festival time

We headed downtown to a festival last weekend.

Here is THE coolest, orange rescue vehicle. And the fried catfish was pretty good, too.
You know how much we like our carni-food.

freeze it. because.

Because I cook for 16 and we're only a family of 4.

Because I don't like eating leftovers 10x in a row.

Because Paul forgets to take leftovers to work.

Because it goes bad in the fridge.

I have started to freeze individual portions.

Because Paul sometimes remembers to take it to work.

Back to the Basics

Ignore the ad part and listen to the message.

Sound advice.

It makes me homesick.

Father's Day Gift Idea: For the Golfer

Paul's not a huge golfer. He will go with his brothers on occasion, but only because he loves hanging out with them.

I don't golf, either. Probably because I don't like to do things I am not good at (horrible, actually).

But I found something that makes me want to go out and buy clubs.

Just so I can make these

Golf, any one?

The more I think about it, Paul and I might enjoy a round of golf.

It would be nice and quiet.

Provided our kids were at the babysitters.

the view from the kitchen window

i wish those houses would get out of the waythere, that's better
the world that has been created for us is amazing

first fruits

Our pea plants are looking so good! As well as our radishes.
Paul was so excited, he pulled one out and grabbed the camera.

And took pictures at every possible angle (don't we all do that nowadays?)

He washed it and cut it up all pretty-like.

Took more pictures.

And shared one half with me.

Crunchy, fresh, and spicy.

Radishes are quite nice.

sushi

spicy california rolls too uncoordinated for chopsticks

fork just wouldn't work

fingers got the job done

renee, you would have been embarrassed

garage sale

If your garage is packed full and you try to clean it out on a Saturday afternoon, people will think that you are having a garage sale. They will drive up and stop. They will ask if the motorcycle is for sale (we are motorsitting for a friend). They will stop, converse to others in their car about your junk, and then drive off. It doesn't help if you have a helium balloon tied to your car, attracting attention. It also doesn't help if you just bought a dresser and a twin bed at another sale this morning. Both of which you put on your lawn until you clean out some space in your garage. Time to clean everything up so people stop looking!

Bring it on, Summer.

We are welcoming summer time in a couple days early with

frozen yogurt popsicles

and skinned knees and elbows.

Three ingredients and you put jam on it.

Dinner roll? Biscuit? Whatever you want to call these, it only calls for 3 ingredients, and you put jam on them.

Here's the scoop:

I was trying to find a no-yeast recipe for bread this afternoon. I was given a KitchenAid Standmixer for Mothers Day by my oh-so-very hunky and smart husband (and children), and I wanted to inaugurate it with some bread! The only problem was that I had no yeast, and it being Sunday, I couldn't go to the store.

It turns out that I had yeast in the freezer, so I made a quick-start-keep-the-dough-in-the-fridge-for-2-to-12-hours recipe that came in the instruction manual. Maybe once in a while I should read a recipe the whole way through.

It's in the oven as we speak and if this works out, I can hopefully build up some confidence and start trying all the great recipes that you all sent us with our plea for a great wheat bread recipe.

Back to my search for no yeast bread. I found this recipe for dinner rolls. It sounds a bit weird, but Paul made them for dinner and they turned out pretty good! It uses self-rising flour, so I am not sure how they will turn out with out that kind.

Here's the recipe that we made, doubled, with a couple modifications (SUPER EASY!):

Miss Betty's Super Quick Dinner Rolls

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons mayonnaise

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. If you are not using a nonstick muffin pan, grease 10 cups of a regular muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, milk, and mayonnaise. Spoon into the 10 prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until nicely puffed and browned.

We decided that these can be made into "Red Lobster" biscuits if you add some shredded cheddar cheese, garlic salt and parsley to the mix.

Click Clack Moo!

Doreen Cronin, author of books like "Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type" and "Diary of a Worm", came to our library today.

I hauled the kids (one big boy who wouldn't get off my lap and one little girl who wouldn't stay on my lap, or anywhere near) to meet her. I could not find our books at home for her to sign! Dallin makes sure that we have books scattered all over the house so it makes it nearly impossible to find anything when we need it.

She read CLICK, CLACK, MOO and answered the kids questions and signed books.

She was wonderful.

Good times.

Square foot gardening

Let me remind you of our garden woes last year.

This year, we decided to try something different.

Paul's dad, who is always ahead of his time, has been doing sqaure foot gardening for years now and always has success.

We went here and here and checked out Mel's book at the library.

We have a box below our deck.

(2 feet by 11 feet)

On top of our deck.

(6 inches by 2 feet)

We mapped out every square on grid paper and we label and date everything.

My mom sent me pretty gardening gloves so that my dainty little hands don't get too dirty.

Then the wise man build his gardens in some beds.....

(4 feet by 8 feet each)

and the rains came tumbling down!

The rains came down and the floods came up

and the gardens in the beds stood still!
THANK GOODNESS!

Hopefully, this year will pay off and we will get some good produce!

dear ikea

i would like to come see you

maybe next saturday, paul will surprise me by putting us all in the car and driving there

i know you are two hours away, but i think i need you

love

kristen

strawberry ice cream and a movie

How to Make a Move

Ellie and cousin Jake

click to make bigger

if I had to pick a favorite, which is hard to do, it would be the bottom left Poor Ellie, shafted.

Again and again.

She is determined, however!