Quickie

Well, blog friends, life has gotten in the way of any posts this week...but I can't say I'm too sorry about it!

I was on a bit of a baking frenzy this week. I baked up a batch of my delicious poppyseed muffins (and although I normally happily share many of my recipes, this one I keep guarded. Sorry!) and also a peanut butter - chocolate cheese cake. The cheesecake I was also very happy with... I might have to keep that recipe around too!

The 'rents (what my siblings and I call our parents) are leaving for a vacation to Poland in the next few weeks so I spent a good 2 days working on a shutterfly photo book for my babcia. 40 pages of pictures for the last 2 years...whew! It was a big time crunch because there was a 50% off sale that I wanted to get in on and I brought it down to the wire, with only 2 hours to spare. But I'm sure it came out beautifully and I'm excited to see it when it arrives. Shutterfly has made some upgrades; new layouts, less cheesy embellishments, and you can now upload pics directly from facebook..even your friends' albums (an awesome option!!!).

Also spent the week preparing for our week long camping trip to Canada which starts tomorrow. It won't be "real" camping, as we are staying in a cabin, but it will be
Pretty rustic. The cabin just has bunks, but there is a lodge where we can use a kitchen (but I'll be cooking on our trusty Coleman cooktop, which served us valiantly through our renovation where we didn't have a kitchen for 6 months) and a shower house. This is a weeklong family church camp that Adam grew up going to. It'll be really nice to disconnect for a week and spent quality time together and with his sister and kids... No distractions like cell pohones, facebook, tv, craigslist or (sniffle) blogging. But I'm sure I'll have lots of stuff to talk about when we return!

So, this is my little goodbye for now.. I wasn't able to put up a Pinterest Recipe Challenge because the two things I prepared this week technically weren't pins but fear not, you'll get a double feature when I return :)

In the meantime, have a good week, blog land. Sorry for any typos..this was tapped out o the iPad in the dark ;)

Pinterest Summer Recipe Challenge: Bacon Egg and Cheese Ring

If you are a Pinterest addict like I am, you'll know that sometimes you pin ideas that you, for all intents and purposes, plan to try at some point. My recipe board, Nyam, is full of those. I decided that this summer, I'm actually going to make use of this board and try these recipes out. My goal is 1-2 recipes per week, and I'm calling it my Pinterest Summer Recipe Challenge. You can find more of my challengers here.

Today's challenger is for those who need to spruce up their breakfast routine.

I'm not too much of a fan of the Pillsbury line of doughs. Ever since I learned how to make bread from scratch, Pillsbury just isn't the same anymore. My husband's favorite breakfast of all time, however, are Pillsbury biscuits (buttered) with poached eggs, avocado and some Choloula. Honestly, it semi-breaks my heart because I'd totally be happy to whip up something completely home made, with zero preservatives too. But I suppose the heart wants what the heart wants and so every so often I grant him this wish.

But, with all snootyness aside, I decided to try this recipe out. It combines the All-American breakfast into one slice. Behold:

You will need:
(serves 4, 2 slices each)
1 can of Pillsbury Crescent dough (8 crescents)
5 eggs
8 Bacon
Your favorite breakfast cheese, shredded or finely crumbled
Salt, pepper
Just under 1/4 cup of milk
Extras: anything else you might want in scrambled eggs or omlettes, such as sausage, avocado, hot sauce, peppers, ham, olives, onions, salsa..a family favorite here is Portuguese Linguica.

You will do:
1. Prepare your scrambled eggs by mixing eggs, salt/pepper with the milk. Scramble in a frying pan or griddle until fully cooked through.2. Prepare the bacon (or sausage or Linguica) to full cooked-ness.
3. Lay out the crescent rolls in a circle with the pointy ends going outwards.
4. Pile on the eggs, bacon (any extras), top with cheese last. I found that you would have to break the bacon in half to effectively turn the dough in.
5. Bring each of the points over the toppings and back into the center. Press the tip down to to the center to seal.

6. Optional: brush the top of the dough with an egg wash or melted butter.
7. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the dough is fully baked.
8. Cut into slices and enjoy!

My trio of helpers: Penny, Zeke and Squirt (who has learned what the benefits of
waiting underneath a high chair means)

Variations:
Today we had several options-
Bacon, egg, cheese
Bacon, egg, cheese, peppers
Ham, egg, cheese, garlic salt dusted on top** my favorite!
Ham, egg, cheese

This versatile recipe could be adapted to almost any meal.. you could prepare is a Mexican dish (ground turkey, taco seasonings, salsa, top with sour cream), or try it as a dessert with sweetened cream cheese and dusted with cinnamon and sugar.  The possibilities are endless :)  Write a comment and share if you can think of any other yummy variations!

Fourth o' July: Family Staycation

The Fourth of July is our wedding anniversary. 7/4/2009. We were married at my parents' lake house, it was a sweltering 90 degrees with very little shade and only the slightest of breezes. I was literally steaming in my 15 lb dress (imagine the look on Adam's face as he went in for the garter toss! Priceless.).  The wine was flowing, pierogies (yes, we had pierogies!!!!) lasted about 5 minutes in the buffet line, and one of our groomsmen (accidentally?) lit the neighbor's tree on fire with some early firework revelry.

For our first anniversary we went to Vegas with our dear friends; hanging out poolside during the day, clubs and shows at night. We also took a day trip to Zion National Park for some hiking.

Last year, we took a roadtrip down to the Mendocino area and camped on the coast with our two doggies, visited the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, and "tipped the toad" at the tasting room for our wedding champagne.

This year, I guess our anniversary just sorta crept up on us. We would have happily done a road trip with baby, but nothing was really sparking our interest in where to go. So we decided to make it a "staycation" anniversary. We spent part of the long weekend at our home that we're selling (affectionately called the "TTD" - T-ton Teardown) and the rest of it back at the lake house at my parents' for a festive BBQ and fireworks display.  Between all the commuting Adam does and the very little actual sit-down-family-time we get, we decided to take it easy.

We did manage to get out and do a couple things that we love. One of which was hike a Columbia Gorge icon: Beacon Rock. Beacon Rock is one of our favorite hikes; it was the first hike we took while dating, it was a favorite late afternoon getaway during the week while renovating, and we even hiked it when I was about 16 weeks pregnant (it normally takes us about 20 minutes to get to the top, that time.. 45. ). I also happen to love it for its geological coolness.  This time around we had baby in tow and she loved it. Hung out in the Ergo with Daddy while I tried to use Squirt to pull me up the mountain. That lasted about 5 minutes, because Squirt is just as out of shape as I am.

For the 4th, Adam and I took a stroll down at the waterfront and made it back to the lake house for the party my parents hosted, as a joint event between the holiday and our anniversaries fall on the 4th and 5th.  Miss Penny was of course decked out in her patriotic regaila and everyone oohed and ahhed over our 'cabbage patch baby'.

Thankfully, the sun has FINALLY come out in the PNW and I really hope it's here to stay! I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon lounging on the deck, sipping my new favorite drink- iced Early Grey with a splash of milk and vanilla creamer. YUM!  Be jealous.
PS: You can say it, I know that I've become obsessed with collages these days. But it's just so efficient and fun!

4th month collage

Here is the monthly installment of my favorite cell phone pictures from June.  She's developed so many different expressions this month!

Ok, and because you all have been SO good and our page views have been literally doubling each month (!!!), here is a freebie:  


Penny reading Cinderella

There are so many of you! Thank you for all the love :) Don't forget to leave comments so that I know you're out there...and if there are any topics you'd like me to talk more (or less!) about, drop me a line.

4 months?! 4 months!

Lil' P:

Gosh n golly.. It feels like I wrote your 3 month update just a few weeks ago. Even through my efforts to live in the moment and not be distracted by worries in the future, I don't know where all this time is going.. Can we please just slow down a little? Just for a few moments?

This month you've come into your own. You have your happy noises, your sad noises (luckily those have only a couple times), your tired noises, and yes - your frustrated noises. That one is the worst. I contemplated recording your 'frustrated' noise, but I don't know if I really want to carry that noise around on my phone. It's a little sputter with some spit. And you'll do it over and over until you get what you want :) Oh precious P, how you've learned to get your family to do what you want!

Some of this month's achievements piggyback on last month's - you've honed those skills to an art.
-You started out with bringing toys and fingers in your mouth, sometimes sucking on them.
-You laugh!!
-You weigh 12lbs 15 oz and are 22.5" long.
-You think oinking noises are hilarious!
-You've slept throughout the night a handful of tines but you typically like to snack at 1a, 5a and 8a. And I'm totally fine with that :)
-You like to bite and chew on toys, fingers..pretty much anything you can bring to your mouth.
-You had your first chiropractic adjustment today and did great!
-3 month clothes are all packed away..and I took out the 3-6 month sizes this week, only to find that some of these are a little snug too!
-You went to your first little kid birthday party, took your first family hike, and a boat ride too!
-After a few weeks of hating tummy time, you now roll over from tummy to back and are getting really good at rolling halfway over from back to tummy.. Mama's gotta watch out!

Daddy and I love you to much, Pennybaby. Can't wait to see what this summer has in store for us!

Love,
Mama