Bring a little Summer to your food

If I squeeze my eyes shut and take a hearty bite of these tacos, I feel like I am sitting in a little Cabana ....sipping a margarita...digging my toes in to the hot sand...enjoying the pure bliss of summer. "Mom, Mom, Mommy!!".....My mirage is broken, I am transported back to my kitchen table in my little home with wet yucky snow on the ground. Aww, life. Make these tacos and see if you can brighten up your gray winter month.

For this delicious concoction pop over to: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/04/turkey-lettuce-wrap-tacos-with-chiles.html
The only thing I changed was I used ground chicken vs turkey, even though I am sure turkey would be just as yummy. 

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!!

Tom, Aunt Taran, & Haylie's first ice fishing trip of the year. They were catching them as fast as they could bait their hooks. 

Its Snowing, Its Raining, Its Pouring

Growing up in the beautiful Northwest, you come to expect winter flurries and you may even enjoy them. I am one of those that DOES enjoy winter and the snow. Even more so, now that we have Haylie. Snow = Snow ice cream, sledding, snowmen, snow angels, sledding behind horses, snowshoeing, skiing....the fun is endless! However this winter I am really disappointed. Its the end of January and the snow has been rained away. :( Don't get my wrong I haven't missed the winter driving, but where are the beautiful snow covered trees, the full moon glow?? Despite this sad sad lack of snow, Haylie made the best of it. While shoveling the drive Tom made a huge pile for her. Haylie says; "I have the biggest snow mountain in the neighborhood" She was the envy of the neighborhood kids.  Enjoy the photos and if I can ever get a break from school, work and life I will try to get more on here.

 And Then.....

Family Photo Time

Upon request here are our family photo/s for 2011. I just love torturing my family with taking our family picture. I am so glad they are such good sports. We wish you all a wonderful New Year and may it be filled with love, joy, and laughter. 2012 is going to bring us many new and exciting adventures.

Wurtz Family 2011

After 3 hours of photo taking, Haylie had reached her max. The only way I could get her to look at the camera was by allowing her to do 1 silly photo for every serious photo. One actually turned out pretty cute. 

Delightful Curries

The first day I ever tasted a homemade curry dish I knew it was rapidly going to become an addiction. I am not sure who made the first dish me, mom or dad (most likely dad), whoever it may be, I must once again say thank you for enhancing and delighting my taste buds.

As we get older, finding gifts that a person will really enjoy seems to become tougher with the years. Curries have made this difficult task a cinch. I have full confident that my dad and mom will use every single curry paste that I make and will enjoy them for months on end. This year I even expanded my curry gift giving to a friend who I knew would find pleasure in them as much as we have.

5 different curries, 5 different dishes, millions of possibilities. This blog needs a scratch and sniff feature. <smile> The spicy exotic aroma that fills my kitchen is OOOOHHH SOOOOO heavenly!!!. This Christmas I made 4 batches of each curry. Two batches for my folks, a batch for my friend and of course I could not leave myself out. Now that I have your mouth watering, who whats to be on next years Christmas list? That reminds me ---Korma Chicken for tomorrows dinner!

Korma, Tikka Masala, Jalfrezi, Rogan Josh and Vindaloo

Thank You!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. Daddy was home and no gift can top that.

Tom, Haylie and I want to extend a heart felt, warm thank you to all our family and friends, for the gifts and lovely Christmas cards. 

Introducing our newest family member, a Mini Holland Lop aka Charlie

He is so soft I just want to rub my face all over him. 

Christmas Eve dinner and desert, an all Fondue Celebration. 

Just enough snow to enjoy a sled ride

Falling Behind

Blogging seems to have taken a back seat to the endless Christmas activities and crafts. I know I told you all that I would be documenting my endeavors through Jamie's book and I must be honest, I have made quite a few of the recipes since my last post. The fastest way for me to do as I promised and to get back to my next project/s, is for me to dump them all in this one post and give you a quick review. To cute down on time I am also borrowing all the enticing pictures from JO's site. (actually I just never got around to taking the pictures)

Steak Sarnie...Crispy Baby Potatoes

Cheese Mushrooms...Beet Salad

Hearty, Delicious, Crowed Pleaser

Yes they taste just as good as the picture looks. 

Beet Salad

Lets break it down

Time: 23.47 minutes ***I did not make the potatoes, the bread to me is enough starches***

Cost: $2.15 roughly per serving. This is hard to figure due to the fact that you could use many different cuts of meat, creating a price jump. We bought a whole cow and I am not sure what each steak cost us. 

Rating: Tom ***, Brandi ***, Haylie :-( (she ate the steak but nothing else)

Side notes:  Cut your meat really thin. It was a little hard to eat with the bigger chunks I cut. 

You may not like beets, but do not count them out until you have tried them made this way. I used fresh beets instead of the vacuum packed beets. I am not pulling your leg, this salad is amazing. A dear friend can contest to the flavor of this salad, I packed it along on one of our hiking adventures. 

The mushrooms....what can I say....I am in love. Even though, I did not actually make them with this meal. I have had these before and they are worth every single flavor loaded bite. 

Chicken Pie, French-s Style Peas 

Sweet Carrot Smash

Break Down

Time: 20 minutes

Cost: $1.15 This includes even the sides.  Two bonuses, I got 3 meals out of my one whole chicken. If you really want to be frugal then I suggest buying a whole chicken vs just the chicken breast. My one chicken made; chicken pie, chicken & dumpling soup, enchiladas, and 5 quarts of chicken stock. A whole chicken was $9 for 5 lbs. Two chicken breast normally run $5. Another frugal idea, use 1 sheet of puff pastry for this meal and then the other sheet to make beef wellington.

Rating: Tom**, Brandi *, Haylie **

Side Notes: I felt that this pie was lacking a little more substance. It seemed to be just a lot of the puff pastry, and nothing else. It was very flavorful but not quite the same as a good pot pie. When I make this again I will will add more veggies, maybe even some parsnips to "beef it up". 

Carrots- yummy, yummy, yummy. Tom loved the carrots, so simple so fast. Haylie loves carrots and she enjoyed them prepared this way. 

Peas- ummm yeah, I still don't like peas. (sorry dad) My dad would very much enjoy this side dish. 

Sloppy Joes

I have to say my sloppy joes look WAY WAY different then these.

Break Down

Cost: $1.15 CHEAP!!!!!!!   Splurge and get organic, pasture grazed ground beef. 

Time: 15 minutes

Rating: Tom *****, Brandi ****, Haylie *

Side Note: I don't know anyone that has ever made sloppy joe's and then wrapped them in a tortilla. I must admit I have not tried it wrapped in a shell. I just top a burger bun with the meat and cheese, like the traditional way. This sloppy joe mix has to be the best I have ever had. I am not a huge fan of hamburger but I definitely enjoy it in this mix. Its spicy and sweet. We have a favorite "go to" restaurant here in town called "The Porch" and one of my parents favorite meal, are their sloppy joe's. However they put a spin on the standard sloppy joes and instead of serving them on hamburger buns they top cornbread with the mix. Next time, I think I will try this method. That should drop the price even more if you make your own cornbread.  One last thing, this is not in his 30 minute meal book, but I had to throw it in as Tom absolutely loved it.

That is all I have for now. Let me know if I can improve these post in any way? Maybe I need pictures of Haylie preparing them.?.? I am just hoping to encourage you to try your hand at cooking. Reading a recipe is easy and the end result is so satisfying. Once you get comfortable with the adding ingredients together venture out and try preparing a meal with no recipe.  Creating a meal to me nourishes the mind, body and soul. 

**** FREE **** GIVE AWAY *****

I may be to late on posting this, or it may come at the perfect time.

I am giving away 15 free "you design" photo cards on www.pixingo.com  (lifeshare changed to pixingo).

If you haven't yet or are currently working on your Christmas card STOP what your doing and check out this site. Hands down it's easier, faster, and a fraction of the cost of shutterfly cards.

You can request a free sample card or jump right in and get creative.

Pixingo is a great way to share you family photos.

They even have the option of adding a gift certificate to your card for you.

Do you have something extra special you would like to add to the card? No problem, you can get bulk shipments of your card sent to you with pre-addressed envelopes.

Great Deal ----- Great Buy----- FREE FREE FREE!!

15 Free cards go to the first person to email me tbwurtz@gmail.com

Christmas is in the air!!

I will try not to bore you to death with a bunch of blah blah blah. Lets just get straight to the point. 


First thing on the list: Annual Yearly Christmas Family Photo. 
    As usual I am to cheap to pay a professional photographer, instead we opt out for the tripod, lots of frustration and hundreds of "just one more shot" :) I just sum it all up as great family bonding. 
I know, I know your all soooooo excited to see our family photo <----- insert big eye roll.  But you don't get to see it until Christmas. Wouldn't that ruin all my hard work on our Christmas card? However I will show you a few cute snaps I got of Haylie and Tom(despite the attitudes I receive on these outings.) heheheh


Second thing: Christmas Tree Harvest
   Boohoo there is no snow!!! Haylie some how got it stuck in her head that if we didn't have snow we couldn't get a Christmas tree. Despite this depressing lack of snow we were still able to take the horses out and find that ONE special, beautiful tree. SHAME on Mom for  the dead camera battery.  (note to self go put it on the charger RIGHT NOW) I am so sorry but your going to have to be happy with phone pictures. :( :( At least I can say my families smiles, full hearts, and over flowing joy, will always be ingrained in my heart. 


Third thing: A new twist
    We normally do a Christmas count down calender, but I saw this cute idea for making a garland and  sewing them closed with candy inside. It was a fun family project. 

Oh brother I am rambling on..... Shutting up now.......here are your pictures.

Miss Model 

This is what my family looks like while they are waiting for me to set up. 

Always waiting on Mom

Nope I don't think this will work. 

Simple joy. 

They are off to chase the Geese

Our count down garland. Ideally you should start on the 1st, but we have been super busy and it got put off. 

Helping Daddy cut the tree down. 

Hawkeye and Haylie have been put to work. 

And they are off. 

Snack break

Until I get further instruction on the whole video upload thing, this will be the last video I post. It has thoroughly pissed me off. I have to reload pictures because it insist on inserting itself in random places. ERRRRRR!!! Beside my frustration I wish you could hear the sound in the video because Haylie was singing Jingle Bells the whole time. It sure doesn't look like winter in this post video. 

Cavalia

This weeekend we had the pleasure of attending Cavalia in Portland Oregon. Now your probably wondering what exactly is Cavalia. In a sense its like a circus but its WAY WAY WAY above and beyond. Cavalia has top notch acrobats that dance with some amazing horses. Honestly there is no way to describe the show we watched. It is something you really have to experience for yourself. Through the whole show we were all mesmerized.

To get a better understanding check out www.cavalia.org  they have videos and pictures of what their show is all about. We were not allowed to take pictures during the show, so I have a limited amount of pictures. The show is only in this area once a year, with that in mind we went all out and treated ourselves to the VIP passes. Appetizers, dessert, wine, private VIP tent, and backstage passes. The overall experiences was well worth it. 

The Big Show tent

They have 5 tents, the largest one cost 5 million

Curtains that were covering the stage

Haylie didn't say one word and didn't miss one thing

The whole Cavalia group

This gal reminded me of Haylie, wild and  a daredevil

The flying girls were Haylie's favorite

Even for non horse lovers this is a must see show!!

On our way home we stopped at the fish hatchery just outside of Hood River at the Bonneville Dam. Haylie had more fun feeding the ducks then seeing the fish.

Feeding the ducks

The duck was eating the food out of Tom's hand

Some very large Sturgeon

70 year old Sturgeon, 5 ft long, and 500 pounds

The ducks were more fun to feed then the fish.

Tom trying to touch the fish 

I love how this shows snow, green, and  fall leaves

Hiding in the cool trees