The real reason we go to Costco...

...the boxes, ha ha! Frank can be so different than the girls were, it's funny watching him be such a BOY!

Fertilizer rocks!

Well, Josh finished digging out the bermuda grass on one half of our lawn which has now been filled in with mulch and is ready for 3 more square foot gardens. We will add two more that are the same size to mirror the opposite side of our new space, and we will add a 2 x 8 or 10 down the middle which will be a strawberry patch since they have done the best. The fertilizer has also done wonders for the garden. We have yet to harvest a tomato because they just keep getting BIGGER, it's pretty exciting! We've gotten 2 pretty decent sized jalapenos and have 3 more on the plant, we've got peas, green beans, eggplant... it's fabulous. Josh also discovered a group of baby birds in our bird house : ) their little chirps are very sweet! Hope all is well! XOXO -Amber

Happy Mothers Day!!

Happy Mothers Day!! Josh and the kids are great, they got up early to make me breakfast; yogurt with blackberries and an english muffin with cherry jam, Yum! They all had cards for me with gift cards : ) J. Crew, Starbucks, Barnes and Nobles, and PF Changs (they know what I like). Then we went to the park to feed the birds and play. While we were there we saw a group of turtles on the edge of the pond. What a beautiful place that we live, I always try to remember to not take it for granted because Anthem is a fabulous place to be!

And here's a little glimps of our gluttonous dinner from earlier this week. We also had some locally grow artichokes to go with our sides of beef, ha ha!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Sorry for the delay, I don't know what's gotten into me? I've been having a little bit of an identity crisis, well not really "crisis," maybe more of a lost identity situation. There is so much time in the day I just don't really know what to do with it all. I've put a little bit of pressure on myself to make sure that I at least do something with my time. That has resulted in a few different projects. A cabinet re-organization which resulted in a much better use of my space. My pots and pans are more accessible and my breadmaker and other less frequently used stuff is back in the corner where the pans used to reside. I have so much more room I am easily able to fit my two new le crueset enamled pans and my two new stainless steel le crueset pans that I bought for myself. (A little retail therapy : )) I've also done a little bit of cooking.

Boeuf Bourguignon
I made Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon and followed the recipe exactly. It's as good as everyone says, it's fabulous, the best beef stew I've ever had, hands down. It also took about 4 hours to make. Not 4 straight hours, but there are two other recipes referenced in the main recipe so it is a bit of work.

Roast Leg of Lamb with Minty Bernaise
I roasted the lamb the way I always do, with a rosemary, garlic and salt rub. Instead of a mint jelly I made a bernaise with mint instead of tarragon which was super tasty! I also made ratatouille, which was a suggested dish to go with the lamb, and after having them together I'm still not sure why.

My favorite time in the kitchen has been making desserts! I made a fabulous apple tart, a creamy raspberry filled victoria sponge cake, loads of different flavored meringues, sponge cake bites... I have taken 0 pictures of all of this which is a shame because some of it has been quite fanciful.

Frankie finally got his first hair cut. He absolutely would not sit still AT ALL! but Jamie (my hairdresser who I enlisted to cut his hair) muscled through with a smile on her face the whole time which is much more than I would have been able to do. He looks adoreable!!

Lastly, I finally caved and fertilized my garden. It's two weeks later and I don't care that it's not 100% organic because some stuff has really started to grow, FINALLY!! I had hoped that I wouldn't have to fertilize but so many of my plants were just staying the same size, not producing anything and the ones with buds had the smallest veggies on them we would have to mix them with storebought anyway. So hopefully I will get some decent pictures up soon of what the garden is looking like.

Anywho, sorry for the ramble but that's what we've been up to. And I know I will get a hang of this new no schedule, schedule and figure out how to fit everything into the day without going crazy. Hope all is well! XOXO -Amber