Our Garden

WOW! Has it really been almost a month since my last post? I guess once we finished the schoolyear we just got all kinds of projects and activities going on and I just haven't taken the time out to blog. So I thought I would share some pictures from our garden.

These are our strawberry plants: (which are the kids favorite thing to check on!)


These are our eggplants:


This is our row of cauliflower:


This is our broccoli: (which is already starting to produce)


This is some of our 18 tomato plants:


This is some of our pepper plants:


This is our onion row: (part of it!)


This is some of our 23 potato plants:


Here are a couple of our cucumber plants:


Here is our zucchini plants:

So even though school was out in May, we are still learning plenty of science! (and math!) We have had a couple of strawberries and a little broccoli, but we are excited about all the other stuff to come!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Well, looks like my husband found the pie! OK,OK, I did too and so did Micah and Hannah! There were people requesting the recipe for this, so here goes:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

1 single pie crust

2-3 C. diced rhubarb

2 C. sliced strawberries

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

In a large bowl, stir together the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Pour into pie crust and then prepare the crumb topping that follows:

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. flour

1/2 C. oatmeal

1/4 C. cold butter

In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour, and oatmeal. Then cut in butter with a fork. Crumble over top of pie and bake at 375* (covering the edges with foil) for 25 minutes for fresh fruit or 50 minutes for frozen fruit. Remove foil and bake for 20-25 more minutes for fresh fruit or 20-30 minutes for frozen fruit or until top is golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Fresh Fruit Salad

Spring is a great time for making salads. Not that any other time of year is not, but atleast spring and summer brings more stuff that's in season and tastes good anyway!! I just LOVE fruit so I thought I'd share a good fruit salad recipe.

I guess I don't use any specific measurements on most of it. I just slice up as much of whatever I want in there including : strawberries, kiwi, bananas, grapes ( I cut the grapes in half if they are big), 1-2 cans of mandarin oranges (drained), and a big can of pineapple chunks. Do NOT drain the pineapple juice because you will pour it over the salad to keep the bananas from turning brown. Feel free to add or subtract fruits that you like or dislike. Chill in the fridge and is best to use the same day it is made. It won't kill you the next day or anything, it's just that the strawberries will try to dye the pineapple and bananas red so its just a presentation issue! Very delicious!

Easter Egg Decorating

Is this not the best part of making cookies?

Is this precious or what?

This video was taken when Hannah was almost 2 years old. It is so hilarious, she is trying to tell daddy about the Christmas tree, but in her words it came out "dee-da-dee" and towards the end you can here her say "Cheese!" It is also cute watching her put her arms up to daddy! This is so precious and so funny! Enjoy!

(you may want to scroll to the bottom first and pause the blog music so you can hear the video)

Maple Syrup Field Trip

The kids went on a maple syrupin' field trip on Tuesday so I thought I'd put a few pictures on here really quick with the few seconds that I have available this crazy busy week!!







Here they are in front of the Maple Syrup House and then after the tour they got to have some maple syrup over ice cream!! This was at the Indian Creek Nature Center. They of course had a blast!!

Happy 8th Birthday Micah!

Here is a look back to 8 years ago. I'd like to say he was a cute little guy because he WAS cute, but he WASN'T little. At 10lbs. 4 oz. I thought I was gonna have to call the fire department in with the jaws of life to get him out. But he finally arrived!

And here he is now, 8 years old. How does that happen anyway? Did somebody push fast forward or something?


He is all about bugs and nature and the outdoors, so he wanted me to make him a butterfly cake.

It was a challenge, but it didn't turn out too bad. Beats paying $15-20 for the ones at the store! Happy Birthday Pal!

Watergate Salad

Here is a yummy green salad for those of you who like something green for St. Patrick's Day. It is so easy you can do it with your eyes closed! I recommend you keep them open though!

All you need is a small box of pistachio pudding, a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, 2 C. mini marshmallows, and an 8oz. tub of Cool Whip. Stir the first three ingredients together and then fold in the Cool Whip. Best to refrigerate overnight if you can so the marshmallows can soften.

Doesn't look very green in my picture, but it is a green salad which will be ready for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Orange Julius

Once in a while I just have to make Orange Julius. It's such a yummy treat!



In a blender add 1C. milk, 1C. water, 1/2 of a 12oz. can of frozen orange juice concentrate, 1/2C. sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Blend this together and then add 2C. of small ice cubes and set blender to ice crush setting to blend this in.



Pour into glasses and enjoy!

Just make sure you don't stick your finger in the blender while it is running! (don't ask me how I know this!) I didn't do it today, but have done it in the past and had stitches in my finger for something I knew better but didn't think my finger was far enough down. I was just going to tap down some ice cubes really quick and next thing my oldest child is calling my husband to come take me to the hospital for stitches! I can safely say I've never poked anything down with my finger in the blender ever since!

Salted Nut Roll Bars

O.K. ....I had to make something with nuts to keep my husband and father-in-law happy! My kids dislike it when I add nuts to recipes, but Randy and Russ like things better with nuts in it. Don't know why, they are already nutty enough aren't they??!! It's hard to please everyone, but I try!

You start with a box of yellow cake mix, then add 2/3C. melted butter and an egg. Mix well and press into a 9x13 pan.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350*. Then pour 3C. miniature marshmallows over the top.

Put back in oven for 3-5 more minutes till marshmallows puff like this:

Then you will need these ingredients:

Melt 1/2 stick of butter and 2/3C. corn syrup, then add a package of peanut butter chips.

Stir until smooth. Then add 1-2 C. salted peanuts

and 2C. Rice Krispies

Mix well

Then spread over the marshmallows in pan.

There will be one happy husband when he gets home and sees these. (and one happy father-in-law when hubby takes some to work tomorrow!)

My Favorite Toy!

I would have to say without a doubt that my KitchenAid stand mixer is like my favorite toy and best gift I have ever gotten. A couple years ago I was following the Kohls sale ads before Christmas for the best deal on one and my wonderful husband bought it for me for Christmas!
(this way he gets his chocolate chip cookies more often, right?)

Then sometime in the last year or so we bought the slicer/shredder attatchment for it. They have many different attatchments you can get (meat grinder, can opener, pasta roller,etc.)

Here I am using the shredder to make some homemade coleslaw. Figure I better post something healthy to balance out all the sweets on here! Yes, we do TRY to eat healthy. It's just that we both have a sweet tooth and I just LOVE making desserts! So I appologize if they rule the rest on here!

I just grind up some green cabbage, purple cabbage, and carrots.

Then stir them together like this:

Then decide whether to make a creamy dressing or a vinagrette dressing because they both are so good!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I think I may have finally figured out how to start a line above the top picture after about 3 or 4 months of blogging now with failure every time I tried!!! How dumb am I??!!

Preheat oven to 350*. Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle 1C. brown sugar over the butter.

Place pineapple rings on top.

Put a marachino cherry inside of each pineapple ring.

Prepare pineapple cake mix according to package directions.

Pour on top and spread it out.

Bake for 48 minutes at 350*

Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving dish. (I just flipped mine into a 10x15 pan)

Let cool until your middle child (who loves pineapple) spots it. Then you have to cut into it and try it out!