We signed up for a service called Farmer Fresh To You, which delivers a box of locally grown, organic produce to us each week.  It tastes amazing!  Hannah was asking to see how much comes in a box, so here it is all spread out .  This is the 2nd smallest size: 7 kinds of veggies, 3 kinds of fruits, plus a clove of garlic, a lemon, and an herb.  We don’t order specific things, but they do e-mail us ahead of time telling us what we are getting so that we can substitute if there’s one we don’t like.  This amount is almost enough to get us through a week– I did use a bunch of bananas and some bell peppers in addition to all this.  But it will be perfect when our garden is producing again.

Yes, we are so lucky to live in a place where delicious strawberries are growing in February!  They were big juicy ones too.

It’s fun to try new things.  Turns out the whole family loves baby bok choy! Who would have guessed?  Check out this funky Romanesco cauliflower we got this week.  I made a yummy casserole with it.

This recipe for Lemon-Vanilla Tart with Candied Lemon Slices was found in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine  and promised to be “Sunshine by the Slice”.  It was a nice treat in the middle of a very gray week.  So good and tangy and simple, I highly recommend it.  Though if I do it again I might try it with a different pastry, I like a thicker and sweeter crust.

Coloring is Natalie’s favorite rainy day activity.  We went through an unbelievable amount of paper last week.  She especially loves these princess coloring pages.  She’s starting to get the concept of staying in the lines, but truly her favorite thing is watching ME color and directing me what to color next!   Fortunately for her I think coloring is relaxing and I had extra time on my hands last week, so we had nice times together.

We have three rules about crayons:

1. No snapping crayons in half.

2. No tearing the paper off crayons.

3. No dropping crayons on the floor or Ben will eat them.

We make Natalie repeat them to us and it’s always so funny to hear her say them.  She tends to forget numbers 1 and 2 (she seems to have an uncontrollable urge to do those things), but is VERY concerned about #3.  “Ben will eat them ALL GONE!” she says.  Yes, he really will.

I drag Ben’s high chair into the middle of the kitchen so he can watch me cook and clean while he eats snacks or plays with toys.

Natalie hangs out at the table painting, coloring, or doing playdough.  Or eating snacks.  Did I mention how much my kids like to snack?

Not from the same day I but I wanted to show it anyway… they had so much fun discovering this new playhouse.  They are playing together, or at least alongside each other, a lot these days!

My kitchen creation of the day was these red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, from scratch of course.  The frosting was rich but so yummy!   I disapprove of store bought frosting (inherited that one from mom).  The special occasion was having my girlfriends over for dinner.  I made Fancy Macaroni (with 4 types of fancy cheeses) and it was a hit!  Notice the empty plates.

Natalie and I had so much fun cutting up her pumpkin and turning it into pumpkin butter!  We used this recipe.  But honestly the best part of cooking pumpkins from scratch is roasted pumpkin seeds.  They are so easy and delicious!  Nata is such a great helper in the kitchen.

Every year I try a new dessert for our family holiday parties.  Past desserts have included a 6-layer spice cake with homemade coffee toffee, maple pumpkin cheesecake and last year’s 2-layer pumpkin chocolate cheesecake.  The Cranberry Pecan Tart I made this Thanksgiving was definitely another winner.  My uncle said that pecan pie is his favorite, and this was the best he’d ever tasted… I’m pretty sure there is no higher compliment!

It’s really pretty, too.

As I type, there is yet another tart baking for Andy to take to a party tomorrow, as well as some Maple Pecan Muffins which will be breakfast as I drive to Las Vegas tomorrow morning with my marathon buddies for our big run!  I should probably take a break from the butter and sugar until Christmas, but I doubt that will actually happen.

This week we picked a large bag full of Roma tomatoes.  It seemed like they all ripened at once, and we had to figure out what on earth to do with all of them this Labor Day weekend!

Andy made salsa… it tasted amazing!  I made tomato sauce and used it to make three dishes of lasagna.  Not bad!  The extra effort of growing our own vegetables has actually been so much fun.  I think we’d like to be farmers “when we grow up”.

We did have a very nice Father’s Day though.  Before church, Andy got to open his gift from the kids.  “They” got him this awesome Maglite flashlight.  It will be a handy weapon light for when Andy walks to the Spooner’s house at night– in case he bumps into one of the weird dogs that sometimes roam our neighborhood!

After church we hosted a barbecue at our house, with both of our dads and their families in attendance.  I made a special dessert– Mocha Rum Cake!  I saw the recipe a while back and saved it because I knew I’d have to make it for Andy some day. It has all our favorite ingredients:  coffee and rum (Andy), Ghiradelli chocolate and three sticks of butter (me).  Good thing we were sharing, right??

It turned out soooo well and tasted amazing.  I thought the rum flavor might be too strong for our non-drinkers, but everyone really liked it.  In case there was any doubt as to how rich and dense this cake was, here is a close-up.

This was Andy’s 3rd Father’s Day, but each year he shows us new ways that he is an awesome dad!  In 2009 we have learned that

1.  He can fix hair in pigtails really well!

2. He’s way better than me at getting both kids to bed by himself.

3.  He can deliver a baby with just 15 minutes notice.  Sorry honey!  Just trying to keep you on your toes.

A couple favorite pictures of Andy with the kids:

Rolls:

1 egg at room temperature + enough 80 degree water to equal 1 cup

1/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

2 cups AP flour

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

I just throw it all in my bread machine in no particular order and use the “dough” setting, but obviously you could mix it in your mixer and then be sure to let it rise.

Topping:

3 tablespoons meted butter

grated orange peel or a spoonful of orange juice concentrate

spoonful of sugar

1. After it rises the first time or the dough cycle is done, divide bread into pieces and shape into rolls.

2. Mix topping ingredients, dip pieces in mixture.

3. Place in greased baking dish, cover, and let rise in a warm place 1 hour or till they are doubled in size (I like to put them in the oven (NOT turned on!!) with a bowl of boiled water).

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until done.  If you have any topping remaining, brush it on top while they bake.  Serve them warm if possible!

Do you like how I turned the dish to make it less noticeable that I devoured THREE rolls before even stopping to take a picture?  That’s how yummy they are.

There was some serious “June Gloom” going on outside, the fog was so thick it felt like it was raining.  But we grilled fish tacos anyway!

Natalie had such a fun time with her cousin Kate!  I love it because Kate is just enough older (she’s almost 4) that she can supervise Natalie, making sure she doesn’t go anywhere she’s not supposed to.  And Natalie admires Kate so much that she does whatever Kate says without throwing a fit.  They were so sweet playing together!  I thought this was a cute picture of Kate guarding the door.

My contribution to the party was these rainbow cupcakes!

I had fun making them, I’m always up for making dessert.  I just try to reserve my baking for special occasions when there is someone other than myself to eat the finished product.  They have cream cheese frosting, with Skittles and rainbow sprinkles on top.

Little Ryan is the most grateful kid you’ll ever meet, he must have thanked me 25 times for making him cupcakes!  Gotta love appreciation!