Water Lilies

I took Tyler to the park this morning for the art project. The weather was perfect...in the low 80's. The temperature is going to start creeping up this week, so it was nice to get out and enjoy the cooler temps.

The project this week was called Coffee Filter Water Lilies. It took a little longer to complete than most of the projects, but boy was it cute in the end.

First you completely color a coffee filter using markers and then spritz it with water so that the colors start blending together. Once it's dry, you scallop the edges to resemble flower petals. Next you cut the lily pad and flower stamen out of construction paper and then staple the whole thing together.

As Tyler would say...Walla! (I think he means "Voila")

Seeing Red

My favorite part of Summer is the start of the U-Pick season at all the local orchards. Right now you can pick your own raspberries, blueberries and cherries. By August that will change to peaches, apples, apricots and pears.

Today we decided to go to Johnson Orchards and pick some cherries. We've never done the U-Pick at that orchard before, but it's closer to home than some of the other orchards and they do U-Pick everyday instead of just on the weekends.

Are you kidding me? I could hardly stand it. We were given the okay to taste as we went along and believe me...we did!

Before starting we were given a quick tutorial on the proper way to pick cherries. Your supposed to pick the stem along with the cherry, so Tyler made sure he did so in a very careful manner.

Rainiers and Bing, as much as you can pick, for $1.25 per pound. I'm always conservative when we do the U-Pick. I always think that either we'll go crazy and pick more fruit then we can eat or that I have the cash for. We tried to pick around 5 pounds today, but when we went to weigh in, we had just over 3 pounds. What! That's it! I was ready to turn around and go back for more. Next time...we'll get more next time.

Building, Bugs and Bingo

Everyone was up and at 'em early this morning so that we'd be on time for the Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic. They were building pirate ships today and even I was excited about that one. There are only 50 kits to go around and they run out kind of fast sometimes. Tyler was starting to freak out when we were 5 minutes late, but he had no problem snagging a kit.

I had Tyler set the ship down in one of those display kitchens so that I could get a non-blurry picture. It's cute...I especially like the little plank that comes in and out. Next month they are making treasure chests, so we'll have to be sure we attend that one as well.

For dinner tonight, I made a recipe out of the 2004 Light & Tasty Annual called Pecan Parmesan Chicken.

I was halving the recipe and kind of eye balling the ingredients as I went along. I don't know if I was a short on the pecans or parmesan, but neither of the flavors seemed to stand out in the end. Either way, it's a perfectly tasty way to eat chicken breasts. Tyler had his plate cleared in a matter of minutes.

After dinner we all headed out to the yard. Rick had been working on dethatching the lawn and Tyler and I were looking for bugs.

In the latest issue of Your Big Backyard there is a bug bingo game and we've been working on it for a few days now. Yesterday we found an ant, a fly and mosquitoes, but couldn't manage a bingo. Tonight we found a spider and a beetle, to which Tyler yelled, "Buuuuuuuuuuug"! That's what the instructions say to do when you get a bingo. Now we just need a different card with bugs we can actually find in our yard, like worms or something. It's impossible to find fireflies and caterpillars.

Paper People

We've had this day marked on the calendar for a while...the return of Art in the Park. As you know, Tyler is all about arts and crafts so he was beyond excited to begin this year's Summer session.

Today the kids were making paper people based on the art of Keith Haring.

First they drew and cut out a large silhouette of a person.

And then used markers to create different patterns.

Tyler has worked his way through several "cutting" activity books at home, so he knows his way around a pair of scissors. The teachers were impressed with his mad cutting skills. Me too, I can't help but notice how much his skills improve from year to year.

Not bad, huh? Tyler already cleared off his art board in his room, so he'd have a fresh place to display his new work.

Hole In One

Rick is working days for the next few weeks, which means that he'll be home in the evenings. Tonight he was home just in time for dinner, so afterwards, we were able to head out for a quick game of miniature golf.

After watching 5 days straight of the U.S. Open, Tyler and I were ready to channel our inner Lucas Glover. Who is that again? I was rooting for Phil Mickelson. Poor guy...came in 2nd place.

We elected not to keep score, which is probably a good thing. Our stroke counts was embarrassingly high on a few of the holes. Practice...we just need a little more practice.

Father's Day Breakfast

For Father's Day I wanted to make something extravagant. You know, the kind of recipe that you pull out for special occasions. I found the perfect thing in my King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook...Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Waffles with Banana Cream. I know it's kind of risky to try out a new recipe on the day of, but I had faith in King Arthur.

The batter is made with spelt flour, and thus requires extra standing time in order for the grain to properly absorb the liquid. For that reason, I prepared the batter in advance and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Wow, what a time saver! I was in and out of the kitchen is half the time this morning.

And the result...super yummy! The waffles were a little soft when they came off the iron, but firmed up slightly as they cooled. They never get crispy, but that's not such a bad thing. They reminded me of warm chocolate chip cookies. Topped off with the banana cream, they were outstanding.

The only thing missing from the perfect Father's Day breakfast was, um, the dad. Rick is never awake during the early morning hours, so Tyler and I had to dig in by ourselves. Don't worry, the leftovers were equally delectable several hours later.

Recipe Review

This week I made Asparagus Carbonara from the June/July issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. I was a little disappointed with it because I didn't think it had that much depth of flavor. It was, however, pretty simple to make and used ingredients that I usually have on hand, with the exception of the asparagus.

I think I'll keep this one on file for a quick and easy spring meal. I didn't hear any complaints from Rick or Tyler so we'll probably be seeing this one again. I never get tired of asparagus. Tyler on the other hand....I've got to sneak it in where I can.

For tonight's dinner I made Ole Polenta Casserole from one of my Country Cooking Annuals. It's layered with firm polenta, a meat sauce mixture and cheese. Kind of like a lasagna, but with polenta in place of the noodles.

I thought it tasted all right, but my main complaint was that it took forever to complete. First you have to make the polenta ahead of time so that it can cool and firm up in the fridge. I was using a coarse 100% whole grain cornmeal and it took way longer to firm up than regular cornmeal. Then you have to make the meat sauce and let it simmer for 20 minutes, assemble the casserole itself and then let it bake for another 50 minutes. Nothing about the recipe was particulary hard, it was just a giant time eater.

I'm In Love

I love my sugar snap peas.

I love how they shot up out of the ground like rock stars.

I love the baby pea pods, they're the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I love the tangled web they weave.

My dear eggplant....I'm sorry, but you might not be invited to the party next year. You understand, given your dismal performance, and all.

Seriously Delicious

This week I made one of my favorite Rachael Ray recipes, Chicken Noodle Hold the Soup. All the yummy goodness of chicken noodle soup minus the broth, but even better because the veggies are sauteed in olive oil. It's earned a spot in my permanent rotation, which few recipes ever do. The hardest part about the dish is all the julienning of the vegetables, but if you do that part in advance, the rest comes together like a dream. I already had some cooked shredded chicken in the freezer, so it was even faster to prepare than normal.

Like most Rachael Ray recipes that call for an entire pound of pasta, you can cut it in half and still have plenty.

For tonight's dinner I made Greek Pork Chops from the 2009 Healthy Cooking Annual. Yum, that's all I can say! These are the best pork chops I've ever made or tasted. I've never been a huge fan of pork chops in general, especially the thick cut ones, but these are out of this world delicious. And grilled, can you believe it, I've never had grilled pork chops before...maybe that's the secret.


Rick said that these pork chops were right up there with the feta stuffed chicken as the best thing I've ever cooked. We'll definitely be seeing these again this summer or for the duration of grilling season. Yum.

Gourmet The Mickey Mouse Way

We recently bought Tyler a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse reading book at Costco. It's one of those that has several stories together in one book. One of the stories is called The Case of The Missing Muffins and includes a recipe for blueberry muffins at the end. As soon as Tyler saw the recipe in the book, he wanted to make them. I picked some blueberries up at the store this morning, so we were ready to go.

Upon closer inspection of the recipe, I came to suspect that Mickey must be some sort of gourmet chef. I mean, I've never seen such an odd assortment of ingredients for a basic muffin recipe. Cake flour and bread flour instead of regular old all purpose flour? Powdered milk and water instead of regular milk? Egg whites? Shortening?

I was about to run upstairs and grab Tyler's chef hat so we'd feel more at home with this odd cast of characters.

Step 1...check!

Step 2...Mixin' up the batter. I especially love how the recipe neglects to mention when to add the blueberries. I might have forgotten them entirely if they weren't sitting in front of my face ready to go.

So what do you think? Will these beauties be appearing on the cover of Gourmet magazine anytime soon? The tops are a little concave and the blueberry aspect isn't immediately noticeable, but besides that. My opinion....ehh. They're a little salty and extremely lacking in the blueberry department. I had wanted to add more to the batter, but Tyler insisted on strict adherence to the recipe. Yeah, Thanks Mickey!

Family Time

Rick had to work overnight last night, so while he was dozing this morning, I took Tyler over to the Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic. They were making little putting greens. It was a super easy project...taking less than 5 minutes to complete.

That was fine by Tyler...the sooner he was finished, the sooner he was able to start playing and repeatedly exclaiming, "Hole in One!".

Afterwards we stopped at Costco to pick up my latest photo prints and some fruit. I'm telling you, the honeydew and pineapple are the best deal in town. Then on the way home we stopped at a roadside cherry stand and scored a cool 6 lbs of cherries, bing and rainier mix for a mere $1.50/lb. Yum!

Once Rick thoroughly slept the day away, we went out for dinner and then for a walk on the Greenway. Well Rick and I walked, but Tyler rode his bike. We stopped at a playground along the pathway and let Tyler play for awhile. It was nice hanging out at a different park for a change. We usually just go to the closest one to the house.

Cool...a zip line low enough for Tyler to reach all by himself. He loves those things, but I get tired of hoisting him up over and over again. He could probably do it 1000 times and never get tired of it.

Then they had this crazy tire ladder, or was it a tunnel that you could climb up through to get from the ground to the upper play level. Tyler popped up, but then headed back down...

to hang out with Daddy.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the car. Help me if I can't keep that child on the right side of the road. Psst, Tyler...your other right! Mercy!

Lazy Days

In the past, whenever I noticed that the house was completely silent, it usually meant one of two things....either Tyler had fallen asleep somewhere or he was up to extreme mischief. But lately, the silence has meant something else....

he is deeply engrossed in reading a book. Phew! It's so much better to find Tyler reading a book than to find him, oh I don't know, using my ink pads to "color" himself, for example. He's been busy with the Summer reading program, gotta get those 20 minutes in.

It was such a nice day today, that we couldn't stay inside for long, so we spent a few hours at the park. The weather was right around 80 degrees. Perfect.

I love days like this!

One Busy Afternoon

I started Tyler on the Summer reading program at the library, so we went today to pick out some new books. Things have changed since I was young...no more paper and pencil. Now you keep track of your reading on the computer using the library website. Fancy stuff.

Anyway, Tyler was eligible for his first prize, so I went to the desk and asked one of the librarians what the procedure was for obtaining the prize. She looked at me like I had asked her what the price of tea was in China. "I don't know", she shrugged and pointed over my shoulder, "ask her". She seemed annoyed. I turned and saw that she was referring to another librarian that was busy emptying the book return. I decided not to bother with it, but thought...boy, the clueless one should take a moment and figure it out. I'm sure Tyler is not the only one enrolled in the reading program.

While we were at the library, Tyler took some time to put together his new favorite puzzle. It's a giant floor puzzle of the United States.

He chattered on and on about how he could do the puzzle all by himself, because the box says ages 4 and up, and he is 4 years old, so he could do it all by himself.

Got it...no help from me!

Right around the corner from the library, in the adjacent shopping center, was a new addition for the summer months...a shaved ice hut. Yum, so many flavors, so many choices. Tyler looked at the flavor board and declared that he wanted banana. Yuck. Are you kidding me? There's like 50 flavors and you pick banana? So he changed his mind to Bubblegum. Much better....we were sharing after all.

This was Tyler's first shaved ice and I'm not quite sure how it went over. He was making faces the whole time, but then he does that a lot when he's eating something cold. We'll be back again, I know it.

I popped into the grocery store next door to look for the famous pear cider, but only found apple. It was pear or nothing, so I left empty handed. Well, not entirely....I found these new Coconut M&M's.

They were good, kind of tasted like bite sized mounds. The M&M's themselves were larger than the chocolate variety, but smaller than the peanut ones. I'm a sucker for gimmicks, especially when coconut is involved, but I probably won't buy these again. Can't say that they are worth 210 calories.

The Good Stuff

I've been on a roll lately with the grill. I made kabobs last week and then those yummy turkey burgers. Most recently I made Sesame Chicken over Greens, a recipe out of one of my Light & Tasty annuals. It's a real simple salad with grilled teriyaki chicken, red bell pepper, olives and green onion. Easy and delicious.

I marinated the chicken for a day and a half, so it was super flavorful. Yum. Tyler cleaned his plate in a jiffy and Rick was not far behind. Hah! He didn't even notice those green onions hiding under the chicken and he thought the bell peppers were tomatoes.

For tonight's dinner I made Enchilada Stuffed Shells. I was trying to use up the leftover enchilada sauce I had sitting in the fridge and this was the perfect recipe for that.

The recipe calls for ground turkey, which I've used in the past, but tonight I went with ground beef. I think I prefer it that way.

And for dessert, a recipe I came across on the Betty Crocker website....Chocolate Banana Snack Cake. You know I can hardly pass up a banana recipe...those overripe bananas were ganging up on me again.

This one is too easy for words. You mix the batter in the baking dish, so you don't even dirty a single bowl. Love that.