Gratitude: Day 28

I'm skipping the alphabet thing this year and just picking something from the day that I'm grateful for.

It's been several weeks now since LaVor planted our winter garden and we are flourishing with produce!

It was such a treat to go outside today and pick fresh arugula for our pizza (and the most intense tasting arugula, I might add!).

I'm thankful for LaVor's interest, talent, and determination to plant gardens every year. The winter one is easier to maintain (as long as we receive rain), which I'm grateful for because I am not a fan of standing out in 100 degree heat watering that sucker for an hour. But there's just some sense of pride and satisfaction in growing your own food.

Gratitude: Day 19

I'm skipping the alphabet thing this year and just picking something from the day that I'm grateful for.

Tomorrow is Young Women in Excellence and we're sticking to a shoe theme. The president has come up with so many great ideas, including utilizing the shoe cupcakes we've all seen on Pinterest. She asked me to make them and I happily obliged.

But sometimes I second guess why I agreed to something (because I've been working on them alllllllll day). I especially did not want to end up a Pinterest fail.

I'm grateful I can say the cupcakes turned out darling.

I'm grateful for opportunities to share my talents with others, provide service for others, and make them happy with the treats I make.

Gratitude: Day 5

I'm skipping the alphabet thing this year and just picking something from the day that I'm grateful for.

Saturday is doughnut day at our house and normally LaVor takes the boys. Unfortunately, he had to work today so doughnut duty became my job.

I scrounged up all the cash I could find and we headed out the door. I tried to calculate what we could afford while we were in line but I always seem to be off. Of course Doodlebug needed his milk and The Lime needed his Sunny D (blech!) so that took up even more of our precious budget.

We ended up being $1.03 short so I told Mary to put the milk back. "No, no!" she said. "Just pay me next time."

Bless her heart!

You can't trust many people these days but I was so appreciative that she trusted me enough to return next week to pay my remaining balance. This is how she and her husband provide for their family and she absolutely, positively did not have to do that for us.

But she's right...we will totally be back next week to pay our debt and order another dozen doughnuts.

Cherries

I went to the Farmer's Market on Tuesday and saw my apple man had some cherries for sale. Something told me to just keep on movin' so I didn't buy any.

Rewind to last week when I was looking for an old picture in my trusty "letters and pictures" box. I had no luck finding the picture but I did find a note my grandma wrote me, including a poem, when she sent me an apron almost 10 years ago. It's my favorite apron and I wear it on Sundays when I don't want my clothes to get dirty.

Today's plans were all over the place and some of them fizzled out. It left me with enough time to swing by my grandma's place and water the plants (since it's starting to get H.O.T.). As I pulled into the driveway, I looked at the cherry tree and saw that it was completely full of ripe cherries just begging to be picked. I was SO excited!

I ran inside, got a bowl, and started picking. The bowl ended up not being big enough so I got a plastic bag and continued picking. Most of the cherries were ripe and within my reach and before I knew it, I had a couple pounds of cherries.

Doodlebug was asleep in the car and everything around me was quiet and serene. I had a chance to think about Grandma and how she's still giving even if it's not coming directly from her. I imagined she and Grandpa working in the yard and picking fruit from the same tree I was. Then my mind wandered to what their new life must be like, reunited and so stinkin' happy. It made me miss her, and them, but also grateful that I can still have moments like that where I feel her close to me and am reminded of her love.

As soon as I got home, I had to take pictures of these beauties. Doodlebug caught on and went into my room to get our old camera and began moving things around to where he wanted them.

I'm hesitant to eat them because they're so perfect but they also taste perfect and there's no way I can let them go to waste.

I'm glad I didn't buy cherries on Tuesday. This was a pretty neat and happy day and I know someone else's cherries wouldn't have had the same impact on me.

Dinnertime Shenanigans

I love food. Love it! But when it comes to dinnertime at our house, I dread it. I dread thinking of what to make, I dread making it, and I dread sitting down to eat it. Because without fail, someone will complain and object. And it's usually one (or both) of these two.

We need to go grocery shopping so I'm down to using whatever we have on hand to whip something up for dinner. Last night was potato hash, scrambled eggs, and sourdough toast. My scrambled eggs are looked down upon compared to LaVor's so I knew it'd be a fight to get The Lime to eat them. Doodlebug scarfed his down then threw his arms up and said, "Ahhhh!" which means all done. We were off to a great start! Thankfully, The Lime said I pre-mixed the eggs well enough so he ate all of his. But then I had to try and convince both of them to eat their potatoes (which had salami, bell peppers, and red onion in them) and their toast. That's when things got interesting...

Doodlebug kept his mouth shut tight, whipped his head back and forth, swatted the fork away; he tried everything to prevent the food from going into his mouth.

The Lime tried distracting himself from the task at hand. A little coloring and playing dead was way better than eating your dinner.

Time ticked by and voices were raised, tears started flowing, and some even began gagging. But everyone finished their dinner (even the sourdough toast that tasted like vinegar). By the time dinner was through, so was I.

Even though I dread it every night, I absolutely positively refuse to cater to their little pallets and make three different meals. If there's anything I learned from when The Lime was little it was that everyone eats the same thing (we used to feed him the toddler ravioli and such and then it hit me, "Why are we doing this!?!"). It's a pain in the butt to deal with stinkers at dinnertime but I know it'll pay off in the end.

After WWIII erupted and then quieted down, so did the boys. They played, wrestled, loved on each other, and made me realize that those 30+ minutes of pure chaos is nothing compared to an eternity of happiness.

Grateful for: Z

Zuppa Tuscana

Two years ago next month, LaVor's cousin got married and had a winter-themed reception.  We enjoyed a hot chocolate bar as well as different soups, salads, and rolls.  One of the soups they offered was Zuppa Tuscana, which I guess is from Olive Garden.

I hate sausage.  I pick it off of pizza, avoid ordering it for breakfast, steer clear of it when LaVor orders an egg McMuffin.  The stuff grosses me out.  So I don't know how I managed to finish LaVor's bowl of Zuppa Tuscana at the wedding reception before he even had a chance to sit down.

This stuff is AMAZING!

It was cold and rainy a few Sundays ago so I made Zuppa Tuscana.  We didn't have any bacon, or garlic, but I managed to eat about 2/3 of the pot myself over 3 days.  While I was making it, The Lime kept making gross noises and begging me to make him something else.  When he sat down and tasted it, he, too, was won over by this delicious soup.  The combination of the kale, potato, onion, sausage, cream, and broth are perfect.

I'm grateful LaVor shared that bowl of Zuppa Tuscana with me two years ago.  I'm grateful I can get past my disgust of sausage for this stuff.  And I'm grateful The Lime is mature enough to try new things and enjoy spectacular food.

Grateful for: U

Upside down cakes

Pineapple upside down cake is one of my favorites, yet I don't seem to make it very often (who knows why).

But why limit it to just pineapple?

A simple search of thechew.com (where all of the photos came from) will lead you to several recipes for various upside down cakes.

I'm grateful for this delicious dessert; the buttery/gooey/caramel-like topping mingled with fruit and served atop a fluffy cake.  So many different flavors and textures wrapped into one classic treat.

Garden Update

LaVor has been faithful in posting pictures on Facebook about our bountiful garden.  It's seriously out.of.control.  In a good way, though. We've gone from this, to the following.

We're picking, on average, three zucchini a day, our tomato plants are officially taller than me, the strawberries are super sweet, we picked our first carrot Thursday night and our first two cucumbers this morning, our cantaloupe literally doubled in size in one day, our peppers are going to weigh the poor plant down (there's so many of them), and we can't keep up with our basil.

We also got a new garden pet this week; a lizard.  We hope he stops pooping in the soil but continues to eat the bad bugs.

The bad boy that was a peanut when LaVor left for work yesterday

More carrots just about ready to be picked

Tiny watermelon

Just a fraction of what's to come

The Lime asked when we were going to have pickles

We're just about over zucchini bread - time for new recipes

There's about 4 more peppers growing on this poor plant

Jalapeños...just for Daddy

It's taken lots of work (primarily from LaVor...I just water and pollinate in the mornings) but it's been a joy to watch our plants thrive and grow. It's been an even greater joy to partake of the fruits of our labor! Our neighbors are reaping the benefits, too, as we can't eat everything we pick.

And it's only going to get more abundant.

Spoiled

Notice anything different between this picture and the one I posted last week?

Let me give you a different angle.

Thanks to my observant husband and his two trusty sidekicks, I woke up Sunday morning to this wonderful surprise, and I didn't have to wait until Christmas! It absolutely completes my desk makeover and adds just the right touch that was missing. Plus it's much more ergonomic (and cuter, let's be honest) than the folding chair I was using.

The chair isn't the only special thing I received. Look at those tulips!

Whenever I get tulips, I'm always reminded of the many bouquets LaVor bought me from the sweetest florist, Ben, every time we'd visit Berkeley. Tulips always bring a smile to my face.

And if I wasn't spoiled enough, I had to go ahead and whip up my favorite dessert.

If I had to choose my very last meal, crème brûlée would be involved. When we went on our cruise a few years ago, I ate my weight in crème brûlée. The richness, creaminess, and crunchiness all combined into one delectable dessert are enough to make my taste buds and stomach burst with excitement.

It feels good to be spoiled every once in a while.

On Steroids

I think it happened during the fall; we noticed green onions sprouting in our failed garden.  They started as tiny and chive-like but we cut what we could to enjoy on our baked potatoes and eggs.  Slowly but surely, they grew into massive plants and now we have more than we know what to do with.

LaVor picked four plants last night.  We kept two and gave two to the neighbors.  He sliced the roots off of our plants and stuck the roots in water, so the plant could continue to grow.  In about an hour and a half, the plants had visibly grown!

LaVor cut some last week and those have grown a substantial amount.

See where the re-growth started?

And here's one of the plants we haven't touched yet. I don't know how all the other plants in our garden failed last year but these green onions have gone wild. Steroids is my only answer.

Hopefully this year will be more productive. While we love going to the farmers market, it's so nice to be able to grow and eat your own fruits and vegetables. Plus, they wanted $1.50 for a bunch of green onions. Yowseirs!

We're looking forward to enjoying our strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, cilantro, and our carrots that are just starting to sprout!