Tuesday: Tuna Melts, Bruschetta and Raw Veggies
Wednesday: Hummus and Stuff
Thursday: Taco Salad
Friday: Scrambled Eggs, Buttered Rye Toast and Fruit
Saturday: Pizza, Salad and Ice Cream Cake
Lasagna, Salad and Ice Cream Cones
There is something very special about a cousin. I have always known this, it is a culture in my family (and in most others, I am sure). My childhood is full of memories of playing hide and seek in the dark with my cousins at family dinners, running around and exploring the woods at the lake together (I may add that we were not that old and did not need a parent looking over our shoulder every second, we survived - where have these independent days gone?), doing dishes together when we were just wee littles, playing the alphabet game as we fell asleep (A is for apple, B is for banana....) and later always knowing that I could call one of them if I was in need. There is a safety in cousins, always a friend to hang out with, even the most unlikely friends would cling to each other and find something to do, maybe not quite a sibling but the next closest thing. My closest friends are cousins, their children are my nieces and nephews and I love watching them form the same love and bond for each other as I did with my cousins. The thing about a cousin is that you could have seen them the day before, three months ago or year ago, regardless you still make fast friends and feel comfortable right away getting down to the good visiting or playing and not needing to go through all the beginning formalities. This is what happened yesterday with the girls. It was like Hannah and my niece, Ruby, had played together last week, they got right down to an afternoon of playing. Harper did take a little longer but was soon right in there with the other kids. When some of the other cousins arrived they simply slipped into the playing seamlessly. There was running around, Lego building, colouring on a variety of surfaces (paper, bodies, faces, towels), playing in the sand, reading, games, dolls and all sorts of pretend. The only thing that came to be out of the ordinary was when we were walking home, Harper and I behind Dave and Hannah and Harper looked at me and said, "Where's uncle Dave going with Hannah?" So perhaps there was a little name confusion.
Recipe
My mom made a veggie lasagna and I'm pretty sure there was no recipe, she made up the sauce and loaded it with lovely chunks of veggies layering the noodles and sauce and cheese - yum. The salad was light, simple and delicious, a variety of lettuce cut from her garden tossed with balsamic, olive oil and a little grated Parmesan cheese. For dessert we had ice cream cones, it was Harper's fourth of the season and she didn't waste a drop (oppose to the sticky mess that the other cones have been)!
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| Do you think maybe, she needed the nap? |
Tuna Melts, Bruschetta and Raw Veggies
After careful consideration (actually more like, too many hour and a half going to bed sessions) we've decided to give up Harper's nap. By nine o'clock this morning she was already cranky. In the end she made it through the day not too badly and went down for the night around 6:30, I'm calling it success...we'll see what tomorrow brings. It was my turn to put Hannah to bed tonight, we have a regular routine of two stories, 5 minutes of cuddling and then she goes to sleep. Tonight she picked two long stories and I thought that I was patient enough but half way through the second story, I was wrong - they disappeared. So when Hannah got out of bed to get a drink of water and then tried to get out again pretending she needed a Kleenex I was a little curt and short with her. She then flopped down and hugged me and said, "You're the best mom in the whole world!" This made me wonder, do you think you're born with the capacity to inflict guilt or is it learned?
Recipe
One of the wonderful things about having house guests, besides the company, is that they cook. Today my parents came and took the girls to the park and then Mike made dinner and I, wondered around the house aimlessly, happy but without purpose!
Tuna
Mayonnaise
Green onion
Mix into tuna salad.
Tomatoes, chopped
Red onion, chopped
Garlic
Basil
Mixed together, I believe this was put in the fridge over night.
Loaf of rosemary foccasia
Loaf of French bread
Grated mozzarella cheese
The bread was cut and toasted in the oven and then covered with either the bruschetta or tuna, sprinkled with cheese and broiled to melt. They were delicious!
Carrot sticks
Baby cucumbers
Snap peas
Hummus and Stuff
I'm in a funk with Hannah. She is in a funk of not listening, really at all. I know she is asserting her Independence (?) and exercising her right to chose (?), demonstration her will and strength (?) and I keep asking her not to, (over and over again) and then eventually I try to figure out the natural consequence (which seriously, isn't always easy) and we go through all those motions but it's not working. So after we've had about ten episodes like this (and it's only nine in the morning) I start to loose my mind, my patience and my ability to stop myself, I have come just shy of pulling a Phil Dumphy and cancelling Christmas (for which I would of course make up by promising a trip to Italy). It's a power struggle and I am still searching how I can regain the balance without her loosing her chances to assert herself (or Christmas 2011)!
Recipe
I was so lazy at supper time, it was just me and the girls so I made a little hummus and put out a bunch of stuff that was in the fridge, hence the stuff. I actually piled mine all on a piece of bread and drizzled it with a little balsamic and ate it - it was very messy but good. The girls ate theirs all separate.
1 10 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp Paul Newman's Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (because I was too lazy to press garlic)
Mix all up in a food processor, it turned out really nice and mellow.
Handful of arugula
Boccocino cheese, sliced
Kalamata olives
Tomatoes. sliced
French Bread, sliced nice and thick
Grilled Sweet Potatoes
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced in rounds
drizzled of olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
Zucchini
1 large zucchini, sliced in rounds
2 Tbsp Paul Newman's Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
Toss together and grill on BBQ, flipping once.
Enjoy!
Taco Salad
I love the subtlety of children. Both girls are playing in the back play area and they have shut the door. Every couple of minutes Hannah opens the door, looks at me and says, "Don't worry mom, we're alright back here you don't have to come and check on us." Really, she might as well be wearing a sign that says, "Getting into something" or in my kids world, "Found the spray bottle." In this case I know that they have a basket from the kitchen and feel very clever that they have snuck it out under my nose so I'm going to go with it.
Recipe
We had taco salad tonight which you can find here, but I did add the all important salsa verde!
Scrambled Eggs, Buttered Rye Toast and Fruit
I know I've mentioned Hannah's loose teeth and how I am inexplicably attached and sad that she is going to loose her baby teeth. Today, we realized that her adult tooth is already starting to grow in even though the other has yet to fall out. Apparently this is quite common and nothing to worry about except the missed childhood of having a gap between your teeth that you can conveniently fit your tongue through at anytime. I feel like we're getting jipped out of some serious stalling time, the interim, the here's your chance to get use to the fact that your kid is growing up - we'll take it slow by first loosing the tooth. The next step will be to live with that space and then slowly the new tooth will appear, it's better this way, you ease into it (for me, not Hannah) and are actually normal and sane when the new tooth appears (I do realize that being rational is not my strongest quality). It 's silly I know, I'm quite certain (and I'm sure Dave is praying) that I will only be like this with the first tooth.
Recipe
I'm really dropping the ball on meal planning this week. But today was one of those days where five o'clock rolled around and I had nothing planned so simple, scrambled eggs with buttered toast and a little fruit was easy and satisfying.
Pizza, Salad and Ice Cream Cake (for Marble Slab)
It was Dave`s birthday today and so we always have the same thing. He`s a very low key birthday guy and so I tried my best to try and give him a low key birthday, but we do have a houseful so sometimes you just have to go with it. After our dinner we went out to a friend`s place about 40 minutes away. My dad babysat the girls and we didn`t give it a second thought when we walked out the door, it has been a couple of years since we`ve ever been called home, until tonight. My dad called around 10:30 with an inconsolable little girl with a sore ear, even talking to her on the phone all she could do was sob and so we came home. It was a very long drive for me. I wasn`t worried, it`s not like when you get called home for a baby that won`t take the bottle and you know is screaming and hungry, she`s five and was with her Pepere with whom she is very close, but still, I could not get home fast enough. Maybe, it`s because she`s usually so fine that I was so uneasy, all I know is that I could not get home fast enough to wrap her up in my arms. She`s sleeping in our bed right now and looked so little among the pillows and comforter. I gave her some Tylenol and wrapped her up in my arms to go to sleep...it did take awhile and I will admit I will admit that I did get a little bored, laying there but I was happy to be home with her.
Recipe
We ordered pizza and had a very simple salad of arugula, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella so I don`t have much to share with you for dinner. But, I do make Dave the same sandwich every year, and I by no means think it is healthy - there`s a reason why I only make it once a year, but he loves it. The idea for it comes from Jamie Oliver: The Essential Family Cookbook and I have only slightly altered it.
1/2 onion, sliced and fried
6 slices of old white cheddar
a couple handfuls of kettle cooked Cheddar and Onion chips
Layer the cheese onions and chips on a slice of bread, top with the second slice and repeat the layer and then top with the last slice of bread. Dave always has his with a beer, although he said that he had planned on savoring the sandwich with his beer but finished it before even taking sip!
We're off to the lake for a week of holidays and so I will not have a post next week but, will be back, and hopefully better planned, the week after. I hope the sun shines down on you (and us at the lake)!
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