To celebrate the many cultures that come together to make up our great nation, Kelly created an International Food Week menu for the week of July 4th!
Day 1: Taste of Thailand!
Pad Thai, Chicken Swimming Rama, Rice
Day 2: Go Greek!
Chickpea, Mint, and Parsley Dip; Lavash Bread; Spanakopita; Greek-Style Salad
Detail of Spanakopita
Detail of Greek-Style Salad and Dressing
Day 3: Buongiorno Italy!
Gemelli with Yellow Squash, Peas, and Basil
Beatrice Loves Colorful Food
Day 4: Viva Mexico!
Black Bean Fajitas
If there’s any doubt that I am blessed among husbands, I hope this will put it to rest. Here’s to our great nation and the many peoples that call it home!
There is a farm pretty close to us called the South 47 Farm. Last summer, it was a CSA that also had a farmstand where one could purchase veggies, but we haven’t seen any action there this year. We thought it was perhaps the weather that kept them closed. When I saw an add for a little festival there this weekend, we decided we’d go! Turned out to be not so much a festival as a tent with some stuff to buy, a few crafts and kettle corn sales, but we did get some cute photos.
Here is Beatrice as a scarecrow:
Afterward, we went to Theno’s Dairy where we enjoyed some delicious ice cream and Beatrice fell asleep in her car seat.
What do the McPherson girls do when it’s hot around here? We get out of the house!
We started out this morning at home, doing the usual. Here is Bea, playing with her kitty:
She loves her kitty!
Then we headed down to A-town to meet up with the fam (fka my parents, now known only as Grandma and Grandpa. Curiously, they have also forgotten they have a daughter and talk as if Beatrice drove herself to visit them) and we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant:
Then we headed to the Supermall where we walked around for a couple of hours and had some fun in the photo booth! Bea LOVED the photo booth!
Photo Booth!
Afterward, it was still too hot, so we hung out at the Eskesen homestead where we stripped Bea down and let her play around outside in the shade. It was all fun and games until she piddled on me. Thanks for letting me borrow your shorts, Erik! We got home late and had this for dinner. We ate out on the back deck and it was delicious.
Happy July Fourth! Today is Independence Day in the McPherson household. Yes, our little Bea is sleeping all by herself in her crib tonight! What a big girl we have now! She’s such a blessing to us and we are continually thankful for her life!
It’s all going by so quickly, I can’t believe our girl is already so big she nearly fills her bassinet!
Here she is before:
Beatrice in her bassinet April 2010
and here she is nowadays:
Beatrice in her bassinet July 2010
She’s getting so big already! Here’s hoping we all sleep well tonight. Happy Independence Day! We’re thankful for our freedom as U.S. citizens and our freedom in Christ!
As many of you know, one of the ways we stay within our grocery budget is to have meat as an occasional treat rather than a daily occurrence at our table. Jonathan mentioned that one of the reasons this is easy for him is that we eat things that aren’t just meatless versions of the meat and potatoes of our youth, but completely different recipes. Here is one such recipe from the last few weeks. It’s kind of like a summer stew.
African Curried Coconut Soup from Epicurious March 2009
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño chili, seeded and finely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped tomatoes, seeded and peeled, fresh or canned
(Yes! I peeled tomatoes! They were so much better than canned tomatoes! see Cook’s Tip below)
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
3/4 cup cooked white or brown rice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
In a medium stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and chili; cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add the broth, chickpeas, tomatoes, curry powder, salt, and black pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve warm.
Cook’s Tip: To peel fresh tomatoes, bring a medium stockpot filled with water to a boil over high heat; drop in the tomatoes and boil 20 seconds. Drain and rinse under cold-running water. Peel off the skin
Jonathan and I both enjoyed this soup. The next day it was definitely more stew-y and it was still really, really good. A keeper! Have you tried any new recipes lately that you’ve decided will become regular additions to your menu?
Jonathan sent me this link today and I thought it was worth sharing. For those of you who know me, you know I love sweet times at Hobby Lobby. In fact, it is one of the things I miss most about living in the South. Click here for the original post.
If you have time, look at the comments. My favorite is: “If Hobby Lobby is the Chick-fil-a of department stores then technically shopping there is kind of like tithing, right?” FYI, I do not think that shopping at Hobby Lobby is like tithing, but I do think shopping there is a delight!
I’m just going to confess right off the bat that this recipe comes from the Well-Rounded Pregnancy Cookbook, but I’m not ashamed! It is delicious!
Stir-Fried Vegetables with Coconut Curry Sauce (serves 2)
1.5 tsp canola oil
2 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger (you can store ginger in the freezer and use it as you would fresh)
1 clove garlic, minced (or more, we always use more garlic)
4oz green beans, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into 1.5″ pieces
2 cups broccoli florets
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 bunch kale, chopped
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp sweet or hot curry paste
3/4 cup canned coconut milk (we use light coconut milk)
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp chopped scallions, white and green parts
2 Tbsp chopped roasted peanuts, optional
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add ginger and garlic and cook for one minute.
Add the green beans, broccoli, carrot, kale and stock, cover the pan and cook until the beans and broccoli have turned bright green, one to two minutes.
Stir the curry into the coconut milk.
Increase the heat under the skillet to high and add the curry mixture to the vegetables.
Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are crisp-tender, three to four minutes more.
Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the scallions.
Sprinkle with copped nuts and cilantro leaves for serving.
We like to have this over soba noodles or rice. It is DELICIOUS.
Also, don’t feel that you can’t mix it up. I often add more green beans than broccoli, we’ve had this with beef or chicken. One of the options in the book is to replace the green beans with one cup of sliced mushrooms and the broccoli with 2 cups sliced zucchini. I’ve used frozen veggies too. It’s not quite as crunchy, but it works.
This past Tuesday, Beatrice turned three months old! Here’s our precious little peach at three months:
Beatrice’s third month has been full of new accomplishments. For one thing, she’s figured out how to grab things!
One day, I came home from work and held out her bee with the crinkly wings for her–she loves to hit it–and instead of just batting at it, her hands zeroed in on the wings, opened up a little like a pair of lobster claws, and latched on. Soon she was making her happy noises while tugging at the wings and listening to them crackle.
She’s getting lots bigger, too. Here she is in the chair for comparison with the 1- and 2-month updates:
Her newest trick is babbling! She’s become very vocal over the last few weeks and lets us know exactly how she’s feeling. We’ll post a video of her talking one of these days and you too can be enthralled with her command of consonants and vowels (I think she’s got enough to say “Dang!” if she puts them together in the right order.)
Best of all, she’s developing a little personality and becoming more like herself every day. She will hold your gaze now, look into your eyes and beam at you to see if you’ll return her smile. She knows her momma and her daddy and rewards us with huge, toothless grins when we walk into the room. She loves it when her dad pretends to be a lizard and when her mom sings songs to her. She thinks she’s a little grown-up and always wants to be part of the action, sitting with us at the table if we’re eating and shouting little interjections if we’re talking.
Tomorrow is Monday, which means my brother will need a blog post to read while he prepares himself mentally for the work day. Erik, this one’s for you!
Things are going well here in the McPherson household. Beatrice is currently sleeping on my chest while I use the Boppy to stabilize the laptop. We are finally feeling like we’ve got a rhythm going with this parenting thing, sort of. I say sort of because once we figure out Beatrice’s schedule, she has a growth spurt or stays up too late and everything changes again. I suspect this will be the case for quite a long time to come in our parenting future. All in all though, life as a family of three is delightful. So far this month, we’ve taken Bea to her first Mariner’s game, gotten back into the classroom at Sunday school, walked to the Redmond Saturday Market and enjoyed some Hawaiian shaved ice, pushed her in the stroller, played around on the floor, took a second roadtrip to Yakima, enjoyed a few meals out on the deck, hung out with our play group, celebrated the birthdays of friends and family, and had a generally good time (Jonathan, I used that Oxford comma just for you and because it made sense just this once). I’m hoping the nice weather sticks around because it is just so fun to be outside!
One fun part of this month has been having Jonathan’s sister and brother in-law stay with us while they have some work done at their house. It’s been such a blessing for Beatrice to get to know them better and be comfortable with them. And hello, I’d be an idiot if I didn’t think it was awesome to have someone around to hang out with Bea while I do crazy things like go to the bathroom or buy one ingredient I need for dinner. I think it’s going to be a real shock to the system when Bea has only two people around her!
We’ll post her three month update on Tuesday, until then here is a photo of us from the baseball game last weekend:
And should you have additional time, please check this out. It’s a delight!
Jonathan and Kelly are two all-American kids living it up in the Seattle suburbs. In our spare time, we enjoy photography, cooking, general hijinx and having adventures. If you’re ever in the area, let us know. I’m sure we can find a way to meet up with you!
