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Sunshine Citrus Chicken and Eggplant Fritters???
2008-06-07 19:45:00
Eggplant Fritters with Sunshine Citrus Chicken !Yesterday was the last day of school for this year. The girls were both super excited and so was I. I actually love the slower pace that we are able to enjoy in the ungodly hot months of June, July and August. We seem to be in our summer weather pattern already too (torrential rain and horrific thunderstorms every afternoon) which really inhibits what we can do later in the day. Of course we will still have the ice skating lesson 3 or 4 times a week and karate but at least it won't be so hectic. I also really am able to appreciate that I stay home with the girls. I love that we are able to spend a whole summer together getting to know one another!Fresh Ginger - the skin hadn't even dried out yet!Anyway for dinner last night I bought some boneless, skinless, chicken thighs (organic, free range, no antibiotics or hormones of course) and I marinated them in my Sunshine Citrus Marinade (I had some really old oranges and some really...
More About: Eggplant

Salmon and Pesto - a match made in heaven?
2008-06-06 15:39:00
Wild Sockeye Salmon with organic basil pestoLast night was a busy one again and further complicated by the girls being out of school earlier, 3 dogs, and T. having to work late. Usually I get the meal all ready to go and then take the girls to whatever we have going on that evening and T. can either finish the meal or just heat heat what I have made up. Until I get into some sort of routine (not very good with routines!) everything will be a little hectic. We made the most of it though and had dinner ready in under an hour so we were just about done by 7:30.Last weekend when we on our weekly pilgrimage to Costco I saw that they had some IQF (indivifual quick frozen) wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. Yes it was expensive but seeing as I am not eating much meat now I thought it was totally worth it. I was right. This fish was delicious. I only cooked up one piece for the girls to split and I guess I should have done 2. They were done in no time! We topped ours with some basil pes...
More About: Heaven , Made , Match , Pesto

Sometimes I just have to laugh!
2008-06-05 16:41:00
I had to try it again...this time with fresh cherries!I was just outside cutting some vines that have gotten out of control and were growing in, around and through my neighbors fence and let me tell you, it is sooooo hot out there!!! I came in and checked the temp and it was 10:00 and already 84 degrees. We are suppose to get to a high of 92. I was speaking to my Mom yesterday and she said that they are suppose to have there first summer blast of heat. Tomorrow it is suppose to be a high for them of 87???!!! I guess what goes around comes around though. I bet they laugh their butts off in the winter when I complain about 60 being freezing!!!Anyway, yesterday was sort of a fun day for us. The girls were done school at 1:30 so it was almost like having a whole day off! We got home and I really wasn't too sure what to do with myself. Until my oldest daughter came and asked me if she could bake some cookies for me. Of course I said YES!!! Someone baking for me is a real trea...
More About: Laugh

Mexican inspired chicken soup and a tart for dessert!
2008-06-03 15:29:00
Doesn't that look amazing? All crispy and crunchy with fresh blackberries scattered around!Well the school year is almost over and I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone. As of Friday my days are no longer my own. For the rest of this week they are on a half day schedule so I am suppose to pick them up at noon (wonder what happens if I don't???). I guess this is their subtle way of easing us into the summer. Only half days this week and nothing at all next week and for the next 10 weeks. I guess it's better than going cold turkey!!! I have my oldest daughter in for a couple of weeks of day camp but the youngest one will be with me ALL SUMMER long...10 whole weeks...2 and 1/2 months...OMG!!!Anyway yesterday morning I was looking in my fridge trying to decide what was for dinner and about the only thing that wasn't a condiment was a chicken carcass from roast chicken the week before. I pulled the remaining meat of the bones and threw it in a pot of water. I add...
More About: Mexican , Dessert , Soup , Chicken , Tart

My favorite pasta dish again...
2008-06-02 16:17:00
See the chunks of olives and fresh herbs. This was a great vinaigrette for the baby herb mixture!I have this little quirky thing about me. If I like the flavor of something I will eat it again and again and again. Just ask my family! It drives T. crazy sometimes but one of the advantages of being chief, cook and bottle washer is that they have to eat what I cook...he he he! This is one of those instances. The kids don't care they have been eating their pasta with just butter on it anyway so pretty much this is for me.Last night though I had bought a mixed box of organic baby herbs for the salad and just made a really light dressing using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, fresh basil, oregano and salt and pepper. At the last minute I tossed in some chopped kalamata olives. Turned out yummy!I had some beautiful yellow tomatoes that got added to this delicious pasta dish!I also made my regular favorite pasta:Pasta With Fresh Tomato and Basil1 head of garlic and 2 Tb...
More About: Favorite , Dish

Been a little busy with Osso Buco
2008-06-01 21:14:00
Okay so I've been a little busy this weekend. Had a bunch of things going on. One of those things was to go to the pet store to buy some freaking dog diapers for my 16 year old Black Lab (yes I did say 16) who craps himself just about every time he falls asleep. Let me tell you that a 16 year old Black Lab sleeps a lot therefore...oh well you get the picture. Anyway we also have an 18 month old Golden Retreiver. This could turn into a long post...We are in the pet store and of course the girls are over at the "adopt a dog station" where they have all of the sad looking dogs that need good homes for one reason or another. I saw this really cute puppy. Now I would never get another dog...we already have 2 huge ones and in case people didn't know this I live in South Florida. We get hurricanes. We evacuate. After Hurricane Charley I will never stay anywhere near where they think landfall is going to be. We take our dogs with us. We also take our dogs with us when we go o...
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Has anyone ever heard of this before???
2008-05-30 19:12:00
I kinda feel like this is a cheater post but in my defense I spent the whole morning in a Dr's appt and then ran errands right up until now. I get to pick the girls up in about an hour so my day is pretty much done!Anyway, my Mother-in-law sent me an email last week asking me to try out something that she was sent. I have to say I was skeptical at first. Like come on who would make and omelet in a Ziploc bag??? We gave this a test run the day that we left to go to the Keys...just making sure you remembered...anyway they worked. And really, really well. We all had our omelets ready at the same time and exactly the way we each wanted them. T. even had jalapeños in his! This is great for a weekday morning or a rushed weekend one as well!Breakfast Ziploc OmeletsGood for when you're alone or when all or when all of your family is together. The best feature is that no one has to wait for their special omelet. Have the guests write their name on a quart size Ziploc freezer bag wi...

Tomato and Green Bean Salad
2008-05-29 16:01:00
Looks like summer huh?Last night for dinner we were just going to have burgers and a tomato salad but as I was cleaning out my fridge yesterday I found some green beans that I had forgotten about in the crisper. I had bought them over the weekend so they were still in great shape. I decided to make a simple salad using my garden fresh tomatoes. This salad turned out great. I had seen it years ago in one of the food magazines but can not for the life of me remember which one! Seeing as I didn't have a recipe to follow I just went by memory and taste. Everyone loved this and it tasted just like summer to me!Tomato and Green Bean Salad 1 box or bag of green beans (however you get them at the market), trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces3 lg tomatoes, chopped and seeded1/3 cup olive oil (I think I would use less next time)2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar4 garlic clove, chopped fine (use more or less depending on taste)1 Tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano1/2 tsp garlic powdersalt and p...

The Daring Bakers Challenge and how I keep screwing up the date...
2008-05-28 13:49:00
Opera CakeIt was a wonderful relaxing long weekend. Monday night after I had gotten the girls into bed I decided to check the computer see what some of my fellow bloggers had been up to. I also needed to check on the recipe for my Daring Baker challenge which I needed to do during the week. Now I knew this was a pretty complex recipe. 5 separate elements to it. I knew I needed to give myself time during the week to work on it nice and leisurely. I had already planned the presentation and bought the almond flour that was called for. All I really needed to do was to pick up some odds and ends at the grocery store and I would start in on it. HOLY CRAP!!! THEY WANT ME TO POST THIS ON WEDNESDAY?????? How the H*** am I going to pull this off. Printed out the recipe. Raced to the fridge...I have one egg. It is already 10:00. There is no way I can do this tonight. So off to bed I went with visions of Opera Cakes dancing in my head! This months challenge was a great one and i...
More About: Challenge , Bakers

A little bit of everything!
2008-05-27 17:30:00
Nothing like lounging by the pool and watching your kids and dog swim for a whole day!!Yesterday was just a really nice day. Usually we have a huge Memorial Day BBQ but this year we decided that T. needed a break. I don't think that I have mentioned this but a couple of weeks ago T. was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr Virus which is just horrible. It actually stays with you for up to 1 1/2 years. He doesn't always feel bad but when he does all he wants to do is sleep and I just couldn't risk him getting too run down by having a big party here! We made the most of it anyway and it was really nice just hanging out with the family. We are all usually running in so many directions that we very rarely take the time we need together just hanging out.T. made margaritas using fresh key lime, lemon and orange juiceSee how nicely he crushed to ice...do you think maybe he's done this before?Our theme this weekend was zucchini and how many we could use up before I had to start freezing th...

Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes for Breakfast and Islamorada for Dinner!
2008-05-26 15:32:00
Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes I am going to do this backwards. For breakfast this morning we had Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes and dinner last night was in Islamorada, one of the Florida Keys. How cool is my life?The breakfast this morning was a treat for the girls and a treat for us in another way. I always make a double batch of these yummy pancakes because they refrigerate well and can be reheated or eaten cold for the next couple of days. Makes for a nice stream lined breakfast for a busy weekday morning. Oh and did you know, blueberries are in season here!!!Blueberry Whole Wheat PancakesIngredients1 cup Whole Wheat flour1 Tbs sugar3 tsp baking powder1/2 t salt1 egg1 cup milk2 T vegetable or canola oil1 cup fresh blueberry (any berry will work)Directions:Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl whisk all wet ingredients together.Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. You may have to add additional milk to make the mixture thinner...
More About: Breakfast , Dinner

Stuffed Green Pepper's Our Way
2008-05-24 22:57:00
Stuffed Green Pepper's Our WayI have a lot of zucchini...I mean a whole lot of zucchini...I went to the Farmer's Market today at Cape Harbor. The same one that I went to last week and got a ton of peppers. This week he sold me a ton of zucchini. This is just too good to pass up. A whole case of the things, organic no less for $15!!! I guess we'll be eating a lot of zucchini in the next couple of weeks!See...Lots and lots of zucchini!!!Last nights dinner was pretty great. We held a bunch of the green peppers back from last weekend and decided that we would stuff them one night during the week. Well you all know how that goes. Time just gets away from you and before you know it the week is done and you still have the green peppers that need to be stuffed and eaten. By now you all know that one of my children is a true tomato hater. This is the only pass that either of them get. She has to eat everything else...try stuffing a pepper without using tomatoes!!! This what I ...

Chocolaty Banana Cookies
2008-05-23 17:50:00
They do look like muffin tops don't they?Do you ever have those days when you just really don't know what to do with yourself? Tons of energy to be worked off or is it just nervous energy seeking an outlet. Nothing really going on but still just at odds with yourself. Maybe it's coming down from such a wonderfully, exciting day yesterday or too much coffee at Starbuck's this morning??? I really can't put my finger on it...my cleaner's are here today so I am sort of sequestered to my office with the 2 dogs. Could that be it? I went to Barnes & Noble and wandered around there for a while. Nothing really caught my eye there either. Very weird feeling this is! Oh well as soon as my house is cleaned I plan on starting dinner maybe that will fix the restlessness!Yesterday I wanted to make a nice little treat for the girls and I had seen a picture on Tastespotting that I really wanted to try and seeing as I always have banana close to rotting or in the freezer, it is real...
More About: Banana , Cookies

Jamie Oliver's chicken thighs and a huge brag about my daughter!
2008-05-22 17:15:00
My oldest daughter on TV during her schools morning news show!First I want to start with my big Mommy moment. My oldest daughter is very bright. The reason that I moved her from private school to public school is that the public schools have more resources available to them to handle a child that is so bright. Yeah...I know we all think that our kids are brilliant but now I have some proof.The school that they attend does an Accelerated Reading Program which basically means that the books they read have grade and point values attached to them. They are tested on comprehension for all of the books that they finish and are given a point value up to about 6 points (I think). The average amount of points is 3 or 4.Well in the 4 weeks that my oldest daughter has been there she has accumulated a total of 62 points and has reach STAR Reader Certification after being certified in 5 other Reader groups. This is unprecedented at the school. Needless to say we are very proud of her. Th...
More About: Chicken , Huge , Daughter , Jamie , Brag

When life hands you rotting peaches...make a crisp!
2008-05-21 16:14:00
Peach and Blackberry CrispI hate for food to go to waste. I think it is something to do with the time and effort that it takes to come up with the very best ingredients to feed my family. I guess sometimes you will lose a bit but I do anything I can to figure out something to make with it!!!The other day I happened upon a very tiny produce stand. I knew that they would have noting local this time of year but I needed a couple of things and I would much rather shop at a produce stand than a grocery store any day!!This was the same place that I got my Key Limes for the Key Lime Pie I made for this month's Royal Foodie Joust. They also had some early season GA. peaches. I bought a small basket thinking the girls would just gobble them up. Wrong. They just sat there until yesterday when I went to throw them out. I changed my mind about tossing them or feeding them to Enorma (our composter) and instead decided to make a crisp with them.A Crisp recipe is one of the easiest and mo...
More About: Life , Peaches , Hands , Make

Freezing Peppers
2008-05-20 16:50:00
Beautiful organic green peppers!On Saturday before T. and I went away I had him make a pit stop for me to a new Farmer's Market that I had just heard about at Cape Harbour. I am really getting tired of the same old thing that I see at all of the markets around here right now, produce from anywhere but here. Asparagus from Peru, potatoes from Argentina, tomatoes from who knows where. I guess you get my point.But this one was different!!! I was able to talk to the man who owned the stand and he had a ton of organic produce. We started talking and I was able to find out that he has a friend who has a farm in Labelle, which is north of here, and another friend who has an organic farm in Georgia that he meets up with weekly to get his produce. This was really great info for me seeing as I have been struggling trying to get some fresh produce. Granted this isn't the perfect situation as it really screws up the "local factor" but you know what...sometimes you just have got to bi...
More About: Peppers

My lovely, amazingly, incredible weekend!
2008-05-19 17:12:00
All I had with me was my i Phone so the pics aren't great but this was the view from our suite. I was too lazy to even stand up and take it, so this is from my lounge chair!!!Have I mentioned lately how awesome the man I married is??? On Mother's Day I got many, many great gifts from my girls and one really incredible awesome gift from my hubby! He got us a night away at the beautiful Sanibel Harbor Resort and Spa. Now, we all know that I could have called and made the hotel reservations myself right? That isn't really all that big of a deal. I plan all of our vacations but he went a huge step beyond. T. made arrangements for people to look after the girls while we were gone!!! To me this was huge. I am always the one who is arranging sitters and play dates etc., but this time he was definitely driving the bus.Anyway, we could really only do one night but we made the most out of it. We dropped the kids off at their sleep over spots at about 2 on Saturday and we were on ...
More About: Weekend , Incredible , Lovely

The Royal Foodie Joust - With plenty of time to spare for a change!
2008-05-17 14:21:00
T's birthday pie!As soon as I heard the ingredients for this months Royal Foodie Joust (hosted by Jenn-The Leftover Queen)I was excited. How could I not be with Lime, Raspberry and Almonds as the ingredients???!!! I new that these would be easy ones to work with. T.'s birthday is today and Key Lime Pie is one of his faves so I knew that would be the base but I was kind of confused as to how to work in the rest.On Mother's Day we were hanging out by the pool and I posed the problem to T. thinking I would get my solution from him but up chirps my oldest daughter (who reads cookbooks because she has devoured every other age appropriate book in the house) that I needed to do an almond crust and a raspberry glaze on top. Wow...is she good or what???!!! So guess what I did all day Friday?Key Lime Pie with an Almond/Graham Crust and a Raspberry Glaze with Fresh Whipped CreamAlmond Crust:1 Cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted2/3 Cups graham cracker crumbs3 Tbsp sugar1 Tbsp unsalted butt...
More About: Change , Time , Plenty

It works...It really, really works!
2008-05-16 16:57:00
Dinner!Last night was the new William-Sonoma grill pan's inaugural run. We filled that puppy so full of fresh veggies that I thought there was no way that they would all last in there! This pan was really great. Crammed full of stuff and still able to stir without anything falling out. All of the begetables cooked evenly and trust me it was full.The vegetables are not local (big sigh)...virtually nothing is growing here anymore at all. Even the tomatoes are small and blemished. So sad. I am having to eat organic's from California. Better than nothing I guess!We had chopped up eggplant, zucchini, onion, summer squash, red pepper, banana pepper, garlic cloves and mushrooms. They were lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, some paprika, and garlic powder. This pan is a keeper!!!Doesn't that look great over rice with some soy sauce on top???As Always...Happy Entertaining!!!Judywww.nofearentertaining .com
More About: Works

Did I just buy the stupidest thing ever or is it really cool????
2008-05-15 17:35:00
This picture is "stolen" from the William-Sonoma website.I have this little problem sometimes when I go shopping. Shiny things just tempt and tease me. This is a good case in point...I went into Williams-Sonoma yesterday to by a baking sheet. I really love their baking sheets and for the price you pay I find them very worth the extra bit of money. The other ones I seem to constantly be replacing but I have never had to replace the Williams-Sonoma ones.Anyway I went in there with a purpose in mind. I ended up buying a tart pan but that's okay too. Neither of these things are the ones that showcase my problem. I had cashed out and was safely on my way out of the store when I saw a really shiny, odd looking frying pan. It is a pan made especially for grilling vegetables. It is all metal mesh and shaped just like a frying pan! When I saw it I immediately envisioned all of the great vegetables I would now be able to grill because now NOTHING will fall between the cracks!!! I ...
More About: Cool , Thing

Yummy Frittata!
2008-05-14 19:34:00
Pretty huh? Delicious too!Frittata is just a fun thing to say and I had found that this word had been bouncing around in my head lately as I have been coming across some really great recipes for frittata's using spring veggies. I am not really getting spring veggies so I was really looking for something different. I grabbed my "Homegrown Pure and Simple: Great Healthy Food from Garden to Table)" by Michel Nischan and started searching.I came up with the recipe for a Garden Vegetable Frittata and as luck would have it I had a couple of eggplants sitting on my counter just begging to be used (um-starting to rot) so this would work out perfect.Now the only problem was that I would be at the skating rink from 5 PM until 7:30 PM. How the h*** was I going to get this made. Not too much of it could be done ahead which is what I usually do. T. to the rescue. I left him the recipe and instructions and he followed through wonderfully. You see he is not really one to ever cook from a ...
More About: Yummy

Quinoa and berry breakfast!
2008-05-13 18:52:00
Healthy and delicious way to start another busy day!I have recently fallen in love with quinoa. I have used it in soups, as a side dish and most recently like grits or oatmeal for breakfast. The great thing about quinoa is it huge nutrient boost. Its protein content is very high (12%?18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete food. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten free and considered easy to digest.With all of this in mind I have been using it when ever I can and the other day I happened upon Heidi's blog at 101 Cookbooks and saw this incredible breakfast recipe using quinoa as the base! My youngest daughter is a tough one to feed breakfast to so I am always looking for something new and healthy and my oldest daughter needs all of the energy foods she can get (with karate and figure skating she bur...
More About: Breakfast , Berry

And what a great Mother's Day it was!
2008-05-12 17:49:00
2 Mangrove Snapper ready for our plates!We had an incredible, relaxing day. The weather was great so we had breakfast and I got my wonderful gifts (see previous post) and then lounged around the pool for the day! Nice huh?Check out the teeth on this fish!!! I guess that's why they call them Snapper!Dinner came and Tony pulled out the fish. He was able to get some Mangrove Snapper that was fresh caught that morning. I have found my new favorite way to eat Snapper by way of Peter at Kalofagas - Greek Food and Beyond. He did a post last month on Latholemono. which is really just lemon and oil. But boy is it good. Now I always have to mess with perfection and because we have fresh herbs growing in pots right now we bastardized his recipe until it is almost unrecognizable but the inspiration is still there!Served with some grilled green beans.Last night T. grilled the fish and topped it with a lemon and oil mixture with garlic, shallots, fresh oregano, fresh basil, parsley, salt...
More About: Great , Mother

Happy Mother's Day!
2008-05-11 23:07:00
Omelet with sauteed spinach, feta cheese and avocado!And what a great day it has been. I told everyone here that the only thing I wanted this day was to not have to clean up the kitchen once! So far it has worked! But I also got a whole bunch of things besides that.First off I was not woken up at 6:00 in the morning. T. got up with the girls and they took the dogs for a long walk and I heard nothing until about 8:00...this is unheard of in our house so I was really pleased. Then came the gifts.My youngest one had a beautiful card and a silhouette drawn and cut out on a piece of paper and my oldest had a card with a poem that she had written for me, a dolphin figure that she made and a small picture frame. Those gifts are so incredible for me and become true treasures. T. pulled out all the stops and arranged for the girls to have sleep overs at their friends house and for him and I to have a weekend away!!! This is very badly needed and has not been done due to crazy circumst...
More About: Happy , Mother

The Shrimp
2008-05-10 22:54:00
Shrimp Taco's with homemade Pico de Gallo, chopped scallions, jalapeños, and avocado!We are so lucky to be living here in Florida. I get a ton of fresh, locally grown produce (during the winter) and also a ton of fresh, locally caught seafood. During the winter, when I was going to the Worden Farm Farmer's Market, I was standing in line to pay and I heard some one ask if the "shrimp guys" were there. The response was "yes" so I decided to follow the askers and see where they were going. Down the side street and towards the water we went and there was a small shrimp boat that had coolers on the back (would be way to creepy for me to take pictures of this boat and the people that work on it don't ya think? Maybe next time hehehe.) Apparently you just tell the guys what size you want and head on or off.Well, I got very good at this and we ate shrimp at least once a week, that is until the market ended in April. Before it all ended I got their phone number and on Thursday of ...
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Very, Very, Yummy Peanut Butter Bars!
2008-05-09 22:18:00
I was going to wait until later tonight to do a post about the amazing shrimp I got today from my Shrimp Guys but I changed my mind and am going to sit on my butt with my feet up for the night so that post will have to wait until tomorrow.Anyway, I had about 40 minutes before it was time for me to go and get the girls this afternoon and I realized that they really had nothing for a snack and I had seen a recipe for Peanut Butter Bars earlier this week on A Southern Grace and thought I could make these before I got the girls. Grace's are much cuter and she cut them into little, cute hearts...yep I had about 30 minutes at this point, remember. We had ran out of our regular organic, all natural PB mid week and we have been feeding the girl's some Skippy (egad it has sugar in it????) that I had left over from Christmas baking until I got some on Saturday. So I really wanted to get this used up and out of the house and this was a great way to do it. This whole recipe probably took...
More About: Yummy

Do you like what I'm wearing?
2008-05-08 17:35:00
After almost 250 posts on this blog I am officially very tired of the color orange! I have changed my template to a very nice, but boring white and I am so much happier! I still have some work to do on it. I would like to figure out how to put a picture on it and all but that will have to wait...to many other things going on!I also received an award today from Val at More than Burnt Toast. Val is a fellow Canadian who lives on the West Coast of Canada in British Columbia. She is probably one of the most supportive bloggers you will ever find. If you have a cause to support through blogging Val is your girl! Her recipes are bright and creative with excellent photography. Thanks again Val! Now the one thing that I have to do is to pass this on to 5 more bloggers that "make my day"! Should be easy right...not a chance. I visit anywhere from 20 to 30 blogs a day! Usually when I am waiting for the girls after school and killing my iPhone battery but this makes it very hard. ...

But Mom, these are muffins!!!
2008-05-07 19:38:00
I just don't get it. How can my kids not like muffins? I have tried every way possible to get them to eat muffins. I know it sounds crazy but I think that if they ate muffins it would be a nice quick, low impact (on the parents), and healthy thing to start their day. I have seriously tried about 20 recipes and nothing really does it for them. I have a freezer full of ones that they tried and didn't like. I guess I really need to figure out something to do with them!Anyway yesterday instead of making muffins for my freezer I decided to take a muffin recipe and make it into a cake. Sounds like a great idea huh? Outsmart them once and for all. To no avail. Although they did eat it yesterday when they came home from school this morning for breakfast they wanted nothing to do with it!!! T. and I thought it came out great and have made a nice dent in it so it guess it wasn't all for nothing! This was really a nice light snack cake and I am still baffled by the fact that my ...
More About: Muffins

A walk through my yard.
2008-05-06 16:36:00
My first lettuce harvest!I took you for a short walk through my yard a couple of weeks ago but so much has changed. The temperature here has risen and we no longer even have much cooling at night. The lowest it has gotten in the last week was 65 degrees. Not very cool at all. Next week looks like it is even higher with a low temp of 70! That is still cool compared to our July, August and September temps.Needless to say my little container garden is struggling already. I have completely lost my cilantro. I am going to try to get some to grow inside. Hopefully I will get better results. My basil is still doing alright and my tomatoes are starting to ripen. I got my first taste of a tomato and some lettuce from there last night and it was incredible!!!This is the second tomato to have ripened. They taste so amazing! Lettuce in desperate need of thinningMy basil is still going strong but the cilantro is done.My avocado tree has lost all of its fruit but for 3. The tree is pr...
More About: Yard , Walk

Not your normal pasta dish!
2008-05-05 17:51:00
The pictures didn't turn out real well (just imagine how happy everyone is seeing me run off with their dinner again!) and it looks real heavy but it isn't. That is all herbs, vegetables and a small bit of feta mixed in. I guess I should have tossed it first!We were trying to pigeon hole the pasta dish that we had last night and there was no way we could do it. It has some Mexican, Italian, and Greek flavors but none of them were the predominant feature of the dish. When I first looked that the recipe I was pretty skeptical and I really don't use a recipe for past dishes, but I thought this one sounded pretty interesting and it was full of fresh ingredients so I knew it had to be good. Also a major plus was that I didn't have to go out and buy anything. I had it all on hand!I found the recipe in Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients by Jesse Ziff Cool. This is a great cookbook for anyone who is interested in eating around the seasons...
More About: Pasta , Dish , Normal