Overripe Fruit Tip!

Overripe Fruit!

In my house once the bananas look like this nobody will eat them.

So what do we do with them?

Smoothies.

Banana Bread!

But, sometimes or often times when you realize the bananas are past their prime

you don't have time to make the banana bread.

My tip?....Peel 'em, Bag'em, Freeze'em! I also freeze strawberries.

Sometimes when they begin to have some brown spots,

nobody wants to eat them fresh anymore...

into a smoothie

or

wash, cut the tops off and freeze individually on a cookie sheet.

Once frozen they pop off easily and I put them in a ziploc.

This way you can use what you want, and not have one frozen blob.)

One more idea for the bananas!

I defrost the bananas on the counter.....

they turn brown, and juicy and are quite unsightly at this point

(not pictured)

pop them right into your banana bread mixture

nobody will know the difference and the bread/muffins will taste great.

The same can be done for any berry.

Blueberries, boysenberries buy them when their cheap.

Eat what you can.

Freeze the rest!

Remember the most expensive food is the food that goes into the trash!!

Have a great weekend!

Honey Sesame Grilled Chicken Wings--A Keeper!

First let me start by saying I love magazines!! I subscribe to many, and tend to keep them for quite sometime. One of my favorite things about many of the magazines I subscribe to is finding new recipes, I am always looking for dinner ideas.

Last night I made these Honey Sesame Grilled Chicken Wings from the July 2010 issue of Sunset. Interestingly enough as I pulled up the recipe on the internet for this post the same recipe was posted in their June 2008 issue, can you say recycling? Nevertheless it is a great recipe you can find it here.

Picture from Sunset Website

Everyone in the family, from the 16 year old to the nearly 3 year old LOVED it!! It is not always easy to please everyone's palate but this did just that. I doubled the recipe, and served it with steamed rice, and steamed broccoli and carrots. Lots of compliments from the kids on this dinner....when the kids like one of the new recipes I try we call it A Keeper. And this is A Keeper.

As a side note I skipped a step and did not cut the wings apart at the joint, let's just say cutting apart 4 lbs of wings was too time consuming...call me lazy, or maybe efficient, I like the sound of that better!

Enjoy!

Have you seen this?

One of my favorite things to do is cook, bake ...eat!! One of my favorite stores is Williams Sonoma. This is not to say I buy much there because I do find it a bit expensive but I do like to pop in and browse around. On Monday I saw this new "machine" it makes Popsicles in 7-9 minutes!!! Can you imagine? Talk about instant gratification for the kids..(and me). You freeze this apparatus, poor your liquid mixture in and in 7-9 minutes a Popsicle!

The ladies at the store suggested you get make adult versions too....can you say margarita or sangria Popsicles that would be good on a hot evening!!

They also had this great recipe book! With many interesting flavor ideas....

Blackberry-Orange Sangria

Raspberry-Chocolate

Cookies and Cream

Meyer Lemon Cream (sampled this in the store delicious)

Mimosa

Strawberry-Vanilla Swirl

Watermelon-LimeSo this is what I settled on the recipe book!

Heading to Target for low budget Popsicle molds, perhaps

something as simple as dixie cups and sticks.

We will just have to have patience.

Have a great day!

Before and After....The House Has Been Painted!

We got our house painted....it looks so much better!!! We have been in our house nearly 11 years. We bought the house new. People on the street started having their houses re-painted which made us realize how badly ours was in need of painting as well.

The colors in these pictures is not great, but those shutters flanking the window above the messy garage used to be a hunter green...

The back of the house had a bunch of cracks that were made worse when they installed the support beam for the covered patio. (I should have got close ups...it was pretty bad.)

AFTER: The new color scheme is a khaki called Stay Awhile (made by Frazee), the white trim is called white shadow also by Frazee.

Misc....trip...craft...project!

We are back from Hawaii!!

Great family trip....there was the beach, the pool, relaxing, snorkeling,

fireworks....what more can you ask for?

Already planning our next trip!

We have been back a week already yikes! It took a day or two to get things organized again. (Never quite as organized as I would like but you know how that goes.)


We found a fun craft over at the Pink and Green Mama, Cornstarch Sidewalk Chalk Paint. This is easy cheap fun. All you need is cornstarch, food coloring, a muffin tin, paint brush and water. It entertained the 2 year old and the 13 year old! Got to love that!






Next project...filling this void. This was a grassed area but when they put the pool in this is where the bobcat trekked back and forth, back and forth, so the grass died. I have been wanting some raised garden boxes and was inspired by my friend Shannon to get moving on it. (See her post on raised gardens here.)

So this weekend by handy-husband built me two garden boxes. We used Douglas Fir, (non-pressure treated wood...we did spray a water sealant on the wood to protect it a bit.) Yesterday I unloaded two cubic yards (or two truckloads of soil) to fill the boxes. (I did get a little help unloading the second truck!)

Next step some soil additives, chicken manure or something of the like....and then garden plants. You may think it is a little late to start a garden in San Diego, and it probably is. I am hoping since it really isn't warm yet it will work out just fine.

Summer Fun!

This is a little bit of a long one!

Summer had begun! OK the weather has been hit or miss; I think our "June Gloom" is almost over. I thought I would share some photos (Wendy) of what we have been up to! Ellie and Madeline enjoying a Banana Shake homemade by Madeline!
Ellie's latest thing... tape! This is a picture of her "art gallery". She loves to color a picture, ask for a piece of tape and post it to the wall...it keeps her busy and she is so proud to ask people if they would like to see her art gallery.


We have been enjoying our new pool....Ellie is not always amicable to a picture these days but this is a nice "cheesy" smile.

Here are my folks enjoying some "snacky snacks" in our little outdoor living room. We are loving the new ikea couch (thanks mom and dad!)

In one weekend we had a 16 year old birthday party, and 8 year old birthday party and than I was suprised with a 40th birthday party (this was in the span of 2 days.) This is a photo of Ben (16) with one of my cousins twins (Daniel) and Ellie (at the 8 year old party)

Here is Madeline holding Annabelle (the other twin). Doesn't she look little? And she is 3 months old! (preemies)

This is my 83 year old grandma and 7 of her 8 great-grandchildren!!

Here is Talia (my niece and the 8th great grandchild not pictured earlier), with cousin Madeline!

Our friends loned us their ping-pong table. We thought it would be good for the 16 year old birthday party....something else to keep them busy. Our friends said we could keep it for the summer; they will enjoy it too as they will be coming to swim frequently. The kids are really enjoying it...Ben said he may put it on his Christmas list!

Friends at the pool!!

Ben's Coconut Birthday Cake!! Yum!! We made Coconut Ice Cream too!

This got us in the mood for our family vacation we are going here.....

Yup, that's right Hawaii....see you when we get back!

Summer Vacation!