Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Today is the last day of summer break, and as of tomorrow, I will officially be a kindergarten mom! If you missed my blog entry on back-to-school lunches with Pepperidge Farm, click HERE! How perfect are those little slider buns? I had some questions on the lunch box I used in the post - Parker has one of the classic Pottery Barn Kids square lunch boxes, and I use the Bento Box from PB Kids inside it (I love how it divides everything up and makes packing all the snacks and sides super easy).
This post is sponsored by Dannon® Oikos® Traditional Greek Yogurt but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
We tried a little something new this summer, and had Make It Mondays, Take A Trip Tuesdays, Water Fun Wednesdays, Thoughtful Thursdays, and Foodie Fridays 😊 Even if it was something super simple and quick like making slime on a Monday or picking flowers to gift on a Thursday, Parker had a ball looking forward to each thing.
Summer gardens are one of my favorite things ever. I love being able to pop out and grab a handful of basil or parsley - and having a little helper with me is just the best.
This post is sponsored by Stella® but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
With the heirloom tomatoes and abundant basil of summer, StellaⓇ Fresh Mozzarella is the perfect way to round out a caprese anything... in this case, caprese on top of a spinach and chicken burger!
This is our fourth summer in Alabama. I can't even wrap my mind around that fact! Granted, I spent twenty-six summers in California followed by six in Arizona, so Alabama is still low on the totem pole for seniority. I suppose it's reversed for Parker, who spent his first two summers in AZ and has now spent the majority of his life in The South.
Today was Parker's final day of preschool - ever! I just cannot believe that, come August, we will have a kindergartener on our hands! His class celebrated today with a morning of swimsuits and water fun. And now, we are officially in summer mode.
What screams fall? Why the bushel of apples we have in our kitchen right now, courtesy of our local CSA. And what's more American than... apple pie? If you're looking to usher in autumn properly, whip one of these up and you won't be disappointed!
Apple Pie Recipe (adapted from Lauren Conrad)
Ingredients:
- 8 apples (I used golden from our CSA), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp flour
- ¼ cup caramel sauce (recipe below)
- 1 recipe pie crust (I used store bought refrigerated)
- egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 Tbsp water)
Caramel sauce
- ½ cup butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour to form a paste. Add water and sugar, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes. (You want the sugars to be melted in and not grainy anymore.) Note: you don’t want to turn this into a dark caramel sauce—just a good sugar/butter mixture that caramelizes once baked.
Instructions:
- Mix apples, sugars, flour, and cinnamon all together in a bowl.
- Roll out your pie dough circles and add one into a pie pan. Add the apple mixture into the pan and drizzle caramel sauce over apples. Cover with another crust and flute the edges. Cut vents in top, or use cut cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the tops of pies.
- Brush top of pie with egg wash. Bake pie in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350, and bake for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, until top is golden and the juices are bubbling.
makes 1 pie
Happy Baking!
Life lately has been all about holding on to summer for as long as we can!
We're squeezing in all of our favorites before the school year starts. Walks to the pool, dinner outside, chasing bubbles in the yard -we're doing it all!
We also had my sweet Mama in town to enjoy some summer adventures with. We headed to the Greene Street Farmer's Market when she was here. It's every Thursday afternoon during the summer and just a few blocks from our house. Since we belong to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program) we hadn't been all season (it's usually the same produce we get in our box, and we get our boxes on Thursday as well) but perusing a Farmer's Market was on our Summer Bucket List and I'm so happy we made it!
My favorite find - the "Make Your Own Bouquet" Zinnias :)
Suzy's Pops were a close second. Parker loved the live music and the macarons.
Lowe Mill was another destination to take Ayah.
She's now a Piper & Leaf tea fan :)
And Parker surprised us with wanting to paint at one of the studios! He's been turning down any and all attempts I make at arts and crafts lately (insert my frowny face) so I was stoked he wanted to do this!
And he was so proud of his work!
My mom made it to concerts in the park - our favorite way to Monday during the summer!
More Suzy's Pops because they're just so good.
I've been loving the new cardio class at the local Pilates studio - it's called "Fire" and, let me tell you, it feels like it, too ;)
Our garden is hanging in there and I learned a fun fact about jalapeños - if you leave them on the vine, they'll turn red! I knew this about regular peppers, but had no idea about the jalapeños until I found this guy one day! Apparently the striations come with age, too. There's conflicting information on the internet about whether the red ones are spicier or less spicy - I haven't been brave enough to find out yet!
We said goodbye to the animated dinosaurs at the botanical garden (the exhibit leaves later this month). All summer, Parker has liked the baby triceratops the best!
Also, Huntsville, your coffee house game is strong. My winning combinations - sweet coffee + avocado toast:
And cappuccino + acai bowls:
We've been on a mission to find the best ice cream around, too. Unfortunately, my favorite is an hour and a half away in Nashville (Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream). But Yolo Rollo was a fun try! (Spoiler alert - it earned a perfect 5 for "Presentation").
Handel's was Parker's favorite.
Their scoop size did not disappoint (this was a single).
Summer, please stay!
For dinner earlier this week, I followed this recipe for Eggplant Parmesan with some tweaks. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned for the sauce (since we have tons from the CSA) and just added a bit of tomato paste to it (worked perfectly). I eyeballed the rest of the ingredients and omitted the provolone (just using fresh mozzarella and parmesan since that's what we had on hand). It was a meatless meal and husby approved!
I brought my favorite peach salad into the rotation as well since we're getting lots of local peaches in our CSA boxes. If you haven't made this salad, it's a must!
This was our haul this week - does anyone know what the beans are? Also, I'm running out of ideas for corn... we have it coming out our ears. Help!
Our little family of three headed out to Texas for a wedding shower this past weekend. This was us, nine hours deep in airport wait. The plane coming in had mechanical issues (and even tried turning back to Dallas). Our take-off time kept being delayed by an hour, half an hour, twenty minutes, another hour... the good thing was, we were not on the plane. We were in the terminal. The bad thing was, of course, we were at the mercy of the airlines and didn't know when (or if) we'd be leaving. You also can't really change tickets when your flight is pending (and we couldn't go back home because we kept thinking our flight would leave in an hour or two). I feel the more you fly, the better you are with airport drama. Max is now part of American's Million Miler program, and he was beyond chill. I was really good until about 7:30pm when I realized we were not leaving, the only restaurant had closed (Huntsville is a small airport) and that I'd be having Cheez-Its for dinner. I may have cried. Parker did the best out of everyone - this makes sense because proportionally, he's been on the most flights given his age (he's clocked in more than fifty flights!). For him it was the best day ever since he gets screen time when we fly. He watched two full length movies while we waited (Moana and Trolls, thank you Netflix streaming), which also just so happened to be his wish when he threw a coin in the fountain at Rosie's restaurant last week (the wish was to watch two movies in one week). So two movies for someone who's only seen a handful was all sorts of awesome. While perusing Netflix on hour five-something, I discovered this gem:
Has anyone else seen it? I'm obsessed. If you're wondering how the airport drama ended, after stringing us along for hours, they just cancelled the flight around 8pm (which was just as well with me because I wasn't too keen on boarding a plane fraught with mechanical issues no one could fix). Husby worked his magic and got us on the next flight out (tip - if your flight is ever cancelled, phone the airline immediately to try to rebook instead of waiting in line at the ticket counter.) We finally left HSV at 10pm, and got into Dallas around midnight (luckily the rental car shuttle and companies are open 24/7). It made for a late night, but we wanted to be there to celebrate these two lovebirds:
Max's sister and her fiancé! Also, how clever to schedule your wedding hair trial for party day!
She's just radiating happiness!
This was Parker on the way to the shower. He never sleeps in the car, but the late night did him in.
Max relocated him to a chair inside and he slept for the entire party. Sweet little guy!
After devouring all of Gillian Flynn's books (starting with Gone Girl, of course) I've been very into psychological/suspense/thrillers. Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10
fit the bill (though the ending was a bit far reaching and lacked the finesse of Flynn). It didn't stop me from reading Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood
and now her new release, The Lying Game
!
I'm only a few chapters in (I snuck in some coffee shop reading after barre class since P was with a sitter!) but I'll update with my thoughts!
We had some end-of-summer swim lessons, and I just couldn't be happier with Parker's progress over the summer!
He started very aware of the water (and super uneasy) and is now so much more comfortable! Yay for our little Pisces!
I'm in complete denial that the start of school is right around the corner. Parker will be going to preschool five days a week this year - still only 8:30AM-11:30AM, but it's just not going to be the same without our two days of lazy mornings and doing whatever we want! The neighborhood elementary school started back on Tuesday of this week, and since we're just a couple blocks away, we saw lots of families walking there on the first day (and lots of cars on the mornings after that!). It's making me soak up our last few days of summer even more!
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