Sewing, cooking, and biking

I love our friends and our church. It is the best place. It has become somewhat of a tradition to have baby showers for the expectant moms in our church. However, there have been so many pregnancy it has been tough to keep up. I love to make homemade gifts for baby showers and lately it has been very simple quilts. Nothing like these or these. I am not as skilled or fancy as them. These days mine are looking more like this

Isn't the ric rac cute. Got the idea from this lovely lady.

This little one is for Sonya's little one. It took me long enough to make it. He may have out grown it by now:)

Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes
I have made this dish quite a bit lately. It is super easy and loved by all. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, it was submitted by jamon0126, thanks jamon0126!!
First melt 1T of butter in sauce pan. Add salt, pepper, flour and 1T of minced garlic(I add about twice the amount of garlic). Cook on medium low for 2 minutes. Gradually add chicken broth, cook and stir until mixture boils and mixture is smooth(not lumpy).

Place 4 cups of sliced potatoes in a greased 9x13 dish. Top with 1/2 cup of cilantro, cracked pepper, and butter/flour mixture.

Brown pork chops in 1T butter and 1T of garlic

Place browned chops on top of potatoes and cilantro.

Cover and bake in 350 oven for 1 hour. Uncover and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve with a yummy summer salad.

Biking
We went to the bike trail again this weekend. We found this huge open field to stop and eat lunch and run and play. Good times with the family.

Good Times with the Letter "B"

We are a Bike riding family. We love to ride bikes in the evenings and on the weekends. Our oldest two can ride two wheelers, the baby rides in the trailer, and Graham....well he gets to ride with Daddy on the Boo Bike(aka blue bike).

On the weekends we've been heading up to the bike trail for flat wide open riding.
This past visit to the trail Eden was tired. I broke the law and let her sit on my lap(does anyone else do this?). She was exhausted and I wanted her to stay awake in the car so that she would nap in the trailer during our bike ride. Darren and I got to talking while Eden sucked on my water bottle and....well...so much for braking the law.


This has nothing to with biking but it starts with a "B" and is my new favorite recipe.
Banana Bars(Frosted Banana Bars that is).
My sister I've never met(I wish I new this sweet lady in real life) made these Banana Bars a while back and I finally got around to making them......

They didn't last long. I served ours with Butter Pecan Ice Cream.

The race is over!!

Big Darren had his annual triathlon this past weekend. He and his Brother Andrew got 12th place....WOO-HOO!!! I am so proud of this handsome man.

He is Handsome....Isn't HE!!

We got there early and the boys drank Gatorade

Eden played with leaves


This is what we ate the week before the race. He likes to eat lots of raw foods to insure he gets as much nutrients as possible as well as carbs from 100% whole wheat pasta.

We love pasta salad. I usually throw in whatever I have in the frig. I used whole wheat pasta, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, yellow pepper, olives, raw pecans, bacon and grilled chicken. I toss it all with a vinaigrette dressing and Parmesan cheese. Fresh fruit, green salad, and a fast pasta once a week....Healthy and easy.

Good Morning

I love the way the sun shines through our windows early in the morning. My house is quiet....no children are awake(well the baby but she doesn't count), and I can enjoy the sweet quiet of early morning.
This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!!


Here is another recipe for you. My Mother-in-law gave me this recipe and it has become our favorite bread. You can make it in a bread machine but I like to bake my in my Longaberger crock.



7/8 C of water
2T butter(I replace the butter with 6 more T of Flax seed and 2 more T of water)
3T Molasses
1t salt
2T flax seed
1T Wheat Gluten
2 1/2 C bread flour( I use whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 T non-fat dry milk
1 1/2t fast rise yeast
Combine all ingredients in order of bread machine directions. I use my stand mixer and add the ingredients in the same order. Place your dough in your desired (greased) containor and let it rise in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn't get too brown on top.

Need a new recipe?

Do you feel like you make the same meals over and over? Well, Composing Hallelujahs inspired me with her summer salad posts so I thought I would share a couple of my favorite meals with you each week.
This is becoming one of my favorite meals. It is fast, easy, and really tasty.
Here's what you need:


1 package of water chestnuts
1 bag sugar snap peas ( I use two because we like our peas)
2 T (large ones) of minced garlic. (fresh is best...I didn't have fresh)
1/3 C chopped fresh ginger
2 C brown rice
2lbs steak (which ever cut you prefer)
1 recipe for brown sauce (recipe is below)
First warm 1 T olive oil in pan. Add garlic and ginger and saute for 30 seconds.
Add steak and cook until evenly browned, about 3 minutes. Add sugar snap peas and cook for 2 minutes, uncovered.
It should look something like this:

Next add your brown sauce and cook until thick and bubbly. Like this:

Serve over brown rice. Sorry, no finished picture...we were hungry:)
Brown Sauce recipe:
9T soy sauce
3 T dark brown sugar
1 1/2 t corn starch
6 T iced tea or apple juice
Mix together. If you like things spicy, add 1/2-1 t hot pepper flakes.

Invader

Remember those cute book forts my big kids made the other day? Well, yesturday they were invaded by this little lady.

She is cute and curious and into everything.

Book forts

My kids LOVE books. Toys are always great exciting gifts to open but when it comes down to day to day stuff, my kids choose books over toys. Lately our morning routine consists of breakfast together, 5-10 minutes reading our bibles(little ones look at their picture bibles) and twenty minutes of free play for kids while I get morning chores done. Yes, only 5-10 minutes...not a long time to spend in the word but for two little boys it feels like an eternity. Besides at this point it is the habit rather than the time that I am wanting them to form.
So, during this free time the books come out. I don't know about your kids but my little ones make secret clubs, aka forts, out of just about everything. This makes for an extremely messy house but the mess is so worth it. Look at what fun!