mini stay-cation

my favorite little lady and her man friend came for an impromptu mini stay-cation. i have been busy laughing so hard i can barely contain myself.....and my bladder. by the way, is everyone reading tuesdays with johnny yet? because you should and don't for get to send your tuesdays.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. i received one of the nicest text messages this week. i think that friends should say more things like this to each other. i have been trying to pay it forward ever since this showed up in my inbox:

ma weeks: "addicted to your blog and have fallen more in love with you. really want to see your clothes. i've always wanted to make my own too! you are inspiring!"

2.seattle's best #3. loving that seattle's best coffee finally made buying coffee easy. i always get sucked in to the pretty labels and fufu flavors, but when it comes down to it, i just really want a good cup of medium roast coffee.

3. dino tails.....and the cuteness that ensues when the boy wears his all day. this is hands down on of my favorite things that i have ever made.

4. eggplant dip. the awesome melissa testa of gourmet all the way shared this recipe with me. it was so delicious and so easy. it was the first time i had ever cooked with eggplant, so i was a bit intimidated, but it's all apart of the new plan. next on the list of veggies to try...yuca.

5. the new plan (nice segway right?). i always have tried to balance the healthy with the indulgent. the new plan involves a major swing in the ratio between real food that grows to processed foods. so far it's been a lot of fun stepping outside my culinary box.

6. kleenex. for my snot nosed monster.

7. surprise visitor ryan mcclean.

8. the last ballet class of the semester. i am so sad that class is over for the next few weeks. i met some really amazing women in that class (even though they were all over the age of 65), and can't wait to spend my saturday mornings with them again.

9. a giant $3 yard sale score. you wont believe all the stuff i found. pictures soon.

10. a fantastic family fun weekend. it was full of walks and throwing rocks into the inter-coastal and bike rides and amazing dinners. can't wait for the next one. hope you all had a great weekend too.

brainstorming

the hubs company hold an annual conference at the beautiful long boat key club. that weekend getaway always sneaks up on me.

for the few weeks of cool weather that we get way down here in the tropics i like to allow myself to hibernate (ie. not shave my legs, get fat, and majorly pasty)

every year the motivation to get my butt in gear (and in the sun) is the culminating event of this conference. the formal awards ceremony. that's right.... formal! well as formal as a bunch of restaurant executives get. every year i get so excited about putting on the dress and the makeup, and seeing the hubs in something fancier than a polo. yet every year i feel like i play it a little safe with my wordrobe.

since i have been so inspired to sew lately....here's what i am thinking for this year:

(source)

so i want to make a skirt like this. but not so heavy. i am thinking a silk chiffon, and possibly multiple layers. and the beautiful tropical watercolored fabric that i fell in love with is no longer available. i am debating dying my own. thoughts?

please let me know what you think! all feedback is encouraged and needed! i am still on the fence about wether or not i can pull it off.

RAWWWRRRRR!

i mean raw!

haha... so there has been a lot of question about this raw veggie pizza i've been making lately, so i thought i would break it down for you.

there really isn't much of a recipe to share here, but i can tell you how i make it.

for this particular pizza i used:

carrots

cucumbers

cauliflower

brocoli

green peppers

corn

portabella mushrooms

homemade banana pepper relish

left over salmon

the "sauce" is made of :

1 part plain cream cheese

1 part onion and chive cream cheese

salt

pepper

greek seasoning

parsley

for the crust i use a pre-made boboli pizza crust. (i know this totally goes against the new plan, but lets just face it, some processed food is there to make a mom's life easier).

here is just how easy it is.

1. pre-heat oven to the specific directions for the pizza dough/crust of your choice.

2. mix all the ingredients for the cream cheese spread.

3. toast pizza crust and then let cool for about 15 min.

4. spread on cream cheese

5. load it up with all your veggies (i like to give the pile a good press into the cream cheese to help hold it all in place)

so that's it. super easy. get creative. i have made this many ways with many different veggies. it's always delicious! as a side note, i usually cut extra veggies and make more cream cheese sauce than i need to have as a snack for the boys, the sauce makes such a great veggie dip.

there are three things that i wish that i could do right now:

1. go get a massage

2. go surfing

3. go get a pedicure

BUT i feel so guilty getting a babysitter for any of those events, so instead i will sew.

so excited!

this is how excited i am about my new wireless remote for my camera! the boy likes it too.

...and then there were 12.

so i have been feeling a sense of triumph lately with my plants. i have never had much of a green thumb, as a matter of fact i could kill about any plant you put in front of me. but at the end of my pregnancy we bought a tiny tiny aloe plant. it was about 3" tall. it was more of a cute joke than a serious gardening endeavor. but over the past two years, my has that thing grown. it's now about 2 feet tall and recently blossomed. (i am not going to lie, i didn't actually know that aloe blossomed until this happened.)

so with the internal gloat of this aloe success, paired with the other small success of not killing any other plants recently i decided it was about time to venture into edible gardening. deep down inside i would love to have this huge lush garden of fruits and veggies to fest on. so i bought a tomato plant. i decided on one that was already a full grown plant and had a few tomatoes on it, just to see if i could keep it alive. starting from a seed seemed a little too advanced just yet. so for the past few weeks i have meticulously cared for this plant. i didn't realize just how hard it was to keep a healthy tomato plant. there are so many factors that i didn't expect. but despite all the challenges i would say that i am doing pretty good. the plant started with three tomatoes, then i had 16. one morning i went out to check on the plant, and low and behold after counting and recounting and recounting again, there were only 15. my plant must have fallen prey to that damn possum that lives in our back yard. i grieved for a moment for the fallen tomato, but quickly recovered. and everything was looking great until yesterday.

after a beautiful afternoon of tending to my "garden" and playing outside with the family, we had a 3 tomato tragedy. and this time it was my own clumsy fault. that's right i accidentally broke 3 tomatoes right off the plant. i almost cried. i am keeping them in the kitchen window sill to see if they will ripen anymore so that they don't go to waste. if not i guess we will be having some fried green tomatoes soon.

but for now, we are down to 12.