The tomatoes and basil are from the garden.  The mozzarella was purchased, although I still have hopes of making some this summer.  This appetizer was refreshing after a hot and humid day.

Have a good one!

I am embarrased to admit that I usually throw our old stuff in the car and drop it off at the Goodwill I’m closest to that day.  But no more: I’ve decided to try selling stuff on Craig’s List.  So far, I’ve posted three things and sold two.

I’ve sold some baby clothes…

and diapers…

so we can fund stuff like this…

I’m going to try to sell one or two things a week.  This will help us clear out our garage and make a little extra money.  I’ll let you know how this little side business does.

Have a productive week!

The girls and I were visiting my family last week.  We had lots of fun with the family and I tried to take lots of pictures.

My mom with Miss Petrie at the Albuquerque Museum. My mom drove back to New Mexico with us, which gave us some fun girl time!

My mom and maternal grandma with Miss Petrie Deux.

My brother, paternal grandmother and the Petrie girls.

My aunt with Miss Petrie.

My dad enjoyed having his grandaughers at his house.

My brother, the Petrie girls and our cousins.

Me, the grandmas and Miss Petrie Deux.

My dad and brother

My cutie younger cousin with the girls.

Me and Miss Petrie at the museum.

We had a wonderful time, but we’re happy to be back at Casa Petrie.

Have a relaxing weekend.

Miss Petrie Deux is sprouting her first tooth and she kept us up one night.  At 5 a.m. Mr. Petrie and I decided to get up.  We needed a breakfast to get us going.  Puffed pancakes are super easy to make and they taste decadent.

Fresh from the oven.

I heated frozen blueberries with a little water for the pancake topping.

I used a recipe from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  It requires very minimal ingredients, always a plus for this cook!

Have a great weekend, friends.

I made ice cream over the 4th of July weekend.  The process was step intensive and occured over two days, but it wasn’t difficult.

I used the Kitchen Aid mixer recipe.

There were 5 cups of heavy cream and half and half in this recipe and 8 egg yolks.

I used chocolate covered Oreo cookies as a mix-in.

The result was custardy in taste and creamy in texture.

Scrumptious!

Enjoy your weekend.

I know I’ve been talking about showing you pictures of our backyard forever.  Well, it’s finally starting to come together enough for me to take pictures and show them to you.

We have a few guiding tenets to make decisions regarding our yard.  The first is that we need to conserve water, since we live in the desert.  We chose to forego grass in favor of mulch.  Mulch keeps the yard cool, repels many bugs and helps keep the weeds down.  And, to be quite honest, we were unlikely to take good care of grass.  The second tenet is that we invest in plants that do something for us, such as provide food.  The third tenet is that we have plants that grow easily in our high desert environment.  Our yard is a place for us to have fun.

A pole bean teepee

Miss Petrie's play area is covered by a sun shade.

We’re starting to get food from the garden, which is incredibly exciting!

More pictures to come.

Miss Petrie Deux is 5 months old!  She is chubby, her hair is starting to come in ruddy and slightly curly, and her eyes are a hazel green color.  She naps every three hours or so during the day.  She smiles, laughs, and screeches loudly when she’s happy.  She loves the water in the tub and in the pool (the couple of times we’ve been).  She sucks her thumb and enjoys sucking our thumbs, too.

Have a great day!

My brother sent the girls matching outfits last week.  UT is his alma mater.  Mr. Petrie and I hope the girls want to go to our alma mater, St. John’s College, but UT would be good, too!

Thanks for the thoughtful gift, Brother.  Miss Petrie has already requested a campus visit “to the school my uncle went to that has a cow”.

Have a great day!

Happy 4th of July!!

I love a caprese salad (or my version) in the summer.  It consists of romaine, tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.  I used mozzarella pearls in this salad, which I had never used before.  I served the salad with garlic bread and sangria.

At Casa Petrie, we have been wanting to make yogurt, mozzarella and ice cream.  We have an ice cream maker that attaches to our Kitchen Aid mixer, but we haven’t used it for quite a while.  I have read that it is easy to make yogurt in the slow cooker.  And I’m not sure making cheese will be easy, but how cool would it be to make our own cheese??

On a side note, this Ed Hardy sangria we picked up at Cost Plus was inexpensive (about $6) and it is sweet and smooth.  I highly recommend it.

Enjoy your day.