I'm bribing, any takers?

We don't have a pool because  I didn't want one when the kids were little. I was too scared of what could happen when they weren't good swimmers but now I long for a pool. No pool means we're at the mercy of our kind hearted friends and family. I will be calling begging for the brood to come over. I certainly don't want to wear out my welcome so we'll be the family bearing treats. Here are a few of the things that might be coming up this summer for pool bribery.

Any icy cocktail always works right? A libation will loosen anyone up even for my little crazies. I'll take on that challenge, I'l be the one who brings the good drinks! Mango Jalapeno Margs, Strawberry Rhubarb Sangria? Umm, hells yes.

Wanna keep things lively? Play Uno. I'm telling you to bring the cards! It fool proof.

Bocce works too but cards are more my style. The dudes seem to like it though.

If all else fails sweet treats! Homemade ice cream if possible. There is NOTHING better. I'm partial to Summer Peach but Mexican Chocolate (with Almonds OMG) also sounds amaze.

Summer motto : Be Prepared. 

Eat it :: Rhubarb

Thank you Pinterest for coming to my rescue with summer recipes in my favorite flavor. RHUBARB!

Rhubarb Strawberry Meringue Pie

Rhubarb Macarons (with helpful macaron baking tips here)

Rhubarb Bars

Rhubarb Liqueur

Rhubarb Bitters

Looks like I'll be enjoying cocktails and treats only. Totally fine by me!

Hey there!

Really it's me, I'm here! Sorry about the unintentional blog break. Have I told how I've been busy working? All of the sudden (yay me!) I've gotten lots of pilates clients and still have to do the kid thing drive/cook/laundry/etc which of course puts a huge cramp in my blog's style. Not to mention the weather here has been too fabulous to stay away from. Here in AZ we have to get it while the getting is good. When it gets too hot no one is happy. It's like a hot, desert ghost town. Little is playing soccer, Big is playing baseball, the Mr. is still recovering from his knee surgery and I'm busy working people out. Thankfully it's been busy in a good way. Since it's been awhile here are a few things that totally have me excited lately.

Raw Revolution Chocolate Coconut bars, they're so good! I'm not really a big bar eater, but when I'm teaching with no break this is an easy thing to snack on in between clients. Latest obsession, seriously.

Thinking about summer cocktails. I love hanging out outside with friends so check out the Drink Me board that I share with The Invitation Lady on Pinterest. Lots of good stuff for spring and summer. Elderflower Champagne Cocktail? Yes please.

Italy. We're headed there this summer. I haven't been there yet so I'm feeling a little anxious that I don't know what to expect with the kids in tow. This adds a whole new element of freak out to international travel. So any sage advice on travelling with school age kids would be so appreciated.

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Eat it :: Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

I'll let you in a little secret, this is what I've been eating every day for breakfast. This stuff is serious.

Eat your heart out Nutella.

I'd like a dutch baby

I've been waking up too early for my taste. Sometimes I can fall back asleep and other times no. These 4 am wake up calls are beginning to get to me!

This is one of my all time favorite pins. Love it for my early mornings, ha!

The other night the kids spent the night at my moms and she made these for them in the morning. They were so pretty and more importantly really yummy. Just something you might want to try when you want to be a little more fancy than regular old pancakes. I wish I would have snapped a picture because they were insanely cute in their individual gratin dishes. Leave it to my mom to have the pretty table setting for my little messies.  

Sunday Pancakes by sarahsfabday on polyvore.com

Here's a little sample of something similar to what I would expect from my mom. Simple shapes with lots of bright cheery color, great way to start a Sunday morning. Click through for shopping details.

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Make It :: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

This is my latest obsession. I've been making it every week and I think I finally got the recipe just about perfect.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

(adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

1 Butternut squash
3 Tbl. butter
1 Medium onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbl fresh minced garlic
1/2 Tbl minced fresh ginger
1/2 Tbl curry powder
5 cups chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk (I use the light coconut milk)


Preheat oven to 375. Cut squash in half and remove strings and seeds. Place each squash half face down on on baking sheet with sides. Add 1/2 cup water to baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes. After squash is roasted and cooled, scoop out flesh and set aside.

Put butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted add chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is cooked about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add squash, garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook until fragrant about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and cover and let cook for about 10 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pan. Add coconut milk, season to taste and and keep on low heat for another 10-15 minutes so the flavors meld.

*Cooks note:  An immersion blender is invaluable kitchen tool if you love to make soup. Everything can be made in one pot so it makes life and cleanup much easier.

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Easy Fall Food

Normally I breeze by the mixes in the stores, everything is better if it's homemade right? Well I've changed my tune because here are two of my new fall favorites in the food department. 

I love the yummy smell of cider simmering on the stove but good ole' Trader Joe's made our lives much easier with their Spiced Apple Cider.  Now we can have it whenever we want, one cup at a time. 

Their Pumpkin Pancake and  Waffle Mix is almost like a pumpkin pie pancake. Totally delish! So go and try and be excited that it's so easy. 

Oh and one more thing here's another muffin mix that's become a favorite at our house. Big was going on and on about the most delicious apple muffins he had at his friend's house so when I asked my friend to send me her recipe she sent me a picture of this box. Ha, I'm eating crow because apparently mixes are sometimes where it's at.

Snack Freak

I try to be green, I do my best when packing the kids lunches. I always use BPA free (the freak in me) reusable containers but today I fell off the wagon. This year at Target they had individual packages of Pirate's Booty to give out as treats and when I was there yesterday I picked up two boxes because they were on sale. Little has snack duty once a month and they prefer individually divided snacks so that's what I got them for but this morning in a panic I packed a bag in Little's lunch. I loved it, it was so easy!  Aaahhh!! I can not fall under those individually wrapped snacks spell.

Please don't think that I sit at home and make my kids homemade granola bars and stuff because they're individually wrapped, believe me I don't. I just try when possible to keep baggies to a minimum. Freak you say? Yes I know very, very true. But it's things like this that make me crazy. Two minutes in the morning is a lot. 

Eat it :: Cornbread

Before the Littles hit the street for trick or treating we're having soup and cornbread for dinner. This is my hands down favorite cornbread recipe. When I make it, I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner until it's gone. With lots of butter of course.  I like to share so here is the recipe just in case you need to make something tonight.

Cornbread

• Preheat oven to 325.
• 1/2 C Butter
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 4 oz Green Chiles
• 1 can Cream Style Corn
• 1/2 C Shredded Jack Cheese
• 1/2 C Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 C Flour
• 1 small box Cornbread mix (I use Jiffy)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt

Mix butter, sugar and eggs, adding eggs one at time. Then add green chiles, corn and cheese. Mix in flour, cornbread mix, baking powder and salt. Grease and flour 13x9 pan. Bake for 55 minutes.

PS - Why is Trader Joe's so awesome?! Washed and cut Kale? Love it. Thank goodness for them now it's even easier for me to get it into the meals since we like to eat cornbread and all. Are you all in love with TJ's as much as I am?

Let's bake

Fall hits and I feel the inexplicable pull towards the kitchen. Baking of course. No cookies, I loathe baking cookies; let's do breads, muffins and desserts shall we?

I know I'm not the only one who swoons while looking at baked goods. What are making this fall? Hit me up with some good new recipes!

{images via Always with Butter, That Kind of Woman, That's Happy}

A week already?

So I guess I've made myself scarce this past week, sorry about that. Last Wednesday I had a little kitchen mishap which involved stitches so I've been a little off my game. My grand plans of organizing all of my piles and closets hasn't fared so well. That's ok I have plenty of time to procrastinate on that. In fact in a little effort to procrastinate some more I think I need to do/try/make/find the following items.

Chocolate Sorbet - Made by local lifestyle guru Jaimee. I must make this, yum.

Stalk the web for an astronomy print.

Read the following book.

Obsess about this handbag. I just noticed that they're selling the neon Cambridge Satchels at J.Crew. Thank you for making my stalking this item much easier.

Which kind of reminds me of this artist who I adore.

Hopefully this will keep me busy until the mood strikes to get productive again.

Read It :: Green Kitchen Stories

I love reading food blogs, especially veggie ones. I do my best to keep a healthy bend to my cooking so when I happen upon vegetarian cooking coupled with great photos I'm excited, new recipes to try! My latest blog crush is on Green Kitchen Stories. She's the recipe experimenter and he's a magazine editor; hence the great eye for styling and photography. They're cute, so go and read!

{all photos from Green Kitchen Stories}

Read It :: Always With Buttter

A girl after my own heart! It all started with this cake that I repinned...

A white poppyseed cake, yum and pretty! Then when I went back to click through to see where this bit of loveliness came from I was so excited because love gorgeous food, styling and photography (not to mention a fabulous name). I just can't decide what to try and make first.

{all recipes, photograpy and styling from Always With Butter}

When Dad is away

When my husband doesn't make it home for dinner I often make things like pancakes or things he may turn his nose up at for dinner such as pumpkin soup, lentils or anything with squash.

Do you all do the same thing? What's a go-to, whoo hoo meal for you and the kids when Dad is working late?

{image via pinterest}

Salad for Crabs

It's hot and I'm crabby.

You know what they say, if you can't say anything nice...soooo I won't say much. But this salad looks yummy, easy and more importantly assemble only no heat!

Summer food and a faucet

I can't decide...what looks better pies or popsicles?

Did I mention that all last week we were without a kitchen faucet? Our old one broke (I was secretly glad) but of course there was nothing that would work at any of the local big box hardware stores so we had to order online and it took a little longer than usual because it was the holiday weekend. My husband was slightly irritated with me because I insisted that I couldn't look at any of those ugly faucets that they would hurt my eyes and make me sad, so thankfully we came up with a compromise and found it at a good price. Not having water in the kitchen is torture. It makes me think of people that remodel and go without their kitchen for months and I wonder how they make it through? Lots of takeout I suppose. Thankfully for us we got it switched out (thanks to handy family) and we're back in business with the water. I love having new things in my home even if it's as silly as a faucet.

{images from Sweet Paul and Poppytalk}

Make it :: Lyon Roasted Chicken

I know big deal Roasted Chicken (it looks fabulous), but I loved how AmberLee at Giverslog decided to make it after reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Deciding to try something based on what you've read in a book is not only fun but a tribute to a great author if their words have made you long to try what they're eating.

I'm currently in the middle of A Moveable Feast and I adore it. I should say I've been in the middle for about a two months because I started to read it just after reading The Paris Wife. I decided that I needed a break from the Hemingways so I could really get to Ernest Hemingway's voice without Paula McClain's mixed in there. So I'm back to A Moveable Feast and I'll admit I never really wanted to read Hemingway. I've always read the classics but I've always skipped works by him, his larger than life, macho persona preceded his novels and turned me off. Anyways Ernest sorry I gave you the blow off because you're pretty cool despite your boozy philandering. I might even make a chicken in your honor!

{image and recipe from Giverslog}

Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

Did you all know that Little eats next to nothing? Unfortunately one of his yes foods is popcorn. I don't mind giving him popcorn as a snack but I do mind all of the additives in microwave popcorn, gross. Yes I know it's an easy fix just get an air popper...but I always hesitated because I really don't need one more thing to clutter up my kitchen. Happy day now because my friend Christina makes her kiddos popcorn like this.

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We tried it today, success!  Here's her recipe.

Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

little bit of olive oil

salt

Add all of the ingredients in the bag. Fold the bag over twice and sit upright in the microwave. All microwaves are different but I would just cook on high between 2 and 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

{image via Feed Me I'm Cranky}

Blog Crush :: Dinner, A Love Story

I first found this blog when Mamacita kindly told me that I NEEDED the Time for Dinner Cookbook. It would change my life or something. I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't bought it yet but don't fret Mamacita it's been in my Amazon cart since you mentioned it. I need to buy something else with it to get the free shipping, I'm cheap like that. Anyways I've loved it ever since she tuned me in and these illustrations and descriptions in A Picky Eater Taxonomy crack me up every time I look at her Picky Eating label.  

Big is a combo of The Negotiator/The Pint Sized Paggro/The Starch King of Starchy McCarbLand

Little is easy he's The Refusenik.

What are yours?

{image via Time for Dinner by Jessica Zadnik}

Get it :: Swissmar Peelers

This time of year I often hear people bemoaning the fact that they fell off of the good eating wagon. Vacays are coming up, trips that involve swimsuits and beaches. Aaahh! Well here is a little tip that might help with that and it's super easy. Get these Swissmar Peelers, I'm loving the julienne peeler. Perfect for those chopped veggie salads that are so fun to eat but such a pain to make, without having to get out the food processor or mandolin.

This will make it much easier, promise. Just doing my part to help with the vacay plans. Don't forget the salad recipes here's a few oldies but goodies from Mark Bittman.