Still Thinking This Might Be Nice...

Wouldn't it be nice? I know I have said it before, but cat's really do have the life (save the licking themselves clean part). This guy has no worries, well, maybe he worries about Laney attacking him, but I worry about that too. Now, I'm not saying I would trade places with this guy, but it sure would be nice to have a little snooze in the sunshine every now and then.

My Paypal Account Was Smoking

Have I mentioned that I love E-bay? I do - I find all kinds of stuff I don't need there, like the dining room chandelier. My biggest purchase to date was a dining room table and 6 chairs . It was my intention to recover the seats, but, like most things in this house, that project remains of the "to do" list. The table has 2 leaves underneath the top, so it extends to...well, it gets really big. Want to see? Pay no attention to the red velvet okay? Okay.

Here it is all dressed up and no place to go. This was a quick table setting I put together for dinner last week. I don't have a favorite layout - I just kind of wing it with whatever I have on hand at the time. Out of all the dishes I have, I think these Deruta plates are my favorite; blue, white and yellow, of course.

Do you have a favorite table setting?

Personal Best

Last week, Spencer drew and cut out this owl. When he brought it in to show us, he announced that he had, "done his personal best". At the public school he is attending, in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, the children are taught "life skills" such as: active listening, identifying feelings, conflict resolution and, of course, doing their personal best.

Don't get me wrong, I think these are good skills to learn, but I got to thinking, how nice would it be to tell the mortgage company that you haven't paid your bill yet, but you are doing your personal best? Sam is ready to give it a go at work; sorry the deal didn't close - I was doing my personal best. Actually, I love the phrase and I even tried it out myself last week; I was unloading the dishwasher, cooking dinner and had three children asking for three different things and I just looked at them and told them I was doing my personal best. Owen and Laney were, of course, not being active listeners, but I think Spencer was very empathic to my situation.

Well, I am off now to make a delicious lasagna that is nothing short of my personal best.

PS From the poll, it looks like some of the food manufacturers have some work to do with their labeling (100% would like to see where their food is grown) and China needs to work a little harder at achieving their personal best because 78% of you would not (knowingly) buy a food product from them.

The Results

This was really fun - thank you again for all of your comments. I wish I knit faster - I 'd send you all one! After entering the numbers into the random number generator thingie, the winner is 22 - Kim at ScrapToMyLu / Creative Blogs. When you have a minute, please e-mail me with your address and choice of color and I'll send you your purse.

Because of her amazing response to this little giveaway, Kari please e-mail me with your address to receive your I Didn't Win and I Really Wanted To Consolation Prize.

Livin' Large

I'm livin' large to thanks to Kari who passed along the "You Lift Me Up" award. Kari is so sweet and has a WONDERFULLY funny blog called Just Livin' Large. I can't imagine that you haven't been there yet, but just in case...head on over.

In honor of Kari who is from Texas, Spencer and I decided to make a family favorite - Texas Beer Bread. This recipe is so easy, he did all of the measuring and mixing and all I had to do was man the oven. Make yourself a loaf and head over to Kari's blog and have a look.

Spencer's Super Easy Beer Bread

3 cups self rising flour (if you don't have self rising flour, you can use 3 cups of regular flour, 3 tsp of baking powder and 1 1/2 tsp of salt)

1/4 cups of sugar

1 can of Lite beer

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl; add beer and mix until blended. Pour into a coated loaf pan. Combine egg and water and brush loaf with egg wash (we skipped this this time). Let the loaf rise 10 minutes and then put into oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve with butter. It makes good toast the next day, if there is anything left.

He Talks To The Animals

Have you seen those deer repellent systems that attach to your car and emit an ultrasonic sound to scare them away? In contrast, I think Owen has some sort of "system" that causes animals to seek him out. We constantly have cats following us when waking Spencer to school, dogs looking out windows "roughing' at him, squirrels chattering at us...it's amazing.

Yesterday, Owen came in the back door and said he needed to wash his hands because he just touched a bird. Yes, a bird! After a brief discussion about why we do not touch birds, we headed outside to find this little sweetie.

We gave her some fresh water and thistle; she could fly a bit and she was eating and drinking, so other than keeping our fingers crossed there was not much more we could do. Owen was terribly concerned for her and kept telling her to find her mama, like she was a lost little girl.

It would not surprise me if Owen decided to become a veterinarian to help little creatures when he is older because he really does talk to the animals - literally.

Birthday Pie?

A BIG thank you for all of the birthday wishes - you sure know how to make a girl feel good. I had a very nice day and fantastic birthday dinner prepared my my mom. It is a tradition in our family that you get your favorites for dinner - no matter what the combination may be. So this year my menu was: champagne, walnut pear and blue cheese salad, oregano tomato feta shrimp, fresh Zingerman's French bread and for dessert....a jamoca almond fudge ice cream pie from Baskin-Robbins.

Surprised?

Laney was shocked, but truth be told, cake is my second favorite. I have loved Baskin-Robbin's pies since I was a little girl and my grandmother (Guagua) used to get them for me.

From the look of things, we may be getting another one for Laney's birthday in October. Poor Sam - he was merely a spectator and it was his piece of pie!

Better To Give Than Receive Giveaway

Today is my birthday - I am 37. You see, I think women have this lying about their age thing all wrong. I think you should go up, not down. That way people will think you look really good for your age. That is what is is all about right - looking good for your age? So if a 32 year old woman with just a few fine lines around her eyes and an occasional gray hair says she is 37, you would probably think - wow, I want her face cream.

So, here I am 37 (ahem) receiving lots and wanting to give something away. How about a felted purse? I have two and you can pick one: pink, or red. Both are about 8 1/2" wide, 5 1/2" tall and 3" deep. Leave a comment on this post from now until Sunday evening and I'll use one of those random number generator thingies (yes, that is the technical term) and announce the winner Monday morning.

What will it be? This pink one:

Or, the red?

You win, you choose.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Did you know that China is the world's biggest apple grower? I had no idea. I am such an ignoramus; I didn't even know China grew apples until this weekend.

Spencer has been having a hard time finishing his lunch at school. If you know him, you would know that he is most likely talking when he should be eating. Nevertheless, he is not eating the fruit I pack. No really, it's not that he is a first grader and doesn't want to eat fruit - he loves fruit and, on average, eats 2 apples a day. Anyway, I went to Whole Foods because I thought they might have some healthy fruit leather or something that he could finish more quickly. I picked up a bag of dried apples with no added sulfates, or sugar. Perfect right? Well, we opened them up to give them a try and they were really good. Sam tried them and looked at the package to see if they were just apples - yep, they were just apples, but apples that come from China (maybe). As you can see this label is less than helpful:
Product of China, U.S.A. - hunh?

So, now I am wondering about all of the apples we eat. What about the apples in the apple sauce and apple juice? What about all of those products out there that contain apple juice concentrate? When the manufacturer says produced in the USA does that mean it was just pureed in the USA, or is everything from the USA? I think I would like to know. Manufacturers must put a list of ingredients on their products, why not put where the ingredients are from? Now, I am not going to know if the growing practices in Turkey differ from those in China, but I then have the ability to choose and I may just keep shopping.

Going back to the apples that we did buy from China - should I be concerned? I have nothing against China (or their apples), but what I am against is toys with lead in them, pet food that kills our animals and toothpaste with antifreeze in it.

So, I am wondering what you think - do you care where your food is from? Am I nuts, or do you have my back? I set up a poll in the right column (under the cakes), so if you have a second I'm curious to know what you think. No, not about my sanity - although, maybe it should be...

PS I wrote this yesterday and today Dole is recalling bagged salad. I'm not sure I want to eat food from the US either.

Butternut Squash; The Series - Part I

Okay, my lack of recipe writing skills is apparent in this one. I took the Sara Moulton's butternut squash and rosemary lasagna recipe and tweaked it. Well, maybe tweaked isn't the right word - I bludgeoned it. I like sage with butternut squash, I added some Chevre and did away with the cream for a lighter version.

Brace yourselves...here it is - the most poorly written recipe ever. Fortunately, the results do not reflect the writing.

Basic Recipe for Butternut Squash Lasagna
Squash part:
Peel, seed and cut a large squash (I used 1 of the medium and 1 of the small squashes from Popie) into 1/2" cubes. Coat squash with light coating of olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake in 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden and tender.

While the squash is roasting, work on the sauce:
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
about 1 ¾ milk
¼ white wine
salt pepper
½ bullion cube
½ clove of garlic (I leave it whole and remove it before using sauce)

Melt butter, add flour and whisk. Slowly whisk in milk and wine. Add the rest of the ingredients to taste.

Assembly:
8 sheets of Barilla no cook lasagna noodles
about 4 oz goat cheese
about 1 tbs chopped fresh sage (depending on your tastes)
about ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Sprinkle roasted butternut squash with sage. Coat a 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Put small amount of sauce in bottom of pan, cover with 2 sheets of pasta, then butternut squash, some goat cheese & sauce. Keep going, alternating the direction of the pasta sheets three more times, ending with noodles and a coating of plain sauce and top with Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

For Her Michigan

In addition to orange, Owen loves everything "Michigan". Pretty much anything blue and gold, excuse me maize, counts; he refers to anything with these colors as, " for his Michigan". When we were up north, I found some blue and gold (maize) sock yarn and thought it would be perfect for Owen's Michigan. I decided to make a hat rather than socks because the boys always complain of the hand knit socks falling down. I got right to work on the project and knit it up in the car. Well, I didn't check his head size, so it is a bit small for him. Fortunately, because Owen had it on his head at one point in time, Laney loves it. When wearing it she looks more like a bee rather than a football fan, but then again who wants to be a U of M fan right now?

Actually, truth be told I don't care if they win or loose; the only reason I watch football is for the snacks. I don't know a touchdown from a field goal, but I do know that this Hot Artichoke Dip is really good. It seems everyone has a artichoke dip recipe, but this one is, of course, the best:

1 small clove of garlic

1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts or bottoms (not marinated)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup mayonnaise

In a food processor, process garlic. Add artichoke hearts, process until pureed. Add remaining ingredients. You can heat it in a saucepan, in the oven, or in the microwave. Serve hot with vegetables, chips or crackers for dipping. It makes a lot, so we usually make a 1/2 batch and eat every bite.

Oh yeah, GO BLUE!

Herb Ox Is A Work Horse

I use these Herb-Ox Chicken bouillon cubes all of the time. They have a good taste and they don't have any MSG which is the biggest reason I use them. I do not tolerate MSG well and many of the other broths and cubes have MSG in them. I use the Herb-Ox cubes whenever a recipe calls for stock and I often cut them in half and use them in sauces to add a layer of flavor. They are a lot easier to store than cans of stock and a lot cheaper too - about $2.55 for 25 cubes which makes the equivalent of 12 cans of broth. They also come in a beef flavor. Time to make some soup!

A Bad Day

We all have them, but I thought I would let you in on what I consider to be a chaotic day in my world:

• Woken at 5 AM by Owen singing in his bed. Nice song, but not the best timing.


• My back aches.


• Get kids fed, dressed and ready to walk to school. No time for coffee (big mistake). Spencer decides at that the moment I say, "get you shoes on" that he needs to use the restroom. After 5 minutes, I ask him to hurry up. He says not to worry he took the baby wipes in to make it faster. Baby wipes - you are putting baby wipes down the toilet? Ugh! Get in the car, no time to walk.


• Drop Spencer off, head to the grocery store with Owen and Laney. While filling my bag with plums, I look over at the cart to find Laney standing in her seat with her arms stretched out and the seat belt around her ankles. I try to get her to sit down, but she wants to be carried. Not an option. She screams. A woman looks over and asks if big that noise came from my little girl. Yes - yes it did.


• The grocery store has a new self check out lane with no item limit - cool. This will go much faster without all of the chit-chat and my pears might not get juiced this time because I am certainly going to plop a gallon of milk on top of them. I look at the screen and notice that my last item did not scan. I walk over to pick it up with an unscanned box of Kix in my hands, at which time the machine starts screaming at me. "You have an unchecked item in the bagging area." Lucky me, the item didn't scan because the machine is jammed. Great!


• More screaming/screeching/whining from Laney.


• Get home and unload groceries.


• Return Sam's phone call about good times for him to schedule his week long business trip. Perfect!


• I look over to find that Owen has left the library's John Deere tractor DVD on the floor and Laney found it and snapped it into two. Owen tells me not to worry because we can tape it. Thanks.


• The worst part of the day - the clock only says 11:30 AM. Oh me, oh my.

Well, I certainly feel better having shared, but I do feel a bit guilty. I don't want you to think I am a whiner. How are you feeling? I know you have bad days too - probably a lot worse than this. I know I am fortunate to have a healthy and a, for he most part, happy family, but there are some days it's hard to remember and easy to get caught up in the pandemonium. So, now that I have filled your mind with all of this chaos, I though I would share a few pictures I took in Pictured Rocks Park to erase the images of us and fill you with serenity.

Isn't she beautiful?

Oh man, is that a bee?

That's a bee alright.

Are you kidding me? Fly away butterfly, fly.

I guess even butterflies have bad days. I tried.

Love The Fruit Hats

I love these knit fruit caps so much, I made this little hat to send to the Preemie Project:

I think my love affair with these hats started when Spencer received one as a baby gift. Didn't it look just darling on him?

I think he loved it too - really, you can see it in his eyes can't you? It was like he wanted to scream, "Mom, I LOVE this hat!". Well, I loved the strawberry hat so much that I made a lemon hat for Owen:

Now, Owen...Owen really loved his hat. He is such a funny guy - he's always fooling around. No, he wasn't trying to take his mind off of the lemon hat - come on - he loved it! Yep, he loved, loved, loved his so much, I decided to spread the fruit cap love to Laney too:

I think Laney loved her plum hat most of all - I think it's written all over her face don't you?

I know the preemie who gets the strawberry hat will love it too because who doesn't love a fruit cap?

Thank You Disney

This morning, while walking Spencer to and from school, Owen ran like this:

Why you ask? Well, he was being Snot Rod. Yes, you heard me right - Snot Rod. Nice hunh? Snot Rod is from Cars (Owen's absolute favorite movie); he is a muscle car who suffers from chronic allergies, so much so that when he sneezes he blows fire and speeds up.

Do you see the similarities? He ran down the sidewalk making the car noise that only boys can make and pausing occasionally to say, "Ah-aaah-aaaaah-choo" and, like Snot Rod, he ran faster upon "sneezing". Again, thank you Disney.

Worried

I bet you thought I forgot about the whole poll/purse/flower thing. Well, see, I didn't forget it just took me a while - I did, however, forget my name today. It was Owen's first day at preschool and, up until Friday, he was adamant that he was not going. Friday, the teacher had all of the children come in for a 15 minute one-on-one appointment to make a special snack place mat. From that point on, Owen has been willing to go to school. Well, we got there this morning and I was nervous again (yes, I spend a lot of my life in that state), so when this other parent held out his hand and introduced himself, I could not remember my name. I just stuck out my hand and and squirmed in the awkward silence. Sad isn't it? I have plenty of excuses: no coffee, distracted by Owen, hectic morning, not enough sleep, but the fact of the matter is - I forgot my name. I joke about it a lot when people ask me about having 3 kids who are all 2 years apart, but this was no joke - it was a real "deer in headlights" moment. What's worse - it is a co-op preschool and after the name incident they will probably think I am incapable of watching children and they will probably kick us out. Too bad because Owen really likes it ...just another something to worry about.

Deep Fried Goodness

Every once in a while I just crave a little deep fried goodness. This week the hunger hit...and these Baja fish tacos were just what I had in mind. When we lived in California, we could get these whenever we had a hankering, but since moving to Michigan we've had to resort to making our own. It is hard to find a Baja fish taco in Michigan - go figure.

Here's what we did:

Fish:
2 tilapia fillets cut into generous chunks, about 1 1/2 inches
1 cup flour
1 cup beer
about 1/2 tsp salt
oil for frying - we used canola

Pour 1 1/2 inches of oil into a pan (not your brand new one). Heat to 360 degrees. It is important to get the oil the right temperature - it has to be hot, but not too hot. If it's too hot it will cook the outside too fast and the fish won't be done. Mix the flour, beer and salt in bowl. Coat fish and CAREFULLY drop several pieces (depends on the size of your pan) into the hot oil. Cook until the outside is golden brown. I like to do a "test drop" first just to make sure the inside is done too. I use an old newspaper covered with a paper towel to soak up the excess "goodness". I salted the fish at this point, just enough to bring out the flavors.

You will also need:
Corn Tortillas - warmed
Shredded Cabbage - I used a precut cabbage mix this time, usually I cut my own (red or green).
Onion - Chopped, if you like
Sauce:

1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 cup
fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Mix all together.

Lime Wedges
Hot Sauce, if you like (I don't, but Sam does)

Assembly:
Put a couple pieces of fish in a corn tortilla, top with cabbage the drizzle sauce over the top. Add onions and hot sauce if you like, squeeze fresh lime over top.

There you have it - a little deep fried goodness. By the way, the beer batter used on the fish is great for making other kinds of sinful deep fried goodies.

He Has Been Evicted

When we bought our house 5 years ago, it was actually Sam who did the shopping. At the time, Spencer was just 6 months old and, I can honestly say, was one of the worst babies I have ever met. It wasn't really his fault, he had colic and acid reflux and was miserable, which made us miserable. Anyway, putting him on a plane to shop for houses was out of the question, so Sam went alone. We picked out several houses on the internet beforehand and then, with video camera in hand, Sam flew back to look. After looking for days, he finally found our house, really liked it and made an offer.

The first time I saw our new old house (1930) in person was the day we moved in. Well, Sam did a really good job and the house was great with two exceptions: the kitchen was minuscule and there was no closet space. Since moving in, we have remedied both problems. The old kitchen is now a bathroom and Sam and I have separate closets.

Originally, Sam and I shared the master bedroom closet, but, ultimately for the sake of our marriage, I evicted him. Yep, I kicked him out. We are similar in a lot of ways, but not when it comes to organizing, so out he went. He now has a very spacious closet, actually it is the biggest closet in the house, but it's in the basement. It really is not as bad as it sounds because the basement is finished and we now have a shower on the first level...remember, the old kitchen? With this set-up, I don't even go into his closet; I just put his clean folded laundry by the door and walk away. It sounds harsh I know, but it's really is for the best.

I thought we had everything resolved, but I have since learned that Spencer takes after his father in the organizing department. He tries hard to put things where I ask, but it turns out he is a saver. He saves everything and puts it in piles on his desk. When I say everything, I mean everything: wrappers, old school papers, bottle caps, rocks, paper scraps, stickers, everything. It drives me nuts, so kicked him out too. This took a bit more orchestrating because, with the beds the way they were, the boys didn't have room for a desk.

Sam had been wanting to get the boys bunk beds, but I was afraid one of them would get hurt. I must say that my fears began to subside as the desk problem grew. I started looking and decided I wanted a blue one, but I didn't want to spend $1,200 for a Pottery Barn one, so I got this new one from E-bay (I thought it looked safe with the nice tall railing) and painted it blue last weekend. Peace has been restored yet again.

Photos: Before, After, Fish pulls I found for the drawers, "The Desk" which goes with the dresser anyway

Dignity Blue

I wanted to tell you about the latex paint I used for the bed - Duration's Dignity Blue. Sherwin-Williams makes a low VOC paint and it's really nice stuff - it is part of their Duration brand. It really does not have an odor, which is great for kids rooms. They do make a no VOC paint, which I would have liked to have used, but this paint cannot be tinted to make dark colors.

Boxes Are Best

I love getting mail and, in my opinion, boxes are best! For me, part of the fun of a vacation is coming home to big piles of mail - I love it, okay maybe not the bills, but everything else. When we arrived home from our little "break", I was greeted with one of those flat rate boxes from my grandparents in San Diego (Guagua and Popie for those of you keeping track at home). I picked it up and, man, oh man, it was heavy; I was still uncertain what was inside, but one thing was for sure, they got their money's worth! I, of course, opened the box right away and can you imagine my surprise when I saw all of these carefully packed inside of the 11" X 8.5" X 5.5" box?

Popie grew these in his new garden! I love butternut squash and have big plans for these: Barefoot Contessa's butternut squash soup, FoodTV's butternut squash lasagna, and maybe some sage and butternut squash pasta. Mmm-mm! Thank you Gua and Popie for sharing.

1st Grade Butterflies

Spencer started the 1st grade yesterday and, boy, oh boy, did I have major butterflies. Spencer was very nonchalant about the whole thing, but I was worried about him being gone the whole day, I was nervous about the lunch room, I was concerned about the teacher...

Photograph taken in Pictured Rocks Park

When I picked him up from school I immediately asked how his day went and, with a spring in his step, he said "great"! He loves the 1st grade; every part of it. Goodbye butterfly.

But Wait There's More...Sand

Oh, you didn't think you were off that easy with the vacation pictures did you?

These are from Pictured RockS NAtioNal Park Dunes:

SAND:

Laney in the SAND:

Sam & Kids in the SAND:

Rocks stacked by Owen in the SAND:

Unfortunately, NOt all of the SAND was left at the dunes. I think we will forEVER be finding sand in our pockets. There is so much sand around our house that it is like we are the dunes all over AGAIN!

More

This is the harbor in Grand Marais, MI and was our distant view from the family room in the cottage we rented. The cottage itself was a little bit "dudge" (the boys word for bad/gross/dirty), but the setting couldn't be beat:

The view from the harbor beach:

This is the one I selected for myself:

Lake Superior's Agate Beach was three blocks away:

I also picked a house too (poor Sam):

Our view out of the front window of the cottage:

The side view - these guys sat on this rooftop every evening. No picks here. See I'm a reasonable woman.

No explanation - just liked these tracks left by some geese that were taking a rest from their travels: