It has Risen!!!

What do you think about that.....I did it!!! Today the mood struck me, i was ready to make bread. I found the Honey Whole Wheat recipe and got to making. It is a long process made more so by my freezing house. I had to shut all the kitchen doors and warm it up in there with a space heater from the bathroom, cranked up house heat and the warm running dishwasher before i could even start. I was worried that it would not rise, but look it did!!! Even Avery, my "NO wheat bread" girl, ate it with gusto. It was fun and exciting to see it really work. In the past i have not had a lot of luck with the rising part of bread.

Weeknight Dinner

I was thinking about doing a once a week dinner...what we had and how it was. I can not guarantee that i will follow through with this but i am going to try. Those of you who might be trying to be healthier, don't pay attention. This is the real deal!! I was thinking i would try it with "lighter" ingredients next time as a experiment. I will let you know how that goes if i get the chance. I admit that this is just a little too rich for my taste, but very yummy. So we only have this once in awhile. Here goes

Mom's Quiche
1 deep dish pie crust, frozen section
1T Butter, softened
12 slices Bacon...or other meat
4 eggs
2c Heavy Cream
3/4t Salt
1/8t nutmeg
1c Swiss cheese shredded

Spread butter on bottom of crust(as even as possible). Chill. Cook bacon and crumble. Here i used leftover ham from a ham dinner, chopped. Put bacon in crust, spread evenly on bottom. Heat oven to 425. In bowl whisk eggs. Add cream, salt and nutmeg. Stir in cheese and pour mixture in crust. bake 15 min at 425. Reduce heat (after 15 min) to 325 and bake for 35-45 more min. Place on cookie sheet for baking. Cooked when knife comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

A New Day

I think for the first time ever Chris and i worked out together this morning. Yoga. And NO people there is not a picture of that!!! That is the explanation for the random backyard bird picture. A sharp-shinned Hawk. I did not want to send a post with no picture at all. So, we got up early before the kids and went down to the living room and got to yogaing. It was nice. Harder than i thought. Hopefully we can do it more and i can get more flexible. I am currently as flexible as a brick.

Scrumdiddlyumptuous

Wasakaka, or as we like to call it "waka-waka"

white vinegar
olive oil
1t Salt
1 lg White Onion
3-4 med Roma Tomato
3 Avocado

In medium size bowl pour oil to fill up just that bottom circle. Add about double that amount of vinegar. Add salt, whisk to blend as best you can. Taste and see if it needs more of any of those to your taste. Chop the onion and add to oil and vinegar. Stir. While that sits, dice tomato, then add and stir. Finally chop avocado and add. Stir together. It will get creamy from the avocado. At the end you can doctor with the oil and vinegar and salt again if you feel it needs it. We like to eat it with tortilla chips, but it is also good on steak or a quesadilla. Your imagination is the limit.

This was given to me by a great friend. Thanks Patty. We have adjusted the original recipe to how we like it at our house....lots more avocado than she told me. Her family is from Venezuela and this is something she told me her mom makes. Sorry if we have butchered the name of it. I had it for the first time at her house and our whole family has fallen in love. I can even get my kids to eat avocado and onions when it is in waka-waka. And Julia, i know what you are going to say it looks like, but trust me, it is yummy!!!!

Happy Belated Groundhog Day!!!

Avery asked this weekend if we could start blogging some of her school journaling. This is something we do for homeschool that is part art and part story telling. She makes the pictures and then we fill in the story below. Right now i do most of the writing but our goal is to get her to where she is the one doing the writing. This picture is "Phil", and his shadow(the small one to the left). The entry below it goes like this. "A groundhog came out of his hole and he saw his shadow. Everyone is excited because in 6 weeks there was going to be spring."
I think that is not how the groundhog thing goes....because i thought that i heard there was going to be more winter. YUCK! The picture below that is the groundhog Mitchell made at playschool out of little painted wooden beads. He is having a stare out of our dining room window. Pay no mind to any dust that might be there behind him.

A Family Affair

My secret is out. At our house we like to feed and watch the birds. I feel a little bit like a nerd but it has turned out to be fun for everyone....perhaps with the exception being Chris since he is always climbing the ladder to put out more food. We have even started working these "Backyard Birds" into our homeschool lessons. Just the other afternoon i was watching the birds eat lunch and there it was in the top of our back bush....the first ROBIN!!! Mom, i think this makes me the winner, since it was not yet February when I took the picture. Avery is the helper. She is big enough now to do some jobs on her own and one of her new jobs is feeding the squirrels. There she was today in the snow and freezing rain making sure the squirrely's were fed. Good girl.

Thanks

Thank you Aunt Colleen!!! We loved our package, as you can see. We quickly changed clothes as soon as we could. Here we are helping mom in the kitchen with our great outfits on, as we prepared to taunt Julia with more yummy pictures. Hello Dollies.

My Girl

I also have been working on this this week. The twirly skirt. I found the pattern ages ago and made the mistake of telling Avery about it. Why? Because she loved it and wanted me to do it now. I had no faith is my sewing, especially with a pattern but this week i just decided i was going to dive right in. And it worked!!!! Not the greatest pictures in the world but that was all i could get as we were on our way out the door.

What's for Lunch?

I don't know about anyone else, but i have a terrible time coming up with ideas for lunch. But i reached way far back and remembered this wrap that Chris and i used to make. Here is how it goes...

Asian Veggie Wraps

Almonds, small handful
Cheese, if you want
Carrot, shredded
1-2 T Hoison
1 T Honey
Coleslaw mix
Tortilla
Lettuce

Mix the honey and hoison. Then you just throw all of that on the tortilla, roll as best you can and enjoy!!!

Spoiler

This is a little something i am working on for a "little" friend. I resolve not to make resolutions for the New Year but one of the things that i wanted to do despite that was to learn to sew something other than just quilts. I found a bag pattern and i am running with it. This is several stages of sewing. And then the finished product

If you have figured out who you are, sorry if i ruined the surprise.

are

"M" for Mitchell

He is getting big. Now he is starting to write his "letter" on his own.

Black and White Party

Avery has a bunch of BIG ideas. We try to encourage her creativity and indulge as many of them as we can. This time she wanted to celebrate the finish of our new floor with a party. She called the grandparents herself, planned the menu and told us what to do all day long! That is all the background i think that needs. The rest is in her words, my little guest blogger.

"We made black and white smoothies, and Grammy made black and white cookies and ice cream sandwiches. To drink we had soda and milk."

"My favorite thing about the black and white party was getting to play games and we had a DANCE PARTY! We did funny dancing and we had fun music. We all wore black and white. Grammy and Grampy wore one black sock and one white sock. THAT is my fun blog!"