Gingerbread for Liberty

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Gingerbread for Liberty:  How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution by Mara Rockliff
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

This picture book was released earlier this year.  It tells the story of Christopher Ludwick, a German-born American patriot who helps feed George Washington and his hungry troops during the American Revolution.  Prior to reading this book, I had not heard of Ludwick.  Throughout the book, Ludwick is only known as “the baker”  who loved his country and who wanted to help his country during the war.  He helped by doing what he did best, baking.  Washington had him bake loaves of bread to feed the soldier.  The story is told using short, simple text that is engaging for even young readers (or listeners).  The illustrations in this book are eye-catching and meant to look like decorated gingerbread cookies.  There’s an informative author’s note at the end of the book with more detailed information about Ludwick.  A recipe for simple gingerbread is also printed on the front and back inside covers of the book.  We read this book during bedtime story time and the kids enjoyed it.

*This book was borrowed from the library.

Meal Plan Monday

Meal Plan Monday June

Here is a look at this past week’s meal plan!  I hope this helps inspire you to find a new recipe or plan your weekly menu.

Sunday:  The Weekend Chef celebrated Father’s Day by cooking dinner for both of our parents.  He made turkey burgers and we had a selection of toppings including lettuce, tomato, avocado, sautéed onions and mushrooms so everyone could create the burger of their choice.  We had leftover antipasto pasta salad that I had made Friday for a potluck dinner.  He made coleslaw, my mom brought a blue cheese and bacon potato salad and my mother-in-law made a garden salad.

Monday:  There was so much food leftover from Sunday’s Father’s Day dinner that we had leftovers tonight.

Slow Cooker Apricot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Tuesday:  I made Slow Cooker Apricot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches adapted from site Tasty Kitchen.  This was posted by Amber from Sprinkled with Flour.  Her recipe called for Peach preserves.  I ended up using Apricot preserves and served these sandwiches with some of the leftover coleslaw from Sunday.  The sauce itself was too sweet for my liking.  However, both kids had friends over for a playdate, so not having to worry about getting dinner ready was a win for me!  I served these sandwiches with fries.

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Wednesday:  I made Italian Tuna Casserole from Rachael Ray.  I decided to dust off some of the cookbooks sitting on my bookshelf.  This recipe was adapted from Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals.  As far as tuna casseroles go, this was pretty good!  Recipe will be coming to the blog soon!

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Thursday:  I made Cinnamon Apple Baked French Toast Casserole from blog The Pioneer Woman.  Check the blog Wednesday for my slightly adapted version.  This was amazing and we will be making this again!

Friday:  Homemade pizza.  Nothing fancy, just regular cheese for everyone this week.

Saturday:  The Weekend Chef made a Cilantro Curried Tilapia.  This was really flavorful and a different way to eat tilapia.  This recipe will also be on the blog soon!

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Friday Favorites #21

 Friday Favorites

Summer is officially here and this week has gone by so quickly!  Today is the first day of the kids’ summer vacation.  So we are sleeping in this morning! Here are some of our favorites from this week:

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1.  The last day of school!   The last day of school for the kids was yesterday.  They had a 10:15 dismissal…..but school doesn’t start until 9:05!  Needless to say, my son ended up staying home for the one hour of school.  My daughter was taking the bus to a friend’s end-of-year pool party so she went in.  She was so sad that school was ending!  We take a picture on the first and last day of school every year.  This year, I ended up having the kids make their own signs for the pictures!

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2.  Our  garden boxes –  The Weekend Chef wrote a post about how he made our garden boxes.   It’s been several weeks later and I’m so happy at the results so far!  The plants are doing great.  There is minimal care needed to get results like this, which is my kind of gardening!

3.  Favorite bookmarked recipe of the week – These Cappuccino Eclairs from blog Baked by an Introvert.  I really like eclairs but have never made them.  This recipe is making me rethink that.

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4.  Winner, Winner!  – A couple of weeks ago I found out that I had won a 4 pack of tickets to Sahara Sams, an indoor water park in New Jersey, from a giveaway that Pamela from blog  A Little Glitter hosted.  The tickets finally came in the mail this week! They are good until next December, so I think we’re going to hold on to these and visit during the winter when it will be a nice treat for the kids!

The Nightingale

5. Currently reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.  I’ve read most of her other books and she’s a favorite author.  This is the first historical fiction book that I’ve read of hers and so far so good.  This story takes place during WWII and although I just read All The Light We Cannot See by Alan Derr, this book reads much differently.   You can read the Goodreads synopsis here.   If you are not in the mood for historical fiction and are looking for something a bit more suspenseful I recently read The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson at the recommendation of Megan from MeginTime and You by Caroline Kepnes at the recommendation of Jillian from Just Life: Take Two.  I rated them both 3 stars but they are both suspenseful, page-turners with characters that are a little bit psycho if I do say so myself. They are actually kind of similar in that respect so they may be worth checking out if you’re looking for something new to read!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Linking up with Amanda from Meet @ The Barre, Andrea @ Momfessionals, Tif @ Bright on a Budget and Jennie from The Diary of a Real Housewife.

 

Weekly Meal Plan

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Due to posting our summer bucket list, our weekly menu plan from last week is a few days late.  We recently received our June Universal Yums! snack box.  This month’s country is Mexico.  We eat Mexican food all the time.  So last week I took the Mexican theme of the box and cooked Mexican-inspired dishes.  Here’s what was cooking in our kitchen last week.

Sunday:  We celebrated my dad’s birthday with pizza – from the pizzeria!

Chicken Fajita Burger

Monday:  I made these Chicken Fajita Burgers from blog Buns In My Oven.  These were a take on the classic chicken fajitas in burger form.  While we make lots of turkey burgers we don’t often use ground chicken.  These were really moist burgers. Without the added toppings these burgers would be kind of plain.  But with the onions, peppers, cheese and guacamole these were really tasty.

Tuesday:  We had pierogies and kielbasa with my dad and brother.

Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Nachos

Wednesday:  I made these Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Nachos from blog Closet Cooking.  My kids love all things breakfast and combine it with nachos, even better.

Enchiladas

Thursday:  I loosely followed this recipe for Enchiladas from The Pioneer Woman.  While I’m not a big fan of enchiladas the Weekend Chef loves them.  It’s usually his menu item of choice when we go out to eat Mexican.  While I’ve made different variations of enchiladas before (Turkey cranberry and Chicken avocado come to mind) I’m not sure that I’ve ever made traditional enchiladas.  These were okay, but traditional enchiladas are not my fave.  I made Mexican Rice and Beans adapted from this recipe from blog For the Love of Cooking.

Friday:  We had my daughter’s end-of-year Girl Scout potluck picnic.  I made an Antipasti Pasta salad that I threw together.

(20 Minute) Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos

Saturday:  The Weekend Chef made these (20 Minute) Skinny Baked Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos from blog The Housewife in Training Files.  I know copycat Bang Bang Shrimp recipes are all over the internet.  However, I have to admit that we have never eaten this famous appetizer from Bonefish Grill.  These tacos took him a bit more than 20 minutes to make, but were really tasty. He made Avocado Lime Rice adapted from this recipe from blog Closet Cooking.  We really liked this rice and I think it would be more flavorful with the cilantro, if we had it!

 

Greetings from Somewhere Series #1: The Mystery of the Gold Coin

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The Mystery of the Gold Coin (Greetings from Somewhere series #1) by Harper Paris
Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

This is the first book in the currently 8 book Greetings from Somewhere series by Harper Paris.  When Ella and Ethan’s mother gets a job as the travel writer for the Brookeston Times, the twins find out that they will be visiting different foreign cities so she can write about them.  This is the introduction book as the family packs up their belongings and gets ready for their big move.  Grandpa Harry gives the twins bon voyage presents, a journal for Ella and a gold coin for Ethan.  When Ethan discovers that his gold coin is missing, he and Ella go on a search to find it.  This series is geared towards readers between ages 5 and 7, with large text and lots of illustrations.  There’s a glossary in the back of the book with different international phrases used in the story, with the language and its definition.    My almost seven year-old son loved that the print was so large in this book and that it had lots of pictures.  He’s an advanced reader for his age and read this book in about 30 minutes in one sitting.  He enjoyed the book and is looking forward to reading the next one in the series.  This book was only okay for me as a parent.   I am hoping that as the family starts travelling the world, the stories get more interesting and informative.  I think this series has great potential.  We will be reading the second book in the series soon, The Mystery of the Mosaic, which takes place in Italy.

*We borrowed this book from the library.

 

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2015 Family Summer Bucket List

2015 Summer Family Bucket List

Yesterday was the official first day of summer.  As the kids finish up their last week of school we have made our summer bucket list.  Making a summer bucket list is a fun way for us all to choose something that we want to do together.  Our family time is limited so it’s nice to have a plan of what we want to accomplish.  Plus, having our list in writing makes us more accountable to actually accomplishing it!

Strawberry Picking – This was something we had been meaning to do for awhile and we finally went strawberry picking a few weeks ago.  It’s kind of cheating to put it on our “summer” bucket list, since we technically didn’t go during summer.  However, there’s a limited window of opportunity for strawberry picking in our area (around the first week or two in June) and it just seems like a summer-time activity!

Drive-In Movie Theater – I discovered that there’s a drive-in movie theater about an hour a way from our house.  I think it will be fun to be able to watch a together in the car.  We can possibly bring dinner and some treats and have a different family movie night experience.

Classic Car Night – The Weekend Chef would like us to go to a Classic Car Night show.  It may end up being the local show held out in the McDonald’s parking lot, unless we can find a bigger one not too far away.

Camping – My daughter wants to go camping this summer and we already have our weekend in July blocked out.  Now, it’s just a matter of choosing the where!

Go On a Hike –   My son’s first response to what he wanted to do this summer was go on a hike.  While I first said maybe we can put this on our fall bucket list I decided to add it.  Maybe we can go on a night hike or hike on a not-so-hot day.  Since this was his first choice, we are going to do it.

Family Game Night – This was my son’s alternate response.  He suggested that maybe we can play soccer or volleyball together.  Or play games inside.  We enjoy family game nights so I am adding it to the list.

Play Miniature Golf – This is an activity that we don’t get to do very often but the kids love.  Hopefully we can get a round or two in this summer!

Finally, the bottom of our list are activities that are already planned.  Going to the beach, eating seafood, fishing, and eating dinner outside are all activities that we usually end up doing during our annual Rhode Island 4th of July vacation.  We are driving to Disney this summer which takes care of the road trip and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a fireworks show or two down there!

What are some activities on your summer bucket list?

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Friday Favorites #20

Friday Favorites

Another crazy week has come to an end!  Welcome weekend!  Tonight we have my daughter’s end-of-year girl scout potluck picnic.  Tomorrow my son has his last soccer game and trophy celebration as well as a cub scout hike.  Not sure yet how we’ll be celebrating Father’s Day on Sunday, but the kids have lots of home-made goodies from school for their daddy.  Here are some of my favorites from the past week:

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1.  Last Saturday I spent the day at a local waterpark with my daughter and her girl scout troop.  As soon as we got there, my daughter went on this slide with one of her friends.  I was so nervous for her!  She’s a brave one!  The weather was beautiful and we had a great day.

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2.  New episodes of Scandal are on Netflix!  Since we cut cable, I was planning on watching this show online.  But I ended up trying to watch the first episode a little too late and by the time I went to watch, the first episode of season 4 was no longer available.  I ended up waiting until now, since I didn’t want to start with episode 2, and now I get to binge watch the whole season!

Orange is the New Black”: Examining the Life of a Female Inmate

3.  And of course I can’t forget about the new episodes of Orange Is The New Black.  I think I’ll be spending some quality time this weekend watching some Netflix!

4.  Favorite bookmarked recipe of the week:  This Grilled Apricot, Corn and Arugula Salad with Pistachios from blog How Sweet It Is.   This looks like a really tasty, summer salad!

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5.  Currently reading The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan.  I’m a little over half-way through and it’s looking like this is going to be a 3 out of 5 star book.  I love fiction books that have a food or cooking related theme.  This is Vaughan’s first novel and is about five contestants in a baking competition.  Hoping to finish this one over the weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Linking up with Tif @ Bright on a Budget, Andrea @ Momfessionals, Amanda at Meet @ The Barre and Jennie @ The Diary of a Real Housewife.

Four Kitchens – A Review

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Four Kitchens:  My Life Behind The Burner In New York, Hanoi, Tel Aviv and Paris by Lauren Shockey
Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

If you have ever wondered what it was like working in the kitchen of a restaurant, this book is for you.  After graduating from the French Culinary Institute, author Lauren Shockey apprentices in four very different restaurants around the world.  The book is broken up into four sections documenting her experiences at each restaurant.  Starting at chef Wylie Dufresne’s wd-50, in New York City, she then travels to Hanoi, Vietnam to stage (apprentice) at La Verticale.  After three months in Vietnam, she travels to Tel Aviv, Israel to apprentice at Carmella Bistro.  Finally, she ends her last stage in Paris, France at Senderens.  Each kitchen is very different and so are her experiences in each.  What we do see is the hierarchy of the kitchen and the tedious jobs that apprentices are assigned.  These workers put in twelve plus hour days, sometimes spending hours cutting Brussels sprout leaves or shelling pounds of crabs, only to get up and do it all over again the next day.  Having eaten at wd-50, I found that chapter to be the most interesting.  While many famous chefs don’t tend to be very hands-on in the kitchen, as seen in Shockey’s apprenticeships in Israel and France, Dufresne cooks most nights on the fish line along with his staff.  I enjoyed reading about the molecular gastronomy that went into the preparation of food that I had eaten at wd-50, like the everything bagel and the cold, fried chicken.  Even with language and cultural barriers in Vietnam, Israel and France, Shockey seemed to have successful apprenticeships and forge new friendships with fellow co-workers, roommates and friends of friends.  I found those chapters to be insightful to the culture and food of the respective countries. Shockey provides recipes throughout the book inspired by each restaurant that she staged at.  She also noted that apprenticing taught her more about being a chef than culinary school.  While culinary school may teach you how to cut a carrot, when you work in a restaurant, you will have to learn how to cut the carrot the particular way that chef wants it done.  I found it somewhat difficult to understand how she could afford to spend a year working four, unpaid apprenticeships around the world after spending $40,000 at culinary school.  Then after the whole worldly experience, she realizes that she doesn’t want to work in a kitchen for a living.

 

Meal Plan Monday Week 3

Meal Plan Monday June

Here’s a look at what was cooking in our kitchen last week.  Pictures, links and reviews have been provided, when applicable!

Sunday:  The Weekend Chef made Philly Cheesesteak Fries!  Recipe coming soon!

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Monday:  I ended up doing the weekly grocery shopping with the kids after school Monday afternoon.  We needed a quick and easy dinner so I made 5-Ingredient Spinach Parmesan Pasta from blog Two Peas & Their Pod.  This was really easy to make and tasty.  It reminded me of Spaghetti Aglio E Olio with spinach.

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Tuesday:  Taco Tuesday!  I made Slow Cooker Lentil Tacos.  This is one of the Weekend Chef’s favorite meatless meals that I make.  The original recipe came from blog Melanie Makes.  While I don’t repeat recipes very often, this is one that I have made several times that we all enjoy.  Plus, it’s made in the slow cooker so it’s quick and easy!

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Wednesday: I made a breakfast casserole with some of the leftover ingredients from the Weekend Chef’s Philly Cheesesteak Fries recipe.  I loosely used this Breakfast Casserole II recipe from allrecipes.com as my starting point.  This was an alright meal and we had lots of leftovers for breakfasts during the week.  We’ve made and eaten better casseroles though.

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Thursday:  The Weekend Chef went out to dinner with a friend Thursday night.  My mom came over for dinner and I made these Strawberry  Balsamic Grilled Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas from blog Closet Cooking.  These were REALLY good!  However, these required A LOT of prep work and dishes.  I had to cook the chicken, cook the bacon, saute the onions and then put together and cook the quesadillas.  While super tasty, this was not a quick and easy meal.  I served these with some veggies.

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Friday: It was hot and I wasn’t really in the mood to cook.  But, I had already defrosted the chicken and ended up making the One Pot Italian Chicken and Rice from blog Café Delites that I had planned.  While this recipe needed a little prep work in the beginning, it then baked in the oven for 40 minutes, so I had a little time to relax.  However, this extra 40 minutes of cooking, plus the prep work may not make this meal suitable for those who are looking for something quick and easy.  I liked how everything was cooked in one pot, resulting in little clean-up!  This was tasty and we all enjoyed it.

Saturday:  Chinese take-out with my family who came over for dinner.

 

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Friday Favorites #19

Friday Favorites

It has been HOT here in New York this week!  Like, disgusting, humid almost 90 degree hot.  And summer hasn’t officially started yet…..Well, enough complaining.  Hopefully tomorrow will not be raining, as is predicted, since I am supposed to be going with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop to a water park and the Weekend Chef and my son are visiting the Intrepid with his Cub Scout troop.  We will be celebrating my dad’s birthday on Sunday.  So we have a busy weekend lined up!  Let’s get on to this week’s favorites.

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1.  Strawberry Picking – If you follow us on Instagram, you saw that last weekend we took the kids strawberry picking.  This was our first time and it won’t be our last.  We have now been spoiled with the ripest, sweetest berries we’ve ever eaten.  Unfortunately, after picking, the berries only last about 3 days.  So, I have a bunch of strawberry recipes bookmarked to make but we ended up eating all of the berries we picked.

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2.  China Town in New York City – Sunday we took the kids down to New York City and did our own eating tour of China Town.  We had some really amazing eats ending with this cup of Pineapple and Maple Bacon ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

3. Favorite Bookmarked Recipe of the week:  These Grilled Coconut and Pineapple Sweet Chili Shrimp Tacos from blog Closet Cooking.  I have made several recipes from Closet Cooking and they’ve all been great.  These tacos look awesome!

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4. Trivia Pursuit Junior – My kids have been really into playing games (and having me play with them) and this has been the recent game of choice.  They don’t like that I can answer all the questions (I would hope I’d be able to answer them!) so now they ask me cards from a Disney Trivia Pursuit game that we have that are ridiculously hard…and this way they end up winning!

Saint Anything

5. Favorite book:  This week I finished Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen.  It’s been awhile since I’ve read any of her stuff, but I’m glad I picked this one up from the library.  She has written several other Young Adult fiction books, and captures the teenage experience so well.  I recommend this book, which was just released last month.

Hope you all have a great weekend!  Linking up with Andrea @ Momfessionals, Tif @ Bright On a Budget, Jenni from The Diary of a Real Housewife and Amanda from Meet @ The Barre.