This & That

What have I been up to the last 3 months? Oh nothing really.... Just this:



Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the newest addition - Baby Rocco! Born 2 days after Christmas! Let's hope he doesn't hate his parents for giving him that birthday...

Now that we are three months in, I'm feeling almost new again... almost. Sofia loves her baby brother and we just can't get enough of that smile! It literally melts hearts... I'm not kidding.

I'm so excited that it's finally April! We just recently started up the garden again... Tomatoes are in and lettuce seeds are in the ground. Last year when we planted our lettuce seeds, I found out I was pregnant and then had a huge aversion to all the lettuce we planted. Not fun. BUT, we are back in the game of gardening and hoping for the best. We've gone through such an evolution in our garden throughout the years... I'll have to do a post on how we have evolved and what we have discovered through the years as far as "yield" goes.

So here's to cute new babies, Springtime, and gettin' down and dirty in the garden!

I leave you with another picture of Rocco...

Hello Dolly Bars

My, how time flies!!
I'm less than two weeks away from my due date and I can't believe how fast it has gone by..

Nesting is in full swing, and I'm running around trying to get everything done before baby comes... The house has been decorated since the day after Thanksgiving: lights on the house, tree up. And the Christmas cookies? I've been all over that lately.... I'm doing a sort of bake & freeze kind of deal this time around because any second I could be in the hospital and I need to have Christmas goodness to come home to!

These are Hello Dolly Bars... I've even heard them called Magic Bars. Whatever they are, they are a buttery, chocolatey, coconut-nutty goodness that will send you into a downward spiral of wanting to eat the entire pan. And since I'm on my last leg of this pregnancy, I was happily popping these things into my mouth like pills... not that I pop pills.

So, here you go!
I referenced Smitten Kitchen's recipe but omitted the butterscotch chips and also swapped the pecans for chopped walnuts.

By the way, this is seriously the easiest recipe. You are just layering the ingredients on!

Hello Dolly Bars

1 stick salted butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 8-10 graham crackers pulsed in a food processor)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 1/2 a small can or so - you might want to eyeball it)

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter on stove until just melted. Add graham cracker crumbs and stir. Press evenly into bottom of a 8x8 pan.
Layer the coconut, walnuts, and chocolate chips on top of graham cracker base. Pour sweetened condensed milk over whole mixture.
Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is light brown.
Cool completely and then cut into small squares.

Try not to eat the whole pan!

a day of apples

Once October hits, we start doing anything and everything Fall-ish. Even though we get extremely warm weather in Fall, we just have to put that aside and imagine crisp and cool Fall days... As a side note, Josh wishes he could start listening to Christmas music in October but I won't have it. I have to draw the line somewhere!
We headed up to Oak Glen this past weekend to visit the apple orchards. Unfortunately it was really warm but fortunately it was a LOT of fun!
We also took the excuse to get some 'belly' photos done since we were in such a fun setting! I look as though I'm about to give birth... but.... seriously, I still have a little over 2 months to go!

Apples were picked, apple pie & cider donuts were consumed (yum)... We even had apple beer! (which wasn't really "beer", but more of a cider)

...can't wait to put those apples to good use!

this & that

...from a wedding shot last Saturday in Lake Arrowhead

Autumn Has Arrived

photo taken in the Eastern Sierra - October 2010

I keep asking myself where Summer went. It came in so quick and blew away even quicker... But, alas, it's obvious that Autumn has finally arrived. Days are getting shorter, the air has that certain feel, and stores have all their Halloween merchandise out... along with all the Christmas stuff, but we won't get into that yet.
It feels like just yesterday we found out we were expecting baby #2 and now we are only three months away from his big debut into our lives. While I'm anxious to have that day arrive, I also want time to slow down just a little bit...

Lately I've been dreaming of scarves, sweaters, apple picking, pumpkin patch visits, cold weather soups, a house that smells like fresh baked cookies and breads, and putting pumpkin in everything!

I've been spending way too much time browsing through these two blogs lately... Both of them are getting me SO into the Autumn mood!

The Ardent Sparrow
&
Food + Words (I want to make EVERYTHING she posts on her blog)

While we had a great Summer, I'm looking forward to getting some projects started and turning that oven on and going crazy in the kitchen!

Strawberry Agua Fresca

Every Sunday there is a Farmers Market right across the street from us, so when we don't have much going on we take a walk over there to do some shopping.
We always stop at the El Salvadorian food stand that makes pupusa's and the most amazing agua fresca's! Our favorite - the lime & mint agua fresca! (tastes like a mojito). We never go there without getting one! .....and sometimes we even get a pupusa :)

Recently there was a recipe on a blog that I read on occasion for Strawberry agua fresca! And since it's strawberry season it had to be done!

Here's the recipe.

People, this is so so so so so so easy!

Introducing... Laverne & Shirley!

Last Saturday we made the trek up to Lompoc to finally pick out our chickens and bring them home.
Dare 2 Dream Farms was such a cool find! (thanks to Josh who did all the research)

This is the kind of farm you would want to move to. It's tucked away in the hills of Lompoc and when you pull up there are random roosters, chickens & ducks just roaming around. You can't get any more free range than that!

The owners were a really young couple, obviously living out their dreams of running a farm. They were very educated and were able to help us pick out the perfect chickens that suited our needs.

Now I'm not going to lie... since there were hundreds of chickens, the smell was on the 'poopy' side. Probably because chickens poop as though it were going out of style! They really do, it's pretty funny! (and gross...)

So we loaded up our Rhode Island Red & Easter Egger into a cat carrier (yes, a cat carrier). They were so quiet on the ride home that I forgot we had them back there!
Sofia on the other hand was anything but quiet so we were fully aware she was in the car.... yup, there may have been a tantrum or FIVE on that ride home.

Nevertheless, the chickens are here - and adapting to their coop. By this weekend they'll be roaming the yard.

Laverne & Shirely