Good Day

You know it has been a good family day when this is your child.

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

I am not a grilled cheese kind of gal, but Curtis on the other hand.... oh yea. If I ever want to make Curtis happy all I have to do is throw some plastic wrapped cheese and wonder bread together and... BAM... best evening ever. Seriously... I'm am not over exagerating.

So, for his special birthday dinner, what do I decide to make... grilled cheese. But now how do I step it up a notch? Gourmet grilled cheese!!! All you need is...

Bakery bread

Pepper jack cheese

Colby jack cheese

Purple onion

Tomatoes

Pennie grill (optional)

Basil, garlic, oregano

First slice up your onions, throw them into a pan with a little bit of olive oil. Once those are starting to loosen up throw in your tomatoes. Add a couple dashes of basil, garlic powder, and oregano.... this is the most important part. Once those are cooked, set them aside.

Now cut your bread and cheese and get them ready for the Pennie grill or pan. Butter your bread and put in the cheese, onion, and tomatoes together and grill.

When the cheese is all melted you are good to go. This is seriously an amazing sandwich and it is the only meal that I have gotten a 10 out of 10 from Curtis.

U-Pick Farms

The end of summer is coming. The weather is cooling down, kids are in school, and the sweaters are starting to look really comfy. But the benefit to the end of summer..... harvest time. My husband grew up for a little bit in Tennessee and had a blast picking berries at a u-pick farm. I thought that might be fun, but didn't think we would have anything like that here in Alaska.

Not only was I completely wrong, but most states seem to have one. They are fun little farms that let you pick and pay by the pound. These farms are fun family activities that help educate children and help you save a little on groceries.... which is something I am ALWAYS up for.

If you would like to find a u-pick farm in your area click on the link 'U-Pick Farm' and scroll down just a bit and you can click on the state you live in.

If you live in Alaska, here is the U-Pick farm in our neck of the woods, Pyrahs Pioneer Peak Farm, in Palmer. Hurry up and look at the schedule for this farm. There is a harvest festival that will be going on Sept 19th and there will be hayrides, wagon rides, and petting zoos.

Guitar Hero Cake

Curtis's birthday rolled up this week and so it came time for Curtis to let me know what kind of cake he wanted. He suggested something that was kind of simple, but I was excited so I asked him to pick something else. I wanted him to challenge me. So, he came back with his decision.... he wanted a Guitar Hero cake.
Well... I guess I got what I wanted.

So, I did it... and I have to say, that I was very happy with how it turned out. In the end it wasn't too bad.

First I took a couple pieces of paper and drew out a guitar that I was going to use as a stencil. Once I had it drawn, I cut it out and figured out how many cakes I would need. This one took two box cakes. One for the body of the guitar and one for the neck.

Once I cut out the cake I placed the pieces in the freezer until the sides were stiff..... you can't put the frosting on the cake very easily with all the crumbs falling off. Once it was frozen enough I put the white frosting on first and the placed it in the freezer again. Then I frosted with the black frosting. Do the black frosting last... it is easy to keep the black out of the white than the white out of the black. When the body of the guitar is finished attach the neck to the body and up the neck.

Since this cake is fairly large, you wont be able to keep the cake on a pan. I went to Michael's and got a foam board and covered it with tin foil. Not only did it hold the cake, but it was fun to write messages on the board when the cake was done.

But it was sure fun. Curtis was pretty excited about it. Definently a step up from last years Mario cake.

Movie Mania

We are huge movie people. The best thing that has happened with us lately has been a $3 movie theater that has opened up in town... yep.... the best thing that has happened to us!! Not that things have been hard and that is the only thing we have to look forward to, but we just love movies. It has saved as a bundl for date nights.. And the best part is I have just seen great movie after great movie.

UP

This was just a wonderfully cute movie. I am a little bit of a hard person to please when it comes to family feel good movies. To me there is a fine line between heart warming and cheese ball central. This family movie actually had both my husband and I tearing up and cracking up through out the whole time. I can't really go into the movie at all without giving up too much information, but this has been one of our favorite movies this year.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I saw this movie on a girl's night out and I was not looking forward to it. The only reason I was going to go see it was because I wanted to hangout with my girls friends. I usually don't like these kind of chick flick movies. World, please don't hate me... but I hate the "Notebook". I just do, I'm sorry.... but as for The Time Traveler's Wife.... totally different. This movie was not only sweet, sad, and feel good, but really interesting. This movie had such an interesting take on time traveling in a realistic way.... as weird as that may sound. How could someone have anything of a normal life if they were forced to time travel? How could they have any relationship, job, family? This movie follows the meeting, dating, marriage, and life of a man that has the ability to time travel, but no control over it. I went in thinking there was going to be a little too much sexual moments, but it was fairly safe. There was a little bit of tushy... but other than that.. fairly clean.

Julie & Julia

I never knew much about the chef Julie Childs, but afterward this movie I wish I knew even more. This was a delightful movie that kept me smiling the whole time. The movie follows the true story of the self made chef Julie Child and a no-name government worker that wants to improve herself by forcing herself to follow through with one thing in life. Julia decides to cook all of Julie Child's recipes in a year.... 500 something recipes in 365 days. The movie goes back and forth in and out of their lives. Any scene with Meryl Streep was just wonderful and I found myself just entranced with her.

My Sister's Keeper

I just saw this one last night and all I can say is that I hope I never have to go through what this family did. This is the story of a family that has a child dying of cancer. The only way to help save their daughter Kate is to find a donor. So, mom and dad agreed to conceive a genetically perfect daughter, Anna, that could help donate what their other daughter Kate needed. Anna is asked to donate a kidney and she has come to a point where she wants a say in the matter and sues her parents. I can't say it was a feel good movie, but it definitely was a good movie. It pulls at your heart strings and also really makes you think about your own family. I don't know if I would recommend this movie for anyone who has gone through anything like this, I think it might be a little too real. I was a little disappointed that it didn't do better. And I never thought I would ever say this, but... Cameron Diaz is a really good actress. She did an amazing job as playing a mom with so much on her shoulders.

So, if you have been going through a movie dry spell, then hopefully a couple of these might give you the pick-me up you have been looking for.

I'm Baaaack

Hello one and all... are any of you readers still out there? Well, I have apparently taken a bit of a longer summer break than expected. I didn't mean to stay away for so long, but slowly my blog was taking more and more time away from my family and every time I took a break it was harder to get back into the swing on things in the blogging world.

Plus, with the Alaskan summers here being so nice with so many things to do, I found myself strung out most evenings. So with berry picking, camping, midnight fishing runs, glacier hiking, cabin trips, biking trails, and sprinklers all out of the way, I am hoping I can get back into crafty, cooking, mom mode that I just love so much.

I have some great recipes that I have been dying to share, wonderful cards that are easy to make, more sewing projects, and some just great crafting books that I'm sure all can use :)

But until the next post, here are some fun pictures of what we have been up to.





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Vegetable Tacos

I have been looking for new ways to get more vegetables into the families' diet. I have a hard problem with this because I am the picky eater in the family when it comes veggies. But I have found a great new recipe that it so tasty and also great for the vegetables. All you need is...
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1 & 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 red onion slivers
1 zucchini diced
1 & 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 & 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
2 TBS no-salt-added tomato paste
3/4 cup mild salsa
15 oz can black beans, drained
3 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
8 inch tortillas
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1. In a large skillet, heat oil until hot (not smoking) over medium heat. Add onions, zucchini, and mushrooms and cook until onions are tender and the juices are flowin.
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2. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and corn... cook for about 2 mins.
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3. Stir in tomato paste, salsa, black beans, and cilantro. Cook until heated through, about 2 mins.
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4. Now you can fill you tacos... top them off with sour cream and cheddar cheese.
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This is one of my new favorite recipes. Really easy, super tasty, and low calorie. YOU CAN"T GO WRONG! :)