My idea of relaxation!

Its 1030pm, Sunday night and I just finished cleaning up after over two hours of cooking! It seemed to work out well because Danny watched football the entire time, so this might be my new Sunday night! I cooked myself a spicy lentil stew (full of wonderful folates, great for growing babies!) and I put together almost 20 Cornish Pasties, the pastry for which I had made earlier in the week. Kept 4 out for tomorrow nights dinner and have an undocumented number in the freezer! So exciting! I love having homemade stuff in the freezer because it seems like you can put together an effortless homemade meal in the future! I feel refreshed having done something fun, yet productive, whilst dancing to Beatles Radio on Pandora.com. Only downside is, my feet are particularly sore.

These photos are several weeks old because Henry no longer walks with this toy, but they are no less cute, so enjoy!

Out for a stroll...

So so sick

Why does this happen to me all of the time? Henry gets a cold from the flight, gives it to me, gets better quickly (thankfully) then I am seriously sick forever more. When I blow my nose I start to cough. When I start to cough it resonates through my whole body with a dry hacking but there is something in that tight chest to come up. Then my eyes get weepy and I confirm that yes, I feel like a big huge piece of crap. In short, I feel terrible right now and am going to bed as soon as I have eaten enough food to stop my stomach from growling; it's 8 pm on a Saturday night, geees I live the high life.

This morning Henry, Tux, Mojo (the last two are our furkids) and I walked to the farmers market for the first time in our lives. It was awesome (apart from my having to pause to blow my nose and hack my little heart out every few steps, oh and having to pick up dog poo). Unfortunately no eggs, I figured it would be getting too hot, but we managed to squeeze another box of peaches, two boxes of blueberries, some more tomatoes, figs and pears into our stroller (yes, Henry had to share leg room with the peaches, poor soul). Now all we need is some good goats cheese and some crusty bread for a mouth watering dinner.

Today we drove to Bolivar, TN to visit Dannys extended family at the lake, despite him having a wedding and staying in Oxford. Yes I am a fantastic wife (are you reading this Danny?). Yes, I realize that probably contributed to my shear exhaustion. Anyways, I'm off to bed, but if you are ever unfortunate enough to feel crappy in the summer please please halve some nectarines, sprinkle them with raw sugar and drizzle a good balsamic vinegar into the pit holes then broil/grill until the tops turn black (about 8 minutes). Absolutely delicious. Very very comforting. In fact, so comforting, I may have two more nectarines before bed! The good thing about this is that you can use slightly unripe nectarines, if you are impatient, like me. Only bad thing about eating this (I'm on my second bowl) is that you have to wait while the nectarines cool down. Ugh.

I love being Mummy...

This evening Henry and I ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dinner (I had Nutella in mine also, but don't tell H). It wa delicious and there was no one to tell us off! Then we had strawberries for dessert and I even sprinkled sugar on mine!

We cycled to HomeDepot this afternoon to get a couple of things and narrowly escaped a killer thunderstorm!

H and I seem to have horrid summer colds, not pleasant. I'm sure it will make the little mans shots worse tomorrow at his one year check up.

Tomorrow perhaps we will have salad for dinner to make up for tonight!

HOW MUCH!

Do you have any idea how much windows cost!?!?

I do. Since we drove all the way to Batesville today to go buy some at Lowe's, where they are currently 15% off. Didn't have correct sizes and numbers, essential when forking out this much money, so we picked the windows out and have to go back tomorrow with dimensions and credit cards.

Approximately $475 per window.

Yes, we are buying 11 windows, and that doesn't even cover the entire house, but it's all we are willing to do right now! Dont want to get ahead of ourselves on the renovations.

Danny is a little distressed that the delivery time on the windows is 28 days, so we will be moving into the house before they have finished (or for that matter, started) our bedrooms, but I knew they would take that long, so I had already prepared myself for living in a construction site. Do they make hot pink hard hats? Or do they just sell those at Adult Stores?!

Great summer pasta for dinner tonight...

Shave a small zucchini/courgette with a vegetable peeler, toss with hot cooked pasta, a diced fresh tomato, some diced fresh mozzarella, olive oil, lemon juice and a splash of balsamic and some freshly picked basil. Yummy! Henry even preferred it to his spaghetti.

Dinner time!

I have had various complaints about the lack of posting and I do apologise, we are ever busy in this household, of course!

We spent the Memorial Day weekend 'blitzing' our house, getting it ready to sell. Yes, we are moving! We are hoping to close on Bramlett Boulevard on Thursday... this crazy show is moving down town baby! We will be minutes walking distance from the childrens park, the skate park and the library and a 20 minute walk to the square. Fantastic! Then this past weekend we went to Maryland to visit friends who are due at the end of July. Lots of fun!

This is a demonstration video on how to get your chilluns to eat greens! Henry had refused to eat most everything over the weekend, kinda embarrassing when you are dining with soon to be parents who are probably thinking, 'well, what a naughty child, and she lets him just eat yoghurt at every meal time'. So I made dinner last night cautious that he might not even touch the Spinach Pea Pasta, but here is the evidence that, last night at least, he stinkin' loved it! (recipe to follow!)

Henry loves his pasta! from Danny Klimetz on Vimeo.

Spinach Pea Pasta

(dont tell the kids whats in it - you could alternatively call it Monster Snot Pasta)

Boil the contents of a small bag of frozen spinach and half a bag of frozen peas for 4 - 6 minutes. In a food processor, blend with Olive Oil, a heafty serving of Pesto (4 heaped tablespoons probably), a box of cream cheese (8oz) and season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook wholewheat pasta for 2 minutes less than package directions (I also saved the water I boiled the spinach and peas in and cooked the pasta in that - no reason, just saving water really). Drain pasta, storing pasta water. Return pasta to pot with half of spinach mix and several large splashes of pasta water and cook down the water until its a thick pasta sauce (minute or two).

Watch your child enjoy greens! Then enjoy the left over sauce as a dip for crackers for lunch the next day!

Could I be slowing down?

I knew I would have to slow down at some point in this pregnancy... I didnt expect it to come this soon though, I must say. For the second consecutive week, I did not want to go to the gym yesterday, and shockingly, I didnt go.

When I got home last night I walked my dogs for an hour and ended up with a sore lower back, of course. We had a delicious salad for dinner (boiled eggs, romaine lettuce, roasted red bell peppers, steamed chopped asparagus and broccoli, a few garlic stuffed olives, mini pickles, apple and sunflower seeds) and I collapsed to the sofa to work a few rows on my baby blanket for an hour and dip a few ginger snaps in some lemon curd! Managed some stretching and squats before bed and was out cold!

So I guess I cant do as much as I could. What a realisation at 26 weeks pregnant!

Quick, easy and nutritious weeknight dinner

Creamy Tomato Pasta for Two

(with a portion of left overs!)

Ingredients
1 Chicken breast, slice breast in half then cut into half centimeter slices
1 half small/medium onion, cut onion in half then slices into thin pieces
1 broccoli crown, cut into small florets and stem into small cubes
sun/oven dried tomatoes packed in oil
Half small tub sour cream
Pesto
Balsamic vinegar
Mozzarella balls (optional but tasty)
Wholewheat pasta, cooked according to directions

Stir-fry sliced chicken and onion in oil from tomatoes until chicken is sealed and onion translucent.
Add broccoli and a small amount of water. Place lid on pan and steam for one minute.
Add tomatoes to pan and stir around for a minute.
Add a couple tablespoons of pesto and balsamic vinegar and mix. Cook for a minute or so.
Add in sour cream and stir until melted. Turn heat off but leave pan over stove (only works if you dont have a gas stove).
Add in mozzy balls and cooked pasta and mix it all together.

Dinner in under 30 minutes from start to finish, I guarantee!

Easiest thanksgiving take along

Well, predictably enough, my attempt at practicing relaxation didnt go accord to plan yesterday. But, on the positive side, I did manage to clean my kitchen so that it was spotless!

Today is going to be a more successful day at relaxation, since Im worn out from yesterday! I made walnut and cinnamon English muffins for breakfast, delicious with honey. I went to the grocery store and now Im going to sit down whilst my bagels go through their first proofing.

I have a little bone to pick with the permanent farmers market on old 7. I have been buying my dried goods there for some time, such as brown rice, 12-grain, bulgur wheat and such. I have a terrible infestation of moths and its only in those items. Or at least I thought it was. So I ordered some 10-grain online, yesterday I threw everything away and today I bought all new tuperware and washed it thoroughly. I poured my cornmeal (not bought at the farmers market but stored in the same cupboard) into the new tub and wasnt sure, but thought there were little black specks in there. hmmmm. Went to pour the Rye flour (also from the supermarket) into its new tub and low and behold, definite black spots and moths. ugh. So I then had to throw both of those away and re-wash the tuperwares. Luckily bagels only require bread flour, which I know is good since I just opened a new packet (from the supermarket), but I have people that want bread so I have to go back to the store to replenish my cornmeal and rye flour stocks. ugh. I cant bare going to the store twice in one week. Thats why I make lists. Anyways, so this morning when I went to the farmers market, dont worry, only for vegetables, I told the staff there that I believed that they had moths in their dried goods because I had some sealed ziplock bags that contained goods bought at their store and they had moths in them, well she said, I wouldnt be surprised, its hard to keep them out of there. ugh. They know they have moths yet they do nothing about it. Disgusting. Now Im not one to say bad things about the farmers market, because I tend to love it, but that is disgusting behaviour. I wish the owner had been there. Hopefully I am now moth free as I have thrown everything away and bought new containers that I have washed and have stopped buying dried goods there. Fingers crossed eh.

On a more positive note (as I hate to finish on a downer) I made myself the best dinner ever yesterday! I was just sad I got full so quickly and couldnt have seconds! Dont get mad at me, I used a packet mix of something, but it was so easy and so tasty, its hard in these busy holiday times, justifying making it yourself (says she who is currently waiting on bagel dough!).

Butternut squash stuffing bake

1 medium butternut squash, peeled (potato peeler works great) and cubed (approximately 1 cm cubes)

1 lg bag frozen spinach (again, not me to go for the convenient option but is clean and pre-chopped), defrosted but undrained

2 packets low-sodium stuffing (butter is optional)

Oil

orange juice

lemon juice

black pepper

Place butternut squash cubes in your chosen baking dish (chose a large, deep one), toss squash in a few glugs of vegetable/canola oil and pour in some orange juice. Bake at 400 F for about 15-20 minutes.

In the mean time mix up the second packet of stuffing (I used the butter, but I dont really have fat in my diet so figured it was ok).

Remove from oven and mix with one packet of stuffing, the spinach, a few splashes of lemon juice and a sprinkling of black pepper in a large mixing bowl. I wouldnt add salt, the stuffing has lots in it.

Squish mix back into baking dish. Top with pre-prepared stuffing.

Bake at 400F until crusty on top and steaming on the inside.

I cooked mine for 20 minutes on the second bake and it was warm enough to eat if you were starvin marvin (which of course, I was), but I would probably bake for 30-40 minutes to get it piping hot, especially if you are taking it to someone else's house.

There are lots of fun things you can do with this should you have the inclination. You could add fresh cranberries to the mix, but my wonderful husband refuses to eat cranberries. You could make your own stuffing and add chopped walnuts or other favourite dried fruits. One thing I might do thursday (as this is what I am taking to family potluck thanksgiving) is pre-cook some breakfast sausage and mix it in also, give it some kick. A chopped sautéed onion would be yummy in there or your favourite winter squash. The possibilities for an easy dinner or accompaniment, are endless!

This year I give thanks for my wonderful, caring, generous, hardworking, selfless, and most importantly very handsome husband!

So little time!

Im desperately trying to organise and get ready to leave again!

I spent an hour tonight scrubbing the outdoor cushions as they are rather dirty; seems you need a cover over them. hmmmm. I only got finished with two cushions. We have eight chairs. I had hoped to finish this, and many other jobs, before Danny got back. I think its safe to say, it ain't gonna happen.

Made some bread though, so thats good. The bread is for this lovely old guy at work who brings me an entire bag of butternut squash every autumn as he knows how much I love them! Thanks John Milam! In fact, I received the bag today and already ate one for dinner, thats how much I love butternut squash! I peeled it (the wormies love butternut squash for some reason!) and cut it into small pieces, just under a centimeter, then tossed it in oil, lime juice and honey and baked it on 400F for about 40 minutes, adding chopped red onions with 20 minutes to go. Meanwhile boiling the speckled butter beans and green beans from my garden and adding in some chopped garden fresh tomatoes. Tossed it all with olive oil and brown rice; a most delicious dinner!

Im never going to do all the stuff on my list, its almost bed time and I only have two more nights to go!!! Meanwhile Danny is helicoptering to Mount St Helens to look for survey pins all day. I dont know! Not a very equal distribution of responsibility here is there! At least Im still at home!

I went to visit my good friend Megan and her 3 week old daughter, Harper. Squirmy little things, babies, but pretty cute! We shall be having lunch again together tomorrow, infact Megan, we will be eating left over dinner, if thats alright with you! Harper can have milk again, gosh, what a boring diet!

11 days 'til we leave for New Zealand!

Quick weeknight dinner (and its vegan)

I haven't really felt like cooking much this week, but we still need to eat. Im also trying to get our food stock down to nothing by Saturday when I leave, so Im all about throwing stuff together.

Whenever we have rice for dinner, I always make sure I cook way too much for one meal. So I decided to use it up last night! These are the veggies I used because its what I have to use up, but you can use whatever you have in your fridge or freezer; peas, carrots, corn, cabbage, whatever you want, just make it colourful! I often also use fresh ginger and garlic, but didn't have any and couldn't be bothered to chop, respectively!


Fast Fried Rice

Ingredients:
a good lug of vegetable oil
1-2 c pre-cooked brown rice (seriously, whole grain products are so much better for you!)
1/4 onion, chopped into small pieces
1 small zucchini/courgette, chopped into small pieces
1 small red bell pepper
two handfuls of green beans, chopped into small pieces
one handful of cashews or your favourite cooking nuts
Lemon juice
Your favourite Asian stir-fry sauce, just a few lugs as you have other liquids in here also
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Sesame seeds to serve


1. Microwave rice for 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Heat oil in pain on almost the highest setting. Stir fry onions until translucent, about 2 minutes.

3. Add other veggies and stir fry another minute. Add all liquids and stir fry another minute.

4. Add rice and stir around until everything is mixed together. Add nuts. Adjust sauce levels so that everything gets covered well. Might want to take off heat at this point so that rice doesn't stick to pan.

5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds once in bowls.


Dinner in 15 minutes, start to finish!

Easy weeknight dinners

I love running, I love that time alone, the pounding of your feet, listening to pumping music for an hour, being alone with ones thoughts or without any thoughts at all, but gees, running does something to my body that no other exercise can do! I am so exhausted today after a 6 mile run yesterday, having not run in a while! I had a wonderful evening of laundry and ironing ahead of me. I wanted to re-hem my linen pants too. But instead I came home from work a little early and laid on the futon. Couldnt sleep because all I could think about was eating so got up and had a piece of avocado on bread then tried laying down again. I was out cold until just now when the dogs got up because Danny came home, almost three hours after he left! Needless to say, Im not a napper, so now I feel all groggy and am even less inspired to do my ironing and chores than before. Another night will go by that Im not organising stuff. ugh. Danny says thats what the weekend is for, but I dont want to be doing this stuff on my weekend, I want to be going to the farmers market and weeding and canning salsa. I guess Ill just have to squeeze in laundry and dusting too, somehow!

We have had some good dinners this week, and quick to prepare...

Monday I made this mammoth sandwich. If you and your significant other like different fillings you could try what I do - make all the different sandwich fillings and set them on a plate, just providing the bread! We used this amazing french country bread I made at the weekend as a starting point. I would give you the recipe, but it was such a mission, Im pretty sure none of you would try making it, so Ill save myself the typing! Our topping options were herbed chicken, avocado, roasted red bell pepper, dry pan-friend zucchini and tomato slices, marinated artichoke hearts, marinara sauce, pesto and cheese (cheddar and mozzy). Since I had everything except pesto and cheese, my sandwich was aout 4 inches tall! I took three full bites before it fell apart onto my plate! But never panic, I ate it as two halves, a roasted vegetable marinara half and an avocado chicken half! Still delicious! Danny somehow kept his together til the end.

Tuesday I made Cookbooks 101 Summer Squash Gratin with a slight modification - I used sweet potatoes for half the potatoes. I actually sliced the squash all up sunday with the food processor, and tossed in it lemon juice so when it came to cooking tuesday night, all I did was blend the fresh herbs and toss it all with cheese (I used feta) and the potatoes, pour it in to the baking dish and top with french country bread cubes. This was accompanied with home grown greens beans and pork chops (not home reared!).

Wednesday I made an attempt at tomato soup with grilled cheeses (actually used up the last of the french country bread which was rather hard by now, but decent if sprayed with some olive oil, filled with cheese and squished in the George Foreman Grill - the perfect, evenly cooked grilled cheese). My tomato soup was less than perfect and in fact, according to Danny resembled marinara sauce more than soup. I skinned some tomatoes, I used all different coloured hierlooms, because thats what I had. I sauted some onions, garlic and fresh oregano and parsley, added the tomatoes having blended them with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, red wine, balsamic vinegar and a tiny dash of hot sauce. A totally unplanned additive was a cup of shredded zucchini because I ended up having to shred another one for my cupcakes and had some left over. I thought it was yummy, would have been better blended more but my blender has a crack in it so I avoid using it. Still trying to decide if I want to replace it with another cheapy one or get the super impressive one Meg has.

So this leads me to the question:

What is the difference between marinara sauce and tomato soup?

Please help me out with this seemingly unanswerable problem.

Tonight I am not cooking. I havent the energy. Left over gratin sounds pretty darn good right now, for my second dinner of the day!

An ode to my boys

I am home alone with nobody but my furkids to keep me company. I tried to snap some pictures of them earlier, the light was low and my photographer is away right now so please forgive the terrible photos. Infact upon closer inspection, my pictures are terrible but here is one of them together and one of Mr Mojo's wonderful haircut. I promise to get better pictures at the weekend when Danny comes home. They have been good to me this week, my babies!




Oh, and his ears arent always up like this, its just that the camera made a funny noise when focusing without a flash and his ears perked up every time!


I made another amazing discovery tonight! If you are busy one evening but want a delicious dinner, you must try making this, its a cinch! This makes enough for two. Erm, what shall we call it, Butternut squash and fig spaghetti, not a very original name eh!

Preheat oven to 400F
Peel and thinly slice half a butternut squash (my slices were about 0.5 cm wide)
Slice half an onion
Place in baking dish with some vegetable oil and honey and bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile get a saucepan ready with water for wholewheat spaghetti and cook according to package directions.
Add a handful of halved figs to baking dish and bake a further 8-10 minutes.
Toss the baked food with the spaghetti and if you like, throw in some feta, blue or gorganzola cheese. Absolutely delicious and oh so simple! I can tell this is going to be a household favourite in the fall!

Collected some more tomatoes today, some of the big ones! Might make marinara for my love at the weekend! Or some tomato basil soup for myself!

The rain is following me!

I swear to you, the rain is following me! I cant say rain during the summer in Mississippi is a bad thing though, so I wont moan about it.

Im home!

Some minor disasters on the way home, but nothing we cant handle. I had no tv for the duration of my 9 hour flight from Amsterdam. Only unfortunate because I was actually looking forward to watching some movies and because they actually had some I wanted to watch. Lots of people actually didnt have tv's in service, so it wasnt just me. I found the government car that Danny had left me just fine, although I did have to put gas in it, yeah thanks Danny. Picked up the dogs and drove home, getting increasingly tired. Went to the lab to get the car, let the dogs run around the grounds a little, unsurprisingly they were extraordinarily excited. This is where we hit our largest issue, although it was easily fixed, thanks to Megan and Andy... my car was dead. Someone (mentioning no names, Danny!) had left an interior light on and the battery was dead. Luckily Andy was just down the road and also luckily Danny had recently bought jumper cables, so I was on my way in no time! Left the car running a while when I got home, just in case. Picked some tomatoes and cucumbers as night crept in, ate some ice cream and went to bed, absolultely exhausted!

It rained on and off all day so I didnt get outside into the increasingly unkept garden. I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly, fridge and oven and all! Very satisfying. Shaved and shampooed Mr Mojo, at least until the thunder started up again and he wanted to go inside, but at that stage I only had his belly left, so I figured it wasnt so bad to leave it. Had my full body massage during the afternoon and bought a few things from the Farmers Market, since my vegetable patch isnt doing very well. I did make a lovely salad for lunch though, from my garden, mostly... cucumber, tomato, corn and pine nuts ( the last of which were not from my garden) with soy sauce, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar and a dash of honey, salt and pepper. Delicious! I did enjoy being waited on hand and foot and my parents house last week and ate yummy dinners in Lower Bourne but if you like cooking, there is nothing like cooking for yourself. For dinner today I had some white fish from the freezer (I think Charlie Bryant caught it in the spring) with a peach and blueberry chutney (which incidentally was delicious: peaches chopped, blueberries, onions, balsamic vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon and a small amount of honey, yummy!), zucchini, green beans and boiled potatoes! So simple and so delicious. 20 minutes from start to finish.

Going to try and stay busy this week so that I dont notice that I am man-less for four more days.

Happy Tuesday!

Well, as I suspected I might, I offended people with my comments regarding Oregon's spring. Today we drove out into the country and the folks out there seem to care more about their environment as they all had much prettier gardens. So maybe people in the city just dont have the time. However, while Oxford may have a dull winter, which quite frankly Im ok with, Portland has a dull spring.

It didn't rain so much today and the sun popped out this afternoon!

We come here a lot, and ask people the best places to eat a lot, but everyone always seems to suggest fancy-pants places that just aren't our thing. I don't want a rich sickly dinner. Today Aneil and I got talking about places to eat and he had some awesome suggestions. Well, at least one awesome suggestion that we tried tonight! We ate at this awesome brewpub in eastern Portland and I loved it so much that I had to take pictures of everything I ate! We started with a leafy greens salad with cinnamon crusted walnuts, house balsamic vinnagrette and Washington pears. I then had the largest calzone of my life, but dont worry, I only ate half of it! If you ever feel like making a calzone at home, try this one; pesto, sun dried tomatoes, feta, mozzarrela, free-range chicken and marinara. Delicious! And I get to eat it for dinner tomorrow!



Danny had a hoagie filled with free-range chicken, salami, mozzarella and marinara. He ate the whole thing!



Then we shared the biggest warm brownies served with vanilla ice cream, walnuts and whipped cream. Oh my gosh! I am so full!

Garden pics

The best thing about this flower bed, is knowing that I either grew it from seed, or got given almost every plant in this flower bed.   And the knowledge that the year before last it was a patch of crab grass.

Today we tried something new for dinner and Im not convinced that I would do it again.  I caramelised some red onions in red wine, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar.  Then I made crepes and layered the crepes with goats cheese and red onions so that there were four layers.  it was yummy but I would probably try making this in the form of a panini next time.

Crazy day

Well, as promised, it was a crazy sunday. I begun by making a delicious sweet potato cake, roasting some beets, baking three loaves of bread, cleaning the kitchen, mopping the kitchen floor, playing out in the yard and burning the cinnamon rolls we were going to eat for breakfast... and all before I had even gotten Danny out of bed!

Phew! 

      

      

                                    

Then I set up my soaker hose irrigation system, watered some flower beds in the back (which incidentally, look beautiful), frosted the sweet potato cake (it was gorgeous!), showered and made the beet salsa.  Then I sped round to my boss' house to jump in the pool and grill out.

I didn't get to take a picture of the most beautiful cake Ive made in a long time, because it got snapped up pretty quick! I thoroughly recommend this recipe, the only thing I did different was I added 2 tbs ground flax and 2 tsp ginger powder. The couple of hours in the fridge before serving is also essential for cake integrity. Yum!

So the beet salsa is phenomenal guys! You have got to try making this delicious side item next time you grill out. 

Beet Salsa

Five plum sized beets, roasted, peeled and chopped

2" piece of ginger, peeled and shredded

zest and chopped flesh of one orange

Couple of tbs honey

large splash of orange juice

large splash of lemon juice

Lots of balsamic vinegar (way more than you think you need)

Red wine if you have it handy (just a dash)

Wrap some similar sized beets in tin foil then roast for an hour to an hour and a half at 350F. Leave them to cool in the foil, so its good to do this in advance at your leisure. 

Place all ingredients in a deep, heavy bottomed frying pan and simmer until liquid has completely reduced (about 20-30 minutes).

Great on freshly baked multi-grain bread!

Best if served warm but also delicious cold the next day. Don't make this if you are not a huge fan of ginger and balsamic vinegar!

Oh, and incase you are keeping track... we miserably lost our third softball game of the season. We do so well in the  beginning, we again only needed one more run to win by the first innings, but then we suck!  A lot of it was Danny and I this time! He is sick and I wasn't feeling good so we came straight home from work, climbed into bed, and only woke up when he got a random phone call at 715pm.  Then we had to quickly eat some dinner and dash out to the ball fields. Not the way to start a game! I made some good stops as short-stop, but my throwing left a lot to be desired this time round!

If you made that citrus dressing and loved it, but had too much left over... we had the best simple spring dinner tonight. I boiled some lovely red potatoes, cut to about 1/2 inch squares, and some corn, then tossed this with the remaining citrus dressing from last week (with flax oil added for flavour), fresh spinach from our garden (tastes so much better than store bought!), garlic greens from the garden and left over spring onions and kum kwats. Then sprinkled sesame seeds over the top. It was simple yet nutritious and light.

Congratulations Dr. Ozeren

Well, we just had so much fun that we forgot to take any pictures tonight... but a huge thank you to everyone who came over tonight to congratulate Dr. Ozeren on passing his defense, I presume with flying colours, as that's what he does in every situation, and making it such a lovely evening for all!

Again, in case you didnt hear me... CONGRATULATIONS YAVUZ!!! Great job! 

I made that delicious citrus dressing again, so Ill repeat since everyone kept asking me for it again (which, by the way, totally boosts my ego!)

Place the following in a jar and shake vigorously!

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Honey

Parsley

Rice wine vinegar

Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

toasted sesame seeds

Its also a great dipping sauce for hot fresh pita bread!

Yummy citrus salad

Well I was going to write about something else tonight, but I got blown away by my own wonderful dinner creation that I thought it more important to report this!

Well lets begin with the dressing... place the following in a jar, tighten the lid and shake whilst dancing around the room to your favourite tune:

Honey

E.V. Olive oil

Lemon Juice

a splash of orange juice

a dash of salt

sprinkling of pepper

a fair amount of parsley flakes

a large tablespoon of good Dijon Mustard

This was served over romaine lettuce, celery, thinly sliced red onion, strawberries, kum kwats, walnuts and I had an avocado whilst Danny had salmon smeared with homemade pesto and baked wrapped in tin foil.  We also had a delicious parsnip carrot slaw with our salad, the idea for which came from Group Recipes but I added Rice Vinegar and used honey instead of sugar.  I didnt measure anything, as is my way, and just poured juice over it until the veggies had soaked it all up.  Should I make it again, I would add grated fresh ginger, as I just cant seem to get enough ginger into my diet!  And if you are wondering how I grated 3 parsnips and 3 carrots in a snip, it was thanks to my handy dandy new food processor which I love and was worth every penny!  Im just itching to make a carrot cake now that I dont have to stand there for hours grating carrots... maybe this weekend! mmmmm cream cheese frosting, I can just taste it in my mouth already!

No, I did not manage to eat the entire plate, but the lemon in the dressing should keep everything good 'til lunch tomorrow.

Well, it was my goal to go to bed by 9pm tonight to combat this exhaustion that is plaguing me... however it is now just past 10pm and I am not yet in bed.  Fingers crossed Ill be there soon!