Cranked a few more out

Here is a look at the scrapbook layouts I've been working on this week....what'ya think?

Hey, I want some of that!

Tyler and I hit the town today, visiting our favorite locations....the library and my favorite scrapbooking store. We picked up 5 books at the library today, instead of the normal 3. I guess I can look forward to looong bedtime reading sessions in the upcoming weeks. At least Tyler finally helped me pick out some of the books. He usually hops right on the computer as soon as we walk through the library doors, but today it was already in use by somebody else. So he spent his time *gasp* looking at books, instead of playing on the computer.

Next we stopped at a coffee shack, as I was craving a nice hot latte. Tyler must be too cute for his own good because he is always scoring freebies. Somehow he walked away with a 12 oz chocolate milk concoction that was even topped off with whipped cream.....uhhh, for FREE!

For dinner tonight, I made another recipe from Rachael Ray's newest magazine. It's called Greek Tuna Salad Pasta. I didn't realize until I was halfway through cooking the pasta, that the dish is meant to be served cold. Not what I was expecting, but still super yummy none the less. It had white flaked tuna, olives, cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, red onion, and parsley tossed with pasta and an olive oil & vinegar dressing.

We are expert tomato pickers

That's what Tyler says anyway, and he should know! With our never ending tomatoes and all. We went out this morning and picked all the red tomatoes...all that would fit in the bowl, that is. I don't even know what to do anymore. There is only so much salsa that two people can eat and I'm not sure I can cram another tomato based pasta dish down Rick and Tyler's throats. We can't even give them away...nobody at Rick's work is interested in them and most of our neighbors could care less. I was shopping at Costco yesterday and saw a woman in line next to me that was buying a large box of tomatoes. I wanted to go up to her and beg and plead that she take some tomatoes off our hands, but *sigh* I didn't.


Today, I went back in the kitchen and had one more go at making a blended coffee drink in the magic bullet. By jove, I think I've got it!! Eyeballing the ingredients wasn't working out, so I ended up using the measurements for making the green tea frappuccino. I just replaced the tea with coffee and ta-da!

My bologna has a first name...

it's T-Y-L-E-R! I'm always joking with Tyler, telling him that he is a bologna sandwich. He's started joking back and telling me, "No, My bologna sandwich has a first name...it's J-E-S-S-I-C-A!!" As it turns out Tyler is becoming quite the comedian. He was telling me his latest joke today. It went like this, "Mommy, the Spanish word for pineapple is piña.....get it? Piña...Ha, ha, ha, ha....piña...get it?" Okay, so maybe he needs to work a little on his routine, what do you think?

I was in the kitchen today again trying out my new magic bullet. I've tried making blended iced mochas with it, but I'm having the worst time getting the flavor and consistency right. I can make peanut butter banana smoothies with my eyes closed in a regular blender and now I've been able to do a slightly smaller batch in the magic bullet. Today I tried making a matcha green tea frappuccino-like drink and it turned out pretty nice. I wish I could do something about that dismal looking color though, it reminds me of canned peas! Oh well, I can't help the color of my matcha.

While the boys were outside doing "yard work", I decided to bring Max and Marceau outside, which I haven't done in a looooong time. The main reason is because Max is a bird of very little brain and I just never trusted him outside. Well, wonder of wonders....he made it a good 1/2 an hour outside, without flying smack into a neighbor's window or anything! Maybe I don't give him enough credit. He is 7 years old, after all. Maybe he has learned a thing or two over the years.

Craftin' and Cookin'

I took Tyler to Ace Hardware this morning to do the Kid's Club monthly craft. The kid's colored a bug shape that was cut from poster board, folded it up accordion style and slid it onto a pencil. Tyler's favorite method of coloring right now is to color a small portion with one color and then switch to another color, do a little more and so on. In then end, his bug looked like it was dressed in a colorful camouflage.

Although, his method of coloring is cute....it is time consuming and slow! It's a good thing they have Gooseberry Patch cookbooks there, I was able to sit on some patio furniture and browse recipes while I waited for him to finish.

For dinner last night, I made another Rachael Ray recipe....Roasted Caprese Spaghetti. It has a basil/spinach pesto sauce that is tossed onto the noodles and topped with oven roasted cherry tomatoes and bite size fresh mozzarella balls. Another winner and a great way to use up some of the tomatoes from the garden! Rick is completely anti-pesto, so I had to serve his portion with plain spaghetti noodles....ummm, not nearly as good, but that's his loss, right.

Dinner Tonight

For tonight's dinner, I made a recipe straight out of the the newest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. The recipe is called Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Calzones. Obviously, it is meant to be cooked on the grill, but I decided to bake mine up in the oven. The best part about the recipe is that I had everything on hand...it didn't call for any fresh herbs (which she almost always uses) or anything I would have to make a special trip to the grocery store for.
The recipe calls to make 2 large calzones, which are to be split into 4 servings. However, like most of her recipes....that means 4 super large servings or around 6 regular servings. I found these calzones to be pretty large, so next time I think I'll make 4 smaller calzones.

I used my own recipe for the pizza dough, a super easy 15 minute no-knead dough. On the inside...browned ground beef, onion, bacon, cheese, and chopped tomatoes. Yummmm!

When I told Tyler about the dinner, this is what he said...

Me: Tyler, look, I'm making a recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine.
Tyler: A recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine...Ha, Ha, Ha.....that's so silly!!!

Well, I don't know what's so silly about that, but it sure was tasty!

I Scrapbooked

Here is a look at some of my recent pages.