Holy Hail Balls

It was a relief to see that the temperatures were dropping into the mid eighties for the weekend. It's nice having a break from the hot weather, even if we weren't outside to enjoy it.

For once Tyler didn't have any crafts scheduled at the hardware stores, so we decided to stay in and take care of some much needed cleaning around the house. Dusting, getting rid of clutter, weeding through Tyler's old toys, and all around general cleaning.

By mid-afternoon the dark clouds had rolled in and the thunder started rumbling. The next thing we knew....Holy Hail Balls!



Tyler and I have been reading James and the Giant Peach, so the first thing I thought was, uh oh, someone made those cloud men mad! We were just reading the part where the cloud men attacked James and the other critters with hail balls as they floated through the sky on their peach. Those cloud men are an angry bunch and they really know how to throw some hail!

The storm only lasted for a few minutes before the sun came back out. Hopefully it stays that way. I'm thinking about going to the Farmer's Market tomorrow, which would be much more enjoyable with storm-free weather.

Recipe Review

To make things easier on me this week, I mostly chose recipes that were either family favorites, or things that we had tried at least once before. We had things like grilled chicken salad, pigs in a blanket, pesto chicken salad sandwiches, and an enchilada casserole. You know, the kind of stuff everyone in the family will eat without any complaints.

But I also left room in the menu plan to try a few new recipes.

First, we tried Pork Chops with Mango-Scallion Couscous, from a recent Rachael Ray magazine.

I had mixed feelings about this one. So did Tyler. The pork chops were great and the grilled zucchini wasn't bad, but the couscous was awful. That might have been my fault though. I don't think I was very accurate when I measured out the couscous and it came out real soggy. Then when I added the wet mango to the soggy couscous, it was just gross. I would try making the recipe again, but maybe swapping out the mango for something a little more tex-mex, like a couscous with black beans and cilantro.

Next we tried Summer Smokin' Sloppy Joes, another one from Rachael Ray.

All the sloppy joe recipes we've tried from Rachael Ray have been delicious, and this one was no exception. I used a green bell pepper instead of celery and I didn't quite have enough barbecue sauce, but it all worked out.

Finally, we tried Spinach Swiss Quiche, from the Healthy Cooking 2010 Annual.

This one was good, but it took forever to bake, or set, I should say. The recipe says to bake the pie for 30-40 minutes, but mine was in the oven for at least an hour before the center started to solidify. Not good, when dinner is always served at a specific time.

But once it finally set and we were able to eat it, it was pretty tasty. I used mozzerella cheese instead of swiss, roasted red bell pepper from a jar, and a frozen pie crust...all minor substitutions. I would definitely consider making this again, but maybe cut back on the oregano.

Cannon Ball

Tyler's been swimming for about 4 weeks now, and yesterday I heard the news that he finally got over his fear and jumped off the diving board. But that was yesterday. Now he's an old pro that does cannon balls.

I'm impressed! That floaty suit he's wearing is kind of awkward, but it does a good job keeping him afloat.

This afternoon, I went to his school during free swim so that I could witness the cannon ball and see how he's doing in the water.

He was all too eager to show me how he could swim in the deep end, which he continued to remind me, is 9 feet deep.

Then he showed me how he can float on his back. That's something he's learned to do in his morning swim lesson....without his foam suit.

He also showed me how to swim using "rainbow arms".

But before we knew it, swim time was over. After changing back into his regular clothes and grabbing a snack, it was time to head home.

Restless

Poor Coco Bear. It's hard to get a good nap in the summer when the house is so hot inside.

I guess it doesn't help that she likes to nap in the hottest room in the house.

In my scrapbooking room upstairs....in my old chair. I don't use the chair anymore, the cats took it over long ago. I just use a fold-out chair instead. Works for me.

But when the temperature outside nears 100 degrees, and the sun beats through the window, it really starts to bake in there.

I think she wishes I'd turn on a fan.

Psst, it's much cooler downstairs. Anywhere downstairs. Maybe she'll give herself a break and go lay on the kitchen tile. Yeah, but that's no cushy office chair, now is it?

Blueberry Love

Move over cherries, I have a new love....for the moment, anyway. July is prime cherry season around here and believe me, I've spent several weeks eating as many Bings and Rainiers as humanly possible. I even baked a pie, but I think I'm ready to move on.

Blueberries are so much more versatile, and they're great in muffins, which I adore. And as a bonus, they've been on a fantastic sale at the grocery store, so I've been stocking up. I've been eating them with my cereal every morning and I also made two different muffin recipes this week.

First I tried Blueberry Cream Muffins from Taste of Home. They were great, more upscale than your average muffin. What makes them different, is the large addition of sour cream, making them extra creamy and delicious. Rich, I guess you could say.

Then today Tyler helped me whip up a batch of Blueberry Coconut Muffins. Wow! Seriously my favorite blueberry muffin of all time! I love coconut, but never thought of combining it with blueberries. Genius! Love!

Monsters vs Aliens

With Tyler is school this summer, we've missed out on a few of our regular activities, like Art in the Park. But at least being in school allows for him to swim every day and play with his friends, so hopefully that makes up for it a little bit.

Thankfully, there are still plenty of weekend and evening activities that we can participate in as a family. Last night we went to our first Movie in the Park of the season. The event rotates through different parks in town, so we decided to wait for a movie that was showing at the park near our house. Lucky for us, it was an animated film....Monsters vs Aliens.

The movies always start at sunset, so we got there right around 8:30 pm.

Which gave us plenty of time to drop off our canned food donation, find a nice spot, and set up our blankets and pillows.

Then it was time to break out the popcorn and really get comfortable.

The movie started right at 9:00, but it still wasn't all the dark out and the screen was kind of hard to see.

That didn't last long. Within 10 minutes, we could see a whole lot better.

The movie was 90 minutes long, exceeding Tyler's attention span. He can't really make it more than an hour before he starts to fidget and constantly ask if the movie is over yet. Sadly, he couldn't even make it through Toy Story 3. Somehow, he does better with the outdoor movies....probably because he can just lay back and go to sleep, which is what he did.

Seeing Is Believing

Holy Heck! I scrapbooked! It's only been, what, four months. I don't even have a good excuse either. Actually, I didn't have any new pictures printed until about a week ago, but that's really no excuse.

So I dusted off my scrap table and started out small, with a card.

It's for my chiropractor. He's packing up and moving his practice to the Tri-Cities. Ack! I hate to see him go, but I can't blame him. His wife has family over there and honestly, Kennewick is much nicer than Yakima. He only has one more week left in town, so I'm going to make my way over there and give him this good luck card and maybe get one last adjustment.

Then I made this layout for St. Patrick's Day, but I think it looks a little better in person. Our faces don't look so green, and the green paper doesn't look so pukey, and iridescence doesn't look so funky....but you get the idea.

And then I filled my empty scrapbook (the one I bought when Bella's was still in business) with a year's worth of pages that were sitting in a stack in the closet. In fact, I had so many pages that I actually had to go online and order some more page protectors.

It feels good to have accomplished something, so hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

Recipe Review

All the dinner recipes I tried this week were from Rachael Ray. I used the search tool on her website to find different meals using chicken, pork chops, zucchini, etc. Three out of the four we tried were definite keepers, so I'd say I had a good lineup this week.

First we tried Chicken Succotash.

As the name implies, this is a basic succotash (lima beans and corn) with the addition of chicken and tomato. It also has a cream sauce, as in heavy cream, but I went with a mixture of half and half and 2% milk instead. I served it with slices of grilled polenta, although I was the only one who ate any of it. I guess the boys don't groove on polenta. They liked the succotash part though. Tyler even wanted to eat the leftovers and he never eats leftovers.

Next we had Teriyaki Pork Chops with Pineapple and Peppers.

I love cooking things like this in the Summer. I got a great deal on the bell peppers last weekend and also picked up a perfectly ripe pineapple. The flavors of the fresh produce and the sweet pineapple really make the dish. The rice was delicious as well, which had edamame and green onions mixed in. Yum!

Then we tried Vegetable Not-Zagna Pasta Toss.

This one's supposed to taste like a veggie lasagna with a white sauce. I thought it was edible, but nobody enjoyed eating it. That's too bad, because it was easily the most complicated recipe out of the bunch. I hate putting so much time into something, just to have it end poorly.

Finally, we had Sausage and Zucchini Rice.

It's not the prettiest, but it sure tastes good. Kind of reminds me of dirty rice. My only complaint is that it was a little hot from all the black pepper, but that's an easy fix for next time. I used a roll of Jimmy Dean reduced-fat pork sausage instead of the hot Italian sausage and that seemed to work fine. I also added mushrooms and left out the pine nuts and the end result was quite tasty.

Reading Time

Last month we bought two sets of books at Costco for Tyler. One is a collection of Flat Stanley chapter books, which he's already blown through, and the other is a collection of Roald Dahl chapter books.

The Roald Dahl books are a little above his reading level, so we'd planned to save them for later. You know how it is with the books at Costco. They don't always replenish the stock, so when something is gone, it's might be gone for good. We've learned our lesson and now we snag books when we see them, before they sell out.

Like I said, we were going to save the Roald Dahl books until Tyler was a little older, but I changed my mind on that. I wanted something new to read at bedtime, so instead of reading picture books to him, I've decided to read a little bit of the chapter books each night.

We started out with Fantastic Mr. Fox and that went well, so now we're trying another.

We started reading James and the Giant Peach tonight and got a few chapters in. So far, so good. It seems like a more advanced read though, so hopefully it can still keep Tyler's attention. We'll see how it goes.

And while he enjoys the chapter books, I think he likes his encyclopedias even more. I prefer reading fiction books to him, so when it's Rick's turn to read, Tyler usually hands him an encyclopedia. They're making their way through the animal one now. They're reading about reptiles and amphibians. Next comes the chapter about creepy crawlies. Gross. You can count me out on that one.

Peas Aplenty

I decided to skip the Farmer's market this week. I wouldn't have minded picking up some zucchini, corn, onions, and a beehive pastry, but I just couldn't convince myself that it was worth a drive all the way across town.

Instead, I went to the grocery store near our house, which was actually having a really good tent sale and got everything I needed there. Lots of fresh produce. The crisper drawer in the fridge is pretty packed now, but I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

Then this afternoon I went out to the garden to thin out the carrots before they start growing into a tangled mess. I had some real funky ones last year, so I'm trying to avoid that. While I was out there I noticed that I had another round of peas that were ready to pick.

I called on my helpers to give me a hand with the picking. The garden is in full sun in the afternoon and it gets hot standing there without a speck of shade. I figured we'd be finished in a jiffy if we worked together.

Tyler was a great help at first, but was quickly distracted trying to open and eat the peas instead of picking more.

Yep, the peas are in full swing. We picked a pound today and have plenty more coming up right behind.

Three Desserts

Rick came home from work last night and told me that we were invited to go to a BBQ today at his coworkers house and that we needed to bring dessert. Okay. I make desserts all the time, so you wouldn't think it'd be a problem. I just don't have any go-to desserts that I can make in a moments notice. That's what Costco's for, right?

But this morning, I had a blast of inspiration and decided to make a variety of cookies. I've got baking supplies coming out of my ears, so I pretty much had everything I needed right in the pantry. I just had to run to the store to get some semi-sweet chocolate squares.

Back at the house, I put the boys to work melting the chocolate, while I put together the dry ingredients.

Excuse me?!

After about an hour in the kitchen, we had our first dessert.

Chewy, Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies.

While the brownies were baking, we started in on the next recipe.

White Chocolate, Strawberry, and Oatmeal Cookies.

Once the cookies went in the oven, my little elves disappeared and I was left alone to finish the third and final dessert.

Snickerdoodle Blondies.

Then in a cruel twist of fate, Rick got a text message just as I was taking the bars out of the oven. The BBQ was cancelled. For real. So we just spent the entire afternoon baking for......um, no reason. Don't ask me what we're going to do with all these treats, because I don't know. Maybe we should have a bake sale? Throw everything in the freezer? Eat like pigs?

Jeans and Things

When we were in Portland a few weeks ago, we stayed right next door to the Lloyd center. I thought that would be a good thing since I actually needed to do a little shopping. I've been looking for some new Summer clothes, but haven't had much luck with our mall.

Well, I didn't have much luck with the Lloyd Center either. It's practically impossible to shop with Tyler, and since I wasn't feeling good anyway, I ended up with nothing. Rick and Tyler, on the other hand, scored pretty big with the clearance racks at Macy's.

Feeling kind of jealous, I continued my search here in town. I went shopping earlier this week while Tyler was in school, so I'd be able to take my time and actually look. I still didn't have as much luck as the boys, but at least I came home with a few things.

So this picture has a dual purpose. One. I'm wearing a new shirt that I found on clearance at Fred Meyer. Yay! And Two. I made some muffins last night.

Double Apple Bran Muffins from Cooking Light. They smelled fantastic while they were baking, but they tasted a little bland. Huh? I'm kind of surprised these were in a Best of Cookbook. Not quite the apple flavor I was going for. Next time I'll try an apple bread recipe I saw in a Healthy Cooking Annual.

Okay, back to the clothes.

I can't even believe it. I found some Levi jeans on clearance for $15 at Sears. And what's more....they fit. Levi jeans never fit me right. In fact, I've never even owned a pair. Meanwhile, that's all Rick owns, a bagillion pairs of Levi's. Go figure.

I found a few more shirts at Sears, too. All on clearance. Not bad, I guess, but I'm still waiting for the new Khol's to open. Then I'll really have some shopping to do.

In The Garden

I don't know what it is, but I just can't get excited about my garden this year. Maybe it's the fact that all the new things we tried are failing. The cantaloupe was a huge waste, and the Roma tomatoes and the corn are a bit lackluster.

I planted 4 rows of corn with 5 plants in each row. I'd say that about 1/3 of the seeds never sprouted, so I've got gaps everywhere. I even tried planting new seeds in those areas and still, less than half of them sprouted. Who knows, maybe I just have a bad packet of seeds.

We've had pretty good luck with tomatoes in the past, but the Romas I planted this year as still so small. I thought all tomato plants grew the same, but now I've discovered that some are determinate and others are indeterminate. Turns out that Romas are determinate, which means that the plant itself remains short and compact and that it produces it's fruit all at once. Hmmm, maybe I'll go back to Early Girls next year.

The peas are looking great. At least I can count on something being a sure fire hit.

I even found a few that were ready to pick.

It's not a lot, but it's good enough for me.

The beans are looking good too. Hopefully I'll be able to pick them soon. Otherwise, Farmer's Market, here I come.

Cherry Pie

We brought home close to 12 lbs of cherries from the orchard this weekend. That's a lot. I think we got a little carried away with the picking process! And while I'm sure I could probably eat my way through the entire bag, I decided to put at least a few of those pounds toward a cherry pie.

Lucky for me, I just came across the perfect recipe on another blog. I never thought of using sweet cherries for making pie. I'd only heard of using canned cherries or fresh tart cherries. Now that I know better, I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more cherry pie around here. So that's how I spent the majority of my Sunday afternoon.....making pie, crust and all.

Wow! What a beauty. I think it's the prettiest pie I've ever made. I guess that's what happens when you've got a good recipe.

I almost couldn't stand it....having to wait an entire day for dessert time to roll around so I could see what it looked like on the inside.

And taste it, of course! Mmmmmm. I think it's the best pie I've ever made. Okay, I haven't made a ton of pies, but still.