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!