School Starts

My kiddos!

This was the first week of school for my kids. It was a busy week trying to get everyone up and ready for school. The kids have to be up at 6:30 to get ready for school. They turned into night owls this summer so it was very hard getting them to bed on time. They love there teachers. We have been so blessed with great teachers every year.

I think I am having a harder time adjusting then they are. I miss them during the day. My sister reminded me yesterday that this is a new season in my life. I need to enjoy it.

I tried some new recipes over the weekend. My favorite was the BBQ chicken salad with ranch. My husband and I loved this recipe.

BBQ chicken salad
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 head red leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn
1 head green leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn
1 fresh tomato, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
1 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 cup Ranch dressing add 1 clove garlic to the ranch.
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the grill, and cook 6 minutes per side, or until juices run clear. Remove from heat, cool, and slice.
In a large bowl, mix the red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, tomato, cilantro, corn, and black beans. Top with the grilled chicken slices. a small bowl, mix the Ranch dressing and barbeque's sauce. Serve on the side as a dipping sauce, or toss with the salad to coat.

TWD Chocolate Banded Ice-Cream Torte

I have not been able to post all week. My husband went out of town taking our laptop with him. I didn't realize how much I depend on the computer for blogging, emails and shopping : ) I made the TWD recipe for Chocolate Banded Ice-cream Torte. Amy from http://www.foodfamilyandfun.blogspot.com/ came up with this selection. It was a good choice and a change from allot of the other recipes that we have been making. I followed the recipe using strawberries in my puree. I now have a working food processor so it was easy mixing the strawberries and vanilla ice-cream together. I scaled down the recipe to 1/4 since it was just me and the kids this week. I used mini cheese cake pans and they turned out so cute. I loved the truffle layers. That was my favorite part of the recipe. I have never used raw eggs in melted chocolate before. I didn't know what to expect but it turned out great. I loved how pretty the layers of ice-cream and chocolate. I can think of so many different combinations that this would be great with. Chocolate and caramel swirled into the ice-cream or Chocolates with a raspberries layer and then vanilla ice-cream! Yum! I probably would be care full who I served this too since it had 8 raw eggs in the truffle mixture. It was a great recipe and wonderful on a hot day!

Traditional Madeleines and more..

I missed this weeks granola grabbers recipe from TWD. Our movers came that day to unload our stuff and it was a bit crazy at our house, but I did find time to make these amazing cookies on Wednesday. I found the Madeleine pan on vacation in France last year. I have made this recipe from Baking several times. This recipe was a completed recipe from before I joined the club : ) I love these simple yet Delicious cookies. I did cook them a bit to long so they were a little dryer then usual.

We are settling int our new house and slowly getting everything put into place. We did have a bunch of broken and damaged items. I think it happens in every move but worse when coming from Overseas. The kids start school on Tuesday so that will give me more free time to get stuff done. We did make a trip to Pottery Barn Outlet last night and picked up some new furniture for Anna's room. How can you beat 70% off of a dresser bringing the total to $169!?! It is a huge dresser and looks so cute in her room. I am so excited to start working on my scrapbooks and cards again. My order from CTMH arrived. I love my new clearance stamps!

My running is going well! I am right on schedule for the marathon next month. I get nervous when I think I only have a month left but feel prepared with the long runs that I have been doing.

I am trying a new recipe for Applesauce cake from my friend Jeni's blog http://www.athomeingeorgia.blogspot/ She always has wonderful recipes and decorating/scrap booking tips and ideas. I can't wait to taste it. Enjoy your weekend.

Oregon Coast

Whenever we get a chance we go to the beach when visiting our family. It is only 2 hours away and the kids always have such a great time. We had a wonderful day with the in-laws, brother, sister in law and cousins at the beach. We spent a full day playing in the water, flying kites and building sand castles. The day is not complete until you have Tillamook Ice-cream. The Tillamook Cheese Factory is 40 miles from Cannon Beach. We had perfect weather with a light wind. We still all ended up burned somehow?

I am a little late in posting my recipe for the barefoot bloggers. Melissa of http://www.itsmelissaskitchen.blogspot.com/ chose the recipe for Panzanella. I made the recipe last night. It was awesome! I loved the chunks of onions and cucumber mixed with tomatoes. I used grape tomatoes and cut them in half. I also added some cheese. I wanted to put feta in but was out of it. I had a 5 mix Italian blend that I used instead. We had this with grilled turkey burgers. I have had a recipe like this from Cuisineathome before. They both have wonderful flavours! I loved the garlic in the dressing. I would use the dressing to marinate chicken breast

This was a great summer recipe. It was light and tasty without being too filling. My husband was hungry again later on in the evening and was ready for a second dinner : ) Here is the recipe below.
Panzanella
3 tablespoons good olive oil 1 small French bread or boule, cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 large, ripe tomatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/2-inch thick 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes 1/2 red onion, cut in 1/2 and thinly sliced 20 large basil leaves, coarsely chopped 3 tablespoons capers, drained
For the vinaigrette: 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar 1/2 cup good olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Add more oil as needed.
For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together.
In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers. Add the bread cubes and toss with the vinaigrette. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Serve, or allow the salad to sit for about half an hour for the flavors to blend.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice-crem

I am a little late in posting my recipe for Tuesday. My TWD baking group recipe was chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. We made the Blueberry Sour cream Ice-cream. My ice-cream maker arrived out of storage just in time for the recipe. I LOVED this ice-cream. I wasn't sure how it would turn out with using sour cream in the recipe. My sister made Buttermilk Ice-cream before and said it tasted more like vinegar then anything else! I followed the directions exactly. I loved adding blueberries to the mixture. My husband and I ate the entire batch in a couple of days. It was the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. This is a keeper for sure! I would list this as one of the my new favorite ice-creams : ) I am still on vacation so no pictures of our ice-cream. I actually made it before we left because I was so excited about using my ice-cream maker.
Our vacation ends on Sunday and then we are back to the real world. It has been a fun couple of weeks visiting family and friends. It is really nice being back in the NW. We have had some crazy hot days lately. It is supposed to be 103 today so we are off the the water park!

Vacation on the Farm

The Garden

I grew up on a small farm in OR. My parents always had a huge garden, raised cows, pigs and chickens. My sisters and I had our own horses from age 5. It was so much fun getting to take our kids back to the place where I was raised. They helped in the garden and went fishing. They played and played some more. Our entire family got to come home to spend time together. My Dad cooked his FAMOUS ribs and BBQ sauce. We ate home grown vegetables and took the kids hiking. I went on trail runs with my sister. My husband and I did a 12 mile run in the hills and ran upon a rattlesnake sunning himself. It freaked both of us out. We celebrated birthdays and ate the most amazing cherry cobbler from the cherrs off of my parents trees. The five cousins had so much fun together. It was such a great way to spend a summer vacation. I am so thankful for my family and how I was raised. My parents taught us how important it is to enjoy the simple things.

TWD baking Day

Today was a fun day for baking. I am visiting my family and found all the ingredients for this weeks post. Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen chose this recipe. Here is her blog if you want to check it out. www.ashleescooking.blogspot.com/ This baking group is so much fun. I love seeing how everyone Else's turns out. I had no problems with the recipe. I found good chocolate in my Moms cubbard. That makes all the difference : ) The batter looked great and I didn't have any problems with it being too runny liker some people had mentioned. I followed the directions exactly. I can't wait to sample it next!
After trying the bread I was a little disappointed. The flavour was not what I was expecting. My bread was on the dry side and lacked banana flavour. My family all thought that it wasn't as sweet as it should have been. I think I will stick to Aunt Betsy's banana bread recipe for next time. I have already made next weeks recipe and LOVED it. Happy baking to everyone!

My fun race!

I am currently in Or. visiting the family. This is the first access I have had to a computer for over a week. My sister, brother in law and I had so much fun in our relay race over the weekend. We were up for 36 hours and ran 217 miles among 12 runners. It was such an amazing bonding experience with my sister. My favorite run was the 7.2 midnight run. I had a head lamp and ran by myself in the night. The van was ahead of me and would stop to give water and encouragement every few miles. It was AMAZING! The run was hilly and I am so glad it was dark so I couldn't see the hills. I met lots of people and found a friend on my 8.8 mile leg to share water and stories with! We ran in cinders, gravel, trails, along lakes and rivers. I loved it so much. The only thing that would have made it better was if my husband ran with us. He was taking care of our kids at his parents house. I am currently in the process of making my TWD Black and white banana bread. My mom had all the ingredients for it. I will be posting later about how it turned out. We are off to the fair. My parents have a wonderful garden and are entering tons of vegetables and fruit this year. Our kids are doing some projects themselves. They have been working on making vegetable animals. It is so fun to see them enjoying life in the country...