Breakfast for Dinner . . .

Saturday Night.

Yes, I know...not super original.

But Yummy.

And, whew, I almost blew the quiche by getting lost in a phone call to a Texas friend for 1 hr and 5 min while my oven timer was at 55 minutes and everyone inside had their ears plugged with little gadgets preventing them from hearing anything but their computer worlds.

Thankfully, the heavy browning on the top of the quiche was nothing more than pure delightfulness!

On with the show...

 Krusteaz box mix with added chocolate chips left over from the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I finally made. I'm a fan of the Krusteaz products, good stuff...and no, this little ol' blog has no idea what product endorsements are, hahaha, I just like the brand! (-:

(Not quite sure 7 or so readers would pull me much of a product endorsement commission)

And...Ooooo...this baby!

So...I bought a giant bag of Kale, got home and couldn't think of what to do with it. Decided to go in the direction of quiche and use what else I had in the house. Googled quiche and garlic and came up with this basic structure of a recipe that I then riffed off of: https://naturallyella.com/kale-quiche/

Didn't have shallots, but had regular onions, a big sweet onion to be specific and I used a lot. Used 6 extra large eggs instead of 8 large, used 1.5 cups of 2% milk and a 1/2 cup of my half and half coffee cream. Shredded some Vermont white sharp cheddar on the top, I think that's what did the browning and wow-wee-wow-wow...sweet and delicious crust that made. I think one thing that might have saved the crust from burning was that I had too much filling and while I poured it into the crust some of it went over the crust, kind of a lot more than just "some" I think, so I think that extra moisture from inside and outside of the pre-baked crust might have helped my slight over baking. Any which way...I'm enjoying left overs.

Super windy today. Lost power a bit this morning. Basketball net and hockey net blew over, nothing broke. Had a non-essential delivery of G-ma's homemade artichoke dip & crackers which actually...after dealing with the mysterious problems with the generator and power outage and such, was an essential delivery, finished a section of a bible study looking at the Armor of God from Ephesians, played more ping pong (starting at 9p.m.??!! Oy!), ended up playing an unexpected game of hide and seek with Livia and I trying to find William...we can NOT for the life of us figure out where he was and there were only the three bedrooms and two bathrooms that he could have been in judging by where the thump and run sounded when we were coming upstairs from the basement. He said he'll hide there again tomorrow, unexpectedly and whenever we notice we should try to find him. That started at about 11p.m. OY!! They start Spring Break tomorrow, HaHaHaHA, so things are really loosey goosey around here!

Just keepin' on keepin' on!

Ping Pong . . .

I have always loved, loved, loved ping pong.

Always.

This old ping pong table I found for $25 many years ago now.

It was in pristine condition.

It's like some original, heavy wood, two piece table made in Detroit.

Used to have a super cool logo on it, kinda worn away now which bums me out.

For a bit of time it was our dining room table at the old house, I likely blogged that. That was fun!

Then it spent time in the garage with a free couch from the side of the road as a little "rec room".

Then it got folded up and then we had to move.

Then it got some water damage in our garage after a couple years out there. That totally bummed me out.

Then Harrison & I miraculously got it downstairs a couple years ago.

We kept it up for a bit then tucked it on the wall.

Then the virus showed up and we are full throttle ping pong playin' over here.

YAH-HOO!

Some things googled recently after some raised voice conversations...

If the serve is legal except that it touches the net, it is called a let serve. ... - There is no second serve in case of fault in Table Tennis (unlike Tennis).

According to these rules, when returning the ball you must wait for it to hit your side of the table first. If you hit the ball back as it is on its way toward the playing surface, your opponent scores a point. You need to let the ball bounce on the table before you hit it. If you don't wait, you lose the rally.

Ok...Gotta go, I left a game at 16-19 to do some googling after a "conversation" and got away with this post...time's up!

Not a good day )-: . . .

I'm testing a theory with that title.

Sorry about that.

I actually had an "as far as it goes in quarantine" fine day.

I planned to give you a one and a half weeks in food update tonight.

Let's title it...

The State of the Food Address

or

Cultures Collide at Dinner

or

This is Dinner?

or

...I don't know...

...my phone just sent me an urgent announcement that Apple tv has a special series in which Oprah is telling us how we can get through this trying time, so I gotta wrap this up...

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Oh brother...

Ok, on with tonight's dinner, a dinner after 1.5 weeks of quarantine....

It started with Tahini (and yes, a cup of chocolate milk)...the second jar bought in two days time because I believe I lost the first one when I dropped a bag of canned goods, and my first jar of tahini, while bagging for myself at the Kroger from two days ago, you know, when everyone's out buying up the eggs, chicken and toilet paper...I'm buying tahini. Next day, with my lemons and chick peas ready, no tahini...what??

So...today...after an under the radar trip to get a non-essential car repair done...shhhhh...I got the above, 2nd jar of tahini and for dinner made...

A tremendously massive amount of hummus with pita bread!

 Would that have been considered the first course to the . . . 

 Pork and Scallion dumplings??

I literally ate those right out of the pot, so sweet and delicious, the kids do like dumplings, so they were a hit. William loves hummus, but it actually was finished on the later side of our grazing formatted dinner from the counter so didn't have much tonight. The flavors will settle tonight anyway, going to be delightful for days to come!

 Am I seriously including this picture??

Yep, part of dinner was a sliced apple...before it browned. 

I'll often just slice up some fruit or another and cut up a fresh veggie, usually carrot or celery if I don't have time to make some kind of side dish to dinner. Quick, easy and rounds things out a bit. So yes, we also had some apple tonight.

A few days now I've set butter sticks out to soften in hopes of making some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Then I put the butter back in the fridge (before it's too soft or anything) because, around three times now, I just run out of time. I declare to myself I AM making them tomorrow!

Said Recipe...

So...dinner a week and a half into self isolating:

Big vat of hummus

Pita bread

apples

dumplings

chocolate milk

thoughts of oatmeal cookies

I'm nailing it!

Sunday...shovels...Monday...Snow...

Sunday I gave a little Michigan chuckle.

Always strikes my funny bone when I see the rakes and the shovels co-existing. 

You just never know what you'll need here and there, and when, for a few months each year.

I also bring rakes out maybe a little early 'cause I'm always busting at the seams to get cracking on the yard.

So...yeah...Sunday I felt bold and tucked those shovels away in the shed.

😂

Monday I gave another little Michigan chuckle!

So...yeah...this year I was bustin' at the seams to clean up the lilly bed before they got too tall for me to stomp around weeding those thorn bushy things and baby tree/weed things. Got that done a few weekends ago.

This past weekend I fixed up my road drainage issue to my great relief. My always-thinking-of-me neighbor helped me last year by digging a great drainage route into my yard to prevent the bottom of my driveway from continuously washing away, their's too, and me breaking any more rear coil thingys on my car. And, his drainage thing did it's job 100%...it just didn't really fit my yard-loving aesthetic as it washed loads of leaves and dirt from the road into my yard (a portion which he likely sees as a ditch, but it's always been grass, so I see it as my yard...it really probably should be a ditch so that the driveway didn't get washed out, but when a girl's got a vision, a girl's got a vision...it's part of the yard and shouldn't have dirt and leaves all over it.). So anyway, I didn't have the energy to re-dig a trench last year and had loads of energy last weekend. Got 'er done. Shocking how less stunning the photos are than how impressive the live job was to me.

Hahahahahaha!

Enjoy-ish...

 See now...a nice, delicate curve leading right to the drain thing.Where the rakes are is road, not yard. I've had a little circle garden around the mailbox since I moved in (and the first time in 1999 too (-:), but now with my little trench I might make that corner a bed of some such flower or something. We'll see.

 His trench, if you can see it, was about three feet to the left of my new one and spewed all that dirt all over my grass, it never headed in the direction of the tube thing under the driveway (man, I know that thing has a name and for the life of me can't think of it). I hacked some day lillies out of in front of the tube, planted them in some trees across the street from my mailbox on the sly and hope that my drainage plan works!

 One day a while ago I noticed that I believe my neighbor also made a trench down at the other end of my yard (both trench digging events I didn't really know were happening, they just kind of showed up), but it was much smaller than the one he made by my mailbox. I thought to myself...hmmmm...how about we catch most of the drainage at that end of my yard so it dumps in front of the pine tree no where near my driveway...so, I headed down there next...

Hahahaha...still with me?

Nothing like virus isolation journaling...

 I got to work and substantially expanded the little one he made down here.

 Oh yeah, baby!

Man, I can not WAIT for a good rain.

You can gosh darn believe that I'll be out there in my rain boots with my umbrella and cell-phone flashlight watching the water splash down my trenches and into that tunnel thing under the driveway.

Hahahahahaha!

The other day William wondered if I'd be getting on Tinder...

Oh you shoulda heard the laughing from that one!

😂😂

Also...I'll be out there in more than just my rain boots...just to clarify!

 This picture here really was so much more stunning in person.

Hahahaha!

Oh man, I am sitting here cracking up...the dog just came over to see what's up.

And...I got to do all that rewarding work in my birthday Red Wings from my bro, D!  They are AWESOME!

Ok, down to the ping pong tourney in the basement.

We're all super excited to have put the ping pong table back up. That's been some of our best entertainment while the weather's still a bit chilly and grey.

And, no William...there'll be no Tinder for me...no thank you. (-: I've got lots of life going on at this place to keep me plenty busy, filled and grateful!

💜💜💜

'cept, I wouldn't mind if the road crews would just grate the roads correctly already and relieve me of my trench digging! (-:

Online Teaching . . . Check . . .

Today was the first day 5th grade went online as a group. It was really for a little bit of instruction, to ask questions and to try out online group interaction. I think my favorite part was hearing the teacher say..."Ok, everyone can't talk at the same time"...about five times and then this..."Wow, look at that, all I had to do was click that little button and the whole class is on mute...wouldn't that be something to have in class." 

😂

Today I also tried my hand at teaching two online piano lessons and WOWZA was that slick!

Worked without issue both times. One time I even had to teach just from my phone screen because we Face Timed and while I expected the call to pop up on my computer Face Time screen, it didn't and I didn't want to waste time so we just went on from my phone. No problems, just a smaller screen.

I have the parents send me pics of the lesson I wrote for them to practice last week and pics of their music so I can follow along and have the camera angled so I can see the student's side profile on their bench and their arms and hands on the keyboard. Perfect! Not teaching anywhere near my regular schedule but a couple lessons is way better than zero!

🎶🎹🎶🎹🎶

🎼

Cherryopoly . . . Check . . .

Wasn't as easy said as done to get started.

First William wanted to play with just me.

Then, Liv came out and wanted to play.

I suggested we all play together, naturally...

So, William left.

I'll play it again, two, many-hour games of Cherryopoly, why not?

So, yeah, Liv and I played in two chunks yesterday.

I was shocked, and so was she, when we realized we'd played for around 2.5 hours before our first break!

I was glad that my "slightly-competitive-game-playing" self acknowledged I should probably give my 10 year old daughter some reminders like, "buy everything you possibly can, fast," (at least that's a strategy that works for me) so I did. But with all her dancing around the kitchen in great glee, big scores, winning the pile of money in the middle multiple times and riotous chuckles of "Money, money, money" and my continued not great luck...by the second half of play I wasn't as verbal probably as I could have been about the benefits of putting cottages (Cherryopoly houses) on those complete sets of properties.

What is wrong with me...she's ten!

😜

But, the dancing, the chuckling, all that money.

I thought it just might be a good Monopoly learning experience for her to watch how buying houses and hotels works in the game and proceeded to teach by example rather than word.

😉

😂

The best part of the game?

Boy did we have a load of big belly laughs when she was winning and that she was a great sport when she wasn't, playing right to the end of mortgaging her properties and me not charging full price for many turns at the end.

Next up...playing the 13 year old...

😅

Oh...and day one of homeschooling... I was only a half hour later on their wake up than I told them I'd be and they actually began their work soon after it was posted in the morning, only one of the two agreed to outside gym time and no one agreed to music class. But they got their teachers' work done at least . . . 

Covid-19: 0 . . . Spring: 1 . . .

So...yeah...

What's the latest?

(-:

How 'bout this . . . 

The official start of Spring is SIX days away and it can't be closed, it can't be stopped, it can't not play it's season finale, it can't be cancelled, it can't be fearful...

Spring Will Come.

Spring Will Go.

Summer Will Come.

Summer Will Go.

This is a blink in time.

Maybe half a blink...

What is this time for me?

It is a time of Rest.

And Trust.

How often do us "modern" parents, who have done this to ourselves,

get. to. stop.

It is good to stop, we have been given this moment, take it.

It is a time to dive even deeper into God's Word.

Do you know how peaceful and reassuring that is?

It is time to Trust. 

Yes, I've lost lots of teaching income, and will try my best to do make up lessons at the house, but I'll trust that God will provide nonetheless. He always does.

It's a time to play the Cherryopoly game that's been sitting out, waiting. To make the 3D pirate ship puzzle.

It's time to dabble around the gardens.

It. Is. Time. To. Breath.

And enjoy the coming Spring.

🌷🌸🌷

 Peony Buds

 Lilly Garden

 Green!

 Hyacinth and paper whites

Um...really...this lighting!!

A rainbowed smiley face or something as Liv was telling me to "take that down already" and I was replying, "but it's always great to be Merry, just don't think about it like Christmas," and she was replying, "but it is from Christmas." and then...as I went to click this pic these rays appeared...yep, it'll stay a little bit longer.

So...
Let's be helpful as we're able to those in need during this strange and challenging time, let's use great caution around those most vulnerable to the spread of this virus, let us be in prayer for families that have lost loved ones to this illness and all illnesses, it is hard to lose a loved one to anything, but these and other trials will always befall our earthly walk so let's also . . . 

Be Merry!

Hello . . .

Harrison turned 17 today!

That's just stunning to me to type.

It's hasn't hit me to say, but to type it seems like...wow...17!

This year I got Harrison a Cumberland fishing float with fishing float flippers, sent along with it some of that delightful chicken parmesan from  a couple days ago and a great looking tuxedo cake  with a 1 and a 7 candle taped to the top.

Bring on the fishing in 2020!

Wishing Harrison all God's grace and protection, joy and peace this 17th birthday and all his years to come.

Our God is so great, so strong and so mighty there's nothing our God can not do!

💜🌟

Sorry . . .

I washed the snow pants yesterday.

I don't know what came over me.

I apologize in advance for the 12 inches of snow to drop before April.

The end.

Whoa . . . I fit in some mileage and some frolicking . . .

 Not at the same time, mind you!

Though it gave me a chuckle imagining myself trying to get some mileage under this scenario.

No...this was the frolicking part of the weekend water events.
We were over the moon about having both the pool and the hot tub completely to ourselves for about 25 minutes Saturday late morning!

 You see, it was hockey tournament weekend.

And that meant a hotel pool to Liv and I!

Well...and of course...four hockey games...whoo-hoo!

(-:

 For the life of me I can NOT believe this is the only picture I left with! Um...what?? I have to say though, I'm usually glued to the game from beginning to end and don't really take pics. A couple games though William was a defense partner with #15 and he is #51, so I was trying to catch 15 and 51 out on the ice together, this was the best I could do!

 I got to watch the hockey boys have some pool fun Saturday night from my balcony perch. No, I would never have paid for a balcony room, pretty much ever, but this particular tournament required you take whatever room and hotel the tournament planners put you in...for a tune of about $30 more per night than I'd usually pay. Not cool, but ok, and fine, kinda fun to have a balcony...once.

Here's a couple nice quality pics from the tournament in February that I couldn't attend. One of the team mates aunts is a photographer and took a million pictures, put them on flash drives and gave them to the parents. These are a couple I scooped up from my download quick because it's actually waaaayyyyy too late Sunday night for me to be even posting this stuff!

(-:

He is a scrappy player that will get in to the middle of anything and dig a puck out. 

No fear!

Mileage, snuck one in upon arrival home and before dashing of to do this that and the other and then make Jill Biden's Chicken Parmesan. Yep, for real. It's not a political statement of any kind...yeah, no...but I read the recipe over the weekend in the Parade magazine of my weekly newspaper...yep...hahaha...and at 6:30p.m tonight, began the roughly 2 hour process of making it, Oy Vey!  But, my oh my, it is amazing and would feed a large crowd!

https://parade.com/983863/alison-ashton/jill-biden-chicken-parmesan-recipe/

11th Mile today!

🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 

🏊

Mahi Mahi . . . but no mileage . . .

Just some breaking news about a lemony, super easy Mahi Mahi recipe...

You know...

Same ol' Same ol'

(-:

https://www.thekitchn.com/mahi-mahi-22931939

Not sure if you recall but I got a great deal on tuna and mahi mahi a while back and it was time for me to break one of them out of the freezer again. Went with the Mahi tonight, with some left over fusilli pasta dish from Sunday. I can not believe this kind of delicious food is in my life sometimes!

💜💜💜

March 1st . . . Mile #10 . . .

🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊 🏊

And Church...

And a surprise b-day party for my sweet neighbor...

And singing an amazing Vespers service at Concordia...

And ending the day with roasted tomato caprese pasta...

https://parade.com/966968/jonashton/roasted-tomato-caprese-sheet-pan-pasta/

Parade Magazine Creation

I loved it!

The kids loved it but picked out the tomatoes.

And just in case the link doesn't work someday:

Roasted Tomato Caprese Sheet Pan Pasta

By JON ASHTON

• SERVES

  8

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (10-oz) containers cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for garnish
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 16 oz whole-grain fusilli pasta
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into ½-inch pieces
• ½ cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. On a rimmed sheet pan, combine first five ingredients. Toss to coat; spread in an even layer. Bake 20–25 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and very fragrant.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain. Add cooked pasta, mozzarella and basil to sheet pan. Toss to combine; adjust salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil. Serve with Parmesan.

KITCHEN COUNTER

Serves 8.