Here’s what this past week looked like- My Everyday Life-Week 27:
What I brought to my parent’s 4th of July party!
We had an Italian-American 4th of July theme in that we ate Italian food!
Blanket of fog that night.
Meant that you could see half of the fireworks under the fog.
I think they made them lower due to the fog.
YAY.
We had a fun night. Too bad it was on a MONDAY!
Someone stayed up LATE.
My mom’s meatballs as leftovers.
Hey bee.
Wow.
Welcome to I LOVE LISTS. Let’s see what the internet has for us this week:
Hey hey hey!!
I’m teaching a food photography class at the Firefly Institute in November. This is a photo camp for women! If you’re looking for a creative outlet with TONS of inspiration, you should come. The lineup of teachers is pretty incredible.
I turned the oven on this week. It was only on for like five minutes, though. That counts as cooking, right? I was flipping through the recipes of Real Food Fast by Nigel Slater (it’s a good one!) and found this really simple idea.
Mascarpone, raspberries and sugar. That’s it. Put it all under a broiler and you have a warm, creamy raspberry dessert.
I put the bursting berries on this simple cake, but you could also pair it with ice cream or cookies. Simple summer dessert at your fingertips. There you have it- Broiled Raspberry Brûlée! Oh and for another REALLY simple dessert recipe, try my Strawberry Crumble.
OK. So,we indulged a bit this weekend, didn’t we? What else is new? I actually scheduled a three day juice cleanse later this week. Yeah..ummm…we’ll see how that goes…. If you’re in the same boat as me– trying to tone it down on the eating AND not feeling like cooking, let’s brainstorm some good things to fill our faces with. I’m not talking about cake. Nope. I’m talking about GREEN things, fruits and vegetables. But I also want healthy things to be easy because it’s summer and ain’t nobody got time to be slaving away in the kitchen.
Digging into my snack archives for this Healthy Snack Dinner Inspiration. Here’s what I’ve come up for us. We got this. Also I have a whole bunch of yummy juices if you feel like busting out your juicer this week.
Here’s what My Everyday Life- Week 26 looked like:
Casey and I saw the Flight of the Conchords this week. They were amazing.
We had a cocktail + fried calamari first.
The show made me feel so many feelings like:
They’re such an amazing team and it made me miss podcasting.
How cool would it be to be a lighting technician?
How do they keep a straight face all the time?
Where do they come up with all this stuff? They’re so funny.
It feels interesting/weird/cool to be in a whole theater of people who appreciate humor.
Date nights on Monday nights aren’t that bad.
The space in between.
The Masonic is so pretty inside.
Noodling.
Special family dinner.
Pad Thai for One Potato!
California is currently golden.
Summer light is my favorite.
YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?
Things you can make for 4th of July:
It’s SUMMER and that means Cooper is home with me in between camps so I’m putting him to work work work work around the house!
Here’s a little back story:
I’ve been wanting to get Cooper working in the kitchen with me for a looooooong time but he gets bored after a bit and then cuts out. I even tried super hard to tackle my OCD brain that wants him to GET HIS HANDS OUT OF THE FLOUR AND STOP SPREADING IT ALL OVER THE TABLE tendencies. Then one day we watched an episode of Chopped Junior on TV and SHAZAM. He’s interested in cooking! All it took was watching older kids compete in a kitchen for my son to gain respect for my kitchen prowess.
But, wait! There’s more.
The other day Cooper came up to me and asked for a snack. I replied with a, “I believe you’re old enough to make yourself a snack,” and he did just that. Fifteen minutes later, I walked into the kitchen to find Cooper cutting up a turkey sandwich he had made (grilled bread! with mustard!). I had to mask my excitement (!!!!!!!) or else he would know how important that moment was to me and then he’d never do it again. Power trips start young, you know?
Let’s talk about some of my Tips to getting Kids in the Kitchen:
FIRST FIRST FIRST.
Start with clean hands (this is a MUST) and clean hands along the way
Food safety is important. Kids hands are notoriously NOT CLEAN, so whenever we get started in the kitchen, we wash our hands first. Nails are checked. We’re good to go. We also wash our hands when we’re handling meat or anything sticky! One day this will become muscle memory, but for now I constantly remind Cooper that we start with clean hands.
Give them the TOOLS- LITERALLY.
