What a month I’ve had. Nothing has been easy. Everything that should go together without much effort has taken twice the amount of time I thought.

For example- I ordered all new bulletin boards for the classroom remodel I’m in charge of. I won’t even go into the number of phone calls it took to place a basic furniture/shelving/bulletin board order. It might be a story for another post. Anyway, we were getting concerned that we would not receive the bulletin boards before the teachers had to start setting up their rooms, since the shipping estimate was 4-6 weeks. So, we called, confirmed they had not shipped our boards, canceled the order and ordered similar (non-returnable) boards from Office Depot. The next day we get a call from the first company saying, “Whoops, they shipped after all. But you can either refuse the shipment or call for a pickup.” The next day half of the bulletin boards arrived. Too late to cancel the 2nd order. A few days later, the other half of the boards show up. I refuse the shipment. Signed the bill of lading- Refused, order canceled, return to sender. Are you following this? Ha!

Later the same week the shipment from Office Depot was due to arrive. I walk into the office Thursday and there are my boards. Rock on! Now we can get them hung and the teachers can decorate them and be ready for preschool. Awesome. We open the boxes and get to it. Then a trucking company pulls up and begins to deliver more bulletin boards. Um, yeah. The first company had redelivered the refused boards Wednesday night and this was our Office Depot order. Sigh. So the first bulletin boards go back in their boxes until we can arrange another pickup.

All this drama just for bulletin boards. And this is just one of dozens of examples I could give you.

Last night Daphne slammed my hand in a door. (Happy birthday to Mommy!) The hinged side. Childbirth was less painful. Pitocin contractions were less painful. I now have 3 purple, swollen fingers and black nails on my left hand. And they still really, really, really hurt. I can’t use them. And I’m throwing a party tomorrow. I’m not sure how I’m going to dry my own hair. And darn it, I really wanted a birthday mani/pedi.

So I’m making homemade ice cream, brownie pops, cupcakes, little paper ice cream trucks… all one handed. You just have to laugh.

Here are my mini brownie “cake” pops, put into kiddie cones and dipped to look like ice cream scoops. Inspired mainly by Bakerella. By best one handed effort. Should have thinned out the chocolate melts on top.

And to give you an idea of the scale. The Cherry Berries from Michael’s worked out great!

And an oopsie. I think I like this one better.

Not my best, but I hope the kids are impressed. I’m sure Daphne will be.

I love that fact that I normally work Mon-Thurs.  That leaves Friday as a day to spend time with Daphne and do as many fun summer things as possible.  Today we went to the Farmer’s Market.

Daphne got to pick out a watermelon.  And she even brought her camera.  Like the Daphne perspective?

We got a watermelon, some locally grown peaches, pickling cucumbers and onions, cilantro and apples.  All for $10.  I think that’s a great deal!!

I was particularly interested in the pickling cucumbers.  After seeing so many of the bloggers I follow make pickles, I had to try it too.  A couple of pounds of cucumbers, grown right down the road in Rosenberg, TX.

Tossed with Kosher salt to draw out some moisture.

Layered with sweet onions slices.

Filled with pickling solution (slightly sweet and very tangy dill) and chilling in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

I think we are in pickle heaven.

The verdict after being refrigerated for 6 hours?  AWESOME.  I will never buy store-bought pickles again.  And as they age, they will get even better.  Like my ghetto reclaimed jars? I had a bit of sticker shock when pricing Ball canning jar cases.  I swear I was able to buy 12 jars for like $6 or $7 just a few years ago. OK, maybe it was 10 years ago. Walmart wanted $18 for 12 quart jars.  Um, no.  Especially since these are just refrigerator pickles and not something that I plan on trying to water bath can.

I got the recipe from Fly Through My Window and followed all their modifications.  I did use Penzeys four peppercorn blend and a few red pepper flakes.  Next, I might try this bread and butter pickles recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Bread and butter pickles always remind me of the pickle bar at Goldie’s.   Now I know what I’m bringing to any BBQs we get invited to this summer.  Do you have a favorite pickle recipe?

Next up on my Things to Make from the Farmer’s Market list?  Maybe a peach cobbler and some gazpacho.  Yum… tastes of summer.

Hope you are enjoying your Father’s Day weekend!  Yesterday, we spent 5 hours at the pool with my dad.  Thank goodness for MAC Studio Fix liquid foundation, otherwise I’d have gone to church today with the worst sunburn lines on my face.  My forehead is roasted.  The area covered by my huge Jackie O sunglasses is white.  Then my cheeks and chin are a little red.  Really attractive!

Today we spent time with the rest of the family.  Steaks and burgers on the grill.  And for dessert?  Bakerella’s burger basket.  Cute, huh?

Cupcake bun, brownie patty and sugar cookie fries.  Daphne and her cousins loved them, after Daphne realized it was dessert, since she won’t eat bread or red meat.  Yeah.

Everyone had their own basket.

The fries were a bit of a pain, as was putting together the red and white baskets.  But it was worth it!

I even got a quick shot of Daddy and Daphne.  I’m waiting to get D’s hair cut before doing a real photoshoot.  She’s my mini-me in this pic.  Hilarious.

Happy Father’s Day!

make some lemon bars.

Actually I made these strawberry lemonade bars from Baking Bites.  Aren’t they a gorgeous color?  I ran out of strawberries, so I used a frozen berry mix, pulling out most of the strawberries and adding a few raspberries and blackberries to get the whole amount needed.

This recipe is a keeper!   Delicious, perfect flavor for summer and very easy to bake.  I used my Baker’s Edge pan for the first time on these and it made it so easy to cut/serve.  Hopefully the girls at my scrapbook night will enjoy them.

You remember the Tex-Mex Thanksgiving feast I was envisioning a few days ago? Well, that happened tonight for my husband’s birthday dinner. I liberated my copy of The Tex-Mex Cookbook by Robb Walsh from our storage unit and it provided all the inspiration I needed for the menu. If you are a fan of Tex-Mex, you must get this book. It’s the history of Tex-Mex cooking through recipes, pictures, interviews, clippings. And if you’ve lived in Texas, you’ll probably recognize some of the restaurants mentioned in the book. Oh, and everything I’ve made from the book has been fantastic!! So, that’s a big plus!

On the menu? Cheese enchiladas topped with chili gravy (Homesick Texan has the recipe here), pork and beef tamales with chili sauce, soft tacos, salsa, spanish rice, chips, etc. I think I made enough food for about 3 meals. And in full disclosure, I didn’t make the tamales. I bought a dozen frozen tamales from our local grocery store, HEB (Texas Tamale Company). And I just picked up the corn and flour tortillas from the HEB Tortilleria, instead of making my own. (Can I just tell you how much I love being able to pick up fresh tortillas at the grocery store. Love.) First off- the enchiladas rocked. So, so, so simple and so good. I usually don’t make enchiladas, mainly because the recipes I’ve used in the past had a tomato based sauce and it just wasn’t “right.” Now, I realize I was missing the chili gravy. That really is the key. And the tamales- rocked. I don’t even like tamales, but these were excellent. We stuffed ourselves on those and the rice and never even made it to the tacos. I guess that will be tomorrow.

Anyway, I love it when you make something at home and it turns out better (and way cheaper) than what you normally get in a restaurant. The only things missing were the cervezas and margaritas.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We spent ours with family and tons of food. The best kind of day. We also took Daphne to the movies for the first time. She LOVED it!! And I think it helped that we went to a theater that also served full meals and had waiters, so there was more room to move around. I can’t wait to take her back. And it was also very appropriate that my dad took us to the movies tonight. Growing up, my dad took us to a Saturday matinee just about every weekend we visited. Now, the tradition continues with the next generation.

And I realize as a blogger I’m supposed to have a really thoughtful Thanksgiving post. But I’m not doing that this year. Ha! Instead I’m going to gripe about traditional turkey dinners. Ok, gripe isn’t the right word. I’m certainly thankful for the wonderful meals we’ve eaten over the years. But I think that if you are going to spend crazy amounts of time in the kitchen with preparation and clean-up that you should at least make something that’s fabulous. And turkey just doesn’t do it for me. Actually, traditional southern home cooking doesn’t do it for me either (which explains why in all the times we’ve visited Savannah, we’ve never stopped by Paula Deen’s restaurant). I think we should have a beef tenderloin. Or steaks. Or, even better, a killer Tex-Mex feast with steak fajitas, homemade tamales/enchiladas and sauces, fresh tortillas, and lots of margaritas. Oh, that sounds so much better than stuffing. Maybe for Christmas. Does anyone else do a non-traditional menu for the holidays?

Daphne & I are getting a jump start on our holiday baking today by making some pumpkin butter. In typical Jenny/Daphne fashion, we managed to completely trash the kitchen. While Daphne was spilling the apple juice on the floor (because she was pouring it from cup to cup), I managed to spill my Penzeys Pumpkin Pie spice all over the floor. FYI- don’t try to Swiffer Wet Jet up a pile of spices from a tile floor.

But it will all be worth it when we can turn some of that pumpkin butter into pumpkin cheesecake. And if I wasn’t making a cheesecake, I would totally make this pumpkin pie recipe from Southern Living.

A gingersnap and pecan layer over the pie crust. Oh my goodness! And I love that they used the Anna’s Ginger Thins as a garnish as well. Hmm.. maybe for Christmas.

I’ll admit that it’s hard to get excited about pie baking. Especially since Costco makes killer pumpkin pies as big as SUV hubcaps for $6. And because growing up we’d usually buy our holiday pies from Tippin’s. Oh how I miss Tippin’s French Silk pie.

Here are our recipes, in case you need a little pie inspiration:

Pumpkin Butter

1 29oz can pureed pumpkin
3/4 c. apple juice
3 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar

Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices and sugars in large saucepan. Stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 min, stirring often, until thickened. Check the flavor and possibly add more pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate. (Also freezes well) Sometimes I’ll add chopped pecans.

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 c. pumpkin butter
1 9-in. graham cracker crust
Praline pecans (optional, or other candied pecans, or take the pecan streusel topping from the Southern Living recipe and use that)

Beat cream cheese at high speed until smooth. Add brown sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Stir in pumpkin butter. Pour mixture into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min, or until set. After removing from oven, chop praline pecans and sprinkle them on top. The heat will melt the sugar on the pecans slightly so they will stick to the surface of the pie. Or stick the pie back in the oven for a few minutes until your pecan topping can get melty. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Enjoy!

Like so many other families here in the US, we are slashing our Christmas budget. I think we will spend less this Christmas than any other year since we’ve been married. Our financial priorities lie elsewhere right now. So, I plan on making most of my gifts this year. Thankfully, I have a ridiculous fabric/yarn stash to get me started.

For those of you in the same boat, here’s an easy project. Really. You just need a computer and a stack of family recipes.

When my sister got married, I decided to make her a family cookbook. My Aunt Jackie did something similar for me when I got married, using a ring binder and page protectors. But, you know me, I had to push it to the next level. I started with the self-publishing service, lulu.com, and created a spiral bound, 178 page cookbook.

I just downloaded a Word template from lulu.com, typed in the text, designed a cover in Photoshop (they do have stock designs if you don’t want to design your own), uploaded the whole mess and this was the result:

I added a dedication page, table of contents, kitchen helps and conversions section, and divided the recipes up into sections. I didn’t do an index, because I was lazy. The cover was created with an inexpensive stock photo from istockphoto.com. Each book cost about $5 or $6 to print. So, you can print one for all the cooks in your family.

It would have been nice to do a scrapbook style, or full color cookbook. But at the time, those were expensive and I couldn’t have included so many recipes. Maybe there are more economical ways to do it now.

Anyone else plan on making gifts this year? What’s on your project list?

It’s a rainy, blah day here in Houston. Perfect weather for staying inside and watching TV, reading, and planning this week’s menu. Here’s my stack of books for today:

First up, recipe search and menu planning. I have 5 pounds of apples and am looking for ideas, preferably savory. Thinking of trying this- Rosemary pork tenderloin with harvest apples. Do you have a good apple recipe to pass along?

- Frank Stitt’s Southern Table. Stitt is an award winning chef from Birmingham. This book is just gorgeous.
- Stop and Smell the Rosemary. Junior League of Houston cookbook. Supposedly contains the best tortilla soup recipe ever. I need to try it. Some of my favorite cookbooks are from Texas Jr. Leagues, like Austin’s Necessities and Temptations, which is out of print. But if you are ever visiting Austin, you can pick up a copy in the capitol building gift shop.
- Barefoot Contessa Family Style. I adore Ina Garten. She’s my favorite celebrity chef.
- And just for fun, Julia Child! I grew up watching a bunch of public television, including Julia Child’s show. This was a birthday present from my sister and I’m trying to figure out what I will make first. Nothing involving gelatin, bone marrow or tripe

And a few photography books:

- Photojojo! So many great projects in this book.
- Exposure and Lighting for Digitial Photographers Only. One of the many photography books we have around the house.

And a crafty book:

- Pop Goes Crochet. What a fun book! 36 crochet projects inspired by pop culture. The first project that caught my eye was a retro, felted purse inspired by Dita Von Teese. I love Dita’s sense of style and she is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. She’s always off on some fabulous adventure. I’m also thinking of making the Doris Day scarf in an olive green wool yarn I’ve had for ages. I just need to find my hooks.

And just for fun:

- A Sookie Stackhouse book, From Dead to Worse.

What are you reading?

I’ve been a little obsessed with owls for the last few years. Maybe because my mom collected owls when I was kid. So, when I saw this recipe featured on Craft magazine’s blog last year, I bookmarked it and finally got around to making it today with Daphne. Aren’t they the cutest?!?

So fun! And to keep with the owl theme, I made this felt clip for Daphne last week using Lil Blue Boo’s owl applique pattern, just reduced 50%.

Speaking of my mom’s owl collection, when I was in elementary school I made her a ceramic baby owl in art class. I made him dark, dark brown and when it came time to paint his eyes I was puzzled. I couldn’t make them black, because they wouldn’t show up… so I made them orange/red. And you know what it looked like? A Jawa (Star Wars). Truly the ugliest thing ever. Just to show you that my craft projects haven’t always worked out.