St. Louis Arch Potatoes

When finding a recipe on pinterest, you're never sure how it will actually turn out. I found the recipe for Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes on pinterest and they looked good and not too complicated to make. I'm renaming them Arch potatoes because when making them they start to to curve and Jason commented that they look like an arch.

Here's the recipe:
4 Potatoes (I used Russets)
1 stick of Butter (Frozen)
Parmigiano-Reggiano hard cheese, Sliced thinly
Olive Oil
Cream/Milk
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Oven = 400 F

Note - Looking at the Pin or the other website helps a lot... the instructions posted have a lot of pictures. Read my tips below though!

Slice the potatoes, but not all the way through. It's recommend to use wooden spoons, I used rubber. With my sharp knife it wasn't the best idea. (My spoons have knicks now) The best trick I saw is to use wooden chopsticks! Those would be perfect and I will use them next time.

Slice the butter and cheese. Place the slices in the pre-sliced potato, alternative between the butter & cheese. The potato will start to curl, and be careful not to break it!

Place potatoes on a cutting board/plate/sink and drizzle with olive oil. I drizzled the EVOO when the potatoes were on the cookie sheet and it made a huge mess to clean up later. Sprinkle with salt/pepper/garlic/whatever spices you want.

Cook the potatoes for 45 minutes. Pull out and drizzle with cream or milk. (I used about 1/4 cup for 4 potatoes.) Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and put back in the oven for about 15 minutes. They were delicious!!

Oh Baby Baby Baby

There is a LOT of stuff you start learning about that is scary as the worst horror movie when you become pregnant.

So far, birthing the baby is the scariest thing by far. Or well, what happens to your body after birth.

Number 2? Paying for college.

Had someone told me before I got pregnant that I would need to make something called a Postpartum Padsicles, I would have figured out how to pay a surrogate or go the adoption route. In fact, when trying to teach teenagers to abstain, they should concentrate on explaining how horrific childbirth is and the months of havoc your body goes through after it's over with. I don't remember seeing that featured on 16 & Pregnant or Teen Moms.

Pinterest is an amazing resource of info. How did mom's do it before Pinterest?

Our first registry is available online! We registered at Cotton Babies for cloth diapers and a few other things. It's just a start there too... once we find out boy or girl we'll go back and add more diapers to the registry. We plan to register at Babies R Us and maybe on Amazon. There's a lot of things I have found that are just easier to add to a Amazon list then to find at BRU, ect.

So far things are better. I am still very tired. Exhausted. I am not feeling as sick, but still have some weird food aversions. Jason eats a lot of things that smell funny -- like chocolate covered pretzels. It's the weirdest thing too.

The things I hate the most about being pregnant is acne and being tired all the time. Like all the time. If I could take the next 9 months off and do nothing but sleep, I would. Unfortunately our budget couldn't handle that so I must work. I'd also wind up bored after a week or so... but a week off would be nice. Our budget could handle that... maybe my company will start furloughs this year? Ok, that would actually suck since we're on a budget to save and pay off debt before baby.

There's a lot of things I learned since Jason's mom died. Like how important an updated will is along with making sure all your beneficiaries are updated. And owning your home, and making sure someone is paying enough attention to pay your real estate taxes while everything is in probate. I can't wait to be over and done with all this silly lawyer stuff and the house. It's an added strain to try to figure it out. We also have to do our own will and name our children's guardians should we pass before they are 18. (Any takers for my future rugrats?)  And we'll name a different person to handle the trust. And we have to get to State Farm to get some more life insurance. While our agent is nice, she's a bit pushy with the insurance stuff. She calls once a month -- until you change your phone number. So I was able to get some quiet, until she got Jason's number.