Bikini so Teeny

Loving Essie’s new summer nail polish “Bikini so Teeny”!

I wore Essie’s “crème de menthe mint” this spring and loved that too.  I recall my boss telling me that his 8-year old daughter got a pedicure and picked a similar color.  I was wondering if green nail polish was appropriate in the corporate world and considering references were made to 8-year old girls I’m quite sure that it’s not.

Oh well, better luck blue!

Junk Pizza

A weeknight staple in our house is what we like to call “junk pizza”.  Toppings include any and all spare ingredients we can piece together from the fridge, hence the name.  Effective fridge cleaning exercise and tasty too!

I’m not going to sit here and claim it as a health food item, but I do my best to lean in that direction.  I use a whole wheat Boboli crust, pesto or olive oil for the sauce and very little cheese.

Last night’s junk pizza was created using rotisserie chicken* chunks, onion, bell pepper, jalapeños and fresh tomato slices.  Some ingredients were new, some were used!  In the past I’ve used spinach, mushrooms, squash and broccoli.  Seriously, whatever you can find in the veggie drawer is good…it’s pizza, baby!

 * Chef’s note J: Rotisserie chicken is a staple in my fridge.  I buy one a week!  I will peel back the skin and chop up the chicken breast for a quick salad or pasta and Cooper boy loves just eating it plain.  You can imagine my delight when HEB started putting out an “All Natural” version.  Mommy approved!

Kyle says “junk pizza” is one of my best dishes.  At 5 minutes or less of prep time, I’m not sure that’s a compliment but I'll take it! 

Terrified of Technology

The ease in which my 17 month old navigates an iPad is terrifying!  He knows how to turn it on, find his games "Bar" (Peek-a-boo Barn) or "Wheels" (=Wheels on the Bus) and can sit there and independently play his game.  Wonderful for cooking dinner and airplanes but I wonder where this leads???

Here's a video of Cooper playing "Bar".

Fast forward 15 years and I'm picturing Cooper telling me: "I met this girl in an online virtual chat room where we had dinner via holograph while I downloaded her data.  Oh yeah, she's coming to meet you from China and she has a full-body tattoo."  I don't know why the tattoo but it seems fitting.

Kyle and I have resorted to joining every social networking site we hear of just to stay on top of the game.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...you name it!  What I'm really hoping is that in 15 years its cool to "unplug" and go "tech-free".  One can wish!

It's all good in the 'hood

I love my neighborhood.  It's dripping in kids and dogs.  We literally borrow sugar from our neighbors (and Tylenol and maple syrup and babysitters...)  This is what a $3 watermelon and an ice chest of beer will buy you on a sunny summer afternoon:

Cooper went a little overboard with the yellow chalk here:

And here: 

If you ever feel like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting look us up!

Kyle's blog

When I started this blog, Kyle (in his ever not-so-subtle way) told me “That’s great!  Now everyone that has always wanted to know what you do every minute of the day will finally be in the know!”  Ego = checked, but I didn’t let it stop me!

A mere two weeks down the road I am rather tickled at Kyle’s ever-increasing interest in the blog.  I get emails at work asking me for a list of upcoming blog topics.  Before he takes a bite of his dinner he pauses and asks “Are you going to blog this?”  And then the other day, this stack of his homegrown tomatoes neatly appeared in the exact perfectly lit place where I take all of my pictures.

When questioned, he simply said “You should blog my tomatoes.”  When further questioned about what I should say about them he said “Show people how beautiful they are and tell them about how I turned a little patch of backyard into an organic garden.”

Welp, there you go honey.  Tomatoes are blogged and your secret love affair with Cheeseburgers on China is out!  (More on the garden later, it is a labor of love and we all love it!)

Happy weekend to all!

Giada

I want to be Giada De Laurentiis.  I mean seriously, who can look that cute chopping onions?  Please stop.  You are making the rest of us look bad.

I'm pretty sure Kyle wants me to be Giada too...and it ain't for the cookin'!  His favorite episode is when Todd (her husband) has been out all day surfing with the boys and she decides to make he and his friends a hearty white bean chili to warm them up while they enjoy a nice stout by the fire-pit on the beach.  Gag.

Back to reality in H-town...when Kyle spends all day golfing with the boys, he is lucky if there is a plate of leftovers waiting for him to wash down with the half glass of wine that i *maybe* saved...if he is lucky!

Kyle and I both love to cook big meals on the weekends.  The more "out there" the recipe the better.  42 ingredients?  SURE!  Two hours spent at Central Market on a Saturday?  HEAVEN (provided we have a babysitter)!  

On the weeknights its a different story.  I get home from work between 5:30 and 6 and try to have dinner ready by 6:30 so we can all eat together before Cooper boy goes down.  We definitely get in a rut.  "Do you want salmon tonight with your broccoli, or would you rather just have chicken, again?" BLAH!

So when Giada came out with her new cookbook, Weeknights with Giada, I pre-ordered it!  I must say, it hasn't disappointed!  My goal is to try a new recipe from it per week and have come up with some winners that will definitely stay in the rotation.  It is not some cheese-ball cookbook for dinners in "30 minutes or less using only 3 ingredients".  Its the real deal, only faster!  There's a whole section on breakfast for dinner and a "change of pace" section that is more worldly than her traditional Italian.  If you decide to get it, be sure to try the spicy meatballs, turkey and pancetta pot pie and mango fish tacos.  

Here's a picture of our Asian Chicken Salad the other night.  Delish! 

Die Red Dye 40

I'll be the first to admit I can get a little crunchy but Motherhood has taken it to a whole new level.  I wasn't always this crazy.  (I think!)  When I was newly pregnant with Cooper, I couldn't get enough sour worms.  Kyle would say to me, "I'm going to kindly ask that you stop eating those" in the nicest way possible.  This would usually result in me throwing something at him but it got me thinking about all of the crap I was consuming.  And not just in the junk food, in the "healthy" stuff too.

I don't take it to the extreme, but I do what I can.  We eat organic fruits and veggies (mostly), hormone free meat (when at home), wild caught fish (sorry CCA!) and try to stay away from processed foods.  This is a handy little cheat sheet that I keep in my wallet so I know when its worth the extra $ to go organic. The Dirty Dozen  My family makes fun of me but I've spied a copy or two in their wallets too!

We do it mostly for the Cooper man.  Don't get me wrong, dude has eaten a french fry and chowed down on some Blue Bell (like any good Texan should)!  I fully expect for him to drink a Coke one day and eat so much Halloween candy he makes himself sick but I'd like take this blip in time when I have full control over his diet to give him a good foundation.

Cooper loves berries.  "Baaaaaiiiiiiiiieeeeeeesssssss" as he calls them.  He requests them when he's hurt and when he doesn't like his dinner.  And you should see the way the little stinker asks for them with his cocked head, sweet smile and twinkling eyes.  I swear his eyelashes grow an inch when he's working me over!

The other day I went to the store to get him some berry popsicles for a little summer treat.  I started reading labels in search of some that were "all fruit".  Big mistake.  Meltdown in aisle 12!  Yes there were many that contained "all natural fruit" but even the most trusted brands had Red Dye 40 and xanthan gum.  What the heck is xanthan gum and why should my sweet baby boy with his shiny little eyes ingest it?

So, I did what any gal would do...called my mom!  She reminded me that when we were little she used to make us our own popsicles out of fruit juice.  Aha!  Taking it old school!

I found these little popsicle molds on diapers.com and went to work!  One bag of frozen organic blueberries, about 2 cups of pear juice and about 1 cup of water in the blender and voila!  Homemade pops with nothing but the good stuff!

My little guinea pig enjoying his "baaaaiiiieeeeeee" (aka berry) treat!  Such a hit!