Pheasant

I just wanted to show off a picture I took earlier this spring. I got really lucky! I took it through our dirty basement window!

Gardening

The past two summers, my flower beds have totally gone to hell. I was just far enough along in my pregnancy the first summer that I could not bend down and it hurt anyway... then last year my son was still young and it was so hot I could barely stand to be out. There was no way I was going to take him out in that heat! So now this year I have a royal mess. I did a lot of digging earlier this month when the ground was nice and soft, but now we haven't had much rain and our clay soil sets up like concrete. We are supposed to get rain this week starting today so maybe I'll be able to get more of that done. It's just awful!!

I already planted some annuals (our last frost date is generally May 1) and wound up having to cover them one night due to a freeze warning. Fortunately I did not lose any plants but I was in such denial that we would get frost anymore! Last night we went to Menards and I bought another flat of annuals, some geraniums for pots for the front steps and a couple of perennials. Our ground is hard as a rock right now. I thought I was going to break my shovel! I'm hoping to get the rest of the annuals in today. I always get this gardening bug in the spring and then by the time it's mid June, it's too irritating and too hot and it all starts to look like total crap!

Right now it is overcast, 76 degrees on my deck (in the sun and faces west) and we are supposed to get rain later this afternoon. The last of the rain gutters are going up today, my husband and his sister are working on them while I man the baby. Once he's up I'm putting shorts on and going back outside. This is the perfect temperature for me, any hotter and it's too hot! (Yooper that I am!!) Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Woo hoo it's the weekend!

I decided to post a little while my son is taking a nap. His cold is getting a little better but it can't go away fast enough for me! My husband and his sister are putting up gutters on the house right now. And, as soon as Will wakes up we'll go outside to play. It's nice here, 77 on my deck but overcast. I want to weed my flowers today but we haven't had much rain and our dirt (which is mostly clay) sets up like cement! It's really irritating!

I have not done much cooking since we went out for dinner last night. I did get some new sweetened condensed milk though and made my magic bars! (If you google it, you'll find a lot of recipes.) They are disappearing quickly. Funny how lettuce and celery and stuff like that doesn't disappear as fast!

I am not sure what else we have planned for the weekend, we need to go get more gutter part and we will probably drive around looking for another car. The Achieva has 200,000 miles on it and Clane is making it run with rubber bands and chewing gum! Not really but it feels like that sometimes!

Heh! I'm at a loss for words. That doesn't happen often!

What's cooking tonight!

I really wanted pasta so tonight I made some. All my produce was organic so that was good! The pasta was not but it was what I had in the house. First I blanched 3 tomatoes to remove the skins, then I seeded and chopped them. I minced some garlic and sauteed it in a good amount of olive oil (I did not skimp on the olive oil this time around). Then I added the tomatoes, a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. After that I put in some red wine and chiffonaded some basil. I had a little dressing made from olive oil and fresh parsley from another day that needed to be used so that went in as well. I boiled some orchiette pasta and once that was done I added it to the tomatoes along with a bit of the pasta water. Then I let the sauce thicken back up and we ate. It was good! I served it with some old rolls I turned into garlic bread. If we'd had room, I would have eaten some of the grilled red peppers I did the other day, just grilled with olive oil and salt and dressed with more olive oil and chopped parsley.

We all liked it except the baby. He is usually good about trying new stuff but he would have nothing to do with it tonight. Oh well, his loss!!

Did you know...

That if you keep a can of sweetened condensed milk in your cabinet for several years, it will, all by itself, turn into a big brown blob? Well, it will! I went to try to make those magic bars (you know, with the chocolate chips and coconut?) last night and after getting the butter and graham cracker crumbs in the pan, I opened the milk to pour it and something wasn't right! So now I have 1/2 cup of butter + 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs in my fridge just waiting for something. Last night I learned that if I purchase a can of sweetened condensed milk I should really use it within a few months! The worst part was, that my fantasies of a nice warm sweet chewy melted chocolate bliss and goodness went straight out the window!! I suppose I could have taken more butter out of the freezer and found something equally delectable to make but I have no energy (see previous post about toddlers and boogers) and I just didn't have it in me.

The moral of this story is, do not trust that cans keep things from going bad!

Toddlers and boogers don't mix

My son Will has a cold right now. He does not yet know how to blow his nose (although we are trying to teach him) so as you can imagine, his face is a mess!! He can't blow it but he can wipe it all around! Not fun at all! (Don't even get me started on how bad nights have been lately! I'm feeling quite run down!) Thankfully he is playing and showing all other signs of not feeling too bad except he will not sleep. That's funny. I usually want to sleep constantly when I don't feel good.

Toddlers and shredded cheese also are not that good of a combination. This is one of the reasons he gets a bath every night! However, toddlers and cats can be ok depending on the cat. One of our cats does not appreciate being cornered or "played" with but the other one is very doggy and seems to love the attention, even the 17 month old kind!

I should go, it appears that he is melting down in the other room. Must be time for bed. Notice I said bed, not sleep!

Shalom in the Home

You know, I really like Schmuley! I was telling my mom that I like him so much, he makes me want to become Jewish! I just think he's really neat and the way he helps people with his problems is gentle yet very effective it seems. I guess I need to get one of his books.

Speaking of books, I'm reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" right now and it makes me never want to ever eat meat from a grocery store again! Actually it makes me not want to eat most foods again! (That's highly unlikely except the meat part.) It's a real eye opener providing all the info in there is correct to the best of his knowledge. He was on NPR one day and Clane (my hubby) bought me the book. It's really interesting!

My first blog

As I sit here writing this, I am wondering who would want to read it and why? But then a friend of mine reminded me that I have a lot of interests. I'm a second and third generation Finnish/Hungarian mom of a 17 month old son. I'm an RN although now staying at home, and I've been married to my wonderful man for 4 years. I'm a little bit of a hippie, we use cloth diapers and I belong to a really nice little food co-op here in the area. I am also active with La Leche League which supports breastfeeding mamas.

I've got a pet parrot who yells at my son and the cats, I used to scuba dive in college and I love collecting postage stamps and doing a lot of art stuff. I'm interested in all sorts of stuff, if you care to keep reading (if it's not too boring) you'll find out all kinds of things. I love to cook and will probably frequently post about what I'm making on here.