A good sort of day is the best sort of day.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love PA days (when I don't have to work myself!)? Cause I really, really do. I got to sleep in until 8:30 (Ave slept until 9:30!), relax with my kids, make some grub, work on costumes, laugh with the kidlets, work on our 52 Meals, 52 Countries, 52 Weeks planning, catch up on laundry and decorate for Halloween/Samhein. I find it so delightful that I genuinely like my children's personalities. If we weren't related I would still choose to have them as company. I love it.

Along the foodie theme of this blog, I forgot to mention that my parents drove to Winnipeg recently to spend some time with my beloved uncle who is not doing well health wise. Since they were going, they offered to bring us back anything we had cravings for since it's been two years since we've been there. Kyle chose Hys seasoning salt - with MSG! We can only get the no-msg stuff here, and he really loves to make BBQ potatoes with this goodness. Yum! Our children chose Robin's eggs, of course. Like Timbits, but so much better! Toasted coconut ones? OH YES.

Now you're probably waiting with bated breath to see what I chose, aren't you? Well, I actually told them I didn't want anything. I did briefly joke about banana cake from Jeanne's Bakery, but I certainly wasn't serious about it! Bringing a cake across Manitoba and Ontario is a difficult task. But when we went to visit them they pulled out a whole cake. I was shocked, to say the least. The whole family enjoyed this cake immensely (including my Dad who I left a piece for... Mum doesn't like Jeanne's cakes). Whyyyy we can't have one of the bakeries out here in Ontario is beyond me. I wish!

Behold the beauty of a banana Jeanne's cake! ♥ Moist, delicious cake like no other, light icing that's not overly sugary, rich chocolate shavings all over the outside and the best shortbread cookie on the bottom! Lovely. 100% lovely.

For dinner tonight I made a simple roasted red pepper pasta with a caesar salad. It was sweet and scrumptious. Mmmm. We even had dessert! I made something that was s'more like! It was a big hit, though a bit too sweet for me.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

bag of penne pasta

4 red bell peppers

2/3 cup blanched almonds, finely ground

4 tbsp olive oil

juice from half a lemon

3 cloves garlic

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Cut the peppers into quarters and de-vein. Place on a baking sheet, peel side up and cook for about 25 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. Once cooled, peel off the skin.

Cook the penne according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the red peppers, finely ground almonds, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and put it back in the pot. Add the pasta sauce and toss until covered.

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S'mores!

1 package pound cake, cut into 12 even slices

3 Jersey Milk chocolate bars

1 jar marshmallow creme

Take a slice of pound cake, add 4 squares of Jersey Milk chocolate to the top of it, followed by 2 tsp of marshmallow creme and another slice of pound cake. Continue until the pound cake is finished.

Heat an indoor grill and place the s'more sandwiches inside. Cook for a couple of minutes until the insides start coming out the sides. Be careful not to leave it too long or it will burn!

52 Meals, 52 Countries, 52 Weeks - South Africa

Welcome to my second edition of 52 Meals, 52 Countries, 52 Weeks. This week Avery got to choose which country we visited, and he chose South Africa! The kids are loving this as much as I am, and Kyle is quite happy to take part in it in his own way - eating. :) For our meal today we decided on some street food called bunny chow and some soetkoekies (can you see/hear the heavy Dutch influence?) for dessert. Before you protest that a vegetarian should not eat bunnies, I will reassure you that there were zero bunnies involved in this dish, or in the original bunny chow in South Africa. Typically it is a curry made with mutton, chicken or beans, and I've read that the original bunny chow was in fact vegetarian. The curry is then placed in a hollowed out bread loaf or bread bowl, sold as a fast food, and eaten with their hands.

Tiernan wasn't feeling too great tonight, so the cooking was left up to Avery, Rhianna and myself. Rhianna did almost all of the vegetable peeling and chopping while Avery pretty much baked the soetkoekies (spicy red wine cookies) himself. This is a big deal because he's never really had any interest in cooking before. Since we started this project up he's been really enjoying himself. My favourite part is seeing the kids' pride when they sit down to eat this meal that they've created. I hope they always enjoy the feeling of love that you get from cooking and creating with delicious fresh foods in the kitchen and sharing them with family and friends.

As for South African food etiquette... they don't do anything different from us. Instead, we decided to eat while catching up on our episodes of Survivor and Amazing Race. :) Now the big question is..... did the kids enjoy this meal? Oh yes they did, and so did we. Avery and Rhianna gave the bunnies two huge thumbs up! Because Tiernan wasn't feeling too hot, he didn't eat much of it. I'm definitely going to try this dish again on a night where he's more himself to see what he thinks. Kyle was in heaven with this meal because curry is his favourite food in the whole world! And the soetkoekies? A perfect ending to the meal. The spices and sweetness of the cookies were the perfect way to offset the curry from dinner. Yum!

Our first country coloured in on the continent of Africa!

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Bunny Chow aka Bunnies

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped finely

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch chunk fresh ginger, minced

2 carrots, diced

green pepper, diced

1 tomato, chopped

2 tbsp curry powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tsp tomato paste

1 1/2 cups water

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until it has browned. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the carrots, green pepper, and tomato and cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the curry powder, turmeric, paprika and salt and cook for 1 minute. Add the drained chickpeas, tomato paste and water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 3 minutes and remove from heat. Add the lemon juice and stir to mix.

Take some whole wheat buns (which is what we did - but you can use any type of bread) and cut out the centre, making a bread bowl. Be careful not to cut too far down or your curry will leak out of the buns. Pour some curry in, being sure to include some of the sauce so it soaks up nicely into the bread.

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Soetkoekies

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup almonds, chopped

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

2 eggs

1/4 cup red wine

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar and almonds in a large bowl. Cut in the butter, and mix until it's crumbly. Add the eggs and red wine and stir until well mixed.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a baking sheet and cook 12-15 minutes.

We are having so many slow cooker days lately.

What a week!

Between work for me, work for Kyle, dance for Tiernan and Rhianna, soccer for Avery, flyers for all three kids, paper delivery for Ave, a sickness that grabbed hold of myself and Kyle (headachey, drained, sick tummy), a sick rat, a cat with seizures, a mountain of laundry and a son with a broken heart.. I'm knackered. Completely and utterly exhausted. My meals this week have been less than inspiring. Monday? Fried egg sandwiches with fruit. Tuesday? Veggie dogs, veggies & dip and fruit. Wednesday? Veggie wraps (herd and garlic cream cheese, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, fried mushrooms, spinach - rolled up) and a two cheese salad with balsamic vinegar dressing. Definitely nothing bloggable.

Today I was able to get back to my normal menu and threw together a simple slow cooker dish from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker. I made the butternut squash Thai green curry with some basmati rice, and I warmed up some Naan to go with it (I know, doesn't really go with the Thai food, but it worked!). I wasn't in love with the dish, but it was gobbled up by all three of my boys. Kyle's favourite thing in the world is curry, so he's pumped that there's leftovers for lunches. I've made better curries, and I think I might try tweaking this one a bit. For me it just seeemed like it was missing something. I think it was more veggies... I like many veggies in my curries.

The boys headed out tonight to draft some Magic the Gathering at our local gaming store so I braided Rhianna's freshly showered hair into a bunch of little braids - something she's wanted to do for a week or two now, but we never got around to. She's pretty excited to see how it looks tomorrow when she takes them out. I cherish our little mother-daughter moments. :)

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash in Green Curry Sauce

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp chopped yellow onion

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and deveined (couldn't find one here so I used jalapeno)

3/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 tsp sugar

14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk

salt, to taste

Place the squash in the slow cooker with the water and cook about 3 hours on low until tender.

In a blender at remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Add to the slow cooker and cook on low for another 20-30 minutes.

Serve over rice.

52 Meals, 52 Countries, 52 Weeks - Afghanistan

I recently decided that our family should eat our way around our world. What better way to have the kids learn a bit about geography, dinner routines/habits of fellow humans and learn some more about cooking? We are starting off by calling this 52 Meals, 52 Countries, 52 Weeks, but may extend that to as long as it takes to try something from every country (as per Tiernan's request) if we continue to enjoy it as much as we are now. Because we are vegetarians, we tend to dabble into a lot of different ethnic dishes on a regular basis, but they are typically from the same countries. This gives me an excuse to search high and low (and believe me - my city is certainly not well versed in the ethnic food choices at grocery stores so this is a real challenge!) for certain ingredients, and to branch out into different styles of cooking. Of course, our recipes will not always be 100% authentic since we will have to vegetarianize some dishes, but we will do our best.

The kids seemed pretty excited about this adventure when they got up today, but I may have been a teensy bit more excited than they were. ;) Our country of choice for this week was Afghanistan! I had a blast looking up different Afghani recipes and eating etiquette, and found a perfect vegetarian meal. It's a dish called Kabuli Pulao and it has many different spellings. Most of the time this rice dish is made with meat, especially mutton, but I read that it can be made with vegetables instead. I couldn't find any specific vegetarian recipes, so I decided to throw my own together based on the cooking methods of the other meat recipes I had read. It turned out fabulously and was a big hit with most of us and a decent hit with the youngest. We also baked up some Afghan Nan which is different from Indian Naan. It's traditionally baked in a tandoor, but we had to make do with our oven. It still tasted wonderfully, and reminded me of a pizza crust rather than the light, airy taste of the Indian Naan.

When it was time to sit and eat, we set a cloth out on the living room floor and sat down around it. According to some things I've read online, Afghans often eat out of communal bowls, but we all had our own plates. As per their traditions, we ate with our hands - no cutlery - and we tried not to use our left hands at all (this is more difficult that you'd think!). Avery and Tiernan stuck their hands in their shirts so they wouldn't forget. Hey, whatever works! Another rule from their culture is that you should try to sit cross legged, or at the very least, with your legs under you. It is considered very rude to stretch your legs out, or face your feet towards anyone else. My legs were asleep by the time dinner was over! Ha. The one rule we did not follow was having the men eat before women and children. In this case, we will always eat as a family.

All in all, this was a complete success! Even Tibby had a great time "cleaning up" afterwards. :)

Each week the kids will take turns finding and then colouring in the country of which our meal is dedicated to on these maps we have printed. First I tested to see if anyone knew where Afghanistan was (Avery was close, Tiernan was not too far off, and Rhianna guessed correctly). Then we pulled out our globe to find it. What a fun way to learn! I can't wait to see the progress on these maps over the following weeks.

Kabuli Pulao

2 1/2 cups basmati rice

vegetable oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp saffron

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

5 carrots, peeled and shredded

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 green cabbage, shredded

1 cup craisins

1 pomegranate, prepared

1/2 cup almonds, roasted

1/2 cup cashews, raw

vegetable broth, a few splashes

Wash the basmati rice well, and cook in a rice cooker, as per directions.

Preheat oven to 350.

Grind the saffron, cumin, garam masala and freshly ground black pepper in a mortar and pestle until evenly crushed.

Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok, and fry onion until browned. Remove the onions and put them in a large bowl. Add the beans to the wok, along with the spices, and fry for 2 minutes until heated through. Add them to the bowl with the onions.

Add another tbsp of oil to the wok and add the carrots and brown sugar. Cook for about 2 minutes until the carrots have softened. Add the carrots to the bowl.

Add one more tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok and fry the cabbage for a few minutes until softened. Add to the bowl.

Add the craisins to the wok and fry them for a minute or so until they have puffed up a bit. Add them to the bowl.

Add the cashews and almonds and stir constantly for about 1 minute until they begin to toast. Add the nuts to the bowl.

Add the pomegranate seeds to the bowl. Add the cooked rice to the bowl. Add a few splashes of vegetable broth and toss well. Pour the mixture onto a large oven safe plate.

Cook for about 5 minutes. Remove, and serve.

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Afghan Nan

1 cup warm water

1 tsp dry yeast

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Mix the yeast and water in a large bowl. Allow it to sit for about 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well, and knead for 10 minutes. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm area to rise for about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375.

Grease a baking sheet with some oil, and with wet hands, flatten the dough out across the sheet.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until starting to brown underneath. Eat fresh from the oven.

Incase you weren't sweet enough..

I completely forgot to add my baking to my epic blog post last night. Right now we're having a crazy thunder storm and I thought it would be the perfect time to sit down and write them out. I love the rain - especially storms. Right now the pitter patter is so much more than that. It's more like swish-swoosh. It's dark, loud and peaceful. I've been waiting for this for so long now; it's such a relief to finally get a big storm.

The baking I have done lately hasn't really been baking. More like throwing ingredients together and chilling them. Either way, delicious. :) I'd been having cravings for rice krispie squares, so I found a vegetarian way to make them without using real marshmallows. I admit to the fact that we are not always super strict with gelatin. When we go camping, we roast marshmallows. At school when the kids are offered a square for a friend's birthday and it had marshmallows, they have a small piece. Not the end of the world! However, I try to avoid it most of the time.

The other square is a recipe I got from my friend Amber ages ago. She had brought some to one of the potlucks we hosted and no one could stop eating it. In fact, we lovingly referred to it as crack. Haha. It's such a simple but addictive dessert!

Rice Krispie Square

3 tbsp margarine

7 oz jar marshmallow creme

6 cups rice krispies

In a large saucepan, melt the margarine and marshmallow creme together. Once it is smooth, remove from the heat and add the rice krispies. Mix well to combine.

Place in a greased 9x11 casserole dish and chill until set.

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Mars Bar Crack

3 Mars bars (I used two small and one king sized)

1/2 cup butter

3 cups rice krispies

270g milk chocolate chips

2 1/2 tbsp butter

In a medium saucepan, melt the Mars bars with 1/2 cup butter until smooth. Add the rice krispies.

Place in a greased 9x13 casserole dish.

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips with the 2 1/2 tbsp butter. Pour over the top of the Mars bar/rice krispie bottom.

Chill until set.

Long weekends call for long blog entries.

Long weekends are so good for the soul, but sometimes I feel like we need to take a day off after a long weekend. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend because we jammed so much into it, but it was well worth it! Twelve years ago on October 9th, Kyle and I got married on the property of the home I grew up in north of Winnipeg. We had a small wedding with most of our closest family and friends. I wore a beautiful blue dress that contrasted so nicely with the mostly naked trees of Autumn in Manitoba. We feasted on Chinese food, and we danced all night long, me with a baby Avery in my tummy. Before the night ended I stood in my new husband's arms looking up at the gorgeous clear sky at 3am that was so completely filled with Northern Lights it left me breathless. It was the perfect day. I felt like the luckiest woman in the world! Now I know I'm the luckiest woman in the world because I have a man who I can lean on to be my rock, we created three beautiful, intelligent, kind children out of our love, and we have made a really fulfilling life together. Life is good.

The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team came out to practice in a town 15 minutes away from us for three days, and let people come watch. Avery is a pretty big Leafs fan (but now the Winnipeg Jets are his #1!), so I made sure to set some time aside to go and see if we could get in. We went on Thanksgiving Monday and the line up was pretty overwhelming when we arrived. I decided to give it a try anyway, and I am so glad we did! We waited for a fair bit in the very hot sun, but by the time we got ushered in (they were letting a group in for 15 minutes, and then letting them out to bring in another group) we were the last group. Do you know what this means? We got to sit and watch the rest of the practice! We were there for about an hour and I got some really good shots. The best part was the look on Ave's face when he was watching. Pure happiness and adoration. Very cool!

I won't bore you with all the million and one pictures that I did take, but I enjoy this one of Kadri and Kessel. The smile on Kadri's face is contagious!

For Thanksgiving we made a Gratitude Tree. We took a walk through the woods at the end of our street gathering up some changing leaves to attach to our "tree". On the back of the leaves we wrote things we were thankful for. The kids put the typical things on there - our home, our family, our furbabies, our friends, health, clean water, cozy beds etc. And then there were the ones that made me smile inside and out... bees, Magic the Gathering, the Blueberry Bus (aka our van), perogies, Family Night, Paganism and British chocolates (okay, okay.. that last one was mine!), as well as many others. It's nice to see it sitting on our table every time I pass it. As Avery puts it, "It really makes the room feel warm.".

Thanksgiving dinner was spent at my parents place with my folks and two of their neighbours/friends from church. We played some Life Adventures, prepared lots of yummy grub and sat down to eat. And eat. When my family hosts dinners, there is always too much food. I'm not sure if it's the *right* thing to do, but at least we share the goodies? Ha. At this dinner my little family feasted on Tofurky, mushroom gravy, sweet and sour veggie meatballs, perogies, green bean casserole, carrots, dinner rolls and salad. For the rest of the people there was also turkey, ham, stuffing, and regular meatballs. For dessert we had three different pies. Yes, three! One pumpkin, one cherry crisp and one banana dulce de leche cream (that's the one I made). We were all stuffed, to say the least.

Tiernan got his first job and is now officially employed! Ever since his brother got the job delivering the local paper he's been wanting one of his own. We received a notice in our mailbox saying that carriers were needed for the EMC (a once a week paper) and decided to give them a call. Instead of giving him a route, they gave him two that intertwine. Technically Tiernan AND Rhianna are employed since they're splitting the routes. Thursdays are now just as insane as Wednesdays between Avery's flyers, Tiernan and Rhianna's flyers, Avery's 1.5 hour long soccer practice and Kyle's Magic drafts. And poor Ave gets no help with his route anymore.. it's all his! Oh well, more money for him to save since he doesn't need to pay his siblings.

Poor Tiernan has been dealing with the toughest life lesson when it comes to having and loving pets. His rattie, Ratatta, has mycoplasma. This is a respiratory disease that is passed down from mother rat to her babies, but also between cage mates. Some types of rats are more susceptible than others, and Ratatta is one of those. Because she and Rhi (Rhianna's rattie) are cagemates, Rhi also has the disease. Hers is not showing any signs or symptoms, luckily. Just Tatta. She is constantly sneezing and coughing, and I really mean it when I say constantly. I feel terrible for her. It breaks my heart to see her trying to breath properly. So far she doesn't have pneumonia, and she still looks pretty healthy - pink ears and paws, and not losing weight. We've given her two different medications in the past, but although it helped a little at first, the mycoplasma came back as soon as she was finished her prescription. I know the end is probably very near for sweet little Tatta, and this is going to break Tiernan's heart into a million little pieces. He's shed quite a few tears over her already. We've had some great talks over how lucky Ratatta is to have him, and how lucky he is for having her. We talk about how I am thankful that he got her and Rhianna got Rhi because it taught me an important life lesson. Those who knew me pre-pet rat know that I would have been the last one to get a rodent for a pet - I had a major phobia! Instead, I decided to face my fears head on. I will be the first to admit I was petrified and it wasn't easy at first! I started by petting them with one finger, eventually moving to whole hand, and then to holding them covered in a blanket. Now I don't even hesitate to pick them up. In fact, I love them and love holding them. They are so sweet, so cuddly, so clean, and they both have their own amazing little personalities that match their human parents. I will never judge a book by it's cover again. Those ratties have made me a better person.

Okay, now onto some food fun. For our anniversary dinner I made some baked fettucine, green bean casserole and some buns. It was heavy, but sinful and we got to eat it while watching the Jets first hockey game (this time around!). :)

Baked Fettucine

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 lb fettucine

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

plus 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

2 cups swiss cheese, grated

1 cup mozzarella, grated

4 tbsp bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup whipping cream

some jarred pasta sauce for topping

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 2-3 quart casserole dish.

Cook the fettucine according to package directions. Drain, and put it back into the pot. Toss with the melted butter and set aside.

Mix the cup of parmesan cheese, the swiss and the mozzarella together and toss with the fettucine. Pour the fettucine into the casserole dish.

In a bowl combine the milk and whipping cream. In another bowl, mix together the 2 tbsp parmesan and the bread crumbs.

Pour the milk mixture over the fettucine. Top with the bread crumb mixture.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. Cover with foil during the last 10 minutes.

Serve it topped with the heated pasta sauce.

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Green Bean Casserole

(I got this from a Grandma's Kitchen card years ago)

1 1/2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups milk

4 tsp dry ranch dressing

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 1/4 lbs fresh green beans, cooked crisp tender

1 cup bread crumbs

To make white sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Using a wire whisk, stir in the milk. Bring it to a boil and cook, whisking constantly for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the dressing mix and white pepper and set it aside.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a medium skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Cook onion and garlic over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove half of the onion mixture and set it aside in a bowl. Add the mushrooms to the onion mixture remaining in the skillet and cook about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Combine mushroom mixture with the green beans and white sauce in a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Combine bread crumbs with the reserved onion mixture and sprinkle over casserole.

Bake, uncovered, until heated through - about 20-30 minutes.

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I tried a new recipe out for Slow Cooker Tuesday and it was soooo good! I made a baked bean soup from this site and served it with a caesar salad and some baguette. Tiernan, Rhianna and I ate it at dance and I wish I could have had seconds. It was thick and filling and so comforting! We will definitely be visiting this recipe again.

Baked Bean Soup

15 oz can pinto beans

1 onion, finely diced

1 cup carrots, diced

3 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp chili powder

1 can fire roasted tomatoes, with juice

2 cups water

Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 7-8. Before serving, blend with an immersion blender.

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For tonight's dinner I decided on another recipe from One Bite Won't Kill You. It was called Tortilla Towers and was a pretty big hit in our house. It has some spice to it, so the boys just loved it! Rhianna ate a quarter of it, and then said she was full. I think it had more to do with the spice. I think the next time I make it I won't add the chilies to her portion and leave it for the rest of us. The only thing I changed about the recipe was upping the ingredients a bit. Definitely another one we'll come back to.

Tortilla Towers

15 small flour tortillas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 large red pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

16 oz refried beans (or you can make your own)

1 1/2-2 cups pepper jack cheese, grated

4 oz can chopped chilies

2 cups picante sauce

1 1/2-2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat with a bit of the vegetable oil. Fry each tortilla gently on each side to crisp them up a bit. Dry on some paper towel and set aside. Add the rest of the oil and fry together the red pepper and onion until tender.

Spread 5 tortillas with some refried beans. Place them on a baking sheet. Cover with the second tortilla.

Combine the pepper jack cheese, chopped chilies and red pepper/onion mixture in a bowl. Stir to combine. Now top each of the tortilla towers with 1/5th of the cheese/chilies/pepper mixture. Cover that with another tortilla. Spread some picante sauce over the top of the flour tortilla and cover it with some grated cheddar cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Top with sour cream.

Birthdays and Chili Mac!

Happy birthday to our beautiful Mirri cat. She turned 8 today, and is back to being the same age as Rhianna. Mirri is an interesting character. She's afraid of strangers and ends up hiding a lot when people are over. She's rather... round... so we like to call her fluffy. :) She's pretty quirky, but we love her to pieces. Mirri has the most beautiful big golden eyes, and is the most loving towards the kids. At night time you will always find her in bed with one of them. We sure love our Mirri-Smirri!

I made yet another pasta dish for dinner tonight! This time I planned on making this Italian/Mexican Mac, but changed it up a bit. It had a real bite to it, was enjoyed by most and eaten by all! I'll share my version with you.

Chili Mac

1/2 large bag penne

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 large white onion, chopped finely

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp red chilies

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

28oz can water

1 block pepper jack cheese, grated

In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook 3-5 minutes until tender. Add the chilies, chili powder and black pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the uncooked pasta and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the crushed tomatoes and water, and cook another 10 minutes until the pasta has cooked. Add the grated cheese and stir for a minute until it has melted.

Cheesy Eggplant Rigatoni

This was a perfect sort of day. It started out the best way - lazing in bed until 8am when we finally decided to get up. Okay, so Tibbs totally had a say in that time! When the doggie needs to pee, the doggie needs to pee. We had a relaxing morning watching a 'Little Travelers' DVD (Iran), and Kyle made us a delicious brunch of oven roasted potatoes, soy sausages and leftover spinach and cheese turnovers. Tiernan headed over to a birthday party for a friend of his who lives down the street while the rest of us went to Avery's first soccer game of the indoor season where he got his team shirt (first time he couldn't get #13! #12 it is!). Woah, that game was intense! They tied with the other team, 2-2, and there was not one minute of boredom. The kids on his team are fantastic. They all seemed to mesh well, there were no kids with attitude, none of them are ball hoggers, and it helps that I know a fair few of the parents already. I'm even more excited about this season now.

Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm not the biggest fan of eggplant. I've tried it time and time again, hoping that one of those times I'm going to fall in love with it. The only way I've actually enjoyed it so far is in the form of a dip as baba ganouj. But I keep on trying, and tonight was no exception. I threw it into a pasta sauce as an experiment, but - I'm still not the biggest fan. I ate it because the sauce itself was yummy, but I would have liked it better with mushrooms or zucchini or spinach or something. Luckily, the rest of my family likes it more than I do!

Cheesy Eggplant Rigatoni

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium eggplant, diced into small pieces

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp Italian seasoning

dash of red chilies

28oz can crushed tomatoes

1 ball mozzarella, diced into small pieces

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 large bag rigatoni

Cook pasta according to package directions.

While the water is heating for the pasta, heat the olive oil in a large wok. Add the eggplant and cook for about 3-5 minutes, until eggplant has started to brown and soften. Add the garlic and fry another 30 seconds. Add the seasonings and crushed tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Lower heat, cook for about another 5-10 minutes making sure to stir occasionally. Add the two cheeses and stir until melted.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and mix it together with the sauce.