Grow.Make.Brew.Eat

I'm sitting typing this blog and we haven't even tried this dish yet. It's cooling so that we can dig in. It was fairly easy, just time consuming AND it looks and smells fantastic. It's a Tomato and Cheddar Pie from Bon Appetit online. Tomatoes from our garden...of course. Prep Prep w/Baby bump In the oven Finished Product!

We weren't going to can this year. But then we had an overabundance of veggies growing in our garden. We didn't want to waste them...so we decided on an impromptu canning day. Thanks to the help of my Mom, for saving us by lending us a few canning necessities, we survived our first canning experience. Dill Relish -soooo yummy. Altered the recipe by adding garlic powder to the recipe. It turned out better than expected. Tomato Jam -this is also phenomenal. We had one jar that didn't "pop" so we had to sample and stick it in the fridge for later use. I did not use as much sugar as the recipe calls for and I didn't have red pepper flakes (which I thought I did) so I used chili powder instead. It's sweet and has a nice little kick.

So my plan of completing Herman this weekend did not work out. Canning and other projects took place instead. However, I did get his body painted in and started working on his hat. He still needs a lot of work including some additional color on his tentacles, his little suctions, eyes, mouth, etc.

The kiddos room is painted! We are going with a Steve Zissou/Life Aquatic color scheme and nautical type theme. The walls are a fun yellow and our accent colors include to shades of turqois and a bright red. I updated our curtain for the room with some nautical "features": I made a cork board picture holder with some scrap fabric, ribbon, and push pins: And my favorite item so far is Herman, our friendly octopus. I plan to have him finished over the weekend! He just got started but the outline is going well. If you look hard enough you can see his face and his wonderful red hat that will soon be painted.

Here's the documentation of the growing belly. Weight gain so far = 7lbs. Not too shabby. Compare it to the 13.5 week pic:

Every morning we typically have a smoothie with eggs or toast/PB. Well we ran out of frozen fruit and fruit in general. No PB in the house...boo. Had only 5 little pieces of frozen peach and luckily we had all the great ingredients for me to make some french toast and eggs. YUM! I used Rudi's Organic Nut & Oat bread (our fave) for the french toast. Dipped it in a mixture of egg, vanilla extract and just a dash of brown sugar. Served it with a little peach, raisin and syrup mixture. Throw in a few walnuts. And scramble up a few eggs w/parmesan cheese. Voila`! Breakfast!!!

This was one of the easiest meals I have made lately. The soup is a cold soup and there is no cooking involved. The flatbread is so quick and easy, and yes requires a little cooking, but very minimal work here. I didn't add the additional ice water to the recipe in order to keep the soup very creamy...which it was! The Avocado-Cucumber Soup is from Martha Stewart. It's supposed to be made with shrimp, but we didn't have any, so I skipped it...It was delcious without. Cukes from the garden of course! The Crisp Rosemary Flatbread is thanks to Smitten Kitchen, a fantastic food blog, with some really tasty treats. The rosemary was fresh from the garden, of course, which makes this dish even better!

Had this fabulous tomato soup for dinner last night, with fresh tomatoes from the garden. It's oh so good and so easy to make. Remember to substitute Greek yo for the cream. We used only 18 tomatoes, enough to eat for 3-4 meals! Andy also made me the best "kiddie cocktail". It looked phenomenal and tasted delicious. He enjoyed a tasty brew...something which I do not get to partake in these days...

We have an abundance of tomatoes: Tomato Table 2011 (this is only a small portion of what we have already consumed...and they keep growing!) We've made Caprese Salad w/prosciutto from the newest F ood Network Magazine's 50 Things to Make w/Bacon insert. and last night made a Garden Fresh Pizza w/roasted tomatoes and fresh tomatoes, basil and oregano from the backyard and amazing cheese from The Cheese People of Beloit that we picked up at Friday night's City Market Tonight we feast on Tomato Soup . Minus the cream that it calls for. We'll substitute Greek yogurt. Pics to come later...

This was a fantastic thrown together meal the day after getting back from our "Babymoon". it included potatoes from my parents (ours have not been dug up yet) and was delicious. I can't even share the recipe because I don't remember exactly what I put in it. It was a one of a kind dish and super yummy. Served it with a fruit salad of apples, bananas and currants.

Spent this past Monday day off trying to accomplish a lot of things (as usual). I'm was more successful than usual thank goodness. Here was my day: -Walk with Andy before work -Great peach, apple, raisin, almond breakfast smoothie...mmm. -Nap. haha. -Prenatal Workout DVD by Gaby Reece and additional weights. -Picked goodies from the garden. It's an almost daily event these days! So many good tomatoes, zucchinis, squash, cukes, beans and lots and lots of herbs. -Made fresh salsa. It's delicious and the freshness is amazing. Everything (except the lime juice and a few of the seasonings is from our garden. And making some homemade tortilla chips of some corn tortillas that are just hanging out in the fridge. -Prepping for Monday- Zucchini-Corn Fritters from Food Network Magazine . Zucchini from our garden! -Prepped for dinner on Thursday Creamy Cucumber Soup-from Eating Well Magazine . Cukes and onions from our garden. -Made white chocolate pumpkin