Another Birthday Party – High Cliff State Park

The weekend before we left Wisconsin there was another fun birthday party to attend. Lots of babies turning one! They grow up so fast.

 

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…oh, it actually is a plane.

 

Some time to chat.

 

And just hang out.

 

Take a look at this picture.

 

And this one.

 

And this. Looks cute, doesn’t it? Fun?

 

Now look closely at this picture. Gah! And we were all walking in the tall grass. Shudder.

 

Veronica wasted no time finding the treats.

 

Or the toys.

 

Or the presents.

“Hey, what’s that?”

 

Sorry baby, but you don’t get another birthday until next July. No matter how many times you ask for “happy birthday cake for Veronica”.

 

Brilliant artists making brilliant chalk art.

 

Oh my! Veronica laid an egg.

 

The birthday boy, and his adorable dinosaur cake.

 

The kids were excited for that cake.

 

Testing the waters.

“What…what is this?”

 

It didn’t take long for him to decide that he liked it. Dig in!

 

Everyone was willing to lend a hand, too. How generous.

 

Om nom nom.

 

“I…I’m so happy. I love cake!”

 

Birthday cake at it’s best.

 

And worst. At the same time. Squelch.

 

All the generous “helping” pays off.

“Here, have some more!”

“Don’t mind if I do!”

 

I’d say the birthday boy enjoyed his party. And so did the rest of us!

Small Successes Thursday, August 26th

It’s important for moms everyone to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that.

1. I cleaned the burners and drip pans on my stove. It took a combination of vinegar, baking soda, steel wool and elbow grease, and I felt like I should have been wearing a Hazmat suit while I did it. Yuck and major yuck. At least now I can put it off forever again.

2. As a result of #1, I had to give my sink a heavy-duty shine, FlyLady style. And I’ve kept up with doing a quick shine every day since.

3. I started jogging again after a 3-week hiatus. And when I had to skip Wednesday because the girls got up early, I went this morning to make up for it instead of catching a couple extra minutes of sleep like I usually do on Thursdays.

What were your small successes this week?

Eggplant Parmigiana

(Check out some other Tasty Tuesday recipes by clicking the chef)

I ordered produce from Bountiful Baskets this week (more on that later here). Since one of the yummy things I got in my basket was an eggplant, I decided to take my favorite Chicken Parmigiana recipe and adapt it.

 

The veggie (well actually, fruit) in question.

 

Sliced, sweated and patted dry.

 

I dipped the slices in buttermilk, then dredged with a mixture of flour, breadcrumbs and salt. The breading didn’t stick as well as I’d like, so I might try egg instead of buttermilk next time.

 

I also got four fresh tomatoes in my basket, so I cut them up…

 

And pulsed a few times until they were the about the same size as the canned crushed tomatoes I was also using. Or thereabouts.

 

 

I love starting sauces with onion and garlic.

 

My special onion goggles. If I don’t wear them when working with onions – oh, the burning!

 

Tasty red wine, it smelled so good.

 

Dumped in all the tomatoes. The crushed tomatoes have tomato puree in them so they are saucier. Which is good, it kept things from getting too thin.

 

Added some sugar, salt and pepper and simmered for 30 minutes. Then I added fresh herbs, also from my basket. Flat-leaf parsley, basil, oregano and rosemary - a great blend.

 

Then I grated some of this. Mmmm.

 

I sprinkled a lot on the slices of eggplant. And then some more.

 

It smelled so good at this point, it was all I could do not to eat it right out of the skillet. It’s good that I found restraint, because I would have burned my tongue. That sauce was hot!

 

And served. On my classy chili pepper plates.

This recipe was absolutely fantastic. I liked the original from PW a lot, but this – this was heaven. It will definitely be my standard marinara sauce in the future. I think the fresh herbs really made a difference.

Try it!

Eggplant Parmigiana

Eggplant:
1 medium eggplant, sliced
kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp kosher salt
olive oil
Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 half onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz) 
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped 
6 basil leaves, chopped
2 sprigs oregano, chopped
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 cup parmesan, grated

Slice eggplant and sprinkle with salt on both sides. Let sit for 30 minutes to sweat, then pat dry with a paper towel. Submerge eggplant in buttermilk, then dredge in mixture of flour, breadcrumbs and salt. Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in large skillet on medium, then fry eggplant for several minutes on each side, until golden brown. Place eggplant on paper-towel lined plate and set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for several minutes. Pour in red wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add all tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, boil a pot of water and cook linguine until al dente.

Stir chopped herbs into sauce. Carefully lay eggplant slices on surface of sauce, then generously sprinkle with parmesan. Reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer until cheese is melted. Serve on top of linguine and garnish with extra herbs.

CSFF Blog Tour: My Favorite

This month we don’t have a book to review, and though I never turn away an opportunity to read a new book, I must say I am a little relieved. August has been so busy that if we did have a book to read, I don’t think I would have finished it in time! So instead, for August we get to write about our favorite Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy instead! Yay!

I went back and forth on what to post for this. Part of me wants to have some hidden gem to reveal and wow the masses with. But I don’t. And even though I expect to see this book in a lot of the blogs over the next few days, I’m going to write about my favorite anyway because, well, it’s my favorite!

Maybe it’s the epic heroism of the characters, or the completeness of the world and it’s history, or maybe it’s just because it’s a great story of good triumphing over evil, but ever since I read The Lord of the Rings I have never found another book I’ve loved so much.

It all started back when I was in elementary school. My family used to do an annual camping trip with some friends of ours, and sitting around the campfire one night my friend’s dad started telling us a story. An epic adventure involving a small person (what the heck is a hobbit anyway?), a bunch of dwarves (I knew what those were), a wizard (of the big nose, pointy hat variety), various dastardly villains (trolls, goblins and spiders, oh my!), riddles in the dark (gollum) and ultimately a dragon. It was a much abbreviated version of The Hobbit, but when my 6th grade teacher read it aloud to the class several years later I immediately recognized it. I honestly don’t remember if she finished by the end of the school year, and since I don’t do very well with auditory comprehension anyway, I decided I needed to read it myself. If you are thinking right now, “I thought she said The Lord of the Rings was her favorite, but she’s talking about The Hobbit!” - patience, my friends, I’m getting to that.

Needless to say, I loved The Hobbit even more when I got to read it myself, and when several years later I found out that there were more books by this Tolkien person, I immediately went to the library for them. I checked out The Fellowship of the Ring and brought it with me on vacation to visit my grandparents. I devoured it in a feat of reading that some would think impressive, and others just silly (my mom falls in to the latter category, probably as a result of me always bringing books to the dinner table). As I approached the end of the book it dawned on me that there was no way the story could be wrapped up before I finished the scant pages left. And me with a whole week of vacation before I could get to the library again! There was no way to stretch it out at that point, so I had to wait until I got home to get the following two volumes.

My love of fantasy must have originally sprung from these books, and I keep coming back to them again and again. Middle Earth seems like a real place to me, Tolkien did such an incredible amount of work developing it. I love the maps, the languages, the rich history that coats every page. And I love the characters - the villains are conflicted, the heroes are admirable, and I may or may not have had a huge crush on Aragorn at some point in my life. Every time I read The Lord of the Rings, I find myself enjoying not only the over-arching story, but also all the little details that add to it as well. Like Sam’s poem about Tom and the troll, and Frodo singing an expanded version of Hey, Diddle, Diddle. My favorite quote of all time was said by Gandalf: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

But it’s influenced more than just my fiction genre of choice. Homemade Halloween costumes have sprung from it, and no you can’t see the pictures of my husband’s awful elf wig. Though the costumes themselves turned out awesome, if I may say so myself. My recreation time is often spent playing Lord of the Rings Online, where I can live out my fantasy of being a hobbit and eating as much as I want. Oh, and saving the innocent from orcs and goblins and all that. And since it is an MMO, my husband and I can explore the beauties of Middle Earth together.

While there are many books that I have enjoyed and loved over the years, The Lord of the Rings will always remain special and separate to me. I’ve now had my turn at telling hobbit tales around the campfire, and seen a love of Tolkien and other fantasy fiction bloom in some of my younger siblings. And I can’t wait to share with my daughters as well. As a parent I sometimes wonder if my kids will be interested in the same things that I am, but in Veronica’s case at least I am confident Tolkien will be in her future. At two years old, she already likes dragons. And from dragons it’s only a small step to hobbits and beyond.

 

So I totally forgot to post the links! Oops! Check out more favorite books:

Brandon Barr - Thomas Clayton Booher - Keanan Brand - Grace Bridges - Beckie Burnham - Morgan L. Busse - Jeff Chapman - CSFF Blog Tour - Stacey Dale - D. G. D. Davidson - Jeff Draper - George Duncan - April Erwin - Andrea Graham - Tori Greene - Ryan Heart - Timothy Hicks - Becky Jesse - Jason Joyner - Julie - Carol Keen - Krystine Kercher - Mike Lynch - Rebecca LuElla Miller - New Authors Fellowship - John W. Otte - Donita K. Paul - Sarah Sawyer - Chawna Schroeder - James Somers - Speculative Faith - Rachel Starr Thomson - Steve Trower - Jason Waguespac - Fred Warren - Dona Watson - Phyllis Wheeler - KM Wilsher

A Walk

One afternoon Paul and I got the chance to take a walk around the area where his parents live. The weather was just about perfect, and the lighting was great for taking pictures. We got to test our skills.

 

This is the driveway of the neighbors across the street. We used it to cut over to a sunflower field.

 

Holy Family. I love all the windows, it makes it so bright inside.

 

Lots of sunflowers.

 

And thistles, too.

 

This one had a little bee-looking thing on it.

 

The trees hanging over made it feel like a secret path.

 

A little iridescent spider web we spotted.

 

Just a bee, doing it’s thing.

 

“Whoa, lady, too close. Time to go!”

 

I love the ivy-covered look.

 

A monarch butterfly caterpillar.

 

Paul found a milkweed to release it on. Now the little fella won’t starve.

 

An abandoned house.

 

It’s falling apart and boarded up now, but it was probably pretty awesome once upon a time.

 

The basement. Kind of cool, but kind of creepy, too.

 

An oven? A grill? Whatever it is, I like it.

 

This stump needs some flowers.

 

It was great to spend a little time alone with Paul, and it really was a lovely walk.