Weekly Menu 7/26/09-8/1/09

Back from camping, photos to follow soon. Here goes for this week.

Sunday-Soup & Sandwiches-feeling lazy
Monday-Zatarans Jambalaya
Tuesday-Homemade Hamburger Helper
Wednesday-Honey Sesame Chicken w/rice
Thursday-Crock pot Chicken Chop Suey or Crock pot Beef Stroganoff
Friday-??? can't remember what else I bought. Guess it will be a surprise!

Spicy Pineapple Glazed Shrimp Kabobs

I meant to share this recipe earlier, but forgot. Came across it today and figured better late than never. It got two thumbs up from Allen.

1 lb. large shrimp peeled & deveined
1 & 1/2 cups pineapple chunks
1 red onion in chunks
1 green bell pepper in chunks
2/3 cup pineapple juice
3 tbls each lemon & lime juice
1 tbls. minced ginger
1 jalapeno seeded & finely chopped
2 tbls. soy sauce
3 tbls. honey
3 tbls. chopped cilantro

Skewers shrimp alternating with pineapple, onion & pepper. In a small sauce pan combine everything else. Heat over a medium heat and simmer until liquid in reduced by half. Brush kabobs with the glaze. Grill for 3 minutes on each side brushing occasionally with the glaze.

Salisbury 2009

Sad version of the Salisbury Beach from my youth. They did have live music, which was cool, and the loop was closed off so people could just walk around. It seems to improved from last year so hopefully it will continue.

Dancing to the live music.

Look at the cool sunglasses I won. Only cost Mom about $10.00.

All the tickets (207 to be exact!)

Learning the art of skeeball from Dad.

We went to Salisbury Beach Saturday night to play games, eat bad food and wander around. Needed to get out of the humidity and this did the trick. Certainly not the Salisbury Beach I have so many fond memories of. The kids had fun, we did too, played a bunch of games, ate fried dough & ice cream. Wandered the streets reminiscing about what it was like when we were kids. Here's some pics.

Weekly Menu 7/19/09-7/25/09

Did a decent job of sticking tot he plan for last week. Ended up with take out Friday only because of a crazy schedule. This week should be interesting. We are heading out camping Thursday night but are now having Jeep issues. In order to use the Subaru we need to get a tune up ASAP. Hopefully it's something simple on the Jeep and we'll be able to use that.

Sunday-Going out to eat, I think the Peddler's Daughter
Monday-Crock pot Southwest Chicken (eventually this will be made)
Tuesday-Grilled tips & veggies
Wednesday-Crock pot chicken chop suey or something with hamburg since I have some in the freezer.
Thursday-Dinner on the road to Normandy Farms

The Difference in Kids

The big news is Rachel starts Kindergarten in September (Sept. 2nd to be exact). We received packets for both kids, with school supply requirements, uniforms specifics, and summer reading info. Rachel wants all of her items bought today and wants to get her book report done ASAP. She literally has asked me every day this week where her list is and what we need to buy can she help pick each and every item out. When can we go to the library to get her book? So forth and so on. Alex on the other hand asked how many days until he starts school, the asked if he could do his book reports the day before. I told him we had to buy school supplies and he said yeah you can pick them out it's okay. Got to love kids!

Weekly Menu 7/12/09-7/18/09

Off to a late start. Have an uninspired menu for the week, which may be hard to stick to since I have 3 nights out of the house this week and Allen has 2. Last week was a disaster. Most food never left the freezer, and I think I only made 3 of the nights I had planned. That said we only ordered take out on Friday (Allen not me I had a late lunch so I skipped dinner for a bag of popcorn at the movies). We'll see how this week turns out.

Sunday-Grilled chicken legs & mashed taters
Monday-Steak & Veggies grilled on skewers
Tuesday-Chicken fried rice
Wednesday-Allen's going out to eat with his Grandmother & parents. I have to work late so probably left overs/what ever is handy
Thursday-Tuscan beef stew or Southwest Crock Pot Chicken we'll see
Friday-Firecracker shrimp & rice

Might be doable after all. We'll see.

Weekly menu 7/5/09-7/11/09

Stuck to the menu last week for the most part. Ended up with take out Friday night-sushi. Think I moved some stuff around to work with the weird schedules but other than that did well. Here goes.

Sunday-Rib eyes on the grill, corn on the cob
Monday-Spanish Rice casserole
Tuesday-Pork Fried Rice
Wednesday-Shrimp Scampi
Thursday-Tex Mex Crock Pot Chicken w/ rice
Friday-Chicken some way or another

Wow we're eating a lot of rice this week. Might need to move something around.

Firecracker Shrimp

I don't have photos to post with this recipe but trust me it's good. It's a bit on the spicy side, but it's a good heat.

1 lb. large shrimp peeled and deveined
2 tbls. hot chili sauce (found in the Asian food section) I actually used chili w/garlic because that's what I had on hand and it was good
2 tbls. olive oil
1/2 tspn. salt
2 tspn. sugar
4 to 5 cloves garlic pressed

Combine all ingredients in a large ziploc bag and add shrimp. Marinate 20 minutes to an hour. Skewer shrimp and grill until opaque and brown, with black bits. They were very tasty!

4th of July pictures

Loudon

We had great seats, not far from the start/finish line about 18 rows up. That's turn one that this is looking at, awesome wreck-caused by Kyle Busch-took out 6 cars.

Check out all those clouds, I however still got a sunburn. Only I can get sunburned in the rain.

$10.00 per car, probably had 150 cars. Nice little chunk of money for the day.

Evey year my Dad and I go to the Nascar races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Unfortunately there is some sort of curse that always makes it rain when we go. This year was no exception, but it did hold off until almost the end of the race. It doesn't really matter if it rains, it's just an annoyance, we have a great time regardless. We have our rituals, we bring a cooler, stop for beer somewhere along the way (oh yeah and we always hit the Dunkin's on Pelham St. so I can get an ice coffee and then I run over to the ATM because I always forget to get money the day before!), then we park at Lane's (NHMS has a great deal where they provide buses from all the private lots), we stand around and drink a few beers, chat and then head over to the race. We wander around checking out the trailers, eat, watch the race, walk around some more, eat a little more, watch some more racing then head home. Probably doesn't sound that exciting to most people but I look forward to it every year----and it has nothing to do with the race--I just like spending the time with my Dad.

Scones!

I don't bake. I know I've claimed that before, but really if you only do it a handful of times per year you're not really a baker. I've been wanting to make something with blueberries for a while. They're everywhere at the stores and really tasty. Plus add in that they are good for you and well why wouldn't you want to make something. I didn't want muffins, but wanted something I could grab then today I realized...scones! But I didn't want dry crumbly ones, I wanted moist yummy ones. And I found a recipe that claimed exactly that so I figured I'd give it a shot. Plus it's cold out so lets turn on that oven.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

3 tbls. sugar

1 tbls. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

6 tbls. butter, cold and cut into pieces

1 & 1/2 cups blueberries (I used 2 cups since that was the container)

1 tsp. lemon zest

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 large eggs

preheat oven to 400 degrees, grease cookie sheet. Sift together flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Cut in butter until the largest piece is the size of a pea. Stir in blueberries & zest. Try not to crush the blueberries too much. In a separate bowl mix together 2 beaten eggs & cream. Make a well in the flour/blueberry mixture and add in cream/egg. Stir lightly with a fork until dough comes together. Dump onto a well floured surface and knead a few times to mix well. Pat dough into a 6 inch square and 1 & 1/4 inches thick. Cut into four 3" inch squares and then cut the squares again on the diagonal to form 8 triangles. Put on baking sheet, brush tops with a little more cream and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake approximately 25 minutes until golden. I tried one, it was yummy!