At The Nursery

Rick cleared the weeds from one side of the house, and is trying to stay on top of things and get the landscaping done before the weeds grow right back. It's just a small space, maybe 12-13 feet between our house and the neighbors, and only half of that is ours. So we are keeping the landscaping basic with just a few shrubs, gravel, and maybe a small tree.

With that in mind, we headed to the nursery today and picked out some plants.

I was completely distracted by the vegetable plants and the herbs. Isn't this the prettiest bunch of basil you've ever seen?

Well, I didn't need any convincing, some of it was coming home with me. Oh, and some cilantro too. I was looking for some Italian parsley, but they were all sold out. Darn!

Back to the boys in search of some suitable shrubs.

Rick ended up picking out some boxwood and some red twig dogwood. Now with that out of the way, it's time to get to work. It's around 92 degrees today, and I can't even think about working in the yard. At least it cools off decently in the evening. Maybe Rick can get started after dinner or tomorrow morning before it heats up again.

A Look Outside

My garden is coming along, slow as it may be. All the plants had started to turn brown soon after we planted them, probably due to shock from the transplant. But now they're recovering nicely, for the most part. The tomatoes are looking great. The bells peppers and eggplant...not so much. As for the seeds we planted, they are a little hit and miss.

Here are the peas. Aren't they such rock stars? I can't say as much about the green beans, as I've only seen one sprout so far. In their defense though, we may have planted them a wee bit too early (as in the soil wasn't warm enough yet). But the weather is in the 80's now and headed for the 90's, so those buggers had better get with the show.

The tomato plants are looking good...nice and green. We should probably think about putting the cages around them soon. Believe me, it's 1000 times easier to do when the plants are small.

In the front yard, we have one tiny splash of color that I love! Tyler's marigolds that he planted back in March have finally bloomed. Phew, it took forever, but I'm so glad to finally see some flowers.

And on the backside of the house, we have a few guests. A couple of brown birds have made a nest on top of one of the roof supports. I thought it was cute, but Rick was less than amused. I can understand, he's cleaned more than his share of bird nests (and baby birds) out of the satellite dishes at work. For the moment, the nest remains, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Potpourri of Fun

Everyone was up bright and early this morning, so we could drive across town and make it to Lowe's in time for the Build and Grow project. We missed the other one this month and Tyler was pretty upset about that. At least we remembered about the one today. They were making "Ready To Go" kits, little boxes to fill with things for emergency situations.

Not my favorite project. I mean, what the heck can you fit in that tiny box that you would need in an emergency...some band aids?! Honestly, I don't know. I'll have to think about that one. Oh, and don't mind Tyler's silly face...he's still working out how to say "cheese" and smile at the same time.

After Tyler finished up his project, we headed over to the mall, which is right next to Lowe's, and browsed around for a bit. We peeked inside Gottschalk's for their "going out of business" sale and I was surprised to find the exact pair of capris that I was wearing for 60% off. They were a different color and under a different brand name, but otherwise the same, so I snatched them up. Besides, I already knew they'd fit perfectly. I also found a Christmas apron for $1. It didn't have any tags and looked homemade...maybe it was something left behind by a former employee. Whatever, it's mine now!

Once we successfully wasted more than a few hours about the town, it was back to the house and the chronic chore of working in the backyard. But there was some good news today, the majority of the sprinklers are finally up and running. Tyler liked that part. I'm sure the weeds didn't mind either.

Sure, three of our neighbors have swimming pools in their backyards, but can they run through the sprinklers while getting muddier by the moment....nope! And isn't that more fun anyway?

Not The Same As Store Bought

The other day I finally reached the bottom of a Costco sized container of Biscotti. I call them "coffee cookies", so that keeps Tyler and Rick far away, leaving more for me. At any rate, it was time to replenish my supply. That's when I got the brilliant idea to try and make my own.

I've never made biscotti before, but Rick has. Strange, I know! He and Tyler stayed up one night after I went to bed and made a batch for me. Given his extreme lack of experience in the kitchen, I can't go on enough about how good the cookies were (and they looked great too). I figured that if Rick could turn out a top notch batch of biscotti, then certainly, I could too.

Long story short....at least they tasted good.

Note to self.....when the directions say to form the dough into a log, make it a skinny log, 'cause those babies are gonna spread. So what if Rick mistook my biscotti for french fries. They tasted great even if they were a little on the flat side.

(How about that Marvin mug? I'm glad I had it hiding in the kitchen cupboard because I donated the rest of my Marvin collection to the Goodwill the other week when Rick was away in Arizona. In an attempt to declutter the garage, I filled the car up and made multiple trips to the Goodwill. My Marvin collection was just one casualty.)

Not to be outdone by the biscotti, were my homemade hamburger buns.

Rick and Tyler were both in complete awe over the novelty of homemade buns. I wasn't as impressed. They came out a little too dense, like sourdough bread bowls, or something. A little awkward to eat with chicken patties, but at least they looked good.

Here are the recipes I used:
Cardamom Almond Biscotti
Belles Hamburger Buns

My Latest Torture Device

After at least 2 months of waiting, I finally have my adjustable PowerBlock dumbbells. I ordered them from a local fitness store back in February and it took them this long to get them back in stock. Let me tell you what, I'm going to think twice before I place another order with them.

But aren't they pretty?

I think so.

I'm so glad to have some heavier weights, my 10 pounders just weren't cutting it anymore. And not only that, but I've been waiting on these weights so I could get started on the STS program. It's a 3 month exercise program that focuses on strength and muscle building. I was telling Rick that if I get started soon enough, then I should be able to finish the rotation before our trip to Hawaii at the end of August.

The only teeny tiny hitch is that before I can start the program, I need to test myself on each individual exercise to see the maximum amount of weight I can lift with good form for 10 reps. There are 97 exercises to test, some more critical than others. So I got started last night and completed the test for around 15 of the exercises.

This morning when I woke up, my first thought was....Ouch! My back and arms were so sore. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Cathe Friedrich means business. If I'm this sore just from doing the pretest, I can only imagine what the actual workouts will be like! Yikes, what have I got myself into?

Out For A Spin

I've been busy in the kitchen all morning, prepping food for dinners later in the week. Boiling and shredding chicken meat for enchiladas. Making a large batch of meatballs, which I divided and put half in the freezer. Then I shelled half a pound of shrimp for tonight's dinner and baked a batch of bran muffins for good measure.

When I was done with that, I was finally able to take Tyler outside to practice riding on his new bike. It's a 16" bike and it's a little big for him, so we make sure he puts on his helmet and knee pads.

He rode it around the driveway for a little bit, but ended up switching it out for his scooter so he could make sharper turns. Go figure!

When it was time for a break, he did his next favorite thing....tell some knock knock jokes.

Knock, Knock
Who's There?
Needa Tish
Needa This Who?
Why is your nose running?

Don't ask me why he had to tell knock knock jokes with a winking pirate eye.

Hamburger Noodle Casserole

Last night I made Hamburger Noodle Casserole from the Light & Tasty 2008 Annual. It makes a huge amount so I ended up halving the recipe. It's along the lines of a lasagna, but super simple, using egg noodles and a tomato sauce seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic.

I baked it up in one of my Corningware casserole dishes. You know, the white ones with the glass lids? I ended up burning my hand, while I was adjusting the lid as I put the casserole in the oven. I was reaching for the knob on the lid and in doing so, touched the back of my hand to the broiler element. Arghh! Of all the klutzy things I do in the kitchen, burning myself, thankfully, is not one of the usual suspects.

Running through the middle of the casserole is a deliciously creamy mixture of sour cream, cream cheese, and ricotta cheese (or in my case, pureed cottage cheese). Yum!

There was plenty left over for Rick to take to work, which he did, in its entirety.

An Ordinary Day

I've spent the bulk of the afternoon today doing boring household chores, so Tyler has had to fend for himself in terms of entertainment. I found him upstairs reading one of his new books that he got in the mail from his Grandma.

He just got it yesterday and he's already read it numerous times. That's a good sign. Sometimes when we borrow books from the library, he'll only read them once before he wants to return them.

Things have been going a little slow in my scrapbooking room also. I completed some Easter pages a few weeks ago, but nothing else since then. Now that Rick has put a computer in my scrapbooking room, I find myself wasting a little too much time on the Internet.

Other than that, it's a bit of a snoozer here today. If everything goes well with dinner tonight, maybe I'll be back later with a delightful new recipe.

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I wasn't expecting much other than an average Sunday. I had plans to go to the Farmer's Market for opening day and then go to the grocery store and get my weekly shopping out of the way.

Little did I know that my day would involve a lot more than that! Things started off as planned though, with a trip to the Farmer's Market.

For Tyler, the Farmer's Market = kettle corn, so of course, that was our first stop. Next we loaded up on tasty goodies and sat down to eat. We shared some chicken tamales, a cup of sliced melon and a tropical pineapple drink. Before we left, I also picked up a bundle of fresh asparagus.

Next we were off to the grocery store and that's when the hijacking of my day began. Apparently Rick and Tyler had a plan to take me for a picnic dinner, so while I was trying to shop for groceries, Rick was trying to find the supplies for the picnic. He couldn't find everything he needed at the first store, so then he dragged us around town for a couple of hours until we finally made it back home late in the afternoon.

Once we were back at the house he started preparing the food for the picnic. Several hours later the car was packed and we were ready to go. That's when I learned that he didn't have an exact location in mind for the picnic, but that we were going to drive until we found "a nice spot". Tyler pointed out several nice pieces of grass along the way, but we ended up stopping at a lake about 25 minutes North of Yakima.

If I look like a zombie in this picture, it's because I was! I hate to say it, but by the time we stopped to eat, I was exhausted!

Despite the rough execution, we still had a great picnic dinner. The food was good and the company was even better.

The Wait Is Over

The weather has been fantastic the last couple of days. It was in the mid 60's yesterday and 70 degrees today. It's great....no wind, no clouds, no rain...just warm sunny days. I had been promising Tyler a trip to the park all week long and we finally had the perfect weather.

So off we went to Randall Park. I didn't bother bringing any bread for the ducks, just because we didn't have much in the house anyway. My mistake! We missed out on feeding the brand new baby ducks!

They're so cute!

In other events, Tyler and I were busy in the kitchen this morning baking Rick's birthday cake as he was scheduled to arrive back in town this afternoon. I was crossing my fingers that he didn't miss his flight since he does have a slight reputation in that department.

Turns out that I didn't need to worry at all. Rick made it home right on time and the rest of the evening went as planned. I made the Bacon Feta Stuffed Chicken as he requested for his birthday dinner and we topped it all off with some super delicious carrot cake.

I followed a recipe out of my King Arthur Whole Grain Cookbook and let me tell you what....it didn't disappoint. Yum! Hands down, the best carrot cake I've ever made and the best frosting too. Mmmm! It was so good! The recipe is here. I used all whole wheat flour and subbed applesauce for some of the oil.

A Diamond In The Rough

Today was not my day. Nothing major or tragically bad happened, it was just one little thing after the next that really began to test my patience and then my sanity.

I went outside to check on the garden and the backyard was completely muddy, since we had really heavy rain on Monday. After trudging through the mud, I discovered that the irrigation water was not running, which in turn means no water for the garden. Time for plan B...watering the garden by hand with a regular garden hose. Great! The hose has been in a state of disarray since who knows when....sometime last fall? Me + mud + an unruly hose = muttering more than a few choice words.

At one point I found myself in the garage looking for a pair of pliers, as I needed something to help pry the nozzle off the end of the hose. I don't know about your garage, but ours stays closed for a reason. One look and you just want to shake your head, shake it again, and turn around and walk the other way. You can imagine my frustration after I climbed over all the mountains of clutter to get to the tool chest, just to find the plier drawer empty. Did I say frustration? I meant blood boiling fury!

And so it continued, one little thing after the other. The most unfortunate of all being the loss of my shot glass measuring cup. In my hurry to keep dinner from being more than a half hour late, I inadvertently dropped it on the floor and watched as it shattered into a million pieces. I love that thing, I use it all the time. I can't even replace it fast enough.

Today was not my day, that's all I can say. But somehow a gem still managed to emerge from the kitchen. I tried a new muffin recipe and it was great...fantastic....the light of my day. I'm not kidding.

This muffin right here saved my day....for a few moments anyway. Mmmm!

Apple Streusel Muffins

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup shredded apple (I used pink lady)

In a mixing bowl, stir flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt together. Make a well in the center. In another bowl beat egg, milk and oil to blend. Stir in apple. Pour into well made in first bowl. Stir just until moistened. Fill muffins tins and sprinkle with topping (recipe below). Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes or until done.

Topping
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
cinnamon

In a small bowl, mix ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of filled muffin cups.

Happy Birthday....Nevermind!

I had it all planned out. As soon as Tyler was fed and dressed and I got my workout out of the way, I was going to head straight for the kitchen to start baking Rick's birthday cake. But before I could get any of that done, the phone rang. It was Rick's boss. He said that Rick needed to fly out to the Southwest facility ASAP, as in as soon as a flight was available, to cover for someone that was taking an early paternity leave.

Are you kidding me? That stinks! So basically, we had to scrap the entire birthday plan. Well, except for the presents of course.

We spent the rest of the day running around trying to get a few errands out of the way, as Rick was suddenly going to be out of town for a week. We had lunch at a Philly steak sandwich place, but that's where the excitement ended. No birthday cake. No Bacon Feta Stuffed Chicken (it's in the recipe book Anni....and it's good). Nothing but an evening full of plane hopping from here to Tuscon.

As for the cake, ice cream and chicken dinner...it's on hold until Rick comes back home.

All In A Day's Work

It was a little cool this morning, but by the afternoon it had warmed up nicely. So as promised, we all went straight to work in the garden. Rick used the tiller attachment on his weed eater to prepare the dirt in the garden boxes. Once we had some nice fluffy dirt, it was time to transfer the plants.

Apparently I was taking too much time thinking about how I wanted to arrange the plants, because Tyler went ahead and got started by himself. He kept trying to plant entire 4-packs in the dirt, plastic and all. We had to dig those back up and space out the individual plants...not to mention removing the plastic containers!

We reserved one of the garden boxes for the plants we were starting from seed, peas and green beans. Tyler was especially fascinated with the process of planting rows of seeds, as that was new to him this year. He was done after that, though. He had to run back inside the house...his L-Max was calling his name.

I finally got a chance to put up my new garden sign that I got at Ace Hardware last month. It's nice, but a little small. Maybe it would look better in a pot....of basil, let's say.

For dinner tonight, I made a pizza with the sole purpose of using up some of the leftover spinach I had sitting in the fridge. I based mine loosely on a recipe I found for Spinach Feta Pizza.

I rolled out and prebaked a can of Pillsbury pizza dough. After baking the crust for 8 minutes, I brushed it lightly with olive oil and added garlic and a few shakes of garlic and herb Mrs. Dash. On top of that I put a mixture of fresh spinach, mushrooms, olives, red onion, feta and Italian cheese. Then I threw it back in the oven to finish baking.

I thought it was nice for a change. The garlic was a little sharp tasting though, since it didn't cook for all that long. I probably should have minced it up finer. As for the two boys, one made a face and a large pile of discarded toppings, while the other ate with nary a word of complaint (other than to point out that applesauce was a silly substitute for salad). I'll let you decide who was who.

After cleaning up the dinner, I decided to get a head start on Rick's birthday cake and do as much prep work as I could tonight. I'm using a recipe for carrot cake out of my new King Arthur Whole Grain Cookbook. I was even able to pull out my nifty kitchen scale to measure a perfect 8 oz of flour, as per the cookbook.

I love that scale! Now with all the measuring behind me, I'll be able to finish the cake tomorrow (to borrow a term from Tyler) likety split! That's my hope, anyway.

Ready, Set, Plant

Yesterday we stopped at Ace Hardware to pick out some vegetables for our garden. We tried to scale way back from last year, but it was hard when everything looked so good.

We did buy less this time, though. Just two 4-packs of tomatoes, instead of four. I'll even try to show restraint, like Chris and Susan, and not plant every one. What a concept! We ended up buying one 4-pack each of early girl tomatoes, sungold cherry tomatoes, eggplant, and red and green bell peppers. We also bought some seed packets for carrots, green beans and peas.

I've got the plants sitting out on the front porch for now, until I get a chance to plant them, hopefully tomorrow. We picked up several bags of dirt at Costco to freshen up the garden boxes. So the only thing stopping us now, is the weather. It's been a little cold so far this weekend and we had a light rain this afternoon. Sure hope things look better tomorrow.

I guess the weather worked in my favor, for a different reason today. Since I was not able to work in the garden like I planned, I had no excuse not to go to Bella's and celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. She had a cute make and take, but with Tyler in hand, I had to pass. That's okay. I still managed to bring home a new stamp set, some alphabet stickers, and a rub-on tool. I also received a "gift with purchase" bag that had a handful of extra goodies inside. Score!