I couldn’t do this in Idaho, not this time of year anyway.

My 5 year old son was so delighted to help me pick and shell the peas that he kept exclaiming what a good farmer he was. He’d pop as many in his mouth as he’d drop in the bowl and that delights me given that he once threw up a bite of carrots just to prove to me how much hated them.

I love the helping stage he’s in and especially helping with garden and yard stuff. I grew up with that element and I’m grateful to have it to any degree in my kid’s lives. It’s wonderful for kids to plant a seed, help it grow, keep the weeds from it and then enjoy the fruits of their labors. In our world today there are so few accomplishments that we can see and touch. I love teaching my kids the important lessons gardening can provide and I love that I have kids who enjoy learning them.

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I get so many questions and comments this time of year about my gingerbread houses and cookies. It seemed appropriate to share what I do here for anyone interested!

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It was the last thing I had time for today. But how on earth can you say no to those baby blue eyes pleading with you to “Please, please mom can we make a gingerbread man? I’ve never ever tasted one in my whole life!”

Sometimes you just have to make time for things like this.

Clearly he’s delighted. As we dressed the snowflakes, trees and teddy bears with frosting he kept saying “Mom you are so awesome!” Now that’s more payment than you can deposit in any bank and it lasts longer too! So with all that praise I pulled out the big guns and wrote his name on one of the cookies. He gobbled it up with sheer delight.

I decided to share his picture here so his teacher can see it. He wants so much for her to see it but was very worried with how to do that because if he tried to take it to school he might break it. (You gotta love this kid who thinks of everything.) So I told him we’d take a picture to share. You see, they’ve been reading books at school about the gingerbread boy all week. On Monday he’s going to run away and the class is going to try to find him. Friends and relatives in other states are invited to send a letter or postcard pretending to site the gingerbread boy sharing where they spotted him and what he was doing. Then they will mark those letters on a world map as they search for him. If you want to join in the fun send me an e-mail or leave your discovery notes in the comments leaving me the state where he was seen. I’ll print them out and send them in for him.

How can I not be overjoyed that I took time to make a gingerbread boy with him? Just look at those eyes!

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It’s that time of year again when I’m in holiday mode. I was just reviewing some of the things I’ve done and shared here as gift ideas on my site and realized the only files I’ve gotten up there are Christmas related. I guess we know how well that goal of getting files uploaded is going! I only have a few up but they’re easy and fun.

This year I’m keeping my kids busy with homemade goodies we’re working on all month long for gift bundles. I’m doing a relaxation one with homemade soap, bath salts and candles, a food one with homemade jam or syrup, dipped chocolates, toffee and gingerbread cookie trees, and a personalized/family one with personalized liquid hand soap pumps, big multi-colored crayons, books my kids write and anything else that hits our fancy this year. I’m as excited as they are to work on our craft projects this month.

I wanted to do the 12 Days of Christmas again for my sweetheart, but with last month getting lost in a time warp I just ran out of time to get it started this month. I suppose there’s still a little time but we’ll have to see how organized I can get everything else first!

I hope to find time to share some holiday traditions and memories because I love that sort of stuff! Anyone else have some great ideas or shares of what you’re doing this year?

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Yesterday was a happy kitchen success day for me. Today I decided to write it down so I can duplicate it another day! I’m just wishing I’d taken a picture of it. Maybe next time I’ll remember that. I made a tasty crusted citrus salmon with citrus salsa, asparagus and seasoned potato wedges.

We’ve been focusing on healthy but tasty meals at my house. I’m a picky cook. I grew up on food where the purpose was to fill your stomach. Since I’ve been married I’ve discovered the joy of really great tasting dishes at some fantastic restaurants. This has been great, but also a hindrance to me because I want to be able to duplicate these types of fantastic dishes at home and often end up disappointed. Yesterday, however was an exception so I thought I’d share.

A recent trip to Sprouts yielded some good salmon fillets. But I didn’t want to do the typical grilled, baked or broiled variations I’ve done in the past. I opened the cupboard to see what spices I had. The citrus grill spices caught my attention (I purchased this seasoning in bulk size at a recent Sam’s trip.) After reading the ingredients of lemon peel, dill and garlic I got to thinking about what I could do with it. I wondered what toppings could be made in the order of a sauce with similar ingredients. Fueled by success with my corn salsa creations, I thought about trying a variation of that with citrus. I browsed online to see what might come up for citrus salsas to get a frame of reference and came up with this:

2 1/2 C navel orange pieces (peeled and cut over the bowl to capture the juice)
1/4 C lime juice
3 T finely chopped red onion
1/4 C chopped red pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1 t hot pepper blend (black & red chili)
1-2 T parsley

I mixed this and put it in the fridge. Then I crusted the salmon on both sides (removing the skin) with the citrus grill spices by coating both sides with the mixture and browning for a few minutes in a skillet with butter. I put the fillet in a glass baking dish and poured the remaining butter and citrus spices over a separate baking dish with asparagus spears.

Although I’ve done seasoned potato wedges from scratch before, this time I used some frozen ones purchased at the same store. They were red potatoes with olive oil, parmesan and garlic. I spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with foil.

Because I had to leave for about 45 minutes I placed all the items (covered both baking dishes with foil) in the oven together at 325 degrees. When I got home everything was perfectly cooked.

My husband reminded me of something I’d said a few days ago about if I could cook like a gourmet chef I’d enjoy eating in more and out less. Then he said “I think you nailed it today.” Yay!

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Need I say more? No, but I will because it’s my blog and I’ll blog if I want to. *giggle*

Consumers continue to experience the great rip off. It just slays me how companies constantly reduce the quantity, size and/or quality of their products yet their price tags only experience growth. Hmmmmm. Most of the time they’re pretty sneaky starting reduction in small increments so you may actually wonder if it really used to be bigger or if you just have a hazy memory. Another favorite is to go straight to packaging where they’ll reduce the quantity to make it fit. Then they’ll slap an ad on the front saying something like 30% more free! Free my arse, we’re paying more for less but this is supposed to give us a warm fuzzy about it. Another great tactic is to change something and then wait for a period of time reintroducing the old as new. This morning I saw my first Trix commercial showing round shapes as new. I nearly laughed myself silly all the while my kids are looking at me like I’ve finally lost my marbles. I guess it is new to them, but hopefully they’ll join me for a giggle when in a few years they reintroduce the fruit shapes as new.

I feel like the leading lady in the movie “Misery”, you know the part where she’s screaming about getting ripped off when the cliff hanger of your favorite movie or show ends with a car going over the mountain but the next show continues changing it so the car never actually went over. I know that feeling of wanting to stand up and scream to the entire audience that you’ve just been ripped off that they just changed it to trick everyone. In fact, it was the first thing that popped in my head when I took this picture showing how the double stuff Oreo is now what the original was. Maybe they’re gearing up for the introduction of the triple stuff cookie so we can finally get a real double stuff again.

I don’t mean to sound so pessimistic but what happened to letting inflation just be more for the same? I’d even be okay paying more for more. But I’m really growing tired of paying the same and/or more for less. Pretty soon the normal size roll of toilet paper will have all of three squares and we’ll run out of words beyond “mega.” *laugh*

Rest assured that it’s not your imagination that packages are getting smaller or products are not all they used to be. It’s part of the great consumer rip-off….errr corrective….errr deception program. Ah call it whatever you want, just know it’s real. *wink*

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Well, last night was the final class for my Course One Cake Decorating. Here’s the result:

What a confidence builder. I may even take a stab at a fondant cake for Valentines.

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I gave in to my lazy bone last night against my better judgement. I figured it had been several years since I’d done a generic casserole for dinner and seeings how I couldn’t even remember the last time, thought it had been long enough. I was wrong.

We are not casserole people at my house. Our taste buds have been refined and spoiled by fresh mex, delicious entrees and tasty salads/side dishes. I made a basic Tater Tot casserole with a hamburger base. I’d hoped that being told last week by one of the 16 year olds in my class that it was their favorite food that maybe my kids would go for it. I added more seasonings, veggies and layers of cheese in hopes that it would compensate for the basic blah base but to no avail. My daughter picked out all the Tater Tots and left the rest in her bowl, my son took one bite of the hamburger and said “No thanks mom, I no like it” and when I told my husband that I remembered now why I don’t make or like casseroles he remained perfectly balanced in his response that it was just food to fill your stomach and that is its purpose anyway. I believe that’s the politically correct way of agreeing with your wife. A few hours later while watching American Idol I commented how yucky that dinner was and my daughter said, “Yeah, it was pretty bad mom.” Case closed. No more casseroles at my house.

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After a VERY long day with the kids yesterday, I was able to spend some time with a friend at a cake decorating class. This is the cake we decorated last night. We practiced some other techniques and learned how to use piping gel to transfer a pattern. It was the perfect sanity saver for me. I look forward to sharing what I’m learning!

I have to admit that I sorely missed being able to watch 24 with my hubby last night though. I knew he’d watch it while I was gone and I got home in the last 10 minutes so I had to retreat upstairs so as not to ruin it for me. Thank heaven for DVRs because I did get to watch it this morning and holy cow I can’t believe the big bang the season is off too. Jack Bauer and 24 have been to TV what J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter have been to books. The bonus was watching it in HD. I can’t believe the difference in picture. Although I tease dh constantly about pointing that out of late, it really is amazing.

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I’m hoping to solidify my list of groceries this morning for Thursday’s dinner. It’s funny, I love the dinner but we don’t to anything really different than any other nice meal. I add a few more dishes like one more veggie and stuffing but that’s the only real difference, well and maybe that we actually KNOW we’ll have dessert…LOL I remember the big affairs the dinner was growing up - - tables upon tables of food and choices. I’d always get more than I could eat and then get my dad mad at me for not being able to clear my plate.
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