Crockpot lasagna recipe

Ok.....I promised to post this recipe so here it is! (I have no photos to go along with it. Sorry!)

1 lb ground beef
1 jr (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
1 container (15 oz) Ricotta cheese
1 pkg shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 egg
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
lasagna noodles, uncooked

Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.

Mix ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, egg and parsley in another bowl.

Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit, and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with noodles, broken to fit, cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover.

Cook on LOW 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; let stand, covered, 10 min or until melted. *for best results do NOT cook on high*

Serve to very hungry family members and watch as they devour it! hahahaha At least mine did.

Cookie making/Christmas tree getting day

It's been quite a day at the Mattfield house today. The kids did not have school (teacher workshop) so it was really busy. And FUN!!! I had the privledge of making homemade sugar cookies with my kids, using the same recipe my mom used making cookies with me. Brought back memories of creaming the sugar and butter together by hand (no Kitchenaid mixer!), using the old wooden rolling pin to roll out the dough, using the little metal Christmas cookie cutters....I pray my children will look back with as much fondness on our time together as I do on my time with my mom.

Plus, this is the best sugar cookie recipe I've ever had! I made sure I hand-wrote it on a sheet of paper before I got married just so I'd have the exact same recipe as my mom. Here it is.....

Sift -- very important to sift -- 1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar into a bowl with 1 cup of butter.

Mix in 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp almond extract.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp creme of tartar. *On a side note, the creme of tartar is very important. I learned that the hard way!* Add 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well.

Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in saran wrap, and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Take it out and let it stand 15 minutes before rolling out the dough.

Find a few children who are excited about rolling out dough and cutting out cookies to help you! Worked well for me today! Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes.

You should have cookies that look something like this. Place them on a cooling rack to cool before trying to frost them. *Again, spoken from experience! (ahem)*

When cookies are cooled, get "said children" plus 1 to come back and have a frosting party. Be prepared to clean up lots and lots of frosting and sprinkles off the table and floor. But seeing their "art work" and huge smiles is well worth it!

TA DA!!!!! Finished product. Yummmmmmmm. Please let me know what you think if you try the recipe.

Then our day took us to going to look for a real Christmas tree for the basement. Of course we chose the coldest evening so far to go looking. 20 degrees with a cold wind --- BRRRR!!!!

But, we were successful! *Doesn't Joey (standing in the front in the red jacket) look freezing?!?!?! He ran right to the van as soon as this picture was taken.*

Jeff did the cold work of getting the tree tied down to the roof of the van while the kids warmed up inside. We are extremely thankful for a roof rack to tie it to! hahahaha Then it was home to eat the yummiest (is that a word?) lasagna I have ever made.....and it was in the crockpot! I will post that recipe another time. Trust me....it will be well worth the wait!

Thanksgiving

This year there are a lot of things I could dwell on worrying about or being angry about. In fact, there are people who think I should be doing that and, at times, I do....I lose sight of the many blessings I have been given in 2009. So today I'm making a list....

• I'm thankful for a house we are still living in despite the threat of foreclosure a few months ago.
• I'm thankful for food on the table when so many are going without.
• I'm thankful for despression (yes, you heard me right) because through it Jeff and I have learned so much more about each other and are allowing it to draw us closer.
• I'm thankful for the noise level in my house because it means my children are all healthy and playing and enjoying being together (at least most of the time).
• I'm thankful for blogs because throught them I have made some new friendships.
• I'm thankful that God still performs miracles as He did in my friend Jennifer's little boy, Stellan, this past month.
• I'm thankful that Jeff and I are still married.
• I'm thankful for worries and concerns that cause me to not sleep because through them I have experienced the most intimate, amazing times with God.
• I'm thankful for family who continue to support us and love us.
• I'm thankful for my Bible study group who have challenged my thinking and my way of living over the last few months.

The rest of the family wanted to get in on this "Thanksgiving action" too.....

Jeff is thankful for.....

• Me (Karlynn)....no really, that's what he said!

Noah (age 9) is thankful for.....

• having food
• having a place to live
• having clothes that fit
• just being alive!

Abby (age 8) is thankful for.....

• having clothes
• going to school

Joey (age 6) is thankful for....

• having food
• having a place to live
• having clothes
• having our cat, Oreo
• having parents
• having brothers and a sister
• going to school
• for my church
• for Jesus

Eli (age 2) is thankful for......

• Daddy
• Mommy
• Noah
• Abby
• Joey
• Oreo (cat)
• the bus (he loves watching his siblings get on the bus every morning and looks forward to them coming home every afternoon)

What are you thankful for this year?

Sibling love

This picture pretty much says it all. All 4 of them are crowded onto a loveseat watching the movie "Bedtime Stories". Do you hear that?!?!?!? It's silence! Ahhhhh, bliss.

Living with boys

This is what happens when Abby goes to a friends house to play! It all starts out very innocently.....Daddy and Noah throwing the football back and forth in the backyard. But it evolves into all boys wrestling in the living room. What's a mommy to do????? Take pictures, of course!!! I wish you could hear the laughing and happy screaming that was going on at the same time. I love my family.

Ketchup or Relish

In my son's 3rd grade class, they have something every Friday called "Ketchup or Relish". If they have kept current with all their assignments and have had good behavior, they go to one of the 3rd grade classrooms and have fun....which they call "relish". If they haven't kept up with their assignments, turned in papers late no matter what the reason, had less than ideal behavior, they stay in the "ketchup" classroom....not participating in the fun activities.

Since I have fallen SO behind on my blog, I have put myself in "ketchup". Although giving myself time to blog and share pictures is pretty much "relish" for me. Anyway, I'm sharing some pictures from the last couple months. Enjoy!

Halloween 2009

If you can't tell, this is Joey dressed up as a ninja -- I guess he's supposed to be Snake Eyes (?) from GI Joe. I just know that it was less than $9 for the costume!

Sweet little Eli as a puppy dog. Awwww!!!!

This is Noah as a Clone Trooper. Again, less than $9 for the costume!

Abby is a candy corn witch. Such an adorable costume that my mom got from a friend of hers at her garage sale! Yay for moms who shop garage sales!!!!

We went to our church for their annual Pumpkin Patch. They had everything and anything you could imagine for a Halloween alternative. Eli is playing one of the preschool games and had so much fun!

Abby playing some games.

Joey playing some of the games.

Outside they had a petting zoo set up. Here's Eli petting one of the goats. They also had bunnies, a donkey and a baby donkey, goats, chickens (I believe), and the highlight was a small camel! They also had a hayride which was pulled by horses, a glow room, cookies to decorate, crafts to do, a jumper to jump in, a maze to get lost in, trick or treating rooms in the basement for kids to get TONS of candy, and food set up in the activity center. Who wants to come with us next year???

Abby's 8th birthday party

Obviously, the girls wanted to do each other's hair and especially use the pink color spray! They did that while rockin' out to music and basking in the glow of a disco ball.

"Happy Birthday to you (cha cha cha), Happy Birthday to you (cha cha cha), Happy Birthday dear Abby (cha cha cha), Happy Birthday to you (cha cha cha, hi-ya, Scooby Doo on channel 2, more on channel 4, Frankenstein on channel 9, old lady on channel 80, Honey Hive on channel 5, Scooby Doo as a new hairdo, not too big, not too small, Scooby has a bowling ball.)" It's the absolute L.O.N.G.E.S.T. birthday song I've ever heard......and did I mention how LOUD it is too???

Did she get them all out???? YES she did! Yay, Abby!

A bunch of hip hop birthday celebrating girls.

Now a normal picture....well as normal as one can be with hair like that!

Hope you've enjoyed a little bit of my "ketchup post".

Leaf jumping!

We had the most gorgeous fall day here in Minnesota on Saturday! We spent most of the day outside raking up leaves, jumping in the piles, sucking the leaves up with our leaf vacuum, mowing the lawn......then the 2 older boys went on a "secret mission" with our neighbor and her son. Little did they know it was to the compost pile with all of our leaves and her leaves! She treated them to Dairy Queen for all their great work. It was an awesome family work day in beautiful weather!