The Kitchen

You guys, this cookbook.

The Kitchen Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham and Faith Durand, is amazing, truly amazing.  I have had a bit of an obsession with cookbooks for years now.  I know, I know, "but you can get any recipe online".  This is true.  However, there is something about opening up a cookbook and being able to read through the pages.

So, what I love most about this cookbook is that it is not just about recipes.  Its about the whole kitchen experience. It goes from setting up your kitchen, in an apartment, small kitchen, large kitchen, etc, to what utensils are a must and what you could probably do without.  Then there is a whole section on "How to Cook Well".  In this section it goes over how to properly stock a pantry, which items you should always have on hand, and how to use proper techniques in the kitchen for various things.  My favorite part is the sexton of knife skills.  I have learned a lot about how to properly use a knife in the kitchen!

Finally, the food.  Oh man the food.  The recipes in this book include everything from variations of granola, homemade crackers, beautiful burgers and yummy sorbets and ice cream.  Basically this book has everything from snack to dessert.  I will definitely be using this book in my everyday meal preparation!

I highly suggest this book to anyone who is looking to sharpen their kitchen skills, or just anyone who wants to learn to cook a great meal!  I will be having fun with this book for years!

Full discloser!  I did receive a free copy of this book for a review on my blog from bloggingforbooks.org, however all opinions are my own.

Spring

This past spring here in Washington was gorgeous.  Usually it is more rainy and drizzly, but this spring warm and sunny!  We took advantage of the weather by being outside a lot.  Mia loves being outside, and I think the early sunshine made her want to play even more.  We set up the sprinkler, played in the garden and went for lots of walks.   Georgia is starting to like being outside a lot more too, although at first she wash't to sure of the grass.  Now she crawls all around trying to keep up with Mia. Its adorable.
         
     
                                                                              Wiggle Works at the mall!

Helping mama in the garden

        

Baseball game!

Picture overload!

Time gets away from me.  So I think I should back track.  I honestly write this to keep track of things for my family, I don't journal, so my hope is to print this out at the end of the year and make a book out of it, hopefully so that my kids can read it some day.  Lets see how that goes.

A lot has happened since I last posted in March.  We went to Florida, had a lovely, warm and sunny spring, planted out garden, celebrated Mia's 3rd birthday, and took a trip to Maine to see Doug's side of the family.

We spent almost two weeks in Florida.  Doug couldn't get off work, so the girls and I flew down a week before him.  I was so nervous flying alone with the girls.  But they were great.  No fussing, Mia listened, Georgia slept most of the time, and we didn't even have a meltdown.  I think the girls really enjoyed the change of scenery and we all enjoyed the sun.

We had such a nice time.  The sun and warmth was amazing.  We went to the beach, went on a boat ride with my dads work, went on walks, to the dog park, out to eat, and had a really relaxing time.  My dad has a coworker who volunteers at a shelter that takes in exotic animals that people have been found with.  We are talking lions, tigers and bears (literally!).  There even was a Hyena, peacocks, and a Leopard, lots of monkeys and a Baboon that we had to stay away from because he wasn't very friendly.  I could not believe that these were animals that people had! I think a couple of the bears were rescued from the Circus, but for the most part it was people.  I think Lions are great, I don't want one in my house! 

Doug joined us when he could take off work.  It was nice because he hasn't been able to come the last couple of times.  While he was there our dear friends we knew from Texas, Erin and Daryl, were going to be going to Disney World for their family vacation.  We decided to drive two hours and meet them!  It had been five years since we had seen them, but it was really like no time had passed at all!  We just had three kids between us now:) It was so wonderful to reconnect!  I truly believe that the only reason we moved to Texas was because we were meant to meet the Royal family.   Our personalities and likes are so similar it is scary!  The best part of our meet  up was getting to see our kids together:) Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of all of us while we were in Downtown Disney!

This time of year in the PNW is hard. Its rainy, and has been for a while. We get teased a lot. Meaning it will rain and rain and then out of nowhere we will have this gorgeous, sunny, warm day or two then back to rain. At least its warm. At least theres no snow. wait.

Ok at least it only snows once (maybe twice) a year and melts within 12 hours. Just enough time to get some fun in and not too much time to make me depressed. Tomorrow is supposed to be one of those days thats pure sunshine. I can't wait! Its also Doug's birthday. 27. That sounds old. I feel like we are still 16.

This is what I want to do tomorrow - sit in the sunshine. I am trying so hard to come up with things to update this little corner with. Im terrible at it. I am not good at crafty photo albums or clever blogs, but I want to be able to record our little life somehow. I'll come up with things. We are well. We are happy. And we are ready to escape winter and head to Florida in two weeks to crisp up in the sun and stop looking like a pale vampire. That last one is about me. I am so ready for summer:)

This is what happens in the gloom. You're 2 year old gets into your mascara and then takes selfies..... weirdo.