Recipe Review

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, mostly because I keep forgetting to take pictures of the food before it's eaten. So this week I made a conscious effort to keep the camera nearby, so I could get back to documenting the new recipes I've tried. By the end of the week, I'd snapped a photo of each new meal...even the Italian Wedding Soup, which wasn't pretty to look at, so I'm leaving that one out. The rest of the week looked like this:

First I tried Chinese Chicken Salad.

It's a recipe I found on Allrecipes, one of my old favorite websites. The salad itself is pretty basic, with a simple bed of greens, shredded carrots and sliced grilled chicken. The dressing is what makes it special. It calls for a mix of hoisin sauce, peanut butter, rice wine vinegar and ginger. I added some sweet chili sauce instead of using brown sugar and hot chili paste. Then, as suggested by reviewers, I thinned the dressing out with some canola oil and fresh squeezed orange juice. Then I topped it off with chow mein noodles and sesame seeds. Delicious!

Next I made Maple Soy Chicken Thighs.

This recipe came from the August issue of Cooking Light, but seems to be very similar to other Asian glazed chicken thighs I've made from them in the past. Oh well, food magazines always tend to repeat their recipes over time. So having had something similar in the past, I knew this recipe was going to be a winner, plus it used up my chicken thighs from the freezer and made a tiny dent in the jug of maple syrup from Costco. Yum! But now I'm starting to feel like a should have bought a sack of fortune cookies to go with this week's meal plan.

 

Also this week I pulled some rainbow carrots from the garden. It's the first year we've tried planting them and they came out so cute! Tyler's favorite vegetable side dish is carrots, so I cut them into chunks, mixed them with a little olive oil and honey and roasted them to perfection.

 

To go with the carrots, I made BLT Pasta and Corn.

This one is out of a Rachael Ray magazine from last Fall and it was probably my least favorite of the week. Not that it didn't have potential, I just didn't put in enough salt. That seems to happen whenever a recipe says 'salt to taste'. I end up skimping on it too much. And then I thought the pasta was dry, which is probably because I drained off the rendered fat from the bacon. I guess all that bacon fat is supposed to coat the noodles. Maybe I should have drizzled on some olive oil or something. But besides those tiny problems, I thought the dish had a great combination of summer vegetables...fresh corn, tomatoes, and basil from the garden.

And in the baking department, I made a batch of Zucchini Muffins.

Kyle loves eating muffins, so I try and make sure I have some around for snack. This recipe is from Cooking Light and it has only 2 tbsp of oil in the recipe, which is WAY less than your average zucchini bread. I used half whole wheat flour, but then added a handful of mini chocolate chips, so I'm not sure if that negated my attempt at making a healthy muffin. Either way it was a great use for the zucchini in the garden.

Cheers and Tears

I took Kyle in this morning for his 1 year check-up. He's actually 13 months now, so the extra time is just what he needed to gain a little more weight. He weighed in at 20 lbs right on the money, which puts him in the low 20's for his percentile. Sure, his weight is lower than average, but it continues to increase on his own curve, so the doctor isn't worried about it. Another thing I learned today, or confirmed my suspicion of, is that Kyle has a herniated belly button. It's small though and should heal itself over the next year.

While we waited for the doctor, Kyle thought he would pass the time by shredding the cloth drape the nurse left on table and throwing the bits over the edge. Then he went over to go check himself out in the mirror. That's when he discovered he could touch his own hand.

And give himself a high-five. Silly goose!

But then the fun came to a screaching halt when it was time for vaccinations.

Poor boy! (But it's nothing a little bite of ice cream won't fix!)

Picking Blueberries

The cool weather and the long weekend lent the perfect opportunity for blueberry picking. We had wanted to go last weekend, but time just got away from us. Not this time though. With blueberry recipes piling up and Rick desperate for some fresh blueberries in his oatmeal, we made a trip to the orchard our weekend priority.

Once there, we grabbed a few small buckets and got right to work. 

I was glad to see that there were still plenty of berries to go around. Nothing like the shortage of last year.

Last year Kyle was so small that he just sat in his car seat while we picked around him. This year, however, he was determined to be a part of the action. He didn't pick any berries, but he did have other ways of helping....like taking fistfulls of the picked berries from the bucket and relocating them to the ground.

And since it was snack time and all, Kyle didn't mind throwing back a few berries.

Rick's positioning in this photo is slightly awkward....I should have told him to stay still and not peek out of the side of Tyler's head.

Once our bucket was filled with blueberries, we crossed the driveway and headed for the fruit trees. We started with pears, but ended up with some apples and a few plums too.

Our little basket was overflowing in no time. Maybe I should have grabbed a bucket instead. Oh well, I guess that just means that we'll have to hurry up and eat the fruit we got and then go back again before the end of the month.

Roller Coaster Giggles

Over the weekend, as Tyler's summer break was coming to an end, Rick decided to surprise him with one last blast of fun: a new K'NEX roller coaster. He loves those building kits, so got right to work and had it completed in a matter of hours.

 

Of course, Kyle is fascinated by all his big brother's toys and this was no exception. We put batteries in the motor that carries the car up the track, but somehow Tyler found more fun in propelling the car by hand...plus Kyle thought it was funnier that way.

I ♥ my silly boys.

First Day of Second Grade

And with that, summer vacation was over. Tyler headed back to school today with his sights set on second grade.

His smile probably says it all, but let me just tell you that he was SO excited to go back to school. Now that he's in second grade, he gets to move over to the 'big kids' playground, which is a big deal for him. He's also anxious to get back into mileage club and start tracking the miles he runs. Ever since the Olympics this summer, he's all talk about becoming an Olympic runner. Another privilege of second grade is being able to check out chapter books from the school library. Last year he was restricted to picture books only, despite the fact that his reading level is way beyond that.

This morning there were only four kids at the bus stop, compared with the 11 that rode the bus last year. Hmmm, I know that two of the kids moved on to other schools, but what happened to the rest of them? Anyway, it was nice to see they'll be having the same bus driver. She's nice and keeps Tyler from forgetting his backpack, sweater, or whatever else on the bus.

Yesterday we stopped by the school during open hours to drop off his supplies and meet his new teacher. Looks like he'll be sitting right in the front row. I'm not sure yet if that's a good or bad thing. And after looking over the class roster, I noticed that neither of his best friends are in his class. It was a little disappointing at first, but maybe it's for the better. It'll force him to branch out and make some new friends.

One thing's for sure though - he'll be starting the new school year in style. I took him shopping for new clothes last week, picking up some jeans, t-shirts and socks. I even cut his hair last night, so he'd look extra handsome.

Enderts Beach and Battery Park

After driving over to the coast, we stayed in Arcata for the night.

In the morning we piled back in the car and headed north on the 101 highway.

We stopped to see Enderts Beach, which Rick thought we could just park at and see the ocean. Turns out you have to hike down a 1/2 mile trail before you reach the beach access. So that explains why someone called it a "hidden jewel" on tripadvisor.

Again, we appreciated the opportunity to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

It was a little chilly outside so Tyler had to borrow my sweater. But once we made it down to the beach, he was all about drawing in the sand, trying to build sand sculptures, and throwing sticks/rocks into the water.

My favorite part was seeing the sea lions bobbing around in the water. Rick liked watching the birds that sat on the water and gobbled down fish after fish.

As much fun as we were having, we still had a good 10 hour drive back to Yakima. It was time to hike back to the car.

But wait....there's more. Our last pit stop of the day was at Battery Park in Crescent City.

We stopped for lunch and let Tyler play on the playground for a little bit, but after that it was a no nonsense, WE MUST GET HOME, sort of attitude. I'll tell you a secret. We didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning. Gah!

Shasta Caverns and Sundial Bridge

In order to make the drive back to Yakima more manageable, we decided that for the first time ever, we'd take it easy and split the drive up over two days. So after leaving Chico, we met up with Derek at the Shasta Caverns for our first detour. He lives in Red Bluff, so it wasn't much of a drive for him.

Rick had been to the caverns once before, but that was on a field trip in grade school, a good 20 years ago. He'd talked about wanting to go back, so this time we took the opportunity to go while we were in the area.

First you have to ride a ferry boat across the lake.

And then take a bus up to the cavern entrance.

The view from the top was beautiful!

It was close to 100 degrees outside and the cool air seeping out from around the cavern door felt so nice. We couldn't wait to get inside and cool off!

The tour was great and at about 800 steps from start to finish, it gave us some excersice for the day. Good thing since we were about to be strapped in the car for hours on end.

After we finished up at the caverns, we headed back down to Redding to get something to eat and see the Sundial bridge. It's right there next to the Turtle Bay Park, but by the time we got there, the museum was closed. We didn't have time for it anyway.

We crossed the bridge and walked down and around to the river below. The boys even found some blackberries to pick. Yum!

Before we knew it, it was almost 7:00 at night. We said our goodbyes to Derek and got back on the road. We still had to drive over to the coast before we could stop for the night.