Stee-rike

Me (teaching Boo to bat a ball): "In baseball, when you swing and miss the ball, that's called a strike."

Boo swings and misses the next pitch.

Me: "What is that called?"

Boo: "A bad throw."

Kitty - 9 months

How did it get to be March 20th?

My little Kitty is 9 months old now. Still toothless. But I love that toothless grin.

We have come to an agreement regarding solid foods.

No baby food. And no utensils.

The occasional carrot stick to suck on.

And everyone is happy.

Peas and carrots, bits of cheese, fried egg, shredded chicken, cheerios, raisins, bits of bread, green beans. And cantaloupe. Absolutely no bananas or avocados. Anything off the floor.

I've started signing with her. She looks at me with wide eyes, a bit mystified.

Grandma gave her a little ball when she came to visit. It's her most prized possession. If she puts it down to grab another toy, it starts to roll away and she frantically grabs after it. And puts it safely back in her lap.

She has a new trick. From a sitting position, she puts her hands on the floor and tilts herself up til she is standing on her feet. She hangs out there for awhile before she plops herself back down.

She's a keeper.

Cayenne Chicken with Avocado Salsa

I found this at B&N last week and added it to my Amazon Wish List.

BECAUSE...

I tried this recipe for Cayenne Chicken from Everyday Food a couple of weeks ago. And it is right on par with the Chicken Curry. I made it twice in one week. YUM. So I want an entire book of recipes like that.

I changed it just a bit, here is what I did:

Cayenne Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (1/2 lime was perfect)
2 avocados, pitted and cut into chunks
1 tomato, cut into chunks

In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne; rub all over chicken.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chicken, and cook until browned on the outside and opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine onion and lime juice, fold avocado and tomato into onion mixture; season with salt and pepper. Serve chicken topped with salsa.

**For the chicken: I buy a huge bag of frozen chicken breasts from Sam's, and the chicken pieces are enormous. So I just butterflied two of those.
**For the lime juice: 1/2 of a lime is the perfect amount for the avocado salsa. Make sure you roll it on the counter for a bit before you squeeze it.

Kid Craft Mess

Boo loves her crafts.

But I have struggled to keep all the crafty things organized and contained.

I'm not there yet, but now a few things are under control.
I used old Huggies Wipes containers - they are the perfect size, and we have them in abundance. Pampers wipes containers are no good - too hard for little hands to open independently.

Big Blanket Giveaway

Go visit my friend's new blog

Sew Many Books

and enter to win her blanket giveaway.

If you enter, be sure to tell her I sent you.

While you are there, check out her recipe for peanut/egg free peanut butter cookies.

And she understands my inability to finish projects.

Theme: Snowmen and Snowflakes

February was cold and snowy (big surprise, I know). We were reaching the end of our rapidly fraying rope. I decided we needed some organized activities to keep us busy and happy. I reinstated our 'theme' weeks, thanks to the printables section of Confessions of a Homeschooler.

I started with a winter theme. There were plenty of cute snowman and snowflake activities to brighten up our gray winter days. I printed all the activities on cardstock and 'laminated' them with contact paper

We started with the snowflake match. She had to match 6 snowflake cards to their matches on a snowflake page. I don't know what I was thinking, this was way too easy for her. So I printed out an additional snowflake page to make an actual match (memory) game. Six pairs was a good amount for her.

The snowman sequence was my favorite. Boo had to sequence the snowmen from biggest to smallest. That was really wasy for her...so I was surprised when it was a challenge for her to go from smallest to biggest.

Finishing the pattern was really fun.

And of course she loved her gluing activity.

Boo's favorite activity was a tracing activity (found a picture!). I slipped the tracing pages into page protectors, and Boo used dry erase markers to trace, and a scrap of felt to erase.
I bought the cheap low odor dry erase markers from Wal-Mart. No good. One tip was already mashed in, and the markers themselves didn't last long. I think next time I'll try the Melissa and Doug ones.

Chicken Curry

My roommate (hi Sujatha) used to make fantastic curry dishes. I have had a jar of nice curry sitting in my cupboard for awhile, waiting for me to get brave enough to try something.

Then came my Penzeys Spice catalog yesterday. With a starter Chicken Curry recipe, just for me. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so I made it right away.

Awesome.

Easy recipe, basic ingredients. I would like to make it every night.

Starter Chicken Curry

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 cup flour
1 TB curry powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 cup raisins
2/3 cup uncooked rice
3 cups chicken broth (or 3 cups water plus 3 tsp chicken bouillon)

In a zip-top bag, combine the flour, curry powder, salt and pepper. Add the chicken pieces and shake to evenly coat.

Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, turning once, until they are browned well.

Add the onion, raisins and rice and stir to blend. Pour in the chicken broth, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until the rice is cooked. (I used brown rice and it took a bit more than an hour to cook).

**If you like to cook, order the Penzeys Spice catalog. It has a lot of recipes, and I guarantee that you will want to spend your next paycheck on spices.**

You found us!

Welcome to our new url.

Note a few minor alterations.

Same cute faces.

Come see us often!