Recipe Wednesday - Napa Pasta

My parents came up with this recipe and I'm sorry that I don't have a picture to share with you because this is really a fantastic recipe and I feel like you won't get the full effect until you see the finished dish.  They used spices from Napa Style and I looked online and couldn't really find anywhere else that sells these salt's, but I bet there is somewhere.  I would also link to the salts but the Napa Style website keeps crashing my browser...not good.  Regardless, this is a wonderful recipe that is different and pretty light.  And, the best part, it is almost better re-warmed up or eaten cold the next day!  Great job Mom and Dad! Enjoy!

Napa Pasta

Package of refrigerated pasta (we used three cheese ravioli)
NapaStyle Citrus Rosemary Gray Salt
NapaStyle Roasted Garlic Gray Salt
NapaStyle Prosciutto Bits
Roasted Chicken, pre cooked and cut into pieces
Parmesan Cheese, grated
Olive Oil
Sprinkle chicken and Prosciutto bits with a little of each salt and heat in skillet in olive oil until heated through.  Put in serving dish, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and heat in oven on low while preparing the pasta.   Brown pasta in olive oil with a little of each salt (I did this one layer at a time, lightly browning on each side.  It took about four skillets full.).  Move browned pasta to serving dish in oven until all pasta is finished.  Sprinkle more Parmesan cheese on top, stir and serve.

Pink

With this 365 picture project going some days we end up with more than one good picture.  And on those days I have to have a separate post here to share all of them.  Enjoy these from yesterday.

Yes, Luca was outside wanting in.  It's been so beautiful the last few days that he has wanted to go outside and sunbathe many times during the day.  So we've started letting him out and then leaving him out for a while.  When he saw Charlotte at the doors he wanted to come back in and play with her!

Distinguished Engineer

We went to Tuscaloosa for more than just shopping.  The whole reason that we went to town was to honor my Mom as she was inducted into the College of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Fellows.  This is a very select group that is comprised of only 1.5% of the engineering graduates from the College of Engineering.  My Dad was inducted three years ago and we were so proud of him.  This year Mom was selected as one of two female inductees and we couldn't have been prouder!

We spent Saturday hanging out.  We took Charlotte on a walk around the stadium and saw all the senior girls going into the stadium for Panhellenic Weekend.  We saw my cousin who is about to graduate from high school and go to Alabama but we chose not to embarrass her by calling out her name and waving and making a scene.  Probably the best idea since we don't want to be kicked out of the family! :)

We got ready for our evening out and our babysitter, Meghan, took pictures of us.  I have to say that we look pretty spiffy all dressed up!  Charlotte stayed at home with Meghan, thus her lack of black tie attire.  I absolutely loved Mom's dress, it was so beautiful and glamorous and she looked great in it!

The dinner was very enjoyable.  Dinner was fantastic and we enjoyed having everyone honor Mom.  She is such an inspiration to me because not only was she a wonderful, stay-at-home Mom for a long time, she has also taken the business world by storm and positively impacted our community in such a great way.  She had to give a little speech when she accepted her award and she was nervous (I guess I come by my fear of public speaking honestly!) but she did great.  It was such a heartfelt, sweet speech.  We are so proud of you Mom! Congratulations!  Here she is giving her speech.

Overall, we had a really great weekend in Tuscaloosa.  Sunday was Charlie's birthday and the boys celebrated with a round of golf once we got home.  We then enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Mom and Dad's Napa Pasta (recipe coming tomorrow!).  I had to get a picture of Charlotte and her Uncle Charlie on his birthday!

Friday in Tuscaloosa

We spent the weekend in Tuscaloosa and had such a great time.  I'll detail the reason for our trip in the next post, but I wanted to show you the pictures I've edited from Friday.

We woke up Friday morning and Charlotte and I went to meet our sweet friend, Lindsey, at Rama Jama's.  I'm oh-so-sad to admit that I never visited Rama Jama's during the four years that I spent in Tuscaloosa despite the fact that I lived in Tutwiler (kind of caddy-corner to it) freshman year and lived, literally, right next to it junior year.  From my breakfast on Friday I now know what I missed out on!  It was so good! Lindsey sat with Charlotte at the table while I went and ordered and the lady at the cash register asked me if I was going to eat the order of pancakes and the omelet all by myself.  She looked relieved when I told her the pancakes were for my little girl!  I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with Lindsey.  I am so incredibly thankful to God for bringing our lives back together so that we can enjoy friendship in the grown up world.  I just wished she lived in town so we could see each other more often!  Here is Charlotte and Miss Lindsey.

   

After breakfast Jason and I went out to do a little shopping for him.  We are desperately in need of a men's clothing store in our town and since we don't currently have one we set out to our favorite store in Tuscaloosa to stock up.  It was a very successful trip!  And I ran into one of my sweet pledge sisters at the store next door which is always fun.  

After shopping we came back to wake Charlotte up from her nap so that I could feed her and we could eat lunch.  Then Mom and I headed out to do some girl shopping (ditto for the need for a woman's clothing store in our town!) and left Charlotte with Jason.  I think they had fun!

Looking up at her Daddy. So sweet!

Nothing can beat an afternoon of Wonderpets!

Charlotte loves making a mess with pasta pick ups!

When Mom and I got back from shopping Charlotte was SO OVER me leaving.  She almost would not let me go for the rest of the night.  The poor baby's two top teeth are thisclose to coming through and so she was pretty miserable this weekend and just wanted her Mommy.  She was still a sweet little girl even though she didn't feel good.  We went to eat at Desperado on Friday night and it was really yummy! Here we are before dinner.

Doodle Bugs Online Show - Notecards

I'm a snail mail kind of person.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing a note from someone that I love in my mailbox.  Ok, some things make me happier but personal notes brighten my day! Kacey at Doodle Bugs Paper has some of the cutest notecards that would let you brighten your friends and families day!

These are adorable family cards! Perfect for writing notes to teachers or to family friends!

For those of you with an owl obsession, these notes are too cute to pass up.  The pink owl with the flower in her hair is my favorite!

I always wonder what to get guys for graduation presents.  These notes would be a great gift idea.  At least with these he might write his thank you's cheerfully.  Who am I kidding? Not cheerfully but you'll feel better that he's sending out thank you's on appropriate cards.

These are my current favorite folded notecards.  I love the pink, green, and zebra!  So fun!

These would make really great wedding shower gifts!  There are all kinds of different styles but since my current favorite color is purple I thought that these were the cutest.

Don't forget to use coupon code jespring to get 10% off of your Doodle Bugs order between now and April 11th!

*Disclaimer: I'm getting a discount too for telling you about Doodle Bugs but I would tell you about them anyway because I LOVE all of the things that I've ordered from Kacey! Great products at great prices and you're supporting a Mom in the South!

200th Post Giveaway Results

Thank you so much to those of you who entered the giveaway!  This blog has been such a blessing to me.  I have gotten to record my memories of Charlotte before I forget them which is a priceless thing.  I've also been able to ask questions and voice concerns and have received so much goodwill and advice.  I am so blessed to be able to share our lives with so many and to get to share in your lives as well.

As usual with my giveaways I turned to Random.org to draw my comment number.  I had 18 comments and so here are the results....

 This is a fitting number seeing as 13 is my favorite number.  I started counting and was delighted to see that the winner was....

Laurie and I went to middle school and high school together and so have known each other for quite a while.  We actually cheered together also which seems like it was 15 lifetimes ago.  We reconnected some time ago and I have loved getting to catch her with her family and her precious little girl Grace.  Laurie, facebook me or email me your address and I'll get your necklace and earrings in the mail!

I am really looking forward to doing more giveaways in May to celebrate Charlotte's first birthday.  I have lots of fun vendors that I LOVE scheduled.  Thanks for playing!

Doodle Bugs Paper Online Show

Paper, Paper, Paper! Who doesn't love paper products?!? I definitely do!  I love personalized stationery and gifts.  I've found that Kacey at Doodle Bugs Paper is my go-to paper source.  She is so friendly and easy to work with and she has a great selection of items that you can personalize to make your own.  Today (March 28th) through April 11th I will be hosting an online show for Doodle Bugs Paper.  I will be showcasing some of my favorite items that Kacey has.  In addition Kacey has generously given all of you 10% off of your order at Doodle Bugs during my show.  So make sure and head over to her site and stock up on stationery and gifts for yourself or gifts for others.  Kacey has items that would be great for Mother's Day, birthday's, or even you could get a head start on Christmas!

 

I love Charlotte's colorful bag tags!  We put them on all of our bags and our car seat when we went to California and they helped us identify our bags quickly.  Plus, they're so cute you don't mind having them on every bag that you own!

I have really enjoyed using the Kids Thank you Notes! Hopefully no one was offended when they got one after Christmas but they made the large amount of thank you's that we had so much easier.  They are really cute and you can personalize them if you need to change them up.  So nice to have after a big event!

One of my favorite Doodle Bugs purchases is my personalized stamp.  I had one before but the stamp didn't always stamp great which made it frustrating when it messed up my otherwise pretty return address.  So when we moved I ordered a new one from Doodle Bugs and the quality in my new stamp is so much better!  It stamps perfectly time after time and the ink has lasted a lot longer than my previous one also!  Having a personalized stamp really makes sending cards and even bills a little more fun.  These stamps also don't have to just be return address.  I would love it if someone got me this cute one!

I will be showcasing more of my favorite Doodle Bugs items throughout the next two weeks but please go check out Doodle Bugs and see if you can find yourself a new treat!  In order to get the 10% discount you must enter code jespring when you checkout! Happy shopping!

*Disclaimer: I'm getting a discount too for telling you about Doodle Bugs but I would tell you about them anyway because I LOVE all of the things that I've ordered from Kacey! Great products at great prices and you're supporting a Mom in the South!

Two hundred

Updated: The giveaway is now closed.  Thank you so much to those of you who participated!

Yay! This is my 200th post since I started Tales of a Peanut back in August.  I can't believe that I've posted this much!  I have loved getting to record our memories and my thoughts here on this blog and share them with you.  To reward you for your faithful readership of my many many posts on Charlotte and Alabama football, I'm doing a giveaway!

Last week The Nester had her big giveaway day -- I think it was 27 giveaways or something close to that.  She listed items from all kinds of great vendors that I  had never heard of before.  One of them was Stella and Dot.  I obviously live under a rock and don't read fashion magazines because it appears that I'm one of the last people on earth to fall in love with them but fall in love I did.  And today I'm giving away this beautiful Serenity Necklace and Earrings set!

This is going to be so easy to enter!  All you have to do is leave me a comment with your name, your blog and/or Twitter (if you have one -- please enter even if you don't have a blog or twitter or don't want to leave it!), and how long you've been reading Tales of a Peanut (if you've been reading since I started my previous blog you can say that but please remember not to mention our last name).  I can't wait to "meet" those of you that I haven't met before! You have until Sunday, March 28th to enter.  At that point I'll use a random number generator to select one of you for this wonderful prize!  If you have problems commenting (like you never have before and you have questions email me at talesofapeanut at gmail dot com and I can walk you through it!).

*Disclaimer: This prize is sponsored by me.  Stella and Dot have no idea who I am! :)

Recipe Wednesday - Breads!

If you don't have a bread machine I highly recommend that you go and purchase one.  The smell and taste of home baked bread is something that very few things compare to (can you tell I love carbs?!?!).  These are my two favorite, favorite time-tested recipes that always get rave reviews.  I know for sure that the Honey Oatmeal recipe is from my grandmother, Gramme.  I'm not sure if the Italian bread one is also or not.  But regardless, it's great too!

Honey Oatmeal Bread
Makes 2 lb loaf

11 1/2 ounces (or 1 1/4 cup and 3 T) water
3 T Honey
3 1/4 cups Bread Flour
1 c Old Fashioned Oats
2 c Dry Milk
2 T Butter
1 1/2 t Salt
2 1/4 t Active Dry Yeast

1.  Add ingredients to pan in the order they are listed, stopping before you add the butter, salt and yeast.
2. Level ingredients in pan by shaking or tapping on counter.
3. Spoon dry ingredients out to make a well in the center (put the extra in the corners).
4. Cut the butter into four sections and place in the corners of the pan.
5. Put the yeast in the center of the pan.
6. In one corner put the salt.
7. Follow machine instructions to get the outer crust type that you want (I put this on the white bread setting for a 2 pound loaf with a light crust)

Italian Bread
Makes a 2 lb loaf

1 ¼ c. 2 T. water

3 T. oil

4 c. bread flour 

3 T. sugar

3 T. dry milk

1 T. Dried Italian Seasoning

2 t. salt

2 ¼ t. active dry yeast 

1.  Put ingredients in pan in the order they are listed, stopping before adding the salt and yeast.

2. Spoon out a well in the center.  Add the yeast into the well.

3. Add the salt in one corner.

4. Follow machine instructions to get the crust that you want (I put this on the French course for a 2 pound loaf with a light crust).

Two months till cake!

CLee,

You have been on the MOVE this month little girl! You are always moving, never staying still for even a few minutes.  You wear me out just watching you!  When we went for your nine month doctor's appointment your pediatrician told us that you hadn't put on much weight because you are always on the move and you haven't stopped that.  It's funny because you still prefer to army crawl more than regular crawl.  You can go SO FAST and you pull yourself with your arms and push off with your toes.  It's like you're doing hundreds of calf raises each day!  It seems like so much work to move like that rather than regular crawl but you are much faster that way so I guess that's why you prefer it.

This month you have also increased dramatically in your ability to get down from standing.  At your nine month birthday all you could do was fall backwards onto your bottom.  But now you get up and down like a pro.  Last night I was sitting in the recliner and you were on the floor with Daddy holding on to the footrest.  You had no problems getting down then getting back up over and over and over.  You are also cruising down the couch and today you were standing up against the wall and I was standing back from you a little bit and you turned around and stepped towards me.  You wouldn't let go of the wall until you had hold of me, but I was impressed! It won't be long before you are walking around here!

Despite your doctor's promises that you were perfectly healthy and that you were fine at the weight you were, we spent this month dedicated to getting some more meat on your bones.  We found that you are basically a bottomless pit for food, you will keep eating it as long as we put it in front of you for the most part.  You are almost 100% eating finger foods.  You HATE having us feed you with a spoon and so we try and avoid that as much as we can.  Some of your favorite things right now are Yo-Baby Yogurt, pancakes, waffles, shredded cheese, any kind of fruit that's cut up, chicken (in any form), pasta (as long as there is some sort of sauce), goldfish, puffs, and lil crunchies.  Your newest favorite thing to do that drives us mad is put your food covered hands in your hair.  I think you're checking to make sure we didn't sneak a bow on you or something but it frustrates us to no end, especially if you just had a bath!  You get messy eating and you love every second of it.  It is so much fun to take you out to dinner with us because you love the crowds and you love just gobbling up whatever we put in front of you.  I hope you remain such a good eater.

But our plan to put on some weight appears to be working.  We weighed you on the Wii Fit a few days ago and it said that you were 17 pounds! That's about a pound and a half of growth in a month! Because of all of that you have outgrown some of your 9 month clothes and are able to wear some 12 month clothes.  I guess that's good since your Easter dress is a 12 month size!  You are wearing size 3 diapers also.  And you got your first pair of big girl shoes this month and have enjoyed wearing them!

Your schedule has kind of gone back and forth while we tried to figure out what was best for you.  You were waking up early in the mornings so we tried to scale back your daytime naps to have you sleep later in the morning.  That was a disaster.  We were keeping you up longer than you needed to be up and so were too tired to go to sleep during your naps and would just play.  We eventually came back to our original schedule and so far it's still working out for us.  You get up at 8 am (after waking up and going back to sleep a time or two), nap from 10 - 12 and 2:30 - 4:30 and go to bed at 8 pm.  You are still nursing four times a day and eating food three times a day.  You occasionally drink juice if you need it but most days you don't.  You only drink juice out of a sippy cup.

You are our sunshine little one.  We love each and every day and moment that we get to spend with you.  God has blessed us so tremendously by putting you in our lives.  We can only pray that we are the kind of parents that He wants us to be and that you need us to be. 

I love you!
Mommy

Tickle...

This is what Charlotte does when we tickle her where she's most tickle-ish (under her chin)....

This is what Charlotte does when her Daddy is blowing raspberries at her to try and get her to do it back.  She's not impressed.

This is what Charlotte does when she finds out that she loves cornbread.

Sick Saturday

Today has been an interesting day.  Mom and Dad offered to keep Charlotte last night so that Jason and I could go out on a date.  We took them up on their generous offer and went to dinner and a movie which was only our second time out by ourselves (without others with us) since Charlotte was born!  We had a good time but by the time we left Jason had a headache which was the first symptom of a little bug that he picked up somewhere.  So today Jason didn't get to go play golf and instead has spent the day in bed feeling yucky.  We are praying, of course, that he feels better (which he does so far), but mostly that Charlotte and I don't catch it also. 

So the day has been a little weird, definitely not the typical Saturday.  And I'm pretty worn out from taking care of Charlotte, cleaning the house during nap times, and making sure Jason is ok.  But I thought these pictures were cute so I thought I'd share.

 Yay! Stairs!

 One hand!

Charlotte has gotten sooo confident in her standing!  She has no problems pulling/willing herself to standing even if there isn't much for her to pull herself up on.  And she is great at getting down.  She's cruising down the couch either to get me or Luca.  I'm interested to see how quickly this progresses to steps.  On one hand I can't wait to see her walking but on the other I know that it's tiring following her crawling and it's only going to get more tiring when she can walk!

Mommy, quit taking pictures of me!

 Hummmm, how can I get up there??

 Let me up now!!

We hope that your Saturday was a little more restful and less "exciting" than ours was! At least it was a beautiful day even if we didn't get to enjoy it outside.  I hope that this kind of weather is here to stay!

Cooking Through The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook

So sorry at my absent-mindedness and my lack of posting for the last few weeks!  Here is where we can catch up with all of the PW dishes that we've made recently.  I have really slacked off in the cooking area as well as the blog area because I got pretty burnt out on cooking a full fledged meal every night with no nights for "easy" meals.  I'm trying to balance better these days!

Chicken Fried Steak and Twice Baked Potatoes

This was a very heavenly meal!  I wouldn't change anything other than to warn you about a few things:

1. Unless you're having your entire extended family over for dinner, make sure you at least half if not fourth the twice baked potatoes recipe.  Remember that you'll get two heaping potato halves from each potato!

2. Make sure you have your stove fan going while you're cooking the steak.  I totally set off our fire alarm when the oil/grease in the frying pan started to cool and smoke once I had finished frying the steaks.  No fun with a baby and a dog in the house!

I couldn't find the Chicken Fried Steak recipe online so email me (talesofapeanut (at) gmail dot com) if you want it!

 Penne Alla Betsy
I made this pasta on Wednesday night and it was really good.  Don't forget to add the salt and pepper at the end though, which I did at first, because without it the pasta is pretty bland.  Charlotte even enjoyed some noodles!  Obviously, we used wagon wheels instead of penne pasta.  We like to shake things up around here!

Can't wait to see what you've been cooking while I've been slacking! Since I took such a long break I've got to get cracking if I'm going to finish this cookbook on time!

Ducks!

Today I had to go meet Mom near the local pond that houses ducks and fish.  It was about Charlotte's lunchtime and rather than let her throw her food all over the brand new, still mostly clean (at least inside) car, I decided that she could eat lunch while watching the ducks!  We didn't have any close encounters with them and she didn't pay them too much attention since she was more interested in her food, but she did seem to enjoy being outside on such a beautiful day and she did light up when she spotted a few ducks once she was finished with her food.  She even pointed to one and said "duh!" and even though that's what she calls Luca and is actually pretty much her word for everything, in my mother's heart I'm going to imagine that she can already identify a duck! :)  Oh, and please excuse the massive amounts of crumbs on my child.  She tends to take after her mother and get her food on her a lot when she eats!

Let me point out her new, big girl shoes.  I can't believe that she's old enough to be wearing REAL shoes!!

At this point we had pretty much reached our limit.  Unless she was so hungry that she was trying to eat the stroller.  Nope, I see the puffs and cheese in the tray, not hungry, just bored.

Our closest duck encounter.  Charlotte was pretty amazed when the duck got this close (probably 20 feet away).