Purple Supper

I love the way these purple potatoes look! They're quite tasty too. I dubbed this dish "Hannah Montana" because its the best of both worlds! We had mashed and scalloped potatoes in one! Paired with some pink salmon and bright green spinach pesto our meal was a color-lover's heaven.

HUGE Zucchini!!

I received a HUGE zucchini from my farm delivery this past week and was amazed! So, here's what I did with it. Come on over for supper.

A zucchini lasagna:
Scrape out the seeds of a halved zucchini. Make some sauce with meat or whatever you like. I like to make my own with half an onion, yellow pepper, crushed tomatoes, diced fire roasted tomatoes, hamburger and some secret ingredients!!




The Secret ingredient...use it if you figure it out!



I've layered in the sauce, ricotta mixture and leafy baby spinach.






These zucchini are usually available at farmer's markets for .50! They are too hard to slice and cook like normal but can be used in breads and baked things as well as this recipe that I've cooked up.

Ricotta mixture: One tub of ricotta, one egg, dried basil, oregano and garlic salt.

Sorry I don't measure, use your best judgment!!!

A couple of tips, bake on about 350 for 30-40 mins until zucchini is tender. Also, if layering in spinach, pack it in really tight because it will shrink as it cooks. Let me know what version you make!



The size of Moses' body!!!

Nature's bounty

I received my first delivery of veggies and fruit from the Farm of Plenty! I was so excited! I got a beautiful head of red lettuce, a bright yellow squash, a round zucchini, a quart bag of sugar snap peas, a pint of the brightest red ripe strawberries, some big red potatoes with all the dirt still on them, and two big bunches of radishes! Hooray for fresh from the farm, local veggies. {Caution: not responsible for drool on your computer when looking at this photo}

Photography: Baby Chandler

I had the chance to photograph this lovely new family. They have the sweetest baby girl, who on her debut photo shoot day was not a very happy girl. It may be due to the fact that we kept taking all her warm clothes off and poking and moving her around. Through it all she was a trooper and gave us some good ones! Congrats to the Flemming family!

Moses faces

Moses Post

I'm practicing my photography more and more. Which means I have more and more pictures to sort through. I feel like I'm growing though. These days I'm trying to use the manual setting and figure out how to use the histogram on my camera! I met with a photographer last week and she gave me some really great tips. So, I'm excited to see what I can do. Here are some shots of Moses playing with the ABC crayons.

Special Times

Elie is growing up right before my eyes! When we moved here she was only about four months old. Now she's starting to walk and forming words and asking "what's that?" I can't believe it. She is hilarious and knows it, she is sweet and knows exactly what she wants most of the time. I love watching you grow baby girl!



This is our special handshake! Elie crosses her fingers and reaches them out to me and I meet them with mine. Then we say "oh!"

The faces.

This is the face Elie makes when the light shines in her eyes to focus on her face. I LOVE IT!!!

A little kitchen work

One of my favorite parts of being a creative person is cooking!! It indulges all of the senses. It enables me to put effort into something and have near immediate gratification and even validation as a person who loves to make things and make people happy. Here are a few new things we cooked up this week in our kitchen:

I think that Minnesotans love rhubarb because it is the first-fruit of a summer veggie garden. I put this together when I realized my strawberries were trying to go bad. They were rescued and a wonderful treat came about:


Cupcakes are always a welcome treat here! Moses and I whipped these up during Elie's morning nap. Moses loves to cook with me and help stir. He separates the cupcake papers while I put all the ingredients together and get out the mixer. Then we bake and enjoy with some cold milk!

{A wonderful topping as an alternative for cupcakes: mix equal parts cinnamon and cocoa powder, sprinkle on before baking.}

Family Day

Mike's school year is done! He had the full day yesterday to revel in the feeling of having no school work to do. So, he decided we should go to the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis. We love museums and our kids are amazing and love them too. Moses looked at the art and Elie slept. Moses and I entered an exhibit that was loud and visually stimulating and there were hammocks hanging on the walls. So, he and I swung and listened to Jimmi Hendrix. We wanted to nap, but there were other people around. Thank you Lord for this school year going well and thank you for providing for our every need!

For the love of...

Like most mornings, I was feeding my children breakfast, all the while, I was restricting myself from using the bathroom. Like any good mother I was waiting until I could get them properly settled with enough food to satisfy them for a while (their needs first?). Ultimately a selfish gesture so that I could spend as much time in the bathroom as I wanted. But of course my waiting backfired. The kids were settled with cheerios and I bolted. Down the dark hall I went, turned left into the dark bathroom and... WHAM!!!! Another small gesture of my kind motherhood, shutting the door so that my 13 month old would not crawl in there and die of some disease or fall into the toilet. Needless to say I was embarrassed and hurting a little. But I made it to the toilet. So, you’re welcome children for your breakfast and all the small “sacrifices” made to make your life better. I love you.


No, we didn't have spaghetti for breakfast. But baby spaghetti pictures are the best!

The many faces of chocolate.

I have been stocking up on 75% off easter candy. Well, mostly the dark chocolate cadbury mini eggs. They are like a treasure. When I found a pile of them in CUB Foods I was like, "jackpot!" These pictures of Moses explain the feelings perfectly.

Visit!!

My mom and dad came for a visit! An entire week! It was so much fun to be with them and share our lives here. Its been so hard not having them around. Especially with Moses and Elie growing so fast. I feel like they're missing everything. Its ok though, we've been seeing each other in three month intervals since we moved. I just keep reminding myself that we will be going there in July. July. July.

Here we are on our amazingly wonderful trip to the Minnesota Zoo!

Elie is ONE!

My beautiful baby girl has made it to one year. I'm so proud of her and am so excited to watch her grow even more this year. Her little personality is blossoming and growing and she's still so sweet.