supper(s) away

We didn't host a Sunday supper this week.  But that doesn't mean we didn't spend some great time with friends and family!  That really is the point of our weekly meal gathering after all.
On Saturday evening we had dinner with friends at the Freitas house.  Levi, Finn and Enzo had a great time playing together and chasing Taya around.  Here she is hiding from the boys (and the camera too).

 

Levi probably enjoyed baby Evan the most.  Evan will be 4 months next week and Levi loved making him smile and giggle.  Baby smiles are a wonderful thing!

 

Tonight we didn't host a supper at our house because we wanted to visit Tricia and Travis' new place.  They haven't been in their new town house long but they've already put a lot of work into it.  It was great to see them, enjoy a nice dinner and see their new home.  We're very happy for them and are looking forward to celebrating in June on their wedding day!

Next week we get to celebrate birthdays!  Gabe, Tricia and Travis all have their birthday in early March so the big party will be next week.
We will get back to hosting Sunday suppers after the March birthday celebration.  I'm looking forward to it!

Making "New" Crayons

I've been terrible about picking up the camera this month.
But here's our silly guy playing "fishing" with Jupiter.  Can you guess who the "fish" is?

Levi and I did a fun craft this morning.
I found it here (from Pinterest) and was able to gather enough broken crayons from school already to give it a try.  Pretty sure we'll be able to make a bunch more in June.

Together we took all the paper off the crayons.

Then I melted the crayons in tin cans in hot water on the stove.
I poured the melted wax into the race car molds I found at Michael's.  (On clearance!)
Finally, we let them cool in the fridge for as long as I could get Levi to wait.

Obviously, Levi's favorite crayon cars are the red ones cause they are Lightening.
And of course he made a race track around his table while I wasn't looking.

Then I got smart and covered the table with the biggest pieces of paper I could find around the house.  I think we'll need to invest in some butcher paper to keep that table covered.
Levi's having a blast with the new crayons, even though he's not really using them as crayons!  They're just more race cars to play with!

Long Weekend on the Mountain

We had a great long holiday weekend playing up on Mt. Hood.
I had a furlough day on Friday and Gabe has a new schedule so he has Friday afternoons off again, so we got to take off after lunch on Friday.
We spent a lot of the weekend playing in front of the fire.  (I spent most that time reading this.)
We went on a little nature walk down to the Salmon River.
But mostly we spent the weekend at Little John snow park.
Like this:

 That is the face Levi made most often as he was flying down the hill.  I love it!

Gabe and I had a blast too.  This is the run Gabe did from the very top of the hill.  He got going pretty fast and ended up with a face full of powder.

We discovered this sweet jump for Levi to go over.  He loved catching air over it.

But really, Levi's favorite thing was to just roll around in the snow.  He reminded me of a little puppy.  He was up to his knees in snow most of the time and just loved it!  He said playing in the snow was "super duper fun!"

And we have to include a video for the grandparents!

Baked Ziti

We made one of our favorite vegetarian meals tonight.  Our friend Jen is vegetarian and she LOVES cheese, so I knew this would be the perfect thing to make for her and her boyfriend Rich.
We use the Cook's Illustrated recipe.  They don't make their recipes available without a subscription so I'll share it with you:

Rescuing Baked Ziti
Ingredients:
1 pound whole mild or 1% cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 oz grated Parmesan (about 1 1/2 cups)
Salt
1 pound ziti (we can never find ziti at the grocery store so we use rigatoni.  Penne would also work well.  We could probably find ziti here but it's not really worth the extra trip for us.)
5 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves pressed through garlic press
1 (28oz) can of tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes (we use the tomatoes we canned from our garden)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped FRESH basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream (or whole milk but we ALWAYS use cream)
8 oz low-moisture mozzarella cut into 1/4 inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk cottage cheese, eggs, and 1 cup Parmesan together in medium bowl; set aside
Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large dutch oven over high heat.
Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through 5-7 minutes.
Drain pasta and leave in colander.
Do not wash dutch oven.

2.  Meanwhile, heat oil and garlic in a 12 in skillet over medium heat until garlic is fragrant but not brown, about 2 minutes.
Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Off heat, stir in 1/2 cup basil and sugar, then season with salt and pepper.

3.  Stir cornstarch into heavy cream in small bowl; transfer mixture to now-empty dutch oven set over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3-4 minutes.
Remove pot from head and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine.
Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

4.  Transfer pasta mixture to 13X9 inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta.  Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella and remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over the top.
Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

5.  Remove foil and continue cooking until cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer.
Cool for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle with the rest of the basil.
ENJOY!!!

And just because these lovely tulips Jen and Rich brought for us made me long for spring, I'll share them with you.

Super Sunday Supper

That's what we call a Super Bowl feast!
Snacks, ribs and beer.
And of course friends and football.

Gabe's former co-worker Drew, and his wife Paula, came over today to watch the game and enjoy some good eats.  Gabe used this rib recipe.  He had the spice rub on the ribs last night and then braised them in the oven for more than two hours this afternoon.  They were awesome!  I just wish I wouldn't have eaten so many snacks...I would have had room for more ribs.
Levi sure did enjoy watching his first Super Bowl game!

Same Name!

Levi's been starting to notice that words have similar sounds.
When he notices it he says the two words have "the same name."
We told him earlier this week that when words sound the same that means they rhyme.
So the other day when I asked him to "promise" to follow his sleep rules at nap time with Grandma G, he said, "Promise sounds like Thomas.  They rhyme."  Now all sorts of things rhyme!  It's really cute.

Update on the new bed:
I appreciated my sister's advice.  But I was really hoping the toddler bed would work out because this is the next bed I want to buy Levi and I feel like double is too big for a 2 & 1/2 year old.
But (I think) we found the motivation he needed.  And I'm somewhat embarrassed by it.  More and more research is coming out about the negative effects screen time has on young children (especially those under 2).  So we've been careful to not have the TV on around Levi and not really make it a part of his life.  In his 2 & 1/2 years he's seen Cars three times and Bambi once.  Well, he's been asking us (and Grandma G) if he can watch "Lighting" (that's what he calls Cars) all week.  So we told him that if he follows his sleep rules he can watch "Lighting" on Saturday.  (I was desperate!)  I didn't think the delayed gratification would work on a kid this young but we remind him of the rules every time he lays down for nap and bedtime.  And we tell him if he follows the rules he'll get to watch "Lightening" later.  Seems to be working.  Or maybe he's just getting use to the bed.  Who knows!

Playing at the park this beautiful sunny (but cold) February morning!

No matter what, we love every moment we get with this cute little guy!