corn, corn, corn...nothing but corn.

Yesterday, I asked you if you've watched the Family Feud. Now today I'm wondering if you've seen one of our favorite movies -- Secondhand Lions. We love the movie. And for those of who who've seen it -- you'll get the title of my post.

We had a dozen ears.

Which doesn't last long in this house.

Especially when Samuel decides that his version of helping is perhaps testing that ear of corn that his brothers and sister Grace shucked.

He was quite content.

So for dinner we had 11 ears to share.

Corn, corn, corn...nothing but corn.

It's a favorite of summer for our family.
What's your summertime food favorite? And, yes,  you can pick corn. :)

collaboration (#2) and the give-away winner!

Are you wondering?

Are you at the edge of your seat?

Who, who, you ask, who won those fabulous dryer balls?

A beautiful basket of three gorgeous wool dryer balls that makes laundry fun?

Who is the winner?

Drum roll, please.

And the winner?

The lucky winner is:

thank you to the Willow Store for providing your wool dryer balls for me to review 

and for giving away a set to one of my lovely readers. I know, I'll be back. :)

And, if you haven't visited Barbie's blog

My Freshly Brewed Life

you simply must -- you'll be blessed!

{Barbie--please contact me with your info 

so those wool dryer balls can be on your doorstep soon!}

************

Now, on to Collaboration #2 with my Hannah.

{http://manyrandommusings.blogspot.com}

This week we both thought of the idea at the same exact time.

I had made dinner (along with my Chef Chloe). 

It is one of our family's favorites -

sauteed thinly pounded chicken with garlic in a lemon/butter sauce tossed with artichokes 

served over angel hair pasta with a side of fresh asparagus.

Stop right there.

Angel hair pasta = gluten

And since Samuel and I are gluten free due to his Celiac I knew I had to modify this recipe.

I made the sauce gluten free and boiled up some beautiful whole grain rice noodles.

And it was divine.

Take a look!

{top Hannah's photo & bottom my photo}

Blessings on the rest of your Sunday.  

And, one more thing, would you pray for Samuel?  He's been having a very hard last couple of days.  I'm thinking he got gluten somewhere and it has really set him back.  

Thank you so much!

Miscellany Monday Food Network Style

Today's Miscellany revolves around food.  (anyone else a foodie?  did you see the finale for The Next Food Network Star?  Love the winner. -- I won't say the name -- don't want to spoil it for those who still have it on the dvr.)

1) I am pondering, and please note the word pondering, doing once a month cooking.  (That was even hard to type).  I think actually, I might try once every two weeks cooking.  Have any of you ever done this?  Or am I totally insane?

2) This all started due to finding this book for 50cents at a garage sale.

see it says 150,000 in print.

It must be good, right?

3) I've thought about it before.  Never acted.  But, now fall is coming and I need to start planning. I have gone to places like Let's Dish and made a bunch of meals.  Expensive, but oh so convenient.

4) I am sipping an iced latte right now.  Dunn Brother's Coffee sells this "Infinite Black" cold pressed coffee.  They told me it should last for 2 weeks.  I'm lucky if it lasts for 10 days.

5) My homemade iced lattes are amazing.  (That's probably because the coffee comes from Dunn Brothers) And they're much cheaper than buying one.  Even with the cold-press coffee factored in.

see that bottle?  I'm on day 9. :)

6) My kids eat cucumbers like apples.  Literally.  I think that cucumbers are my boys, especially Brennan, favorite food.  Do your kids have a strange fave?  Or is it just mine?

the Brennan man

7) I'm glad that fall is coming.  It gives me an excuse to use my crock pot.  Or maybe I should just try that once a month cooking.

8) I've tried using coupons.  I save money, but I am so slow.  Literally.  I stand in the store and have to figure stuff out and then I block the aisle with my red Target shopping cart and tick off everyone who wants to get by me and actually purchase the items that I'm blocking as I look through the coupon that I dropped on the floor back in the produce section.

9) I can talk fast.  The previous post illustrates that point.

10) I'm going to end reminding you that besides using my crock-pot (and attempting this bulk cooking thing) that I am still a grill master.  Early this spring I wrote about taming the grill. I've posted this classic finding joy photo of me grilling.  Enjoy!

Remember to link up to the Miscellany Monday fun.  Carissa is awesome.  And a great friend.

And tell me honestly what you think of bulk cooking.  And couponing.  Maybe I need to try again.  Or maybe you were the poor person trying to pass my overloaded Target cart.  If you were --- sorry.  Really.

beans, beans, beans

Last week, while my older two girls were at their ballet intensive, I decided to deal with my abundance of  green beans. (I always plant way more than we can eat)  My solution?  Canning and pickling them. My family loves pickled green beans -- dilly beans -- but I really dislike the price if I were to buy a pint.  They're typically $6-7 a pint.  Which we can eat in minutes.

Since I've never canned dilly beans before I decided to simply can 4 pints -- wait two weeks -- and see if we like them.  If they're a go, I'll can more. If not, I'll be searching for a new recipe.

Here are some pics from my canning experience.

Washing the beans

see the 7th Generation soap? 

I won that from Amanda at Popping Out One Letter at a Time

trimming the beans

packing the jars

all done -- now just waiting

(Just so you don't think I'm too crazy, let me reassure you that my two little boys were napping, and the older boys and Grace were outside.  So I knew I had about an hour to use.  All in all it probably took me about 45 minutes. Then my sweet neighbor girl comes inside and declares, "your house smells so so good -- like pickles!")

Do you can or preserve food?  If so -- what?  I'm finding that canning could become quite addictive.  In all my spare time, that is! (and could you tell me where to find some??) And have you tried dilly beans? 

Curious about my recipe?
It's from the Balls Canning Book.

Dilly Beans

2 lbs trimmed green beans

4 heads dill

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp cayenne pepper flakes

2 ½ cups vinegar

2 ½ cups water

¼ cup canning salt

Pack beans lengthwise in jars, leaving ¼ inch head space.To each pint, add ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill.Combine remaining ingredients in sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Carefully pour hot liquid over the beans, leaving ¼ inch head space.Remove air bubbles.Adjust caps.Process pints for 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield – 4pints

Finally. My Miscellany Monday Post.

what I saw all morning

Note: I wrote this 8 hours ago. In that span of time I've spent 3 hours working on my garage sale prep, made lunch, defrosted the freezer, emptied the deep-freeze, read a couple of books to the kiddos, gone to the ballet studio--twice, solved several "fights", picked some weeds, did two loads of laundry, organized a corner of my garage, rocked a baby, checked three times to see if blogger was up, tidied my living room, and...hmmmm...maybe it's a good thing blogger was down. Look what I got done in that time!

--so enjoy my thoughts from hours ago---

----------------------------------

This is a unique Miscellany Monday. Blogger is down. I’ve checked several times, and alas, there is no operating blogger. At least for me. So this morning I’ve decided to compose my miscellany post on Word. We’ll see how this goes.

1) Carissa amazes me. Posting in the hospital. She’s an official “super multi-tasker”—aka mom.

2) 2) My boys, if they could get away with it, would wander around the house carrying just the inner bag of cereal. The box would be abandoned on the floor, and they would be quite content with the chalky-clear bag of goodness.

put that bag back!

3)To make enough scrambled eggs for my family I need to use at least 20 eggs.

4) I love my electric griddle. When I’m making scrambled eggs (#3) I can use the griddle to make pancakes. It can whip up 8 at a time—depending on the size.

5) I stink at making letters on the griddle. If my kids want their initial they better watch out. The e looks like a c, the b like a blob, and there’s no way I’m attempting the g. I can make an h for Hannah.

6) I’ve been reading the book of Colossians. Since it’s right after Philippians (which is pretty much my life book) I figured I better check it out again. I’ve come across several verses that are speaking to me right now. Watch out—I’m thinking they deserve a blog post later this week. The verse I loved today?

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsider, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

(Colossians 4:5-6)

7) A constant phrase that I utter in our home is – We are not the yelling family. In our home we speak with kind and pleasant tones. Can you tell what kind of morning it’s already been? (note: it got much better)

8) I wish blogger was up. I don’t know if this post will transfer right. Then I’ll spend too much time editing the post. (note--it did not transfer right. note#2--do not use word blog as it does not transfer.So, yes, it did take time. Oh well--you're all worth it!)

my post--ready at 7am

9) I think I want to do 10 miscellany facts so number 9 is just inserted to get me to ten.

10) Hannah’s Happy Birthday sign is still hanging over our sliding door in the kitchen. I decorate our kitchen and the kid’s doorways for their birthdays. I started doing this when Hannah turned three. The night before their birthday I go around decorating so that when they wake up the home is full of celebration. Todd jokes that perhaps I should just keep everything up – being that we have a birthday almost every single month. Who knows? Maybe that sign might just stay. :)

the forever sign

Have a wonderful Monday. Here the sky is vibrant blue, the grass a Kelly green, and the air crisp. My favorite kind of day. May your day be filled with the closeness of our loving Father.