Oh Jean!

Lately I've felt a touch like I'm doing "Julia Julia" meal planning with Jean. Jean Jane if you will. Wade and I are limiting our trips to the store so I am striving to be better prepared with our meal plans. Jean Pare is overall a great cook - the occasional bland recipe comes forth - but I either learn to spice it up for next time or follow my instinct during preparation. Don't know Jean? Click here!
I was in a rut. Endless wonderful meals had ended. It's a strange phenomena. All of a sudden you blankly stare into the fridge and cupboards and have no inspiration. Company's Coming saved me : ) and got me out of the rut. I've bought my own Company's Coming cook books from store and a few I actually found at a garage sale in Edmonton and we also were given some as wedding gifts. I often turn the pages and make selections but for the past 3 weeks I've stuck to it for every dinner. Our taste buds have been happy. It's been fun for me! ( I had no idea that the recipes were online so if I can I'll post a link for a particular recipe that we tried and enjoyed. The book I choose to use for the past weeks has been click here Meals in no time ) Our Salads have kicked up a notch! We are good about eating salads often but even with great ingredients them same old salad can get a little boring. I made a Salad called Sweet Chicken Salad. We ate the entire Salad right then and there. No leftovers we kept heaping it onto our plates. It is SO good! I was Elaine ordering the big salad! (Seinfeld)

Another favourite that I happened to stop and take a pic of was Pecan-Crusted Chicken. Wowsers! This is delicious.

Coat the chicken in a little saucy mix of honey (2 tbsp) and Dijon mustard (3 tbsp). Then press chicken into a crumb mixture of ground pecans (3/4 cup), bread crumbs (1/4 cup), melted butter (2 tbsp), basil (1 tsp) and salt (1/4 tsp). Bake 425 for 15-20 minutes. So tasty it felt like a special occasion with each bite.

Springtime Chicken Pizza - well you know how I've been a pizzeria using up the whole wheat flour from Wade's mom. It was time to venture off into more interesting toppings Click here for the recipe Springtime Chicken Pizza
Since the oven was on I had to do this fabulous idea for KALE! The only time I have ever bought kale was last year or so when my brother was huge into introducing green smoothies to our family. Click here for green smoothie girl so you can get addicted to healthier and amazing smoothies yourself. I wasn't very fond of the kale in my smoothie if I remember correctly it was rather 'chalky feeling' made my tongue go like this (you know). But lo and behold, Kale made it back on the shopping list. I had to try Kale chips. Now I haven't come across kale chips in my Company's Coming books - sorry Jean Pare I branched out. All it is Kale, Olive Oil and Salt. bake it. eat it. You eat them like chips - they taste like chips! They are chips! So delicious! And so healthy! Kent gobbled down kale... in the chip form. Wade wasn't too sold on the idea, but at least he tried them. I will make them again and hopefully he can try them again and enjoy them. I just did a quick search and sure enough if a proper recipe is desired click here for surprisingly tasty Kale Chips!

This is my washed and cut and dry kale. Place in a bowl and drizzel olive oil. Be sure not to use too much olive oil or it will be greasy and go limp. Add olive oil a tablespoon at a time. Only needs to be lightly coated. Sprinkle on the sea salt. (browse internet for more ideas too) then place in a single layer on a cookie sheet (lined with parchment optional) and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. BUT if you are my oven make adjustments! I was watching so I thought. Some of mine got burned. As soon as the edges begin to brown - done. Enjoy!

Springtime pizza with a side of kale chips.

Couscous has appeared at more dinners. It's such a versatile grain. Love it! and it's SO fast and easy to prepare! And on another note (not from Jean Pare but from RUSSIA!!!) Rachael I've found and fell in love again with buckwheat! Kasha! I had Kasha for breakfast every morning in St. Petersburg but hadn't ever had it since. The smell and taste took me right back to the little kitchen table I sat at and first became familiar with the new texture. So yummy. Out of curiousity I looked up the nutritional values for buckwheat click here. Excellent read!

I made a soup from Company's Coming that reminded me of lunches at the school from those dear women. Wade didn't mind it - but I did. hahaha! What did we call some of those dishes - sufreakaderkamie! Hahha!

30 Big Ones

We sang that jingle for the 30th time in Wade's life, only my 4th though being his wife!

We celebrated with a few friends the Woods and Buhlers. 3 flames blew out with added huffs and puffs from Kent and we all devoured Panini's and Pies!

Kent - Leon - Everett - Malcolm

An attempt at lining up the children for a pic. No major injury's. Note: take pics at the beginning of the evening not when they are all played out and ready for bed and perhaps sitting up on the floor or on the couch - not laying down all rolly-polly and hokey-pokey : )

3 decades - It was fun finding 3 pics for decorating the dining room wall with. As soon as Wade was kissed off to work I set out with Kent to look through photo albums of Wade's. Kent was just taking my word for it at first when I pointed to baby pics of Wade and told him they were of "Dad" Then I could see his gears turning as Wade got older and older he also could pick out who Aunt Beth, Uncle's Chad and Joel were and he was stumped with the rest. Kent, Leon and I set out to go to Hy Vee's photo lab to reproduce the pics into 8x10's but I quickly redirected the troops and we went to the UPS Store where they had a March Madness price for color copies. That's all I needed! I didn't need photo quality for this! 8 1/2 x 11 papers 25 cents each, perfect. Then I looked through my scrapbook papers at home and found some that worked well enough together. When it came to cutting out the digits I had to do that in a hurry and I never finished. Leon decided it looked good just the way it was. : )

I bet I'd have had a little crush on that cute boy in grade school.

Haha! 20 years old and serving on his mission, here outside the St. George Temple. What a stud. He is wearing someones glasses and they got a little pose out of him.

Now a wonderful father to our son's and an amazing husband to me.

I am thankful for all he does for our family. Everyday Kent is SO excited to anticipate the arrival home of "Daddy" and so am I! He wrestles with Kent, listens to all of Kent's story's from the events of the day (which are 99% of the time about vehicles and machines he saw that day) With Leon he gets nice and close up to his face - oohs and aahs and talks with him. Leon has a lot of smiles and can sure laugh when the tickles are just right. We marvel at Leon. What a sweet baby he is. There is nothing like a baby in the home. With me, Wade sure treats me well. I feel loved, respected and admired. And I hope I return the love, respect and admiration he deserves. I'm thankful for the the qualities of dedication, perseverance, exactness, and clarity he has. He definitely helps me see things in a different light when I need to. His memory astounds me! I have a certain few categories of things that I don't forget. But Wade's categories are endless! He can sure make me laugh! The area's where we differ are good, keeps me on my toes. It's neat that this year we celebrate 5 years of marriage. Wow! Time is flying by!

Happy Birthday Wade!

Recently I learned you can use the George Forman Grill for Panini's! I've seen the proper Panini grills but greatly dislike one use kitchen appliances - space is limited in our kitchen as it is. The lean mean fat reducing grilling machine does a panini just as good as your panini Panini does!

Sourdough Bread

butter the outside of each slice

provolone

roasted red bell peppers "in Brine" (Wade's always states that)

peppered turkey

honey dijon mustard or reg - optional mmm....

I cut the sandwiches in half to serve. The rest of the menu was big ol pickles (Jason's Deli-esk), Ruffles potato chips, cantaloupe, fresh cut pineapple, grapes, and for desert Boston Creme Pie with 3 candles on top and a second pie - Banana Cream Pie, just because. Beverage: Banana Slush with Ginger Ale (recipe from Deb)

The night of Wade's party I didn't do the finishing touch on the IKEA guy like I wanted to do. So this morning before Kent woke up I taped the little banner to IKEA guy's hands. Kent's reaction was hilarious! I showed him and he grinned and said "Oh wow! giggle giggle That's really cool mom!" In disbelief I inquired "pardon?" and he repeated exactly as before "That's really cool mom!" Since when does he share his opinion in this manner? Love it!

Well, Happy Birthday Wade! Look forward to what's in store this year! (Thanks to Kent the Star Wars Emperor's theme song just came into my mind... dun dun dun - dun dun dun- dun dun dunnn!)

sweet n' salty

Kent likes to hold Leon but as soon as I whip out the camera he pleads softly "no, no pictures. See it? See it please?" He would like to be the photographer and loves - like any other kiddo to look AT the pictures and videos stored on it. It seems useless to explain but I do anyway "Kent, we need to take a picture in order to look at the picture. Let's take a picture and then see it." I know, it's too wordy : ) . I snapped away and in this instance (most instances no, cross that out - all instances) couldn't capture Kent's wonderful, cheerful smiles that he has. Leon's expression is pretty cute in this one. It is General Conference weekend! For a Saturday conference treat I planned ahead to prepared to make Soft Pretzels! We went to Pennsylvania in July 2010 and while there we went to an farmers market in Lancaster County. While there, Wade's mom bought me an Amish cookbook that I was eyeing. In it is the ever popular recipe for soft pretzels! The following showcases my first attempts at being Amish: Wade was sleeping in - good because I wanted them baked as a surprise. Leon was down for a nap and together again, Kent and I were wearing aprons and high fiving in the kitchen. Rolling out the dough Kent was quick to manipulate it as a snake slithering and hissing along the counter top. Formed them, dipped them in the soda solution and popped the couple in the oven. Well, there really is some talent and skill to be had that I don't have. Ding! goes the timer. Kent can hear that timer a block away! He'll perk his head and in a speedy staccato declare "Timer!". Lumpy, uneven pretzels emerged from the oven. I now know that next time I really need to form the rolls smoother.

Wade paid the best complement though when he broke off a piece and popped it in him mouth "humm, they actually taste authentic" haha. Well good. May not look like they ought to but I agree - it's a good recipe! I had left over Brown Sugar Cream Cheese icing from yesterday's muffins so that was an excellent dip for our warm, soft, salty pretzels. The batch was devoured almost entirely before the 1st session even began. Here is the recipe:

1 pkg. yeast

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 t. salt

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt and flour. Knead well. Let rise 15 minutes. Roll dough and shape into pretzel form and dip in soda solution then sprinkle with salt.

Soda Solution

1/4 cup water

1 t. soda

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Brush with butter when out of the oven.

I found I had to add water in order to knead well. I refrained from including the whole wheat flour even though I wanted to. I opted not to brush them with butter because I knew we'd be dipping them anyway. I sprinkled using course sea salt. If your Amish you were good with all of these directions But I consulted the Internet to make sure I knew what I was doing and compare this recipe with others. This is a gooder! Enjoy! And enjoy Conference!

whole wheat

Zip loc bags of freshly ground Whole Wheat have been given to us recently from Wade's mom! Bag # 1 arrived when she came when Leon was born. I promptly put that bag in the freezer - baking was the last thing on my mind. Then bag #2 came in February when she visited again. Freezer space is at a prime - so bag #2 stayed on the shelf next to the rarely used white flour. Now I am pleased to report that the wonderful silky, brown whole wheat goodness has been used so frequently I am eager to bake more and more. Leon's sleep patterns are more predictable and being in the kitchen with Kent is a lot of fun now. I love this recipe that my cousin Deb gave to me. SO GOOD! Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins. Because I added that silky goodness: Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins. Then because I doubled the batch (making them for sharing - general conference treats for VT) Kent and I sampled a muffin (or two..or three) and they just weren't as scrumptious as prior uses of this recipe - So I hopped online to find an icing...ready for it.... Whole Wheat Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Icing! Mmm!

Found this super fast and easy recipe for pizza crust click here for it. I used 2 cups of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for what the recipe calls for. I love that the dough only has to rise once for 5 minutes and it's ready to roll! We divided the dough in half to make 2 thinner crust pizzas.

Kent was a fun team player in our little pizzeria. He is so funny using a responsible delighted voice when following instructions mixed with squeals of excitement. Lately he will change his voice to be a deep throaty tone and playfully say whatever is on his mind for instance "Pizza! Pizza! I love to eat you Pizza!"

Sauce: delish and once again nice and easy with all the ingredients on hand click here for it

Since this was all impromptu the ingredients were green peppers, onions and cheese! Kent kept most busy at this point consuming grated cheese by the (little) hand fulls.

Uh Oh! One more pizza to roll out and top and Leon is starting to fuss .... uh, quick let me take a picture of the dough lol! What we do when we are 'determined'

We did it! Now one handed plus Kents two hands the second pie was formed somehow and dad was just arriving home when the first pizza was coming out of the oven. I have to admit after using the oven more lately I'm sad that all to soon the hot and humid summer will be upon us and that heater will be that last thing we want on in our 2nd level apartment. groan.