Margaret fidgeted in her seat. Her mother had given her a couple crayons and a small pad of paper to keep her occupied, but she'd filled them up, front and back. The ceremony hadn't even started yet, and she was bored. She kicked her feet, which was okay right up until she accidentally kicked the back of the seat in front of her, where her grandmother Marie was sitting. She turned her head and gave Margaret such a look that she sat still for a full minute afterward.
Read moreArroz con Pollo
I love Mexican food. Really, tex-mex, because I can't imagine what I'm getting, or making, in Nebraska, is terribly authentic. I can eat tacos for days in a row, (and have, for lunch, when we had a taco bar party and I vastly overestimated how much meat we'd need,) and I've found various tex-mex recipes to try out at home when I'm oddly not quite as ready to try them in a restaurant. This particular recipe came about due to my great love of tex-mex, and my need to use up a large pack of chicken thighs I'd found on sale. It might even be a bit more authentic than our usual fare.
Read morePop Tarts.
In college, when I didn't really have a full kitchen to myself, but I was so very sick of dining hall food, I'd grab a few things I could microwave in my dorm room to change it up. Not so much a favorite, but a standby, I usually had Hot Pockets around. I also enjoyed pop tarts, but rarely let myself buy them. After all, they're "awful for you". (I conveniently ignored this same reasoning with the Hot Pockets.)
Read moreLincoln Children's Museum.
Jonathan and I had a great time at the Children's Museum recently. We were both having a rather bad day, but we went anyway to burn off some extra energy, and it turned out to be a great turnaround to the day. I snagged a few pictures while Jonathan briefly stood still, then it was off to the next thing. :)
Read moreTo see and be seen.
Ashley spread her blanket out on the sand and smoothed out the wrinkles. Then she settled in. People of all ages, sizes, and styles walked by in front of her. She thought about unwrapping her sandwich, but she wasn't ready to fend off the seagulls yet. So she rested back on her elbows and watched. An older gentleman walked by, in a full grey linen suit, with a twisted wooden cane in one hand and his wife holding his other. She had a sundress that brushed her calves, and looked as though she could probably use a cane too, but her husband held her close. A runner came up behind them and called "On your left!" before running past in her neon pink running shorts and lime green tank top. Her ponytail swished back and forth as she ran.
Read moreZucchini Chocolate Brownies.
This is the time of year where I'm scrambling to find as many recipes as I can to use up the garden's abundance of zucchini. Some I test out, and they end up oily, or dense, or really only passable in their use. Then there are recipes like this one, which are perfect for when you're absolutely sick of eating zucchini, and you couldn't look at another, only there are five more waiting for you to pick them. You can't actually taste the zucchini in these, or even really see them once cooked, but the zucchini helps them to be incredibly rich and moist, letting the chocolate shine through.
Read moreSaltdogs Games.
The weekend before school started, we went to two baseball games to cheer for our local minor league team, the Saltdogs, while they played against the Sioux Falls Canaries.
Read moreButterscotch Biscuits.
I have become a collector of cookbooks. I didn't really intend that to happen, and I don't exactly actively seek new books to add to my collection; nevertheless, the two shelves in my kitchen reserved for cookbooks are running very quickly out of space. There are some I rarely use, some that are terribly stained from heavy use, and many in between. My most treasured cookbooks, though, are the ones that have come from my grandmas, Eva and Elsie. There's something about flipping through a cookbook and finding a small note written next to a recipe "Good". Even more treasured are the recipes slipped in between the pages, or bound together in a three ring binder, that they took the time to record.
Read moreCarrot Cake.
Jonathan turned 6 this week. I feel as though I should be reeling at this, shocked that he's grown so much, but he's been "five, almost six" for so long, that it seems time. We'll have a party this weekend with his friends to celebrate, but we wanted to celebrate as a family on his actual birthday.
Read moreAn Unorthodox Wedding.
Stasi watched out the window of the SUV as she fingered the lace on her Grandma Ernestine’s dress. She had always loved this dress, the dress Gram had chosen for her wedding in 1946. She loved that it was teal instead of the now traditional white. She’d never seen another dress approach it in pure style. Her mother had agreed to let her wear it for her own wedding, saying “It’s blue enough to count, it’s new to you, it’s borrowed, and it’s definitely old.” And now, here she was, driving around with Pastor Tom, her mother Freya, Martin and his dad Alberto, and Greg and Ruth, hoping to find somewhere perfect for their wedding that night.
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