4th of July Kids Crafts

I've seen the cutest 4th of July craft ideas while scrolling through blogs. If you're looking for a way to decorate your house for the 4th, try out some of these.

ScrumdillyDo's Spinning Fireworks using a salad spinner

The Crafty Crow's list of July 4th projects

Celebrations' Lawn Rockets

Kaboose's Patriotic Flower Pot Candle Holders

Patriotic Bubble Wands

Uncle Sam's Hat Treat Cups

Alice

I just heard of the greatest website, Alice.com. During my big monthly grocery trip last night, my daughter was a bear. She was tired, so she was in no mood to be patient. But we were out of milk, eggs, and bread, so the trip was a must. Anyway, I was standing in line trying to prevent her from throwing everything out of the cart thinking, "I wish I had a personal shopper to do this for me." I hate grocery shopping. I always have, but adding a 15-month-old to that trip makes it even less appealing. This morning I ran across this website. It is great. Go check it out. You pay a little more, but the concept is phenomenal. You enter the products you use, the frequency you purchase them, and they remind you when you're due. They also find all of the coupons associated with the items in your products list to alert you when you can save. Oh, and shipping is free! Awesome.

Best Burgers Ever

We've been experimenting with all of our garden veggies and herbs a lot around here, and this is, by far, our favorite experiment. I made some sliders with basil and chives, and they're a hit. Here's how:

Best Burgers (Sliders) Ever

1 lb ground beef

1 bunch basil

1 bunch chives

handful of mozzarella cheese

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

Dump everything into a bowl, and mix by hand until everything is evenly distributed. I use Rachael Ray's tip to divvy up the meat. She presses it into the bottom of the bowl and scores it with her hand to get an even amount of meat into each burger. I made 6 small patties because a normal-sized burger is too much for me. Grill on each side to your desired doneness, and enjoy! I served these with grilled onions, colby-jack cheese, and on homemade buns (recipe can be found here).

The many, many leaves of basil

My basil plant (bush!) is out of control. It's grown to 2 feet high and is as big around as a beach ball. I've harvested basil just about daily to encourage it to grow wider and not tall and stalky. I've made everything from my basil chicken previously posted to marinaras, spaghetti sauces, lasagna, and everything in between. I've given it away and, ultimately tossed some which grossely conflicts with my pioneer tendencies. =)
Anyway, my sister had the best idea for a way to preserve the fresh basil. She suggested chopping it and freezing it in ice cube trays. I did, and it worked perfectly! I used my first few cubes in dinner last night. Just clean it, chop it up, spoon it into ice cube trays, cover it with water, and freeze. You can do this with any fresh herbs. Freeze mint into ice cubes, and use it to cool off iced tea. Freeze fresh cilantro, and use it for your salsas. The possibilities are endless.
Thanks for the great tip, Amy!

Sandy Feet

I'm taking a break from my all-day cooking session to share this with you. While I was waiting for my pot to come to a boil, I was flipping through July's Parents Magazine and saw the cutest thing. This is a kit to carry with you to the beach to make a keepsake out of your child's footprints in the sand. What a great idea! Of course, you could save yourself a little bit of money and buy plaster of paris to do this on your own. But this comes with all the tools you'll need for mixing, and it's packaged in the sweetest bucket. This would make a great gift idea too. You can buy them here. Isn't it precious?

A House Staple

When I was in college I lived in a sorority house my sophomore through senior years. One night Chris dropped in and cooked dinner for me. Thankfully he had enough supplies to feed the entire house, because the scent of his meal travelled upstairs causing everyone to come out of the woodwork. It was such a fun evening, and everyone in the house fell in love with him then and there. He made simple quesadillas, and we've had them at least once a month ever since that evening in 2000. Here's the basic recipe:

Chris' Quesadillas

flour tortillas

chicken, fully cooked

salsa

cheese

butter

Directions:

Shred, chop, or dice your chicken. In a skillet over medium heat, combine chicken with as much salsa as you like (we usually use about 1/4 - 1/2 cup to each chicken breast), and cook until bubbling. When the salsa has reduced and thickened, turn the heat to low.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Butter one side of each flour tortilla. Put the tortilla buttered-side-down in the heated skillet, and sprinkle with cheese. Add a scoop of the chicken and salsa mixture, and spread to cover. Sprinkle again with cheese, and top with another tortilla buttered-side-up.

Cook on each side until the tortilla is browned and crispy. Slice and serve with sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo (make your own by mixing 1 chopped tomato (seeded) with 1 chopped jalapeno, 1/4 diced red onion, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, and the juice of half of a large lime), or cilantro.

In these quesadillas, I used my own homemade salsa. Here's the recipe:

1 large can of diced tomatoes (you could absolutely use whole tomatoes here too)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 sweet onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 jalapeno*

salt and pepper to taste

Drain the tomatoes, but reserve the juices. Add the tomatoes to a food processor or blender. Add the cilantro. Grate the onion and garlic, and add to the tomato mixture. Then, finely chop the jalapeno, and toss it in. Pulse the mixture, and add the juices back to your desired consistency. Then add salt and pepper to taste. Since all of the ingredients are pre-chopped or grated, the food processor only serves to meld the flavors, so do not overmix. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week (although I've never had this last even 2 days!).

*Obviously you can change this to meet your taste for spiciness. I usually seed the jalapenos and remove the white parts before I chop it up. Using 1/2 seems to be very mild, and even Hannah enjoys this recipe.

My Garden Mutt

I've been really busy lately, so there's been a lot fewer posts over here. We had a tornado last week, so we spent quite a bit of time cleaning up. We were housesitting next door, and we spent almost every waking moment swimming in her pool which she so graciously offered. Tomorrow is Chris' birthday (it's a BIG one!), and Sunday is Father's Day. Plus we're going away for our anniversary in a couple of weeks, so we've been swamped.
The garden certainly hasn't stopped producing in the meantime. I don't think I've shared this, but I have a pile of grass and weeds that I've pulled out of the garden sitting just outside the fence. I haven't moved it because I noticed a vine growing awhile back, and I thought I'd wait to see what it was. I planted everything in the garden from plants I purchased except for the pumpkin, green beans, and sweet peas. I thought at first that it may be a pumpkin seed sprouting, but I just can't figure it out. The vines look exactly like the cucumber, the leaves are a mix between the watermelon and the zucchini, and the flowers look nothing like any other plants. Now it's producing fruit, so I'm curious to see what that turns out to be. It is, by far, the biggest plant in the yard. So incredibly strange. We refer to it, lovingly, as our "Garden Mutt." Any guesses as to what it could be?
More garden progress:
Look at these creepers! There's no longer room between them to walk. Crazy.
Finally we have 2 sugar snap peas. Unfortunately the plant is succumbing to the heat and is almost all dead, so these are probably the only two we'll yield. Bummer.

Here's the first squash. We finally have some female flowers on the zucchini, so I expect those to spring up any time now.This morning while I was watering, I reached down to move some of the watermelon vines that were trying to overtake the squash, and I found these cuties! I've never grown watermelon before, and I'm so excited to watch them develop. The bottom picture is a watermelon about the size of a golf ball. So fun.