Go Summer

Ordered and shipped! Starting small and see how it goes!

He Got It Right

Overheard this evening:

Lots of kid noise

"Kids, the last thing you should do right now for Mummy is to horse around and be noisy. She is sick and it will make her tired".

Jangling of the leash. Sound of little footsteps out the front door.

Taking the dog and kids out for a walk.

He got it right. I love it when that happens.

One Dinner, Two Versions

I do this from time to time. Make one dinner but with an adult and kid version. Last night, I made homemade chicken nuggets. Well, it's called Karaage Chicken in Japan but it's basically nuggets :) I feel a lot better serving this than the bagged, frozen chicken yukkets (though there is a time and place for those)!

I made the kid version: plain with rice and furikake, apples on the side:



And the adult version with a simple sauce added (recipes below). Also served with tsukemono (Japanese pickled veggies):

Chicken karaage

• 2-4 boneless chicken thighs or breasts, depending on how big they are
• A piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, grated
• 3 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs sake or sherry
• cornstarch
• oil for deep frying (I use vegetable oil but I have heard peanut is good)

Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces. I use skinless breasts that I have pounded with a tenderizer.

Put the chicken pieces in a bowl. Add the grated ginger, soy sauce and sake, and mix well. Let marinate for a minimum of 1/2 hour, and up to about 1 hour (not too long or the salt in the soy sauce will toughen up the chicken.)

Heat the oil. Toss in enough cornstarch into the marinated chicken so that each piece is completely coated. Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time until a deep golden brown.

Drain well.

Simple Karaage Sauce

Mix 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbs vinegar, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp sesame oil with cut up green onion. Drizzle over chicken.

Green Month

With March being St Patrick's Day and all the plants and trees renewing their lives, it just begs to be dubbed the Green Month in our house. My mantle is decorated for spring, all in green and white. So our thoughts are with how to GO GREEN this month.

What are we up to? Well, I have started doing the countertop composting thing. I keep a container on the counter and all food scraps and compostables go in there. Getting the kids involved....they take it out to the yard waste every evening. I am a little concerned about this for the summer, preventing fruit flies etc.

Talking to kids about the earth and what it means for the earth if we don't do these things has been easy. They genuinely want to do the right thing. Lucas has started keeping his nightlight off. His reason being "I want the earth to always be green". (Julie J, I think the Cars light has seen it's last day!)

We have also been scrutinizing the stuff we put into the garbage. Is it recyclable? Is it compostable? Stopping to think before anything goes in the trash.

Getting ready to put the garden in for this year. It will be an expanded one, and will try out a potato cage . Garden plans include tons of green onion, cherry tomatoes, purple heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, herbs.

Just want to challenge everyone to make March your Green Month too!

Fun Idea

The kids are bike crazy! All 3 girls in the cul de sac are now on 2 wheels so I am sure this will be a summer of biking fun.

One of the Dads came up with a great idea that the kids are loving. He made a "bike path" with chalk that weaves all around the cul de sac. It goes all over and up driveways and the girls have been following it all over. They just go 'round and 'round and barely stop! In fact, one of the girls was out there at 9 this morning!

Lucky me

Lookie what I won! A personalized table runner handmade by a sweet gal and tremendous mom.

Head over and check out Liz's blog.

Thanks Liz! I love it!

Hanging Photo Collage

It's Made By You Monday!

It's amazing when, from some small and simple item, comes sweet inspiration. Beautiful Tia inspired this cute project from an item she spied at Ikea.

It was just a set of 5 clear plexi squares meant to frame photos.




We transformed it into a hanging photo collage with embellishments and fun!



You can embellish on the outside of the plexi too. In fact it adds dimension and interest.

I just kept it very simple. I didn't even print my photos on photo paper, I simply printed them off on regular printer paper. It was more important to me to finish the project rather than make sure I had perfect everything ready. Simplify things for yourself! Sometimes I over prepare or take way too much time gathering. Don't take your crafting too seriously.