Boy eating kale quiche

Well, I think I can safely say that I made up the recipe.  That's right, I looked off so many recipes and made so many changes that I am saying this is my very own, very first, recipe!  And for once this week of the missing daddy, I finally feel like I did not fail my child nutritionally.  The boy ate two pieces of kale quiche.  What's that?  You want proof?  Here you go then:


Okay, now that that's done, is he not the cutest thing learning to talk?  I do think so.  Nevermind the whole fiasco that occurred while I was making this lovely meal.....

So without further ado, my first recipe!  (and I am realizing that I'm turning into my gramma with the whole accurate measurement thing....)

Kale Quiche
Ingredients:

• pastry crust - I did 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour, 1/3 c. chilled shortening, 1/2 t. sea salt, and 1/4 c. ice water.  Look up your own instructions.  ;) 
• 3 slices turkey bacon
• olive oil 
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• bunch of kale (or spinach, or collard greens, you know, something nutritious and green), washed, de-stemmed, cut into small-ish strips
• salt & pepper
• 1/2-3/4 c. shredded cheese (I didn't really measure....and I just used the shredded fiesta blend in my fridge)
• 6 eggs
• 1 c. milk (the fatter the better!  I used 2%)
• dash of nutmeg

Instructions:
Make your pastry crust.  Like I said, I don't feel like detailing this part.  Put the crust into a nice pie plate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook up that turkey bacon until nice and crisp.  While that is cooking, saute the onion in a bit of olive oil until tender and somewhat clear.  Add the kale strips and continue sauteing over medium heat until slightly wilted.

Pour the onion and kale right onto your pastry crust.  Crumble your cooled turkey bacon into little bits and add that to the kale/onion in the crust.  Salt and pepper a little bit for some flavor.  Add cheese to the mix and stir up a little bit (without destroying your crust, of course).

In a bowl, whip up your eggs and milk until frothy.  Add just a dash of nutmeg.  Pour the mixture on top of the kale/onion/bacon in the crust.

Gently pop the whole thing into the preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes.  Once it looks firm (doesn't jiggle) and slightly brown on top, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Slice up like a pie and enjoy!


Oh, and one more thing, not recipe related.  Is this my boy or what?

Day 4 of 13

We're still alive!  Monday, we had a bike ride/picnic at the park and that was a nice way to get out of the house.  That night, I got to hang out with my mommy friends for dinner/dessert and had an excellent chocolate lava cake.  Tuesday, Julie and Tim watched Ev AND cleaned and vacuumed the living room!  It was fantastic.  Wednesday, Ever ended up with nana, so on my lunch break, I scarfed some leftovers and took a half hour nap.  Today was drizzly but we still managed to play outside a little bit, had a giant pillow jumping/snuggle time, watched a whole lot of "choo choos" (thomas the tank engine) and went to wal-mart after our three hour nap.  Ever actually was quite well behaved.  No major tantrums, he helped push the cart, only ran off once, and played on the firetruck in the kids area (within my view) while I paid for the groceries.  I've managed to feed us decently nutritious meals, but have still disappointed myself with some of the junk we've had.  I'm still making sure we get our veggies!  Now Ev's in bed, I'm watching an old episode of Glee and will be heading to bed myself in an hour or so.  It's hard having Everett awake at the same time Brian calls home so Ev hasn't talked to daddy in a while, but it's somewhat easier because then he doesn't accidentally hang up and whine about daddy.  We've also managed to keep the garden, cats, and fish alive.....so far.  :)
We miss you daddy!

Day .5 of Brian's trip

Brian left today for a two week trip to Alabama, abandoning me and Everett with a house full of cats and fish.  While dropping him off at the Duluth airport this afternoon (which, by the way, is a very humorous looking airport), we found out that this weekend was also the airshow.  So before Brian went through security, we sat out next to the tarmac and watched crazy little planes doing crazier stunts.  Then Ever and I got detoured to the other end of the city, but managed to find our way to the new culver's (as it turns out, we should have just gone to the one in Superior because everyone who went to the airshow apparently then went to the new culver's for dinner....oops).  Everett yelled/screamed/drove his mother nuts almost the entire drive home except for the last 15 miles or so when I decided to detail everything I could see to him.  And it actually made him stop screaming.  But I think my throat is done for now.  We had a normal feed the various beasts, bath, and bed routine even though Everett was asking for daddy.  We miss you already Bri!

What's that, Everett?

Oh come on, Everett, no need for stinky face

No, no, maniacal evil baby genius will not do either

Well I think that's a little bit of an overreaction

Mood swings much?

That's better!

Boy loves baseball

 Told you I'd be back!

Some new pictures (well, from July 4-nowish).

 Uncle Sam was babysitting and reading Ever a book:

This is not the first time this has happened, so I know the boy actually loves baseball.  He knows how to turn on the t.v. and will then generally walk away or find the remote for me to turn on sesame street.  BUT, if there happens to be baseball on, and especially if it's the Twins playing, he does this:

And check out my school spirited boy - Um Ya Ya!:

I'm sorry

I know you've now been subjected to not one, but TWO Brian posts in a row about garages and you're all probably dying for a picture/word/comment/update about Everett, so I decided I had to save you.  ;)  I've just been out of the swing of blogging lately (if you couldn't tell).
Not new pictures - they're on facebook, but better than nothing eh?
Stinky face

Serious face

A quick update.
Everett is learning more and more words.  He's also learning to respond to questions.  Like when he was yell/crying at me this morning at 6:30 AM and I tried to snuggle him to great protest so I said "well then what do you want?!?!" and he said "eat!"  Oh.  Right then.  Okay. 
He also knows where the raspberries are in the garden and runs over to them and says "bayow-ees!"  That boy could eat a pound at a time and nearly had a heart attack today at the farmer's market when he spotted some.
He says "wee wee" to mean a park, "eat" when he is hungry,  pants when he sees a dog, and "up" whenever he wants to be held, go upstairs, do downstairs....etc.
He also says: kitty, water, milk, eggs, butter (peanut butter), book, mommy, daddy, (tries to say) Janelle and Christy and various other aunt and uncle names, toys, cookie, cracker, cheese, (see a trend with the food?), ball, kick, beach, pool, side (outside), mote (remote), cow, baby, juice, light, truck, tractor, up up (when daddy's on the garage roof), poo poo, pee, owie, tickle, hat, potty and more than I cannot remember right now.  I shall try to write and add more pictures soon.

Garage Update Part II

Well its been a while but I will try to give a brief recap of my adventures in carpentry since the slab went in.

I was excited at having real progress after the slab cured so I was quick to get it sealed, and then head back to the lumber yard to get the block.  Beth was a big help hauling all of the block for 2 courses and getting it ready for laying.  The actual laying of the block was the one part of the job that I decided was beyond my skill set, so I decided to enlist the help of my out of work - mason - neighbor.  We laid all of the block on Memorial day with me mixing mortar and the neighbor setting it.  The next week and a half was rather uneventful, and pretty much involved a lot of dirty, hard labor which was not much fun at all.  I had to strip the forms (very difficult because I used 3' stakes which got stuck in the clay) and move all of the dirt back into place (by hand because the tractor couldn't get in the tight site.)  After two weekends of shoveling dirt I was ready to say good enough.

That brings me to the much more interesting part of carpentry.  I ordered the wood, and it all arrived the thursday before we were scheduled to go to Kansas.  With Karl's help, I set the sill boards that night.  That was a bit of a pain because I didn't account for the thickness of the sill seal, and the anchor bolts ended up too low.  We made it work, but it was a pain.  The rest of the weekend saw incredible progress with the first wall going up Friday, and the other four Saturday.  On Sunday I finished out the last wall, set the 2nd top plate, had the walls sheated by 4:00 and tursses set by 6 and spent the rest of the night bracing & building outlookers.  The last few days before our trip I managed to get the first row of sheathing on the roof to give it some strength while we were gone.  Since we returned I have finished the sheathing, installed hurricane ties, building wrap, the man door, windows, put a roof over the 4th of July weekend, and I'm currently working on setting soffit pannels.  It's been a lot of work, but it is finally to the point where the wood is protected from the weather so I can relax a bit.  Thats all for now... sorry if you are bored by the details but it's been such an effort to try to work on this project around my job and family life that I thought there should be some sort of record before I just move on and forget all about it. The pic above is Ev. helping sometime before the holiday. I promise the next post won't be project related.