BBQ Chicken

My next new grilling recipe is Barbecued Chicken. The BBQ sauce was pretty sweet, and just a tad too vinegary. And not spicy enough for me. But it was still a great recipe, I really liked it. It was fun to make my own sauce.

First grill of the season

Now here is a serious question.

How did people function without the internet?

We bought a great grill from Craigslist. Four burners, warming rack, and a side burner.

But the first time we tried to use it, it wouldn't get very hot. We thought we'd been duped.

But then, enter the internet. J found the solution to our grill issues on message boards and fixed it by basically banging on a pipe with a screwdriver.

Fixed and fixed.

So now with a working grill and gorgeous spring weather, enter Martha Stewart and her fabulous Everyday Food cookbook: Great Food Fast. I got it from the library with almost no wait. It's brilliantly organized by seasons, so I am elbow deep in the summer recipes, which are all about grilling. I'm not a super great cook, but almost all of the recipes seem accessible to me. I generally have most of the ingredients already on hand, and prep and cooking time is minimal or at least reasonable.

So for our first grill of the season, I did Garlic Marinated Chicken Cutlets with grilled potatoes and asparagus. The linked recipe has you setting aside chicken and potatoes for other recipes, but DON'T DO IT! We ate every bit of it.

Beware that the mustard vinaigrette is very tasty on the asparagus, but it makes a ton, so I would at least 1/2 or even 1/4 it.

My friend, Flori, recommends the Everyday Food magazine subscription. I'm signing up.

If you go here, on the right hand side to "In Your Inbox" you can sign up for daily dinner recipes. I've tried two of them so far and they have both been winners.

I love Martha Stewart. Maybe more than Target.

Tea Party (NOT the movement)

We recently had a visit from Grandma, and oh did we have fun!

Grandma brought a tea set for Boo. Oh my.

We had tea parties eeeeeeeevery day. More than once a day if Boo could help it.

Look at those pouring skills.Cheers!

Grandma got this tea set from Amazon, and it is perfect. It is a great size for little hands. It is ceramic, so potentially breakable, but not super fragile.

The Tipping Bucket

Thanks to Sara for directing me to this great site:

The Tipping Bucket

Love it.

Read about how it works.

The current project - Going Green in Nepal
Their plan is to set up a trash-collection and recycling program that the village youth will run. The program will generate funds through recycling, and the revenue will benefit the youth's sports programs, providing both an incentive and social benefit for them. The community is ready to go and is even footing half the bill, but they still need $600 to make this project happen.

Give Away!

Because I think blog giveaways are so fun...

I'm giving away a set of

Melissa and Doug Dry Erase Markers!

I love all things Melissa and Doug. These markers are no exception.

They are about the width of Crayola Washable Markers, maybe a tad thicker.

Low odor. Maybe even no odor.

And good ink flow.

Boo will draw on her whiteboard...
...outline toys....
...trace numbers, letters, and shapes....
...hours of entertainment.

The mark of a truly great toy.

Leave me a comment before April 15th and I'll choose the winner randomly based on atmospheric noise...no joke.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Boo has been begging (BEGGING!) to go fly a kite. They did a kite unit at preschool, I think that's what set her off. So, being the good parents that we are, we went to Target last week to buy a kite. We found a set of two, cheap plastic kites and were good to go.

I dropped Boo and J off at the park and went home to get a stroller and camera.

I rolled into the park and Boo came running to me in hysterics...

"I DON'T LIKE FLYING KITES SO MUCH. IT'S NOT SO FUN TO ME. I WANT TO GO HOME."

The kite wasn't even in the air. It was very windy, so we think the rattling plastic set her off. Who knows. Being the good parents that we are, we forced her to stay while WE flew the kite. She cried and cried, and finally settled down, only to fall apart again when we offered to let her hold it.

Kitty was happy to crawl around on her blanket and methodically remove her socks.

But once we got home, Boo was ready to pretend to fly the kites.

And by Sunday she was ready to fly the kites for real. Except that it was raining buckets.

So Monday we tried again. Success!

She held onto it herself the entire time and loved it.

Now we go every evening.

Theme: Kites

Spring is upon us and Boo is obsessed with kites. So we found some kite activities, thanks to this website. They kept her busy during spring break. The cutting practice was especially fun for her...and a good challenge.

Kite Coloring Page

Kite Size Sort

Kite Numbers Practice

Kite Finish the Pattern

Kite Pre-Writing Pages
Kite Cutting Practice

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

Fabulous new pancake recipe.

I used white wheat flour instead of white flour and doubled the amount of cinnamon.

I added some blueberries to half the batter (for Boo) and raisins to the other half (for me and Kitty). Yum.

Thanks Martha.

Photo from Martha Stewart's website.