New Recipes

This summer, I fell into a bit of a dinner slump. A heat index of 110 degrees added to the task of figuring out how to juggle 2 kids left me with absolutely zero motivation to cook. I found myself recycling the same, comfortable recipes which eventually became quite boring to cook (and eat)!! A few weeks ago, I decided to make myself try at least one new recipe each week. I have a few cookbooks that I like, but perusing foodie blogs is much more fun. I love all of the pictures and the readers comments on how they tweaked the recipe a little to make it even better. I have ended up finding some really great recipes to add to my list of old standbys!

There are 2 sites that I am frequenting the most right now. My Kitchen Cafe is my favorite. I could spend the rest of the year making Melanie's recipes - they are quick, easy, and tasty! Here is a list of a few of the things I have recently made. I would recommend them all!

Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage
Cornbread
Foil Packet Chicken with Carrots and Snow Peas
Classic Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lemon Sugar Crusted Blueberry Muffins
Italian Chicken Pastina
Best Baked Manicotti

Sugar and Spice is another favorite. Celeste definitely has some more labor intensive recipes that I just don't have time to do right now, but I still like to look at them and dream of a day when I will eventually have more time to cook! For now, I make her easier recipes and they are still delicious!!

Slashed Chicken with Herbed Butter
Chicken with Cranberry Sauce
Easy Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni with Meat Sauce
Tuscan Pasta with Basil Cream

I also really like Allrecipes.com when I know what I want to make but need a recipe for it. They have a ton of reader reviews, so I know that a dish rated 5 stars will probably taste pretty good!

I'd love to know where you guys find good recipes at!

Pesto-licious

Marcia gave me some of her basil one weekend since her plants looked amazing. So, I picked my basil from our garden which isn't looking too great and made pesto! YUMMY! I eye ball a lot of these ingredients since the pesto recipe in very forgiving.

Pesto

About 4 to 6 cups basil

zest of 1/2 to 1 lemon

3 cloves garlic

2 Tbls olive oil

about 1/2 cup shredded Parmesian cheese

juice of 1/2 a lemon

chicken brother (I poured in the broth slowly until the pesto looked like a nice thick spread maybe 1 cup or so.)

NOTE: Traditional pesto has pine nuts and more olive oil but this recipe is a nice compromise to reduce the fat and omit the nuts for Connor.

Next I'm going to try creamy pesto with cream cheese!

Finally Strawberry Season!

I'm so excited it's finally strawberry season here. Or at least I was very excited at the beginning. I am beginning to get strawberry saturated. I feel like I've accomplished a lot this year in the strawberry department though. I froze 1 flat of strawberries (which I have done the last couple of years). I also made strawberry-oatmeal bread and muffins, which are always popular at our house, along with one strawberry pie. My new accomplishment was strawberry jam. A few years ago I made a small batch of strawberry jam, and I wasn't too pleased with how it turned out. This year I got my grandma's strawberry jam recipe from my Aunt Nancy, and it turned out really well. It is freezer jam, so it was relatively easy, and I made 24 jars of jam! I still have about half a flat of strawberries left, and I'm planning on trying out Kristen's strawberry bread recipe, and then freezing the rest.

Painting...

I've wasted a lot of time the last few days staring at my bedroom walls trying to figure out what colors to paint them... I moved into my new place last week, and for the first time ever I am allowed to paint my bedroom whatever colors I want... and I'm finding the decision a bit overwhelming. I came to the conclusion that I am simply not a color-coordinated person! I'm trying to reconcile all the random (and extremely colorful) junk that I own and refuse to get rid of to all of the new (and extremely colorful) stuff that I recently bought that

makes me really happy... and I just have to come to terms with the fact that it's not going to match perfectly like certain other bedrooms I have seen recently. And I think I'm okay with that. : )

Exhibits A and B: (notice the swirly lamp on the left of the second tier)

ALSO, I made a discovery last year that is a wonderful innovations for transient college students (or anyone who is lazy or just fears permenance). Wall Pops, are little vinyl wall paper shapes you can stick on your wall, and they actually look just like paint. The best part is that they peel right off without ripping off paint, so you can adjust them or remove them really easily. Needless to say, this also adds to my helpless jumble of color options... Ah well, I can justify it by reminding myself that I'm still in college. : )

BTW, I'm definitely painting one wall yellow. I love yellow. : )

Book List

Even though Bridget is not my first child, I have been managing to read while I nurse her most of the time lately. :) The way I work it in is that I get all the house stuff/school stuff done when Bridget is awake so that I can spend time with Andrew and Laura whenever she is napping. While she's sleeping we do the reading of longer books and jumping on the trampoline-basically all the things that she would have no patience for. I also try to include Andrew and Laura in the housework so they're getting attention while I'm doing that. Laura is a big fan of doing laundry these days. Then I feel like I can justify reading something of my own whenever I'm nursing Bridget. I will admit that nursing sessions have gotten a little longer since I have been doing this.
Anyway, here is my reading list for the summer:
Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis (I'm about 2/3 of the way done)
The Everlasting Man by GK Chesterton
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development by Carl B. Boyer
Plus a couple of novels and a book I'm reading with a women's study group
We'll see what I actually get accomplished on my list.

French Bread

I have been making this bread a lot lately, and it gets eaten up VERY quickly. It is really easy. It takes a while from start to finish, so it's good to do on a day when you are just around the house.
Put in bread machine:
1.25 cups warm water
1.25 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
3 and 1/3 cups flour
1.5 teaspoons rapid rise yeast
Run a dough cycle.
After dough cycle ends, roll it out into a rectangle (about 8 by 12 inches). Roll up the long end. Brush with olive oil. Let rise about an hour. Brush with egg white. Bake for 25 minutes at 400 or until you knock the bread and it sounds hollow.

Random Thoughts

1. Gardening
Buttercups are one of my favorite flowers that I haven't tried to grow in my garden. I also really love blue flowers. I think mostly because they're so few of them. I'm in the mood to start planting but the weather isn't cooperating and we've been so busy. Maybe this weekend we'll make a trip to Lowe's and a garden nursery.

2. Patio

I saw a patio set that was pretty affordable in wrought iron. I'd really like a table and chairs to eat outside on but part of me feels silly when our dining and sunroom tables are just on the other side of the windows!

3. Exercise

Yoga 3 times a week and elliptical trainer 6 or 7 days a week 40 mins plus I started running a bit. I ran/walked 2 miles yesterday which is not bad considering my feet problem. Today my feet are doing okay but not 100% after running. The elliptical is a lot easier on them. I think I'll invest in a good pair of running shoes since I'd like to run outside more this summer. U2's Beautiful Day is the best running song ever!

4. Summer

I'm looking over summer classes and thinking what to sign Connor up for. There's tumbling, tennis, T-ball & soccer, swimming, Kindermusik, VBS, and outdoor camps. Now what to do with Lucas? I like to keep them busy and out of trouble!

Strawberry Bread

Strawberries are in season down here and we have been buying them in bulk. I received this delicious recipe from a friend and it has been a big hit around our house these past couple of weeks! It is packed with fresh strawberries, so it's a healthy snack for Ben, too!

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups fresh strawberries (I like to add a little more)
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (can use whole-wheat flour)
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans (I usually leave these out)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in pecans (optional). Divide batter into pans.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.

This recipe freezes well and can also be made in muffin tins.

New Blog

Our new blog is about our interests which means this is a KID FREE ZONE or at least as free as possible. (I'm up for posting kid related finds/ideas that would be great for everyone.) The blog can be a place where we share our hobbies, ideas, great finds, and anything else that will inspire, support, and help us find an outlet to express ourselves. Here are some topics that we can post about:

Recipes

Cooking

Gadgets

Photography

Photoshop

Exercise

Pregnancy

Knitting

Crocheting

Books

Homeschooling

Sports

TV

Movies

Coupons

Websites

Family

Crafts

House