Warm Food For A Blistery Day

Soaking peas for split pea soup.

All ingredients added. Split peas, ham, potatoes, onions, bay leaves, minced garlic, salt & pepper, thyme and vegetable oil. Slow cooked, it took about 3 hours.

All cooked, no peas left and ready to serve with warm bread. This is the first time I've made this soup. I always remember my grammas split pea soup and my grampa taught me how to eat it with saltine crackers. I plan on eating it with the crackers later. This was such a simple soup and it made the house smell good.

Filling for blueberry and apple pie.

I completly forgot to use my pie bird, and by the time I remembered, it was too late. So I had some juicy lakes near my slits, but that's ok. Mia had fun helping me make the leaves. Sure felt like fall today. I half expected to check the scores and see how many games I was winning. Summer, you fail.

Gardens And Bellies Alike

My blueberries are producing. So begins the long harvest of fresh berries.
So I made muffins. I added too many blueberries and really should have doubled the batter. Oh well, better luck next time. I also blame it on the cups. I never use cups but have a ton of them.

My potatoes! I still can't get over that these are doing so well. Even the 2 that Mia planted all by herself, without anybody knowing are doing good. She even planted lettuce next to hers, and they're growing AND they haven't been nibbled on by anything. My fire child has a green thumb?

These are in my front yard. The whole plant is huge! My mom told me what they are but I forgot.

Pork Tender With Mushroom & Dijon Sauce

I love cooking with fresh mushrooms. Mmmm.
Brown that meat.

Make your mushroom sauce, made with a mix of white wine, sour cream,

dijon, onions, oil, and yes, a can of cream of muchroom.

Toss it in the crock, set the thermo and walk away.

Rich, creamy, and good. Although - the meat was a bit dry. I stopped the cooking 20 degrees before well done, so it shouldn't have dried up. Not sure what happened. Maybe I browned it too long? But then that only takes a couple minutes. Who knows. It was still very filling and the sauce was awesome.

I also made a daring blend of Dubliner, Pepperjack and Cheddar mac n' cheese. Very filling! It made my 38 minute workout very hard. Can't decide between making pizza, or pasta primavera for tonight.

I'm Done With Stir Fry!

All the veggies I prepped. I spent all this time cutting matchstick carrots. Got lazy at the end.

White Miso. I usually use brown miso, or red miso. I have this white miso from when I baked with it to make Apple Cobbler for Fathers Day. It was great in that, but I didn't like the sharpness of it as miso soup. I will be heading down to the Co-Op to get brown miso.

Shrimp and chicken stir fry. Bland, beautiful looking, sort of NOT filling, oh and bland. Used a recipe that did sound a bit too easy for stir fry. Now I know why. Not nearly enough ingredients for a nice coating. Maybe I should say, there was enough mix to go around, just lacking in the flavor department.

I ended the night with a small plate of cheese and crackers and a major headache. I didn't even clear off the dining table and I don't feel guilty about it.

Food

Yummy food. I didn't take pictures of everything but I got one of this dish. Cook bacon. Remove and set aside. Sautee onion, garlic in bacon grease. Then right before serving, toss in fresh green beans, cut up bacon, fresh tomato, salt & pepper. Toss well to coat. Enjoy!

We also had fresh bread, wild rice, and tarragon chicken.

Awesome!

Our Hummingbird Santuary

I was sitting at the computer and was watching this male hummingbird fly around the baskets that hang outside my bedroom window. These baskets were made specifically for these awesome little birds. He sure loves Bella Rosella - Miss Bels flower.
So I got excited when I realized my camera was right next to me, fully charged
and ready to go. So I started shooting. He went to almost every flower. These are by far our favorite things to watch.

Toys And Ugly Days

My new pasta roller. Now that I had a key tool to making my own pasta, all I needed was a rack of some sort to dry the pasta out on. It gets too sticky on a towel. So I went down to Dicks Restaurant Supply and bought me a universal rack. It should do the trick.
Too many bananas.

A large pot of potato soup for a cold and gloomy summer day. Sad.

Toss in a loaf of artisan bread and let's call it good.

I've been feeling sick lately. And tired. Getting the motivation to do anything more than feed the kids has been hard. The past few months have been a roller coaster filled with ups and downs as far as energy. It's terrible!