Sorry to be such a blog slacker. Nothing really exciting is going on around here.

My mom came to visit Friday night and Saturday. Gioia had a dance recital on Saturday. She just did one song, but it was super cute. I am glad mom got to come.

Dominic was sick last week. Tuesday night thru Thursday he ran an fever and had this crazy rash on him. Then Friday it was pretty much gone, no fever. So i cancel the doctors appointment. Then Friday night and Saturday morning he gets these hives on him that go away with Benadryl. But each day they were less. By Sunday he didn't have any, except a few on his face for about 15 mins when he was throwing a fit and crying. My friend who is a Nurse Practioner said it was probably just left over from whatever virus he had. She must be right because he has been fine since then.

Now I wake up Sunday with a sore throat, Monday it is a stuffed up nose. Now today I feel better in the nose, but still kind of crappy with this cold. We have Volleyball tonight. I will probably go, don't know if I will play or just hang out. I will see how I feel. Thursday we have a cooking day here, rescheduled from last week. I am still planning to have it. I KNOW I will feel much better by then, right?? Right.

We had to bring the plants in last night. There was a frost warning. Great. I need to go out and uncover all the garden today. Guess that means I need to change out of my PJ's and put on some clothes. LOL!!

Electric Car Goodness.

Massimo drove his electric car to the Earthfest on Saturday and it was the sexiest electric car out there. It looked really professional. Lots of the other cars looked like, what is the word..?outdated? rudely slapped together?

Anyway, he drove it to work yesterday for the first time. 55 miles round trip. He still had plenty of juice left. He went about 60 on the way there. On the way home he went upwards of 65 and actually seemed to get better readings (on the voltage and battery usage) then.

He made a website about the stats of the car. You can feel free to share with anyone else interested. More pictures will be posted on there later.

http://www.evalbum.com/1590

I was also going to say that he estimated that it will cost about $7.oo a week in electricity and save about $30 a week in gas. That will save us about $1500 in a year. YEAH!!!

Culture clash meal.

Blame it on pregnant, Blame it on the new cookbook I got. Not really sure, but today we had a multi culture meal. To start with we made this awesome:

Moroccan Chickpea soup.
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 cans chickpeas
1 quart Veggie broth
2 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2.5 oz fresh spinach leaves, chopped

Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, not browned. Add the spices and saute a minute or so. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, broth, sugar, salt and 10 grinds of fresh pepper. Bring to boil and simmer low for 45 minutes. Stir in butter. Remove soup from heat. Mash up a portion of the chickpeas and stir back into soup. Add the spinach and stir well. Let set for 5 minutes or so to cook the spinach. Serve.

Very easy soup from Dave Liebermans cookbook.

Then for the other dish we made:
Potstickers

Veggie Filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek
3 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 garlic clove, chopped fine
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 medium carrot, grated extra fine
1 (1 inch) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp soy sauce

Heat oil in skillet. Cook leek about 4 minutes. add cabbage, garlic and vinegar, cook about 4 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Meat filling:

1 pound ground pork
1 egg
2 Tablespoons finely chopped scallions
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 (1/2 inch) piece ginger, peeled and grated.

Mix all ingredients and cook till meat is done in pan.

Use wonton wrappers and place filling in the middle. Wet corners and fold to close. You can use veggie and meat seperate or you can mix them together. IT MAKES A LOT of food. I would recommend HALVING the orginial recipe, unless you are making them for a large family or party. Or if you only make one (veggie or meat) then it would be fine. After you have stuffed the wontons, put a little oil in the skillet and cook for a few minutes, then add about 1/2 cup water and steam them until browned/done. You could probably bake these as well, if you prefer.

Sauce for dipping:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 piece fresh ginger, grated finely
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
juice of one large lemon

Mix all until sugar is dissolved. Serve with wontons.

Outdoor activities

I have been enjoying the springlike weather seems to have come back to us. Last night some moms and I played Volleyball. We joined a league and most of us haven't played since High School. We lost all 3 games, but had a really fun time anyway. I will post a picture of us next week. We call ourselves the Hippie Chicks and we got some cool Parenting shirts that match.

Today I mowed the yard for the first time this season. I planted some more flower bulbs also. About half of my perinneals have come back so far, I noticed today some green on a few more. I have high hopes for my flower garden this year. It is year 3 for it, so it really out to look spectacular.

FINISHED SAMPLER QUILT

So this is my second 100% finished quilt. I have two more quilt tops done. One is ready to quilt and I plan to start it this week. The second one, I have to do a border and then finish it. So far my quilting style has been what they call "stitch in the ditch", meaning sew over where your seams are. It worked WONDERFUL for my first quilt. It gave me more problems with my second one. I think I will try a different style next quilt and see how that looks. I think this quilt will be for Dominic. It is a little less than full size, little more than twin size and pretty gender neutral on the colors. It has a solid light blue background.

Finishing week.

So I am trying to finish my two quilt tops. It is actually going pretty fast on the first one. So I might actually get it done today or tomorrow. I cleaned the dining room table totally off and I am quilting it there. It works so much better cause it is a big table. Anyway, I will post a picture when I am done.

We have 4 cars, 1 working right now. ARRGH! So I am stuck home today and we missed our homeschool preschool group. Dang it.

DH will be slaving away tonight to make at least one of the other cars go!

Chicken Creole

I do like to cook. Especially when everyone in my family loves it. Today I made Chicken Creole and it turned out wonderful. I used this recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/cajuncuisine/r/bl80308e.htm I made a few changes, cooked and diced chicken for the shrimp, red bell pepper instead of green, can of Rotel instead of plain diced tomatoes, and Creole seasoning. I don't see how you can make it without Creole Seasoning. It made the dish. Of course, tonight is Moms Night Out. We are going to a Mexican place. Its ok though. I ate a bowl of the Creole at 3:30pm. I will be hungry again by 7pm, when we eat at the MNO.

Today was a do nothing gray dreary day. I did manage to cook, clean up the kitchen and clean up the living room. The vacuum bag was overfull and since I changed it, it doesn't work right. I also cleaned the filters and had to unplug the hose which was full. Geez. Didn't realize it had been so long since I last checked the bag.

What we been up to.

Here are a few pictures of what we been up to. First one is a picture of my Sampler Quilt we did for the Quilt A long. I started posting pictures of each block and got side tracked. ANyway, here is the top finished. Now I need to get backing and finish it. It has been my goal this week to start finishing some of my projects. I now have two quilt tops ready to quilt them. My hold up is that I need to buy a couple sheets to use for backing. I am going to do that tomorrow when we go to Dance Class.
This next picture is of Gioia shooting baskets in the back yard. Notice the Wonder Woman headband. Something funny she does is when someone asks her name she says this: "Gioia Didi GoodWolf Beast Kitty Mouse Roadie Wonder Woman Kara-Kovu Elaine". I swear it cracks people up, and they usually ask her to repeat it. Then she will say that people call her Gioia. All those names represent the personalities she has been or thinks she is.

This last one is Dominic painting. You can only paint paper for so long, then you have to paint yourself.

The 5 finger discount.

Gioia and I went to the grocery store this morning. I had to get only one thing. When we were in the check out she wanted candy but I told her no. Later at Dollar General I noticed she was walking with her hand in her coat. I asked what she had. It was a Rolo Candy she had stolen from the grocery store. So we had a talk about that and how that was stealing. Then we went back to the grocery store and paid for it. *kind of like her Aunt Mel huh?* She was worried and told me NOT to tell them she was stealing, only tell them she was sorry and we would pay for it. HA HA! So thats what we did.

In high school we used to call this getting the 5 finger discount. I knew a guy in school that stole stuff all the time. He got away with it A LOT, then he gets caught one day, stealing a bunch of gloves. What a moron!

Springtime!

I am so excited that Spring is here or starting to be here. We have been getting out and doing more already. Thursday we went to Science City at Union Station for the first time. We met up with Kellie, Abe and Ivy. It was really fun to hang out with them. Kellie is my cousin, but from the other side of the family so we really haven't ever had a chance to get to know each other very well. Turns out we have tons in common and had a great time. Science City was way cool and the kids didn't want to leave. We were there over 3 hours and I was tired of chasing the kids.

Then Saturday we got to go to Deanna Rose Farm. It is a children's farm with goats to pet and things to explore. The kids love it and we go a lot every year. Oh and its free to get in, so that is really nice too.

We were sick at the first of the week. Now DH has come down with it. Lovely. So we are going to miss our preschool coop on Monday. Several families have it and we have to stop sharing germs so we will stay home.

We got some organic fertilizer from a mom that sells it. You dilute it in water and put it on the plants. We did this to our flowerbed and it stunk to high heaven. I mean it was really bad. Well right, it is fertilizer you say. Organic, made from FISH nasty fertilizer. Seriously, DH said we can't put it on the yard because our neighbors will hate us. So I am saving it for the flowers and garden only.

Catch up pictures.

Here are a couple pictures I been meaning to post. The first one is Easter Sunday of the kids. The second one is from this weekend. We went out to our land to hang out and be outside for a bit.

Dutch Oven goodness.

So pretty much everything tastes wonderful cooked in a Dutch Oven. Camping food, stews, all good things. So today I was hungry for some kind of soup/stew. I had the stuff for chili and was about to make it when I saw the recipe for Beef and Barley soup. Just so happens I had bought some barley. So I made it with a few changes. I added Veggie Stock instead of beef bouillon cubes. I also used fresh carrots and celery instead of frozen veggies that the recipe called for. It turned out WONDERFUL! Really hit the spot. We ate it with salad and garlic bread.


Also in honor of April Fool's Day, we decided to make treats instead of tricks. So we whipped up a batch of cookies. They are dark chocolate macadamin nut oatmeal cookies. I also used Stevia instead of sugar. I have to say they aren't quite as good as usual. I am out of Vanilla. Bummer. Still pretty great cookies though.