Who has the cooking blog now???...???...

So I made these amazing fish tacos last night for dinner using about four different recipes. :) A bit complicated yes but I made it through alive. I made myself a plate of it and took it outside to our picnic table and did a mini photo shoot with it. Now I know how to take pictures and make sure the lighting is okay but I'm not too good at food presentation, that's my sisters forte. :( So here goes...

Does this look yummy or what?

Basically I marinaded the talapia in oil, fresh squeezed lime juice, and fresh chopped cilantro. Then I cooked them in a frying pan. All you have to do is put some sour cream on a tortilla, put the fish on and add your choice of toppings (tomatoes, avocadoes, cheese, salsa, red onions, lettuce) Tada!!!! 

I was in another amazing mood tonight, well not really but I was the one who did the menu last week so I put all this wacky food on it, and I made lentil burgers, (my dad says that doesn't sound appetizing so I think I'll call them... Ashley's Vegan Burger). I used about four different recipes and about drove my mom crazy with all the approximate amounts I gave her. Again I made a pretty plate of it and put some fresh tomato/cuke salad from our garden (and Abby's) on the side with a slice of water melon in the back round! 

Yum!! 

I sautéed an onion and carrots in the frying pan until the carrots were tender then added, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and thyme until everything was nicely seasoned. After that it was just smashing the cooked lentils and adding the frying pan mixture, fresh chopped up parsley, soy sauce, homemade bread crumbs, oats, and eggs. Then came the molding of the mixture into paddies and frying them. It was a bit dry so next time I will put less oats and bread crumbs and more eggs. All that's left is to put your favorite condiments on a some whole wheat sandwich thins, add burger, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and whatever else you heart desires! 

Memphis meal time

Funny picture I know. Story is... we decided to put the oven on self clean so it smoked and smelled up our ENTIRE house! On top of that we had to cut some onions for dinner...not too smart combination. :( So Autumn decided her eyes wouldn't sting so bad if she put on her goggles... lo and behold everybody followed the trend giving you this hilarious picture of our household at dinner time. :)

Scones!!!

My family, well...part of it, is going on a trip to Pennsylvania leaving early tomorrow morning. My granddad turns 90 in October but there is a early b-day party for him this weekend since this is the only time my relatives can get off work. It should be a lot of fun but the dreaded part is packing and getting ready. Today was our major quick bake everything and throw your clothes in a suitcase day (unless you're Micaiah who has to make sure every shirt is perfectly folded so it won't be wrinkled when he puts it on). My mom made banana bread and deviled eggs while I made scones. Not just any scones but my sister Alaina's famous blueberry, raspberry scones made with fresh blue and raspberries from the village!!! She made it in November last year when she came out to visit me. I tried to help but all I did was take pictures while she made them. :) (so today was officially my first time making scones!!!) I ended up sending her the pictures and she blogged about it. So....here is a link to her blog which, lucky you, has pictures documenting the whole baking process!!!
 

http://cooksinglive.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/blueberry-raspberry-scones-2/

I really hope you take the time to try and make these. They are super easy and extremely delicious!!! Have fun while you're at it and let me know how it goes!! Cheers! 

Memphis Water Day

Last Saturday the Memphis Gatehouse hosted a water day for the kids in our neighborhood. We've actually been trying to plan it for a while but every weekend something was happening to prevent it. Finally, Friday night my mom got an okay from the guys out here to go ahead and do it. So she and Micaiah went out late that night and bought a bunch of things for it. I worked Saturday morning so I wasn't home to help with all the prep but Miss Mala, Miss Mary, Auna, and Naqi were here. It started with only two neighborhood boys but then a lady brought over a bunch of her grandkids and even went and got more kids. We had three legged races, sack races, a relay race with eggs, a relay race with apples, toss the water balloon into a hoop, and a couple more. 

Sofia and Autumn

Miss Mala entertaining the kids with story songs

 Autumn and her new friends singing 'Cast your burdens'

It was a very fun day and we ended with a huge water balloon fight! The water day was a great way to meet new kids. This morning in our ladies meeting we talked about doing a block party in our neighborhood. I am excited and can't wait to meet more people!

Amazing Cobblers!!!

I was in the village last weekend for the June Conference and ended up picking about two gallons of blueberries and a bag of peaches!!! When I got home I didn't really know what to do with them, so we put the peaches in the fruit basket and the blueberries in the freezer. Monday night my mother made blueberry muffins for Tuesday morning breakfast, using some of the berries, and that Tuesday night Gavin, Autumn, and I made blueberry cobbler!!! It was a total hit! We served it with Vanilla ice cream and everybody loved it!!!

Fresh Blueberry Cobbler

1/4 cup sugar

1 T cornstarch

4 cups fresh blueberries

1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 T butter

1/2 cup farm fresh milk

Blend 1/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Pour mixture into 2-quart casserole.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together flour, 1 1/2 tsp honey, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter and milk. Stir until mixed but not too much. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto hot fruit. Bake 25-30 minutes or until biscuit topping is golden brown.   6 to 8 servings.

We ate about half of the peaches but the other half were starting to go a little bad so I wanted to do something with them last night and remembered that I was on breakfast cook this morning, so I opened a cookbook and found a peach cobbler recipe! So this morning the kids jumped out of bed looking forward to peach cobbler for breakfast!!! Of course I only used half the sugar so it wasn't too bad for us. Besides, everybody needs to change their diet around every once in a while. :) When I was waking Autumn up this morning and told her what we were having her first question was, "With ice cream?"

I know that these pictures are with ice cream but I promise we didn't have ice cream for breakfast! I just put some on the plate with the last piece to try to get a good shot. Personally, I liked the peach cobbler better than the blueberry.

Fresh Peach Cobbler

Approx 10 med fresh peaches
1 1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 T cornstarch
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 T sugar or 1 1/2 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 T butter
1/2 cup farm fresh milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In saucepan combine peaches, 1 1/2 tsp honey, cinnamon and cornstarch. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Pour into 1 1/2-quart casserole.
Stir together flour, sugar (or honey), baking powder and salt. Add  melted butter and milk. Stir until mixed but not too much. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto hot fruit. Bake 25-30 minutes or until biscuit topping is golden brown.   6 servings.

Animals...

Here is Brandon's leopard gecko, Joe...

Rustie's bunnies are growing up...

Hammy is pretty much all grown up. We now leave his cage open 24/7 and he runs around in the trees all day! I'm pretty sure Mic is going to take him somewhere to let him go today. He is a bit too friendly with the kids. He only likes my mom, Mic, Aya, and myself. Everybody else he will bite.

 He wanted to come to me :)

 Loves my camera!

A Happy Meal!!! :)

For those of you who question whether or not we have fun...yes, we do have A LOT of fun out here in Memphis!!! :) 

About 6 weeks ago (?) we were eating lunch, *note: everybody was in a weird mood*, when Autumn decided it would be funner to eat lunch standing up on her chair instead of sitting down. *another note: whenever Autumn gets sleepy or discouraged during math class she lays her head on the table and gives up, so I have her stand up and jump around then continue standing while I teach her*. I don't really know what happened next but the next thing I knew my dad was standing at the table too, and one by one everybody else stood too. It was quite hilarious!