H&H Club - Food Post 2: My Favorite Foods

This is the second post in a weekly food series for the month of June for my Homesteaders and Homeschoolers group.

This is going to be a simple post about my favorite foods.

Thai food:  pad thai with chicken or tofu, chicken satay with peanut sauce, spring rolls, sticky rice with mango.

Japanese tappenyaki  - where they cook the food in front of you on a grill, often providing entertainment, making big flames, tossing eggs into the air, making flaming volcanoes with layered onions, etc. The food is simple and yummy!  I have not been to one of these in years!!!  We need to take the kids sometime - I thnk they would enjoy it.  It tends to be expensive though.

Crab legs with melted butter.  Usually the best ones are from Red Lobster or expensive restaurants.  The ones they offer at Chinese buffets are not very plump with the yummy meat...they have skinny crab muscles.   The garlic cheese biscuits at Red Lobster are quite yummy as well.

Pasta House salad - they put artichoke hearts in their salad and have an awesome dressing.  Sadly, there are no local, or even near, Pasta House restaurants.

Fettucine Alfredo or Pasta Carbonara (bacon and cream sauce) - YUM!

Fruit smoothies with orange juice base.  NO YOGURT OR DAIRY!!!!

Cinnamon apples

 Better Homes and Gardens chocolate chip cookie recipe baked on stoneware - they turn out perfect!

rice krispie treats

Reeses Peanut butter cups - during breaks between classes through college, oneof my favorite snacks was a Reeses, Cheetos, and a Mountain Dew.  I probably had it about 100 times.  Healthy, eh?!

coffee with French Vanilla creamer

amaretto stone sours.

I have been soda free I think for over year now and I still miss Pepsi and Cherry Pepsi, sometimes REALLY bad!

I am hungry now!!!!

Music Monday - Kindie Music

There is some good kid music available these days.  I often find myself enjoying some of these artists even when the kids are not with me.  Here are some of my favorites:

I think my favorite is Justin Roberts.  He has lots of albums out.  Our family went and saw him in concert up near Chicago a few years ago.  Here are a few of his songs:



Some of our favorites are Yellow Bus, Great Big Sun, Backyard Super Kid, Tickle My Toes, in The Car, and many more.  He has so many good songs.

Dan Zanes:



Renee and Jeremy - beautiful harmonies




Frances England



Elizabeth Mitchell


23 Skidoo



I also like Laura Doherty, Laurie Berkner, and a few others.  I am always looking for fun kindie artists.  Y' got any recommendations?

H&H Club - Food Post 1: Thara Thai

My Homeschooler and Homesteader friends have decided to dedicate a weekly blog post in June to anything food related.  This is my first post for this assignment.  

Thara Thai Restaurant is a family owned restaurant in Champaign. The owners Pone and Sujin are the cooks and their kids Chris and Ras take care of serving the customers.   

Thara Thai has been part of our family since Brian and I first started dating - about 12 years ago.   We would pick up the food and take it back to Brian's apartment soon after first meeting.  The staff there have watched us date, been with us through engagement, marriage, I would take the kids with disabilities I worked for there (way back when I worked), the staff have seen us add 3 children to our family, me pregnant with 1 surrogacy and desire to do another.  Pone was able to come out of the kitchen a couple times ago when we were there and we talked of this history and she gave me a great big hug.  When she is tired, she is easier to understand, as she talks slower. There are other times she talks a mile a minute, with her strong accent, so happy, and I have to concentrate REALLY hard to understand everything she is saying.  :)   LOVE this lady!

Pone is the little, tireless, wonderful lady who owns it.  Her husband is rarely seen, but keeps extremely busy in the back cooking up the yummy goodness.  Chris is their son who is most often there and Ras is their daughter, who moved back to Chicago area a few years ago, but returns on the weekend to help out.  Ras has a son, Noah, a little older than my boys, who often hangs out at the restaurant, when Ras is there.  My boys LOVE when he is there.  They will spend time playing with his toys and looking at whatever computer game he is playing.  

Brian and I have often talked of kidnapping Pone and keeping her hostage on the farm.  She would not have to work all day and night (restaurant business is VERY Hard work)  - all she would have to do is cook for us at least once a day  ;)  If we ever win the lottery, and build our eco-village, we will invite her family to live in our village and ask her to cook often.   Anytime she is not cooking, she will be asked to relax, because she has earned it!  

We have considered and are still interested in growing some herbs and vegetables that they use in their main dishes.  Maybe we can barter a free meal every once in a while in exchange for fresh produce.  :)  

Our favorite dishes are chicken satay with peanut sauce, cucumber salad, pad thai with chicken or tofu, and sticky rice with mango or custard.   Sometime last year, Brian stopped by to bring some home, and they had made too many spring rolls, so sent Brian home with several free spring rolls.  I swear it was laced with addictive drugs, because we always have to get these now as well.  I am not a big fan of curry dishes, but my friends who are, say their curry dishes are awesome as well.

Our children devour their food.  They have enjoyed it since in utero and the spicy food was some of the first solid foods they ate as a baby, after the first typical mashed cereals and mashed fruits/veggies.  I have passed on the love of their peanut sauce to my children.  After all the chicken satay is gone, the remaining peanut sauce gets spooned out of the bowls into our mouths.  I have even seen the kids wiping the peanut sauce bowl clean with their fingers!  :)

We have tried other Thai places and others simply do not compare to the greatness of Thara Thai.    It feels good to share a history with this restaurant and the people who own it.  Love this place!   Now, go eat there!  :)  

Gareth's 4H Cloverbud Chickens on my Farm presentation

Gareth presented his talk today to his 4H group. The below pic and video was a practice session at the house this morning.  He was a bit quieter at the actual meeting, said he was a little nervous.  He did a great job - I was proud of him.  He colored and talked about the feather colors, any special features, and color of the eggs.   

Visit from Aunt Carrie and family

My sister, who lives in South Dakota, came to visit a few weeks ago, along with her husband, my nephew - Daniel,and niece - Elizabeth. It was a good visit. The kids had a great time playing with cousins.

They came with us to the end of the year Family Outing for Zane and Iris' pre-k program.

The winner of guess how many marshmallows

looking for  indian beads (fossils)

Music Mondays In May - Dedication to Brian and other favorite love songs

This post is the 4th part in a series of Music Mondays in May inspired by my Homesteader and Homeschooler friends.  However, I may have 2 more weeks for the music posts.  I just had so many songs that I love.  Next month, we decided to write about the broad topic of food.  I have my notes written for all 4 weeks for food.  I am excited to get started.

For this 4th week of Music Mondays, I am focusing on songs that make me think of Brian.  I wouldn't say we have a specific song we call "our song."  Some of these songs, we both really like, or some of the songs I love and make me think of Brian.  Some of the songs make me think of our life together and the children we made and are raising.  Some of the songs, I like for the love story it tells.  Enjoy!

When Brian and I dated, we took swing dance lessons.  So much fun!  I want to take country line dancing and salsa with him one day as well.  We still remember how to do the basic moves and I often request swing music when at wedding receptions, so I can dance with my cute husband,  This song is the one most often played.  In general, I enjoy swing music.

look at us youngins!  

We got married outside at a local park over the lake. Afterwards, we had a small reception at the Lake House. We played music and danced on the deck overlooking the water. We played music from a CD we had made of our favorite songs.I know At LAst from Etta James was played, but my favorite was Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi, an Indian musician. At the time, it had become an internet sensation, kind of like the Gangham style dance of today. Brian did the dance from the video quite well.
 

Great day!

 I heard this song with my sister a long time ago and we instantly thought of my my mom and dad. Now that I am married, I jokingly apply it to my marriage, and Brian and I both like it.  It is a silly, sweet song about love.  In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine and Iris Dement


Gaelic Storm - She Was the Prize.  We both love this song and hope to have a love that is this long lasting.  Wonderful song. If anything come close to "our" song, this would be it.  LISTEN to the words......


I Do by Jon Schmidt and Neil Middleton - I LOVE this song.  It is beautiful!  EVERY time it comes on,  I tell, Brian, "shh, listen to  the words."


Joshua Kadison - Painted Desert Serenade - love this song.  It tells of tender elderly love.  The setting is a senior home.  There are sad parts, but carefree happy parts too.  Just listen.  It is great.


JUNO soundtrack is awesome.  These songs are my favorite and make me think of Brian. :) 


Here is a video I made for Brian using one of the songs:


Grey DeLisle - my sister introduced me to this artist.  I REALLY like her story telling writing in her songs.  I love her voice.  These songs are my favorite love songs from her albums.  The Maple Tree is a tragedy.
THe video below is  a cover.  I love Grey's voice!  Find it with Grey singing and listen to the words!
The Maple Tree

Sharecroppin Man
I could not find a video with just this song.  The below video has the song on it, along many more.  I love her voice. 



I Wanna Be Rich - Brian sings this all the time, has me and the kids singing it, but we all use different lyrics. For example:  "I love mama, and I love Gareth,  Zane and Iris toooooo...."  It is funny that even the kids are making rhymes to the beat now.


Other songs that remind me of family life or my chidlren:
Just ANother Day in Paradise by Phil Vassar


My Wish by Rascal Flatts


It WOn't Be Like This For Long by Darius Rucker, former lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish, crossed over to country.  Love his voice, love this song!

Vermicomposting

We are trying some worm composting. You take the worm waste and add it to the garden and/or to the compost tea that you can spray the leaves and fertilize the ground around the stems.

using a plastic bin with hole punched in bottom for drainage and on top for  aeration

adding the worms

we added grass clipping, torn cardboard, dirt, food scraps

adding torn up paper from recycling bin --lots of old school worksheets

WORMS punched into lid

Now we wait, add more material to decompose, and see if they multiply and give us fertilizer!  :)