WHAT A WEEK!!!

Sorry once again for being the slackest blogger in bloggerville. It has been a crazy week!! When I say crazy, I mean NUTZO CRAZIO mega crazy!!

First off- on Sunday I made the most amazing new recipe for dinner. It was so good in fact that I made it again for dinner on Wednesday. Why? The reason is that we simply couldn't stop thinking about it. It was SO good!! Here is the recipe... with my usual modifications.

Chicago Style Pan Pizza

1 loaf (1 pound) frozen bread dough (thaw and rise!)

1 pound roll of pork sausage (I used mild)

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 pound of sliced fresh mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 (14.5 oz) can of petite cut diced tomatoes, drained

3/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed

1/4 tsp garlic powder

( for all of the above spices I used 2 teaspoons of an amazing Italian seasoning mix I have in the cabinet)

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 13 by 9 by 2 inch baking dish. In a large skillet, brown sausage over medium heat. Drain and sprinkle over dough. Top with Mozzarella cheese.

In a skillet, saute onions and mushrooms until tender. Stir in tomatoes and spices. Spoon over mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Simply amazing-- just typing it makes me want to make it again.
Leave me a comment if you try it.

So that was Sunday... Monday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. I could copy and paste the previous sentence for every day this week. It was A LOT of work!! I worked my art class job that afternoon. When I got home, Meghan was here and had picked up chips and cheese dip for us. It was yumm-o!! I texted Mr. D. to pic us up dinner at Cozumel on the way home and when he got there they told him his wife's sister had already been in for the chips and dip. We all had to chuckle over that one. Monday night I worked on the last of my parent/teacher conference reports.

Tuesday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. We were down one teacher in our class on Tuesday due to illness. Kate and I did the conferences after school. After the conferences, we went to a Shrove Tuesday dinner with Kate and Blake. The funniest part of the dinner was Kate and I were wearing the same color- and had been all day, but didn't realize it until EVERYONE at the dinner pointed it out.

We had so much fun eating chocolate chip pancakes and pecan waffles.
We came home Tuesday night and our internet was out. They had been working on the lines and somehow disconnected to lines for internet. We called the service provider and they said they could send someone Thursday.

Wednesday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. After school I had to go to the grocery store and get the ingredients to make the pizza again. When Mr. D. came home, he saw the AT&T truck in the neighborhood- apparently we aren't the only ones who lost internet service in the neighborhood. I made dinner and the the world stopped as I watched LOST. Oh- and speaking of LOST, all of the oceanic 6 fish are still alive! Here is a video of me feeding them.


Thursday was a fun day. I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. After school I had Daisy Scouts. We have some pretty strong personalities in our troop. The activity was to make the bracelets in the colors of the petals on the Daisy logo. Each color of petal stands for something, so really we were trying to teach that. Well the girls were having NONE of it and wanted to just design their own bracelets. It was so funny. Eventually I think everyone ended up with something resembling what it as supposed to be- and something they were happy with. I only have 5 or 6 more meetings before school is out!
Oh- and the internet was fixed today!!

Friday was the day I had been working towards all week for 2 reasons. 1) We got to find out if we were getting a new niece or nephew and 2) the chili cook off. We will start with the second before we get to the first. I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. Every day I had to drag a million things from my house to school and back. This was a well organized production. There were excel spread sheets, schedules, and plans. Tom (my father in law- not the myspace guy) would have been thrilled! I even had a Julie McCoy style clip board to keep everything organized. I turned all of the kids on to a love of the Pampered Chef products.. oh and speaking of, I am having a party on March 17th in hopes to get more free stuff. Everyone got very in to the cooking and it was actually so much fun. As you read previously, there were interesting ingredients to work with. We put a lot of things, ummm..well... on the side, as opposed to in the chili.

Of course in typical CMS fashion... IT POURED!! It is inevitable that if there is a CMS event- it will rain. While the actual chili cook off was indoors- it was challenging to get things from our building to the gym. Now, when I say it rained- I don't mean a drizzle at all. It was sheets of POURING rain in the wind. We were all drenched. On the flip side- great chili weather
(if you eat chili which I don't).

The worse thing about Friday is that my partner in crime got sick at school and had to miss the chili cook off!! I felt bad because Kate had put SO much work into the cook off. It would have been more fun with her and I hope she is feeling better by now.

Here is a picture of our booth.

We created a slide show to show of the children making the chili- from the voting of what type and voting for a name- to us turning in our entry- to cook cook cooking - to win win winning! These kids worked- and I mean a lot of work. We won the trophy for people's choice. Having tasted the chili- the people were very sweet.

The kids were pretty excited- and even a few cried when they realized that they didn't get to take the big trophy home with them. We will have it in our classroom for all to enjoy.

Now- for the best news of Friday. We found out Keith and Meredith are having a little boy. So, for the count- in May-July we are waiting on a girl, boy, girl, girl, and now a boy. Henry Micheal was the last one for us to find out what he was going to be. Two of my good friends are getting a niece and a nephew at the same time so I am going to help them make a quilt- as I have made a quilt for both Kaleigh and Donovan- and now I will make one for Henry. It is the Aunt thing that I do (and now I am forcing it on my friends to do as well). I will post more on the blankets as they come along. In addition to getting to see the PRECIOUS pictures of Henry- I got to see 4D pictures of one of the babies we are waiting on that I have been so worried about. Her doctors think everything is going to be fine now and I was so relieve to hear it. Speaking of babies-- my home study will be officially OVER as of Wednesday of this coming week!! Whoo- hoo for that!

This morning I made myself a chocolate chip waffle- and ordered Henry's mom a treat. Of course the ordering of the treat was on my to-do list for longer that I had hoped- sorry Meredith!

On a sad note- today is Meghan's moving day. She is moving out of our neighborhood and back home with her parents about 20 minutes away. We will miss her being so close!!