Tag Archives: kids

The most exciting news EVER….

24 Jul

What could my exciting news be??

I have THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!!!

You won’t believe it.

I’ve been keeping this a secret for SO LONG, more than a month, and it was SO HARD!

Okay I told *a few* people.

And of course my immediate family.

But that’s it.

Do you want to know??? I know you do!

Okay here it is.

I would sit down if I were you. It’s big.

Caroline and I are going to Washington DC.

We’re going to meet THE FIRST LADY!!!!

That’s right! Michelle Obama!! We’re meeting Michelle Obama!!!

Yes, seriously!

Okay. Let me regroup. Here’s how it happened….

Back around the end of May, my editor at the Cranston Herald, Meg, received a press release from Senator Jack Reed’s office announcing a recipe contest that Epicurious was putting out in conjunction with the White House. One winner, a parent/child team, would be chosen from every single state. You can read a similar press release here.

Now Meg is a big fan of The Whole Bag of Chips. She emailed me the press release and said, “You should enter this with one of your kids.”

I took a look, and thought, “Hmmm….maybe I should.”

So I broached it to my kids, but there was one problem: you could enter with one child at a time, ages 8-12, but if you entered with more than one child, only one could win and if one was a winner, the whole family doesn’t get to go to Washington, just the one winner and their parent.

Right off the bat, Alex is seven, so I couldn’t enter with her. My first initial thought was to enter with Caroline because she cooks more in the kitchen than Liz and is slightly more independent in the kitchen, and additionally, she’s 12, the top age. She couldn’t enter again if it ran next year.

But, Elizabeth, upon hearing about the contest said, “Well, I’m between 8 and 12 I want to enter too.” So I explained the whole thing about not being able to win with both, even though I could enter with both.

Elizabeth said, “That’s okay, if Caroline won, I’d be happy for her.”

Caroline said, “I don’t know. If you won, I think I’d be too sad. I don’t know if I can do it.”

I was stumped. I didn’t know what we should do. We had some time though, I let them think on it, and I hoped that Caroline would come around and both of them could enter.

One day at the beginning of June, I received an email from Caroline that said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” (I’m pretty sure she wrote that email from in our house, with me right in the house with her, but it didn’t matter to me. She wanted to do it.)

And so, we did it.

Elizabeth and Don with their contest entry, a tuna wrap and all the fixins’!

On June 9, after dinner we got down to business.  Separately we had to come up with our meals, cook up our meals, type up our entries which included the recipe with ingredients and step-by-step instructions and a photo of a complete meal including side dishes and beverages, as well as a short essay.

We have a tiny kitchen. We had to take turns.

Elizabeth had chosen to enter with Don because their healthy lunchtime recipe was one he makes for her lunch a lot: a tuna wrap with lettuce and tomato. On the side she had celery and carrots and a glass of coffee milk (a delicacy here).

Lunch anyone?

Caroline and I came up with an egg white omelette with broccoli and mozzarella cheese because she will only eat egg whites, and she loves broccoli. On the side we had wheat toast and mixed fruit (kiwi and nectarines).

We sent in our entries that night. The deadline was June 17, the night before the last day of school.

That Friday afternoon, following the deadline, I received an email. Caroline and I were finalists for our state. I couldn’t believe it. I asked Don if he’d gotten one, but he had not.

We had to tell them.

I let Caroline see the email first. Then we told Liz. I was worried at how she’d react. Her eyes got bright, but she said, “Caroline, I’m so happy for you. Here, have my lollipop stick,” and she handed her the empty stick. That was the end of it.

I emailed Meg, “We’re finalists! OMG” and began filling out all the paper work needed to complete the next level of the contest. We had five days to get it filled out, notarized and postmarked.

Then, we waited.

We knew from the rules that there could be up to three finalists per state but that’s all we knew; that and the fact that only one of those finalists would win.

And waited.

We wondered. We’re a small state. How many entries could there be?

And waited.

It was agonizing. The original notification date was supposed to be by July 16. I slept about ten seconds the night before.

But we didn’t hear anything.

I checked in. “Just checking to see if all the winners had been notified yet?”

No. Not yet. No one.

We were still in the running. The winners would be notified that week.

So we waited and waited some more. Every day seemed like a week. I checked my email ten million times a day if we were home, to see if we heard anything yet.

By that Thursday I checked in again. A formal email went out. Competition was tough this year. They needed more time. The official notification date would now be Tuesday July 24. We’d hear either way.

And now here it is, Tuesday, July 24.

And guess what???  Well you know already. WE WON!!!!

Caroline and I will be traveling to Washington to represent the state of Rhode Island at the Kids’ State Dinner, which will be held next month!!

I’m so incredibly excited!! But even more so, I’m so incredibly proud of my kids. I’m proud of them for taking the risk to enter, proud of them for being healthy eaters, for being cooks in the kitchen, and for loving each other and us, enough to want to compete against each other and yet be willing to support each other at the same time. To me, and I’m choked up as I write this, that says a lot about the strength of their bond with each other and their bond with us. I love my kids so much, and I’m so, so proud.

I am incredibly proud of my kids!!

I will keep you updated as the trip takes place and you can be sure there will be photos to go along with it. They are creating a free downloadable eBook containing all the recipes from all the winners for each state, so our recipe will be published in that cookbook. I’ll let you know when that becomes available as well.

We won. Can you believe it?

Our healthy lunchtime recipe: Egg white omelette with broccoli and cheese.

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What We’re Doing For Fun This Summer: Summer Timeline Update

23 Jul

As promised, here’s a quick update on our Summer Vacation 2012 Timeline. If you’re a new reader, you can check out how our timeline began by clicking on the link here.

It’s been just over one month since school ended and our timeline began, and so far, so good. I wasn’t sure what to expect; how often we’d add to it, what we’d be doing to put on it, if the kids would lose interest or not.

No worries, the timeline is full.

Visitors, parades, birthdays, staycation time…it was a busy month!

The kids have really enjoyed adding their posts to the timeline, and they take turns adding things on. If it’s a particular event that happened to one of them, they let that person write it and put it on. Otherwise, they take turns. We make sure to add the dates, of course. We did blue paper for June, yellow for July and probably will do pink for August.

I print the photos out nine at a time, since my photo printing program prints nine 2×3 photos per page.  I don’t waste paper that way and I’m not running around printing photos every other day. The kids love seeing what pictures I’ve added overnight, when they wake up in the morning. I try to be equal, making sure to put up approximately the same amount of photos of each kid, each time, or the best bet: photos containing the three of them.

I also learned pretty quickly that one row of photos just wasn’t enough. I’m a photographer with three kids. Two rows was definitely a must. Luckily our Doodle Roll is wide enough to accommodate two rows. Luckily it doesn’t accommodate three, because I could totally go there.

The beginning of July tends to be busier for us and more eventful than the end of the month, because that’s when Don takes his vacation time (and some again in the beginning of August) so we do a lot. There’s the Fourth of July holiday in there as well as Elizabeth’s birthday, so there were tons of things to add to the timeline, every day. Once he went back to work and we were out of the holiday time and back to a more routine schedule there was less to add, so it balances out so far.

The kids had questioned me as to what would happen if we ran out of space, and we did. My answer had been not to worry, that we could always add to it, so we did. We went around the corner and onto the next wall in the dining room. (I have no qualms about hanging “kid stuff” up anywhere in the house, so this was not an issue for me. I have many years ahead to have grownup stuff or no stuff, on my walls.)

The second half of our timeline, ready and waiting for our upcoming events in July and August.

Personally, as a scrapbooker and a person who makes photo books often, I love this project. If I get no further than taking this off the wall in September and rolling it up to put it away, at least we have this much: a record of all our summer memories from 2012, photos to go with them, and even samples of the kids’ handwriting and spelling from this summer to go along too.  If I decide to make a photo album or scrapbook, I can use these pictures and their posts. If I want to make a photo book, I’ve already sorted the “best of” pictures into a separate folder on my computer for printing, so making a photo book will be that much easier. But, I won’t have ANY guilt because I know that we have this much, which is better than nothing!

Summer is my favorite, favorite, favorite time of year. I love having my family around me, my husband gets some time off, and we do lots of fun things together. I am so incredibly glad to have this fun reminder of these days together. I know that one day we’ll look back and say, “Where did the time go?”

And then, I’ll pull out our timeline and we’ll know.

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Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies by Karen

20 Jul

There is nothing like a summer’s night on the beach!

Last week we attended the annual summer concert on the beach that I’ve been attending since I was young. I’ve missed one or two, but in the 37 total years it’s been in existence, I have been to almost all of them.

It’s a huge affair and it is one of my all-time favorite summer traditions. I love sharing it with my kids. Everyone goes down to the beach first thing in the evening and sets up their space. We bring blankets, chairs, tables.

And then comes the food and the wine, and the dessert. Oh…the dessert.

This year I was looking for something unique to bring. Something that we hadn’t already done this summer at another night on the beach or parade or cookout. I like to keep things interesting so that no one gets bored. Namely, me.

I looked through a cookbook or two, and then I remembered Karen’s Cookbook, and the fact that last time I’d gone through it I’d seen an old favorite of mine: Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies.

I knew I’d found my dessert.

Melting butter and chocolate chips…what a beautiful sight!

As I was cooking them, melting the chocolate over the stove, I could literally see myself making them all those years ago, my college roommate Karen and I living in our house we rented during our college years. This is what I love about recipes: the traditions and memories that go with them. I always say recipes are the ties that bind people together, and I do truly believe that. I thought of Karen and all the fun we had, as I was cooking.

So today, I share with you Karen’s Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie recipe. I love that it’s a “from scratch” brownie recipe, and I love the step where you turn the batter into one part peanut butter batter and one part chocolate batter and then swirl them together. You’ll see, it’s so cool.

When you make them and eat them, I hope you make some special memories too!

KAREN’S PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS

1 six ounce bag chocolate chips (I used one cup)

3 Tablespoons butter

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tablespoon sour cream

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup peanut butter

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 9×13 pan.

Melt chocolate chips and butter until fudge-like.

In mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and sour cream.

Add flour and baking powder to the egg mixture.

Pour 3/4 of the batter into the melted chocolate and stir well.

Add peanut butter to remaining batter.

Pour chocolate batter into the pan.

Spoon peanut butter batter over and swirl with a knife until proportionate.

Bake 25-30 minutes.

Ready to eat!

Someone got hold of my camera, apparently.

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What we’re doing for fun this summer: The Great Playground Challenge

16 Jul

Making a mountain out of a molehill isn’t always a bad thing.

They say not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but oftentimes at our house, we do, and we do it on purpose.

When I was a teacher, I always found that if I really talked something up, like an upcoming unit of study, the kids would be super-enthused about it, just because I was. Their response was all in how I presented something to them. They followed my lead. With our own kids that’s often what we do.

We make mountains out of molehills.

Today’s post about our Great Playground Challenge is one example of how you can present something to your kids in such a way that you can get them enthused about a simple thing, and have fun with it.

Here’s how it started:

It was the girls’ first day home from school for the summer. Don was at work and it was my deadline day for the newspaper. Sometimes I can type ahead of a deadline day to get things in early, but the end of the school year was so crazy that I could not. I had to spend their first day off, typing. They got their own breakfast, they played on their own and watched some TV. Not the way I normally like to kick off the summer, but when you work from home, sometimes that’s how it has to be.

The zip line at this playground is what they loved most. Five stars….

As a reward, I decided to stop by one of the city playgrounds on the way to the grocery store later that afternoon (also not a fun first day off task, but one that had to be done if we were to eat dinner that night.)

This playground is one we’d been to years ago, but not recently, and I remembered it as being a particularly fun playground with some unique equipment. It was on the way, so I stopped off there for an hour or so. I brought my book to read, my camera (which is almost always with me) and a bottle of water.

I wasn’t thinking of making any mountains out of molehills yet.

They had a blast. They played for the hour and when we got in the car to go to the store, they were chattering away about this particular playground and how it compared to other ones they’ve been to. Just the day before on the last day of school they’d played on the city playground that’s adjacent to our school, so they were comparing it to that one as well.

All their conversation got me thinking. I thought of all the playgrounds in our city and surrounding areas. I thought of all the different types of equipment on the various playgrounds we’ve been to in the past. I remembered waaayyyy back to The Blizzard of 1978 when my dad made up a game to keep us busy when we had no electricity for a week. He called it The Great Race. I was seven and I still remember it.

My wheels were turning for sure.

Overall opportunities for fun are part of the playground experience, not just the equipment.Shady spots are great for just hanging out.

The Great Playground Challenge was born, right there in my car, on the way to Aldi’s.

I said to the girls, “We should spend part of our summer going to all different playgrounds and rating them to see which ones you like best. Then by the end of the summer we can see which one is your top favorite of all of them.” I asked them to think about how they’d rate the one we’d just been to.

They thought this was a great idea and they were very excited to get started playing on different playgrounds right then and there, but we had to wait.

We did our shopping and when we went home I took our big roll of white paper and made a poster for the wall outside their bedroom. I used bright colors and made it look exciting. I made a chart where we could put the names of the playgrounds and spaces for them to rank each one themselves as well as a space for an overall rating.

A “fancy” new poster to record our findings makes it that much more exciting, and it’s something we can look back on for years to come.

I wrote in the names of the playground near our school and the playground we played on that day. I showed the girls how the chart would work and I let them rank the two playgrounds we’d done so far. A quick lesson in averages and we figured out their overall ratings.

Game on.

Practically every day they ask if we can go to a playground. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can’t. Even if we’re driving at night, they spot one and ask if we can stop. Usually we can’t.

But, the point is, this is such a simple thing. Playing on a playground is not an expensive outing. It’s free. It’s beyond Caroline in a lot of ways but oftentimes she’ll come for the ride just to see the playground and hang out, even if she’s too big to play on the equipment. It gets them outside, active and thinking. It keeps them enthused, and I’m pretty sure it’s something they’ll remember for years to come.

I have no idea how many we’ll get to over the summer. I made spaces for ten playgrounds, but there’s plenty of room for more if we get to them. We’ll see how the summer goes. There’s lots of other fun stuff to do, so The Great Playground Challenge is often for those days when there otherwise would be “nothing to do.” Alex has made it a personal goal to be able to master the monkey bars by summer’s end, so this will help her achieve that goal, hopefully, before school starts.

It’s just one example of a time when you *should* make a mountain out of a molehill.

There are playgrounds all over the state, just waiting for us to come and try them out.

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The perfect summer birthday cake recipe: Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

13 Jul

Turning on the oven is the last thing you want to do in the summer!

It’s mid-July and already we’ve had two heat waves this summer. A heat wave is defined as three or more days of excessively high heat. Our first one happened just after school got out in June, and as luck would have it, my youngest daughter was invited to an outdoor sprinkler party on Day Two of that heat wave.

It was 100 degrees that day and 103 the next.

I was sitting out there that afternoon, watching her NOT going in the sprinkler AT ALL, but running around with all her friends nevertheless, and having a great time when another mom, Melissa, brought out the dessert she brought with her that day.

Did someone say dessert?

Melissa did! Melissa had just finished telling me how much she loved The Whole Bag of Chips a little while before she brought out her cake, and now…her recipe is being featured in it.

Yay Melissa!

What did Melissa bring on that incredibly hot, hot day?

Ooey, gooey and COLD, this cake is absolutely perfect for a summer dessert!

She brought an Ice Cream Sandwich Cake! Bless you Melissa! That cake was pure heaven that afternoon and as I sat enjoying it, I said to her, “My kids would love this cake! In fact, my daughter has a summer birthday, this would be PERFECT for her party!”

And so it was.

This past weekend was Elizabeth’s 10th Birthday (gasp!) and I did indeed make Melissa’s Ice Cream Sandwich Cake.

It was a hit. Almost everyone had seconds.

I was nervous making it without a recipe to read as I went along, but I’d gotten the instructions from Melissa and even heard her son telling all of the other kids how it’s made, “You take a box of 12 ice cream sandwiches…”

I’d definitely make this cake again, and according to Melissa you can use any topping you want. There are also many different flavors of ice cream sandwiches including vanilla, chocolate and mint chocolate chip, just to name a few. I opted to go with just vanilla the first time because I didn’t know who would like what. Additionally, you could also throw some treats in between the layers like crushed Oreos, or M&M’s or whatever you want. I just kept it simple for my first time.

Here’s the recipe. In Melissa’s words, “If I can make it, anyone can!”

Thanks again Melissa!

I actually used TWO of each ingredient shown here for our cake: two boxes, two tubs, two jars.

MELISSA’S ICE CREAM SANDWICH CAKE

INGREDIENTS

(For a 9×13 glass baking dish)

2 boxes of 12 ice cream sandwiches, any flavor

2 tubs whipped topping, such as Cool Whip, thawed

2 12 oz. jars of hot fudge or any sundae topping you’d like. You could even mix and match, one hot fudge, one caramel, for example.
DIRECTIONS

I felt like I was racing against time, unwrapping all those ice cream sandwiches. I did not want them to melt!

1) Unwrap the first box of 12 ice cream sandwiches and place them in your baking dish so that the bottom of the dish is filled. (For some reason I only could fit 11 sandwiches on my bottom layer, but on my top I did fit 12. They were easier to move around on the second layer and push them close together).

2) Slightly heat your first jar of hot fudge so that it’s spreadable. I did about 25-30 seconds but it depends on your microwave. You don’t want it to be actually hot or it’ll melt the ice cream but you don’t want it to be solid or you won’t be able to spread it.

The view from the side.

3) Spread it so that all the ice cream sandwiches on the bottom layer are covered.

4) Spread the first tub of whipped topping across the layer of hot fudge.

Ready to freeze!

5) Repeat steps again with a second layer of sandwiches, hot fudge and cool whip.

6) Freeze until ready to serve.

I decorated mine just before serving as I wasn’t sure how the sprinkles and writing would freeze.

Thanks to Melissa for such a delicious recipe!

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Couponing Update: My Summer Stockpile

2 Jul

I had to break my own rule and make an overflow spot for all the shampoo and conditioner I’ve stockpiled.

It’s official.

I’ve saved $1053 at CVS since January 31.

I’d never couponed a day before that.

I’m completely blown away by how much you can save when you coupon. I still can’t help but kick myself for not doing it sooner.

Today for example, I went in to CVS just to buy my newspaper. I went to their red coupon machine in the store though, to check and see what store coupons came out.

Tons of coupons came out. And $5 Extra Bucks from a previous Beauty Club purchase. Since I was there and since I wasn’t planning on coming back for a while, I decided to see how I could best spend those $5 Extra Bucks and combine them with the coupons that came out of the machine.

I bought:

1 Cranston Herald 50 cents

1 Hershey Simple Pleasures (on sale $3 but normally $4.59)
2 VO5 Shampoo
2 VO5 Conditioner (on sale 79 cents each for all four)
2 CVS body wash (on sale buy one get one 1/2 off)
I had $3 in coupons for the chocolate ($1 from the CVS machine  and one for $2 from the mail that I’d stuck in my pocketbook the day I got it.)
I had no other manufacturer’s coupons with me but the machine had given me $1 off the body wash and $2 off shampoo or conditioner.
I saved $14,  I spent 74 cents out of pocket.
I’d saved so much that at the register my balance was negative and they can’t give me back money so I had to send my kids back to the aisle to get more stuff. Twice. We finally got it up to the 74 cents, so I could leave.
Anyway…..
About six weeks ago or so, I set a goal for myself. Knowing that my couponing was going so well, and knowing that my paycheck can be significantly less over the summer when school is out (less hours I’m available to work and less school news to cover), I decided that while my pay was consistent and while my kids were in school–I could shop alone, and concentrate, I’d start stockpiling as many non-grocery items as I could for summer. I’d use my Extra Bucks at CVS as wisely as possible between then and now. I’d use my coupons and my Target Red Card as wisely as I could also. I’d get us set up so that other than fresh fruits and veggies, and meats, I’d have as much as possible on hand so that we spent less over the summer and used up what we had.
(I still shop mainly at CVS and Target because they allow the stacking of their store coupons together with manufacturer’s coupons and they have great sales. CVS is my top favorite spot because of the added Extra Bucks.)

I won’t need toilet paper or Lysol wipes all summer long.

I tried to utilize the sales to my advantage when I could, especially the ones at CVS where I had coupons, a sale, their own store coupons, and received Extra Bucks back on top of it. I got three cases of water for free, six tubs of laundry detergent for free, four cases of toilet paper for free, shaving cream, cereal, body wash, allergy medicine, and lots and lots of shampoo and conditioner, all for free. I had four tubs of Lysol Wipes until just before I took this picture.

I was stocking up, for sure.

And meanwhile, my regular grocery spending has been shrinking every month.
Did you know that Suave deodorant is just $1.37 at CVS before coupons? Get a $1 off and you’re paying 37 cents. That happens all the time.

One of my favorite days I saved $99 at CVS. I got 32 items:  23 bottles of shampoo and/or conditioner, two bottles of laundry detergent, two toothbrushes, one toothpaste, and four deodorants, all for $36 (including tax). I had utilized the manufacturer’s buy one get one free coupons, plus CVS coupons and sales, and Extra Bucks. I was so excited when I left that my hands were shaking.
Not to mention that for every $50 you spend at CVS on beauty items (which includes all the shampoo and conditioner) you get $5 back in Extra Bucks on one of your next trips. So I knew I’d have more money to spend.
At the end of each quarter you get 2% of your spending back (including prescriptions, which we have quite a few of during the year) and I earned $16.50 to spend after July 1. Of course, I’ll find the best way to stretch that with sales, coupons (both CVS and manufacturer’s) and see if I can earn any additional Extra Bucks back.
Last week, I spent $24 ($20 before tax) and got a men’s razor that came with two refill blades, a pack of 5 refill blades, two bottles of vitamins, four mascaras, and two 12 packs of wet Swiffer cloths. I saved $59. I’d gone in specifically because I needed the razor and Swiffers, and I had coupons for them all; both CVS coupons and manufacturer’s coupons. But, when I got there, there were sales, and Extra Bucks were earned on the razor (which ended up being free with all my coupons), which paid for one of the packs of Swiffers, and I earned $5 more Beauty Club Extra Bucks with the mascaras. (The mascaras were buy one get one free with my two BOGO manufacturer’s coupons plus I had four $1 off coupons too, that I was able to use.)
And so it goes and goes and goes.
I don’t want to spend my summer scanning sales, cutting coupons or shopping with my kids. I want to be outdoors, with my family, having fun. So now, we dip into the stockpile and see how long it lasts us.
And you know I’ll keep you posted!

With a family of five, three of them being long-haired girls, we go through a lot of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and shaving cream, in particular.

In total, I’d stockpiled eight containers of shaving cream!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Recital Chicken

27 Jun

Recital Chicken!

My girls are dancers. Since they were toddlers they’ve each taken dance class, and this year is their 10th, 8th, and 5th year of dance, each.

This means that each year we are treated to their summer dance recital, a culmination of all their hard work and dedication that year. It’s usually a busy day when we have the recital with a small crowd for dinner and we’re always hurrying to get them to the show on time, so I need a really quick meal.

Hence, my Recital Chicken.

This is the chicken recipe I make every single year for the recital lunch or dinner either before or after the recital, depending on what time of day they dance. Its original name was Hellman’s Parmesan Chicken, and it’s courtesy of my mom, of course!

Since I only make it for the recital and I make it every time, I’ve changed the name to Recital Chicken. It’s quick, easy, few ingredients and can be prepped the day before. It cooks fast and we can sit down and eat relatively quickly, whether we are eating before or after the recital. I serve this with Grandma Grello’s Marinated Green Beans on the side, which can be made ahead of time also.

INGREDIENTS

*I usually have to double this because I’m cooking for a large group.*

1/2 cup Hellman’s Mayo (can use light, I never do though.)
1/4 cup grated Parm Cheese
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I thaw out the chicken tenders that are boneless and skinless.)
4 tsp Italian Seasoned dry bread crumbs (I use plain.)

Recital Chicken can be prepped ahead of time so you don’t have to do anything but cook it when you’re ready.

DIRECTIONS
Combine mayo and cheese.

Spread on chicken, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. For that nice golden brown color, we do a quick broil at the end for a few minutes.

I serve with rice pilaf which coincidentally takes about 20 minutes so they cook at the same time.
Happy Recital!

My three dancers

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What we’re doing for fun this summer: Summer Memories Timeline

25 Jun

If you’ve been a reader of my blog since last fall, you may remember my post about our Summer Vacation banner. It was not something I’d started on purpose and it turned out to be so much more than I expected. The kids loved it.

I had not thought of doing anything like it this summer, but then a few weeks ago I was reading a blog and clicked from that blog to another blog, and saw something that caught my eye: a summer memories clothesline-timeline.

Only problem is: I can’t find that blog I’d landed on, anywhere. I didn’t think I was going to do it, so I didn’t save it. I’ve searched the internet like crazy but can’t find it.

Anyway, after seeing this, it stuck in my head and as I drove around these past couple of weeks, it kept popping into my head. (When I drive from story to story, place to place, I drive in silence–I get a lot of thinking done this way.)

I decided to try a summer timeline for my kids, I thought they’d love it, but I didn’t want to use a clothesline because I didn’t think I could put it up very well in our house nor could I store it well afterwards. (I save everything.)

Instead, I chose to use banner paper ($1.99 roll of Doodle Paper from Christmas Tree Shops) and decorative packing tape ($2 at CVS) along with some little square pieces of paper for them to write their events on the timeline ($1 at CVS).

They saw me buy the Doodle Roll last week before school ended and right away they knew something was up. Alex asked me every day why I bought the Doodle Roll. They wanted to know when they’d be let in on my Top Secret project.

Finally, the last day of school came. With my work schedule I only had one hour in which to create my timeline but I’d planned it out pretty well so I knew what I wanted to do.

Here’s how it looked, I know you’re dying to see it, right?

Our timeline: a blank slate ready to be filled up with a record of our summer memories.

The only disappointment was that I wanted to print out a photo to put on the timeline of them from that morning on the last day, but my printer was broken, not working AT ALL so I couldn’t. However, the “blank slate” aspect of their timeline seemed very appealing to them; the fact that they had this entire space to fill up with things we were doing, places we were going, people we were seeing.

When they walked in on that last day of school, they gasped and ran up the stairs–it’s right at the top of the stairs– to see what the new project was. (We’re a very project-based family!) They were immediately so excited, and I was so thrilled.

Their biggest concern: what if the timeline isn’t big enough? Then what? My solution: we can easily add a section to it and remove the last square I put at the end as an example. They were pleased with that answer.

So we’re off and running with our timeline. Throughout the summer I’ll try to remember to post an update so you can see how it’s looking.

I have no idea how it will turn out, but isn’t that half the fun?

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What’s for dinner Wednesday: Maple Glazed Pork Chops

20 Jun

Pork chops with maple and brown sugar glaze. Who wouldn’t love that?

Did you ever hear it said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

I think I’m well on my way down that insanity path.

My family doesn’t love pork chops. I’d almost venture to say some of them are close to saying they hate pork chops.

However, I really like “the other white meat” and I’m determined to find a recipe for pork chops that they like.

So every so often, I try a new recipe. I wait for the results, everyone says they don’t like them, and we move on until I find the next one.

Nine times out of ten, I personally like the recipe.

A cookbook from Grandma Grello’s house. Lots of yummy looking recipes in here!

Today’s recipe is one of my attempts at tricking my family into liking pork chops. I got it out of a cookbook from Grandma Grello and I liked seeing her little notes and recipes stuck in amongst the pages as I went through it.

I figured that if they were smothered in maple syrup in brown sugar 1) I’d like them a lot and 2) they’d think they were pancakes. Or waffles. And like them.

I liked them a lot, they did not.

Shocker.

Back to the drawing board.

If you are someone who does enjoy pork chops and you also enjoy recipes of the “sweet” variety, you’ll be in luck with this one.

Try it out and see what you think.

I doubled the recipe for the glaze because I had a lot of pork chops, but I did not double the amount of brown sugar. That would have been too much.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup all purpose flour

Salt and pepper to taste

4 bone in pork chops (I used eight)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine (I doubled this recipe)

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons water

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (no need to double)

I sprinkled very generously with brown sugar!

DIRECTIONS

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine flour, salt and pepper.

Add pork chops and shake to coat (I could not do more than 2 at a time or they wouldn’t get fully coated.)

In a skillet, brown the chops on both sides in butter.

Place in an ungreased 13x9x2″ baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until juices run clear.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, (I used the same skillet)  bring the vinegar to a boil.

Reduce heat; add maple syrup. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the maple mixture.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Place chops on a broiler pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Broil 4″ from the heat for 2-3 minutes or until sugar is melted.

Drizzle with maple glaze.

See? Doesn’t that look good? I served ours over brown rice.

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Chicken, Grapes and a Dash of Karma

13 Jun

I made this recipe for the first time in January 2003 and I marked it as being “Excellent” at that time. it was just as good this time, as it was then. At least I thought so.

It’s hard to find one meal to feed five people and have all five people like it. It almost never happens. Very rarely anyway. My goal is basically to find one meal that everyone at least likes one part of.

Last week though, I thought I had a winner. I was shooting for at least four out of five “likes” on this one. It was a recipe I’d first made years ago, out of the “Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook” in 2003, and we loved it. I’m sure I’ve made it since then, but not recently and not since we’ve had all three of the girls. None of them remembered ever having it before.

Liz I was pretty sure on, and Caroline I was pretty sure wouldn’t like it. She hates apple juice, but I was hoping maybe the rest of it would win her over.

(I’ll give away the ending: It didn’t.)

Alex though, was a sure thing. I had considered the ingredients as always, when planning the meal: chicken, pasta, grapes and apple juice. She likes the pasta, the apple juice and the grapes. All those things, a lot.

I served the meal. I sat back. I waited.

“So?????”  I asked them.

Don liked it, I liked it, Liz was fine with it, but I couldn’t wait to get Alex’s review. I was expecting two thumbs up.

She hated it.

And this is where the dash of karma comes in.

Chicken, grapes, pasta….karma.

I said to her, “Alex, you love everything in this! You love grapes, you love apple juice and you love pasta! How could you not love this meal?”

She said, “Mommy, I do like all those things by themselves, I do. I just don’t like all of those things touching each other.”

BAM.

I hate when my food touches. If you look back at all my recipe posts, you can always tell when the dish being photographed is mine because the food is all spread waaayyyyy apart on the plate.

She’s already a mini-me. This just seals the deal. Her food can’t touch. I’m so doomed.

In any case, the dish is really yummy, as unusual as it sounds. You can use any color grapes or a mix of more than one color. I had green so that’s what I used. Here is the recipe. Give it a try.

CHICKEN WITH GRAPES

INGREDIENTS

4 small skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (12 oz. total) *I used chicken tenders.

Nonstick Spray Coating

1/2 cup white grape juice, apple juice or apple cider (this time I used apple juice, the last time I used apple cider.)

1 tsp. instant chicken bouillon granules

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 cup seedless green and/or red grapes, halved

Hot cooked linguine (optional)

Fresh herb, such as oregano or thyme (optional) *I opted out.
DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse chicken; pat dry with paper towels. Spray an unheated large skillet with nonstick coating.

2. Preheat skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add chicken. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender and no longer pink, turning to brown evenly. Remove from skillet, keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, combine grape or apple juice or cider, bouillon granules, and cornstarch. Add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

4. Cook and stir two minutes more. Stir in grapes; heat through. Serve over chicken.

If desired, serve with linguine and garnish with herb. (I used wide egg noodles instead of linguine this time. No herbs.)

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