We thought you was a Toad!

Tank & Mommy in Costume

We (our play group known as SLO Mommies) had our first annual Halloween Munchkin March benefiting the SLO Food Bank, and it was a great success! We had a great turn out, lots of fun, and we made the paper! To see the slideshow... click here.

Tank the Toad with his friend, the fossilized Dinosaur.

Some of our mommies, marching their munchkins.

(Extra gold stars for you if you recognize the movie quote!)

Halloween

So, I have been on a semi-kick... Hoodies as Costumes. Last year, for our "Twisted Fairy Tales" halloween party, I was the Big Bad Wolf who had already eaten Little Red Riding Hood (you know, since I was 8 months pregnant). The wolf costume was a great sucesss. This year, Tank is going as toad to the children's parade, so I made a frog hoodie to match. I modified the instructions by sewing on the adornments so I can remove them and just have a normal sweatshirt later. But, I still haven't taken the eyes, teeth, nose and ears off of the wolf hoodie... I like it too much. I would rather get weird looks in the grocery store. I think it will be the same with the frog. Seriously... how awesome is it?

Foodie Friday: Coconut Chicken Curry

I love Massaman (or musaman) curry; I almost always get it when we go out for Thai food. So I recently decided to see if replicate it, and it turned out really well... even Reb liked it, and he said he hated curry.

Coconut Chicken Curry

2 large chicken breasts, diced

1 bottle of Trader Joe's Thai Yellow Curry Sauce

6 medium red potatoes, diced

1 large carrot, sliced

1.5 cups basmati rice

1/2 light coconut milk

1/4 cup toasted almond slivers

1/4 cup pineapple pieces

2 tbs peanut oil

Salt & pepper to taste

water (optional)

Place peanut oil and coconut milk into pan with diced chicken, stirring continuously. Cook chicken thoroughly.

Boil potatoes until tender.

Cook rice. I used my rice cooker, which then also allowed me to steam the carrots.
Mix yellow curry sauce with pineapple and almond slivers in large sauce pan; add a little bit of water, peanut oil, and coconut milk until desired consistency is reached. Add cooked diced chicken, carrots and potatoes to sauce. Season to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Foodie Friday: Tomato Basil Quiche

Quiches are something that many people (namely Eric) treat as an exact science with lots of steps and measurements. Not me. Quiche for me is where I dump what ever I happen to have in the fridge into a pan. However, I did happen to come up with an amazing one recently, based on very simple, basic ingredients- the specialness came from the fact that I picked all of these veggies and herbs myself.

Tomato Basil Quiche

2 cups Sun Gold Tomatoes

1/4 diced red onion

1 sprig rosemary

salt & pepper

handful of basil, sliced into strips

4 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar

1 Pie crust

Slice tomatoes in half, and mix in bowl with salt, pepper, onion, and rosemary and set aside.

Pre-bake pie crust in greased pan according to manufacturers instructions. (I don't have a quiche pan, so I use a spring form pan so that I can serve it as shown above.)

Beat eggs with milk.

Spread tomato mixture into bottom of pre-baked crust. Top with beaten eggs, and cover with cheddar cheese.

Top with sliced basil.

Bake at 425 degrees until firm (30-45 minutes... my oven is a little unpredictable)

Birthday Dress

Well, I can't believe it has been a year since Juno turned one. For her birthday last year, I made her a banana dress, and so I kept the dress theme going this year. I used Heather Ross's pattern for a little girls smocked dress from Weekend Sewing that was featured on the Martha Stewart show. The fabric is "Magic Rabbits" by Ruth McDowell.

I started (what I hope will become) a life long foray into applique. Inspired by Carlee's "E-Dress", I decided that I would add a J for Juno on the dress to personalize it just a bit.
I used the same technique for smocking on this dress as I did for my $2 dress, although this one went significantly faster since it is so much smaller.

I know that it is kind of the wrong season for this dress, but I can only really make one type of dress. So hopefully she will just wear it with a long sleeve t-shirt and tights.

We have another birthday party this weekend, and I love what I made for them. (I say "them" because the soon-to-be one year old has an older sister, who I am imagining will have a difficult time watching her sister get lots of presents, so I made one for her too.) I am going to wait to show you until after the party, though, because I know their momma reads my blog :)

It has begun...

again. The packing. Yes. We are moving again. For the last time until Reb gets into a Ph.D. program.

I am really excited to be living in the new house. To not be "renting". To not listen to beer pong tournaments every night. To get chickens. But most of all.... to start with a clean slate and proactively baby-proof the house. Tank is getting into everything these days, so I am starting to pack the things I can't seem to keep him out of.

Moving this time is going to be really different from the last few times. I am having to start packing way earlier, since it is going to take me way longer. Babies make everything so much slower. Plus, we are going to be renting a truck and doing it all in one trip, so everything has to be ready ahead of time, not pack a little, move a little like we have done it before. I am ready. North County, here we come.

Foodie Friday: Italian Flag Sandwich

I am going to try something new... a weekly feature. I have been doing a lot of cooking lately (trying to save $$) and I want to try to share some of that here every week.

Italian Flag Sandwich... a new favorite made out random bits of things I had left over in the refrigerator.

White:

Toasted sourdough bread

Ricotta cheese

Green:

Pesto

Red:

Heirloom tomatoes

Salami