Weekly Wrap Up

Here we go again. Time to look back at the new recipes I tried this week and decide which ones are keepers and which ones I should 'put in the recycle bin', as Tyler likes to put it.

First I made Beef Knishes with Carrot Salad, a recipe from Every Day with Rachael Ray.

I liked the carrot salad, although I think I stand alone on that one. As for the knishes....I was disappointed, to say the least. I opted to use a homemade whole wheat crust instead of the canned stuff, but shaping them turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I also found them to be quite bland....tasting like nothing more than pie crust. Yeah, I don't think I'll bother with this one again.

Next, I made Cumin Dusted Chicken Breasts with Guacamole Sauce from one of my Cooking Light Annuals.

I really liked this one. The chicken is covered in a cumin-brown sugar mixture, which sounds unusual, but is surprisingly good...sweet and savory at the same time. And who doesn't love guacamole (well besides Tom Selleck and my pesky brother in-law)?

Keeping with Cooking Light, I tried Ham and Cheese Scones.

Yum! That's all I have to say! Definitely the best scones I've ever made. Not that I've made many scone recipes, but still. I'm always looking for ways to use up leftover ham from Easter and such, and this recipe is perfect. I'll be making these again for sure.

To go with the scones, I made Gingered Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup, from Woman's Health magazine.

I thought this one was good, but neither of the boys liked it. I think it has something to do with the texture, which is reminiscent of baby food. Oh well, looks like the leftovers are all mine.

Getting to the sweet stuff, I made Pina Colada Cheesecake bars, another Cooking Light recipe.

These were really good too, but they're best after sitting overnight in the fridge to develop the flavors. My favorite part, though, is that I finally found a decent recipe to use up some of the coconut flour I have sitting around. That stuff is not cheap and I don't want it to go to waste.

Finally, I made Coconut Pancakes with Orange-Mango Compote, from Cooking Light.

Get out....another recipe that uses coconut flour?! After trying these, I have to admit that any hint of tropical flavor was lost on me. The coconut flavor in the pancakes is faint, at best, and I even added a splash of coconut extract to the batter. And as for the compote, it was okay, but tasted heavily of apple and cinnamon. It just wasn't the taste I was expecting. Still I'll probably make the pancakes again, just for the pure benefits of cooking with coconut flour, but maybe I'll top them with coconut syrup instead.

Loopin' Lightning

Tyler's birthday was over a month ago, and yet the gifts continue to trickle in. Yesterday, he received a package from his Papa, and guess what was inside? A K'nex building set. But just not any set....a super, duper, 3-ft tall roller coaster. Wow! You can say that again.

We spent the evening yesterday putting together the frame. The instruction booklet is about 40 pages long, so we stopped at the halfway mark and called it a night. It was looking pretty cool already.

Today we finished laying the tracks and adding the final details.

It came out really cool. There's a chain that carries the cars up to the top of the coaster and then lets them go off the back. From there, they twist and turn, and loop-de-loo their way back to the bottom. Endless entertainment.

But that's not all.....now we can go online and print the bonus instructions that allows you to build a different coaster using these same pieces....the Lightning Flash coaster. Yeah, but let's just stick with this one for now.

A Look In The Back

After several weekends of hard work, it looks like we're finally getting somewhere with the backyard. We've been concentrating on the outer perimeter of the yard, planting lots of trees and shrubs. We still have a few more plants to get in the ground, but we're almost ready to lay down the weed barrier and rock. After that we'll work on weeding the rest of the yard and start laying down sod.

Here's what it looks like when you walk into the backyard from the gate at the side of the house.

Here we have 3 Aspen trees and a Kind Edward Flowering Current. There are also 2 Orchid Light Azaleas that are still waiting to be planted.

Farther down, past the last Aspen tree, we have a few Flaming Silver shrubs (the larger green ones) and some Flowering Weigela (the smaller pinkish ones).

In the corner, we have a maple tree and several bulb plants that are starting to sprout up around it. Behind the tree, we have some different yew shrubs and ornamental grass.

Along the back fence, we have some Blue Spruce shrubs and some Wallflowers.

Here's a closer look at the Wallflowers.

Next to the Spruces, we have another Maple tree, with bulb plants sprouting around it. Behind the tree, we have some Rainbow Leuchothoe and wintercreepers.

These are the Rainbow Leucothoe....they're having a hard time with the transplant.

And the wintercreeper.

Farther down the fence, we have a Variegated Dogwood.

Next to the Dogwood, in the other corner, we have a beech tree surrounded by a variety of Peonies.

Across the way, opposite the Peonies, we have a Willow shrub and tree, along with some Azaleas.

And don't forget about Tyler's planters....they're hanging out in the backyard too. We planted some Zinnia seeds in them last weekend, but they haven't sprouted yet. The package says that they sprout in 7-10 days, and believe me, Tyler is counted down the days. We're already on day 8 or 9, so he's expecting to see some action any time now.

Just So-So

No knockouts this week, as far as new recipes go. Everything was just so-so, which is too bad, because I really thought I'd picked some good ones.

First I tried Butternut Squash Lasagna.

I loved the idea of this one....I'm always on the lookout for good meatless meals to throw into the rotation. I actually didn't think it was that bad and would probably make it again, except that Rick and Tyler didn't care too much for it. Tyler made his carrot pennies to go on the side though, and of course those were a hit.

Next I tried Greek Chicken with Everything Orzo.

This one sounded so delicious, and it looks pretty good too, but it just didn't meet my expectations in the taste department. I used dry oregano on the chicken instead of fresh, so maybe that has something to do with the lack of flavor there. And the orzo, which was full of onion, bell pepper, Greek olives, parsley, and feta cheese, was good, but not something I'd bother making again. Darn! I hate being let down.

Lastly, I made Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Raisin Muffins.

These smell just like oatmeal raisin cookies and are really moist too. In addition to the raisins, they also have chopped dates and dried cranberries. Practically a perfect muffin, except that I could taste the baking soda in them....and that's not a good thing.

Drinking Without Getting Wet

It's a fine art....drinking out of those silly public fountains. Especially ones that shoot the water out really far.

There's the old 'lap it up like a dog' method.

That one doesn't work very well.

Then there's the 'scoop and sip' method.

That one doesn't work very well either.

You can also try stretching your bottom lip out and hope for the best, but that doesn't always work either.

It's a good thing we had a cup with us.

Hey...Batter, Batter

Rick and Tyler had a big date for this afternoon. After school they had plans to go to the baseball field near our house and hit a few balls. Rick had ordered the equipment online (bat, balls, and t-stand) and now that it was all here, they were ready to play.

First things first, teaching him how to properly hold and swing the bat.

Whack! Ooops, that one was a little low.

That's better. He did get several good hits in there, but what he really wanted to do was run the bases.

There he goes, approaching 2nd....

....and safe at home.

Tyler had a great time, and now that he has his own equipment, I'm sure we'll be making quite a few pit stops at the baseball field on the way home from school.

The Night Kitchen

Last night the night kitchen was open and ready for business. What? You didn't see the sign?

I kept wanting to make the gingerbread waffles from the latest Family Fun magazine, but couldn't seem to fit them into our busy mornings. That's when I had a brainstorm and realized I could open the night kitchen and put Tyler to work. Yes, all I had to do was prepare the batter the night before and the waffles would be a cinch to make in the morning.

So that's what we did last night. With the magazine by our side, we combined the ingredients...

...put them in the mixer.

And in no time we had our completed batter. Then we stuck it in the fridge and went to bed.

This morning we baked up the waffles and were soon sitting down to a warm breakfast....on a school day, no less.

Yum! These were good! I'll have to think about opening the night kitchen more often.

Shiny Happy Pennies

I don't know if you've heard, but now that Tyler has finished with his Mind Blowing Science kit, he considers himself a scientist. The other day we were reading out of his Space Encyclopedia, and it said something to the effect of, "Scientists believe that Earth....". That's when Tyler interjected and said, "Scientists... like me!". So yeah, he's a scientist now.

Fittingly, we did another science project today. This one from his new National Geographic magazine that came in the mail the other day. The project was called Shiny Pennies and was about making dull pennies bright with a solution of vinegar and salt.

These are the ten 'dirty' pennies we started with.

We threw them in a test tube and measured out some vinegar.

And some salt.

And shook them all around.

Checked to see how they were doing.

Here they are....our shiny happy pennies.

The science behind the project is this: As pennies age, they develop a coating of copper oxide, which is the result of the copper interacting with air. Soaking the pennies in a vinegar/salt solution dissolves the copper oxide on the pennies, making them shiny again.

After doing a quick search on the Internet, I came to realize that we didn't use the best pennies to start with, so our end result wasn't that great. For one, you need old tarnished pennies...not just 'dirty' ones. And preferably ones that were minted before 1982, because those have a thicker coating of copper on them. I also learned that you don't need to shake the pennies around in the solution...in fact, it's kind of a bad idea, because the acid in the vinegar starts to eat away at the metal.

So with the new information in hand, I went back to the kitchen (after Tyler had gone to bed) and tried the experiment again. I found a nice tarnished penny in my purse and dipped it halfway into a small bowl of vinegar and salt. It worked liked a charm. The penny changed color in a matter of seconds with no agitation. What a difference a few details make! I'll have to share my findings with the young scientist in the morning.

From The Kitchen

I struck out a couple of times last week with some crazy recipes that nobody liked, but I still came out with a few worth mentioning.

First, I made Ham Potato Puffs from a Quick Cooking Annual.

These were okay...nothing outstanding, but they did serve their purpose, which was to use up some leftover ham. They're simply a biscuit with a scoop of mashed potatoes, and ham and cheese inside. The problem is that I didn't find them very filling on their own, and I was at a loss as to what to serve them with.

Next I made Greek Wedding Soup from Rachael Ray's magazine. I pulled this one out of the December/January '09 issue (that was over a year ago), and I finally got around to making it.

The meatballs smelled fantastic....full of feta cheese, garlic and parsley. Mmmmm. I had such high hopes.

The soup didn't turn out very photogenic, but I thought it tasted okay. It gave Rick some serious heatburn, though, and Tyler struggled to finish his bowl. While I don't plan on making the soup again, maybe I'll try using the meat mixture for Greek style hamburgers.

Finally, I made Beef, Cheese, and Noodle Bake from a Cooking Light Annual. To go with it, I made the Parmesan Herb Bread from my Gooseberry Patch Calendar.

Tyler ate every bite, but then again, he'll eat just about anything that includes hamburger and macaroni. I guess I'll have to wait until Rick tries it before I make my final verdict.