Being lax in the old postings...

Ooops really last Wednesday since I made a post?  Shame on me shame on me.  So end of last week and the weekend was unpleasant, in fact I'm trying not to think about it too much.  Between not enough sleep, a stuffy nose, and a hubby working lots of overtime it was a tad trying.  However! I survived and the kids are still here to tell the tale as well so how bad can it really be? I just wish I could have had a bit more sleep but ah well that's life.  Also today is the beginning of a new week :)

The twins are adjusting very nicely to their new sleeping routine, I'm such a proud Moma, I should have been doing this a long time ago, but well I wasn't ready I think to let go, but now that I have life seems a bit less chaotic and James and I are getting some needed time for just the two of us which is nice.  Still haven't cracked the having to get up at least once for Abigail but working on that, just if she looses that binky all hell works loose, give it back to her and leave and she is just fine go figure.

Let see dinners...oh Thursday I did these red pepper pesto and shrimp pizzas oh wow they were great, chicken can be substituted successfully for the shrimp for those that don't like the shrimp.  They will be made again...Saturday I tried jerk fish with pineapple rice, meh they were so so, I like the rice the fish was well bland I felt although the spice did add a bit of zing, however it was eaten by the rest of the family so I am not going to discount it, I did love the rice and as I had pineapple already cut up from the night before the whole meal took no time at all.  I'm still managing to do my one veggie night a week and one fish night so overall I'm a happy camper.

Oh and then there was the baking experiment that seems to be pretty successful...oh and I made these lovely pecan cookies that are just soo good...ah bliss, although I can't find the recipe on line to share with you but they were pretty easy.

Trying to work out the weather...

Alright it's July it's CA and it's 79 degrees!  That's downright chilly for us, ah well it keeps the cooling costs down at least tho it's very odd, and despite the cooler weather they kids (not mine I think it's too chilly) still wanted to go to the pool.  But tonight I have a girls night out!  Yay going to go bowling which should be a lotta fun, I've even dug out my bowling shoes and ball from the depths of the garage for the occasion.  I'm certainly thinking give it a couple more weeks and I might see if I can find a babysitter and maybe see if I can arrange a date night for James and I.  Ah the freedom, it's funny almost not sure what to do with myself at times...

Anyway, so I've made these divine chocolate wafer cookies, simple recipe and great cookies...oh the reason for the cookies I'm making a no bake cookies and cream dessert, well ok technically I could have done it with store bought cookies but I just couldn't find the ones I needed so I made my own.

Have to also say my newer tomato plant never looked so good, it's taken off like a trooper, and so far the thyme is still alive...I'll give it another week tho before I declare it successfully planted in the garden.  Still dunno what to do with the patch of land we have down the side of the house, it's just an odd space, I am thinking tho the ac unit will end up out there although that might take a bit more work wiring it but I think it's a good spot and I really then think once the central ac unit is positioned we should just pave the rest of the area and make it into an outdoor bbq area put in another table to help with food prep on the grill and make an even spot to place the grill.  Diane did give me an idea tho that we could partially pave it which would probably work given the ac and save us a bit of money as it's not really big enough for putting anything down there, maybe a chair eventually but we can certainly just make it a cooking area, put an all weather surface area and I think it could be pretty nice.  Not like we have an extra car or anything to put there.

Oh the lovely days of summer

2nd playdate went well!  Will be continuing this as we both recognize we need to get out more for our sakes not just those of our children.  Tomorrow I think I'll bake cookies and maybe go visit Sherry and Brodie, and with a bit of luck a girls night out bowling too!

So last night we had grilled pork tenderloin with an Asian twisted bbq sauce (it was actually the leftovers of the sauce from Friday night), I also made the grilled potato salad which was a big hit with everyone, and I had the satisfaction of using some ingredients from the garden again.  The little ladies went to bed so easily!  In fact I was done in 20 minutes and they were fast asleep with little or no fuss at all.

Today the weather is absolutely fabulous, not too hot not too cold and perfect for chilling in the garden for a bit, nothing fancy for dinner tonight just good old fashioned beef burgers although I'm sure we will throw in a twist somewhere but shouldn't take a lot of work.

Have to admit last night was downright weird...the girls were asleep so early we were almost at a loss as to what to do with ourselves, ah well I'm sure we will cope.

Swimsuit shopping...

Alright I hate swimsuit shopping, my figure is not what is was and I've been lusting after the miracle suits after borrowing one of Debbies, but the $150 price tag really put me off of them.  However I did manage to find a body slimming suit in Kohls with the sale price and a discount coupon I was able to buy an $88 suit for $33...a bargain really.  The miraclesuit was just too pricey when I'm going up and down a bit in my weight right now although realistcaly I'm probably not going to loose too much now but still I can dream.  Anyway this one I feel comfy in and will last me the rest of the season if I drop more weight I'll do the miraclesuite next year, if I don't well I have a back up.

I actually took Abi with me round the store leaving Isabel with James, it was nice to just take one child around with me and made both of them a bit easier for us to handle, plus ya know I think it's important for each of them to have one on one time with their parents.

Dinner tonight was a pretty easy fish taco using grilled fish which helps with the figure, and as you guys know right now anything done on the grill outside I'm all for it.  I had decent success getting the babies down for their nap again today so tonight will be night three of the sleep training.  Not that I'm really following any plan other than my instincts, it's a lot of trial by fire but it's already seeming to be a bit easier than the first time, so I'm just hoping that although this is a bit late if we continue down this path things are going in the right direction.

Major breakthrough

So Thursday I had a date with a pool and two toddlers, which was absolutely fab.  The girls although nervous at first were happy campers by the end of the morning and quite happy in the water.  Thank you to my new friends for helping to take good care of them in the pool and thank you for the use of the pool and your company.  Now during this time I had a bit of time to talk to one of the other Mom's (in fact said owner of pool).  I have to admit there have been a few events in the last couple of weeks that have made me want to do this and just seeing another child younger than mine be less fussy in a crib and able to go to sleep gave me more confidence as well.  This is going to ramble a bit but bare with me.  At Brodies bday party on the 3rd I was pretty amazed at how Sherri was able to leave him in the pack'n'go crib in the living room and not have him fuss too much.  Now he was excited but still eventually fell asleep with just being left alone, this planted the seed of thought, which I have been having awhile and kinda have been trying to do a little bit but well yeah it's hard and we have just been breaking all the rules.

Anyway, Claire sat down with me and gave me some good advice and said she did the same thing with her eldest and that I had to break this, start putting them down earlier etc. and get them in the cribs for their naps.  I really did take her advice to heart, on returning from her house I put both girls who were asleep into the cribs and left them there for an hour then woke them up, after that we started our nightly routine an hour earlier and instead of holding each girl until they fell asleep they went into the cribs and stayed there.  Now we had the crying, sobing, talking but eventually they both dropped off, it took nearly two hours but we got there, today at lunch I did the same thing I darkened the room, left them in the cribs and ignored them, I read a little and played on my ipod but I pretty much ignored them except for the occasional thrown binki but even those I would wait before returning them .  That left me with this evening...James is working the graveyard having worked a full day shift, I had dinner ready for him when he got home and he was able to retire to the bedroom by 5pm, then I bravely said I will get the girls to bed don't worry (gulp) just make sure you have an alarm set in case I'm still in the girls bedroom, just unplug the monitor and don't worry about it.  Now all credit to my husband he said wake me if you need help...now it was tempting as it's always a bit of a rush to run a bath, undress two dirty little girls, heat up bottles and then get them out of the bath dried dressed hair brushed but I managed, fortunately the girls bedroom looks directly into the bathroom so it's possible to leave one in the draining bath tub and get the other changed all the while having line of sight on the other child.  In the event of an emergency I can dump one on the floor whilst charging into the bathroom...probably not the safest solution but it works.

Fun filled day

Alright, yesterday I admit it I got bored...go figure.  Anyway, had an invite today to go over to Claire's and hang out at the pool with everyone including Diane and Brittany.  Looking forward to it although I have a little swimsuit issue which I will try to rectify this morning (ie I don't have one!).  Dinner last night ended up a little bit crisp (oops!), but will try again tonight and not burn things, I know it was only the veggies but I actually had to put out a piece of broccoli.

Girls slept again last night yay!  It at least seems now they are sleeping more through the night than not which is a blessed relief.  Supposed to be having a roof estimate today but we are going to postpone it due to the trip to the pool heck I really don't want to pass up another trip to a pool...I really want to expose the girls to more water in a safe way.

Sitting and relaxing

Whew yesterday was a bit of a blur and not sure if I enjoyed it that much although dinner worked out wonderfully.  Here's a confession, the pita tasted tons better than the store bought variety even if the texture was a little odd, so going to be doing that one again, specially was really they weren't that hard to make, however just need to think ahead as they do require the oven being on which in the summer isn't necessarily something I want to do too often, plus I just need to leave them in a warmer spot to rise, and you know with practice and all that:)

Debbie assisted in forming the cookies for today thanks hon!  The cookie are great and I love the milder sweeter Ceylon cinnamon that I used to dust them.  The recipe was pretty simple and the dough fine after it was chilled down.  The desert for last night's dinner was fun!  I may do that one again sometime, I think I would like to try it when the pastry is still a little crisp tho rather than having sat in the fridge overnight.  I actually am looking forward to the girls being a bit older so that we they can help me in the kitchen and have fun baking, ah what delights we can turn out from the kitchen.  I do really like cooking from scratch rather than using store bought items if I can help it.

'I'm going slightly mad' - Queen

For some reason that song is stuck in my head today.  Not sure why but maybe it's what I'm trying to achieve and trying to maintain my sanity.  I've had this great idea that I wanted to try to make pita bread from scratch.  Yep you just read that right, so I currently have 8 pitas sitting in the garage in a vain attempt to get them to rise, ah well worst case I have some store bought ones just in case.  Oh I've also made a pound cake (which I'm not happy with it didn't really rise properly I may have over mixed it) and I'm also attempting some snickerdoodles.  Did I mention mad?!  The pound cake and snickerdoodles are for tomorrows affair while the rest of the stuff is for dinner tonight.  You know tho if this does work out I'm so doing this again.

I also have to say one of my great moments was going out into the garden and getting mint from my 'herb' patch and harvesting it from there.  So far I've not killed the basil, oregano and rosemary that I planted a couple of weeks ago, and the mint has been established in there since April.  I also appear to be getting tomato flowers on both of the heirlooms and from the new one in the new spot so we shall see if any fruit actually grow.  Not sure to be honest that any of them have enough sun but if at first right?

I'm still bummed I cannot get thyme yet to take, that the one herb I used on a regular basis that I just need a small amount of.  Right now I just have a shriveled dead plant.../sigh, I'm thinking I might need to wait on it until we can take down the boards and let in a bit more sunlight, although I did plant it in a spot which has a fair amount so I'm really still at a loss as to why it won't take.  But as they say if at first try again, and so I plan on it, even if I have to resort to growing it in a pot in a different spot entirely I will not give up darn it!

Oh and I am not a baker!  So if this stuff really doesn't work at all it's not my fault I'll just stick with cooking and keep dabbling with the baking for the girls sake.

Where did the weekend go?!

Sheesh it's Sunday night already darn it!  Things were a little screwed up with Saturday as the 4 hour half shift James should have worked Saturday night turned into a full 8 hour shift instead (bleargh).  Anyway we got the Saturday shopping run done before he went back to bed for a few hours, then we had a lovely dinner with Mexican red snapper sandwiches per my husbands request.  I did do the fish on the grill but for some reason it stuck a little but the end result still ended up in something edible that we both enjoyed.

Sunday, well yes I overstretched myself a little but decided with people coming over this week the kitchen was well overdue for a good clean and I mean a good clean between naps and lunches etc it took me best part of the day but it is now spik and span and ready for the week.  Oh not to mention I've started preping for Monday's dinner, it's not an official trip around the world dinner on Monday as the next stop is going to be Denmark, the first country we got we skipped because it was America and well we cook American style foods all the time even native American so that just get's covered by default.  But we had dinner out at a local Greek taverna the other week with Matt and Debbie and I convinced myself I could come up with just as good a meal but at a fraction of the cost and without all those extra charges!  Anyway, I've got the makings of tzatzki in the works already in that I've drained the yogurt and I'm drying out the cucumber so we shall see.  Then I'm going to do chicken souvlaki (which frankly is one of the easier recipes to do) and finishing off with galaktoboureko (yes I am making it from scratch!), it's actually already sitting in the fridge and ready for consumption and frankly looks divine.

On top of this I need to make a pound cake for Tuesday morning sometime tomorrow and I am going to try a snickerdoodle recipe as well.  Yeah I know I am crazy!  Oh and there will be a shower fitted in somewhere.  At least I've managed to get the main bathroom clean so that's one less chore for tomorrow and I've even cleaned the french windows, although I will probably have another go at those tomorrow.  Sheesh time to calm down relax and sleep!  Goodnight mon ami.

Great week so far

Alright confession the Art Smith Koftas well I wasn't so hot on them, the flavors worked really well together but I dunno, maybe a touch too much spice, I like my things subtle you can tell the spices are there but I don't like to over power too much and I think that's what happened.  Also the texture, no idea why but it felt dry, ah well I did it I tried it if to be repeated lets modify the spices and add a little more moisture.  Don't get me wrong btw I love spices as anyone will tell you just something about this didn't entirely work right.  Now lets see anything else new?  I redid meat and potato salad, using a slightly different recipe and adding a few ingredients of my own, for some reason I love mustard over the potatoes so I added a little of that and some lemon.  Not a bad combo although I could have used a better cut of meat as the steak I had was a little tough, but, then again I was trying to use up what I had in terms of meat so I made it work somehow, next time I'll splurge on a better piece of steak but sometimes beggars can't be choosers.

Ooo managed to get out and about more this week, did a trip to the park, trip to the store, and a trip over to see Brodie again.  I think Sherri needs some company so I hope to be able to give her some now and then.  In addition I have a couple of other MOTs (mother's of twins) coming over next Tuesday for a coffee / tea morning well more like a playdate but we shall see how that turns out.  I think hanging out a bit more with Diane and again last weekend round at Sherri's has boosted my self confidence a little more and I'm starting to reach out to people a bit more, which is a far cry from me a few years ago.  Small steps it's small steps but hopefully in the right direction.  The weather this year has been so fantastic, not too hot, so it's been nice to spend more time outside taking advantage of it.  I'm certainly not complaining although it's going to be a bit stinky this weekend but ah well you can't win them all.

New recipes, return of Rachael and a great weekend

Whee Rachael Ray is back with new recipes/ideas.  I admit I skip some of the show but that's the advantage of the good old dvr.  This week included more recipes and ideas from her block party earlier this year back in Chicago, and today I'm busy preparing kofta kebabs, raita and jeera rice from Art Smith.  I can say so far the raita tastes great and the kebabs smell divine and the rice is currently resting, but I have high hopes for this meal, but I should have started the rice a bit sooner.  Yesterday we had slow cooked ribs which were finished over the bbq and a non mayonnaise potato salad done on the grill.  The ribs were cooked to perfection and finished off with a carolina bbq sauce.  We loved the potato salad and in fact given a days rest it actually tasted better the next day, however it was still great with the ribs so don't knock it all in all a wonderful meal to be repeated.

This week I am doing a few new recipes and a few oldies, I do believe I think I've skipped my veggie meal for the week tho this week, however we did have two last week so I don't feel quite so bad.  We have been managing to continue with the one fish meal a week and the last few weeks my husband has been eating the same as I which has been great, shame the girls haven't but hey it's easy to throw on a chicken breast for them instead.

I have ideas and plans a plenty still left for the rest of the summer too!  I do want to do souvlaki for dinner next Monday night, although James is probably going to be having a rough time with work so we shall see, oh and that won't be a RR I've found another recipe online I would like to try:)

This is where I'm going to do a little shameless plugging for some of my favorite products.  Recently I've discovered a great pickle...wickles try them if you dare, all I have to say is wickedly delicious, look for them in your local grocery store and be prepared for a little zing to the bite, absolutely wonderful on burgers or an addition to a salad.  Another of my favs is gourmet temptations south of the border honey lime sauce, I admit to it being the secret ingredient and the little kick to my salad dressings, I love this stuff and will be sad when I reach the end of my lone bottle and will probably have to order some more it's that good, Karen thank you for that bottle it's been great!

I also have a few hot sauces I love, I'm particularly fond of a cherry hot sauce that adds some kick with a little sweet so it's not too hot which is great for my little ladies.

Fabulous Day

What a lovely day today, didn't do that much other than hang out and enjoy some good company a glass of wine and some cake.  My wonderful hubby cooked dinner tonight and I had a great night sleep on top of it all, what a great birthday and so much better than last year as I had more rest.  Had burgers which my hubby put together, and hung out with my neighbor tempted to make it into a block party next year lol as three of us share the same bday...what are the odds?  Oh and friends Rachael Ray is back on and plenty of ideas for the weekend...so many I can barely get my head around it lol.  Anyway, I have ideas brewing new ones old ones and I will be continuing with the theme of using the grill and trying to avoid as much indoor cooking as possible to keep the heat down in the house.  Time for this happy tired and rested bunny to get some sleep.