When I was a little girl in elementary school my grandmother used to sew me the greatest outfits. They were always in style, I mean she even made me a tube skirt and fluorescent lace top, I rocked the 80's! I even remember someone saying that my family had a lot of money because I was always wearing fancy clothes, which was so far from the truth. I just had the best grandma. When I became a teenager my grandma shared her love of sewing with me and taught me the craft. I made pants, tops, mini dresses, you name it. Unfortunately, I very rarely sew these days, my fault. However over the summer Penelope took a week long sewing camp at Moore's Sewing Center so it's time I dust off my machine and so we can start sewing! When I first signed her up I wasn't sure if she was going to enjoy it, I was also concerned that it might be a little to difficult for her to learn at 8. I was so wrong! In fact one of the amazing ladies that taught the class told me that they had taught their grandchild to sew at five years old!
This was Penelope on the first day of class with her new machine, that she got to take home by the way.
A Limited Edition Project Runway machine with a ton of stitches and much nicer then my machine. The class was a week long class, 5 hours a day. Surely this was going to be too much sewing for Penelope and she would get tired of it. I was wrong! She loved it and never wanted to leave.
Here she is sewing away when I popped into to check on her, what a pro! At the end of the week there was a graduation and ice cream party and the kids in the class got to show off their creations.
Penelope learned to make a backpack, pillow case, pajama pants and a roll-up bag traveling bag. It's too bad Moore's only offers this class once in the summer, Penelope was sad for it to be over. Still in that one week she learned so much. I will definitely be encouraging her to keep at it, in fact she has already picked out a pattern for her first homemade dress, now the fun part, fabric shopping!
This is what you get for lunch when I need to go grocery shopping...
An assortment of random things from the kitchen. Oh well, I had not complaints.
2 Hard boiled eggs and a lil' salt, Hello Kitty cucumbers, Hello Kitty jack cheese, "prinkles" as Penelope calls them, seaweed, chocolate chip cookie and a green tea hard candy. I made up for it by slipping in a coupon for an hour later bedtime and taking her out to sushi for dinner. ;)
An assortment of random things from the kitchen. Oh well, I had not complaints.
2 Hard boiled eggs and a lil' salt, Hello Kitty cucumbers, Hello Kitty jack cheese, "prinkles" as Penelope calls them, seaweed, chocolate chip cookie and a green tea hard candy. I made up for it by slipping in a coupon for an hour later bedtime and taking her out to sushi for dinner. ;)
I made this version of Hamburger Jun or Korean Beef Patties a while ago but forgot to post. These turned out delicious and Chris, who wasn't very excited at first, ended up loving them.
Hamburger Jun
1 lb. Ground Beef
3 Green onions minced
1 Garlic clove minced
1 tsp. Fresh ginger minced
2 tbs. Soy sauce
1/4 tsp. Pepper
3 Eggs
2 tsp. Brown sugar
1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp. Sesame oil
In a bowl mix all ingredients except 2 eggs and the flour and form the meat into patties. In another bowl take the remaining two eggs and beat with a fork. In a separate bowl add the flour. Take each patty and dip first into the flour and then into the egg. Add some cooking oil to cover the bottom of a pan and fry the patties until cooked through.
Sauce
2 tbs. Soy sauce
1 tbs. Chili garlic sauce
1 tbs. Rice wine vinegar
Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl.
I served my patties in lettuce cups with the sauce poured over the top. Delicious!
Hamburger Jun
1 lb. Ground Beef
3 Green onions minced
1 Garlic clove minced
1 tsp. Fresh ginger minced
2 tbs. Soy sauce
1/4 tsp. Pepper
3 Eggs
2 tsp. Brown sugar
1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp. Sesame oil
In a bowl mix all ingredients except 2 eggs and the flour and form the meat into patties. In another bowl take the remaining two eggs and beat with a fork. In a separate bowl add the flour. Take each patty and dip first into the flour and then into the egg. Add some cooking oil to cover the bottom of a pan and fry the patties until cooked through.
Sauce
2 tbs. Soy sauce
1 tbs. Chili garlic sauce
1 tbs. Rice wine vinegar
Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl.
I served my patties in lettuce cups with the sauce poured over the top. Delicious!
Here is Penelope's panda bento. It is a rare pink nosed panda, probably the only one of it's kind...
Top tier: Panda made with rice, olive ears, nori face and a bologna pink nose. Chicken strips and soy sauce in the fishy container.
Bottom tier: Baby carrots, mixed greens, cherry tomato and ranch dressing.
Yep, looks just like him.
I made some bean-less chili the other day for Chris, who loves chili but is trying to eat a low carb diet. It came out really good, piled on some all beef franks with cheese and jalapenos! I am rather fond of Weinerschnitzel's chili cheese dogs, and he said my chili was better then their hotdog chili. While that may not mean much to some of you, to someone who has cravings for Weinerschnitzel chili cheese dogs it means a lot.
Bean-Less Chili
1 lb. Ground beef
1 Onion chopped into small pieces
2 Garlic cloves minced
4 cups of water, divided in half
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 tbs. Tajin
1 tbs. Cumin
1 tbs. Red pepper chili flakes
1tsp. Paprika
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
2 tbs. Oil
Put ground beef in a bowl and add 1/2 of the water (2 cups) Squish it around with your hands until meat is loose and it looks like a squishy mess. Add all the spices to the bowl and mix well. Set aside.
In a pot over medium heat cook onions and garlic in cooking oil util soft, about 10 minutes. Add the meat mixture and turn up heat to high. Mix everything well. Add the remaining 2 cups of water and the tomato sauce. Stir and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil lower heat and simmer uncovered for approximately 2 hours, stirring occasionally. The chili will start to thicken up as it simmers.
We had leftovers and Chris and Penelope enjoyed a bowl of chili topped with cheese, sour cream and olives for lunch the next day.
Bean-Less Chili
1 lb. Ground beef
1 Onion chopped into small pieces
2 Garlic cloves minced
4 cups of water, divided in half
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 tbs. Tajin
1 tbs. Cumin
1 tbs. Red pepper chili flakes
1tsp. Paprika
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
2 tbs. Oil
Put ground beef in a bowl and add 1/2 of the water (2 cups) Squish it around with your hands until meat is loose and it looks like a squishy mess. Add all the spices to the bowl and mix well. Set aside.
In a pot over medium heat cook onions and garlic in cooking oil util soft, about 10 minutes. Add the meat mixture and turn up heat to high. Mix everything well. Add the remaining 2 cups of water and the tomato sauce. Stir and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil lower heat and simmer uncovered for approximately 2 hours, stirring occasionally. The chili will start to thicken up as it simmers.
We had leftovers and Chris and Penelope enjoyed a bowl of chili topped with cheese, sour cream and olives for lunch the next day.
Last fall Chris and Penelope decided to plant their pumpkin seeds from Halloween in our backyard. Penelope does this with pretty much anything she eats that has a seed. Watermelons, avocados, cherries, so far nothing has grown except...
her pumpkins! Check out our mini pumpkin patch! We are so going to be ready for pumpkin season.
her pumpkins! Check out our mini pumpkin patch! We are so going to be ready for pumpkin season.
For those of you that don't k now my husband Chris works on the Arctic Circle in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. He works in the oil field on a 3 week on 3 week off rotation. The other day they found this cutie roaming around camp.
He was probably out looking for some lunch. Don't you just want to snuggle with him? They also have polar bears up there, but no penguins, that's the other pole people. Think this is frightening, take a look at this.
Those are Alaska's state bird, the mosquito. Eeek!
He was probably out looking for some lunch. Don't you just want to snuggle with him? They also have polar bears up there, but no penguins, that's the other pole people. Think this is frightening, take a look at this.
Those are Alaska's state bird, the mosquito. Eeek!
After all the hoopla all over Pinterest and foodie blogs, I finally made cloud bread. The recipe is everywhere just look it up. It's basically eggs, cream cheese and cream of tartar mixed and baked to resemble something like bread or more like buns. It's soft and pillow-y hence the name cloud bread. It's a great substitute for bread if you are low carbing it. I made sandwiches for the family on cloud bread and everyone loved them.
Chris thought it tasted like soft white bread and couldn't believe what it was made out of. Just to warn you ahead of time, this does not have the texture of real bread, it's kind of like a meringue but with a little more consistency to it. Still for those of you trying to limit your carb intake and are tired of lettuce wraps this is a nice change. Just try it!
Chris thought it tasted like soft white bread and couldn't believe what it was made out of. Just to warn you ahead of time, this does not have the texture of real bread, it's kind of like a meringue but with a little more consistency to it. Still for those of you trying to limit your carb intake and are tired of lettuce wraps this is a nice change. Just try it!
A few weeks ago I purchased spring roll wrappers to make fresh shrimp spring rolls.
I had so many wrappers left over and I was over my desire for fresh spring rolls so I thought maybe I could fry these instead. Not sure if it was possible I did some research online and sure enough, yes, these can also be rehydrated and fried. Nice! So here are some Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls I made.
While not very pretty, they were pretty tasty so here's my recipe.
Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls
I had a little less then a pound of ground chicken.
1/4 cup of chopped green onion
2 Cloves of garlic minced
1 Carrot shredded
1 tbs. Hoisin sauce
Powdered ginger
Five spice powder, a mixture of five spices used in Asian cooking. You can buy a five spice powder that contains all five spices already or if you are feeling daring you can make your own using star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.
Salt & Pepper
In a pan cook the ground chicken along with the onion, garlic and carrots. Season with the remaining ingredients to taste. Cook until the chicken is completely done. Fill a large enough bowl for the wrappers to fit into it with water and a teeny amount of sugar. Take a wrapper and dip it into the water rehydrating it for about 15 seconds until it becomes pliable again. Place on wax paper. Fill the center of each wrapper with the chicken filling and then start by folding over the top side of the wrapper then folding in both left and right sides and then rolling it up into a little burrito. Does that make sense? I didn't think so... here I found this online. Once you roll up all your spring rolls, by the way I was able to make about 10 of these guys but I stuffed them pretty good, cover them with a paper towel and press down a little to soak up some of the moisture. You want to make these ahead of time so they dry out a bit before you fry them. Once they are ready to fry up heat some oil in a pan until hot and then drop your spring rolls in making sure that you only fry a few at a time. Don't let them touch as they will start to stick together if they do. Remove once these are brown and crisp and place on a paper towel to soak up some of the cooking oil. I served these with a dipping sauce.
Soy Sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Chili garlic sauce
Honey
I just combined a little of these ingredients in a bowl until it tasted good.
This is the chili garlic sauce I used.
I had so many wrappers left over and I was over my desire for fresh spring rolls so I thought maybe I could fry these instead. Not sure if it was possible I did some research online and sure enough, yes, these can also be rehydrated and fried. Nice! So here are some Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls I made.
While not very pretty, they were pretty tasty so here's my recipe.
Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls
I had a little less then a pound of ground chicken.
1/4 cup of chopped green onion
2 Cloves of garlic minced
1 Carrot shredded
1 tbs. Hoisin sauce
Powdered ginger
Five spice powder, a mixture of five spices used in Asian cooking. You can buy a five spice powder that contains all five spices already or if you are feeling daring you can make your own using star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.
Salt & Pepper
In a pan cook the ground chicken along with the onion, garlic and carrots. Season with the remaining ingredients to taste. Cook until the chicken is completely done. Fill a large enough bowl for the wrappers to fit into it with water and a teeny amount of sugar. Take a wrapper and dip it into the water rehydrating it for about 15 seconds until it becomes pliable again. Place on wax paper. Fill the center of each wrapper with the chicken filling and then start by folding over the top side of the wrapper then folding in both left and right sides and then rolling it up into a little burrito. Does that make sense? I didn't think so... here I found this online. Once you roll up all your spring rolls, by the way I was able to make about 10 of these guys but I stuffed them pretty good, cover them with a paper towel and press down a little to soak up some of the moisture. You want to make these ahead of time so they dry out a bit before you fry them. Once they are ready to fry up heat some oil in a pan until hot and then drop your spring rolls in making sure that you only fry a few at a time. Don't let them touch as they will start to stick together if they do. Remove once these are brown and crisp and place on a paper towel to soak up some of the cooking oil. I served these with a dipping sauce.
Soy Sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Chili garlic sauce
Honey
I just combined a little of these ingredients in a bowl until it tasted good.
This is the chili garlic sauce I used.
Here is the kick off for a new summer segment starring Penelope, Cooking with Penelope! Because you gotta keep the kids busy so you don't drive each other crazy.
Hi! My name is Penelope I am eight years old. I am going to share how to make one of my favorite foods. I eat it every time I go to a salad bar with my parents.
Hi! My name is Penelope I am eight years old. I am going to share how to make one of my favorite foods. I eat it every time I go to a salad bar with my parents.
Penelope's Cucumber Bites
This is what you'll need:
1 cucumber
Some shredded cheddar cheese
Black olives
Cooked cold bacon
Hard-boiled egg
Ham
Ranch dressing
1. Slice cucumber into round circles.
2. Slice olives into circles.
3. Slice ham into small squares.
4. Use egg slicer to cut egg into strips.
5. Crumble up bacon into tiny pieces.
6. Now it is time to assemble the bites. Start off by spreading Ranch on the cucumber, then top with some cheese, then put pieces of bacon, then the ham, next you put the egg and last of all 2 olive eyes.
Now enjoy my delicious cucumber bites, they are so so gooood!
Penelope asked for a surprise lunch today so I made her this pretty bento...
Top tier: Cracked pepper and Colby jack sandwich kabobs, BBQ chips
Bottom tier: Vanilla Greek yogurt with Nerds, pichuberries and a fancy hard candy
I found the pichuberries at Vons and after a little research learned it is native to Peru and also known as "aguaymanto" or Inca berry. It has 20 times the Vitamin C than an orange and is also a powerful antioxidant. It taste like a cross between a tomato and an orange and Penelope loves them!
Yesterday I made some slow cooker carnitas that I turned into tacos for dinner. Simple and delicious!
Slow Cooker Carnitas
2 pound Pork shoulder roast
A handful of pearl onions
8-10 Garlic cloves
Freshly squeezed juice from 2 oranges
Onion powder
Garlic salt
Salt & Pepper
Lard or oil for frying
Season your roast liberally with salt, pepper, garlic salt and onion powder. Place in crockpot with the onions and garlic. Pour orange juice over everything. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Once finished remove meat onto a cutting board or plate and shred. Warm some oil in a large frying pan, I think lard works best and gives the meat added flavor, but a corn or canola oil will work as well. Fry meat until it browns and crisps a little.
I served on warm corn tortillas with my guacamole.
Oh! and an FYI...Penelope made the talent show!
Today Penelope auditioned for her school talent show, she performed The Rose on piano. I thought I would send along some inspiration for lunch.
Top tier: Heart shaped mozzarella cheese, a pepperoni rose, some breadsticks.
Bottom tier: Raspberries and a heart shaped egg.
I also included some vanilla cupcake goldfish. We should find out in a few days if she made the cut, I will let you know.
Last night I made a BBQ Jalapeno Ranch Chopped Salad and meatloaf for dinner.
BBQ Jalapeno Ranch Chopped Salad
Small bag of coleslaw mix or you can chop up your own cabbage and carrot combo
Chopped romaine lettuce
Black beans
Corn
Shredded Colby jack cheese
Cooked and crumbled bacon
Crushed tortilla chips
Jalapeno ranch dressing, I used Litehouse
Barbecue sauce, I used Rufus Teague
Put your cabbage mix in a large bowl and toss with some jalapeno ranch dressing, add the remaining ingredients except for the barbecue sauce and toss. I used canned black beans and corn but this would have been even better with roasted corn. Drizzle the top with the barbecue sauce. Enjoy
Because you are tossing your tortilla chips in with everything else this salad is only good eaten the same day while the chips still have a crunch to them.
Last weekend we took a trip to Petsmart to look for an aquarium to create a snail habitat for Penelope's pet snails.
Every afternoon for a week she had been collecting snails from our front yard and having snail races with them. Every morning when she would go and check on her snails they would be gone...well she always managed to find them again because they really only got a few feet away over night. You know what they say about snails... Anyway she got the bright idea to mark their shells, first with chalk, but when that didn't work she decided to label them with stickers, she even named her snails; Green Machine, Violet, Speedy, Lucky and Blue. I suggested we make a little home for them so they couldn'trun slowly slide away again. So as I was saying, last weekend we headed to Petsmart for a snail home and ended up coming home with this little guy instead.
Top tier: Cheerios and fruit gummies, sour cream & cheddar chips and oranges because Cheerio loves to snack on oranges.
Bottom tier: C for Cheerio cheese, a piggy turkey and cheese sandwich on top of some non edible grass with a few edible jelly beans thrown in it. They are supposed to resemble guinea pig poop because that's all this little guy does, eat and POOP!
Oh and a bottle of water of course cause Cheerio goes through about a bottle of water a day. Whoever said guinea pigs were a low maintenance pet were sorely mistaken. And in case you were wondering what happened to her pet snails I think they finally made it to the backyard by now.
Every afternoon for a week she had been collecting snails from our front yard and having snail races with them. Every morning when she would go and check on her snails they would be gone...well she always managed to find them again because they really only got a few feet away over night. You know what they say about snails... Anyway she got the bright idea to mark their shells, first with chalk, but when that didn't work she decided to label them with stickers, she even named her snails; Green Machine, Violet, Speedy, Lucky and Blue. I suggested we make a little home for them so they couldn't
Meet the newest addition to the Lavoie household, H.N. Cheerio or just Cheerio for short. In honor of Penelope's new furry buddy I made her a surprise lunch today.
Top tier: Cheerios and fruit gummies, sour cream & cheddar chips and oranges because Cheerio loves to snack on oranges.
Bottom tier: C for Cheerio cheese, a piggy turkey and cheese sandwich on top of some non edible grass with a few edible jelly beans thrown in it. They are supposed to resemble guinea pig poop because that's all this little guy does, eat and POOP!
Oh and a bottle of water of course cause Cheerio goes through about a bottle of water a day. Whoever said guinea pigs were a low maintenance pet were sorely mistaken. And in case you were wondering what happened to her pet snails I think they finally made it to the backyard by now.
Turkey and cheddar sandwich on a roll, veggie chips, olives, strawberry and some fancy cookies.
The rolls are Trader Joe's Half Baked Rolls, if you haven't tried these I would go pick some up. Penelope says they are the best bread ever and she wants all her sandwiches on this bread now.
I made this yummy, refreshing salad the other day. Chopped up some jicama into cubes, radishes into strips and mango into cubes. Mixed it all up with some Citrus Reserve Olive Oil and California Balsamico Blanco from Temecula Olive Oil Co. and salt and chili powder. You can also just mix some good quality olive oil with some balsamic and a touch of honey for the dressing. Tasty! If you have never had jicama before it's like a crunchy, juicy slightly sweet and nutty vegetable. Almost like a cross between an apple and a potato. Whatever, it's good and you can find it at most supermarkets and definitely in any Hispanic market.
A few weeks ago we made a trip to Julian, Ca. The last time I visited I was maybe 15 years old, I remember my family crammed in a van for the trip. I also remember snow and apple pie. Chris has never been there but I knew he would enjoy this quaint gold rush town in the Cuyamaca mountains, famous for what else, apple pie.
We stayed at The Julian Gold Rush Hotel right in the center of Julian's Main Street. This restored Victorian hotel is the oldest operating hotel in Southern California. It was adorable and we enjoyed our stay.
They even have a complimentary Afternoon Tea and parlor with games and books to enjoy. We played a couple of rounds of Scrabble, I can't remember who won, but I am sure it was me. On a side note, the hotel is said to be haunted. Well, we didn't experience anything ghostly, well maybe a ghost cat that we kept hearing meow despite the fact that the owners insisted no animals were allowed in the hotel. Spooookyyy.
We had a nice time visiting the shops, my favorite was the Julian Cider Mill with wall to wall jams, jelly's honeys, nuts, jerky, candy and other edibles.
We also visited the local cemetery, because if there is an old cemetery then I must take a ton of photos.
My favorite part of the trip was visiting The Eagle Mining Co. Penelope had fun panning for gold, she found about thirty dollars worth but unfortunately she had to give it back.
We also got to enjoy a really cool tour of the once bustling mine. Our tour guide was amazing, I definitely recommend visiting this place. It was neat to actually get the opportunity to walk through the mine. If you are claustrophobic or afraid of the dark, beware.
We also took a short drive up the Sunrise Hwy and played in the snow. It was just like being in Alaska again, sorta.
All in all it was a great trip and we didn't even wait in line for apple pie, that will be our next visit.
We stayed at The Julian Gold Rush Hotel right in the center of Julian's Main Street. This restored Victorian hotel is the oldest operating hotel in Southern California. It was adorable and we enjoyed our stay.
They even have a complimentary Afternoon Tea and parlor with games and books to enjoy. We played a couple of rounds of Scrabble, I can't remember who won, but I am sure it was me. On a side note, the hotel is said to be haunted. Well, we didn't experience anything ghostly, well maybe a ghost cat that we kept hearing meow despite the fact that the owners insisted no animals were allowed in the hotel. Spooookyyy.
We had a nice time visiting the shops, my favorite was the Julian Cider Mill with wall to wall jams, jelly's honeys, nuts, jerky, candy and other edibles.
We also visited the local cemetery, because if there is an old cemetery then I must take a ton of photos.
My favorite part of the trip was visiting The Eagle Mining Co. Penelope had fun panning for gold, she found about thirty dollars worth but unfortunately she had to give it back.
We also got to enjoy a really cool tour of the once bustling mine. Our tour guide was amazing, I definitely recommend visiting this place. It was neat to actually get the opportunity to walk through the mine. If you are claustrophobic or afraid of the dark, beware.
We also took a short drive up the Sunrise Hwy and played in the snow. It was just like being in Alaska again, sorta.
All in all it was a great trip and we didn't even wait in line for apple pie, that will be our next visit.
