Kitchen Creations

Oh blessed pesto, how I wish I had made more this summer!

I do half and half when using it on pizza,

the kiddos prefer "red sauce" and I prefer to be selfish with pesto 

made from my basil plant grown in our backyard garden.

My crust turned out so fluffy and scrumptious this time.

Here's the recipe:

1C. warm water (110-120 degrees)

1 packet active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

2C. white flour

1/2C. wheat flour

(I add wheat germ and flax seed also)

2T. olive oil

1/2t. salt

cornmeal on stone or pan

Add yeast to warm water. Add pinch of sugar and 1 T. flour. Mix and let stand for 10-15 minutes, or until foamy. Mix the olive oil, salt, yeast mixture and 1 C. flour until smooth. Start mixing the rest of the flour 1/2 C. at a time until dough clears the edge. Kneed on floured surface, but not too much. Dough should still be soft, smooth and elastic. 

Place dough in greased bowl and turn once so the top is coated. Cover and let stand for 1.5 hours or until risen.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees for at least 20 minutes.

Roll dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Add desired toppings and bake for 12-16 minutes.

I just add any toppings that happen to be around, BTW bacon is very much delicious on home made pizza!

My next endeavor, apple chips,was rather unfruitful.

1. Core and slice.

2. Boil apple juice with a cinnamon stick and other seasonal spices.

3. Boil apple slices until transparent.

4. Bake at 200 for 2.5-3 hours on parchment paper.

 What I did at 2.5 hours when the slices were still soggy 

was turn up the heat. 

Do not turn up the heat, your apple chips will burn.

 

Do check out this great sight I happened upon recently!

Smarties

Here is a conversation which took place this morning 

as we were driving home from the gym.

Me (aka Mommy)- "Avery what did you do at the gym today?" 

Avery - "Oh, I basically just watched T.V., but don't you worry Mom, even though watching too much T.V. does not help you be smart,

I am going to 

make up for it by eating lots more smarties  

and then I will still be smart."

Mommy - Silent laugh.

Last week Avery came home declaring that eating smarties candy would help kids become smarter. When we questioned who told her that she responded that her pre-school teacher had. Cody laughed and asked her to double check the next day and see if her teacher really thought that 

smarties made kids grow smarter.

The next day she burst into the house with a big smile reporting that indeed her teacher once again told her that smarties make kids grow smarter.

What teacher tells kids that candy will help them be smarter?

None the less, I appreciate this sweet moment brought 

to us by the smarty teacher.

Zoo Kids

(These big brown bears were play fighting for some time, it was really amazing to watch their enormous bodies splashing about)

Every Tuesday morning this month we rush out the door by
8:15am to make it to the Zoo for Avery's Zoo Kids program.

(Aspen pretending to be a Monkey, her favorite animal) 

During this 3 hour period of time I have thoroughly enjoyed 

 strolling though the Zoo with my baby.

With 4 playgrounds and so many areas to explore, I've chosen to stick to one or two locations each visit and we almost run out of time doing just that!

 

At our Zoo they have several "open cages" where the visitors can walk into large areas where the animals are free to roam about.

The kangaroo exhibit is set up this way and it makes it so that we can 

get up close to the animals.

 

Last week we sat watching two baby monkeys interacting with their parents for over 20 minutes. 

Their interactions were so characteristic of humans, 

it was fascinating and we were memorized.  I was bummed I didn't have my camera with me last week, so yesterday I tried to make up for it by taking these.

Avery has been busy learning all about animals, going on

adventure walks to different area's of the Zoo, 

doing crafts and making new friends. 

Last week we watched her class walk by on the Zoo grounds singing a darling little song and holding on to a long thick rope. Avery waved wildly with her enormous grin when she discovered 

Aspen and I watching.

She bounces all the way into the education building with a huge smile on her face ready for another Zoo kids day.

Avery exits class a few minutes early to get to

pre-school on time.

This weeks theme was alligators and crocodiles.

She named her crafted alligator "Slippy."

Little Leah in the Making

Aspen LOVES babies.

I mean she absolutely loves them!

Anytime she sees a baby, be it fake or real, she exclaims 

"BABY"

in high pitched squeal of pure delight.

If she has a baby riding along with her in the car, 

which is pretty much standard,

when getting out at our destination we have to reassure her 

several times that

"the baby will be sleeping while we are away"

to calm her fears about leaving her baby.

It's certainly precious to see such a little one caring quite 

lovingly for her babies.

A beautiful clip about raising children HERE.

Last Summer Festival

What? Hot Air Balloon Festival.

Where? I never ever say where (as in the location), have you noticed?

Why? For family time fun.

The big girls enjoyed a simulated house fire escape experience....

then Avery had nightmares about it.

We watched the balloons inflate and take off

along with the other 6,546,858 people who were in attendance.

The girls little eyeballs were glued to the sight for quite some time.

Our favorite balloon was the one that looked like a  

giant strawberry.

Aspen ended off the evening with an awesome tantrum because I took 

her water bottle away when she started pouring the water all over 

our picnic blanket.

She cried, I laughed and took pictures.
Guess that's what happens with #3.

Farewell

Yesterday was our last pool outing this summer...
goodbye Summer of 2010!
I'm not going to lie, I will miss it...but not that much.
This was a challenging summer.

My older girls decided that fighting all the time was awesome
and became like TNT together everyday. Did I say everyday? Everyday!

My leg decided to fracture which made tackling the most basic daily routines quite challenging and even impossible,
and my husband is still, STILL in residency and
preparing for yet
another set of board exams.

Still there were moments of JOY this summer.
Like when we were at the swimming pool together.
It was so fun watching Avery learn to swim!
Brinley enjoyed her new found freedom. She was able to move from pool to pool by herself and go down the "big slides" and off the  
diving board alone.

And just yesterday I put floaties on Aspen's arms and she 
took off kicking her little legs all around the pool insisting that she
be left completely alone to do her big girl thing.

Observing independence sprouting is such a fun
aspect of parenthood.

  
I gather that we look others blogs and mistakenly think that "those other families" must have a perfect life,
or at least a life that is better than our own for one reason or another.
I'll be the first to admit that I have felt this way!

I think that this is because we naturally tend to blog about happy times. We show our children with smiles on their faces, clean clothes and hair done.
It's easy to seem all put together in pictures and writing.

What we don't post are the tantrums, dirty floors, up all night,
exhausted, tearful times which we all walk through.

So in my humble effort to decrease blog envy,
among mothers especially,
rest assured that I have had my share of difficult, tearful days.

Days when my kids are fighting and destructive and my sole purpose in life seems to be cleaning, cooking, policing and laundry. Days when I've been up with a child all night, have not showered in way too long and certainly fall short of accomplishing my "mandatory" list of to-dos. Even days when I totally forget something important, like last week when I no-showed for a class I had committed to subbing.
Big no no!

Let's collectively be kind to our inner spirit as we visit others blogs.
Uniqueness is the spice of life and I love being able to see that aspect
shine on blogs I visit!