Hepburn and Houndstooth

I am proud to introduce the first item in my OpenSky shop… these great heart-shaped cookie cutters.  I love cookie cutters and have a slight addiction to buying them.  I don’t just use them for cookies, but also for shaping playdoh, pancakes, and cutting shapes into the kids’ sandwiches.  My 4-year-old really loves heart-shaped grilled cheese.

They are made of tinned steel, which makes for really clean cuts and durability. They come in a boxed set of four, and at $12, they are perfect for gift-giving. Showers, teacher gifts, Christmas, or just because!

1. Nick’s first movie Saturday was a huge success and the entire day ended up being just for Nick.  My mom and I spoiled him all day.  It’s rare that he gets undivided attention these days, so that was nice.

2. Nick has been scared of leaving the pool steps all summer and yesterday, when nobody was paying attention, I got him to stand in the shallow end.  He was so surprised that he could touch bottom!  I’m so proud!

3. My husband and I had a date night yesterday and it was awesome!  We just did our usual thing, going to BWW.  We had blueberry beer and lots of deep fried goodness.

4. I have been trying to be such a great wife and mother, and I think I’m finally finding a balance between that and being ME.

5. Thanks to the encouragement of my friend Nicole, I am back to writing for the first time since college.  Yeah, I write a blog, but I’m talking about fiction.  I used to be really passionate about it, but when I had kids, lost the time and drive.

6. Some days I get really burned out on cooking and I just want to have ice cream for dinner.  I never do, though.

7. I have not worked out in weeks and I plan to get a work out in tonight, no matter what!  I have to do something about all the junk I consumed over the weekend.

8. Nick has gotten into this terrible habit of lying to get out of something he doesn’t want to do.  Luckily for us, he’s a horrible liar and well tell the truth with a little prodding.

9. I am on a cupcake-making kick… good for my family, not good for my waistline.

10. I did a good deed Saturday for a complete stranger and I’m still thinking about her.  Was she scamming me?  Did she really need help?  I’ll never know.

Even though I plan our meals out and grocery shop for two weeks at a time, I have to be flexible, because sometimes things just don’t work out.  Sometimes I don’t buy enough chicken.  Sometimes I forget that we have dinner plans with friends.  Sometimes I get sick and just don’t feel like cooking.  When things don’t go exactly as planned, I may make sandwiches or turn a meal vegetarian.  Last night, we had BBQ pork chops, and I intended to use leftovers to make my BBQ pork taquitos.  However, as I was putting the chops in the slow cooker, I realized that I didn’t have enough for leftovers.  I did, however, have extra ground beef in the freezer.  So I looked around at the other things I had in the house and came up with a taco-enchilada-type-thing.  I even decided to take you guys along on my experimental journey.

Step 1. Finely chop a few slices of onion.

Step 2: Heat skillet to medium-high and turn to grab olive oil just in time to see Nick pull something out from under Harper, sending him face-first onto the floor.

Step 3: Pause to see if Harper is going to get up.

Step 4: Rush to pick up Harper after seeing that he’s crying so hard, it’s silent.

Step 5: Sweep Harper up.  BLOOD!  Pouring out of his mouth.

Step 6: Harper on hip, run to turn off stove…

As I said in the title, nothing ever goes as planned.  With his blood on our shirts, Harper and I engaged in a tug-of-war with both the pacifier and a damp cloth.

ugh, that tear under his eye is killing me.

By the time I got a few peeks around the paci and got the bleeding to stop, he was over it and had moved on to wrestling.

So um, Step 7: Start back at Step 2…

Smitten Kitchen is basically a cooking blog (as you probably guessed from the title).  What makes this one so special is that it takes meals that are usually very simple to make and makes them seem so… special.  The photography is beautiful and it makes me want to cook every. single. night.  Number One on my list of things on this blog to make: St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake.

I mentioned it to Dustin, being a St. Louis native, he was all excited over gooey butter cake (whereas I’d never heard of it).  I’ll let you know how it turns out!

A week or so ago, a friend posted on Facebook something about doing a 30-day vegetarian challenge.  I asked her what her reasons were.   After hearing her reasons and doing some research, I was drawn in by the promise of feeling better overall at the end of the 30 days.  I have always been a fan of veggies and eating only small amounts of meat, so I decided I could do this!  I am now 5 days in and not missing meat at all!  We have discovered some really good recipes throughout the process.  My favorite so far is “Stuffed Peppers My Way” from allrecipes.com user Sandy.  The recipe is as follows: