I’m 2 for 2 today. Jd had a meeting to go to so I was on my own for dinner. I tried another recipe that had looked good. Chicken, garlic, snow peas, basil, and peanuts….how could it go wrong? It didn’t fail me! I didn’t have jalapenos (and I don’t like them anyway) so I used ground chipotle pepper. Worked better I think.
(recipe and image from Everyday Food)
I keep spending hours looking up new recipes, only to buy the ingredients and never actually make them. Then tonight I came home to the best hubby – he had prepared all the ingredients for the steak quesadillas and black bean avocado salsa, including putting the salsa ingredients in a bowl for me to pour into the serving bowl, and had the oven all ready to go! We fixed it up together and it turned out delicious. We’ll definitely eat this one again.
Thanks to Everyday Food magazine (I have a hard time wanted to say thanks to Martha Stewart, just not such a fan…but it’s a good magazine and has great menu ideas). Luckily all the recipes are now available online so I don’t have to keep subscribing to more paper.
If you’re looking for something new to try….
Don’t they even take good pictures of the food? (except for the pink table that won’t look so good on the blog)
Oh well…yum.
I started following the blog of Elizabeth Hartman at Oh, Fransson! a few months ago. I’m completely in awe with her eye for design and color combinations. You’ll see what I mean if you check it out.
She has authored a new book that is full of advice and ideas for modern quilting. I preordered a copy awhile ago on Amazon and finally received it yesterday. Love, love, love the book! I need to make one, or at least a smaller scale to get started. Maybe I should make a hot-pad with the Christmas fabric and oven batting that I also bought awhile ago…
(I borrowed the photo from this website where the book was reviewed with many inside photos too)
So last week I took a picture of my food because so many blogs have food photos. Unfortunately mine might not look very appetizing. But if you won’t judge the image and let your taste buds do the talking, you might like these as much as we do!
They are super easy.
Bake a slice of deli ham in a greased muffin tin at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. I set mine into the cup and lodged a toothpick between the two sides to keep them open.
After the 10 minutes, crack an egg into each slice of ham. Break the yolk. I cut into the middle with a knife. You don’t stir the egg, just poke it. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the eggs.
Bake the eggs for another 10-15 minutes until the egg is set.
Before pulling them out of the oven, add some grated cheese, diced tomatoes, and chives. (Keep or delete what you like) Let them sit in the oven until the cheese melts.
Scoop them out of the muffin tins and you have a delicious breakfast…or snack. :)
FYI – we’ve started tracking the calories we eat every day. These cups are 128 calories each…just in case you wondered.
How all of you bloggers stay up-to-date is beyond my comprehension! Needless to say it was a busy, but good summer.
Maybe I’ll get into some of the stories, but for now I’ll just post some pictures that tell their own story.
We finally invested in some camping gear and drove 4000 miles round-trip to be at the Youngberg family reunion at Cascade Lake in Idaho. It’s one of the places that gives me some of my fondest memories of my childhood and growing up.
This is a picture of 5 of the 6 of us who were all within a year of each other. It wasn’t until this year that I realized that all but one of my mom’s siblings had given birth within the same year! What a gift that was to us! I love my cousins. One night I stayed up until 4 in the morning talking with my girl cousins. I couldn’t get enough! The week went by WAY too fast. I need more of that.
It rained while we were camping, including a downpour that started right after the rest of my family arrived at night. We had set up one tent and were trying to make dinner. We ended up eating mac ‘n cheese in a screen tent that didn’t really keep us dry but it kept us from turning into prunes.
The sun came out for at least one day.
We even had our salon-in-the-woods time.
Thank you, Grandma, for putting this together. You were truly inspired. You told us to follow our hunches; thank you for following yours.
On our way there we stopped at Mount Rushmore. I can now say that I’ve been there, but it’s probably not worth a trip in and of itself. But it was cool to see what someone did with rock.
I think Jeremy liked stopping at the Sturgis motorcycle rally better. There were bikers of all styles, ages, and colors!
We saw a LOT of the country. We drove through 8 states. EIGHT. There were a lot of beautiful scenes. So naturally, I had the camera with me, but unfortunately photos taken from a car going over 80 mph don’t look so great. But these are some of them…
On Labor Day weekend we went to see the Train concert at Ravinia. They were awesome! We had pavilion seats, but stood almost the whole time. It was amazing to see a band that somehow sounds better live than they do on the radio. We sang along to almost all their songs. I don’t think I was supposed to take these pics but as you can tell they aren’t good for much except to say we were there! If they come back, we would definitely go again.
Then about 2 weeks ago the Waukegan air show was going on and the jets fly over our house. Check out this jet! (I don’t know what it is)
And I can’t help but to put a picture of our Benny kitty. He is so cute. Though he got out last night and I worried that he had gone too far and wouldn’t come home for awhile. Luckily I posted on facebook that I couldn’t find him. My neighbor, who has taken care of him once while we were on vacation, came over without asking with a flashlight. With her help we found him about 45 minutes after he left. He only made it about 60 feet away and was sitting on a cinderblock wall. He puffed up his tail when she called him to come to her. When he got inside he laid down and was purring and panting. It was over 80 degrees and humid last night because a rain storm was coming, so I think he was cooling down. So glad he’s home.
On a sad note my cat from childhood finally passed away. Boots made it to be 19 years old. She was frail old kitty. I felt so bad for her and thought she must have been in pain. But she never showed it. She would purr and purr for her favorite brush. She was a great cat that I really had a connection with. All growing up she was always at my side, laying down in my puzzle boxes, trying to bite my pen/pencil while doing homework, waiting for me to come home by looking out the window while sitting on the piano, rubbing and nestling against me while I cried, and kneading my hair. I’m so happy that we decided to go through Utah on our way home in August, because I got to see her one last time. I’ll miss you Boots, but am so glad that you are finally at peace and can rest.
So that’s about it for now. I’ve been cooking a little more lately, so hopefully I’ll post some recipes for you to try. We had ham & cheese quiche this week and it was delicious. I also made baked egg cups (ham as the crust in a muffin tin with an egg baked inside it – very yumm). I still have more ham, so I need to find another recipe or at least freeze it.
More to come….though I don’t know how soon! Whew! Now I need to go do something else productive.
Later.
We are only days away from leaving on our first VERY LONG road trip. For some reason we thought it sounded like a good idea. But the more we’ve broken down the time it will take, the longer it seems. We haven’t even left yet! But the lastest way that Jd put it was this, “We will be taking 40 hours off of work to drive 60 hours.” Umm, yeah. Still excited for it, but I think that kind of drive will be a once-in-a-decade kind of trip.
The destination will definitely be worth it! We’re going to my family reunion like we had every year growing up. I haven’t been there in 8 years! Looking forward to sharing the time with Jd.
(Though he just now, seriously, just told me his coworker can lend us an electric fence in case there are bears…and are there cougars out there? I said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be okay”. And he said, “Didn’t you see the news?) So please don’t tell us if you see something in the wild.
or on the news.
But please wave if you see us drive by. Hugs are coming to all the family we will see very soon!
Over the last week I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the sacredness of family relationships and the fragility of life. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we don’t always know what is just around the corner. But what I have realized is that I have not spent enough time focusing on embracing those things that matter today, right now, with the people that I love.
Today on Father’s Day, I focus my thoughts on my Dad. He has been such an example to me of what it means to be thoughtful, selfless, caring, forgiving, ever-loving, kind, sensitive, and giving.
Throughout my life he has been there for me. He has taught me many things directly and through his actions. I only hope that I can become more like him.
I will be eternally grateful for having been given him as my father.
I love you, Dad!
