Weekend Goodies

Look at the food I made this weekend, doesn't it look yummy!

This is what I made for dinner last night. It's from the September issue of EveryDay with Rachael Ray....Smoky Pork Chops and Garlicky Succotash.

These are Oatmeal Pear Cookies...not quite as good as the ones I tried at the Orchard, but whatever.

Mmmmm, Sour Cream Blueberry Coffee Cake. This recipe is from a Light & Tasty Cookbook, so it's a little bit more health conscious than an average coffee cake. That means I get to eat more or it, right?

Pickin' blueberries

For the last month or so I've been buying pints of blueberries from the Johnson Orchard here in town. The berries are seriously the best I've ever tasted, so last week I asked more about them. Apparently they come from a different orchard that is only 3 miles from our house! They have U-pick blueberries, apples and pears...how cool is that? We headed over there this afternoon and had a great time picking berries.

I thought it would take a while to pick a decent amount of blueberries because they are so small and everything, but it actually went pretty fast. It was the perfect thing for Tyler to pick too, because the bushes are so low to the ground. He was so proud of himself, calling himself an excellent blueberry picker. He started running after stangers, yelling "Hey mister, look at all the blueberries I picked!".



I don't know how long blueberry season lasts, but I hope we can stop by a couple more times because the berries were cheap! We got around 2-1/2 pints for just over 3 dollars. Previously, I'd been paying $4 for a single pint of prepackaged berries. Score! Of course, I've got some recipes ready and waiting.

Now that's more like it!

After going to the Union Gap parade earlier this year (which was kind of boring) I wasn't too sure how Yakima's Sunfair Parade was going to be. But I read about it in the paper and how it is the town's biggest parade and marks the start of the state fair, so I thought we'd give it a shot. Well it did not disappoint. It's still a small town parade and everything, but they had marching bands, spanish dancing horses, floats and not even one tractor (well, except for the one pulling the Moxee Hop Festival float). The weather was nice too...right in the low 70's. It's a good thing because the parade was loooong! After about 2 hours we decided to cut and run....we just couldn't sit there on the side of the road any longer (and by we I mean Tyler).

This is the best part....

Aaaaah, a fussy boy! Don't even think about saying "poor Tyler" either! Let me think...why was he crying this time? Oh, that's right...because he was told not to do something. Was it because he opened the port-a-potty door on his Daddy or because he was upset that he wasn't getting enough candy handouts. Or was it that he wasn't allowed to walk out into the middle of the street....hmmm, I don't remember.

Our day at the Fair

We spent a good 7 hours at the Fair yesterday, but it wasn't enough! We didn't get to look at any of the exhibits and Tyler wasn't quite finished riding the rides.

This was Tyler's favorite thing....he went on it again and again...and again! It's called the Shrek adventure and has a rope ladder to climb, some wobbly bridges to cross and a giant slide to go down. He could not get enough of this one....thank goodness for wristband!

The swings... The sprint car races.... Tyler thought they were really cool at first...all the cars zooming by and all. But after awhile we all got a little tired of being pelted with dirt and getting dust in our eyes. I guess we should have picked some seats higher up in the bleachers.

The tea cups....
Rides....more rides...

While we wait

I thought I'd post this scrapbooking page (yes, I only got one done this week), while Tyler and I are waiting for Rick to get ready to go to the fair. I used the mini monograms cricut cartridge to cut out the word Splash for the title. Then I used some $1 Studio G alphabet stamps to spell out Franklin Park down at the bottom of the page.

The fair starts a little late today, at noon because it's opening day. That's good for Rick because he didn't get home from work until 6:00 this morning. He'll be able to squeeze in a few good hours of sleep before we go, but he'll probably still be a tired zombie today. We already bought the "unlimited ride" pass in advance, so Tyler will be able to knock himself out today. It'll also help us to pass a few hours because we plan on attending the sprint car races tonight that start at 6pm. So what do you think....should we go wake him up now?

It's on the record

While we were out today running errands, my backseat secretary was keeping track of it all on his mini doodle pro.

That's right....Macy's, Bella scrapbooking, followed by the Majestic (the movie theater) and Michael's.

So we went to see Igor today and unfortunately, I didn't really care for it all that much.

Maybe it was meant for slightly older kids. There were a few parts that I didn't think were very appropriate for Tyler. In the movie, the main character Igor is trying to invent a living monster that would function as an evil killing machine. His intention is winning the evil invention contest of the year and becoming a famed evil scientist instead of just a hunchback Igor. One of his sidekicks is a strange rabbit (a previous invention) that is immortal, but keeps trying to kill himself. It has a good moral at the end though about choosing good over evil.

Fancy Fridge Art

Tyler and I colored these fuzzy felt frames that came in his monthly craft kit. Oooohhh Aaaahhh! I colored the one of the left and Tyler colored the one on the right. Check out those multi-colored flowers!

Tyler and I have a date for tomorrow morning. We are going to go see the new cartoon movie Igor. The "toddler only" movie program started up again this month, so we can go back to the movies with out worrying about upsetting other movie goers (since they will all be parents with toddlers).

Speaking of plans, the Central Washington State Fair starts on Friday and we can't wait to go. It is $1 day on Friday, so parking and admission is only $1....that means more money left for the ticket rides!

And if we have time this weekend we will try to go to the orchard down the road and pick our own blueberries. Mmmm, they are the tastiest on the planet!!

Here I Go....

Tyler and I went to Joann's yesterday and picked up the rest of the fabric that we needed for his Halloween costume. He found the pattern about a month ago when the store started bringing out their Fall/Halloween merchandise. He wanted to be a chef, so that's what we are making (the one in the lower right hand corner).

I picked out some white twill for the chef's coat and hat and some cotton chili pepper material for the pants. I've got the material all laid out and I'm ready to start pinning the pieces down. This is the time I always get paranoid that maybe I picked the wrong size. He wears a size 3t shirt right now, so I guess I should just go with the size 3 pattern...I just don't want it to end up too small or something! I hope it turns out cute, but it probably won't top last years scarecrow costume!

My latest reads

I just finished reading Nineteen Minutes and the Kindness of Strangers...two books that I happened to pick up at Costco.

I had never heard of Jodi Picoult before, but apparently she is a pretty popular author. Katrina Kittle was new to me as well, but I found both books enjoyable to read. Nineteen Minutes is about a shooting at a high school and the aftermath thereof. The Kindness of Strangers is a story of incest and how it rips a family apart. Both of the books are heartbreaking in a wow...can you imagine, sort of way.


I picked up a new book while I was out today....To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the story when I was in high school, but that was over 10 years ago. It's the book selected this year for Yakima's Big Read. It's a program where the entire community is encouraged to read the same book and are then invited to discussions/lectures at the local libraries. I don't know that I'll be attending any of the discussions, but I don't mind re-reading a classic novel.

Pear Party

Today we went back to the Orchard for their big Pear Party or Pear Fest as it is more commonly known. They had all kinds of pear/cheese platters out for sampling. Our favorites were the Red Bartlett pears and the Asian pears.

Here is the variety box of pears they had for sale...don't they look yummy? We just stuck with our favorite and got a sack of the Red Bartlett pears.

Inside the barn they had even more tasty samples of food and free recipes to take home. They had some pear pastries that were great and I liked the Oatmeal Pear Cookies too. There was some Caramel-Pear Butter and a Prosciutto-pear appetizer that Rick liked. Now I'll need to go through the recipes I snagged and decide what to make first!

Some more pages

Here are some of the scrapbook pages I finished this week.

This layout I completely and shamelessly copied from the August 08 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. After a while, you just need some help coming up with new ideas.


Similarly, I copied this layout from the July 08 issue of Scrapbooks, Etc magazine. I never would have thought to make a giant sun on my own, but I think it came out nice.

Cheeeese!!

At least I can take full credit for this one, but is it as cute as the other two?

Non-flat cookies and more....

Tyler has been sick the last couple of days, so I've been doing the thing were I follow him around all day with a box of tissues...followed closely with hand sanitizer for me. Arrgh, I guess that's what I get for taking him grocery shopping with me. When will he learn to keep his hands out of his mouth?

For dinner tonight I made Chicken Rice Pilaf. Mmmmm, just like Mom used to make...but with the addition of peas.


But wait, it gets better! For dessert Tyler and I made Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here is the link. Don't they look pretty? They're not flat or anything...and I cooked them...me!

Tyler didn't eat much of his dinner, which usually means no dessert. However, I had mercy on him (he is sick and all) and let him have a cookie. Okay, so who else wants one...I'm not about to eat all of those by myself!

Fresh Fruit

Yesterday, I passed on the not so great looking fruit at the grocery store and decided to head straight to the orchard. The fruit is always better and priced lower than the grocery store anyway.


With so many choices, we ended up taking a little bit of everything. We got some apples, pears, nectarines and blueberries. Yumm!

Don't those apples look good? Makes me want to start looking in my cookbooks for a few good apple recipes. I'm suprised I don't already have some on hand, with Yakima being the apple capital of the world and everything (well maybe not the world but probably pretty close). The Yakima Valley is even home to two applesauce/apple juice producers...Seneca and Tree Top. I better get on the ball and show some hometown support. How about some apple pie?

One tomato, Two tomato

a gazillion tomatoes more! Yes, I've said it before and I'll say it again...17 tomato plants is waaaay too many for our small 3 member family. But in my defense, the little bitty tomato plants looked so small in the nursery that it was easy to over estimate how many we needed. Oops!


Tyler and I did our normal Sunday grocery shopping today, but not before a quick stop at the park. We got there kind of early and Tyler almost had the whole playground to himself. Sounds kind of nice to me, but not so much for Tyler. He loves playing with the other kids, so he missed out a little on that.

I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately, so I thought I'd take the easy route today and do a simple dinner. I'm going to heat up some Ivar's clam chowder that I bought at Costco. It's supposed to be a really great clam chowder from Seattle (not the same as the glorious chowder I ate at the Pike Place Market, but hopefully in the same league) so I'm crossing my fingers that we all enjoy it.

Cranked a few more out

Here is a look at the scrapbook layouts I've been working on this week....what'ya think?

Hey, I want some of that!

Tyler and I hit the town today, visiting our favorite locations....the library and my favorite scrapbooking store. We picked up 5 books at the library today, instead of the normal 3. I guess I can look forward to looong bedtime reading sessions in the upcoming weeks. At least Tyler finally helped me pick out some of the books. He usually hops right on the computer as soon as we walk through the library doors, but today it was already in use by somebody else. So he spent his time *gasp* looking at books, instead of playing on the computer.

Next we stopped at a coffee shack, as I was craving a nice hot latte. Tyler must be too cute for his own good because he is always scoring freebies. Somehow he walked away with a 12 oz chocolate milk concoction that was even topped off with whipped cream.....uhhh, for FREE!

For dinner tonight, I made another recipe from Rachael Ray's newest magazine. It's called Greek Tuna Salad Pasta. I didn't realize until I was halfway through cooking the pasta, that the dish is meant to be served cold. Not what I was expecting, but still super yummy none the less. It had white flaked tuna, olives, cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, red onion, and parsley tossed with pasta and an olive oil & vinegar dressing.

We are expert tomato pickers

That's what Tyler says anyway, and he should know! With our never ending tomatoes and all. We went out this morning and picked all the red tomatoes...all that would fit in the bowl, that is. I don't even know what to do anymore. There is only so much salsa that two people can eat and I'm not sure I can cram another tomato based pasta dish down Rick and Tyler's throats. We can't even give them away...nobody at Rick's work is interested in them and most of our neighbors could care less. I was shopping at Costco yesterday and saw a woman in line next to me that was buying a large box of tomatoes. I wanted to go up to her and beg and plead that she take some tomatoes off our hands, but *sigh* I didn't.


Today, I went back in the kitchen and had one more go at making a blended coffee drink in the magic bullet. By jove, I think I've got it!! Eyeballing the ingredients wasn't working out, so I ended up using the measurements for making the green tea frappuccino. I just replaced the tea with coffee and ta-da!

My bologna has a first name...

it's T-Y-L-E-R! I'm always joking with Tyler, telling him that he is a bologna sandwich. He's started joking back and telling me, "No, My bologna sandwich has a first name...it's J-E-S-S-I-C-A!!" As it turns out Tyler is becoming quite the comedian. He was telling me his latest joke today. It went like this, "Mommy, the Spanish word for pineapple is piña.....get it? Piña...Ha, ha, ha, ha....piña...get it?" Okay, so maybe he needs to work a little on his routine, what do you think?

I was in the kitchen today again trying out my new magic bullet. I've tried making blended iced mochas with it, but I'm having the worst time getting the flavor and consistency right. I can make peanut butter banana smoothies with my eyes closed in a regular blender and now I've been able to do a slightly smaller batch in the magic bullet. Today I tried making a matcha green tea frappuccino-like drink and it turned out pretty nice. I wish I could do something about that dismal looking color though, it reminds me of canned peas! Oh well, I can't help the color of my matcha.

While the boys were outside doing "yard work", I decided to bring Max and Marceau outside, which I haven't done in a looooong time. The main reason is because Max is a bird of very little brain and I just never trusted him outside. Well, wonder of wonders....he made it a good 1/2 an hour outside, without flying smack into a neighbor's window or anything! Maybe I don't give him enough credit. He is 7 years old, after all. Maybe he has learned a thing or two over the years.

Craftin' and Cookin'

I took Tyler to Ace Hardware this morning to do the Kid's Club monthly craft. The kid's colored a bug shape that was cut from poster board, folded it up accordion style and slid it onto a pencil. Tyler's favorite method of coloring right now is to color a small portion with one color and then switch to another color, do a little more and so on. In then end, his bug looked like it was dressed in a colorful camouflage.

Although, his method of coloring is cute....it is time consuming and slow! It's a good thing they have Gooseberry Patch cookbooks there, I was able to sit on some patio furniture and browse recipes while I waited for him to finish.

For dinner last night, I made another Rachael Ray recipe....Roasted Caprese Spaghetti. It has a basil/spinach pesto sauce that is tossed onto the noodles and topped with oven roasted cherry tomatoes and bite size fresh mozzarella balls. Another winner and a great way to use up some of the tomatoes from the garden! Rick is completely anti-pesto, so I had to serve his portion with plain spaghetti noodles....ummm, not nearly as good, but that's his loss, right.

Dinner Tonight

For tonight's dinner, I made a recipe straight out of the the newest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. The recipe is called Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Calzones. Obviously, it is meant to be cooked on the grill, but I decided to bake mine up in the oven. The best part about the recipe is that I had everything on hand...it didn't call for any fresh herbs (which she almost always uses) or anything I would have to make a special trip to the grocery store for.
The recipe calls to make 2 large calzones, which are to be split into 4 servings. However, like most of her recipes....that means 4 super large servings or around 6 regular servings. I found these calzones to be pretty large, so next time I think I'll make 4 smaller calzones.

I used my own recipe for the pizza dough, a super easy 15 minute no-knead dough. On the inside...browned ground beef, onion, bacon, cheese, and chopped tomatoes. Yummmm!

When I told Tyler about the dinner, this is what he said...

Me: Tyler, look, I'm making a recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine.
Tyler: A recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine...Ha, Ha, Ha.....that's so silly!!!

Well, I don't know what's so silly about that, but it sure was tasty!