Happy 7th Birthday, Catherine!

Chicken Baked In Pesto Crust

I had some leftover homemade pesto sitting in the fridge, so I found a yummy recipe (which I modified) to use it.  This is a picture I took before I baked it.  Of course I forgot to take an after pic, but you get the idea. 


Chicken Baked In Pesto Crust*

1.5-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into somewhat even large pieces
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup pesto

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix eggs and milk in shallow bowl.  Line up pesto, egg mixture, and breadcrumbs. Brush pesto onto both sides of chicken, then dip into egg/milk mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.  Place onto baking sheet which has been sprayed with Pam.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until chicken is baked through.  Serve with whatever you want. 

*Original recipe from "1000 Lowfat Recipes" by Terry Blonder Golson, one of my favorite cookbooks.

The Final Garden Post Of 2010

The garden has been over since the first hard frost a few weeks ago.  I am no longer picking any of these (hot peppers if you can't see)...



...or these.





So on a Saturday not long ago, Dan and the kids dismantled what was left in the garden.  The kids pulled the big stakes...




...over to the horse stalls where they will be stored until they are needed again next year. 




Then they brought over the tomato cages.  Joseph especially loves to help Daddy.




The stakes and cages put away, the dead tomato and pepper plants were pulled and then Dan tilled the entire garden and now it sits dormant, waiting until next spring.




Now we can dig!



Baking On A Rainy Day

Last Friday was a day much like this one, cold and rainy.  Since the twins had just finished going through all of the letters of the alphabet, we celebrated by making alphabet bread!  Here they are, hard on work, and loving every minute of it.



Here are the letters, some of them a little hard to distinguish.  The top ones have poppy seeds on them, the bottom ones kosher salt.  We liked the salty ones better, they were like pretzels. 




Then I helped the kids make sugar cookies, you know, the cut-out kind.  Catherine has a little baking set and last week, after a big basement clean-up, we had found all of the pieces to it, so she had been begging to make cookies.




So we mixed up some dough and I let her get to work.  She rolled out all of the dough herself and she even helped each of the others take a turn cutting out cookies.  All I did was run them through the oven and help with clean-up.  Oh, did the house smell good that day! 



Anthony Is Eight Months Old!



He has been learning how to eat.  He loves it when he gets to eat some real food and in this picture, he was excited to eat some rice.  It is amazing how such a small quantity of food can make such a mess!




He has six teeth now, as you can see!




This picture was from a few weeks ago, when we still had buckets of tomatoes sitting around. He thought they were better than toys.  He gets into anything and everything these days.  He can turn the water on in the master bathtub, he rips up any paper he finds, he can open my dresser drawers and pull all the clothes out, and he can mess up the boys' room faster than they can pick it up.   




Anthony loves to go outside, especially if he gets to crawl around in the grass.




He weighs about 21 pounds.  I took this picture and the next one today.




He pulls himself up on all kinds of things and he is definitely cruising along the furniture.  His favorite thing to do when I am trying to make dinner is to pull up on my legs and stand there hanging on to me, not allowing me to take a step.  

 So, to recap.  In the last two months he has gotten 6 teeth, started eating food, learned how to sit up by himself, how to crawl, how to pull himself up, and how to cruise, along with many other things.  No wonder he doesn't sleep very well!

Visit To The Grotto

Hey, Slow Down A Little!

Look at him gripping onto that chair!  Do you see what he is trying to do?



Yes, he has been pulling himself up onto everything for the last week or so.  And, he is even starting to cruise along holding onto things. 


 

He is not even 8 months old yet!   Mommy is in big trouble.



All Saints Day

On All Saints Day this past Monday, we did another craft!  I took a piece of poster board and cut it into five crowns, then I had the kids decorate their crowns with stickers and markers.  They were so excited and I kept hearing things like, "This is the best day I ever had!"  (Maybe I need to do more crafts.)



Here is St. Anthony.




St. Dominic, St. Joseph (not looking so saintly at the moment), St. Catherine, and St. Anne.  Or maybe I should call them all Saints In Progress.  :)



Trick Or Treat!

The kids were all ready to go trick-or-treating, when Mommy and Daddy made them pause for a picture.



Now you can see we have Joseph, the doggy; Dominic, the knight; Catherine, the princess; Anne, the clown; and there in front is Anthony, the fat little penguin.




Then it was time to hit a neighborhood in a nearby city.  Anthony rode in the wagon most of the time. 




When it comes to trotting up to houses and getting candy, there are no shy kids in this bunch.




After an hour of trick-or-treating, we returned home and it was time for a candy fest.  Woo-hoo!




Poor Anthony only got to chew on a candy wrapper.  Next year, little one!



If You Are Somewhat Lacking In The Arts And Crafts Department...

...then invite over your sister-in-law(who has more creativity in her little finger than you have altogether!) and her kids for a Halloween Party.



I supplied the gourds and the drop cloth and she brought all the rest: the paints, the brushes, the Halloween story game, the pumpkin game, the general crafty know-how.




The kids all loved it




They painted away.




Some even painted themselves.  Hence the shirtless 2 year old. :)




Then we had a party with yummy snacks and punch and a Halloween Story Game, where each child contributed to the story.  Then there was lots of playtime.  Followed by a pizza party (five of our students are enrolled in the Pizza Hut Book It program).  A great time was had by all.



Jack-O-Lanterns

When the knife doesn't do the job...

...it's time to get out the power drill!

Anthony kept busy crawling around the deck, getting into things, thus keeping Mommy busy.

Joseph wanted a scary face.

Catherine dug right in, scooping out all the innards.

The final four.

Daddy carved these last weekend