Peanut butter sandwiches and Sundays

Peanut butter sandwiches are a staple in my household. Jase eats one with homemade strawberry jam every night before bed (even after eating a good dinner 1-2 hours before) - the kid must be growing like crazy...

A couple Sunday's ago they were having just peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, before church, after baths (not a good way to do it), no jam, just one slice of bread with peanut butter on it. This is what Meghan looked like about 5 minutes into eating it:





I think she was giving herself a facial...

At least it stayed out of her hair. Here is what she looked like 10 minutes later:
(gotta love that cheese smile; now if only she'd keep her hair done, instead of pulling them out and her hair at the same time...)


Meghan didn't get a nap that Sunday, so as soon as we got home, we had dinner. While we were finishing dinner, Meghan went over to the couch with her blanket and book to wait for mom or dad to come read to her. She fell asleep in about 1 minute...


I thought it would just be an early bedtime, but she woke up 2 hours later (at 7:15p) wide awake...

Trifles

I love trifles. I think they are an elegant, yet simple dessert and you can make them with pretty much anything. I think this trifle looks so yummy - now I just need a reason to make it...

I made a trifle for our Memorial Day get together with some friends (sorry no pictures) and have had a couple requests for the recipe. Here goes...

Strawberry Brownie Trifle

9x13 pan of brownies (cut in 1 inch pieces)
1-2 lbs of strawberries (cleaned, hulled, and quartered - you want them bite size - I can't remember how many I used and I know the kids ate some while I assembled)
small tub of cool whip, thawed
1 package of cheesecake flavored instant pudding (or vanilla, or white chocolate, or whatever you feel like using)

1. Make the pudding according to directions on the box.
2. In a trifle dish or large bowl, place 1/3 of the brownies in the bottom.
3. Next layer 1/3 of starwberries.
4. Next layer 1/2 of pudding.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 again.
6. Repeat steps 2-3 one last time, reserving a few strawberries for accenting the top.
7. Top with cool whip.
8. Refrigerate at least 2-3 hours.

Enjoy!

Beef and Broccoli

I made this yummy (and easy) beef and broccoli recipe a while ago - it was so yummy...



The picture doesn't do it very much justice, but then I never claimed to be a food photographer.

Cleaning beans

We got about 3 pounds of beans from our CSA share last week. Since we've been getting tons of fresh veggies from our CSA and our garden, we decided to freeze most of these. Jase was so excited to help clean the beans. He has been wanting to help out more around the house lately, which is nice and appreciated.


He really liker snapping the ends off, even if it ended up being almost half the bean at times...

Messy but happy eater

Meghan loves to feed herself, so tonight with the lasagna she went to town. She is really teething, so the watermelon and lime jello was especially enjoyable. Jase didn't really want to eat when we ate, but about 1 hour later he ate all his dinner.

Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Well, not for free...
Last week Joe and the munchkins went and got us 1 bushel of peaches from Annie's Orchard. Yum. the 1 bushel of peaches ended up covering more than 4 cookie sheets.
Here are two sheets:

So over the course of 5 days we made: 2 fresh peach pies, one batch of jam, peach cobbler, and 35 cups of frozen peaches (all ready for cobbler, smoothies, and more jam). Here is one pie and the jam (I forgot to get a picture of the cobbler, but it was the best we've had.

Pancakes

We love pancakes in our house, for breakfast, for dinner, anytime really. The kids love eating blueberry pancakes (well, us parents do too!). Jase likes blueberry pancakes because they get to eat naked.

Here is Jase showing off:

The many messy faces of Meghan eating... (Did you know that I prefer to feed my babies and toddlers so that there isn't a huge mess to clean up).

This is my favorite type of smile that Meghan gives - her teeth clenched together grin with her chunky cheeks - so cute and precious!

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!

Have you ever had one of those experiences? Well, I ended up being the waiter tonight and Joe was the "customer"... I feel so embarrassed to even post this, but I want to document it in our journal, so now you all get to know too...

I made a kale, potato, and sausage soup similar to Olive Garden's Toscana soup. When I was cleaning the kale (I got it from our weekly share at the farmer's market - yum) I noticed a nice bright green caterpillar - like the inch worm ones we found on leaves as kids and played with - well at least I played with them. Anyways, I looked over all the leaves well and then chopped the kale into slices.

Fast forward to dinner time: Jase thinks soup is gross and Meghan already ate, so Joe and I sat down to a nice bowl of soup and some sweet Italian bread that I got on Saturday when I went grocery shopping. We each ate a bowl of soup and Joe went back for a second bowl. A couple bites into the second bowl he pushed something onto the sloped edge of the bowl and asked me what I thought it looked like - I said a caterpillar and started to laugh. I then told him that I had found one when I was cleaning the kale and looked it over well, but I guessed not well enough...
(this is after moving "it" to my empty bowl...)

Needless to say Joe stopped eating the soup and I couldn't bring myself to save the rest of the soup (another 2-3 bowls). We're not that hard up for extra protein...

Have you ever had an experience like this? Were you the chef, the "customer", or both?

What's better than strawberries?

Blueberries! Specifically 18 pounds of blueberries! Yummy-yummo! Here's what 18 pounds of blueberries looks like (note that the berries are already package for the freezer in batches of 1 cup = pancakes, 2 cups = muffins, and 5 cups = pie/tart).

I really wished I had the camera when we were picking - the kids did really well. Jase was upset about the bugs, but loved picking the berries and more over loved having a bucket to move around - note that next year he gets his own bucket to pick into. Meghan was pretty content in her stroller, eating half of Jase's double cheeseburger (that we picked up on the way to the farm), drank her whole sippy cup of juice, and ate who knows how many berries - Jase kept her supplied with berries on her tray. When she started getting fussy, I put her on the ground so I could clean the stroller off (man was it a mess - a darker colored seat would have hid the food, but my lovely orange!). Meghan loves to crawl on the grass and pick it (which means eat it too) and then she made her way under the bushes, where the ground was covered with berries (some good and some not). That was the end of her crawling around - back in the stroller with some toys and she was good for another 20 minutes...

We also saw Paul and Ashton and picked berries with them for a little bit. Jase liked having a friend there; although Jase makes friends with any child he sees. When we were parking at the berry farm, Jase saw 3 kids get out of a van in front of us. He couldn't get out of his booster fast enough and out the door. He kept saying, "I'm Jase" and running around with them. Since we were walking together, we ended up picking next to each other, so the "older" kids showed Jase how to pick the berries. It was pretty darn cute!

This was also the first night that both kids went to bed at the same time (it was late though, after 9p), while they were still awake, and Meghan didn't cry, not a peep...

Corn on the cob

is such a wonderful summertime side dish in the great midwest. Here is Meghan joining in on the fun too...

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Joseph!

We hope you had a great day - we loved spending the day with you and making some yummy food for you too. We are grateful for all that you do for us and for your love and support in everything we go through as a family and individuals.

On the upside I (Heather) decided to make a Strawberry Rhubarb pie to celebrate Father's Day (Joseph loves pies, so I thought why not). I hate making pies, more accurately, I hate making pie crusts and usually just buy the box of rolled up pie crust. But one of the things I wanted to conquer in life was to make a great pie crust (and have it look great too). I've seen pie crusts made in food processors, so I opted for that method (mixing up the dough and getting the right amount of water never worked for me). I used this recipe from Paula Dean and it made an incredibly flaky and yummy crust. Now I'll be a pie making fool! This time I made the mistake of thawing the rhubarb and the pie ended up being more of a pie soup (which Jase thought was hilarious), but hey, the crust came out darn near perfect and that was what I was trying for. Plus, the "soup" makes great syrup for the ice cream!

Pizza making men and a mess...

We enjoy eating and making pizza, especially since the bread maker mixes the dough. I (Heather) usually preps all the ingredients, while Joe and Jase get the dough ready. This time when I brought the toppings from the kitchen to the dining room table, this is what I found (note that this is only part of the mess - Jase managed to get the flour everywhere this time (even between his toes) and he had already had his bath...





The yummy pizza's we had this time were BBQ chicken with pineapple and onions, and a kid-friendly 1/2 cheese, 1/2 pepperoni pizza.

What is your favorite pizza to have?

New found love

Some of you may not know that I love baking, anything really, cookies, cakes, breads, but not really pies (actually the pie crusts are what I don't like making).

Anyway, I have discovered over the last few weeks that I really enjoy watching a couple cooking shows on pbs, that are part of Martha Stewart. I first discovered the 2 - 30min shows while nursing Meghan on a Saturday afternoon. Then a couple weeks later I saw them again. This last Saturday I watched them purely do to not being able to take a nap (and boy did I want a nap). First, I got Meghan to nap in her crib (which is difficult - she sleeps great at night, but won't nap there). Then, Joe got Jase ready for his nap. then we both decided to take a nap too (stayed up too late watching movies when the kiddos get up by 7a). Within 5 minutes of falling asleep, my cell phone rang and I jumped up to get int in the living room, so that it didn't wake up Meghan (and it didn't, thank goodness). Then, I just back to sleep again when the phone rang again (this time I turned it off). When I finally got to sleep for the third time, Meghan woke up (she did sleep almost 1.5 hrs in her crib which is great for her napping there). So, I relaxed in the recliner while nursing her and thought about sleeping, but decided to see if there was anything good on to watch. I stumbled across my 2 shows again, Everyday Food and Everyday Baking. One of the best things about these shows are that the recipes are simple and quick to make (most are completed in 30 minutes). I also like Food Network, but since we have only basic cable, we frequent their website often, but it isn't the same as having the show.

The episode of Everyday Food was on the best burgers (#405) and hosting a burger bar party (a perfect idea for a glummy winter Saturday) and included these really yummy looking and sounding tandoori chicken burger.

The episode of Everyday Baking was on chocolate (#105, my favorite). And the next episode is on cakes, yummy, whick will air Feb. 16 at 2:30 on WFYI.

Are there any food websites or shows that you absolutely love watching and making the recipes? Please share!

Pecan Caramel Clusters (aka Turtles)

I found a recipe for turtles in one of my favorite cooking magazines, Simple and Delicious, by Taste of Home, the Nov/Dec 2007 issue. It has just 4 ingredients and only took me about 20 minutes to make 11 nice sized turtles (supposed to make 16, but I used up the chocolate with just 11, so I guess I need to make them smaller next time...)

With them being so easy to make, I wanted to make up lots and give them away as gifts this Christmas season, however they need to stay chilled, otherwise they are a gooey mess.