Jordan, Martha and Lydia

I have some extraordinary critters hanging around my place.

I thought this fellow looked very well fed, and like he had been around for a while!

I won’t mind him as long as he stays outside!

😮

There have been several baby boys born in the church down here in Sierra Vista. One of the more recent ones was Luke Isaacson, born to Jonathan and Melissa Isaacson (of Isaacson Fine Homes and Cochise Tech and Electric, whom the company that Jordan works for is contracted to work for. That was confusing, wasn’t it? )

Sis Connie Isaacson (grandma) and Sharon Strite (Auntie) put on a really cute baby shower with the theme of (can you guess?) Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails!

Here is how they incorporated the theme.

The Frogs.

(Sharon made these with apple Quarters, then added dots of cream cheese and chocolate chips for the eyes! Then she placed them on cut out paper plates, and cut out the pink “flower” from tissue paper.)

The Snails. (Tortilla Pinwheels)

(Sharon made these as well. They were really tasty!)

And The Puppy Dogs!

(Sharon and Sis Connie made the cake, and Sharon decorated it, and then put a paw print on each of the cupcakes!

Admire the table!

(Btw…that dog bowl was filled with sugar coated peanuts, and EVERYONE did a double take, as it looked so much like real dog food.)

A close up of the other Puppy Dogs.

(A few of the girls helped Sharon make these from rolled up washcloths, ribbon, rubber bands, fuzzy balls and some felt. They turned out sooooo cute, and they were given to Melissa to add to Luke’s nursery.)

They played some fun games, like guessing how many safety pins were in the jar (over 400), Name which Candy goes to which baby activity (ie. 4 mo accomplishment was “rolos” (Roll over), and nursing was “Milky Way”, etc.), as well as timed sock matching. We all had fun.

Right towards the end, Lydia (Who had been enjoying herself eating crackers and playing with all of the younger kids) decided to put on someone’s cowboy boots…

…backwards! 😀

Comin’ or goin’?

Congratulations, Melissa and Jonathan!

It had been a little warm, and I have been wanting to make popsicles, especially for Lydia, so I finally made a batch of frozen strawberry yogurt (for us grown ups) and put some in Lydia’s popsicle mold for her to enjoy.

They turned out really cute and colorful! Annabel Karmel has some really cute baby food items.

Here Lydia is getting to enjoy the fruit of my labors. 😀

Yummy!

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Lydia’s favorite hang out spot while I’m in the kitchen is on the bottom step of the stairs, which enters in at the kitchen. It’s a perfect height for a seat!

So Cute!

Lydia was clip clopping around in my shoes, and I thought I’d share with you a cute moment. 🙂

Enjoy!

Jordan and I have decided to grow a garden this year. After much hard work, we have some plots dug to fill with good stuff to make the plants gown. (Y’know…manure, dirt, various soil supplements, etc.)

Here is Jordan working on the other part of the project, to help keep the plants safe: a fence. He’s figuring out how much fencing we will need to go around the garden. Lydia is searching for airsoft pellets. *sigh* I hate those things!

Here is 2 of the 3 plots that are dug, with a 4th one that is going to be dug where that big pile of dirt is. the plots are approximately 18″ wide, 12″-18″ deep, and 5′-6′ long. Yes, I do keep an eye on Lydia when she is around the holes.

I’m excited. I have seeds to plant, so I’ll get to watch them grow from start. Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Basil, Cilantro, and many more things are planned for the garden.

Later that day, Jordan and Lydia were having some Father-Daughter time.

Lydia has figured out that earphones have sound. They are enjoying a TED video. I thought it was so cute! 😀

Lydia apparently likes her shoes so much that she tried to put them on herself.

She forgot her socks. 😛

I love my Lydia!!

I’ve been experimenting with sourdough. Here is my culture, ready to be stirred down and mixed with the flour and water to make the loaves.

The mark represent the level of the culture mixture the night before.

Meanwhile…on another counter is my first jar of Alfalfa sprouts.

They are quite tasty on sourdough with mayonnaise and guacamole, or with sourdough, mayo, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. Oh Sprouts, How I can use thee! Let me count the recipes!

Aaaaaaaannnd…In the freezer: Watermelon Granita. Quite delicious. Very light in flavor.

Okay, back to my bread. Here is the dough mixture 10 minutes after adding the wet ingredients to hydrate the dough.

Meanwhile, in a different part of the kitchen, Lydia is figuring out how to put on my shoes. It’s a new fascination of hers.

Okay…approximately 12 minutes of hand kneading later, you have a supple, slightly tacky, yet smooth dough, ready to rest and rise for 2-3 hours in a warm location.

Doing the windowpane test. The dough should stretch, but not tear. You should be able to see light through it. If you can, the dough is ready.

Placing the dough into a container to rise. I did mark the container, but it never reached the mark as I used the wrong size and shape of container. Oh well. Mistakes are part of learning, right? 😀

After having risen, then shaped into boules, and set to rise again for another hour and a half, I turned the loaves out of the bowl, and slashed them in preparation for the oven.

And…45 minutes later, we have the first batch of sourdough bread that I’ve ever made! 🙂

Observe the crumb.

It looks fine, but for what I am looking for, it is too small. It was good, but it has some work to do.

Now I just have to get Grace Peterson’s recipe. I heard it doesn’t call for much kneading at all. :p

Lydia was so cute as she was in the final stages of sleep. I love her poses and was able to capture her sleeping on top of her arm.

A short bit later when she woke up, pills she was even more adorable. Her faces had me laughing.

She is so cheerful!

She was so adorable. I was very glad that I had caught her on camera. She is so cute when she rubs her eyes!

She is exaggerating her facial expressions here, sale which is so cute!

This one definitely gets set aside for future purposes. 😛

Enjoy!

Jordan’s boss, Jude Murray of Kiwi Hifi had his  birthday today. To show their gratitude for all that Jude has done for them, and for the wonderful boss that he has been, Jordan’s wife (yours truly) decided that  a little token of appreciation was in order, in edible form.

🙂

In other words, I made a fruit tart for Jordan’s boss’s birthday. He loves fruit, and while paging through a recipe book, Jordan and I stumbled on a delightful creation called a White Chocolate Fruit Tart.

Doesn’t it look wonderful?

So, the morning of I was up placing fresh fruit on a baked shell that had been filled with the white chocolate filling. I didn’t have a pastry brush at the time, so I had to make do with a cut up paper towel.

Behold.

And…here was the finished product!

I was surprised how similar they turned out, but hey…I guess that does happen when you actually follow the recipe. 😛

Ask Jordan or my Mom…I don’t follow recipes well.

Anyways…it was a success. Everyone liked it. Jude was named 2012 Boss of the Year by the guys. Appropriately so.

Thank you Jude, for all that you have done for Jordan, Austin and Zachary. You have been a real blessing.

I decided I wanted to try some smoothie recipes for Saturday morning breakfast.

I already had Chili Cheese Puff in the toaster oven…

…and figured I needed something elegant to go with it. I also had a lot of fruit, and figured that it would be a good way to use up the fruit before it all went bad on me. (I don’t like processing moldy fruit. 🙁 )

So…I dug out the smoothie book that I had purchased for a school project several years back. With a few slight modifications, here are my creations. Left to right, we had Cherry Charmer, Pineapple Pleasure and Strawberry Melon Surprise.

Here are the delightful pictures plus recipes.

(I didn’t have fresh cherries, so I used my leftover maraschino cherries plus a few other cherries from a jar I had bought from Trader Joes that had fewer and better looking ingredients than the maraschino cherries.)

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(I left out the mint on this as I had no fresh mint leaves, but I’m sure it would have added a whole new dimension of depth to the flavor. Mint is very refreshing.)

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(I overdid the vanilla on this one. Be careful to follow the recipe! 😀 *sheepish* )

Enjoy! 🙂

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OH…side note: When testing more than one or two recipes, make sure you have more than 2 people to consume them! We had more smoothie than we knew what to do with! Also, they could have used a little sweetener in my opinion.