Noby woke up with a fever this morning, I have a feeling most of the day will be spent snuggling. I don’t mind taking on this job today!

After bowling on Tuesday night I made Ichiro and Keith stop at the grocery store to pick of a few things we needed for Taco Night.  I love it when Ichiro stops at the store cause he always, I mean ALWAYS comes home with things not on the list.  Tuesday was no exception, although he forgot the tomatoes AND he didn’t know a hard green avocado was not ripe, he did bring home a mini watermelon.  We’ve been talking about making watermelon sorbet since Xmas when Brenda gave him the Vegan Scoop cookbook.

All I have to say is OMG, it is SOOO good and I know we will be making this again and again and again!

Watermelon Sorbet
Ingredients:

• ½ cup plus 4 cups seeded and pureed watermelon
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon lime zest

Preparation:

In a small saucepan, bring ½ cup watermelon puree and the sugar to a simmer and remove it from the heat. Add the lime juice and zest and allow the mixture to cool for 20 minutes. Add the 4 cups fresh watermelon puree to the melon-lime mixture, and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Noby loves animals so I’ve been trying to keep the Letter’s of the Day animal theme.  It’s starting to get a little harder to think of animals that we can make into letters, or letters we can make into animals.  But Thank God for Google!! I’ve been able to find some other websites to help with keeping with our theme.

So we started with the letter F in brown paper.  I had Noby use a paint brush to add glue to the letter, next he took tiny ripped  pieces of brown paper and pressed them into the glue.  I thought this might make the fox look like he had fur.  Next we glue on some ears, an eye, a nose, and the tail.  We let the glue dry and then cut it out.  I think he looks great up on the wall!

Can any of you think of something we can do for H?  I’m stumped!!!

So we just got home from a weekend getaway with the Brascos.  It was kind of a last minute trip but it was filled with TONS of fun for the boys.  Yesterday we headed down to the John Carver Inn in Plymouth, MA.  It was the last weekend for a Friends and Family promotion where the second room was 50% off.  We got two awesome rooms, the best part being that they were connect and the boys were able to run back and forth.  So the main attraction to the John Carver Inn was their pool, The Pilgrim Cove Indoor Theme Pool!

I can’t even begin to explain how much fun the boys that.  They LOVED the water slide, the water fall and just jumping in from the sides.

kick…kick…kick…

Saturday night we decided to have a nice dinner out at the local hibachi restaurant.  We might have been pushing it a little bit, seeing once we made it to the restaurants one by one all the kids started to crash.  But it was still great, the kids loved the fire smiley face and onion volcano!

Surprising, well maybe not surprisingly Noby didn’t sleep well at the hotel.  I had hoped all the swimming and exciting dinner might have helped him crash but with that Ashihara blood in him, it just gave him a second win.

In the morning the boys were playing lions, here they are all stuck in the cage at the zoo!!

The hotel does a late checkout time, so in the AM we headed back to the pool.

Someone was pretty excited…

Just wanted to say that I love that we can have perfectly grill bacon cheddar burgers all winter long… all because of the George Foreman Grill!

I love you Mr George Foreman!

hahaha

E!!! Beautiful, beautiful E!!

Today we started with pink paper.  It not only had a letter E on it, but also a”D” shape that will be used as an ear.  The middle line of the E also was extended to look like a trunk nose.  Noby used gray and blue chalk to color both of them.  We talked about rolling the chalk in and outside the letter E.  We also used a tissue to wipe and bend the chalk.  I just thought it would be something different for him to try.  Once he was finished with that I cut the E out and had him add glue, then the eye and ear.   Once again he had a really great time making the letter and couldn’t wait to get it on the wall.

Noby and his friends explored the moon today!!

Today’s letter of the day is D!

The other day when I started these letter projects I mentioned that I got all these great ideas from a new website that I found online.  Well of course I forgot to mention the actual site and have gotten many requests for it.   It’s called No Time For Flash Cards.  If you have some free time and need some craft ideas for kids make sure to check out this site.  It’s wonderful!!!

So today’s letter of the day was D!  And D is for duck!

I know what your thinking, “Becky, we haven’t seen many new recipes lately.”  Well tonight your lucky night!  The Pioneer Woman featured a new recipe on her blog yesterday and from the moment I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it.  So what better night to make it then Taco-Bowling-Tuesday.  Taco-Bowling-Tuesdays means I have an extra mouth to feed and therefor I can try new recipes that have the probability of making a large amount of food.

If you still haven’t checked out The Pioneer Woman‘s website you truly are missing out.  She has tons of WONDERFUL recipes that all look amazing!  Also she gives a step by step pictorial guide to making these recipes.  You really can’t mess up with her recipes online.  When I try new recipes I always plan on taking tons of pictures to show you but of course I get so into cooking that I often forget to take pictures.  Here are the few pictures I took but definitely check out Ree’s tutorial for Cajun Chicken Pasta.

**missing picture of cooking veggies….

** missing pictures of adding broth

** missing pictures of adding cream

**missing pictures of mixed pasta and plating…

Tested and approved!

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Ingredients

• 3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut Into Cubes
• 3 teaspoons Cajun Spice Mix, More To Taste
• 1 pound Fettuccine
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 whole Green Bell Pepper, Seeded And Sliced
• 1 whole Red Bell Pepper, Seeded And Sliced
• ½ whole Large Red Onion, Sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 4 whole Roma Tomatoes, Diced
• 2 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• ½ cups White Wine
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• Cayenne Pepper To Taste
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
• Salt To Taste
• Chopped Fresh Parsley, To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain when pasta is still al dente; do not overcook!

Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun spice over chicken pieces. Toss around to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet over high heat. Add half the chicken in a single layer; do not stir. Allow chicken to brown on one side, about 1 minute. Flip to the other side and cook an additional minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a clean plate.

Repeat with remaining chicken. Remove chicken, leaving pan on high heat.

Add remaining olive oil and butter. When heated, add peppers, onions, and garlic. Sprinkle on remaining Cajun spice, and add salt if needed. Cook over very high heat for 1 minute, stirring gently and trying to get the vegetables as dark/black as possible. Add tomatoes and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Remove all vegetables from the pan.

With the pan over high heat, pour in the wine and chicken broth. Cook on high for 3 to 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in cream, stirring/whisking constantly. Cook sauce over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until cream starts to thicken the mixture. Taste and add freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, and/or salt to taste. Sauce should be spicy!

Finally, add chicken and vegetables to sauce, making sure to include all the juices that have drained onto the plate. Stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until mixture is bubbly and hot. Add drained fettuccine and toss to combine.

Top with chopped fresh parsley and chow down!