Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun26

Birthday Bonanza

Posted on by
Standard

Holy Moly Gaucamole Batman, this weekend was exhausting!  The reason for such whirlwind activity was a very important one- Roscoe turned 5! We had not one, not two, but THREE parties for him with the end result being one very happy, and very tired, young man.  The celebrations started out with cake and party favors for his class.  In the interest of time and my sanity, I did not make his cakes for 2/3′s of the parties and bought the favors online via Oriental Trading- easy peasy.  After being hopped up on sugar and the added excitement of turning 5, Roscoe came home to celebrate another party with family.  My mom and dad came in for the party, too, making it an even more special day for our special guy.

What summer party is complete without watermelon?!

 The cake! (Spiderman of course)

 Our big presents to little man were a touch tablet (only $55 folks- not an ipad!) and an ukelele.  I am proud to say he loved both!  As for us, we loved having so many special people with whom to share this awesome occasion.  Once the party was over, however, it was time to gear up for party #3.  Fortunately for us, we decided to keep the friends party low key opting to have it at our neighborhood playground.  We were pleasantly surprised how many folks showed up and had a truly memorable time.

Roscoe’s meal request were pizzas from his favorite spot- Corner Slice.  He even made a custom pizza request of Mac n’ Cheese Bite Pizza.  The consensus was that it was delicious, but I just couldn’t muster the courage to give it a try.

 For dessert we had homemade vanilla ice cream and “hamburger” cupcakes that I made copying a recipe I found online (courtesy of Delicious Melicious)

Although it was an exhausting weekend, we are confident Roscoe felt uber special and had an amazing couple of days: mission accomplished!

Jun19

A Macho Dad’s Day

Posted on by
Standard

Just a brief recap of our Father’s Day celebration for ya’ today.  We spent the weekend at the lake house with Aaron’s family and I hunkered down to make a feast that could satisfy even the most insatiable of carnivores.  The menu?  For my part, I parboiled several racks of pork ribs and then threw them on the grill alongside chicken drumsticks, basting them with my homemade country-style barbecue glaze (the recipe is below)- and, yes, I did manage the grill (yet another hidden talent).

Aaron’s Mom took care of most of the sides, including fresh green beans, corn, and watermelon while I made a peach cobbler using fresh peaches, garnished with homemade vanilla ice cream.  Described in one word? Scrumptious.  The best part is that all the dad’s present felt special, loved, and happy with full bellies to boot.

Country-Style Barbecue Glaze/Marinade

Mix together all of the following:

  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp. molasses
  • 2 tbsp. worchestire sauce
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. ground mustard
  • 2 tsp. chili powder

Enjoy!

Jun13

Gettin’ Eggy With It

Posted on by
Standard

Happy hump day boys and girls! It’s setting up to be yet another whirlwind day for your’s truly, but what day isn’t when you have two kids, a dog, fish, and three chickens?  That’s right…three chickens!  Our newest additions joined the Randall flock (ha!) this past weekend and have already blessed us with five eggs.  We decided some time ago we wanted chickens since 1) I eat eggs like they are going out of style and 2) we fancy ourselves urban farmers and revel in the idea of being more self-sufficient.

The original plan was to purchase day old chicks and raise them ourselves.  The only downside of that idea is it would take months for them to mature enough to produce eggs and, well, we’re impatient farmers (oxymoronic, I know).  It just so happens that one of Aaron’s customers raises chickens and offered to give him several for free.  Who can say no to free?  So Aaron and Roscoe went and picked up three lovely ladies- Lucky (Aaron’s), Fred Clifford (Roscoe’s) and Ruby (mine).

They are Buff Orpingtons and have slowly started to get used to us.  It’s amazing how providing food and water will make you fast friends with a chicken.   So far, it’s certainly been a learning curve for us.  On the first day, we quickly realized that our chicken yard needed to be enclosed after we chased them down in the neighbors yard not once, but twice after they flew over the fence.  Despite looking absolutely ridiculous scrambling after loose chickens, I am thrilled to have ”the girls” as I like to call them.

As for the chicken coop, Aaron built it almost entirely out of scrap material and of his own design.  It turned out beautifully!

 

He incorporate a handy way to get the eggs out of the coop without irking the chickens.  Ingenious!

 So far so good, although we are still researching like crazy in ensure we keep them healthy and producing.  Who knew they had to have certain ratios of feed (i.e., pellets and scratch), be deloused, have their coop and run cleaned regularly, etc.?  They are certainly more work than we had anticipated but the reward is two fold: not just eggs, but a learning experience for the whole family.  As for Roscoe, he’s smitten!  We might have a future farmer in our midsts!