Sushi! July 30, 2009
We forgot to take a picture of the sushi rolls. But, here is dessert.
Fried bananas are sort of hot and not too easy to eat.
The wonders of the Mall of America July 28, 2009
Kate and Leah amazed at how much larger Dora is than they had imagined.
Nonstop excitement for Kate and Andie on the ferris wheel.
Andie checking out legoman’s muscles.
At this point, Gretchen and her family were still in the car (11 hours for the second day, AFTER having had stomach flu on a trip) so she missed out on the MOA trip.
So much for potluck July 23, 2009
Well, this recipe really has nothing to do with a potluck. However, it is what my Cooking Group and I made together IN BULK recently. It’s a very delicious marinade that is particularly good on grilled or baked chicken.
Bob and Judy Weil’s BBQ marinade
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
1 rib celery with leaves, cut up
5-6 cloves of garlic
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup salt, scant (meaning slightly less than full)
1 1/2 Tbsp dry mustard
1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
Blend until just thoroughly mixed, but not liquified. Store in refrigerator.
Out of the Office July 23, 2009
I’m sorry that us beautiful workers have been “out of the office” more often than not lately. Life has been a whirlwind for all four of us that will be culminating in our first Beautiful Work retreat this weekend. We will be together in Minneapolis for less than 48 hours and hope to get some vision time, rest time and fun time squeezed in that short period. Hopefully, we’ll be back next week with some amusing pictures and then be able to carry on where we left off. Please pray for us that the time would be sweet, God-honoring and productive!
Dueling Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies July 23, 2009
so…. good thing leah noticed that there was no content to my last post and finally deleted it. I promise I did type out this recipe two days ago. but, it seems i must have deleted it without realizing it. Here we go again:
Dueling Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies- 50-60 medium cookies
2 cups butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
2 tsp salt
5 cups quick oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup white chips
Preheat oven to 325. Cream softened butter and sugars together. Beat in eggs one at a time and then add vanilla. Combine flours, baking powder, soda, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts and dueling chips. Arrange 12 (heaping Tbsp) globs on a baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes for lightly browned, almost chewy cookies. Cool on rack.
Moon Sand- we made it! July 17, 2009
My kids have been eyeing the ever-so-overpriced “MoonSand” at stores lately…so when I ran across this post earlier this week I decided it was a perfect summer outdoor activity for us to do someday. Then I realized it would be over 90 degrees here (that’s a screaming HOT day for us Portlanders) and my husband would be laid up with day 2 of some strange GI bug- I decided today was the day for MoonSand.
We hit Walmart and bought blue sand ($6.44 for 20 lbs) in the garden area- next to the turtle sandbox things) and some extra cornstarch. The “recipe” used about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bag of sand and one box of cornstarch. So, over all my moonsand cost less than $3.00 to make and my kids each had PLENTY to play with.
I put out a bowl of water for them to wash their hands before they came inside (it seems there is always a valid reason to come in when you have dirty hands, right?) and they played with it for HOURS (no joke) today. Happy Summer!
Fun in the Sun July 16, 2009
Living in Spokane, WA where we definitely feel the length of our winters indoors, it is always WONDERFUL when we finally get to enjoy that Summer sun (hey, I even get excited about the Spring sun!) It is so nice to just be able to let the kids run out side instead of in circles around my house :) Not only do they play better, but usually they sleep better too, which is always a nice thing when you have early risers like I do!
Here are some of our favorite summer sun activities:
- Pack a picnic – we live only 2 blocks from our park and often pack up a sack lunch to take and eat after some playing on the slides. We also enjoy meeting other friends at the park. This is often the highlight of our day!
- Play in the water – while our wading pool is fun for the kids, they also thoroughly enjoy having the hose on and being able to fill what ever containers they can gather. Last week we broke out the water colors outside and let them paint on themselves .. they thought this was wonderful and painted for almost an hour. The easy clean up was great too!
- Card board boxes – we love making things out of empty boxes, at least I do! The kids enjoy playing in my creations. The latest creation was a ‘castle’ complete with windows, a door and turrets … and of course a crown to wear while playing. Think outside the box (yes, the pun was intentional) and make whatever you want … fire truck, pirate ship, etc! The kids will love it! You could even let them decorate the box or help w/the creating if they are a little older.
