Mama's July Tomatoes

He goes to the garden, picks his own tomato and bites right into it...

And just a little while later, who would-a-thought doing face-plants into a plate of squashed tomatoes would be so delightful?

Creative Bento Boxes

I have fond memories of seeing children's bento boxes while in Japan, but I had never seen one's like these, they are so creative. I'm also thinking that the Mommy that made the ones posted below sure does have a lot of time on her hands.

Regardless... now wouldn't it be fun to open up your lunch and see these happy meals!? I've provided links to each one in case you wanted to see the ingredients. If you are interested in finding bento boxes and supplies, I happened upon this site. They list several outlets of where to order bento boxes and related stuff. It's overwhelming what's out there!

Pirate Monkey Sandwich Bento

Brown Bear Bento

Balsamic Chicken Bento

King Musubi Bento

Taste Spotting is YUM

My boss recently suggested that I check out TasteSpotting.com. Now I highly recommend that you check it out. It's a place where you can go to see fabulous pictures of food with recipes that link you directly to their food blogs. Ironically, a lot of the blogs featured are ones that I go to to read about food and get recipes anyway. The pictures are great, like a taste-test of high-def polaroids.
If you want some inspiration on what to cook or bake, I suggest you go there.

So what have I been inspired to make this week?
Lentil, carrot, and kale soup with creme fraiche and dill.
(only because I happen to have the ingredients in my cubbard)

Love is in the Air

I've never been a real big fan of Valentines Day ~ I was the girl that never got anything, so from an early age I decided that I hated it and rebelled against the whole idea. It's another time to 'have to buy' or 'expect' something on another holiday, blah blah blah. Well, now that I have a lovely little family (hee-hee), I don't mind it so much. I still would never expect a gift from Brendan or anyone, no flowers, chocolate or card.... But I am warming up to the idea now of making and/or appreciating pretty things that are Valentines Day-related.
I have found some nice things while perusing my favorite sites and of course the Valentines Day theme kept coming up, and well, I liked some of it. I found myself saying... woah, I love that... awww, that is so sweet...
So here are the things that make me think that, the things that I love:

I love anything lemon. And these lemon bars look so freaking good.

I am on a tea-kick at the moment. This is such a good idea from Bird and Banner! (Amy if you see this, you should print some of these~ hmm, I could collaborate with you on this idea :) Oh and here is where we could get the cheesecloth drawstring bags from... ok, now my mind is whirling with ideas....



And I really love printmaking, something I haven't done in so long and I miss and appreciate it. Now I just gawk and sigh when I see great designs. Lovely Design is one of my favorite blogs, she makes pretty things. Here is her recent pattern she designed for the month of February.

And these salt & pepper hug shakers by Scott Henderson are so freaking cute.

Six Girls and the Doctor: A Post by Miriam

I got together with some friends on Wednesday night... Miriam, Shawna and Ruby, Carrie and Evangeline. it was so much fun. Short and sweet. Miriam recently started a new life and a new blog. It's called Blue House Red Dog, you've got to go check it out. She took some fabulous pictures (of course) and blogged about our evening. Here's a link to her blog bluehousereddog.blogspot.com . Oh and if you're wondering who the Doctor is... it's Konrad. See, Brendan and I had played around with the idea of naming him Doctor. So he'd be Doctor Soennecken. Well, it stuck with Shawna and Ruby. It's really cute when Ruby calls him Doctor.

I'm sorry I've been out-of-blogging for a bit. Christmas was wonderful, except for the fact that Konrad got really sick on the 24-25. All three of us didn't get much sleep that night and I was stressed out with a sick for-the-first-time child. It wasn't until the 26th that Konrad perked up and enjoyed the tree (ornaments took up the top 3/4 of the tree) and his massive new Buggamachinea (sp?) (imported from Germany). It's a huge tractor with a front-loader for ages 3 and up, so we have to help him up on the thing. Yeah, it's nice and it only takes up a 1/4 of our living room!
New Years was quiet. Brendan worked and Konrad and I were in bed by 9:30. Yeah,  while Brendan fought a fire the entire night up on the mountain, we slept soundly. The highlights from our holiday besides Konrad pulling off random ornaments and sitting atop of his tractor, were the fabulous meals Brendan has been making with the venison meat. He got two dear this past season, as you may of heard. Our Christmas meal was a fabulous venison roast with turnips, carrots and spaetzle. New Year's day we went to our friend's Brian and Allison's and ate a huge spread of schnitzel, spaetzle with Jager sauce, red cabbage, a horseradish carrot salad and a creamy mustard cucumber salad. Allison made a dessert that was so good that we renamed it Bezzlebub's Fantasy. And the other day, I came home from lunch to have the best German goulash made with venison and juniper berries over spaetzle....oh it was wonderful.

Christmas & Advent will be here soon!

Well it's that time of year when I need to get my usual German food supplies from German Deli.com. But luckily this year, we were able to find most of our Advent and Christmas supplies from our local Aldi.
Here are the things on our list:

• Lebkuchen (puffy gingerbread cookies)


• Spekulatius with Almonds (yummy spicy cookies that are great for milk & tea dunking)


• Christmas Stollen


• Marzipan
  
• Gummi Bears (well....really,that's an all year thing)


• Advent Calendar (with chocolate)
  

Also St. Nicholas Day is fast approaching, December 6. So I need to get supplies to fill the boy's boots, big and little!

Today in the Shire

Konrad and I had a wonderful day. We spent most of it at the Gazebo where the Women's Club hosted a Mother's Day plant sale. Shawna, Ruby, and Miriam were there...we all hung out, it was so much fun. What a sweet little community we live in.

Miriam, of course took some fabulous photos of the day, you can check them out here at her blog. I couldn't resist snagging at least one of them and placing it in here.

a very happy Mother's Day indeed.

I bought some plants for our garden, tomatoes, jalapenos and serranos, cucumbers, and summer squashes. I felt like a kid in a candy shop...I wanted it all.

Oy Panda is So Good

My latest addiction: Panda licorice.

Next time you are at Trader Joes, I highly recommend you pick up a box or two. Four reasons why you should try it, it's all natural, fat free, delicious, and made in Finland.

Fennel Tea Addiction

I have been craving fennel tea since I left Germany. The fennel I've had here isn't good and doesn't have the same taste for some reason. I'm considering ordering some from German Deli.com They also carry it for babies so Konrad can have it in a couple months. It settles the stomach and makes me feel good...Hmm, am I addicted or what? A bit on the pricey side though. sigh.

A Whole Lotta Stuff Going On

So many days have passed since my last blog entry, sorry about that, a lot has been going on.

I had a stupendous 35th birthday yesterday. I think it was probably the best birthday I can remember and it was spent at home with Brendan, Konrad, and Norman. Brendan made it truly a special day for me. Brendan made my favorite meal: Schnitzel, Spaetzle with a chanterelle cream sauce, and a deelish array of German salads. And I got to open some wonderful gifts from family!

This and That

You'll have to excuse my long absence, I have been enjoying these past few days tinkering around the house for Christmas and spending every waking moment playing with the Kaiser. 

Today is rainy and cold and a perfect day to be tucked inside. Tomorrow I have volunteered to bring a dish to a Christmas brunch at work. I made the old family favorite, French Toast Casserole, made with egg nog - oh it's sooo good and easy. Mom would make this the night before Christmas so she wouldn't have to cook anything for breakfast when we opened our Christmas gifts.

Here's the recipe:

French Toast Casserole

For each 9x11 pan (4-5 servings)

Cut up a loaf of French bread, I use a baguette

Slice bread into 1/2 -1 inch slices, cut it slanted-like so it looks prettier

Grease the casserole dish with butter

Spread cream cheese on the bread

Sprinkle with nutmeg

Lay the bread in the casserole dish in two layers

Mix 8 eggs with 2 1/2 cups of egg nog

Pour the egg nog mixture over the top of the two layers of bread.

Let sit in the fridge overnight

Take out 20 minutes before heating (at room temperature)

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 325-350 degrees.

Serve with Uncle Deac's maple syrup in a pretty pitcher (but only for yourself, not for a party...I like to keep the real good stuff at home!)

Feelin' Domestic

Having a kid has inspired me to do more around the holidays, so I'm home baking cookies for Christmas. (Yeah, it's my sorry excuse to have more delicious things around the house to munch on) Today I baked Pecan Snowballs. Mom and Dad just sent us a big box of pecans from Georgia so I thought I'd put them to good use. I'm not the best baker, but this recipe is pretty idiot-proof, I found it the other day listed in the Washington Post here. 

Eating Lot's of Clementines

Yumm!

Baking Brotchen Bread

 If there is one thing that I miss about Germany, it's the fresh little Brotchen breads from the bakery (no American breads even come close). We finally found a recipe that's just like the real thing. We were really impressed with the outcome and had the delicious traditional fare for dinner, complete with gouda cheese, mortadela, liverwurst, and various other meats and spreads. The trick to making this recipe more authentic is cutting a slice down the middle of the dough and then brushing the milk and egg white mixture on top. Here is the recipe we followed.

Best Summer Dinner

Since we've been inundated with delicious tomatoes this year, I've been looking for some good tomato recipes. Brendan made this last night and it was sooo good and super quick and easy to make. It's from the Best International Recipes from Bon Appetit. It's called Greek-Style Penne with Fresh Tomatoes, Feta, and Dill. Here is the recipe.