Rainy Weekend

It rained all weekend.....not very hard, but it was still all wet and dreary. So we stayed in for the most part, playing Monopoly and other board games Tyler can't seem to get enough of.

On Saturday morning I had the perfect opportunity to make this month's recipe from my Gooseberry Patch calendar...chocolate chip pancakes.

Mmmm, they were good!

For dinner we went out to eat at Casa Mia, an Italian restaurant. Our food was a steal, because we used a restaurant.com coupon that paid for $25 of our bill. Not a bad deal and we got a ton of food. I ordered a calzone that was absolutely huge, while Rick had a spicy chicken caesar salad and a lasagna. Tyler had macaroni and cheese from the kids menu.

On Sunday we eagerly headed over to Joann's, as the 50% of coupon in their mailer finally went into effect. Tyler and I have been eyeing some cookbooks, but weren't about to pay full price for them. When we arrived, we were surprised to see a new selection of books on the shelves, so we had even more to choose from. Tyler found another Gooseberry Patch cookbook, called Kids in the Kitchen, Year 'round fun. I ended up getting a Gooseberry Patch cookbook as well, called Summer in the Country.

We all know how excited Tyler gets about cooking, so of course he had a recipe picked out before we even made it back to the house. His book is oriented by seasons and holidays thru the calendar year, so one of the first recipes is for Hot Chocolate in January. Perfect!


So that's what we had for dessert last night...real homemade hot chocolate. Yum!

Salad Bar

Tyler had no problem picking out a recipe to try this week. He had one marked and ready to go...a salad bar.

We made a list of the ingredients we needed and stopped at the store on the way home from school. With fresh vegetables in hand, we were ready to start.

The first step was to make the dressing.

It's just a mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar and apple juice. Sounds weird, but it tastes good on the salad.

I started chopping the vegetables and placing them in different bowls. Tyler took them and arranged them in a salad bar fashion, complete with labels.

Gotta label those sunflower seeds...

For the lettuce, we used a mix of iceberg and spinach...it's what we had in the fridge.

Here's the completed salad bar...shredded carrots, mushrooms, tomato, black olives, chopped egg, croutons, cucumber, kidney beans, shredded cheese, chow mein noodles and sunflower seeds.

The salad bar turned out great....I think we should have it more often. I can't think of anything else that would inspire Tyler to eat so many vegetables. He had two helpings! I mean, come on....look at his bowl!

A Little Bit Mild

According to the weather forecast, we're having "mild" temperatures this week. What the heck is that supposed to mean, anyway? Slightly warm? All I know is that it's been snow free, as in no new snow, for several weeks now and I really can't complain.

It's actually been raining on and off for the last several days, and I never thought I'd say this about rain, but I love it! The temperatures have been in the low to mid 40's, which is actually really nice for winter in Yakima.

In the kitchen, I've had a hit and miss sort of week with the new recipes I've tried. First I made Fiesta Pork and Cheesy Polenta out of Rachael Ray's February magazine.

I loved this meal! LOVED IT! And what's more...Rick and Tyler both claimed to enjoy it. I hope they weren't lying on my account because I'm making this one again...for sure. I used a pork sirloin roast because that's what the store had. I also used fresh bell peppers instead of frozen, half and half instead of heavy cream, and regular polenta instead of instant. Oh, and I left the scallions out...but I don't think any of those substitutions made a great deal of difference in the overall taste. It's a winner!

For dessert, I made Prune Cake out of my new Pioneer Woman Cookbook.

I was desperate to get rid of that Costco sized bag of prunes hanging out in the pantry and I had such high hopes for this recipe. It had a nice flavor, like Quaker Raisin Spice instant oatmeal, but it was sweet, a little too sweet. But worse than that, it was wet. You're supposed to make a caramel topping to pour over the finished cake, which soaks in and makes it...wet. I just didn't care for the final texture of the cake and neither did Tyler. He won't be eating any more of it. I guess that means more for me....Hmmmm.

It's a Secret

Tyler had two craft projects this weekend, but I completely forgot to take the camera with us, so I had to wait until we were back home to take pictures. Our first stop was at Lowe's to build a coin bank.

It has four separate sections and slots for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Once you fill each slot to the top, it's enough for a roll. Tyler emptied out his piggy bank and my purse, but he still doesn't have enough to make any rolls yet....although he's getting close on the pennies.

Our next stop was at Ace hardware to make a doorknob hanger.

He glued sparkly tissue paper to a wooden form and decorated it with shiny snowflake stickers.

This weekend I also used the last of my pumpkin puree to make Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins as seen on Cookie Madness, one of my favorite blogs.

Made with whole wheat flour, Special Dark Cocoa and chocolate chips, they turned out delicious. Nobody was able to detect the pumpkin though, so we referred to them as the "secret pumpkin" muffins.

In other delightful news, I'm glad to announce that our Christmas tree came down today. Phew! If it didn't come down today, it would have remained for another week...I'm sure. Tyler was under the mistaken impression that the tree was staying up until Valentine's Day. Um....yeah, I don't think so!

Spaghetti Pie and Carrot Pennies

Tyler was so pleased with his pizza from the other week that he was already begging to get back in the kitchen. He even took his cookbooks to school and shared with the class the recipes he planned on making this weekend. He had decided on Spaghetti Pie from his Gooseberry Patch book and Carrot Pennies from Pretend Soup.

We started with the Spaghetti Pie.

First you have to mix ground beef with milk, bread crumbs and such, as if you were making meatloaf. Then you pat the mixture into a pie plate to form a "crust" and bake it off in the oven.

Next you mix cooked spaghetti noodles with an egg and pour it all into the prebaked meat crust.

Then you top it off with sauce and cheese and put it back in the oven to finish baking.

While that was in the oven we got started on the carrot pennies.

Actually, I did all the prep work on the carrots in advance...the slicing and cooking.

All Tyler had to do was add the ingredients for the glaze and stir.

And that's what we had for dinner tonight. The carrots were great and the pie was good too. The meat crust was kind of thick for my taste though...kind of like a giant meatball.

Not The Only One

I've been exhausted this week...plain and simple. I went 12 days without exercising whatsoever during the Christmas holiday and then jumped right into the 3rd mesocycle of STS on Monday. Wow! Can't say that's the best idea I've ever had. Plus my iron count is a little low, so that's probably compounding the problem. Maybe I should double up on my iron supplement this week.

At any rate, I'm not the only one looking a little droopy....

Our poor snowman...he's melting! His face has fallen off several times, but since he's positioned right next to the sidewalk, the passers-by generally fix him on a daily basis.

In the kitchen this week, I've tried out a few new recipes. One is from the Healthy Cooking 2009 annual, called Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup.

I thought it was really good, it's full of cheese tortellini, Italian turkey sausage, spinach and tomatoes. Yum!

For dessert I made Double Chocolate Bundt Cake from the Good Housekeeping Baking Cookbook.

It wasn't until I was already in the process of mixing the ingredients that I realized I didn't have enough cocoa. I ran to the store and bought some Hershey's Special Dark. So the cake has a mix of regular cocoa and special dark, and boy...it really came out dark! It was delicious. Rick wouldn't know, though, since he hasn't eaten any yet. What's that about?

Weekend Fun

The snow stopped on Thursday night, so on Friday we went outside to play.
We worked together and built a pretty big snowman...it's as tall as Rick! He has button eyes, a carrot nose, rocks for a mouth, a straw hat, and wooden stakes for arms.

Then on Saturday morning we took Tyler over to the Home Depot to make the monthly building project. They were making cute little calendars.

I love it! The Home Depot crafts are my favorite....they're always so cute! And this project was fairly easy, so we were in and out of there in a jiffy.

The weather has warmed up a bit this weekend with highs in the upper 30's. Since it's above freezing, it's been raining for the last few days, instead of snowing. Rick even mentioned how it was so "warm" yesterday. I guess....if you can call 38 degrees warm! Anyway, it was still plenty cold for me, so I hit the mall this morning in search of after Christmas sweater sales.

I did pretty good....I found 5 sweaters at Macy's and spent less than $60. That averages out to about $11 per sweater, plus tax...not bad!