Pork & Sausage Ragu

Disclaimer: Not my photo but it's close

I was flipping through a William-Sonoma magazine a few days ago and saw a recipe for a very fancy Pork Loin and Italian Sausage Ragu using a ragu sauce they were marketing. It was expensive! I glanced (literally) at the general ingredients in a few recipes I found on-line. The funny thing was that I had just purchase the pork loin but I had everything else on hand. Here is my simpler but still very tasty version:

1 3-lb pork loin roast trimmed (remove netting)

4 Italian sausages

2 cups beef stock

1 1/2 cups white grape juice (don't use apple juice it's a little too sweet for this)

1 cup tomato paste

1 bay leaf

1 Tbl Italian seasoning

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Wide Egg Noodles

In a large skillet brown the pork loin, remove and brown sausages (you can skip this if you don't care that the meat looks anemic until near the end of cooking) sprinkle with the garlic salt and pepper. If you are skipping this step then place roast and sausages in a large crock pot. Pour stock and grape juice over meat. Season with garlic salt and pepper rotating once. Put in tomato paste and stir until combined - it won't be perfect. Add bay leaf and Italian seasoning. Turn crock pot on to high for six hours. At about hour 5 check that the pork loin is falling apart and taste sauce. Adjust seasonings here. About 20 minutes before serving cook wide egg noodles according to the package directions. While noodles are cooking take sausages out and cut them into bite size pieces, return to crock pot. I took two forks and separated the pork loin into chunks. Drain noodles. Place noodles on plate and top with ragu. Serve with a nice salad with balsamic dressing and sour dough bread. Delicious!

FHE Chart Art

I made a new FHE chart last week. My old chart was poster board and looked, well, old. It had been through several grubby hands helping change the tags to their new assignment for the week.

I found these great 11 x 14 wall stickers at Michaels. On sale. Score! I had to wait three weeks to get all three frames on sale but it was worth it.

I used stickers on the front of the glass and a dry erase pen to write in the assignments. Nice.

Is Baiting Wrong? Or Teenagers Can't Be Trusted.

Lego Policeman - Guard Duty in the Teenagers Room

Today my husband gets serious points for good (sneaky) parenting. Last night when I went to bed I had Tylor log off and put away his electronics - he had the laptop, his phone and his iPad in bed with him...why? I have no clue. When Jim picked up Connor from the dance he came home and immediately had to post on Facebook about the dance. Jim started to go to bed at midnight. He told them to get off and then came to bed. At 12:30 Jim got up again and caught the boys on their electronics - Tylor was down to just two - and told them to go to sleep. Then at 1:30 Jim went in, flipped on the light caught them redhanded (again) - Tylor was down to one - and took everything away and brought it in our room (waking me up in the process).

This morning Jim very nearly jumped out of bed at 9 and went in and woke up the boys. He was a little too enthusiastic and they looked like they had had a bender and were a bit headachy. Aw, poor kids.

I just have to giggle as they are groggily stumbling around the house this morning. Jim really did let them hang themselves and now they are paying for it. Their combined excuse this morning to going back on is that they thought their dad had gone to bed. Makes me smile. Really? That's your best shot?

Patience / Positive

I liked Suzanne's query into our one word for the year. I used two. I just don't think one is enough for me. I want more! Or maybe I'm just an over achiever and need something else in my life to work on. Yeah, that's it, more work.

I need more patience with things that I can't change, that stress me out and I just need to take a really big breath. AND... Let. It. Go. This may need a lot of practice on my part so please be patient with me. ;-)

Being positive has been hard this last year. There have been a lot of changes and many things (no, I didn't grow a mustache (not yet anyway) and my princess-hood is on hold) - and one big one - that drag me down. I know what I need to do and I have my sisters in my corner. Of that I can be positive!

Soap Box Rant

Idiot Appraisers or Why HVCC is worthless

The last two weeks I have had to deal with an appraisal problem that has really brought the problem with real estate to new heights with me. In 2009 there was a new law put in effect that makes it illegal for me to contact an appraiser. It's more complicated than that but that is the basic result. I had an appraisal completed and it came in ridiculously low. I appealed and provided new comparables. It was rejected yesterday basically because the appraiser doesn't have make changes if he uses comparables within the law.

Now here is my problem. Because the appraiser has already been paid, is not contactable (it can be harassment if I do it to influence the value), and has no interest in the results he is done. We should all be concerned with this type of appraiser. Since he did a slipshod job he has contributed to the current economic conditions staying low. How so you ask? By keeping property values lower than comparables say it should be there are fewer home owners who have the ability to refinance to take advantage of these historically low rates. Keeping the homeowners in higher rate loans restricts their cash flow which in turn effects the economy by having those same consumers unable to spend money that they are still having to use for their higher interest mortgage payment. So, the conclusion here? Appraisers need to keep to the one of the real estate use mottoes, "Highest and Best Use Always".

Two Teens & a Tween

It was Tylor's 13th birthday this week. Thirteen is an odd age; you can't go to dances or Primary activities, you can't date - or more likely you don't even like girls, you can't drive, you aren't top dog at school. Tylor has been trying on his "teen attitude" lately with, "Whatev's." and plenty of "Well, why not?" or "I do it all the time.". Uh-huh. If I hear it one more time I'm thinking it's going to be "Whatev's." for him.... Here's to hoping he makes it to 14.

Dining Room Art

For Christmas I might have picked out my own gifts. Maybe. Okay, well, I did. I wanted art for the dining room and found some that I liked and were fun. They lightened up the possible formal feel.

I really wanted one more but the others had weird sayings on them.

Now I will have to make an FHE chart in the same style. Any suggestions?