Everyone Needs to Eat

The post is a day late . . . what?

Okay, so I realized that I hadn’t yet published my post for Friday until right before midnight last night. But you have to understand what was going on.

I prepared for interviews and had one in Seattle yesterday evening. 🙂

AND

I had a baby to take care of and even resorted to driving him around between the 11 and midnight hour so he would finally stop fighting the urge to just fall asleep. 😦


So how was everyone’s 4th of July weekend? We had a lot of fun just hanging out as a family and doing nothing in particular. I even had my 7 year old niece help me with taking pictures at the firework show we went to at Thanksgiving Point. I thought she did an excellent job!

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What I did do was a lot of cooking. So here are 5 of the things that I made. I have attached the links to the original recipes that I worked from but below are pictures and helpful hints on how I made it.

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Pretzel S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

  • Line your pan with foil . . . really . . . it make cutting them a lot easier
  • Don’t try cutting them 2 minutes after you take them out of the oven they are very gooey at first but will setup

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California Breakfast Casserole

  • Make sure you really thaw your frozen hash browns and place them between paper towel to try and get the excess moisture out of them
  • I used turkey sausage links that I cut in half length-wise

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Three-Cheese Potato & Rosemary Tarts

  • I only used two cheeses because I couldn’t find bocconcini in a store close to me
  • Make sure you use a mandolin to cut the potatoes so they are consistently the same width. The thinner the better.
  • We had extra after dinner so the next morning we scrambled eggs, reheated the tarts, topped them with the eggs and salsa and it was a very hearty breakfast dish.
  • Side note: To my American friends; don’t be afraid of the metric measurements. Consult the internet or your Betty Crocker Cookbook to see the conversions.

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Baby Kale & Blackberry Salad

  • I have a person living with me that has a sulfur allergy so we couldn’t use the kale. I substituted with red leaf  and romaine lettuce.
  • I also substituted goat cheese for the ricotta salata
  • I made extra of the Rosemary Honeyed Almonds at the request of my mother. She has been snacking on them for a week but they need to be stored in an air tight container and when you have just finished coating them and they are soft, spread them out on a piece of parchment paper to cool so they won’t stick to your pan.

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Watermelon Soda

  • Keep in mind that the sweeter the watermelon the less sugar you need to add and vice versa.
  • We used sparkling water and the adults loved it but the kids wanted it sweeter and we could have used ginger ale for them.

Just Another Week

It has been a long and exhausting week. Nothing new by way of a job so I hopefully will be doing some temp work starting next week. Got to pay the bills right? I have to admit that it will be nice when I can finally tell all of you that I have a job again. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite things since last week.
1. We celebrated my sister-in-laws birthday this last Sunday so that of course meant we had to have a  bonfire in the backyard.
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2. I made Black & White Cookies for everyone. IMG_4795

3. We have another round of adorable pictures of Zeke gumming his first rib bone.

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4. I have decided that living by the ocean would be a beneficial thing for me. It will keep my stress down. IMG_4567
5. I would still really love to go back to Ireland and live for a short time. If not there, then I would like to go back to the Northwest. I just need some company to want me. *:) happy IMG_4435
If you have any questions about the pictures attach, let me know. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll catch up next week.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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It is a beautiful day here in Salem, OR. In fact it has been pretty near perfect the whole time that I have been here. We have had only one day where it has rained and for that I am happy. Not because it was sunny most of the time but because I did have one day of drizzly rain to calm me down.

What have I been doing you may ask? Well . . . not much of anything really. I have applied for jobs. I have been working on the blog to get it up to par so we can transition over to it. I have made dinner a couple of times for the family. I have visited with an old friend. I have been working out every morning. I have been participating in normal family life and it has been great.

My problem now is . . . How much emphasis do I want to put on what I know to obtain the job I know I should have or how much do I want to build my relationships with the people I love and sacrifice income? I am actually a little irritated this morning that I am even having this turmoil inside of me. Thank you America for teaching us how to not appropriately balance work with the rest of our lives. I really want this time to be a moment of change for me but all the while I am feeling sucked back into the great hole of capitalism.

Luckily today and tomorrow are going to be two days of “off”. I am going to “vacation” by heading out to the beach one day and up to Portland the next. I get to visit all of my old haunts, reminisce and hopefully start figuring things out in the best balanced way that I can. I am also going to figure out what to do for St. Patrick’ Day on Tuesday. My friend is going to make her traditional Irish dinner that night so I told her that I would make a traditional Irish breakfast. This is what it looks like give or take a few courses. 2014-08-13 08.52.11
We can’t forget the First course of juice and cereal and the final course of scones/toast and tea. The kids are going to be so full and it almost makes me chuckle. 🙂

So in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day; I am sharing with you the top 5 things I loved seeing, doing or eating while on the Emerald Isle.

  1. This was hands down the most fun. We laughed a lot about it because we had to do it so quickly. No fear kissing the blarney stone. 🙂 2014 1486 2014 1471
  2. I enjoyed the night we walked along the beach just before sunset. 2014 16022014 1591
  3. I loved this dinner we had in Galway. 2014-08-16 20.13.22
  4. I loved driving on the wrong side of the road next to a huge cliff and having to navigate around grazing sheep. 2014-08-14 19.36.49
  5. Lastly, I loved hanging out with the Irish Wolfhounds. I know, got to throw the animals in somehow. 🙂 2014 1807

I hope each and every one of you enjoy the upcoming holiday and do something “green” this week!!