up starting until 3, so I was lucky to get our when I did I 4:15. I fear tomorrow will be another story, with possible meetings all day. Boo.

Traffic was a little rough on the way home, but I made it worse by getting off the 400. I hope I've finally learned my lesson there.

I jumped into Sobey's to pick up some fresh bread (Italian for Bo and a baguette and pesto for Nana and I, yumm), then I was finally home, around 5:45. I was lucky Nana was there and staying over night because it made it so much easier to get everything done that I needed to. It sucked not taking that first hour to play with Oliver  like normal though, and I think he felt the same because he kept crawling over to me. Now I'm missing him and feeling like an asshole for not putting dinner aside to play with him last night. Damn.

Ok, anyway, first I made the porcupine balls and got them in the oven. Next I made the apple crisp and then got it in the oven. Then it was time to put away Oliver's laundry (which Nana did during the day), and get Bo and my laundry going. By the time I'd done that dinner was done so I took it out of the oven to cool for a minute,  and took that time to get the pesto bread made and cooking, and to mix up some berry juice from the freezer. While I was doing all this, Oliver conked out, taking a much needed nap.

Dinner was absolutely fantastic, and we were actually able to eat at the table for 7:30, so Nana made it upstairs for 8 to watch Lie to Me. I cleaned up the kitchen (with a bit of help from Bo, who so sweetly pointed out that I'm much more productive at the house while working then I was during my mat leave. How I didn't throat punch him I'll never know), put the first load of laundry away, and then made it upstairs to play with Oliver for 30 minutes with Bo. I even got to watch the last 20 minutes of Big Bang Theory, a nice break.

At 10 we started getting everything ready for bed, finally hitting the pillow at 10:30. I had a hunch that Oliver wouldn't sleep well though (just a gut feeling), and he didn't, waking up from 12:30 until almost 2, he cycled between Bo, me and Nana. I think he just didn't eat quite enough today.

I honestly don't know how I'm doing this. I hate going to work every day and leaving my little guy at home or at daycare. I really hate that I wasn't the one home with him his first sick day due to fever. I swear on my life it won't happen again. I know that I'm doing it because I have to, but my heart and my mind aren't in it at all. I just keep counting down until September when we'll start trying to conceive again, knowing that after a second year off with my babies I'll be staying home for good, doing what I have to do to be able to afford it. I hope that Oliver understands, and I hope that he's not missing out on anything by going to daycare. He likes it so much part of me worries that he'll be missing out on more when I'm a stay at home mom. I'm going to have to become a bloody president of the local mom's club to keep him around other kids.

The end of the weekend

Sunday was my day to sleep in, and I managed to do so until 8:30. Balls. That is so not sleeping in, but I just had a million things running through my mind and was worried about Oliver. I'd be up at 3am with him because his fever was running high still so I gave him some more Tylenol then and rocked him back to sleep. The fever is so aggravating because we just can't get it to break, they Tylenol has brought it down a degree, two at the most, but after two hours it's climbing right back up.

When I got to the family room Bo and Oliver were both sleeping on the couch, so I went downstairs so as not to wake them up, wasting 30 minutes on the computer before I heard Oliver. He fever was the same, 101.5, but he was acting more like himself, fighting to get down on the floor and play. He couldn't go to daycare tomorrow because you have to be 24 hours fever free, so I made a couple of phone calls and Nana is going to come and watch him tomorrow, and possibly stay over to Wednesday because Bo and I have meetings Monday and Tuesday that we can't get out of. This is absolutely killing me.

Around 11 we all headed out to grocery shop, thinking that the fresh air might do him some good, and he did seem fine while there, if a little more quiet. At the check out though, he started chirping and waving and Bo couldn't figure out why, until he looked to his right and saw a little girl, maybe 18 months, smiling and waving back at him. Then they started "talking" to each other. Hysterical.

Oliver was looking tired and passed out before we were even out of the parking lot. We went home and I put all the groceries away while Bo sat in the car with Oliver, then we went back to Newmarket and Kelsey's for lunch (2 for 1 apps on Sunday's!). He was ok for the first half hour or so, a little fussy but he tried some potato and some lobster from my pasta (possibly a bad idea on my part), but really all he wanted was puffs. Oh, and to feed me his carrot stick, which he found hilarious! Then, out of nowhere, projectile vomit all over him, his tray, his chair, and the seat. Two bouts of it. Not fun. Really not fun actually.

It was a mad sync between Bo and I to keep his hands out of the vomit, and get him cleaned up enough to get him to the bathroom and change him. The smell though, that smell will stay with me for months to come. Clearly it was time to go, so Bo tried to eat the last couple of bite of his sandwich while we waited for the bill. He didn't really have much of an appetite left though.

From there it was home for the night. Oliver was cleaned up and put into some nice comfy pj's while I got the laundry going. Oliver fell asleep fairly quickly, while I was going through his drawers and removing anything that he'd grown out of. Bo was getting ready to play a video game (something I haven't seem him do since Oliver was born, except at Christmas with Ben), so I went downstairs and did a clean that was long over due. I cleaned the kitchen and table, tidied all Oliver's toys downstairs, and cleaned the office and did some outstanding paperwork. After that I vacuumed downstairs. Once Oliver woke up I vacuumed upstairs and the actual stairs, then went and had a quick bath.

For dinner I made polish sausages for Bo and I, but I didn't like them at all (it's a brand thing, because I love polish street meat). I made Oliver a peanut butter and jam sandwich, but he didn't really want to eat much of anything. After dinner Oliver helped me make some Pillsbury cookies (yes, I totally cheeped out here), and he absolutely loved being held and watching the cookies bake in the oven (I turned the light on inside for him). When they were done Bo took him upstairs with a bottle and put him in the bouncer, and by the time I made a cheese sauce for some nachos he was already asleep, which kinds sucked for me, but was good for him. Just before we put him to bed we took his temp again and it was finally down, so we're hoping this is a trend that will continue. I hate our little guy being sick in any way, it just completely breaks my heart.

Visiting, and the start of an "Oh crap" weekend

So, Aunt Mary, Uncle Peter, and Baki are back from Croatia, and they demanded a visit from Oliver this weekend. Ok, fair enough. I got up with Oliver, and we had a pretty productive morning. I made him french toast for breakfast then parked his stroller in front of the back walkout, because the guys were out back bright and early this morning grading our lawn. Bo had told me about how he had spent some time with Oliver back there on Friday afternoon, and how Oliver loved it. This morning was no different. Oliver sat there chirping, pointing and waving at the guys (especially the one on the bigger machine), and he seemed to have won them over, getting lots of smiles and waves back. While Oliver was occupied, I was finally able to organize my main pantry. YES! It is absolutely fantastic now, and if I can only get Bo to put things back where they belong, we'll be laughing.

Bo was able to sleep in until 10 when his aunt called and woke him up. The original plan was that Mary was going to go and pick Baki and Miles up and bring them over to her house, but she had to bring her car to Honda and it needed to stay for a while, so that was out. She didn't want Miles in Jenny's car (fair, we didn't want him in our new car either), so instead we would just go to both houses. We left our place around noon and headed to Baki's first. Bo was ecstatic because she had lunch ready for us (chicken wings, beans (gross, whatever kind they were), and corn with some cut up cucumbers and tomato slices and bread, and apple pie for dessert.

We stayed there for a couple of hours, not really doing anything, just letting Baki play with Oliver. Oliver was a little weird at first, not wanting to leave Bo's arms, which is out of character but we didn't really think that much of it, he got over it in a few minutes. The one ridiculous thing he learned was how to walk from inside the condo, to our on the balcony, and he LOVED it for some reason. He would walk across the balcony, turn around, come back inside, taking one step through the door, then turning around to got right back out and do it again. It was hysterical because he did this non-stop for almost 30 minutes. He also crawled under their side table at one point, but he didn't fit under it and got stuck and started crying, making us laugh. We're terrible parents.

Around 3 we left for Mary and Peter's, but Peter was at work. Mary spent the first hour playing with Oliver and taking him outside, but then he started getting pretty fussy. We couldn't really figure out what was wrong, chalking it up to teething (the drool is out of control), and being tired. He just kept getting worse though, and then he started getting warm. Really warm. Not good. We quickly ate dinner around 6 (some sort of chicken stew over pasta, tomato cucumber salad and bread, with apple pie for dessert, lol), then packed up to head out because Oliver wasn't getting any better, and now didn't want to eat any dinner. Just as we were strapping him into his car seat Peter pulled into the drive-way, so out he came again, but only for 10 minutes and a quick visit.

We got home around eight and finally took Oliver's temperature, a whopping 101.6. It's his first fever, and we were both a wreck. All the books show it as textbook teething, but we were still concerned because he'd been fighting that cold all week.

Our poor little guy.

He ate a little bit more for us, but not too much, basically spending the rest of the night in his bouncer until bed.

Movie Night!

Friday was a normal day at work. Truth be told I totally slacked off, relaxing more then anything and taking some time to read more of the photography courses that I've been working through. I was able to get Nana and Papa to babysit Oliver for a couple of hours tonight so that Bo and I could go and see inception, so I was itching to get out of work too. I finally left on time (I'd been 5 minutes late the last couple of days and it totally screwed up my drive home. Ridiculous that 5 minutes can do that). It took me 2 hours today (well, 1 hour and 52 minutes to be exact, but we'll round up for dramatic effect). The 401 was bad, so I got on the 410 to 407. The 400 was supposed to be a joke (It took Bo over and hour and he left Mississauga an hour before me from a tender drop-off). Bo suggested I take 27, which would have been fantastic, except when I got to Rutherford it was closed and there was a medi-vac helicopter on the road. So, I went across Rutherford and took Weston until it ended at hwy 9. When I crossed the 400 there it was still stopped, so I kept on hwy 9 to Dufferin St, then worked my way through Bradford. Dear lord that drive SUCKED!

When I got home Nana and Papa still weren't there, so I was a little worried because the game plan was to leave the house at 5:45 (already passed that), to make it to the 6:30 showing of Inception, because it's such a long movie (2 hours and 39 minutes I believe). Thankfully, they pulled in about 5 minutes after I got home, so Bo and I ran out right away. We got our tickets (free) and our large drink and large popcorn (also free, thanks scene points), and threw on another large drink. Hey, it's a long movie, and truth be told, I almost finished mine before it even started. I was a total camel Friday. We walked into the theater at 6:20, and it was packed. We would have had to sit right at the front, and this was not the right movie for that. So, back to the ticket desk to switch to the 7pm show. SUCH a good idea! It was in a bigger theater, and we had our choice of seats, and only 30 minutes until the movie started. I snuck off to get Bo two slices of pizza, of which I ate one, and a large fries with a side of gravy from New York Fries. Woot!

The movie was FANTASTIC! I loved it so so much. Bo was at least entertained by the action, but said he was a little confused by the movie. He couldn't have been that confused because we've been arguing about what the ending meant ever since. It was just so good, I want to see it again to try and look for clues I may have missed.

We got back home around 10, Nana and Papa took off, and we got Oliver to bed with one last bottle. It was a nice Friday for a change, a little bit more like they used to be.

Revelation

Today I matched my underware to my flip flops and cardigan. Yeah.

Not a fun night

Today was pretty much a bullshit day. Work was work, but nicely broken up Oliver (who was happy as usual). Before going home we ran over to Wal-mart so that I could buy some Tupperware to organize the pantry. This is where the crappy night begins.

When I pulled into the driveway Oliver fell asleep (literally), so I unpacked the car then went out to get him. As I took my sleeping boy out of the car nana and papa pulled into the driveway to drop off a filing cabinet (one that was not accurately described to me, FYI, it's SO heavy and old...it's just going to end up in the trash I think). They stayed outside talking for about a half hour, which is fine, but totally screwed up my schedule for the rest of the night.

Bo got home about 10 minutes after they left, found out I spend $80 on Tupperware and got seriously mad at me. Rightfully so, and I said as much. I thought that my mat leave pay was still to come, so I checked the back, expecting another $400, but it had already gone in and I didn't notice, so that $80 made us really tight (beyond tight really). So, Bo didn't talk to me the rest of the night. Lovely. He did go upstairs to take a dump though, so I was still on my own with Oliver. Not that I mind, I don't. I wish I was all the time. It's just tough to get dinner going, and now it was almost 7:30 and I hadn't started our dinner yet, which takes an hour to cook. The night just sucked.

So, I made Oliver a grilled cheese, which he didn't feel like. He ended up eating cereal bars and crackers. The second night I've sucked as a mom this week. Thank good I give him good healthy breakfasts (and his lunch at daycare). Then I made our dinner, but not exactly what it was supposed to be. Bo was pissed, I was getting upset at the fact that he never tells me that I'm a good mom, or do a good job, or thanks me for doing any of the things I do (everything) around the house. I'm pretty sure this was just a defense mechanism to divert the fact that he was rightfully mad at me, so I didn't say anything. Anyway, all we had for dinner was the pork tenderloin and roasted new red potatoes. I wasn't up for the cauliflower and apple crisp. I just didn't care any more.

Oliver crashed very shortly after eating his dinner for the night, so thankfully I was in bed by ten for a change. I was absolutely exhausted.

My fingers are crossed for a baby sitter tomorrow night (nana and papa), so that I can go and see Inception. I know, but we have no money!!! I've got enough scene points for two adult tickets, a large popcorn, and a large drink, so we're covered. It'll just cost us $5 for a second drink, which we'll need, it's a 2½ hour long movie.