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Dilly Green Beans

I think of my paternal grandparents when I make this. Even though it’s not something they actually served, the combination of dill and green beans is very much THEM. My dad’s parents had a huge garden with loads of vegetables and my grandma was an amazing cook in the southern tradition. My grandpa proudly tended his garden and loved the smell of dill. My maternal grandma still loves to talk about him bringing her a bouquet of dill. A truly lovely thought.

The kids … mine and our good friends’ are crazy about this recipe. They scarf down the dilly green beans right along side mac ‘n’ cheese and hot dogs and that’s pretty high praise. Fresh dill is lovely, but dried works well too.

Ingredients
green beans
butter
dill (fresh or dried)
salt & pepper

Directions
Cook your green beans until done. I like to steam them in skillet with just a little water if fresh, or nuke them if they’re frozen, of course. While still hot, add the butter and mix it in so it melts. You do not need much butter. A tablespoon gives an entire pound of green beans a very nice flavor. Then season with dill and salt and pepper.

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No Bake Granola Bars

from: Yum Food & Fun For Kids Dec 2010

Ingredients
2.5 C granola
1.5 C rice cereal
1/2 C quick oats
.5 C dried cranberries or blueberries
.5 C chopped dried apricots
.5 C honey
.5 C brown sugar
.5 C peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Grease a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray or butter. Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl. Combine brown sugar and honey in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar is melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour peanut butter mixture over the cereal and fruit and mix thoroughly. Press mixture into 9×13 pan and allow to firm up for an hour or so. Cut into squares and ENJOY!

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Dis and Dat

No rest for the weary/wicked. Here’s what I’ve got going on this week.

• Matt stood in line for almost two hours seeing if we can get Tabby into an all-day preschool for next year. We’re not even POSITIVE we want to go that route, just wanted the option. She’s #4 on the waitlist … the line apparently started at 4 AM. Oh the insanity/humanity!!

• I am doing a 30 miles in 30 days challenge on MapMyRun … I need a kick in the arse … I’ve been a real slacker lately.

• Our old carpet is being hauled away tomorrow to the tune of $104 … it seems ridiculous to PAY SOMEONE to haul away our junk, but its getting recycled at least. No eco guilt. And the places that would just take it to the dump wanted about 50% more. Crazy!

• We have done awesome with cooking this week. I made Baked Ziti on Sunday, Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches on Monday, Berry French Toast Tuesday and tonight was Turkey Bean Chili. Tomorrow we’re having easy burritos since its gymnastics night.

• I don’t want to do ANYTHING this weekend except spend time with my family and play a little bit of Roads of Rome II, my newest quickplay game obsession. I will likely, however, have to (at bare minimum) do some laundry and grocery shopping. The family is in favor, apparently, of clean clothes and a well-stocked kitchen.

• Car needs new tires. I apparently have a very unusual tires size (thanks, TOYOTA!) and there are like 4 different tires available for my car and none of them in town (keep in mind, this is DENVER, not the middle of nowhere). So Matt had to buy them off the internet. They’re coming UPS, for real.

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Psych!

The wood floors look AWESOME. Our new PURPLE wall looks AWESOME. I am in love with our house (all over again). I am so excited to have it done. Pictures are coming soon, honest. But I had my hands more than full all weekend, as did Matt, making things happen.

The kids came home Saturday and have slept two nights in their own beds. They are so so glad to be home. I can't say I blame them one bit. I am too. Tabby even passed up on an opportunity to spend the day with some of her best buddies in favor of staying home. She commented when we moved one of the cabinets back in the living room that it “Finally looks like home.” It was so cute.

Slowly things are going back to normal. I actually made dinner in my own kitchen last night (first time in two or three weeks!). This morning I had an honest-to-goodness workout. I really like normal (MY normal) quite a bit.

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My Own Private Purgatory

We’re home… ish. I’m actually happy to be here despite the fact that my bedroom has two couches in it

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and our kitchen is still minus a stove and refrigerator

 

We thought we’d be a bit better off by now. But fate had other plans for us. The paint on our walls had faded and our attic stock no longer matches. So now we don’t just have to touch up. We have to paint all rooms except the kitchen on our main floor.
That’s a living room, family room and dining room … plus corridors. The living room and family room are both an off-white which is fine by me and they are staying that way. But let me tell you, friends … there is NOTHING more tedious than painting a faded wall the same color it was previously. You cannot tell whatsoever if you have missed a spot or not until it dries like 30 minutes later.

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The dining room was always a different color. A nice beige. We have decided that we will keep it mostly beige but do a plum accent wall. We really like the paint testers. I hope we like the final product!!

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The powder room (not a victim of paint fade) has to be stripped of its wallpaper, drywall textured and painted (we’re in step 2 of 3 right now) … the floor is a different height than the carpet and there was a wall-paper void behind the sink that we couldn’t fix. Of all the wallpaper in the house, this was the stuff I liked the best, so it’s kind of a bummer it had to go … and even more of a bummer that we have to do something about it. And believe me when I say Matt gets the shorter end of that stick.

 

On the bright side, the floors look great!

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And it will be so worth it when it’s done!!

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With New Resolve

I'm a total sucker for a blank slate. So of course, I like a new year … new possibilities, and all that jazz … and the “resolutions” that go with them. I know, logically, it's just a pretty arbitrary mark in time, but there it is. Why not take advantage?

Last year I had three main goals:
1. give less of a damn about my to-do list and spend more time with my kids – I definitely did better with this, but I can still see room for improvement. It is something I will continue to work on.
2. get back into a good routine of cooking at home I did VERY well with this – we are definitely back in the cooking groove
3. lose my baby weight – I give my self a solid B on this … 84%. I still have a few pounds I'd like to drop, but I was quite successful.

So what am I planning for 2011?
• work on our grocery budget, specifically by using what we ALREADY HAVE
• the running – want to keep going and in my wildest dreams, I'd like: a 5K under 28, a 10K under an hour and a half marathon under 2:15 … dare to dream? I think training for a tri would be fun as well.
• sort of in the same vein, I'd like to work on my general strength and specifically core strength – having kids does fun things to your “abs”
• I read loads of books last year and I don't plan to stop … this year I'd like to add a bit more non fiction into the mix … feel free to leave suggestions!

Do you resolve?

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Back in Limbo

We had a very very very nice vacation. We did what we always do in Vail whether it's summer or winter: spent lots of time outside (skiing in this case) and spent lots of time together. The weather treated us very nicely and we had the glorious sort of blue-sky ski days you dream about. Tabby tore it up on the slopes and Ben loved his time with all his people. They both had more sugar and less sleep than they're accustomed to. That's what vacation's about, right?

Now we are back, but instead of going back to our own home, we're hanging with my parents at their house for a few more days while our wood floors are finished up. I love being with my parents, but it will be awesome to be back in our own home again.

Our floors are installed and the contractors are finishing up the poly today and drywall repairs tomorrow and Wednesday. The plastic guys come back on Thursday to take all the plastic down and then we're in!

But of course it's not that simple. First of all, about HALF of what we moved is large and heavy and requires our 6'7″ friend to help us with (bless him). There will be also undoubtedly LOADS of dust to clean up … I will probably be pulling my hair out over it for the next several weeks. In addition to that, we have to re-sit the tub and sink in the bathroom, but only AFTER we strip off the old wallpaper (which I actually liked) and paint it.

So now I must know … what color should I paint my powder room? It probably can't be green … because we already have too many green rooms. It also shouldn't be too dark because it's a small room. What do you think?

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She’ll Be Coming Down the Mountain

 

Today marks a red-letter day in my Tabby’s history … the first day she got to ride a ski-lift. She’s been tooling around on the conveyor belt known as the magic carpet for over a year now and as of today she has graduated to the ski lift. Matt took her up for the last run of her short day and almost exploded with pride.

 

She has gotten amazingly good at stopping and turning and seems to have such good control of herself. It has been amazing to see her develop these skills right before our very eyes.

I am on vacation at the moment and will probably be posting sporadically for the next few days. Then I’m likely to have quite a lot to say.

Happy New Year to you all. Hope it’s starting off wonderfully. Cheers!

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Super Hero Shirts

I have happily made my kids (and my best friend’s kids) ornaments the past two Christmases. This Christmas, I had a SNAFU with the paint-your-own pottery place and it didn’t happen.

Luckily, I thought of a different fun thing to make for the kids: Super Hero Shirts! Piecing together info from tutorials on APPLIQUE (hate that word – sounds boring and stodgy), I came up what I think are some pretty cute t’shirts.

I might write a tutorial after a while, but here’s the jist. You iron on some heat ‘n’ bond to the back of some scrap fabric. You cut out shapes/letters, etc. and then you bond those to your t’shirt wherever you like them. Then using whatever stitch works for you, you sew around the edges. Each shirt took me about 30 minutes and I am in LOVE with them (and the kids who wear them).