Long week...

We are moved in! The office is fabulous. We got a lot of stuff moved over Thursday, and then Friday the bossman, his brother, and his two nephews came and helped move the big stuff- like the 500 pound desk. We got it all set up by 7:30 Friday night. By then it was too late to go home and cook so I just grabbed Wheat State and brought that home. Yesterday we bought some plants to go in there since there are two big windows and two smaller ones. I will try to remember to photo it when I go in today.
Sam was fine at his appointment, tho did flip out when it came time for his shot. He cried and whined, then she gave him a coupon for a free cone at McD's. Guess that makes it all better? This marked the first time since his birth that his weight was more than his height. Not by much tho! He is now 49 3/4 inches tall and weighs 50 1/4 pounds. Like I said, not by much. Growing like a weed and twice as stubborn!
Have been getting lots of tomatoes. The roma/canners are ripening well, and I got two of the heirloom slicers this weekend. They are the 'German Johnson' variety, and man are they good! A pink tom with the sweet heirloom flavor, few seeds, and so juicy! There are several more out there, but I'm waiting for the 'Mr. Stripey' toms to ripen- those are extraordinary! Killer sliced and salted. The little orange/pink/yellow ones that I bought thinking they were 'Green Zebras' are fabulous too. Wish I knew what they were for next year! I took several over to the neighbor across the street last night. Her hubby is in Iraq... Anything I can do to make her feel welcome.
Picked a butternut the other night and grilled it along with the chicken. Would have been good too, if it had cooked all the way. Could have used another 15 minutes. I have plenty to "experiment" with! The melons are about ready too, just another couple days should do it. They are putting on several new fruits too, so it won't just be an eat-the-fruit-quickly thing. We'll have a whole other batch! The jalapenos are still growing wild. I have three quart bags full, have canned a pint already, and will stuff them tonight and tomorrow. We're even giving some to the bossman! The zuke plant is toast. Whatever was getting at it won. Luckily the eggplants that are right next to it are completely untouched. The cukes are putting on another batch too, tho it will be a couple weeks for those. I did try those pickles I made- not bad! It's wild, they are sweet, tangy, sour, and spicy all at the same time!
The guest room is looking good! The walls and ceiling are painted, we got the closet doors installed, the ledge on the wall is stained and waiting to be put in. Honestly the biggest thing now is the tiling. We bought the rest of the tile yesterday, and decided it would be cheaper to buy a tile saw than rent one. Basically, we blew a ton of money at the home store yesterday! The room has become a little more expensive than we had hoped, but not by much. It's going to look so nice! I keep telling Joe we may end up wanting to make that OUR bedroom!
Well off to take the last of my work stuff to the office and then go grocery shopping. We leave Friday for St. Louis so the list is very small. I do plan to get some good snacks to eat along the way!

Ready for a little peace...

It has been so crazy with the remodel and not working in the office lately! I am so ready to get back to normal. I have work I need to do, and it's not easy doing it here when the files I need are in the file cabinet in the office! UGH! Joe hopes to start moving into the new space Friday. I can't wait!
I made a stir-fry the other night for dinner, along with egg drop soup (a fave of all of us!) and the crispy noodles. The stir-fry was some of the chicken I cooked for the wraps (really just ground chicken with seasoning), leftover asian-mix veggies, some broccoli, carrots, and onion. I also used a couple of my eggplants and made a spicy eggplant side. It was ok, nothing spectacular. The egg drop however... I love it! Even Sam adores it, snarfs it down!
I made some zucchini bread yesterday. While I was tasting it, Sam came in and wanted to try it. He loved it! Then later when I told him what it was he vowed never to eat it again (chocolate chips or not). Last night for his snack that was what he asked for! I asked him to make sure that he remembered what it was. He said he didn't care because it was really good. Wow! Joe even ate some for breakfast today.
Last night was stuffed peppers. Man those are good! I made a cuke salad to go with it from our garden haul- tomatoes, carrots, onions, and of course a cuke! Good stuff!
I finally made some pickles yesterday. I lost that recipe I wanted to try, so I made one up! These are sweet/spicy pickles with a hint of cinnamon. I don't know how spicy they'll be tho, all I did was put a half of a jalapeno in the jar before I added the cukes. Should work tho, I did some like that last year. Just gives them a little zing at the end. Hope these are good!

Rained again yesterday- stormed actually. The lights flickered a bit while we were eating dinner, but we never really lost power. I was hoping the rain would skip us, the cantaloupes are ripening and they are not to get watered the last week. Oh well! I also couldn't go out and spray the bugs off in the garden. The zukes were covered in eggs the other day, and they all hatched. Hate using any chemicals, but at least what I have now is organic. Still losing the plant tho...
Today is Sam's check-up. So not looking forward to the fit he's going to throw when they go to give him his booster shot. He hates needles, and really goes into super-panic mode. Last time they had to take a little blood, he threw himself down on the floor and went into hysterics for 15 minutes! Yes, it was only last year!!! It's going to be a very long day. After that we have to go grocery shopping. Wish me luck!

Rangoon, Wraps, and Relaxation

I made those wraps Friday night- not quite the same, but pretty close! I also fried some Crab Rangoon to have with it. Yeah, I said FRIED! They were soooooo good too!

P.F. Chang'S Soothing Chicken Lettuce Wraps

8 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 ts arrowroot

2 ts dry sherry

2 ts water

1 ts soy sauce

salt and pepper

1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken, ground

5 tb oil

1 tsp fresh minced ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 green onions, minced

2 sm dried chilis, (optional)

1/2 of an 8oz can bamboo shoots, minced

1/2 of an 8 oz can water chestnuts, minced

1/6 of a package cellophane chinese rice noodles, prepared according to instructions in pkg

Cooking sauce:

1 tb hoisin sauce

1 tb soy sauce

1 tb dry sherry

2 tb oyster sauce

2 tb water

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. arrowroot

Iceberg lettuce 'cups' leaves (I used butterhead leaves)

Cover mushrooms with boiling water, let stand 30 minutes then drain. Cut and discard woody stems. Mince the mushrooms. Set aside. Mix all ingredients for cooking sauce in bowl, and set aside. In medium bowl, combine arrowroot, sherry water, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chicken. Stir to coat chicken thoroughly. Stir in 1 tsp. oil and let sit 15 minutes to marinate. Heat wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Add 3 Tbsp oil, then add chicken and stir fry for about 3-4 minutes. Set aside. Add 2 Tbsp oil to pan. Add ginger, garlic, chilies(if desired), and onion; stir fry about a minute or so. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts; stir fry an additional 2 minutes. Return chicken to pan. Add mixed cooking sauce to pan. Cook until thickened and hot. Break cooked cellophane noodles into small pieces, and cover bottom of serving dish with them. Then pour chicken mixture on top of noodles. Spoon into lettuce leaf and Roll.

Crab Rangoon

3.25oz package of crab meat

8oz lite cream cheese

1 tsp sesame oil

salt & pepper

1/2 tsp each garlic and onion powder

1/2 package wonton skins

Mix everything but the skins together and chill. Wet two sides of a skin and put 1/2 a tbalespoon of filling in the middle. Fold in half to form a triangle, then bring in the two bottom tips together and seal with water. I put these on a plate with arrowroot to keep them from sticking together. When all are made, heat and inch of canola oil in a pan and fry four at a time until browned. I cooked them most of the way, then finished them in the oven.

Well Saturday we did NOTHING! We went to the movies and out to dinner last night. It was relaxing day at our house, no work was done other than watering the garden and picking more veggies. I got three more cukes (two I gave to the neighbor and she nearly fainted at the sight!), another big eggplant, four smaller ones, a zuke, and we picked all of the first-batch carrots. Here's the haul for yesterday-

Today, we WORK! After breakfast and coffee, we will go into the guest room and not come out for hours.

It's open!

The store opened yesterday. Nothing fancy, just opened the lobby. They did decent sales for not having any advertising at all and a Bobcat in the parking lot making a new spot. The practice run for the drive-thru should be this afternoon- if the guy gets there and finishes the headset work. It will open officially Monday! I goofed when I did payroll yesterday and forgot to change the delivery address. Luckily the UPS driver saw the big note on the old location and brought it down to the new store. That could have been VERY bad!
I took Sam and a friend to the pool in town yesterday. It was really perfect pool weather- 93 degrees and partly cloudy. I swam a bit, then just sat out and enjoyed the sun. The boys had fun going around the lazy river, going down the water slides, and diving for rings. There weren't too many people there, so it was not overly crowded. Too bad it costs $7 just for Sam and I...
We have two huge cukes in the fridge and two more on the vine. I have GOT to get those pickles made! The tomato plants look awful, like they are burnt, but they do that every year and still go on producing. The slicer plants are covered in fruit! The butternuts are definitely ripening since they are all a nice creamy butter color now. I am sure they will be ready by the end of the month. The cantaloupes are lightening, so those will be ready soon too!
I weighed this morning- just for the heck of it since I ate a HUGE steak last night. It said 187.6! I did it twice just to make sure and it was the same both times. I don't get it!
I am making those PF Changs wraps tonight. I wanted to make them last night, but the store didn't have any ground chicken and my stuff at home was frozen. I am thawing two chicken breasts now, so I will have to chop it up myself. I found the recipe for the wraps on the forum I used to go to, and it looks like it will be dead-on. I am very excited! I think I might make a cold soba noodle side to go with it, maybe using some of the zucchini or eggplant from the garden. We'll see!

Happy Fourth!

Made my veggie fajitas last night. They weren't as good as the other way. Oh well, live and learn!
We shot off the rest of our fireworks last night. Tonight we will drive into town and watch the big(ish) display, and then we'll be up all night listening to the neighbors... Since they are legal in our small town, everyone shoots them off until way past midnight. It's just once a year, but goes on for daaaaaays.
I made Joe some muffins yesterday. I was going back thru the blog and saw my Applesauce Muffins and thought he'd like those again. This time I added a cinnamon swirl to them- good stuff! They are especially good with that horrible pumpkin butter on them! ;) I will have to try to duplicate that this fall...
I have Sam working on some workbooks this morning. He has been just awful the last couple weeks acting like he's the center of the universe, so we are now going to start assigning him a couple of chores everyday and he's doing "school"work. It's hard to find a good chore for him tho. I'd love for it to be changing/scooping the catbox, but that's not a good one for a kid. I think he'll be doing the table-setting at dinner, helping put away his laundry, and I'm not sure about any others.
We got his enrollment packet yesterday! I'm going to mail it in this time, since we don't have to get accepted this year. So nice to have one less worry! He may say he doesn't miss school, but I know he misses his friends! It's also getting harder to work with him around. The sister of his friend that was supposed to be watching him during payroll weeks called and cancelled at 10:30pm the night before she was to watch him. I didn't even get the message until about 15 minutes before I was going to drop him off! Needless to say, she isn't watching him now. There are two girls here in town that will be in high school next year, and both of them could do it. I hate to pay someone to watch him when I'm here, but it does make it easier! Plus, they are both really sweet girls. They were both his "book helpers" when he was in kindergarten. With the pool being just two blocks away, they could easily take him there.
Joe and all of the employees are at the new store today cleaning up, doing food prep and learning where everything is. He is so stressed! Every time a store opens, someone from corporate comes, plus you have the health department inspection and all. I know he is so ready to get this over with. He is so concerned that it's going to be a disaster tomorrow! They got the awnings in the front and all the pole signs put up yesterday- it looks really sharp! I'm very excited about it! Now if it just stays dry so they can do the drive-thru stuff...
Well, off to do some work. I have to make about a million copies today and do payroll and such. Have a happy 4th and stay safe!

The office

I get to go put our deposit down on the fabulous office today! We won't get to move in really until next week at the earliest with the other store moving and all. That and we have a huge desk that will require both of us AND another person! I may move some smaller stuff in before then tho.
The new store will open Thursday as planned. The lights they were waiting for came in yesterday (three weeks late and a day early), and the pop machine should be in today. They plan to just open the lobby for a couple days since the drive-thru won't be done until Friday at the earliest. That is if it doesn't rain today or tomorrow like it might. And of course they are also waiting on the guy who is setting up the drive-thru ordering system (who happens to be the guy we rent our current office from, so we can't seem to get ahold of him). Let's all think good thoughts, eh?
Last night I picked yet another giant cuke from our vine. This prompted me to measure both this latest one and the super giant I picked the other day. The new one is 17 inches long with a circumference of 8.25 inches. The other one was 18 inches long and a circumference of 8.75 inches!!! I think they are wild!
I also counted the squashes and found we have 11 bigguns out there. I picked two Ichiban eggplants to eat this week (Joe says "Eggplant Parm??!!") and took a few more zukes. Whatever is nibbling them is killing the plant, so I'm not sure how long I will be able to get them. One zuke has been completely dissolved by it! My tomatoes are covered, so I'm still looking for that sun we usually get relentlessly in July. I pulled most of the remaining onions too. With the ground so wet, I was afraid they'd begin to mold or rot. I have tons of jalapenos, so this week we're having "Appetizer Night" with dinner- stuffed peppers and wings! Looks like the little Fairy Tale eggplants are supposed to get about 4-5 inches long, so I will be picking them soon. They sure are cute! Pink and white streaked. Like little Easter Eggs! Here is a link to them at Burpee.com- http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/eggplant/eggplant+fairy+tale+-+packet+%2830+seeds%29.do Mine have a bit more white on them than the ones in the picture. I did notice they grow in clusters like cherry tomatoes tho, really neat! Nothing tastes better than a homegrown eggplant...
Off to do some Subway work. Stay dry everyone!

Getting to work!

I mentioned we'd be remodeling the guest room soon. Well a flooded corner of our basement was just the motivation we needed to get moving. Actually, we were planning to start this weekend anyway, this just made it more important to get the carpet outta there! Unfortunately, they had used some wicked adhesive to hold it down, so we had to get a solvent to get the rest up (we're about 1/4 done). We also pulled off a small section of drywall as we discovered it had flooded before and it was moldy! When we pulled it off, we found an old termite home coming in from a crack, so we patched that too. It's going to be a lot of work getting this done, but I guarantee it will be done right!

We bought one box of floor tiles just to bring them in and see how it looked. We are using 12x12 tiles of a mossy-type green and brownish pattern. Hard to describe, but very nice. They are really inexpensive too! The boxes have 15 tiles and are only $12!!! We'll probably only need 10-12 boxes, so that will save us some money. We bought the paint based on the tiles too. A nice mossy green for the walls and a very very pale green for the ceiling and closet doors. We even picked out some light fixtures we liked, so that will be next.

The ceiling was terribly textured- I mean that both in how much it was and how badly it was done. There was red glitter in the texturing?? Joe got it scraped down pretty well, not fully flat but not super bumpy either. A nice happy medium. I did a lot with the solvent on the floor, it has to sit 15-30 minutes after applying. Both of us are sore, but this is going to look so great when we're done!

I ate badly this weekend, but am not beating myself up about it. I worked hard both days (as all of my backside muscles can tell you!), so I feel okay about my food. Mostly I just ate too much of it, not really eating BAD things. It's all good- this is a new week! Last night with our brat dinner, I made a salad with veggies all from our own garden. It was a ranch salad with sliced cukes, carrots (both our orange and purple ones), sweet onion, and cherry tomatoes from the patio plant. Very tasty and completely organic. Still have two cukes to eat, and more on the vine. I hate to make more pickles since I still have some from last year, but I found a new recipe for sweet&hot ones that sounds delish. One cuke will make about 2 quarts! Plus they are perfect for camping- all that vinegar keeps them well.

Garden update-

We have about 7 cantaloupes, all growing very nicely in this rain. The butternut squashes are turning more of a creamy yellow-orange color. Might be ready in a month? The tomato plants are covered in fruits, but need SUN!!! Come on, Mother Nature! Momma needs some homemade spaghetti sauce! The Ichiban eggplant is fruiting nicely, there are three more on there. The Fairy Tale eggplants are growing too, tho fruiting is slower with those. They grow in clusters a bit like cherry tomatoes, it's quite cute! The zuke plant has many small ones on there, but none big enough to cut yet. Something dissolved one of them, so I'll have to keep an eye out.

Shopping with the kiddo today and watching Pan's Labyrinth tonight... Oh, and that office is ours if our bossman approves when he sees it today! I even got the rent down some. I know, I'm GOOD!!! Here's to hoping it's a dry week!

Grilled chicken... and my Granola recipe- YUM!

The chicken last night was delicious! Unfortunately, the marinade didn't really flavor it, so next time I do it overnight instead of the 4 hours it recommends. It took about an hour to cook, and the last few minutes I put it over direct heat to brown it up more. So moist and wonderful! I browned and roasted some small new potatoes seasoned with a French mix of garlic, lavender, basil, chervil, marjoram, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, savory, and thyme. I bought the mix at Aldis of all places! I also steamed some sliced carrots and sauteed broccolini. No pics of those of course, too busy eating! I do have chicken and veggies leftover for lunch today, if I'm even hungry.

I haven't been sleeping terribly well lately, tossing and turning all night long after taking at least two hours to fall asleep. I have tried different sleeping pills and such, but nothing is really working. I have been getting so tired, I find myself waking up later and later every morning- today was almost 10am!! I'm sure a big part of it is that I'm not getting any exercise. It's been so rainy that I just haven't had the opportunity to go for walks and when it isn't raining I've been working more! Hopefully next week it will stop/slow down so I can walk.

Checked in this morning... 189.2! That's even after having banana bread at breakfast yesterday, so I felt safe enough to have granola this morning. I made some homemade last week and it's very good! Here's the recipe:

Granola

7 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup raw wheat germ

1/2 cup each sliced almonds and chopped walnuts

1 cup SF maple syrup

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients in a huge bowl, whisk the wet in a smaller one. Pour the wet onto the dry and mix well (use your hands!). Divide mixture between two large rimmed baking sheets and bake at 250 for one hour. Stir the mixture and bake another hour. Remove from the oven and cool completely. You can add 1 cup unsweetened coconut to the dry ingredients, but Joe doesn't like it so I left it out. Also, after it cools you can add some raisins, dried currants, or even mini chocolate chips! It's not very sweet, so it's perfect I think. I bet it would work really well as a crunch topping for apple pie or something like that. Great in a bowl of milk too!!!

We're going to a play tomorrow night- Yay for sitters! ESU is doing Plaza Suite, and of course we have free tix to the summer theater shows. This will be the first time in ages we've gotten to go out ALONE, so we're greatly looking forward to it!

The new store is not going well. All this rain- at the worst possible time- is delaying the finishing of the drive-thru area. Can't pour concrete when it's pouring rain! The inside lights won't be in until Tuesday, meaning the electrician will be hanging them on the Fourth of July, so he isn't happy. They were supposed to have arrived weeks ago, but got lost somehow??? They also found out Wednesday that the pop machine Joe ordered a month ago has disappeared from the shipper? Luckily it was a second unit, but that means there won't be one out in the lobby for customers to fill their own cups. It's nuts! Like I said before- whatever COULD go wrong HAS! They had scheduled a "dry-run" for the drive-thru for Monday night. All 17 employees got 5 coupons to give their friends and family for free food from the drive-thru. They won't be ready for it Monday! Joe is stressed, I am stressed for him, and the poor workers putting this store together are getting stressed too. Can't wait for it to be over! It''l be worth it when it's over, but until then- SHEESH!

I weighed the huge cuke from yesterday- it weighs 3.5 pounds! That's insane, dontcha think? Sure is going to make a lot of sweet & spicy pickles! I will make those tomorrow.

Rain, Rain, Go Away! Well, then again...

Yes, it has been raining now for two solid days! I do have something wonderful to report tho- during a short lull today I picked these-Notice the pencil for size reference?!? The carrots are the small variety (in addition to being dwarfed by the massive cukes!) and the zuke I just really wanted to pick! It will go well with the veggie fajitas when I make them! Guess the rain is good for something after all... Sam likes it too!

The other night I made a great bean salad, but somehow the pictures got erased? Here is the recipe anyway!

Santa Fe Salad

1 can each pintos and black beans, drained and rinsed well

1 small can sliced black olives

1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup sweet corn

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

2 tbsp lime juice

1 cup fresh cilantro,chopped

2 tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

pinch salt

Mix everything together and fridge for a few hours before serving. The original recipe called for green beans and green chiles, but I left those out. I do think it needed some chopped tomatoes!! Cukes would be good too...

Tonight I am making Chicken Dijonaise from my grilling cookbook. It's basically a whole chicken (flattened) marinated in a mix of dry vermouth, dijon mustard, garlic, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice. It smells incredible as it's cooking now, so I hope I remember to photo it! I am serving it with sauteed broccolini and steamed carrots. I am also making broasted new potatoes, but I doubt I will eat any. Saving those calories for a glass or two of pinot grigio! ;) If I remember to photo, I will post it tomorrow.

Long week...

I haven't posted in a couple days. It's been a long week already!
The store Joe has been getting ready to move closed yesterday, and they spent most of the day tearing down the old store. That meant he didn't get to do as much in the office today. This translates into me not being able to get MY stuff done in usual fashion. I also had to drive to another town for him to take them some supplies as they have been very busy lately. MILEAGE+BEING ON THE CLOCK= NICE CHECK! The one real downside is poor Joe. He hasn't slept much in the last month, and the next week is going to be very hard physically. He also had one of those days today, everything that could go wrong did.
So on my side of the world...
I have decided to start tracking my calories again for a little while. My loss had stopped and started to go the other way a bit. Well the first day I typed in my usual morning omelet and was horrified!!! It was over 640 calories! Soooooo, a few changes and better portioning later, I got it down to a reasonable 450 or so. I am trying for about 1500/day. That may seem like nothing to some, but it's really only temporary. In fact, I have been doing this for just a few days and have gone from 193 to 190.2 today. I know that's not accurate, but it's better than it going the other way!!! I plan to do this for another week or so, then gradually move up a little. I am also cutting back on the grains and starches a bit. I would really like to just get my starch from veggies for this time- sweet potatoes, peas, carrots... I look at it as a "jump-start", and I really need one!
Well, I want to spend some time with Joey! Bye!

Broccoli with Clam Sauce a a little pasta!

I made this last night and the pasta you see is it, I had MAYBE 1.5 oz? I've made this before, and this time it was just as good as always even without the pasta! Basically it's just 2 cans of clams drained reserving the juice, a bag of frozen broccoli (cooked), a little milk, and the juice from the clams! I topped it with parmesan cheese and that's it! I also had a big salad, so there! ;)

I spent most of the day looking for a new office. Our one we're in now is just not the best situation. I found several, and one really would be super! It's in a real estate office, but up on the second floor and in the corner. It's actually two offices in one, the back main office and a front "reception" area. It would be so nice! There is a kitchenette just down the hall with a fridge and microwave that we'd be welcome to use. It's a bit more than we're paying now, but such a better deal in the long run- it even has cable TV in there?! We have to wait until Friday tho, technically it's rented already but they have yet to pay their deposit...

Not much to say now, I will try to catch up tomorrow.

Burgers and Chicken Zin

I forgot to post the burgers we had the other night- so good! Not terribly friendly mind you, but with the frustration Joe and I are feeling at this ugly plateau we're both at we didn't care! I basically made 6oz burgers from nothing more than 85/15 ground beef, then after I flipped them topped them with two slices bacon and a mix of shredded cheddar and (gasp!) a tiny bit of French's onions. Then when they were done, put them together with BBQ sauce and homemade pickles! Great with roasted sweet potatoes.

Last night I made Chicken Zin. It's from my grilling book and is based on Coq Au Vin. You marinate the thighs in a mix of zinfandel, dijon mustard, garlic, thyme, and EVOO. Then grill them alongside boiler onions and shrooms. I also added the first eggplant and baby zuke from our garden! I cooked up some sprouts to go with it, and it was heavenly! All I do for the sprouts is trim them and simmer in 1/2 cup water with a chicken cube (beef is even better!) in a saute pan. This time I added bacon pieces. Simmer it about 10 minutes until they are just about done, then remove the lid and let the liquid cook out and brown the sprouts a bit. Even Sam likes them this way!

So the big plan for today is shopping- well, sort of. Joe wants to start working on the guest bedroom. That room is so atrocious! His plan is to go find a huge rug and buy it. Then he wants to base the colors and such on this rug. Pull up the rank carpet and tile the floor (it's in the basement, so we'd need a reallllly big rug!), find an antique head/footboard for the bed, replace the closet mirrors/doors... Big project. It's either that or we repaint the living room and I'm not up for that just yet. I LIKE the color we chose this last time, even if he decided once it was on the walls that he didn't. I find it relaxing!

The garden is going crazy today. We got some rain last night, and when I was out there I found several more cantaloupes! I picked a cuke the other night to have with our burgers, but there are still two bigguns out there. The onions are about ready too! Yay for gardens!!!

Off to get the kid's hair chopped! Happy Saturday!

Garden part three!

These are my beautiful black hollyhocks. That is one happy bee!

Here are half of our carrots. We planted Purple Haze and small orange ones this year. Sam made the marker!

My clematis is very happy. It got cut back early on, then again after that late freeze. Will do that again!

I keep forgetting to photo the incredibly happy grape vine! I will try to remember tomorrow. Going to be tons of jelly and juice this year!

More garden...

Here are the sweet potatoes. There are nine plants.

Here are the canning tomatoes. There are tons in there!

And the zukes. Can you see them in there?

My pretty eggplant! I can't wait to grill these!





Happy cukes! We have already gotten two about 12 inches long, with a diameter of maybe 3 inches? These are still babies at maybe 9 inches long?!

My Garden

The pics of my salad last night were awful. I can tell you tho, it was delish! Pretty simple really- mixed greens, avocado, bacon, cheese, egg, ranch, tomatoes, red onion, and those croutons. Good stuff...

I took some pics of the garden last night for everyone. Here they are! I will have to do this in two posts.

This is the cantaloupe plant. if you look closely you can see the little melon in there!

This is the butternut. there are several in this picture.

This is the onion patch. It got quite beaten by the wind! See the volunteer tomato?

Here are the three jalapenos plants. Almost time for stuffed "mice"!

And this is the funky artichoke. You can't see, but it's covered in little red ants...

Shanghai Salad

First off I have to say-

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO TYPE WITH A KITTY PAWING AT THE SCREEN???

Charlie has developed this obsession with pawing the computer screen in search of the little space shuttle mousie. This has now begun to get annoying- she just now knocked over my tea all over the desk! OY!

So last night I tried a new recipe. It's from that great cookbook "The Good Carb Book". It's called Shanghai Salad and can be served alone or on top of lettuce. I decided to use the lettuce for the extra veg- wouldn't have it any other way! Here's the recipe:

Shanghai Salad (this was for our two big salads)

2 cups cold cooked angel hair pasta (WW of course!)

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1 large carrot, coarsely shredded

1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts

1/2 cup chopped bamboo shoots

1 large chicken breast, cooked and sliced thinly

1 bag baby lettuce mix

Grape tomatoes

Snow peas

Red pepper, julienned (I didn't have any)

Dressing ingredients- Mix together and fridge for 2 hours!

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup Splenda

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp finely minced ginger

1/4 tsp chili paste

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup veg oil (or EVOO)

Toss the noodles and everything but the chicken, tomatoes, snow peas, and lettuce with 1/4 cup of the dressing and fridge for 2 hours. When ready to eat, layer on a plate lettuce, noodles, tomatoes and snow peas, and chicken. Drizzle on additional dressing if desired. You could add chow mien noodles or something, but it really is fabulous just like this!

My friend Linda- who farms the best eggs- has been sharing her "can't-wear-'em-anymore" clothes with me for the last couple months. She gave me another great bagful of shirts today that I am so excited about! I can't tell you how much she's saved me from buying lately. It's great! She also has chickens and we buy our eggs from her. If you haven't had a farm-fresh eggs before, try it once. I swear you will NEVER go back to store-bought! We switched in March, and have only bought store eggs once since then (and that was an emergency). There really is nothing like it. I eat one every morning! They have ten times the flavor of the others and they are the one thing we eat I can say are truly LOCAL. Look for a local farmer!

Garden is getting happy! There are two or three little zukes, the cukes are growing a million little ones, and I even have one small Japanese eggplant! Going to use that and a zuke tomorrow night. There are roma tomatoes everywhere- including a volunteer in the onions! My early butternut plant is covered to the tips with little babies! Luckily my friend Jane wants some, or we'd be eating it every night this fall! The cantaloupe plant has only only melon, but it's still very early. The sweet potato plants are vining out nicely, just wish I could see how they were doing underground. My artichoke finally looks like it may want to send up a stalk this year after all. I was beginning to get grumpy about it. It has sent out many new and more vertical leaves in the last two days. Seems a good sign? If anyone knows about growing them, I'd love advice!

Off to start getting things ready for dinner- BLT salads tonight with croutons made from that rosemary onion focaccia!

The weekend details...

So I couldn't say what we were doing for the weekend because it was a surprise. Over a month ago my dad's wife Suzy asked if we could possibly come to Tulsa to surprise Dad for his birthday. We had been keeping this a secret for quite awhile! So, Friday Joe worked the morning, then we all got in the car and drove to Tulsa. Not a bad drive actually, except for the kiddo in the backseat whining "Are we there yet?". We got to their house a bit later than planned (there was an accident on the freeway immediately before our exit and we had to find another way), and we had Sam go ring the bell. When Dad answered, he was floored to find Sam standing on the steps! It was great! We stayed there until Sunday morning, then came home a different route- much faster and shorter. It was a great weekend! I must say I was very surprised that he didn't suspect anything after my mysterious entry the other day...

They took us to dinner Saturday night at PF Changs. Oh man, that was sooooo good! I had the Sichuan by the Sea- scallops, calamari, and shrimp in a sichuan sauce over brown rice. The calamari was so incredibly tender, it was all so delicious! Probably a good thing there isn't one near us! I think I may be able to replicate the chicken lettuce cups we had for the appetizer too. I will work on that. So not a great weekend food-wise, but we're back to behaving this week! dad said next time he'll take me to try sushi. I have been wanting to try it, but Joe has no desire!

Another thing we did was go to a Wild Oats store after dinner. I have never been to one, and could very easily lose all sense of monetary control there. They had Larabars in seven flavors, so we got a pecan pie one and a chocolate coconut one. I bought bulk fructose and lots of bulk spelt flour for so cheap! I also bought this gorgeous orchid. It was a surprise to find out what it would look like- it was covered in buds but had none open yet. Two of them started opening in the car on the way home. I'm very happy it's so different!

Well that's all I have to report right now. Today I am working on getting back to normal!

Friday!!!

I did make the cake yesterday, but Joe is going to have to live with me making something else. I doubled the recipe because it freezes well. The 9inch pan I baked part of it in stuck a bit and the bundt pan I did the rest in stuck horribly! Needless to say, the bundt cake is in pieces in the freezer and the other I coated with a glaze to hold it together! It still tastes great tho! ;) No pictures this time however... I bet the broken pieces will make a fabulous trifle with blueberries and lemon pudding!

I made the Sausage and Peppers again last night and added angel hair pasta. It was outstanding! I even took a pic for the blog! This time I added a small sliced zucchini and the garlic I forgot last time. It was even better! Here's the "official" recipe and the photo:

Sausage and Peppers W/Pasta

4 links Italian sausage

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 red bell pepper, chunked

1 green bell pepper, chunked

1 onion, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced

2 tsp each dried oregano and basil

1 tbsp minced garlic

Angel Hair pasta, cooked and tossed with EVOO

In an 8x11 baking dish, mix the veggies and herbs. Lay the sausages on top and cover the dish with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour, then remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes or until the sausages brown a bit and are cooked thoroughly.

Serve on top of the pasta and top with a little shredded Parmesan if desired (highly recommended!).

So Dad checked my blog yesterday! Guess he knew I was thinking about him, eh? I can't wait until July when we can take a weekend and go visit them in the new house. It's going to be so nice having them only 4 hours away instead of 14! Sam is very excited about going camping with them sometime this summer. Can't imagine why... His Gramps was the first person to take him camping! We just have to convince Sam that it's okay to camping somewhere other than Arches... That may take time!

Sam took this picture of Miss Charlie last night. She must be part ferret, she is always sitting up like this! I even catch Max doing it too from time to time. They are truly bizarro kitties! I'm very happy that her mark on her forehead isn't fading anymore. The Eiffel Tower is too cute to disappear!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Swimtop and dinner...

I got my swimtop yesterday! It's really nice too! I ended up spending almost $80 after shipping, but it got here in 3 days and I got a free beach bag with it. Here is the link top what I bought, I got the black one- http://www.junonia.com/detail.htm?sid=537005&tl=1&ldid=2&sdid=5 It looks great with the boyshort bottoms I bought at Walmart. I am trying it out today. Sam passed his level in swimming yesterday, so today is a free day and I'm going to swim with him.

Last night I made a pretty tasty dinner. I have a great grilling book and got the chicken recipe from there. They are called "Thunder Thighs"! I also made yummy soba noodles with lots of veggies and some broccoli to have with it. Very good meal!

Thunder Thighs

1 package chicken thighs, boneless & skinless

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup red rooster sauce (Vietnamese chili garlic sauce)

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

Mix everything together in a zipper bag and marinate for about 2-3 hours. Supposed to grill them, but it was raining so I broiled them for about 10 minutes on the first side and 7-8 on the second. Yummy!

Asian Noodles

1 package soba noodles, cooked as directed

1/2 small zucchini, julienned

1 carrot, julienned

1/4 red bell pepper, julienned

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 large mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 tbsp EVOO

2 tbsp low sugar teriyaki sauce

Saute the carrots and shrooms in the oil about 4 minutes, then add the onion and zucchini. When they begin to soften, add the noodles, pepper, and sauce and toss thru. That's it!

For some reason (maybe been skimping on the water or something?) my weight has been at 190-191 for the last few days. I think I haven't been doing well with my water and know I have had tiny bits of non-friendly foods. It may also be that I haven't been walking lately. Hope today's swimming will help a little.

Have tons to do today, unfortunately nothing I can mention here for now. Let's just say I am baking a Lemon Olive Oil Cake this afternoon for the weekend. I will try to remember to photo it and post the recipe.

Today is my Dad's 56th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!!

Catching up! Fondue and Focaccia

I know, I know... I haven't been very good the last week or so in posting. Been busy with those calls and other work, sorry!

Sam had a friend spend the night Friday, so instead of fish for dinner we had pizza. It was good, not fabulous, and I ate way too much of it. Oh well, not the end of the world! Of course then we had leftovers Saturday night and Sunday for lunch... It's gone now tho!

I made "stuffed" cod the other night. I have the recipe for the stuffed shrooms from Olive Garden so I used that stuffing and topped the filets. The stuffing was fabulous- full of WG bread, clams, and parmesan cheese! Very tasty filling, the fish was not great tho. Cod has no flavor! Next time I will just stuff portabello caps.

Last night I made fondue for dinner. It was just a classic swiss fondue, nothing fancy. I served it with cut-up carrots, red bell pepper, and homemade focaccia! I also made a quick cucumber salad from part of one of our garden cukes and ranch dressing. All went well with a bottle of Vampire Cab. So good! Here is the recipe for the fondue:

Swiss Fondue

1# swiss cheese, cut small or shredded (I use 2% Kraft)

2tbsp WW flour

1 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic

Toss the cheese with the flour and set aside to warm to room temp. In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat the wine and halved garlic clove to simmer. At a simmer, remove the clove and add the lemon juice. Slowly by handfuls add the cheese, waiting to add more until the last handful melts. Stir constantly in a figure-8 to keep from burning. It will take several minutes to melt and mix in all of the cheese. When all incorporated, serve with bread and veggies- apples are great too!

I made focaccia to serve with the fondue. This time I split the dough into two loaves so I could top one with the rosemary and onion and leave one plain. I did brush both with a garlic rosemary oil tho. Yummmmm! Here is the recipe for that:

Focaccia

Preferment-

1 cup WW flour

3/4 cup water

Pinch yeast

Dough-

All of the preferment

1 1/4 cup water

3 cups WW flour

2 tsp salt

The rest of the yeast packet

Mix the preferment ingredients the night before in your mixer bowl and cover with wrap overnight. It will look very dry- don't worry!

The next day your preferment will be puffy and wet looking. Add to it the dough ingredients, starting with the water. Mix in the mixer on low speed until it holds together (it should be very slack and wet still, I usually have to add more water). Then mix on low for 2 minutes, then increase to medium for another 4 minutes. The dough will still be soft. Cover it tightly with wrap and let rise 30 minutes. A great place for this is in a cold oven with the light on!

After 30 minutes, turn it out onto a floured surface and pat it down a bit. Flour your hands well! Fold one-thrid of the dough over and then the bottom third- like you are folding a business letter. Brush the excess flour from the dough when you fold, you do not want to incorprate any more into it. Turn the dough a half turn and fold again to make a packet. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover again. Let rise another 30 minutes. Repeat the folding process and again let rise for 30 minutes. Do one more fold for a total of three. Put the bundle onto a well-oiled very large baking sheet (use good olive oil!) after the last folds. Spread the dough to the edges, you may need to let it sit for a couple minutes. Cover the dough after it is spread out and let it rise another 30 minutes. This is the time I oil the loaf with the infused oil.

During this last rise, preheat the oven to 500 degrees (yes! I said 500!). If you have a baking stone, put it in there. Allow this to heat for 30 minutes.

To top the dough, I mixed some olive oil with two cloves garlic and a sprig of rosemary and warmed that and let it steep for an hour. I brushed this oil on both loaves and topped one loaf with thinly sliced sweet onion and finely chopped rosemary. I dimpled the top a bit when I added the toppings. You don't have to add the onion tho, you could just brush it with the oil and sprinkle kosher or sea salt on it!

Reduce the oven temp to 425 and put the baking sheet in right on top of the stone. Bake the bread for 18-20 minutes until deep golden brown. Remove and let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting (use kitchen shears, they work best!).