Something New

Hello friends and family who regularly check out what is new in my kitchen! I am starting something new!! A new blog. I am not replacing this one or anything, this is still going to be where I let you know what is up in our family kitchen. My new blog is just a place where you can get a little hope when you need it. Please check it out: /encourageeveryday

Anyways, stay tuned here for more kitchen adventures....

Here's My Finished Digger

I Love Japan

My brother and his fiancee are back home visiting from Japan. They are here to get married! Anwyays, my brother brought me home some "souvenirs" for the boys. The each got a little kit to make a vehicle. Here is the fire truck kit:

Just so you know, I had to cut out all the pieces and then decipher the Japanese instructions. 

Three and a half hours later I had a completed fire truck. Jacob was in bed by the time I finished it.

And here is his version of "posing for the camera" the next morning.

Daniel was sad that his digger wasn't done. So I did it yesterday for him to find this morning. I forgot to take pictures and the first thing Jacob said when he saw it was that I had put the digger's bucket on backwards. I guess I have to fix it tonight. :) 

It's Been Awhile...

Oh my goodness.... I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! We have had all sorts of kitchen adventures and I have lots of pictures, so I guess I will backtrack a bit.
Here we go!

Did you know you can make ice cream with bananas. JUST bananas. Cut into slices and freeze. Throw them in your blender and they get creamier and creamier. Refreeze for a little while for a more solid "ice cream." We went for the soft serve straight out of the blender stuff. Yum. Even better with chocolate chips sprinkled on top!

I also made "Chocolate Duos." It is on the Kraft website I think. Not the greatest cookie recipe ever, but the boys loved how one cookie turned into TWO cookies. One side was chocolate chocolate chip and the other side was coconut. I would do this again, but I would just use my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and add cocoa powder to half the batch.

Then I bought some beautiful carrots from the farmer's market and decided to try making carrot chips. Just slice them up nice and thin and even, sprinkle with salt, and bake at maybe 250 for a couple of hours. Daniel loved these.

Before baking... forgot to take an after...

We played ticket to ride... the boys' way:

And just last week we repainted an old table that was found in our basement when we moved in and has since been sitting in the backyard. To relax afterwards we had some home-made iced tea. My sister gave me some apple-mint that she grew. I roughly chopped about 20 big leaves. I steeped the leaves in four cups boiling water for a couple of hours. Added 1/2 cup sugar a little lemon juice and 10 more cups of water. Refreshing.

Didn't the boys do a great job on the table?