Third times a charm!

FINALLY! Zucchini has grown!

It usually grows out of peoples ears, but for some reason, our summer squash plants have always struggled. This year, it's growing like mad and we are so excited. We think it might be because we put our compost pile in between the plants....
Regardless as to why they are growing so well, we enjoyed it for dinner last night and it was YUMMY!

Father's Day Cards

Paul's only request for this Father's day was something homemade from the kids.

We got a little corny with this request, but we sure had fun doing it!

As a substitute for glitter, which is annoying to clean up, we used edible sprinkles.
Rice Crispies do not do well with glue ;)
Dallin's glue and sprinkles portrait of his daddy.

We took pictures of them because Paul loves to save cards like these, but we were afraid that the mice would get to them eventually.

Oreo Cookies --everyone's got it

I know everyone has this recipe in some version or another. But I would cry if my house burned down and I lost this one. I made this blue icing for all you UK wildcat fans. I made this blue icing for all you Cougar blue fans. I made this blue icing for all you Carolina Blue fans. (Am I repeating myself?)

Homemade Oreos

1 chocolate devils food cake mix

1/4 cup flour

2 eggs

1/2 butter

Mix and roll into balls, or I use this small scoop (1 tablespoon).

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Buttercream Icing

1/3 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3 tablespoons milk

Blend until thick and creamy, adding the milk in small amounts.

Assemble by sandwiching icing in between two cookies.

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!