Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011

Flickr

I've taken the leap and upgraded to a Flickr pro account. The free account was great, but I found myself going over my 300MB limit pretty easily (I know, really...) and I would certainly like to be able to see more than my last 200 photos.
It's also the best and easiest way for me to get photos on the blog. As I am sure those of you using blogger know what a pain it is to upload photos into blogger and then you don't really have great options for sizing, etc.
If you'd like to check out all my photos here's the link to my Flickr stream.

My marathon

My marathon was on Saturday, and while it was different than the ones Dave runs, it was still a long day! I was on a baking marathon! Cooking and baking are my favorite ways to spend the day. I've really got to find a way to turn that into a career.

I made pumpkin doughnuts (from leftover frozen dough), petite lasagnas, apricot basil chicken salad, petite spinach and red pepper quiches, and peanut butter frozen yogurt. The chicken salad and petite lasagnas were for friends of ours and the rest of the food is for us! Everything turned out really good, it was my first time trying all of the recipes. I didn't take pictures, but here are links to all of the recipes.

Petite Lasagna
Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt
Apricot Basil Chicken Salad
Pumpkin Doughnuts
Egg, Red Pepper & Spinach Quiche Cups - I did deviate from this recipe and just kind of used it as a base idea for what I wanted to make. I used spinach, red pepper, Monterrey jack cheese, 4 whole eggs and 4 egg whites, franks red hot and salt and pepper. The quiche cups came out of the oven so beautiful and puffy looking, but quickly deflated :( They are still awesome though, and a perfect quick breakfast.

I decided to continue my cooking marathon on Sunday, breakfast was Dutch Apple Baby and dinner was a twist on one of Dave's favorites, chilies rellenos. I do want to try and make the "real" chilies rellenos some time, but after a marathon weekend of baking and cooking I took the easy route on Sunday and made The Pioneer Woman's Lazy Chilies Rellenos. This would also make an excellent southwestern style breakfast. Other than it being a little watery from the green chilies the recipe turned out great. It was easy to alleviate the watery problem by cutting the rellenos into pieces and letting them drain on a paper towel for a minute before serving.

What did you cook or bake over the weekend?

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dutch Apple Baby!

I saw this Dutch Apple Baby recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Three Many Cooks on Friday. It did not disappoint, I used Honeycrisp apples (they were $1.99/lb at Target!) and they were just the right amount of sweet. This is a perfect breakfast or brunch recipe, and comes together really quickly. Enjoy!
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Thursday, September 22, 2011

A first

Dylan got to see his first movie in a theater last night! The Lion King! It was the first time he had seen the Lion King, he seemed to like it as much as he likes any other movie. He did good and watched the movie sitting in my lap most of the time.
I will say that I remembered the words to most of the songs too and it's still a great movie!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Two-Fer Tuesday

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Kobe on the first day we got her at 14 weeks old!
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She still gives us this look!
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Being attacked by the stuffed black and white cat!
Happy 9th Birthday Kobe!!

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Fair!

Last night Dave, Dylan and I headed to East Knoxville for the Tennessee Valley Fair! We were warned about heading over to the East side, but we survived unscathed and met some nice Iowans when we parked in their yard! (And we found out Dave had never heard of Clear Lake, Iowa, you know where Buddy Holly died, the Big Bopper. Really Mr. Music know it all, unbelievable!) We had a great time at the fair, and while it was small (I guess once you have been to the Iowa State Fair, all fairs seem small in comparison) it was still a blast. They had a lot of rides, and a lot of them were for little kids, so Dylan could ride on his own. He loved going on the swing with Dave and this morning he told me that the train was his favorite. We all rode the huge Ferris wheel and partook in corn dogs, chili cheese fries and a funnel cake. As you can see from the pictures below he also had a pretty good time on the motorcycle. Some of my favorite pictures are of Dave and Dylan on the swings and the carousal.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

For the Grandparents...

Apparently kids have to go to the doctor every year, who knew? Shortly after Dylan's third birthday I got to thinking that he should probably go to the doctor for a yearly check up. We hadn't gotten a call from the doctor asking us to schedule an appointment, and the last time we were there, when Dylan had the tip of a q-tip stuck in his ear, the doctor didn't mention anything about a yearly check up. But then I remembered reading on another blog about someone else's kids yearly check up so I called an made Dylan an appointment.

Today was the first day they could get him in for his check up. He really doesn't have a fear of doctors or going to the doctor. He really doesn't go very often. In fact, before we were at the doctors to get the q-tip out if his ear it had been FOREVER since we had been there. Which I know, is awesome, even the doctor commented that Dylan hadn't been in since his last check up. Apparently breast feeding and putting golf tees into your mouth does pay off! Who knew? So this morning on our way out the door I told Dylan we were headed to the doctor before he went to school. He was all, "I don't want to go" which is generally his standard response unless the going somewhere is to the golf course, park or other outside activity. But he got in the car as usual and I turned on The Incredibles for him and were on our way.

We had a short wait at the doctor's office and I to fill out the usual form to gauge how Dylan is progressing (BTW, all "yes" answers!"). He can name his colors, animals and jump over the the clip board and a myriad of random other things on the questionnaire I had to fill out. After we were called back to the exam room we waited for the nurse for a few minutes and I told Dylan that he would get weighed, measured to see how tall he is and the doctor would look in his mouth, eyes and ears, just like in one of his favorite books, Elmo Goes to the Doctor. Dylan was not super impressed by my descriptions of what was coming up and preferred to climb up the ladder to the examing table 100 times. However, when the nurse came in he was all business, he took his shoes off and walked in the hall to get measured (38.5" 60th percentile) and weighed (a whopping 33 lbs. 10 oz also 60th percentile). Then we walked down the hall to have his eyes checked. The nurse told us that it's rather difficult to really tell if he has any vision problems yet, but they would do the test anyway. The pictures were of a house, apple, and umbrella. Dylan did pretty good although he wasn't sure what the apple was, and in all honesty, it was a black and white outline that was not very impressive. He kept calling in a heart. He did ok on the vision test, they wrote down 20/70 for his left eye and 20/50 for his right eye. Let's hope that next year's test is better and that Dylan got Dave's eyes and not mine.

Dylan did great during the exam by the doctor, he opened his mouth and said ahhh, let the doctor look in his ears, eyes and nose and feel his belly. He also got the flu mist and his last hepatitis shot. I think he had one tear from the shot. He wasn't scared at all before the shot, but of course when he got stuck with the needle he got a little upset. Luckily it was quick and the nurse gave him a lolly pop which cheered him up right way.

Let's hope we aren't back at the doctor until his 4 year check up!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Two-Fer Tuesday

On Saturday Dylan and I went to the Zoo. He loved petting the snake (I stayed far away!) and seeing the chimpanzees, red pandas and gorillas! We also made a trip through the butterfly garden.
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Up close with the Gibbon!
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Petting the snake!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Superhero!

Rainy day today! Hopefully the superhero cape will keep us entertained today! superhero1 superhero2 superhero3 superherogolfer