I Will Call Her Cinderella

Tyler and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch when I looked outside and noticed that several birds were fighting over his birdhouse. What! That house has been empty for 4 months and now the birds are interested? Well, I guess that's not entirely true...there was a wasp living in there for a few months until Rick "took care of him". Anyway I was so surprised to see not 1, but at least 5 different ladies lining up to get a look inside.

The only problem with the birdhouse is that the opening is very small. I never though that a bird could actually fit inside. So it was pretty comical to watch all these birds trying in vain to stuff themselves through the tiny hole. Finally...success! One of them made it. I think we should call her Cinderella. The lucky occupant of the house is not the one with the smallest feet, but the one who was able to "suck it in" the most.

Eight Animals (+2) Bake a Cake

Tyler and I are on a roll making recipes from children's picture books. Our latest one is Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Eight Animals Bake a Cake.

We already had all the ingredients on hand, except for the pineapple. I had to go to the post office anyway, so while we were out, I stopped to get some pineapple. At first I grabbed canned pineapple, but once I saw that the fresh ones were only $.98, I got one of those instead.

I also decided to use cake flour, since I was running low on regular flour.

Tyler's job was to place the cherries, sprinkle on the nuts, and stir together the dry ingredients.

After Tyler finished spreading out the nuts, I poured on the butter/brown sugar mixture. We mixed up the rest of the batter ingredients in the stand mixer, poured it over the top and baked for 35 minutes.

After dinner we cut into our dessert. I thought it was fine, but I'm not a huge fan of upside down cake anyway. I wasn't sure how the fresh pineapple would turn out, but it baked up nicely. Tyler is big on frosting and whip cream, so when I served him his piece, he was a little confused. No frosting?

Just Keep Moving

Last month I finished the first mesocycle of STS, which were endurance based workouts. After a week of rest, I started the second mesocycle yesterday. Now the workouts are based on hypertrophy, or increasing muscle size. I'm lifting heavier weights now and wow...I can really feel it! When I woke up this morning, I could feel the soreness in every muscle group I worked yesterday. Chest... shoulders...triceps...Ouch!

After picking myself up out of bed, I hit the treadmill for my regular 3 mile run. Rick has a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that I'm a "runner". I'm not really. I only run 1 day a week. I get it though, in the past I've expressed an extreme dislike for running. I still don't love it, but sometimes it's the quickest way to get the job done. And since I had to take Tyler to the park this morning for the art project, I needed a fast workout.

Today's art project was building a sculpture out of pieces of construction paper. Tyler doesn't quite understand abstract art, so I suggested that we try to make a "cootie bug". We glued 3 round sections together for the head and body and then added 6 strips for legs.

You can't really tell from this angle, but I think our bug came out alright. Another boy at the park said, "Hey, I like your ant!", so that's a good sign. Rick thought it looked like a frog, though.

As usual, Tyler played on the playground for a while after completing his project. He's turning into such a monkey. Climbing, jumping, and hanging off of everything!

Back at the house, I harvested a good pound and a half of sugar snap peas from the garden. I won't go on about how much I love my peas, but really, what's the hold up with all my other vegetables? I don't see anything else producing much. Well, except for the tomatoes.

So I put my little soux chef to work. That boy's gonna know his way around the kitchen, if it's the last thing I do. He won't have to wait until adulthood before knowing what a pea tastes like fresh out of the pod.

After Dark

For the second year in a row, we did the same thing for the 4th of July. We went to the fairgrounds during the day for the carnival, came home for dinner and then went back to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks. Rick and I both agree that that method is kind of silly. Next year we'll have our BBQ in the mid afternoon, head to the fairgrounds around 6:30 or 7:00 and then stay for the fireworks.

In the past we've always parked our car in the general vicinity of the fairgrounds and watched from there, but last night we actually went back inside the fairgrounds. Wow! The crowd was huge! Shoulder to shoulder...it was crazy! And the lines for the rides.....super long! In an hour Tyler was only able to go on 4 rides.

The fireworks show was set up in the middle of the speedway and we had seats just behind the grandstands. It was cool being so close.

If only I had enough restraint to put the camera down. Watching the fireworks from behind the lens is not nearly as enjoyable.

After the fireworks show, in an attempt to avoid traffic, we killed some time riding the Sundola. It's kind of like a ski lift that runs from one side of the fairgrounds to the other. It's not scary or anything, but being 20 feet off the ground was reason enough to keep my legs quivering the whole time. Tyler, on the other hand, didn't mind a bit.

By 11:00 at night, Tyler was toast. Sweet Dreams, little bud.

Happy 4th of July!

What a jam packed day we've had so far. This morning we went to the Home Depot to do the kid's craft. They were making little mini race tracks. There were tons of kids there this week! Maybe because they were doing the craft outside in front of the store instead of inside, deep in the lumber department. They also had a real race car out in front of the store and were giving away free bottles of coke zero. That kind of made up for having to work outside in the 95 degree weather.

Next we went to Borders to look for some new Brain Quest flip books for Tyler. He adores the one that Susan got him for his birthday. He makes us read it to him almost every night, so I for one, was ready to get something new. We ended up getting the Preschool and Kindergarten books and Tyler has already tore into them.

After that we headed out to the fairgrounds for the 4th of July carnival. We bought the big book of tickets for Tyler since he's finally big enough to go on most of the child rides by himself. Unfortunately the stars were not aligned for us today and Tyler had a few meltdowns involving tears and throwing himself to the ground. Yikes! We still managed to have a good time though, despite the tears and sweltering heat.

I really had to twist Tyler's arm to get a picture with him...he was just too busy hopping from ride to ride. But don't we look cute in our red, white and blue?

After a few hours, we came back to the house for dinner. I barbecued some hamburgers and hot dogs, which I served with watermelon and homemade potato salad. Now that our bellies are happy and full, we're just hanging around the house until it starts to get dark. We'll drive back over to the fairgrounds to see the fireworks.

Weekly Recipes

Earlier this week I made one of my favorites, Fajita Chicken Salad. I haven't made it in about a year though, because I'm always busy trying new things. The best part is the chicken. It's so good!

This one should look familiar to Anni, it's in her cookbook. The salad part consists of chopped romaine, tomato, bell pepper, olives, and cheese. The chicken is cooked separately in a mixture of olive oil, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and salt. Yum! I'm already planning to cook the chicken part again next week for regular fajitas. Then the salad is topped with a creamy cilantro lime dressing.

Another goodie from this week is Greek Style Beef and Cheese Ravioli.

This one is easy enough. First you make a meat sauce with ground beef, canned Italian style diced tomatoes, spinach and olives. The recipe comes from a meat board, so it calls for 1-1/4 lbs of ground beef....believe me, 3/4 of a pound is plenty! It also calls for fresh spinach, but I find that using frozen is easier to deal with. Next you add cooked cheese ravioli to the meat sauce and top it off with feta cheese.

Tonight I made Fusilli alla Caprese, a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis.

The stars of the show here are the fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, and fresh tomatoes. Throw in a little olive oil, garlic and salt and you have a super delicious, easy meal. I'm definitely making this one again! I served it with a mix of zucchini and squash from the farmer's market.

Straight From L.R. Hen

The last time I was at the library, I picked up a super cute book called Cook-A-Doodle-Doo! It's about a rooster who discovers his great grandmother's cookbook, The Joy of Cooking Alone by The Little Red Hen, and proceeds to make the recipe for Strawberry Shortcake with a few of his barnyard friends.

It looked like the perfect sort of recipe for the upcoming 4th of July, so Tyler and I went straight to work.

The ingredient list is simple enough, but I ended up substituting 1/2 of the regular flour with whole wheat pastry flour. I bought a giant bag of the stuff and try to use it whenever I get the chance.

With all the baking we've been doing, Tyler's finally getting the hang of using the pastry cutter.

My other modification of the recipe was to make individual star shaped cakes, instead of one large round. I bought this pan at least 4 years ago and am just now using it for the first time.

Our final masterpiece. I had intended to add fresh blueberries, but forgot about them at the last minute. Not quite as Star Spangled as I was going for, sans the blue and all, but still good enough to make The Little Red Hen proud.