The apostles creed

"I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen"

i was thinking about this tonite and googled it.

well, as i was reading it i was caught by the phrase "He descended into hell"

wait. what?

has that always been in there? i grew up reciting this and i never once saw that?

what does that mean? Jesus went to hell? i'd love some comments on this one because i am a little taken aback by the fact that i never realized the weight of that phrase until NOW.

i'm going through a time of getting to the roots of my belief system and this caught me off guard for a second.

i guess it threw me off a little that i've recited something plenty of times before and never even explored what it meant.

off to google a little more...

my lasagna recipe

(since jennifer wants it)

it's really more of a method than a recipe, though. and i use very untechnical terms. ;)

sizzle up a pound of free-range organic ground meat (i use turkey, but you can use sausage or beef or ground chix...)
while the meat is browning, add whatever raw veggies you have in your fridge to the food processor and buzz it up.
(i usually use squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, green beans, onion, celery, any variety of bell peppers, spinach, a couple cloves of garlic...anything really.)

add a little EVOO to your ground meat and add your buzzed up veggies. sautee for a few minutes.
add 1 can undrained diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, i small can tomato paste, 1/2 a can of pureed pumkin (not pumpkin pie filling! be careful! and no, you can't taste the pumpkin), a splash or two of red wine, few sprinkles of red pepper flakes, italian seasoning (basil, oregano, parsley...), and a bay leaf. plus salt and pepper to taste.
let this sauce simmer as long as you can...the longer it simmers, the better it tastes.
i like to start it early and then put it in the crockpot on low to simmer all day long, adding a little veg broth if it needs it later in the day.

now, mix together one large container of small curd cottage cheese,2 eggs and some parmesan cheese. add a little italian seasoning to that also.
(here is where personal preference comes in...use ricotta if you like it better. sometimes i do half ricotta half cottage, but most always i just use cottage. you can also add silken tofu in the mix and you won't know it's there)

i use whole wheat no boil noodles. use your favorite.

spray your baking pan.

layer this way:
1) sauce
2) noodles
3) sauce
4) cheese mix
5) mozerella cheese
6) noodles
7) cheese mix
8) sauce
9) mozerella cheese

cover with foil. bake at 400 for 45 mins. remove foil. bake additional 15 mins until cheese is browned and bubbly. remove from oven and let sit for 10 mins before serving.

enjoy!

fun times with liam today!

he loves the photo booth thing on the mac. it was a fun afternoon. i told him to do what i did and surprisingly he DID!!
garland was pretty freaked out by the whole thing...as you can see in the last pic. :)

late night with cora

i love it when i get to spend quality time with one of my kids...even if it is at 3am. lol.

sorry it has been so long...

...since i've done an update.

things are busy busy busy in the altork household and although there are many blog posts in my mind, there is very little time to get it accomplished.

i WANT to blog about...

~our vacay to st augustine (fabulous! i love my inlaws!)

~the food that we're eating on busy days to just get by (has anyone tried the zaxbys 'lil nibblers? darn those things...they tempt me more often than not)

~my sweet cora who melts my heart with her smile and the fact that she looks *just* like me as a baby tears my heart to bits. and the fact that i'm not nursing as much as i would like and well, that bothers me. we're working on that.

~my garland, precious only middle child (for now), who adores her older brother so much that she SCREAMS when he leaves her immediate vacinity and mirrors me to an extreme when she's hungry...and she has a rat tail for hair that i refuse to cut.
oh how i love to cram bows into that curly rat-tailed hair.

~my precious and special liam who has been officially diagnosed with autism and all the gut-wrenching feelings that tag along with that...along with the joy and beauty that comes with being blessed with the opportunity to raise a "special needs" child. oh the wonders of that boy! he kills me each day with the canned phrase "i want ME a HUG" and "i NEED me a kiss" and proceeds to climb into my (overtired) lap and smooch me right on the lips. how can anything else compare to THAT???

~my hot hubby who is somehow managing being a SENIOR EDITOR of a newspaper along with keeping the kids 3 days a week so i can work. how does he do it folks? HOW??? i love that man.

~my job at starbucks which i love but it pulls me out of bed at 4am too often.
i run this phrase though my head a millon times a day..."it's for the kids...it's for the kids" which is *so true* because the only reason i'm working is to cover insurance for this family. and i LOVE it. we are making it work within our means and that feels great to us!

~the fact that my toes and eyebrows need serious attention

~the discovery that the woodstock goodwill rocks...seriously buying everything from there from here on out. goodness.

~the new house. love it. LOVE IT!

and on a side note, if anyone can tell me how to get liam into an inclusive preschool for less than $1000 a month, i'm all ears. goodness.

that's all i've got tonite folks.

stay tuned.....