Carter's Birthday Weekend

5 Years Old!! I can't believe it! His birthday was on a Monday this year, and we were going to be watching my sister's kids starting that day, so we decided to make a weekend affair of it. I was too tired and pregnant to do a big birthday party, so we just did fun things with the family. He wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and for a fun ride on the saddle. He got this adorable birthday hat from preschool the day before and wore it for about 3 days straight.

I love my sweet boy!

James and Preston

YEEE- HAAAWWW!!

On Saturday we decided to take him bowling for the first time. We may be waiting another year to do it again. He enjoyed the first few times, but then got a little bored of it. He was also annoyed that he had to wait for each of us to have a turn. My dreams of him becoming a professional bowler have been crushed! haha

Preston loved it!

All ready for church on Sunday. He is starting to look so grown up!

He and Preston have been obsessed with looking at the cakes at Costco and Walmart as of late, so that is what he wanted for his birthday cake. No exceptions! He wanted a clown cake (not sure where that came from?)We celebrated at Grammy's house on Sunday with the cousins. I was too lazy to walk around the counter to take a picture of the cake right side up-can you tell I am pregnant??

Make a wish!

On Monday, his real birthday, we went to McDonalds playland for lunch with Grammy, Ryan, and Preston.

That night we rented Night at the Museum 2 and everyone got their own treat and drink. Carter couldn't ask for more than sleeping over at Aunt Mellie's house with his cousins. He got several Nerf guns, Legos, and a CD player from us to jam out in his room and have dance parties. Pretty spoiled! We love Carter so much and have been so blessed to have him as part of our family.

Healthy Fish and chips

Being English I love my fish and chips but I also love that I have lost weight and can not bring myself to eat all that fried food. So I was racking my brain, and cook books, to try and figure out dinner and came up with a great, fairly healthy way to eat fish and chips.

The Chips

We have had so much zuchinni from our plant that we have eaten zuchinni for almost 4 months straight. So I had thought about frying these to make zuchinni chips but found a recipe that led me in another direction.

here is what you will need.

1 large or 2 small zuchinni.

about 3-4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs

2-3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

salt and pepper (I used garlic salt but that is my preference)

1 egg white

a spalsh of milk

Heat your oven to 400 and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray

In a dish mix together the breadcrumbs and cheese and season how you prefer, (you could even add some paprkia or cayenne pepper for a kick).

In a seperate bowl mix together the egg white and milk.

Cut your zuchinni into size appropriate pieces, for us I took a larger zuchinni and cut off both ends and halved it, I then cut each half into quarters and each quarter in half to make chip size pieces that were good for the kids too.

Put the zuchinni in the bread crumb mix, the egg, then back to the bread crumb.

once all the pieces are covered I sprinkle the remaining mix over the zuchinni then spray them lightly with cooking spray and bake for 14-18 minutes.

The Fish

I used frozen cod from Costco, 1 piece was thick so I sliced in half to give me 3 1"-1 1/2" pieces.

White fish of preference

Flour

Parmesan Cheese

Salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

Season the flour and put in a dish, put the cheese in a seperate dish.

Put a frying pan on the stove to get hot.

Dip the fish in flour to cover, then the egg and then press both sides into the cheese.

add a little olive oil into the pan and get hot, then cook the fish about 2 minutes on each side, watch closely as 1 piece of mine was a little more browned than we would like.

The Finished Product

I served up the boys with a dollop of ketchup and a puddle of ranch on different sides of the plate and they loved it. They are getting good food without too much grease and fat added. From start to finish this took me about 30 mins to prepare and cook.

My kids favorite salmon.

I love to make salmon, it is tasty, healthy and it only needs a few subtle flavors to make it great. Too many people take fish and add too many flavors, I am a firm believer in subtle ingredients to enhance the natural flavor of fish. I love to cook my salmon in the oven, I take about 2" slices of our salmon fillet from Costco and lay them out on a large piece of foil. I squeeze over the juice of half a large lemon. I slice the other half and lay the slices on top of the salmon. On each slice I add just a very small piece of butter to melt over the fish. I put on top of that a sprinking of parsley and basil and a little freshly ground black pepper. I then wrap up the salmon to create a little parcel, making sure it is all sealed to keep in the steam. I cook it at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. I serve with brown rice and a veg, I like to pour some of the liquid over the rice and vegies on my plate, yummy. My kids eat a ton of this which we love as it is great for them.

Grilled Peaches

I had been wanting to try this for a long time so after a delicious meal of grilled whole trout and veggies I wanted a yummy summer treat. I quartered the peaches and then marinated them in my favorite mexican vanilla and a splash of almond essence. I had let the coals cook down as we were eating so there was a medium/high heat. I put the peaches skin down first for about 2 mins and then grilled on the other 2 sides for about 1 1/2 minutes each to get the grill marks. I whipped up some cream with sugar and almond essence and sprinkled almonds on top. On the 4th of July I used Mascarpone cheese for the first time, it was a little hard so next time I will whisk a little of the marinade into it to loosen it up but the taste was awesome.

been in the kitchen too much to blog.

Whole grilled, herb stuffed, trout.
Everybody's favorite, Yorkshire pudding
Home made 3 cheese pizza

so after a long absence from blogging, I am back. I have lots of fun recipes to share after a summer of experimenting.

Here are a few of my dishes that I will be listing.
Lime grilled shrimp
Asian style chicken wings
herb roasted pork tenderloin
lime chicken
and many more so watch this space

Heathers B-day Cake

Heather wanted a Cupcake cake for her birthday, new territory for me. All the ones I found online you just lined then up and frosted them together then put a picture on it, lame. So in celebration of her half marathon this year I decided I wanted to make her a running shoe cake out of cupcakes, no instructions just playing around with different ideas until it worked. I used a recipe I found for some really good cupcakes, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Self-Filled-Cupcakes-II/Detail.aspx?src=etaf these are really good. I cut the sole of the shoe out of a 9x13 yellow cake which I had frozen, I then frosted it and froze it again. I then arranged the cupcakes around the outside of the shoe, I put steps in the middle to raise the 2 middle cupcakes. I then used the cut off cake to make the back of the shoe then froze it again so it was hard for the frosting to go on. I used a large piping nozel to pipe strips of cream cheese frosting on top and then tried to cover all the sides and make it as smooth as possible. I then cut the laces, Nike, Swoosh and the front decals out of fondant, then froze it again so it would set and hold. Here is what it looked like, not bad for a first cupcake cake with the only design being in my head.

Birthday cake

I have been trying to become more accomplished in my cake decorating skills. If you have seen our family blog you will see the fire engine cake I made for preston, the cab is a little wonky as I did not level it off very well. It was then one of my colleagues birthdays so I offered to make him a cake. Seeing as we work for Cintas I wanted to make a cake that looked like a Cintas uniform. I think that I did a pretty good job mixing up the colors and the such, it seemed to be a hit at the office.