7/3/11- Pasta Salad & playing naked outside

One thing that is really nice about being a baby is that you can go play naked outside and no one cares.
Audry loves being naked. And she loves playing outside (Ah-tide!). She also loves playing in the water.
What better use for her old baby bathtub and some tupperware?

Then she told me that my plants were thirsty and she wanted to help me water them. (You can barely see one of the chickens behind her)

What a little cutie pie.

The weather has been too hot to think about heavy dinner kinds of foods. I made pasta salad for lunch and let dinner work itself out later. Honestly, I haven't been posting much lately because we've been having things like hamburgers, sausages & beans, grilled mini filet mignon with tater tots... that kind of quick thing that doesn't require me to think about it in advance or turn on my oven.

But the pasta salad. I chopped up some green onions, a tomato & like 5 oz of salami. I defrosted some peas and opened a can of sliced olives. I found some parmesean cheese (shaved!) and there was a little mozzerella left from some other recipe. Isn't salami delicious? I haven't had any in a while.

I boiled some noodles. These are a fun multi-color mixed variety kind that are fun. I bought them because I thought Audry would eat them, but she will eat like 3 noodles and then she is done.

The dressing. It is lots of fresh basil & oregano, salt, pepper, & garlic awash in about a quarter cup of olive and walnut oils and a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

Tossed together and stuck in the fridge to chill.

A yummy lunch worth coming in from the yardwork for.

And I was impressed, I really didn't get hungry for an afternoon snack or anything with this lunch. Was it the heat or the pasta & protein?

Chinese Chicken Noodle Salad & baby banana rice pudding- June 13, 2011

So here it is, an official cooking blog entry.

Today my baby turned 20 months. I gave her the first pedicure of her life. She was thrilled to have pink toenails!
(here is where I tried to include a picture, but with no success- so no pictures today. Sorry.)

I made a really yummy Chinese Chicken Noodle Salad for dinner. I made way too much. Do you want to come over and have some?

I cooked one package of pad thai rice noodles. The flat fettuccine shaped kind. Then rinsed in cold water for cold noodles.

I grated up a carrot. I grated up half a cucumber. I thinly sliced about a quarter of a green cabbage.

I steamed some chicken- maybe like a pound. I had eaten steamed chicken before, but never made it. I oversteamed it and it was only 5 minutes in the steamer from mostly frozen! However, the fact that I chopped it up into little bits meant that it didn't matter. This is a fantastic leftover or rubber chicken recipe!

Whoops! I almost forgot that I also cut up two tangerines, or tangelos, or whatever they are, into bite sized bits. Oh! And about 3 green onions too... but not bite sized bits, more like finely chopped. That all went in the salad too.

Then I quickly searched and found this dressing recipe on this website:

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/asian-chicken-salad/Detail.aspx

But I added in like a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds because I had them.

Then I tossed everything together. I had to do it in 2 bowls because I had made WAY too much. This would be an ace summer pot luck recipe.

Yum! We both had seconds. It was an excellent summer dinner.

Audry is a very picky eater. I was running late on her dinner so I made her some banana rice pudding. It was delish. Too bad my husband washed the leftovers down the drain when he was helping to clean up the kitchen while I was putting away the chickens. OK. I won't complain because my husband was helping to clean up the kitchen!

I put an egg, a slurp of cream (in retrospect, milk would have been a better choice) maybe it was a quarter cup or so?, a half a banana, a dash of salt, about a tablespoon of honey and like a quarter cup of baby rice cereal into the food processor. Then I threw that into a dish and microwaved it for 5 minutes on half power.

Audry is a skinny little thing who can always do with a few extra calories. That is why I was inspired to use all cream. Yeah, but not next time.

In case you didn't notice, I do not love to measure things while I am cooking. I feel like it makes more dishes to wash. And things never seem to turn out the same way twice anyway, so why try that hard?

When it came out it was a little separated (why I say milk would be better) but I just mixed it with a spoon and added more rice cereal until I got a desired consistency.

SHE ATE IT! (I would have too). Too bad Willy threw the rest away. I will have to make more for her another time.

Success. And now I am enjoying a glass of wine in my clean kitchen watching the summer lightning out the window. Ahhh....