Craft Time

Over the weekend, while Rick was working in the backyard, I took Tyler to make his crafts at The Home Depot and Ace Hardware. Luckily, they were both fun and easy projects.

At the Home Depot, the kids were making soccer games, or as all the parents were calling them, mini foosball tables.

The hardest part was simply making a square box. Ours was slightly askew, but I'm sure nobody will really notice that part.

Inside the box are two players affixed to dowels and a tiny little ball. It's cute, right?

Then at Ace, the kids were making my favorite craft from last Spring..... Marigold Pots.

Tyler decorated his pot with a simple sticker around the top, filled it with dirt and planted about 5 marigold seeds. The weather has been hanging around 70 degrees, so I'm sure those little seeds will be sprouting in no time. And then we'll have pretty flowers to look at all year long!

Recipe Review

I didn't try too many new recipes this week, but the ones that did make the cut, all turned out pretty good.

First, we had Black-Eyed Peas and Rice with Sausage.

I'm a huge sucker for any dish that combines beans and rice, so of course, I couldn't pass this one up. And while I did enjoy it, I think I prefer red beans with rice and sausage. Nothing against black eyed peas, I'm just used to having them with hopping john.

Next, we had Yellow Chicken and Rice, this one from Rachael Ray.

My favorite part of this meal was the rice, which as Rick pointed out, tastes a lot like rice pilaf...you know the rice-a-roni stuff out of the box, but with a stronger saffron flavor. Mmmm, it was good! The chicken was kind of bland, even though it cooked with the rice. I would still cook it again, but now I need to go buy some more saffron.

And for dessert this week, I made Chocolate Banana Shortcakes.

I found this recipe in one of my Cooking Light Annuals, but I made a few changes to it. I went the easy route and used whip cream out of a can and instead of making a caramel sauce, I just used some Low Sugar Chocolate Syrup to drizzle over the top. My only complaint is that the shortcake part is kind of crumbly, but it's still super delicious, crumbs and all.

And Then There Was Rock

Oh my gosh, I almost don't believe it, but we finally had the rock delivered today for the backyard. We're still not done laying down the weed barrier, but that's just a small detail, right?

Hello, beautiful pile of rock! Okay, it's not that pretty, but hopefully it'll look nicer in the backyard than the dirt that's out there now.

Tyler and I missed all the dump truck action, as the rock was delivered at the exact moment I was picking him up from school. But he was so excited, once we were home, he hopped right out of the car and started shoveling. Now that's my kind of boy!

And several hours later.....

we were getting somewhere. Not so bad, huh? Like I said, it's nicer than looking at dirt.

A lot nicer, actually. But we've still got quite a bit left to do, so I'm sure we'll be busy all weekend long.

And look at this. I had a quail visiting the bird feeders this morning. He was scratching at the ground like a chicken. It was too cute!

Spring Concert

Dinner was finished up early in our house tonight because we had somewhere to be. Tonight was Tyler's big Spring Concert over at the Jr. High Auditorium, which conveniently enough, is right around the corner from our house.

All the Preschool and Kindergarten classes performed on the stage together and sang about eight different songs.

Tell me if you see Tyler, because I sure don't.

Oh, there he is, behind that tall kid in the front row with the yellow striped polo. I guess it didn't matter what Tyler wore, because nobody could see him anyway! I tried to convince him to put on a nice polo shirt, but he insisted that his cars shirt was 'nicer'. So there you have it! I'm taking myself off the hook for his wardrobe selection.

After the show, we stopped at DQ to get an ice cream cone.

Ummm, a super humongous one! That's a medium!? Well, at least there was plenty to share.

Last Minute Lesson

It won't be long now before I hit the hills and leave those two boys alone to fend for themselves, dinner wise, at least. Rick does not cook. At all. Well, he's good for making scrambled eggs, but besides that....not so much. So it's a good thing I've got a little apprentice under my wings, because Rick's gonna need some help in the kitchen while I'm away.

Tyler has already helped make several dinners. Mini pizzas, macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, spaghetti pie, and the salad bar. As his last lesson before I leave, we decided to try beginner's pot roast from his Southern Living Cookbook for kids.

This was probably the easiest recipe yet. All you have to do is stick everything in a pot and let the oven take care of the rest. We used about a 3 lb eye of round roast and covered it with a sliced vidalia onion.

Then we mixed up the gravy part, which is just 1/2 cup of water, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a packet of gravy mix. I think Tyler was a little grossed out by the gloppiness of the soup.....look at his face.

Then we poured the mixture over the meat and onions and baked it in the oven for about 3 hours.

It turned out really good and the house smelled amazing while it was cooking. Yum! We served it up with some mashed potatoes, peas, and a dinner roll. There was even enough leftovers for Tyler and I to eat it again for dinner tonight.

After School Fun

Sometimes when Tyler comes home from school, he wants to play a board game. Other times he'll want to read books. Sometimes he'll ask to go to the park. But lately, he's been stuck on the same thing....working in his workbooks.

Sounds like work to me, but trust me, Tyler loves those workbooks. Kinda weird, huh? Well, maybe not, if you factor in his other love of reading encyclopedias. Then it almost sounds normal.

He's working on building a stack. These are the workbooks he's already completed. He whizzed right through that math book on the bottom, and it's for 1st and 2nd graders. So I guess that means he's ready for the 3rd grade book?

Finally he took a break from the books and had some real fun.

Yesterday we took apart his Loopin' Lightning Coaster and used the pieces to build the Lightning Flash Coaster, with the help of some online bonus instructions. So today he sent those cars in motion and watched them go up, down, and around.....over and over and over again. The cars can't actually make the entire length of the track by themselves, so Tyler has to give them little pushes here and there when they get stuck. It's still pretty cool, though.

Recipe Review

The new recipes I tried this week were pretty good. Nothing mind blowing, but they're all worth making again.

First, I made Spinach Turkey Meatballs, a recipe I found while searching on the Taste of Home website.


The ground turkey was on an awesome sale this week and this was a perfect way to use it up. I browned the meatballs in a skillet before throwing them in the oven, so they'd end up with a little more color, but otherwise followed the recipe. Tyler was a bit suspicious of all the spinach, but Rick and I ate them up without any complaints.

Next we had Chicken Broccoli Shells, another Taste of Home recipe.

This recipe was good, but kind of time consuming. I had to cook and cut up a few chicken breasts before I could get started, as the recipe calls for precooked chicken. I also used fresh broccoli instead of frozen and that took additional time to prepare as well. My only suggestion, as far as taste goes, it to use a good quality alfredo sauce, not the cheap Ragu stuff that I used.

Then we had Asian Barbecue Chicken, this one from Cooking Light.

This was probably the easiest meal of the week, since it was simply marinated grilled chicken. I served it with peanut butter noodles and a mixture of broccoli and pea pods for the veggie.

For a morning treat, I made a batch of Apple Bran muffins.

This was a contest winning recipe from Taste of Home, and as expected, they came out super yummy.

To go with my coffee, I made some Nutella Biscotti.

These came out alright, but the flavor was not as great as I was expecting. And they're pretty soft as far as biscotti goes, so that was a bit of a disappointment. They'll be eaten up, I'm sure, but I probably won't make them again.