Ode to eggplant how I love thee

Oh eggplant how I love thee and how I have missed thee!  My husband detests it, but I've discovered a way to get my eggplant (I prefer aubergine) fix, vegetable skewers!  It's a good one for our vegetarian day, and I can easily pick out or make James's dinner aubergine free.  The girls don't seem to mind it too much so a small aubergine goes a long way in satisfying my desire.  I normally use mushrooms, peppers, aubergine, zucchini, red onions and cherry tomatoes on the skewers.  I also have some ideas for some different skewers as the summer progresses and we grow bored with that mix.  I also try to throw a couple of ears of corn on the grill as well.  My preferred method for the corn is a small knob of butter and some lime or lemon juice and wrapped in foil.  They actually cook up great and if you want the char marks remove from foil for a few minutes before serving, perfect corn every time.

It's my constant challenge to find vegetables my girls will eat, but I just keep on trying!  Tonight's dinner well I just didn't think they would appreciate it, it's a little on the spicy side, so I did a mix of peas and spaghetti, adding a little soy, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and hoisin sauce for the Asian, and to see peas being eaten made me happy!

Hell week commences tonight...

So tonight my husband has to be up and out of the house at 1 am, here commences a week of hell, I guess it's justice for having 2 weeks vacation...(or something like that).  Anyway he's going to be doing 13 hour work days for the rest of the week (oh joy!).  That means little rest for him and no break from the kids for me.  I'm going to have to have dinner on the plate for him wake him up near the girls bedtime and that will probably be about the extent of what I see of him.  This is going to be painful.  At least the weather is going to be cooperative so I can let the babies run around the garden and blow off some steam, I would be certifiable if rained all week.

Conversely dinner's this week nothing really new and nothing too extravagant as I will somehow have to maintain my sanity cooking while babysitting (never an easy task).  Lunch today was a bunch of left overs all highly delicious.  Dinner tonight well I'm redoing a recipe I used a couple of weeks ago with an asian bbq flare, I'm actually trying to decide what to do for a side for the girls, although in my mind pasta is winning the battle for now, hmm maybe some noodles asian style to go with the sauce, I can certainly turn Italian into Asia I'm sure.  Our side gets to be a slaw salad, which reminds me to go and make it!  I'm actually considering heating the dressing up to slightly pickle the cabbage.

Frittata Cups and backyard relaxation

Earlier today I made these wonderful frittata cups.  Delightful and somewhat successful with the girls with is always a bonus.  Dinner later today will be performed on the grill, (meat and potatoes salad) by my husband!  I'm laughing my socks off at my poor husband, he's struggling over the magazine, I am almost afraid of finding drool marks on the pages.  I think he's got some ideas for Monday night dinners planned and he's gonna cook (not going to complain)!  Of course this gets me onto my I must research Tunisia and figure out my menus for the next Monday night soiree.  It's hard when you do successful meals to outdo yourself the next time but hey it's an adventure (least that's what I tell myself).  I get to discover new cooking methods this way and I get to learn a little about the culture which is fascinating.

Course the wonderful thing about this time of year the grill!

Bins remembered to be put out!  (Yay as it's been almost two weeks and they are changing them tomorrow).   Dinner was a success as much as dinners can be successful with the girls, the fact that they actually ate some of the vegetables helps!  Vegetables are always a challenge as far as they are concerned but I shall continue to try, heck I even have plans to disguise the vegeies if I have to in a puree, they will get their vegetables if it kills me.  Hehe Isabel is doing the bullying today where as most days it's Abigail ah well the little horrors!

Let this lapse for too long...

Alright so we have been on vacation that's our excuse and I'm sticking to it :)  Plus the weather has been somewhat rotten so I've not had the luxury of sitting out in the garden watching the girls play and being able to catch up with my blogging.  However, it does look like the weather is on the change and we are in for some nice days ahead so that should all change.

We survived a marathon trip to NM and back...that's 14 hours in the car without stops and if you think we did that then you would be crazier than us.  Nope we took our time, stopped in Indio, CA for the night on both the outward bound and return legs of the trip.  Lessons from this trip...

1. If you are stopping for the night, pack everything you need for the one night in one bag so you don't have to unload most of the car and reload the next morning.
2. Take plenty of toys they have never seen before, it will help stave off the boredom.
3. Travel when the girls are well rested not when they are tired, the more tired they are the crankier they get.
4. Stop and hug a cactus on the way if you need to experience a different kind of pain, it will remind you of the more important reasons why you are doing this in the first place.
5. Lists (they really do help).
6. Lots of healthy snacks to help stave off the ill tempers.
7. Large hotel rooms so the girls can run around and let off a big of steam after being cooped up for hours but try to not have people below you or you will get noise complaints about running around.
8. Stop!  Don't try to be heroes make a stop every 3 or 4 hours for your sake and their sake your sanity will thank you!  Dinner on the road helps although food could be better enough of the spaghetti and sauce!

For the most part in hotel rooms as the girls go to bed fairly early and a quick explanation to any of the complainers that we were trying to put them to bed made most people tolerant.  

Now would I have done it any differently on that trip (nope) I still think flying would have been more painful and at least only my husband and I have to put up with screaming kids not a planeful of people.

So other lessons...my kids don't do so well right now on winding roads, changes of clothes and lots of wet wipes need to be kept on hand and when they start crying that's a warning sign stop before they vomit...(we missed the boat on that one, next time!).

Get a GPS!  Would have saved us from getting lost in Berkley although we did find a great view by accident so it wasn't all lost.  Trains trips...make sure they are under 10 minutes!  You will find a 19month old really won't sit still for much longer and depending where you are going well it's hard to keep their attention.  Best day trip ever was Tilden Park with the petting zoo.  It's close by, it's free and the animals and small play area kept them as happy as pies.  Close second had to have been Del Valle, with the train trip being my least favourite.  On the plus side when they are older we have found the perfect day to go back to Roaring Roadrailroad, the one before the Memorial Day weekend, no crowds and they are setting up for the weekend and have reinactors there.  It was great just not so much for the little ones.

Diet well back on that next week, which is just as well my pants are feeling tight!

Back to my own food

Alright after being away for 7 days and eating out for over half those days I can honestly say I'm sick of restaurant food.  Odd thing to say but when you have children as young as ours it's hard to find kid friendly places that have a variety on their food menus that they would like / eat.  Hard to even contemplate but it's true.  Now don't get me wrong my two do eat a lot, heck we did indian last night to break the monotony of spaghetti for them as much for us.  I think my favorite meal had to have been on the return journey.  I found a gold country club that has a hotel...who offered us a 10% discount if we ate at their restaurant, now given the poor girls had been cooped up in their car seats for approximately 10 hours we opted for the opportunity to walk from the hotel room to the restaurant, this also meant Mum and Dad could have a glass of wine and not worry about driving back as well.  I opted for a seafood dish, my husband steak and we were able to do fish and chips for the girls.  The restaurant didn't have a children's menu but they had lighter smaller meals so we just took one of those and split it.  They did ok but at this point fries and spaghetti are just getting so old!

Why do kids portions and meals have to be so em boring?  It's like the same items on every menu?  I dunno maybe next time we eat out I'll just order a dinner and split it.  Hey last night my girls (so proud) happily ate mango chicken curry!  Now see we just ordered from the adult menu and they were perfectly happy to oblige.

Ah well one of these days.  The cat survived our absence and I'm so grateful to our next door neighbour who treated her as good as the pet sitter we used to pay!  I did give her some flowers to say thank you but it's nice to know we have people available to look after her.

Dinner tonight is orange tarragon chicken, which just smells absolutely divine right now. Got some nice crusty bread and in a minute I'm going to make up some sweet potatoes to go along side.   I'm always wary of cooking chicken with bone in and trying to make sure it's cooked properly all the way through.  But I have plenty of pieces of chicken to go around.

I'm drooling

Watched today's RR show, and the dinner she cooked today just sounded scrumalicious (yep a word I've just made up), Korean Barbecue Chicken Thigh Sliders.  Shame we are going away and I've already got this weeks menu done, ah well when we get back and the weather should be a bit warmer anyways.  I also received my Rachael Ray magazine, it's all about BBQ!  Oh man I have my work cut out for me, but I liked the look of a grill / smoker, decent price small but might be worth it for some of the experiments I want to do.  It's going on my wish list, not a priority but on the wish list.  I dunno but charcoal grills do something that a gas grill can't and I'm dying to get something for the backyard now I'm not longer restricted to gas only.

I am still thinking we should partially pave round the side of the house, it's gated off so I'm not going to be worried about the girls, the grill can stay there permanently and the addition of a coal grill.   Hmm good!

Up in the air on last night's dinner

Now last night I made turkey kofte with apple raita.  I have to say the recipe was pretty straight forward however, none of us I think really enjoyed the ground turkey.  I might try this again as the flavors were stunning but the texture just brought us down a bit.  It was terribly healthy and a good one to do in a pinch but I may have to use a different meat next time.  I might try some pork or beef now I know that's not a traditional meat and I'm going to be breaking all sorts of rules on it, ideally I would do lamb but as I'm the only one that would actually eat it it's kind of hard to justify.

Tonight's dinner is going to be beef stroganoff, this one is from Paula Dean.  Yeah I know she can be really annoying but her food is good, lets hope this one hits the mark tonight.  It's a totally new one on me so watch this space.

Follow up on the weekend, I was proud of the deviled eggs, and of the goats cheese and carmalized onion crostini, the pot stickers went down a treat and the cheesecake was divine.  I was very satisfied to see that nearly all of the appetizers were eaten, when I left I think there were a couple of eggs left (out 22 halves), 2 slices of crostini and all the potstickers went.  The cheesecake was incredibly light and fluffy and came out almost perfect!  All I have to say is I was pretty proud of myself and the food I was able to help provide :)

Fabulous Vegetarian Kebabs

Tonight was the vegetarian meal of the week, I took a variety of veggies, made my own marinade using the base of mustard, lemon, a little oil and vinegar and added a dash of a gourmet sauce we got last weekend at the wine festival.  All I can say was fabulous and filling, I added some brown rice and a pita.  The girls were ok with it and hey it's vegetables but a lot was eaten so no real complaints.  I've also made my first cheesecake (we shall see how it turns out tomorrow) but it really did taste great before it went in the oven so I have high hopes for that one.  I don't think I've cracked it too much on the surface although it does have a small flaw on the top.

All I need to do now is figure out what to have for dinner for the next week remembering that the week after we won't be here.  I have some things that need to be eaten up out of the fridge so the challenge will be using up ingredients rather than buying too many new ones.

Hmm shrimp

Great little dish incorporating Shrimp with Tarragon and Tomato Sauce Recipe, enjoyed to a certain extent by us all (always a gamble with the girls).  Found a great bread to go along with it.  Simple quick tasty.  Spent a good portion of the day either shopping or out in the garden.  I feel like I'm repeating myself a little but there are times I'm sitting out there and I cannot believe that it's really ours.  It's like a whole different world sometimes when I'm out there and even my husband finds it relaxing and a breath of fresh air.

Going to keep this short as the better half needs to be up at 2am again (2nd time this week urgh) and who knows how the girls are going to sleep again.  I'm hoping for a better performance than last night but you can just never tell.

Heavenly BBQ

Tonight I had planned a honey mustard bbq, oh wow were my taste buds delighted!  This has a slight twist to the bbq sauce that we both adored and the addition to doing everything on the grill including some fresh corn made clean up a breeze.  Given the glorious weather and balmy evening we even sat out and ate in the garden making even more light of the clean up leaving crumbs for the birds to feast on in the morning.  This was like the 2nd time I think we had eaten out here and it's something we will not be forgetting in the future.  Oh my house how much I adore thee.  The girls have also spent a lot of time out in the garden today so with a bit of luck sleep will come easily and last all night again (pretty please).

Enjoying the garden again

Spent the morning curled up in the living room escaping from the falling tree limbs and noise of the chain saw.  It was actually surprisingly quiet considering.  The backyard is now a little less shadier and the tree a little less full but a lot of the deadwood has been removed all in all not a bad job.  The front tree looks odd as it's had a hard time this season with a fungus and lacks a lot of leaves, but apparently it's not dead.  That tree has also been taken back and reshaped after the hack job PSE&G did to clear the branches of the power lines last year.  Hopefully it will grow back next year better and stronger than ever, and who knows maybe there is still hope for it this year that it can still grow some leaves.  Have to admit they did a good clean up job and you really can't tell too much that they have been here.  I also guess we are going to have a few bits and pieces dropping from the roof for awhile.

No real good dinners of late as we ended up doing our 18mth check up with the girls and we have found that eating out on the way home is a lot easier than coming home and me starting to cook (seriously), it's just so late for me to start as we often don't get out of there till 5 5:30 ish.  That's rough when you get home at 6 and want to start cooking it just makes everything too late.  Tonight however we have honey bbq chicken, YUM!

Weekend Fun

This weekend was all about the Livermore Wine Festival and me doing a lot of walking :)  I had the pleasure to meet my bff's mother-in-law and we shared ribs on Sunday night.  I was a little disappointed with the ribs (truth be told) and my fault for totally putting them in too hot an oven to start with, however they were drop off the bone tender so that as some consolation.  Next time lower heat!

Otherwise picked up an interesting gourmet sauce for which I have plans!  I've also spent the morning trimming back the roses in the backyard and trying to cut off the worst of the black spot on the leaves.   I am also thinking I need sandals for the girls for summer, their fully enclosed shoes are just simply looking too warm for them now.

I actually don't have to do much for dinner tonight which is nice.

Wonderful times

So today was the first time in awhile that we have been out as a family, I have to admit I enjoyed it tremendously.  Having missed I think the last three or so Livermore Wine festivals (it might even be four).  James for once wasn't working and we were able to walk downtown to enjoy the festivities.  The girls were pretty good considering and we were out almost 4 hours without too many melt downs.  James did the beer event and I did the wine, and truth be told the beer was probably better value but hey.  We came back with some artwork for the girls bedroom and new summer hats that will stay on this time!

Breakfast consisted of buckwheat pancakes with strawberries and we even accomplished the weekly grocery shop on top of the days excursion.  Lunch for us was a very basic salad, but I felt good by eating healthy, and I only sampled about 4 wines maybe 5 not even half a glass really.  We did stop at the Livermore yogurt shop for a non fat banana treat which the girls enjoyed.  It's nice to buy a small portion and not actually eat all that much by the time it's shared between 4 people.  Dinner was the chicken and dried cherries dish which I have done before, this time instead of couscous I paired it with the pasta/rice pilaf, easier to clean up, and of course there was the obligatory strawberry or two for dessert.  With 4 mile walk to boot on healthy meals I feel pretty pleased with myself, not that the scales really show much of an improvement but hey I just have to try to be good right?