Elijah has been asking to have his friend over, because they’re working on making a book together and now that summer’s here they’ll never have a chance to finish it. We set it up and his friend came over and they drew some pictures and stuff and…? I don’t know what they were up to, but they seemed to be having fun. I don’t think the book plan was fully realized but that’s ok, they were having a great time.
In the meantime, Archer has left us for 10 or 12 days, I’m not really sure when he’s coming back. I requested that he be returned home before school starts but that was about it. I’m sure he’ll be returned by his friends when they get tired of feeding him - he’s an expensive guest to keep around! I hear there’s lots of kayaking, fishing, swimming going on. I’m sure he’ll come home with some great memories of joining the family vacation up north!
School’s out and Grandma invited us for a little field trip to see a wonderful performance by Kids From Wisconsin. There were incredible performances by high school and college aged kids, beautiful costumes and we all enjoyed the music. What a nice little weeknight trip out on the town, thanks Grandma!
David has made these for us three times. The first time for my birthday. The send time two days ago and he didn't even share ANY with me and took them all to work!! I complained just enough that he agreed to make them again and we enjoyed the latest batch today. Bonus - the only kid who likes these is currently OUT OF TOWN so I got them all to myself! I mean, I got to split them with David, no one else to share with.
Original recipe is here, and here's the recipe that David uses.
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups diced fresh strawberries
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400. Put paper muffin cups into a muffin pan, spray with cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and 1 cup sugar in a large bowl. Make a well/hole in the middle of the mixture.
3. Mix sour cream, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the flour mixture, stirring just until everything's combined. Gently stir in the strawberries.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling 3/4 full. Sprinkle some sugar over the muffins.
5. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for about 10 minutes, then enjoy!
Why we love it
Um, what's NOT to love?? I recommend cutting the muffin in half and spreading some butter over them before eating. Sooooo goood!!
Strangely, only 3 stars. That's ok, more for those of us who love them. :)
We’ve got summer started off right. Archer is gone on vacation with someone else’s family. Shelly and Eli are constantly running around without shoes and the bottoms of their feet have turned black. Grandma and Grandpa have treated the kids to programs at the library, fishin’ in the creek and kayak practice in the pool. What a great beginning!
David introduced this recipe to me long ago, way back before kids, etc. etc. The story is that his mom would make it the day after Thanksgiving, using turkey and all the leftover ingredients that they had from the day before. It's one that we both love, it's easy and kind of quick, and you don't actually need to measure anything. Whenever we've brought this to a family event, people seem to love it. Or, they're just being nice?
Here goes.
Grandma Sue's Famous Chicken Salad Ingredients
About 1 lb chicken breast
Celery, Onion
Grapes halved (or Apples, diced)
Cashews (or Carrots)
Mayo, Mustard, Salt and Pepper
Instructions
1. Cook the chicken breast with whatever seasonings you like (Italian, basil, whatever smells good)
2. Set aside one of the chicken breasts for the kids that don't like chicken salad
3. Cut up all the remaining ingredients, mix it all together, add some mayo mustard salt pepper to taste
Why we love it
No measuring required! A nice fresh meal in the heat of the summer. And with the option to leave some of the chicken to the side for some of the kids, it's a meal we can all enjoy. (3 stars because 2 of the kids prefer the chicken to the chicken salad)
As promised, here are some recipes we've been experimenting with in the last week or two.
#1 Eggnog Smoothie
Original recipe is here, but none of us liked it. We tried a new food (dates) and we did not appreciate their overpowering flavor.
Tonight I made up a new version, we'll call it
Banana Spice
1 cup vanilla almond milk
2 frozen bananas (cut them up before you freeze them)
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
Toss it all in the blender, let the kids take turns pushing buttons, and that's it!
I bet it would taste REALLY good with chocolate almond milk. Just sayin'.
This one was fine but I don't know if we'll make it again. Peeling the orange was annoying, and you could barely taste it over the other berry/fruit flavors. The nice thing is that in this recipe, the banana flavor didn't come through as much. Other recipes (like the Eggnog and the Banana Spice) have a really strong banana flavor which the kids didn't like as much.
We learned our lesson with the dates and left those out when we made this one. We skipped the flaxseed and used plain yogurt, not vanilla. Dicing the apple into tiny pieces was a hassle and the kids didn't like that I left the peel on. So. If we made it again, we'd peel the apple. This one was really tart, the sweet banana didn't quite overcome the raspberry's flavor. Also, we used a green apple. Sour.
And finally...
#4 Wing It Smoothie
Once you've tried a bunch of recipes, you realize all you actually need to do is toss in some frozen ___ and add some milk, maybe yogurt if you want it thicker, and blend. Too tart? Add a banana or a little honey. Too thick? More milk. And so on.
I have been lucky enough to visit the Milwaukee Zoo with each of my kids as they finished up kindergarden. This year it was Eli’s turn, and I was so happy to have the opportunity to join him and some friends as we visited their favorite animals and enjoyed a train ride around the grounds. As always, chapperoning this type of trip is all about counting heads every thirty seconds and trying not to panic every single time the count comes up short, because it definitely happens at least twelve times in the four hours that we’re there. Someone’s always running too far ahead, or lagging behind, or standing just behind you and they don’t get counted. And yet, still, I’ve never lost a kid and we’ve all come away happy that we had a day out of the classroom/office and enjoyed the sunshine.
Elijah Graham, you’ve passed another milestone and you’re just that much closer to being a First Grader, bring it on!
Five school days left, and the kids are getting a head start on summer.
The HC Resort pool has officially opened and the kids haven't wasted any time testing the water. Eli was the first to jump in, but his siblings and cousins weren't far behind.
Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta aka Little Boat Race with Handheld Fans...
Eli was a trooper and raced strong, David cheered him along while Shelly and I visited with friends. Good job E!
Archer wasn't at the race because he was home finishing up some big school projects. One of these was his presentation on Norway. He had enlisted help from Grandpa and Eli and they made a zillion pieces of lefse over the weekend. Tuesday night we rolled up the lefse with butter and sugar and Wednesday he was off to school with two pans full. I'm happy to report that the Norway presentation was a huge success, and the entire class enjoyed the treats. And as far as I can tell, Grandpa is successfully passing on his lefse knowledge to the next generations. He makes everyone else do more and more of the work whenever we're around to participate. Pretty soon he'll just get to sit back and relax while the rest of us whip up a fresh batch!
Speaking of Archer... This weekend he and David are camping at the Milwaukee Zoo. This morning Archer participated in the 5K run, and although I wasn't there to cheer him on, I heard he did wonderfully. I think this is his first ever 5K? His troop has set up an activity station for kids to visit and learn about their group. David has reported that it's a VERY popular station and they've had a lot of visitors, despite the rain and the heat. Their troop won third place (out of 31 groups) for their presentation. Way to go Scouts :)
Since the gentlemen are out camping, the rest of us went looking for our own fun last night at First Fridays downtown. Live music, food vendors, all the shops open late, we went to check out the free admission at the museum. We visited lots of little shops and a gallery on our way to the museum. And guess what we found at the artists' gallery? Beautiful art, incredible pieces of jewelry and an impressive display of woodcrafts. And there, nestled in among platters and bowls and cups, I spied... you'll never guess.... A LEFSE roller! I knew what it was immediately, that long roller with the grooves, and it was incredible, an artifact that many people wouldn't recognize. But thanks to Grandpa's determination to carry the family tradition forward to the next generation or two, there we stood, admiring that lefse roller on the shelf with all the other beautiful platters and bowls. AND. And the artist who crafted those fine pieces was sitting right there, on a stool, watching us admire his work! He introduced himself and we chatted for a long time. He's Norwegian, he made that roller that we were looking at, he was surprised that we recognized it. It was a great chance to meet the talented man that created those things. I hope someday to go back and pick up one or two of his pieces. Shelly later told me that she thought he and Grandpa would like to meet each other, perhaps we can make that happen sometime!
When we left the gallery it was getting dark and we were finally ready to visit the museum. Sadly, we arrived just a few minutes too late and the doors were already locked so we headed for the van. Lots of fun just hanging out together, it was a wonderful time with the kids. And to close out the night, the snuggled into my bed so I wouldn't be lonely last night.
Today Shelly decided she wanted to try out a couple of smoothie recipes so we gave it a shot. One was OK, the other a huge hit. We'll post recipes later. The best part about it was trying new foods. Almond milk and dates, anyone?? It's great to see the kids trying new things, learning new things, and working together to create something we all enjoy. Great job kids!
