Dinosaur Sandwich

That's right!

I don't have any idea what you just ate for lunch, but I guarantee it wasn't as exciting as these bad boys:

One day last fall I was out shopping and found this stop-you-in-your-tracks, amazing, wonderful dinosaur sandwich cutter at Williams-Sonoma. 

When I "shop" at Williams-Sonoma that means I am checking to see if they have any hot apple cider or candy or other free samples out for me to try.  :)  There isn't a lot in my price range at that store.

But while I was sipping my free mini cup of spiced cider I spotted this dinosaur sandwich cutter and knew in a split second that it was a MUST HAVE item for my family.  (Even though Knox was 3 1/2 months old at the time and hadn't even tried his first bite of rice cereal yet.)  :)

So when a couple of weeks later Nana asked for Christmas present ideas for the baby I may have given her a big hint about this sandwich cutter...and Knox may have found it in his stocking on Christmas morning. :)

Some people get really excited about, you know...music, books, toys.  I get really excited about dinosaur sandwich cutters.

Please do not rain on my parade by asking if, really, a cookie cutter would work just as well.  It clearly wouldn't.  This dinosaur cutter is sharper and thicker than a regular cookie cutter...you know...for that occasional REALLY thick peanut butter and jelly sandwich...and a cookie cutter wouldn't come with this handy dandy sandwich box now would it?!

Knox is still a little bit young to handle whole sandwiches but I just couldn't wait any longer.  I woke up thinking, "Today is a day destined for dinosaur sandwiches." 

And a terrific dinosaur sandwich day it turned out to be.

Heads or tails??

HEADS WIN! 

Happy Thursday!



Sweet & Flirty Thirty (+1)

It's official!  I'm in my early thirties now.  

Yesterday I celebrated the big 31. 

I LOVE birthdays.  

Yes I definitely already have a few more gray hairs than I did in my twenties, but I don't mind.

Too much.

At least I didn't let them get in the way of enjoying opening fun presents, like these:

See?  If you look close this is the "sweet & flirty" variety. :)

eating fun food, like this:

I'll tell you more about this CAKE tomorrow!

and hanging out with two of the funnest people in the whole world:

No, I don't think I mind leaving my 20s farther behind.  

I feel so blessed.  

I have everything I ever wanted, and so much more.

So far 31 feels just right. :)

The Boat

I'd like to introduce you to a very very special friend of mine.  

Meet...

The Boat:

My parents bought this beauty right after they were married.  I don't think when they towed it home they had any idea that 38 years later they would be taking her out for a ride with their two grandsons!  My dad has done an amazing job at keeping her going.

My parents have had different cars through the years, even different houses.  

But only one trusty boat.  

We love this old bird. 

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of lazy days on the lake...swimming, tubing, waterskiing, falling asleep on the shore...

I remember spending the night on the boat, anchored in the middle of the lake.  I remember earning my very own "cool" life jacket when I finally mastered waterskiing.  I remember taking her camping with us.  I remember spending many of my birthdays with her.

And I remember the dreadful day our boat died in the middle of the lake.  My dad swears he would have pulled the plug and sunk her that day if he hadn't had me and Courtney with him; he had to sit on the front and paddle her all the way back across the lake to the boat launch.  Not so fun for him but Courtney and I thought it was a great adventure.  :)

We have so so SO many fun memories involving the boat.

So this summer, with everyone home in Vermont, Courtney and I were very excited to introduce our boys to the boat.  

They must felt pretty comfortable with her, because as soon as my dad started up the motor they fell right asleep. :)

Knox, 11 months old

Max, 2 weeks old

Knox woke up after a little while, though, and he loved the boat.

Getting sleepy again. :)

I'm so thankful we all got to have another beautiful day together creating more fun memories on the lake with the boat.♥

 And I'm looking forward to many more! :)

My Little Women

Knox and I just had a very special weekend.  

My three closest friends from college flew to Dallas from Boston, Iowa and Wisconsin to visit us.  Katy, Laurie & Bethany.  

And they brought two special little girls with them: Nya and Charity.

In college we called ourselves the "Little Women."  And these will always be my Little Women.  

This would be a great place to insert a photo of the four of us, but all my photos seem to be of our kids.  So you can refer to yesterday's post to see all of us. :)

These women are very precious to me.  We have lived together, fought together, made up together, grown together, served together, and worshiped together.  

They are the kind of friends who inspire you, and encourage you, and pray for you.  The kind of friends with whom you stay up very late having deep conversations, full of laughter and tears, about who God is and what He is doing in each of our lives....even when you know one of the babies is inevitably going to wake us all up at 5:00 the next morning. :)

Katy is Jo.  Back in college a little wild, a little tomboyish...restless, spontaneous, full of energy.  But she's also very inspiring and very deep.  Like Jo in the book she has turned into a wonderful, solid, caring woman who is the sweetest Mommy to Nya and a little boy who arrives later this summer.  She is full of passion.

Laurie is Meg.  She has always been responsible and caring...a natural mother.  But with a little more spunk than Meg in the book, I have to say. :)  Laurie was the first one to meet her prince charming and to begin a family; she is an amazing, mother of 4 kids now and has always been a role model for the rest of us.  Laurie knows how to encourage other women and moms and has an amazing blog that you should really read, here.

And our Bethany.  She is Beth 100%.  She is just very special to us all.  As Laurie used to say, she has a "heart of platinum."  She is gentle and loving and caring and strong and the past few years also became a mother...to 30 beautiful orphans in India who are HIV positive.  But unlike Beth in the book, she is not going to die young :) but is now building an organization of her own that will care for severely traumatized orphans in India and also train existing orphanages to better care for their kids.

Last but not least, I am Amy.  Because...well, if limes are in fashion I just might be tempted to spend my last dime on a lime. :)  I have been known to be a little dramatic at times, a dreamer, and to have a liking for the finer things in life...you know, wine taste and a beer budget, as they say. :)  But like Amy I have grown up to be pretty level headed, too.  And - sorry girls - but I ended up with the best guy in the book. ;)

It's been 9 years since we graduated from college now.  We've gone in separate directions, and don't get to catch up often.  But when we do, it is just very sweet.

I love my Little Women.

And the new little little women, too...

 

Knox was a little outnumbered (we had to kick Josh out for the weekend)...but he didn't seem to mind.

Girls are interesting creatures. :)

And pretty fun!

 

 

We miss them already.

Reunion Weekend!!

4 best friends from college

+

3 sweet babies 

(+ Chuy's Mexican food) 

=

 wonderful.

 

to be continued...

A Royal FLOP (flopped, challenge 2)

Here's what Chef Josh picked out as Chef Leah's four Mystery Ingredients:

Vanilla wafers, pickled asparagus, pork loin and a lovely large plantain. 

Eww. 

I had no idea what to do. 

I seriously walked back and forth and back and forth across the kitchen for 30 minutes before I started anything.  I had to peel the plantain to see what it was like since I'd never handled a raw plantain before.

It looks like a banana but it has the consistency of wood.  Hard and tough.  Not like a banana at all.

The only thing I knew I had to do from the beginning was crush the vanilla wafers.  I grabbed a meat mallet and went to town.

Then I started pounding on the meat because I already had out the meat mallet and that seemed like a good thing to do. 

Plus it gave me more time to think about what I was going to do next.

The asparagus. 

My next goal became to hide the asparagus in my dish as much as possible.  When I opened the jar they smelled disgusting, and they were mushy as heck.  Definitely hide the asparagus.

I decided to make a fresh pineapple salsa with red onions, red bell pepper and the asparagus.  Hopefully the other salsa ingredients would drown out the asparagus. 

I stuffed the salsa inside the pork.

Now it was time to incorporate the vanilla wafers.  I rolled up the meat log and patted the vanilla wafers on top to make a crispy crust.

I stuck the pork in the oven.

Time to tackle the plantain.

The only way I've ever eaten plantain is fried, so I decided I better try to fry it.  I chopped the plantain and dipped each piece in egg, then in crushed vanilla wafers mixed with cornstarch, then in egg again, and finally in shredded coconut.

I dropped them in the hot oil and crossed my fingers that it was somewhere near the right temperature, whatever that was.

Each batch had to fry for 6-7 minutes to get the plantain soft enough to eat.  It did not turn out like the fried plantains of my dreams.  They tasted okay but were still really tough.  And DRY.  

The meat didn't turn out much better.  I pulled it out of the oven and went to slice it, imagining a beautiful bright salsa swirled inside the meat. 

But no, it just looked like a pile of disgusting mush.

My beautiful crispy vanilla wafer crust?  SOGGY.  Sog sog soggy.

Please don't tell Chef Ramsay.  Please.

At this point I was doubled over, laughing so hard in the kitchen that Josh came over to make sure I was okay. 

I mixed a little maple syrup into some sour cream to try to salvage something good..."maple syrup fixes everything" is my motto. 

But it didn't really help.  Just added to the overall goop effect of my dish.

Roast pork stuffed with pineapple and asparagus salsa 

with coconut fried plantains and maple sour cream

Chef Leah...MAJOR FLOPPED!


It actually didn't taste as bad as it looks.  The salsa inside the pork was pretty tasty (the pineapple definitely drowned out the pickled asparagus), and I must say the pork was very tender after all that tenderizing. :)  

But the fried plantains sat like a rock, let me tell you.

Chef Josh has definitely won the FLOPPED challenge.  Hands down.  Way to go, Josh!

And I was reminded why I LOVE RECIPES! :)

Bon Appetite!