Happy Birthday Benjamon!

My middle son (the sweetest of all sweet things) just turned three. Very exciting this year, mostly because he had such an opinion on how thing were going down. He requested a cars cake. After looking over the pans in the shape of a car I decided I was in no way capable of pulling that off. I told Jamon I was just going to buy one. He says, "remember when we were kids, our cakes had the actual toys on them." Hmmm...why yes I do remember that being super cool. So I went with that.





I have Jamon take the kids somewhere or play outside while I put the icing on the cake. Then we make a big production out of the very first time you see your birthday cake. Benjamon was hilarious. He kept yelling, "it's cars Mommy, it's cars, woohoo!"








"Woody let me introduce you to Buzz. You don't know it yet but you guys will be lifelong friends."



Wyatt and my Dad (also know as my manny because I drag him to the grocery store, doctors office, playground, etc.) hanging out and enjoying the festivities.

By the way we had the party at the park beside our house. It was lovely.




It was SO windy. We had to move the cake to the back of Papa Joes truck to light the candles. We didn't think it was ever going to work but finally Ben got to blow out his candles. High five for sure.

Happy birthday my darling boy. I wish you would stay just the way you are today forever and ever. Except for the occasional pooping in the pants thing. That I could do without.

Love, your Momma.

My Garden

Well hello. I know I haven't posted anything in a while. I am so busy lately and the blog is on the bottom of my list. But hopefully I will find the time to update you on my life goings on and not just food.

We'll start with this.




As you may or may not know. I love gardening. Yes, seriously. There is something very rewarding in eating food that you have grown and cared for yourself. In Edmond we had a little baby garden. We didn't have room for much but I still planted a small one. Here in Kingston America my garden is rockin! I am currently growing strawberries, spinach, green beans, bell peppers (red, orange and green), jalapenos,tomatoes, squash, eggplant, potatoes, onions, radishes,carrots and a weird pepper that I didn't mean to plant and have no idea what it is. I think I will snap a photo and post it so we can all guess what it is. Yes that will be lovely.

Gardening is so great for my family for many reasons. 1) It's a very frugal way to feed the family. It's tons cheaper to buy the seeds or plants than it is to purchase produce at the grocery store. 2) It's a great learning experience for the kids. Meredith and Ben help me pick plants, water and pull weeds. Meredith loves to eat salad because she got to go out and pick the spinach, wash it and put it on her plate. Not to mention it teaches the kids to be self-sufficient and learn to "live off the land" shall we say. 3) We eat healthier. When you have an abundance of fruits and veggies you tend to eat an abundance of fruits and veggies. We plan to cover the back part (behind the fence) with fruit trees. That project will have to come next year I suppose. We have way too many things going on around here. Which I plan to post. I love to see all of your projects so I think I will start showing mine.




Meredith and Benjamon are supposed to be showing the potatoes they dug. Ben is giving his the evil eye and Meredith is looking at Dad. I simply cannot get a good photo of these two together.



Here they are helping me in the garden.

And.....I'll throw one in of Wyatt practicing his spoon using skills since he seems to be left out of the blog photos lately.

Skillet Brownie

Sometimes Jamon comes home from work and says to me "hey here's a recipe for a cake we had at a work lunch and it was really good, or my coworker said we should try out this recipe, or you are such a hot and sexy babe." Okay, so he doesn't actually say that last one but I know he is thinking it.

Here is a FATastic recipe he brought home a few years ago and we have been making it since then. It is super fast and easy and very good.

2 sticks of butter (yes that's what I said 2)
2 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
6 eggs
3 heaping tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

Melt butter in an iron skillet. Mix dry stuff, pour in eggs and butter and vanilla, mix with a fork until all lumps are gone. Pour all in an iron skillet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. When outside edges are brownie like cake is done and center will be runny like fudge.

You can see what mine looks like when I take it out. The first time I made it I thought it might be raw in the middle. But actually it is very good. It reminds me a little of chocolate pie filling.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

Here is something easy and fun for the kids. *WARNING* This play dough is extremely tasty.



Perfect if you have different age groups in your home (or not). A lot of time when Meredith is learning Benjamon misbehaves for attention or wants to do something else. I have to come up with things to keep my two year old interested while the four year old is learning.





Both kids enjoyed mixing the dough. We used a stand mixer (I over mixed so mine was a little oily) but you could let the kids help and mix it by hand. Once the dough was done we used mini cookie cutters to cut shapes and worked on learning shapes.




Ben still needs to work on circle, square, triangle (you know the basics). Meredith has those down so I bust out a rhombus to shake things up and keep her on her toes. We found this tasty dough to be a great hands on helper for learning simple math, shapes and counting. Oh, and did I mention it is so tasty? Try this for some good fun with your sweet babies.





1 C creamy peanut butter
2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C honey

Just mix it up until it looks like dough. It isn't sticky like you may think. It was a great solid dough.

Girls and Boys

Jamon has taken out the entire front yard to make a new one. So in the meantime my kids have a giant sand box. I was looking at this photo of Meredith playing with a truck and thought to myself that her wearing her brothers undershirt and playing with trucks in the dirt doesn't make her look any less than the pretty little girl that she is.



Nor does this picture of her brother wearing her dress make him look anything like a sweet little girl.




Or how about these high heels. What about now? Does he look a little girly now?

Spinach Artichoke Dip

This dip is one of my favorite things. I love to get this dip when we eat out so I decided to try to make some at home. I loved this and so did the husband.

Ingredients:

2 cups parmesan cheese
1 (10 ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup cream cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons garlic, minced (I didn't have any so I used real garlic and it was tasty)
1/4 tsp. curry (optional, but I love curry so I use it whenever I can dash some in)

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. 2
Mix together Parmesan cheese, spinach, and artichoke hearts.
3 Combine remaining ingredients and mix with spinach mixture.
4 Bake for 20-30 minutes.
5 Serve with crackers or toasted bread.

Update

Since I haven't found the time to work on my blog lately I thought I would fill you in on what's been going on.

1. We are moved into our house. We are still unpacking and it seems as though we will be for the rest of our lives but at least we are in the house and slowly but surely getting settled.

2. The kids and I are trying to enjoy the last of summer before we are trapped inside for the winter. I know we will have plenty of time to unpack boxes and wash windows once the colder weather sets in. So for now we have vowed to.....

Explore our new surroundings



Go on lots of picnics



Smile for the camera



Make big messes in the kitchen



And eat lots of watermelon while we still can

Apple Cobbler

Here is a super easy apple cobbler. My husband loves "fruit" dessert and this is one of his favorites. This came from Mama (Jamons maternal grandmother for those of you who are new to the blog). You can pretend it took you hours to make this one and everyone will believe you. If you are into that sorta thing.

Peel and slice apples. I used seven in this dish. You can fill it as high or low as you like.
Spread them in a 9X13 pan.
Melt a stick of butter and pour over the apples. Then sprinkle the top with brown sugar and cinnamon. I don't know how much. Lets just say a cup and if you feel the need to add more then please do so. You have my permission. Then sprinkle on the cinnamon.
Take a store bought crust and unroll and cut into strips and layer over the top. This 9X13 size takes two crust. But you can (and I do a lot) make this in a 8X8 and only use one crust. I sprinkle the crust with white sugar and a little tiny bit of cinnamon.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Taco Salad

This is a tasty treat. I haven't had it in forever and came across this recipe. Now as you can see from the photo I followed the recipe and added a bottle of Catilina dressing. Note to self: Half a bottle will do ya. I also think you could eat it plain without the dressing. I took a bite and it was lovely. Or just let each person "dress" their own. Here it is. Plain and simple and quick and easy.

1lb. ground meat

1 package taco seasoning

1 can black olives sliced

1 can ranch style beans drained and rinsed

2 c. shredded cheese

1 cup shredded carrots

1 head chopped lettuce

1 tomato chopped

1 small bunch green onions sliced

1 bag nacho cheese Doritos crushed

1 bottle catalina salad dressing



Brown hamburger and add taco seasoning, let cool. Add all ingredients together and dress with catalina when ready to eat. Garnish with avocado.

Heathers Apple Pie

Here's something new and different. I had never had anything like this. It was so easy. I really don't enjoy making pie crust so I was happy when this one was so easy. The only pain in the hiney thing is cutting up the apples. No one enjoys peeling and cutting up a bunch of apples. It is unpleasant.
This Heather (because we all know more than one Heather)is a gal I went to High School with and lived with for one year during college. During that time she baked a lot of sweets and in turn caused me to develop a sweet tooth I never had before. So yes, we can all agree to hold her solely responsible for my slight case of obesity.

Anyway here is the recipe. Plain and simple. Yes, it is weird there is cheese in the crust. No, I will not apologize for it. Just try it and see for yourself.

1 stick margarine (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated cheese
6 small apples
Apple pie spice

Mix softened margarine, sugar & flour. Pat 2/3 mix into pie plate. Sprinkle grated cheese over crust mixture and lightly press in. Peel apples & slice, put into pie shell. Sprinkle with apple pie spice and water. Crumble rest of crust on top. Sprinkle with nuts if desired.

Oven temp: 375
Bake time: 45 min