Apparently this was my weekend to be out and about in the evening sans the kiddos. Sunday night out is highly rare for me, but Julie had me at 2 words…Indigo Girls. We went to the Pageant for the concert with Cathy, her friend Terri, and Erin. Definitely worth being tired on Monday when you have Indigo Girls songs still in your ears from the night before.
Wendy and Erik’s wedding. Culinary highlight hands down was the potatoes (which all the guests were still talking about the next morning…really, potatoes was the conversation of choice…they were that good!). It was at Chandler Hill Vineyard in Defiance, MO and probably the best wedding food I’ve ever had. Oh, and the wine was delicious too! The wedding was beautiful and everyone had such a wonderful time.
Trent took a half day off from work for the big gravel and pathway delivery. This is what a truckload of river rock on your driveway looks like:
We laid down week killer stuff everywhere where the rocks would live.
We ordered a little too much rock….oops!
The whole project was so dirt laden we dirtied every pair of work gloves we own…and they were so disgusting, I did a whole load of laundry with just work gloves. But, as you can see, they are all clean and drying in the garage ready for the next big dirty project outside.
Dinner was bean tacos and guacamole. The girls do love Mexican food and I love making one big meal everyone loves. I am also a fan of them eating anything green, even if it is avocados.
There was also a trip down the street to Dairy Queen…and baths quickly following. Why do I feel like I’m constantly coming up with ideas that make things dirty just to turnaround and clean it up? But in the end, it’s more than worth it.
Trent and I have the exact same taste in art. Really. One of us could be somewhere and make an art purchase with 100% conviction the other will like it. That works out well. When it comes to food, not so much. He’s a trouper though and puts up with my shenanigans in the kitchen when I know sometimes it’s not exactly up his alley. Trent’s favorite sandwiches are buffalo chicken and French dip. My favorites are chicken salad, tuna salad, or a California club involving avocado. There is one sandwich we both completely agree on
The Reuben, which was our dinner. I love making sandwiches from my Panini maker, it’s so quick and easy.
However, an edamame and spinach salad to go with the sandwich is more Jenny, Trent would probably have preferred french fries, but like I said, he’s a trouper.
Kirk & Sally left to drive back to KC around 11 am. By 11:30 I was at Sappington Nursery with the girls to purchase seeds, supplies, and veggie plants.
Then we began planting.
It was a fantastic afternoon and the plants are in, now I just hope they do their thing!
Flatbread with cheddar cheese
Roasted shrimp. Ina Garten on Food Network said it’s the best way to prepare shrimp. I tried it a couple months ago and completely agree. Being in the middle of America means no fresh shrimp. But roasting it is a great method to cook it because the shrimp don’t get rubbery or overcooked. I just toss them with a little olive oil, lemon zest, salt, and pepper and cook at 385 degrees for 8 minutes.
Girls Dinner.
Trent and my dinner. Peppery pasta with arugula and shrimp from Cooking Light. With such a fun filled and labor intensive weekend, I decided to bypass the “you have to take at least a bite of the pasta.” I know that they know that I know they won’t like it. But Trent and I did. ;)
I really, really should have taken pictures of Margaret’s children’s garden she built in her backyard. So cleaver! She did a stake teepee where sweet peas will grow up the stakes to make a little haven for her boys. There’s a fence, pathway, raised beds with fruit bushes and corn. Chalkboards under a grapevine trellis. I could go on and on, but I really should have just taken pictures to demonstrate it properly. Lauren and Sydney had a great time at Margaret’s house…and getting dirty…very dirty. Afterwards we went to Chipotle for lunch because I had a couple of errands still to do and it was 12:30. It was the first time I took the girls there, but they loved it.
Why in the world I took pictures of my kids eating tacos and not Margaret’s impressive garden she’s built all by herself I don’t know.
Sydney was a taco’d garden’d mess. There was no way I could put her in her crib for a nap without a sink bath. I had to wash her hair 3 times to get the dirt out of it. Sydney and Wesley thought dirt throwing was great fun.
After Sydney was all clean and dressed, I put the girls shoes and Lauren’s feet in the sink to get them usable again. It was such a fun morning and afternoon. Garden gazing playdate and tacos with my girls, can’t go wrong.
Weekend #2 completely devoted to the making of the veggie garden.
Trent & Kirk woke up bright and early Sydney woke up early, which was a good thing, because it motivated the day of work to begin. Trent and Kirk headed to Home Depot to rent a tiller and began work right away. Sally and I managed the kids and were sent on a couple hardware/soil related errands.
About 1:00 I could see that Kirk was getting stressed. We had the dirt delivery scheduled for 2 pm and just finished the boxes. We still had to till all three beds, add our compost, hummus, and organic soil to the dirt, and till it again.
We ended up having to stall the dirt delivery man by 10, no 15, actually about 20 minutes. He was great about it.
See Trent still tilling the 3rd bed? Hustle hustle!
Now that’s a truckload of dirt, never thought it would be a purchase I was excited about, but I was!
The nice, nice dirt man. If he would have just dumped the dirt on our lawn when he saw we weren’t ready I’d still be outside moving it.
For dinner I grilled veggies, bread, and
Turkey burgers! We all earned our appetite and it was time to sit down and be still for awhile, but when you have small kids, the stillness is never long enough. But I take what I can get. So, so excited and thankful to Kirk and Sally for devoting 2 of their weekends to driving and working on the garden! My pipedream is becoming a reality!
I love the combination of kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. It’s great for pizza, sandwiches, salads, topping for chicken…whatever they are added to, I’m a fan (well, there are exceptions…I can hear Lauren’s voice saying, “but mom, you wouldn’t want them in a cake!?!?!”). I just so happened to have olives and some leftover artichoke hearts in the frig and a package of cheese tortellini. I tossed them with a lemon vinaigrette and a couple cups of arugula. The dinner bell has rung.
So our side yard is sod free thanks to lots of muscle use from Kirk and Trent.
That Sunday night I grilled steaks, corn, asparagus, and bread for a nice big dinner for all of us to celebrate a job well done. I grilled two big steaks and we only ended up eating one. Leftover steak is never a bad thing. So Trent and I had steak salads Monday night and then there was STILL some leftover, so for Trent’s dinner I did an open face pita with horseradish, Swiss cheese, and steak, put it in the oven for the cheese to melt, then topped it with arugula.
I love it when one meal can turn into 3 totally different dinners, but I’ve always been a leftover person.
This is our side yard as of March 9th:
We are building 3 10 x 8 raised bed gardens here. As Fancy Nancy would say, “I am ecstatic.” Kirk and Sally came into town Saturday through Sunday to start removing the sod.
Apparently you remove sod with a sod cutter…who knew! Home Depot rents them. Home Depot is a Bermuda triangle for men. They go to “just get a sod cutter” and come back hours later, why is that? But truth be told, I’m like that at Hobby Lobby. Sally said in KC there’s a Bass Pro Shop next to a Hobby Lobby. We think that was brilliant and strategic placement.
Bye bye sod! For dinner that night we went to Stef and Tim’s for 63123 dinner. We have it a couple of times a year and the group of us who live in the zip code 63123 host it for the other fellow 63123ers. Stef made a yummy veggie lasagna and garlic bread. Then the rest of us brought other components for the dinner…and our very 63123ness. Kirk and Sally took the girls while we were gone to Fridays for dinner. It was a fun, fun evening followed by a Sunday full of…..you guessed it, sod cutting!
