Miracle Melon

This started out to be a pity plant but became a miracle melon.
My son asked me this spring "Mom, could we please grow a watermelon plant this year?" I told him yes we could try but it probably wouldn't grow. As a true testament to how many hot days we had this summer, he actually had 3 grow. C is holding his "small" watermelon which was very yummy.

Easter Dining and Other Results

I can't find where my pictures of Easter Brunch went to....but when I find them I'll post them on here. It was simple but very yummy! Scrambled Pesto Eggs, Bacon, Coconut Bread, and Strawberries.

Close up of dinner plate. Aon was the master chef of this fabulous dinner. (B and I helped.) We had lemony garlic green beans, her delisiciouso corn dish, potato au'gratin and crab cakes on top of a lemon vinegrette salad. As the carnivorous sous chef, I was put in charge of the Ham.

I must say it is a very pretty ham and it tasted awesome. It was the best ham I've had in a very long time. I made a huckleberry chipolte glaze which was a perfect compliment to the smoky salty meat. Yum!

Easter Dinner table. (The kids used the colored eggs as a centerpiece.)

It was very pretty especially with the candles.

M working off some of that yummy food and big Easter basket.

She even went for a jog in the pouring down rain. Crazy Gilrl!!!

This is "beginning" of what became known as the "Peeps incident" at our house Easter morning.

(Aon couldn't control her peeps and below is the resulting tumult that ensued.)

There was a peeps orgy and this is the resulting chaos.

Finally!!!! 10 years old!!

C is finally in the double digits club!! He is so very excited!! He has been eagerly anticipating this day for nearly a year. (I remember back in September he told someone that he was "nearly 10".) Now if his mom will let him, he can play the 10 and up video games. Here's some pictures from his friend party and family party.

C's family cake that B baked and decorated for him.

C has a bunch of his buddies come over to the house for a movie night sleep over. Yep, they stayed up until the wee hours of the night playing video games and watching action movies. (I love the fact that this modern kids really loved the old 1980's movie Short Circuit. THey also watched the cartoon Star Wars movie Clone Wars, Iron Man and Speed Racer.) Each kid had their own bucket of "movie popcorn" movie candy, and pop. One friend said that I was the coolest Mom ever when he found out that they were going to watch more than one movie and could stay up really late and watch as many as they wanted. (At 2:30 am I made the last stragglers who were playing a pokemon card game go to sleep.)

The boys playing a pokemon battle game on the Wii.


C hamming it up as we sing Happy Birthday to him.

Yes, there is a big slice out of C's Birthday cake. I ran out of time, so I let him buy a cake. It was pretty cool. I took the cake out of the box and had it on the kitchen table. I then I needed to get the cool new candles I bought so I left the kitchen for a few minutes. In that brief 2 minutes, our dog, Queenie, who has not done this before, jumped up on the table and took a small bite out of the side of the cake. Well there's not much I could do with a house full of kids and I've already made the announcement that 10 minutes before do the cake. So I cut generously around the bite, put the candles on and made the best of it.

(I kinda laughed because something like this happened to my sisters' cake for my birthday this summer. She left it on a chair on the deck and Cricket thought it was very tasty.)

This is such classic 10 year old boy humor that I had to get a picture. Chris thought it was hilarious and there were several other cards and bags in the same vein of humor.

All in all it was a very fun birthday. C and his friends had a great time.

Totally Twisted

So I've been expiramenting with some of the breads from my cool christmas bread book.


This is my latest creation.... Twisted Whole Wheat

The inside view......

YUMMY!!!!!!

Turkish Zucchini Pancakes

I've been trying to incorporate more soy into my diet and use what I have on hand. So I made a recipe that I used to make for my family when we lived in Longview. (Our neighbor's brother was a chef and this was a recipe he modified from Bon Appetit - though I've tweaked it some since.) I was glad to see that my kids still love it. It is pretty easy and so yummy. (Especially, if you grate and freeze your zucchini in the summer. The monster Zukes no one knows what to do with are ideal for this recipe!)

It can be a main meal or side dish. In the past, I've put a garlic basil cream sauce over it, but tonight I didn't want to take the time to make it, so we just used other condiments. (think potato pancakes or fried latkes) M liked them with just a bit of salt. C liked to drizzle honey over them. B and I liked it with a side compliment of our tangy apple butter.





Turkish Zucchini Pancakes with Apple Butter

1 lb zucchini coarsley grated (more if you got it)
2 C chopped green onions /scallions (I only did 1 bunch because my kids aren't crazy about them & it's all I had.)
4 eggs beaten
1/2 C flour
1/3 C fresh chopped dill or 1 1/2 T dried (I did dried cuz that's what I had)
1/2 C fresh chopped parsley or 2 T dried (I did dried)
2 T fresh chopped tarragon or 2 t dried (note: this one's teaspoon)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper (I used white but black works just fine)
1/2 C (~3 oz) crumbled feta cheese
2/3 C chopped walnuts (~ 3oz from the store)
1/2 brick firm tofu crumbled if you want to make it a main dish
(I also sometimes add ~3/4 t of powdered garlic if I want it more savory.) Next time I think I'm going to shred some carrots as well.

olive oil to fry them in (~1/2 inch deep)


Place shredded zukes in colander. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for ~30 minutes to drain. With hands squeeze zuke to remove liquid. (I did several times) Then squeeze dry in several layers of paper towels. (It's very important to get rid of water so you don't have a soggy dish and you won't get splattered with hot oil!) Combine zuke, onion, eggs dill parsley tarragon, salt and pepper in medium bowl. (I actually had combined the rest of the ingredients while waiting for zukes to drain so that the dried herbs would be more flavorful.) Mix well. Then fold in feta, tofu and walnuts.

This can be prepared 3 hours ahead (cover tightly and refrigerate).

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and put a baking dish in oven. (This is so you can keep them warm while you finsih the rest of the batch.)

Cover bottom of large skillet with olive oil (~1/2 inch). Heat on Medium - High. When oil is hot and working in small batches, drop mixture by heaping spoonfuls. (I then slightly flatten so they can cook faster and more evenly. 3-4 inches diameter) Fry til golden brown and cooked through. (~ 3 min per side) Transfer to oven to keep warm. (I first put on paper towels and blotted some of the oil off.) Serve Hot.

Makes easily enough for 4-6 hungry adults to be able to have several pancakes each. (For leftovers, put in airtight container and refrigerate.)


They are great alone or with this creamy garlic sauce drizzled over the top. (I'd suggest making the sauce while zukes are draining.)



Garlic Basil Sauce
2 C low salt chicken broth (veggie will work too)
3/4 C whipping cream (I often use 1/4 half and half and 1/2 whole milk so that it's still decadently creamy but not crazy calorie-wise.)
3 minced garlic cloves (or 3 t prechopped stuff from the jar)
1/4 - 1/3 C chopped fresh basil (2T dried works too just not as intense flavor)
1 1/2 T corn starch

Bring broth and cream to boil. Add rest of ingredients. Simmer until sauce thickens slightly about 20 minutes. (Can be made 1 day in advance.) Spoon / drizzle heated sauce over zucchini pancakes and enjoy!!!

Bread Bonanza

For Christmas my Mom gave me this fabulous bread cook book. And since I've had a little extra time on my hands due to the crazy weather, I have been baking some of the recipes. It is so yummy. There is something so wonderful about the smell of freshly baked bread permeating the air. Then to have a slice of hot bread out of the oven with real butter spread on it....Heaven!!! mmmmm.... so good!

Just writing this blog brings me back to some wonderful childhood memories of walking home from school on cold winter days and then coming into a warm house that had a pot of beef barley soup simmering on the stove and several loaves of bread baking. It just epitomized the feeling and sense of home!! (Heaven on earth!) In such uncertain times, its nice to have simple comforts.

Fabulous Food

The Barcelo Maya Palace had 2 main buffet restaurants and one that was open mid-day only (brunch until 6pm) We mainly ate in the Mirador Buffet but occasionally ate at the Hacienda. There were also several full service, multi-course themed restaurants. (We ate at the Carribean and the French themed ones.) The food was wonderful and here's just a sampling.....



Mmmmm...... Our new favorite breakfast food. Chocotines. (The best way to describe it is to use a phrase from one of my sisters...."a little taste of heaven". Miniture chocolate filled puff pastries with chocolate drizzled over the top and kept in a warmer.)




There was a sushi chef on duty every night.

Just part of the dessert table one night at the Mirador buffet.

On the left is the meat and cheese tray in case you just wanted to make a sandwich or only wanted brie, and cold cuts. The stuffed cucumbers to the right were really yummy.

The chefs who sauteed up shrimp (really 5" prawns), scallops or other such seafood. The first night we were there, they had crab legs on ice as well. In the morning, this station is where they would make you an omlette with whatever ingredients you requested.

The pasta chefs. They made up a pasta dish for you with whatever you wanted in it...veggies, meat or just type of sauce (some kind of cream sauce, tomato based sauce or a pesto type sauce.

Some of the cool watermelon carvings which were actually 3 dimensional and changed every day.

This carving was one of my all time favorites. The wings on the birds stuck out like they were gettting ready to fly away.

The bread table. In the mornings, this had many different types of pastries. Through out the hotel there were many tables made in this design and were light at night. Some were made with capiz shells and others with thinly shaved stones. It was so pretty in both day and at night.

C's favorite station. The steak grill!!! When he discovered you could pretty much have steak with every meal, I think he thought he died and went to heaven. I'm sure he ate 10+ steaks in 3 days and I couldn't tell you how many over the entire 9 days. One of the best quotes of the whole trip was from C. After inhaling his 2nd HUGE plate of Tbone steak, he reported that it was "good and bad". Good that it tasted so good and bad because it was all gone. (little pouty sad face) then he went back for more food.

One of the desserts (fruit tart -which was fabulous) at the Carribean restaurant. (I dissapointed the "coconut cake" - definitely wasn't what I was expecting.) But all the others were very good.

My fabulous blackend fish. It was sooo good. (The decoration was made up of a fried plantain.)

C's steak topped with shrimp from the Carribean restarant. He also had a fried plantain and a fried leaf (looked like an oak but wasn't) C reported that it tasted fine for a fried leaf.