Bonding and Baking

 

*****

While at work one day, I got a call from Jeremy:

J: Hi, Mom.

M: Hey, Jeremy, what's up?

J: I brought your cookbook to work with me today. I want to bake a cake.

M: Which one?

J: The one with the red cover.

M: OK. What kind of cake are you going to bake?

J: Not sure yet. I'll bring the cookbook home next week.

Instead of bringing home the cookbook, he brought home all the ingredients for the cake for us to bake over the weekend. Let me just say, this is the first ever from scratch cake I have ever made. It tasted fine, but it was a little flat. He took it to work and they even sold a few pieces to their customers.

It was nice to spend a few hours working on a project with my son. A few years ago, this would

have been a highly unlikely event. I guess we are all growing up.

*****

How Do You Know When a Watermelon is Ripe?

Apparently, even the experts don't know.

This is what the farmer's almanac says.

Next question:

Where do the seeds for seedless watermelon come from?

And the final question:

How much water is too much?

Pizza Anyone?

I love pizza. I ate so much pizza when I was pregnant with my youngest son he won't eat pizza. I really don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it seems to make sense. Anyhoo, pizza has a lot of calories and I have come up with a very viable option (with a little help from WW). You will need whole wheat tortillas (I tried multi-grain tortillas, but they did not make a crispy crust), fresh oregano, fat free mozzarella, canned spaghetti sauce (I like Ragu), and your favorite pizza toppings. Place your tortilla on a cookie sheet coated with olive oil cooking spray. Spread about 2 tablespoons of spaghetti on the tortilla. Sprinkle with fresh chopped oregano. Cover with your favorite toppings. In my example, I have onions, canadian bacon, and portabella mushrooms. Cover with fat free mozarella cheese. The more the better I say. Drizzel with about 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Bake for about 10 minutes at 425. Eat. Enjoy.

Hiking in Pine Mountain

We went up to FDR State Park today. We got a late start tho and it was 11:45 by the time we got there. The sun was high and the temperature was climbing. We hiked about an hour out and back. We got back to the visitor center about 1:30 and ate lunch overlooking the valley. There was a fire burning off in the distance so it was a bit hazy. Vine wrapped around a tree Blue sky Woodpecker Condos Beautiful green moss White flowers on the trail Trumpet vine Bloomin' tree Light at the Visitor Center Lunch

Quesdilla for Dinner

Needed a quick dinner for tonight, but it had to have some nutritional value and that means black beans. I love black bean and cheese quesadillas and thought that I would share them with you today. First pull out the quesdilla maker and warm it up. Spray with Olive oil. Open a can of black beans, rinse and drain. You wlll need two whole wheat tortillas (these are multi-grain and they don't hold up so well). Place one tortilla on the maker, use 1/3 cup of beans. Today I also added portobello mushrooms. Top with about 1/2 cup of low fat mozarella cheese. Put on the top tortilla and press until cheese is melted. Cut quesadilla into triangles. Serves two. Mix some fat free yogurt with fresh cilantro as a dip. Add a tablespoon or two of salsa . Bon Apetit

A New Breakfast Favorite

I have recently discovered a quick, easy breakfast ... one slice of multi-grain toast ... (it's not actually toasted at this point) canadian bacon and swiss cheese ... warmed in the microwave while the toast is toasting ... put it all together ... and you've got meals ready to eat ...

I Love ...

Black Bean Salad

Is Blue the New Brown

I have noticed recently that there are more blue M&Ms than brown. It used to be that a package consisted of about 55% brown (dark and light) M&Ms. Now that number seems to be decreasing. And what happened to the light brown M&Ms? When did they go away? You still get only a couple of the green, red, and orange. So is Blue the new brown?