Recipe Review

I didn't try many new recipes this week because I was too busy using up the Easter ham in a variety of meals that I knew the family would eat. First I made a combination pizza that was half ham and pineapple and half pepperoni and olives. Then I made my favorite ham and bean soup from Taste of Home. Lastly, I made Ham Potato Puffs, which I served with steamed broccoli and a fruit salad.

As for new recipes, I tried Maple-Mustard Chicken Thighs from the latest issue of Cooking Light.

These came out pretty good, but then again I'm happy with almost anything that's cooked on the grill. Rick even mistook them for chicken breasts and was beyond confused to find a bone in the middle. And considering that thighs are much cheaper than breasts and that the marinade is made of simple ingredients that I always have on hand, I'm sure I'll be making this recipe again during the summer.

I also tried Cheddar-Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes.

This recipe came out of a Southern Living cookbook that I checked out from the library and was perfect for an easy weeknight meal. As I usually try to do with most recipes, I lightened it up slightly by using Neufchatel cream cheese, less bacon and less cheese. They still came out delicious and I served them with a simple salad and the last of our Hawaiian rolls from Easter. Yum!

For the mornings, I made a batch of Spiced Carrot Bran Muffins.

This recipe also came out of a borrowed library book...The 250 Best Muffin Recipes. They were in the 'healthy wholesome' chapter and tasted alright, but were kind of dry. I baked them for 15 minutes, but they were probably done at 12-13 minutes.

Yesterday I made a half batch of Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

This is the highly rated recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my Home to Yours, but I wasn't entirely impressed. I didn't think the muffin itself had a very strong lemon flavor at all. I did choose to leave off the glaze, but I don't think that the flavor should be dependent on that. The texture was nice though, even after my substitutions of light sour cream, less sugar, and half white whole wheat flour.

Easy As Pie

The last time I was at the library, I picked up a few cookbooks for myself and some picture books for Tyler. Although he's supposed to be challenging himself and reading chapter books at this point, I find that it's still nice to have some picture books around to read at bedtime.

This is one that I picked out and it's our favorite kind....the kind that involve food/cooking and includes a recipe at the end. And sure enough, once we read the story, Tyler was itching to make his own peach pie. The only problem? Getting 5 cups of fresh sliced peaches at this time of year. The solution? We relied on a sack of the frozen variety, which was nice because they were already peeled and sliced. All we had to do was thaw them out and we were ready to go.

The first step was to line a glass pie dish with a premade crust and then trim the edges.

Then Tyler combined the dry ingredients....flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and then poured that mixture over the peaches.

Once the peaches were thoroughly coated with the flour/sugar mixture, he poured them into the bottom crust.

Then he prepared the top crust by cutting out several 'air vents' using my mini cookie cutters, placing it over the filling, trimming and crimping the edges, and then brushing over it with a beaten egg.

And after about an hour in the oven, this is what it looked like. Nice, huh? That's when it occurred to me....I don't think we've ever made a peach pie before. I made a peach and blueberry cobbler last summer, but I think that's the closest we've come.  Well, we'll have to remember this recipe when the peaches are out in full force this coming summer. Next time I would decrease the nutmeg slightly since it has such a strong taste, but otherwise it's a wonderful pie.

Five Scoops

Last night I took Tyler over to Baskin Robbins for the 31 cent scoop night. The one near our house has the tiniest parking lot ever, with only 5 spots or something like that, so we ended up parking at the business next door and walking over. It was fairly crowded too, but the service was actually pretty quick. We only stood in line for a minute of two before we had ice cream in our hands.

After Tyler's mistake earlier this month of ordering the crazy red hot cinnamon flavor of the month, he went for a 'kid-friendly' one this time. He was leaning towards Oreo, but when it came time to make the final decision, he picked Icing on the Cake. I chose Strawberry Cheesecake, but when we saw the size of the scoops, we immediately decided that we'd come back for more. The scoops were the small 2.5 oz size, but I swear Tyler's was even smaller than that.....there was barely anything in his cup!

So we went outside, ate the ice cream in our cups and then went back for seconds. The second time around Tyler chose Rainbow Sherbet and I got the Tax Crunch. Mmmm. We had a different server too, who gave us bigger scoops.  I even asked for a third scoop to go (who needs a piggy pin now?), but I promise it wasn't for me. It was some Baseball Nut for Rick.

And of course, since the event was in support of local firefighters, there was a fire truck and several firemen on hand.

Tyler even climbed inside and honked the horn a few times.

But then it was back to business. We headed back home for our nightly walk and this time we walked twice as far....to make up for all those scoops!

Team in Training

I've always been interested in community fun run/walks, but have only ever participated in one...and that was in Paradise, like 13 years ago or something like that. Of course, back then I never would have considered running, so I walked the whole way. I still had a great time though and got a free t-shirt, so I'm not sure what's kept me from participating in one again.

These days, although I don't consider myself a runner, I do consistently run on a weekly basis. Before I became pregnant I had no problem running 3-4 miles on the treadmill, but currently I can only squeak out 1 mile. No big deal....I'm sure I'll be back to my normal self in a few short months. But that's all been on the treadmill. I haven't ran outside on pavement or anything like that since high school gym class. So I wonder...would I still be able to run as well outside as I do on the treadmill? If I didn't have the moving belt under my feet, propelling me forward....would things be different? If I decided to actually run in one of these fun runs, could I compete with other outdoor runners? Those are the sorts of questions that go through my head.

So what's the point here? I signed up Rick, Tyler and myself for the See Spot Run 5K run/walk this Sunday. It's a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Central Washington and what makes it different from other fun runs, is that dogs participate as well. But since I'm not really in any condition to run, we plan to take it easy and walk.

Nevertheless, Tyler and I have been training hard. Every night after dinner for the past week and a half or so, we've been walking in loops around our neighborhood.  I know we have no chance of coming in 1st place, but I don't want to come in last either. It's all about having fun though, and I have no doubt we'll have plenty of that!

Picking a Name

I don't remember struggling so much to come up with Tyler's name, but this time around my mind is a complete blank. I just can't think of any good baby boy names. So I finally broke down and went to the library in search of a baby name book. They had several listed in the online database, but when I clicked on them to find out if they were available or checked out, they all said the same thing....LOST. Lost!? You know what that means....it's just code for stolen. I couldn't believe it. People really steal baby name books from the library?

Except for one, that is.

This is the only name book that my library has anymore, and of course it was sitting on the shelf. I can understand why. It's a little too literary for me as well. I left it behind, went home, and told Rick that he'd better start thinking up names twice as hard.

So far, he's really only come up with one favorite....Bailey. I don't really mind the name Bailey, but once you add on Freese, it starts sounding like an adult beverage off the dessert menu of a burger joint. Bailey Freese. It just sounds like an Irish Cream flavored  ice cream to me.

Susan suggested the name Benjamin Michael Freese. I have to admit, it does sound nice and I love Michael as a middle name. But....and you knew there was a but coming.....there is only one thing I think of when I hear the name Benjamin.

Who's the thief?

Could it be, Could it be

Could it possibly be Benjamin?

Yes, Yes, Yes!

Benjamin, you nasty youth,

Your crime has shocked me to the core

Never in my whole career

Have I encountered this before

Guards, Seize him, Lock him in a cell

Throw the key into the Nile as well.

So you see, the name just sounds so biblical to me, like Jedediah or Ezekiel. And besides, how can I name our child after such a 'nasty youth', even if he was framed.

And now, as I remain at an utter loss, I think it's about time to head over to Border's and start perusing their selection of baby name books.

Redemption

Nobody wanted to accept that Tyler didn't catch any fish on Saturday. I mean, seriously? That pond was packed with fish. How is it possible that we left with nothing? 5,000 fish in the pond and we left with nothing.

So we decided to go back and try again.

Last night after filling our bellies with ham, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake, we headed back out to the pond. This time we brought a different pole for Tyler (one that was slightly shorter) and some salmon eggs for bait.

The boys started out on one of the grassy banks, but with the sun setting in their eyes, and the wind blowing in their direction, they thought it best to move over to the cement dock instead.

At that point I set myself up in the bleachers with a book, but within 10 minutes I heard a commotion that could indicate only one thing.....by gosh, that boy had caught a fish.

And there it was.

So we thought, if he could catch one, he could surely catch another. And two is always better than one, especially when you plan on eating them for dinner.

With the daylight fading fast, Tyler cast and then cast again. He was getting all kinds of tugs and pulls on the line, but those pesky trout were just grabbing the bait and making off like gingerbread men. At least twice he had caught another fish, but before he could reel it in completely, the darn fish got away.

But not for long!

Before the night was over, Tyler had caught two beautiful rainbow trout.

That's when Rick confessed that he'd never actually cleaned a fish before. What!? Well don't look at me!

Happy Easter

I tried to get up early this morning to take a picture of Tyler's Easter basket before he woke up and tore into it, but the kitchen is such a dungeon in the morning that my pictures didn't come out all that great. You can still kind of see what's going on though.

My favorite things in the basket were the non-candy items like the box of dry erase crayons, mini etch-a-sketch, sky ball (which claims to be able to bounce up to 75 feet), and mini orange bell pepper greenhouse. As for the candy, he got a box of gummy life-savers, pretzel M&M's, and plastic eggs filled with jelly belly jelly beans.

He also got a basket in the mail from his Grandma (Rick's mom) that had even more toys and candy. It had this silly Reese's bunny that sings a song when you press its belly. I found the song to be annoying, especially when played over and over, but as you can see from Tyler's face...he was loving it.

Then it was time to get dressed and head outside for the egg hunt.

This is our first Easter having a completed backyard. I'm so glad we didn't need to have the egg hunt out in the front for every passerby to watch or at the school playground like we did last year.

But it's still hard to trick that boy. He found the one hiding in the bird feeder without a problem.

And the two hiding in the tree.

Yep, he had his basket full in no time at all!

And then there was Easter dinner....nothing but the usual suspects.

Spiral ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, olives, deviled eggs, and Hawaiian rolls.

And for dessert we had mini cheesecakes topped with coconut grass and jelly beans.

Easter Eggs

As per usual on the day before Easter, we colored an 18 count pack of eggs using a standard dye kit. I don't know when or if we'll ever break out of the routine and try one of those fancy kits like the marble, glitter, or the one that makes golden eggs.

Because if we did, I might miss our vinegar scented rainbow.

Tyler's been at this for several years now so most of his eggs included combinations of two or more colors. Here he was working on one that was half yellow and half blue. He later explained to me that the yellow side was the day and the blue side was the night. That's pretty cool. A day and night egg. He should have used one of those clear wax crayons to draw a sun on the yellow side and some stars on the blue side before dipping them in the dye.

Me, I'm not so patient for that sort of thing. I prefer to use plastic egg wrappers on my eggs so that I only have to dye the ends. I just simply drop the eggs in the cups of dye for a few seconds and BAM, I'm done. And they still look nice....or so I think.

Tyler even goes all out and puts on the fancy stickers.

In the end we had a nice looking set of eggs. Those are my boring plastic wrapped ones in the middle row. Tyler did that pretty swirly yellow and orange one that kind of looks like a sunset. I love that one! Okay, maybe I need to start getting a little more creative with mine.

Fish-In

This morning we headed over to Reflection Pond for the much anticipated Kid's Fish-In. It's an annual event were kids ages 5-14 are invited to come fish at the pond at Sarg Hubbard Park, which they pre-load with 5,000 rainbow trout. For a $7 entrance fee, you get a t-shirt, rod and reel, bait, and a 30 minute time slot to catch up to 2 fish.

We got to the park right before 10:00 and watched the previous group finish up before it was time for Tyler's group to start.

Once he had his fishing pole he had to wait in line to get a worm from the guy in the orange vest.

Then it was time to fish!

We were pretty confident that Tyler would have no problem catching at least one. Since the pond was literally loaded with fish, it seemed like the probability would swing in his favor. So for the past few days we've been talking all about how he was going to catch a fish, and how we would cook it for dinner, and maybe, just maybe, if the cats were really lucky, they could have a bite too.

Well about 25 minutes into their 30 minute time slot, they still hadn't caught a fish. Nothing. Only 1 bite...maybe. Things weren't looking that great. That's when we started letting him down easy, saying things like, "Well you know, the fish don't seem to be biting much this morning, and we might not end up with a fish, but we sure are trying hard".

And then time was called, and still nothing. All we could do was pack it up and move on to plan B.

On the off chance that Tyler didn't catch a fish to eat for dinner, we had planned eat frozen fish sticks.

And clam chowder.

That's almost as good as fresh rainbow trout.....right?

Recipe Review

This week I had relatively good success with the new recipes I tried out on my guinea pigs. By that I mean, every meal was eaten with almost no complaints.

As Tyler gets older, I'm finding that he's becoming more picky when it comes to his food. He won't eat shrimp or sausage (except for kielbasa) or asparagus, and a handful of other equally mind-boggling items. And Rick....he's a whole different story. The only thing he absolutely hates is the sight, taste, and texture of onions, but his real problem lies with his issues with heartburn. He simply can't handle anything that is fried or cooked with a significant amount of oil/butter. He can't eat garlic, onions, any tomato based product, anything that involves salad dressing, and the list goes on and on. So you can imagine the difficulty I have each week finding recipes that all three of us will eat....and enjoy.

First up, I made Orange Teriyaki Beef and Noodles, a recipe out of an old Betty Crocker cookbook.

This was a good solid recipe. Nothing off the charts flavor-wise, but pretty good for a quick cooking meal. My only complaint is that the recipe called for only 3 ounces of noodles, which is nothing. I thought I could just add more until I realized that the noodles cook in the sauce, so I only felt comfortable adding another ounce, which still wasn't enough. Besides that, I ended up substituting green beans for the pea pods, which we prefer anyway.

Next I made Barbecued Country Ribs, a Taste of Home recipe.

Yes, this one falls into Rick's heartburn zone due to the tomato based BBQ sauce, but hey, sometimes he's gotta take one for the team. As for the recipe itself, I wasn't so impressed. It calls to bake the ribs covered for around 2 hours, but every time I checked on them I found that they were stewing in their own juices. Not really what you want to see when you're trying to bake on a layer of sauce, so I kept dumping the liquid out, which resulted in one set of dry ribs. And the color was terrible....they looked like boiled ribs. So I decided to throw them on the outdoor grill for a few minutes to crisp up the outer layer. In the end, they looked okay, but were as dry as a bone.

To go along with the ribs, I made a side of Sour Cream Macaroni Salad.

This isn't really a new recipe. I've made it many times before, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it here. It's a nice, simple side dish, but what I really like about it is that it's lighter in fat and calories than a traditional macaroni salad. The dressing is made with equal amounts of light mayonnaise and light sour cream or sometimes I use greek yogurt to bump up the protein factor.

Finally I made Fragrant Fried Rice Pilaf, a recipe from the May issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray.

This was my favorite meal of the week, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering how much I love fried rice! The strange part about the recipe is that it actually has you cook the rice to a crisp, which kind of tastes like undercooked crunchy rice. I didn't mind the texture, but Tyler didn't care for the crunchiness. Oh well, that's easy to fix for next time.....and there will be a next time. I loved the flavor the cumin added to the rice, and the beans....I've never put beans in fried rice, but I thought they worked great in the dish.

Chicks in a Basket

I'm not sure if Tyler saw Peeps in a grocery store ad, on television, or during a recent trip to the store, but all of a sudden he's been talking non-stop about needing to buy some for a project. I don't usually buy peeps, but with Tyler twisting my arm, and the fact that they're only $1 a package, I thought, 'oh, what the heck'.

So while we were at the store yesterday, we picked up all the things he needed. An Easter basket, grass, and a package of peeps.

He had this vision of arranging the peeps so they would look like a group of chicks sitting outside on a lawn. He thought it would make a fantastic Easter decoration.

Here he is artfully placing the peeps.

Now I can't say I've ever seen a group of blue chicks sitting out on the grass before, but I have to admit that he did make a cute decoration. I really like the splash of color that the basket brings to our dining area. And the peeps look more appetizing when they're displayed like this, rather than being bunched together in a box.

And before those peeps had a chance to dry out from sitting out in the open, we borrowed a few to make peep s'mores for dessert. I didn't taste one, but Tyler gobbled his right down, so it couldn't have been all that bad.

Wear and Tear

Really?

These shoes are barely three weeks old!

I understand that Tyler plays rough sometimes and doesn't care about ripping holes in his jeans or tearing apart his shoes, but I still can't believe that his 'brand new shoes' look like this.

And I really can't believe that one of the elastic ties has already ripped at the seam. At first I thought the no tie elastic laces were a fantastic idea. It's not that Tyler doesn't know how to tie his shoes, it's that he doesn't care to take the time to do it. Usually when I pick him up from school, he'll just throw his shoes on and walk out the door, never even attempting to tie the laces. So the ones on his other shoes are filthy and missing the plastic caps at the end, obviously from walking on them all the time. But now after having these shoes for several weeks, I don't think the elastic makes a good alternative. They certainly aren't as durable. Easy...yes. Durable...no.

But hey, as long as I've got my sewing kit out to sew the elastic back in place, I might as well iron some patches onto the knees of his holey pants. Now how's that for a good time?