One of these days things will slow down.

August 2011 is officially nearing it's end. It has felt like a lifetime, and yet, a quick moment at the same time. It never ceases to amaze me how that can happen. Throughout the month, in my complete exhaustion, I felt it would never end. Closing Night for Oz felt like months or years away. Rhianna's dance camp that lasted every night of the first two weeks of August felt like it happened 3 months ago. But, when Closing Night was finally upon us, I was sad. Why did it have to come and go so quickly? Why did the journey have to be over so soon? I felt like I hadn't had the chance to truly enjoy it yet. The last show was incredible. Tiernan really grew into his characters as the weeks passed, and we were blown away. The whole cast was even more amazing than Opening Night and I found myself getting more than a little weepy on multiple occasions. At the end, when the entire room stood up at the very start of the final bow, I had to choke back real tears. As we waited around the back of the theatre for all the munchkins, we parents agreed that it felt like a minute, and a year. We all agreed that we were looking forward to the week of down time before school starts up again, but that it was sad to say farewell to Oz, and all the people who helped make it such a magical experience.

I waited a bit anxiously for my boy to come out for the last time. Would he feel sad and disappointed that it was over? But the minute I saw him trip up the stairs (literally!) from the dressing room and I saw the sparkle in his eyes, my heart was at ease again. He was so completely happy. He came out of there hooting and hollering, saying that this experience he had just lived through was incredible! He ran into the green room to say goodbye to the professional actors and the wonderful behind the scenes crew. He danced up and down the streets with such a lightness about him. He felt on top of the world! I am so proud of this Tiernan-guy of mine. ♥

My poor blog has been quite ignored this summer. I feel so neglectful. I'm sure things will become much more regular once our September routine rolls around. I worked Friday straight through to Tuesday, so Kyle was left to make dinner for us on Saturday and Sunday. My folks took it upon themselves to make a delicious veggie lasagna and a crazy fresh garden salad with apple crisp for dessert for Monday. Saturday was closing night, so it was an easy dinner of caesar salad and grilled cheese with smoked maple tempeh bacon. Sunday my husband made a very yummy Fiorentina Baked Pasta from 101 Vegetarian Dishes that I had been dying to try. He had it ready for when I got home (talk about role reversal!) and I appreciated it so much! That night we had our Date Night In with some sinful Mushroom Canapes (which started out from Simply Appetizers, but I changed a fair bit) and more episodes of LOST. We are so predictable! :) Tonight I made a Pesto Pasta Bake from Half Baked Gourmet Pasta that was unbelievably good! So good I ate two helpings.

Fiorentina Baked Pasta

1 tbsp olive oil

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper, to taste

10 oz spinach and cheese dip (we used a simple recipe - to follow)

1 cup milk

3 oz parmesan cheese, grated

10 oz orzo pasta

Heat oven to 350.

Heat oil in a wok and add the mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Season with salt and pepper, and place in a shallow ovenproof dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Mix spinach dip, milk, half the parmesan cheese and the pasta in a bowl. Stir and season with pepper. Pour over the mushrooms in the container. Top with the remaining parmesan cheese.

Bake 45 minutes until pasta is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Spinach Dip

(leaves lots left over for snacking)

10 oz package of chopped frozen spinach, thawed

16 oz sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

1 package of Knorr vegetable soup mix

Mix it all together, and chill for a few hours.

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Mushroom Canapes

30 cremini mushrooms, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup mayonnaise

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

white pepper, to taste

1/2 cup asiago cheese, grated

butter crackers (we used Ritz)

Saute the mushrooms in oil until tender and liquid has cooked off. Put them in a bowl and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and serve warm.

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Pesto Pasta Bake

1 large bag of rigatoni (900 g)

1 batch of Jill's super fabulous yummy pesto sauce

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 ball of fresh mozzarella, diced in small cubes (important to use the good stuff!)

2 cups parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350.

First make a batch of pesto.

Cook rigatoni according to package directions, until al dente. Drain well and place pasta in a large lasagna pan.

In a separate bowl, mix together the pesto, whipping cream, salt, and pepper until well combine. Pour over the pasta and stir well. Top with the fresh mozza and parmesan cheeses.

Bake 10-15 minutes until brown and bubbling. I broiled mine for a couple of minutes to brown.

Consider yourself updated! ;)

Coming into the month of August, I knew it was going to be a doozy. What I didn't really realize was just how exhausted it would make me. I feel like I'm constantly on the go! Tiernan is busy with rehearsals, Rhianna is busy with her dance camp, Avery's busy wrapping up his soccer season and delivering papers, I'm busy with cleaning the dance studio, chauffering kids, running errands, and working, Kyle's busy with his work, his contract work and his podcast editing, and on the rare day that we don't have anything we make sure to go out as a family and do something fun, relaxing and memorable. It's not as bad as I'm making it sound since I really enjoy being busy, but I do admit to sleeping in until 10:30am once!

On Sunday we found ourselves with no rehearsals, no work for me, no dance camp, and no papers to deliver. I looked at the calendar and saw this blank white space. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen! We decided to jump in the van and take a drive out to Presqu'ile Provincial Park for a picnic of cheese buns, coleslaw, yogurt and brownies. We found ourselves a picnic table near the lake and settled in. The weather was incredible! There are finally some cooler days this week and that day was gorgeous! The skies were very overcast and the air was warm, but not kill-me-now-hot, and you could hear the roar of thunder throughout the whole time we were there.. There were storms going on all around us, but where we sat at the picnic table there was no rain at all. It was like the rain held out until we were finished eating, exploring the water and lounging. When we finally decided it was time to go, the skies opened up and dumped buckets upon buckets of rain onto our van. I love the sound of the raindrops hitting the metal roof. So beautiful!

After visiting the Park, we headed off to pop in at my parents' house for a surprise visit. Luckily they were at home and we settled in for a while watching home movies from just before and just after Rhianna was born. It was great! This coming Sunday is another blank slate for our family. I can't wait for our family time. I am so blessed with these kids of mine and my loving and supportive husband. No matter where our path takes us, I know we'll be just fine because we'll be together.

♥ My two men. ♥

Dinners have been made for the past week, they just haven't been blogged about. Some of the dinners have been repeats. When I worked all day on Saturday, Kyle was in charge of dinner, so I had planned on him making some vegetarian reubens and a caesar salad using creamy garlic dressing. He did a fantastic job and we all gobbled it up! This is one of those times that I am so thankful that I have this blog - it allows my husband to just look recipes up instead of me trying to find the recipes for him in cookbooks, or my own notebooks. :) Another night we had Make Your Own Grilled Cheese night which was a total hit for our kids! I put out a few different cheeses - old cheddar, mozzarella and smoked cheddar, along with some thinly sliced apples, ketchup (for my ketchup loving daughter!), and then I whipped up some aioli sauce and some pesto sauce. It was a lot of fun! On our free day, the kids treated our whole little family to dinner at Montana's! Aww, they are the sweetest. And it was delicious! In the meantime, here are some of the recipes we had this month so far...

I know it's a terrible picture - I was too lazy to get my flash that night! ;) This is the aioli sauce I made on Make Your Own Grilled Cheese night. Tiernan LOVED this, and couldn't get enough of it.

Aioli Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp lime juice

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, and chill for at least 15 minutes.

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For Make Your Own Grilled Cheese night, I also made a quick pesto sauce which we all spread on our bread before grilling them. It was a huge hit since everyone enjoyed the pesto!

Pesto

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup walnuts

2 cloves garlic

1/8 cup parmesan cheese

1/6 cup olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

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I got this white bean burger recipe from my friend Jill's blog. I altered it very slightly, and although they were good, none of my kids liked them. :/ I may try them again with red kidney beans instead, but we'll see. I served these with our family's favourite potatoes. Here's my version of the burgers.

White Kidney Bean Burgers

3 tbsps butter

2 onions, sliced

1 head of garlic, roasted

2 cans white kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp fresh sage leaves, torn

1 tsp thyme

2 tbsp ground flax seed + 2 tbsp water, mixed into a paste

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

salt and pepper, to taste

juice from 1/2 lemon

Caramelize the sliced onions in the butter for about 30 minutes or more.

Once the onions are cooked, pulse together the onions, garlic, spices, flax paste and half the kidney beans. Mix the bean paste mixture with the rest of the beans in a large bowl. Add the bread, lemon juice and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook on an indoor grill until crispy on the outside and heated through.

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Date Night In food was positively scrumptious! One of the perks of my job is that when it's slow, I can read the books in the store. This means I get to read cookbooks if I want. I come prepared and bring in a notepad to copy down any recipes that catch my attention. This recipe is one of the ones I jotted down at work. :) It's from the book Grazing, and it's a definite keeper! And yes, it's not the exact recipe - did a bit of tweaking.

Cheesy Black Bean Dip

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 tsp canola oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 lime, juiced

1 1/4 cups Tex Mex cheese

Mash the beans until chunky. Heat the oil, and saute the onion for 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic, saute 30 seconds. Add the beans, salsa, cumin and chili. Cook 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in lime juice and cheese and stir until the cheese is melted. Serve warm.

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Last night I made a yummy spaghetti and meatball dinner with some cheddar swirl bread (recipe to follow). Avery, as he sat down at the table, exclaimed, "THANK YOU for making the best meal EVER in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!" Haha, that boy. The sauce was basically the same as this one, with a few changes.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Sauce

4 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

28oz can crushed tomatoes

large can tomato paste

1 cup sherry

4 tbsp chopped, fresh parsley

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried chopped red chilies

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 package frozen veggie "meatballs"

Cook the onion in the oil for about 5 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and parsley and cook another minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, the sherry and the spices, salt, pepper and brown sugar. Mix well, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the "meatballs" and cook another 15-20 minutes until the "meatballs" are well heated.

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Smoked Cheddar Swirl Bread

I made a delicious smoked cheddar swirl bread to go with the spaghetti last night. There is nothing quite like fresh bread, let me tell you! If I had time I'd make fresh bread every single day! I used the recipe for Cheddar-Sriracha Swirl bread and followed it to a tee, aside from changing the Sriracha sauce and cheddar for some smoked cheddar. I see many ways I could change this recipe up to have different tastes... mmm mm mmmmm!

Oh simple summer suppers. :)

This was one of those days where I didn't feel much like spending a large amount of time in the kitchen. I was headachey, I had a house full of children, and it was humid. Luckily, I had a simple dinner on the menu! I love it when that happens. I'd made this before, but it had been a while. I'm not sure why, though, because it's so fresh and tasty... yum. :)

Baguette with Roasted Red Pepper Spread

1-2 whole wheat baguettes, cut in half

(the spread is enough for two baguettes, so I bought two with the intention of having it again for lunch tomorrow)

8oz spreadable cream cheese

7oz jar of roasted red peppers, well drained and chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 mini cucumbers, chopped

romaine lettuce leaves

mixed greens

Mix together the cream cheese, roasted red pepper, and garlic until well blended. Spread it over the bottom half of the baguette. Top it with some of the chopped cucumber. Place some romaine lettuce leaves and mixed greens on the top half of the baguette. Put it together, cut it up, and dig in!

This blog brought to you by Chickpeas!

Welcome to yet another Hella Busy Thursday. This one is even crazier than normal - but it's the second last one! Thank goodness.

Once again, today finds me making supper in the early afternoon. For tonight's on-the-go menu I have croissant sandwiches with chickpea salad spread. I got the croissants at our local bakery, Belleville Bakery. The chickpea spread is a favourite around here - it's sort of a mock chicken salad spread. Once I became a vegetarian I really missed the occasional chicken salad sandwich, and when we discovered this, I was hooked! With that I'm bringing along a creamy coleslaw (Tiernan's favourite!) and some Pockys for dessert. ;) This morning I also whipped up some hummus for the kids' lunch tomorrow (another of Tiernan's favourites!).

Bring on the swimming, kung fu, ballet, jazz, meeting (?? Is there a meeting tonight or not??!), and soccer practice. I am woman, hear me ROAR!

Hummus

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup tahini

juice of 1 lemon

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

paprika

Mix all of the ingredients, except for the paprika in a food processor. Add some water a little at a time to thin it out to desired consistency. Place in a dish, sprinkle with paprika (or cayenne is you want more bite!) and refrigerate.

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Chickpea Salad Spread

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2 celery stalks, sliced thinly

1/2 tsp dill weed

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place the chickpeas in a bowl and mash gently with a fork or masher. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

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Creamy Coleslaw

1 medium head of cabbage, shredded

1 large carrot, shredded

1 tbsp onion, minced

1 apple, shredded

1 1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 tsp celery seed

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

sea salt, to taste

Shred cabbage, carrot and apple in a food processor. Add to a bowl with the minced onion. Combine the mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and celery seed well in a small bowl. Mix with the vegetables and chill.

Dinner at lunch hour?

You might be thinking, 'Is she updating her dinner post already?!' and you'd be right! In our world today is Hella Busy Thursday. There are only a couple more HBTs before things slow down for us (by choice!), and I think we're all looking forward to it. Thursdays will still be busy after these Hella Busy Thursdays are over, but not this crazy. Today isn't too bad since the competitive season has started at the dance studio so there's no dance classes (for Rhianna) or meetings (for me) tonight. We have swimming right after school, Kung Fu for Avery & Rhianna right after that, then Kung Fu for Tiernan right after that. Then we get to rush home and change Avery into his soccer gear before rushing out to his hour long soccer practice. Not to mention that Kyle wants to go out for a Magic Draft tonight at Goodsell Collectibles, so I'm doing most of this solo.

*deep breath*

You don't want to hear about next Thursday. :P

Let's not forget all the running around I did this morning - signing kids up for Spring activities, stocking up on cat/rat/dog food/treats/litter, picking up maps and newspapers about Maple in the County, shopping for a new gym bag for Avery, and stopping at a grocery store.

At any rate, we eat on the go on Thursdays. Typically, I make something during the day, and pack it up before heading out to pick the kids up at school. This morning I made a couple of cream cheese spreads (never buy them - homemade is so much better!) that I saw on Rachael Ray. I put them on the most delicious toasted bagels in the world, St Viateur Bagels from Montreal. If you've never tried Montreal bagels - find some now! Mmmmm.

And that's it. Easiest dinner, ever!

Bunny Spread

1 container cream cheese, room temperature

1 carrot, grated

3 green onions, finely sliced

Mix in a bowl, and chill for a few hours so the tastes can mingle!

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Asian Spread

1 container cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup cucumber, finely diced

3 green onions, finely sliced

1-2 tbsp Braggs

Mix in a bowl and chill for a few hours so the tastes can mingle!