My Life as Mama Jodi

Soup
What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize? Back in high school I submitted a poem and was one of 4 winners. We each got lots of cool prizes, but the best was $200 to put towards a car.

Salad
Name something you do that is a waste of time. My husband would say when I veg in front of the TV ~ LOL.

Main Course
In what year of your life did you change the most? When I turned 30. So many things were happening then.

I’m starting with a dessert this week. My grandma made this for us almost every weekend when I was growing up, and now I have started to make it quite a bit for my family.

Layers of Nilla wafers, creamy pudding and fresh banana slices are the stars of this American classic.

Prep: 30 mins - Cook: 15 mins - Cool: 15 mins

3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
45 NILLA Wafers, divided
5 ripe bananas, sliced (about 3 1/2 cups), divided
Additional NILLA Wafers and banana slices, for garnish

1. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

2. Reserve 10 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard on bottom of 1 1/2-quart casserole; cover with a layer of wafers and a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of custard over bananas. Continue to layer wafers, bananas and custard to make a total of 3 layers of each, ending with custard.

3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry. Spoon on top of pudding, spreading evenly to cover entire surface and sealing well to edges.

4. Bake at 350°F in top half of oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly or refrigerate. Garnish with additional wafers and banana slices just before serving.

Monday ~ spaghetti/garlic bread

Tuesday ~ subs & chips

Wednesday ~ pancakes

Thursday ~ pizza

Friday ~ *trying out a new recipe tonight*
Pasta with Mahimahi, tomatoes & basil and salad (recipe below)

1/2 pound multigrain rotini pasta
2 tsp plus 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 pound skinless mahimahi, cut into 1 inch chunks
salt & pepper
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 cups grape tomatoes (abougt 1 1/2 pints)
1/4 dry white wine
1/2 cup firmly packed small fresh basil leaves

Cook pasta according as label directs.
In a deep skillet, heat 2 tsp oil over med/high heat until hot. Add mahimahi, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper and cook 3 to 4 minutes or just until fish turns opaque in center, gently stirring. Transfer to plate, set aside.

In same skillet heat remaining oil over med/high heat until hot. Add garlic and cook 1 minute or until golden brown, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes; cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes or until tomatoes burst, stirring occasionally. Stir in wine, half of basil, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper; cook uncovered 1 minute to blend flavors.

Soup
Name 3 foods that are currently in your freezer. bread, hamburg and tater tots

Salad
If you were to have the opportunity to name a new town or city, what would you call it? I don’t know, something cutesy maybe ~ LOL

Main Course
What will most likely be the next book you read? The Hope Chest by Wanda Brunstetter

We’re making housework blog-able!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

The project can be little or big – whatever you want. Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

This Tuesday Tackle will be an ongoing project for awhile. We had a flood in our basement this past week, with the rapid melting of 4 feet of snow over a 2 day period. We found the the majority of the water was coming up from the floor itself, from where the wall was built. The people before us did the remodel and used some really huge nails and drove them into the cement, and it is causing all sorts of problems. So this weekend, we tore all the drywall off, and hauled it off to the dump. These are the pics I took on Saturday:

there will no longer be a divided wall here, it will be a wide open area.

This area was my husband’s guitar area. For the time being he is now using my scrapbook room upstairs.

These are after the drywall was removed and brought to the trailer.
This wall will be where my new shelves will be

The soon to be new and improved guitar room! Not sure what he has planned as of yet.

We have to take down all the 2 x 4’s yet, but will do this over the next week. Then we have to recement the floor from all the hole damage, reseal it with dry-lok paint, fix the walls, and the guitar room. We won’t be putting up the divider wall (where the 2 x 4′ are now), we will move all of my shelves to the other wall (in the first picture), the only good thing coming out of all this, is that my shelving area will be larger!!