Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Week 1 Cooking Group

I have joined a cooking group. Or should I say our family has. For the Next Eight Tuesday's I will be posting a recipe that is new to our family. I will also post the kids comments and Shawn's, and hopefully if I remember a picture of our Yummy Meal. I always find it nice when there are pictures with the recipe. So here we go.

Mustardy Pork Chops with Gnocchi

4 Pork Chops, about 2 pounds total weight
4 tsp Olive Oil
1 cup Cider (I didn't have any cider so I used apple juice and 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar)
2 tbsp Whole-Grain Mustard
2/3 cup Heavy Cream (I used half-and-half)


1. Cut the Fat of the chops, then bash them briefly but brutally with a rolling pin between two pieces of plastic wrap to make them thinner.

2. Heat the oil in a pan, then cook the chops over moderately high heat for about 5 minutes per side. Remove them to a warmed place.

3. Pour the cider into the pan (Juice and Vinegar), still over the heat, to delgaze it. Let bubble away for a minute or so, then add the mustard and stir in the cream.

4. Let the sauce continue cooking for a few minutes before pouring it over each plated pork chop. If you're having gnocchi with, make sure you turn them in the pan to absorb any spare juices before adding to your plates.

From Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson



Mustardy Pork Chops & Gnocchi

I meant to do steamed sesame spinach as a side but I forgot the spinach so we had cucumber slices.

Okay results, I've decided instead of a 1 out of 10 we would have Love, Like, and Ugh!


Husband: Like, "very mustardy" (not a big mustard fan)

Me: Like, but would use honey mustard instead of regular mustard next time

Miss Em: Like, but "only the meat" with no sauce and no gnocchi

Juju: N/A, would not sit down for dinner a little under the weather, better luck next time

Becca: Love, her plate was clean and she wanted more especially the gnocchi


So not too bad for our first recipe.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Monster Mash

Today in my inbox there was an e-mail to create a cute video. Let us know which one you like the most...we couldn't decide. Miss Em and I had so much fun creating the videos this morning before school.




Make your vote!!!

We are looking forward to the fall and to Halloween!!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Jam Session

Last week Julia, Rebecca and I went Strawberry picking.

Becca

Doesn't she look like she is having fun?

Becca

Yes we still have strawberries and it's the middle of September.

I thought Julia and I could make a few jars of Freezer Jam, but I didn't realize how many strawberries we had picked.

Juju

So we made a few jars of freezer jam and 30+ jars of cooked Jam. We have a plethora of strawberry jam! It's mighty tasty though!

Jam Time

Trying Flickr and Posting about Strawberries

I have my wonderful MacBook and in iPhoto there is a wonderful button, it's Flickr. So I wanted to test this out and see how it goes...


and it worked!!! I'll just have to figure out how to make the pics bigger, any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

LashFOOD Giveaway!

Okay I've gotta blog about this, because my chances increase!!! I guess I'm kind of vain, but I would really like longer eyelashes, and to get something for free, well that would be great! So check out this blog! That's it! Have a Great Day!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

First Day of School...

Emily's first day of school was awesome!

She goes to the best school ever. I dropped her off and stayed for the assembly.
Here is a video to show off just how AWESOME our school is!



Adventures with Grandma

As some of you know my Mom was out here for a few weeks. Well since she was here, I kind of slacked on the blogging thing, cause secretly she's my biggest fan, and since she was living with us and didn't have to share every detail with her. She got to share in evert detail with us here. But here are some pics of our adventures. Grandma went back to school shopping with us,

caught Becca's first steps,


went strawberry picking,

celebrate each others b-days,



and lots of other things.


It was so much fun to have her here. She is such a blessing in my life and all of ours. Love ya Mom!



Rebecca's First Birthday!!! Let the Circus Begin!

Photobucket
Shawn would say I went "over board", but I would say that "I had a ton of fun" with Rebecca's First Birthday! Decorations were great, Games were fun, Food Awesome, the Cake was absolutely AMAZING, and most importantly everyone including the Birthday Girl had a Blast! Decorations were simple, my Mom and I made over 50 pinwheels. My Mom even put some of them on sticks so we could zip-tie them to deck. She did a great job. We set up the Body Boppers, Ring Toss, Bowling, Goldfish Toss, Bean Bag Toss and the Bouncer. We had some talented Mom's and Grandma's Step in and Help with the Face Painting. I tried to get as many as I could over to the photo booth. We had Corn Dogs, pasta salad, Watermelon, Lemonade, Popcorn, Cupcakes, and my very talented Sister-in-Law Carissa made Rebecca's Cake! I could gush over this whole day. It was so nice to have our family and friends celebrate Rebecca's Birthday! Well enough of me gabbing, just look at the pics and get a feel for the kind of day we had!!!

Oh and here are a few videos of the Body Boppers in action. They are so much fun. I know we will use them again and again.

This is the Girls testing them out when we first got them!

I couldn't help myself, so here's Emily and I!


Here is Miss S and Miss I having fun!


and I'm pretty proud of Miss Em holding her own with Miss S