Category: Home

Summer in the Kitchen

I love Summer! I love summer vegetables and cooking on the grill! There’s something about summer that makes it more fun to cook!   I think because it feels more relaxed … Eating outside and not having as many activities to go to with kids. 

What are some of your lighter fare dishes you love to whip up when the weather is hot?    Grilled shrimp, grilled chicken, chopped salads and corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers are some of mine!   I love a chilled gazpacho soup too!   Let’s share some favorites!

Summer nights

Oh how I love Summer nights!   Grilling yummy food and enjoying the evening sunset!   My husband and I have been trying to eat healthier…. you know how that goes!  So we recently found this new favorite recipe for Cedar Plank Salmon!  It’s absolutely to die for!

We also found that the marinade works great on shrimp!  We’ll skewer the shrimp after marinating and grill those too!   So incredibly yummy!

You can find Cedar Planks in your grocery store in the fresh fish section – at least you can in ours – and I recommend stocking up.  We only use our boards once.. they are not very expensive and really make the dinner amazing!    We also keep a jar of crushed/minced Ginger on hand so we don’t have to grate it for this recipe AND finally…. If you buy scallions and chop them.. you can freeze what you don’t use and use them for the next marinade.  We’ve also substituted minced onion in a pinch and it works great!

CLICK on photo for recipe!

Now enjoy your evening at home… a delightful dinner… relaxing in your own back yard! Priceless!

Going off to college!

 

It’s so much fun to see your kids grow up to be adults, although scary too!   You’ve raised your kids, taught them morals, ethics, manners, and the value of hard work and they are 18 and going off to college where you have absolutely NO CONTROL!   So hard for a planner like myself and I’m sure for many moms and dads!

You hope all the words you’ve said… the lessons they’ve learned so far are enough to keep them safe and successful going forward!

This moment pictured above is my son test driving “reliable” cars to take to college.  He’s looking at pre-owned (aka “used”)  cars but NEW to him…. something that has low mileage and we hope will last him 4 years of college and slightly into his first job.

It has been a fun journey to research cars that HE loves and WE love and we think we’ve settled on something!  STAY TUNED!

All in just a few weeks he’ll buy his first car, go to prom, graduate and go to Freshman Orientation and move off to college in August!  Crazy how 18 years of raising your child turns into this.   A HUGE EMOTIONAL GOODBYE!

I think I’m ready… but I do expect to miss him terribly!   Only 2 more years until my daughter moves out… Holding on to every minute!

All Decked Out!

My husband and I were getting the house ready for Spring/Summer….and were disappointed that our deck stain/waterproofer was peeling up after a long cold winter!

Reluctantly… in order to do the job right… we sanded the deck to remove the peeling stain and are planning on reapplying the stain/waterproofing again…

So if you live in the North East, and are subject to harsh winters, what deck stain/waterproofer do you use that does not peel up season after season!  We are all decked out!   #wishIhadTrex #Patio #anythingbutwood  Would love your thoughts before we stain this coming weekend!  

Which one?

So, I’m renovating my kitchen, and I’m just curious do you prefer the top or the bottom cooktop? SERIOUSLY would love your comments!  🙂