Hotdish #1: Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice Casserole

The latest issue of Eating Well has a special feature on hotdishes. They ALL look delicious to me, so I'm going to try making them all! There are six total. The first one on the agenda was the Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice Casserole. Look, there it is!



Full body shot.



We had Mom and Dad over to help us enjoy it. We all LOVED it! It really turned out great and I would definitely make it again. Mom made some zucchini to go with it. Oh, and I used a wild rice blend instead of straight-up wild rice, and it was totally fine.



Altha sent along some chocolate chip cookies with Mom. YES.



Here is the link to the recipe.

Tomato In Her Pocket

Although at first glance, it might look like all Kate has in her pocket is a bunch of carrots, but guess what? There is a tomato in there too! See?



Now Grandpa gets to have the tomato in his pocket for awhile.



Grandpa is a lucky guy.

Farmer's Market

Today I went to the Farmer's Market with Dad, Kate, Mer, and Baby. Kate is always very excited to see Baby.



Pawpaw popsicle time!



Popsicles make Kate happy!



Isabella was in town for the day! They are the CUTEST together.



Happy friends holding hands!



THE CUTENESS!!



It's too much!

Farewell, Cousin!

Dan, Amy, Elise and baby Lily are moving back out to California. Dan got a promotion, and while it's definitely a great thing for their family, it's also a super SAD thing!!! It was so great to have them living here for a couple of years. I'm going to miss having them near! They had a going away party at the park. Look how happy Dad is!



To try and ease the sadness, they offered a giant bowl of my favorite bread of all, Salaam's delicious fresh-baked loaves. I have to admit, it did make the pain just a little easier to bear.



Mmm, lots of delicious treats from Salaam.



Kate had her Strider out!



There she goes!



Heading back for more.



Watch out! INCOMING!



More! More!

Construction Cones

I just wanted to take a moment to showcase a local display of vandalism. I know that vandalism is bad, but these construction cones sure do make me happy every morning when I see them. There are so many of them! And such a wide variety! It makes me feel like I'm among friends while I'm driving along the highway.

Cooking Club

Summer hosted the August cooking club, and everyone just brought whatever they felt like! Valerie brought these little cherry tomatoes marinated in vodka for an appetizer. They were like little bite-sized bloody marys!



Summer made a round of ginger tamarind coolers.



Nancy made grilled corn and black bean salsa, as well as tomato salsa! So fresh and delish!



Summer made asian chicken nuggets. They are like fancy deluxe chicken nuggets!



Frying them up!



MMM. Served with spicy dipping sauce.



We took a break for awhile, to relax in the pool.



We decided to play a game of pooleyball, so of course I made sure to apply my Liquid Athlete, so I could bring my team to a victory!



After the game, we were hungry again! Valerie made these scrumptious grilled lemon garlic shrimp.



Emily made her own pasta!



YUM! Pasta time!






Cheers!



I made vegetarian tortilla soup.



For dessert, Yumi made panna cottas with apple cider gelée,



Soooooo good!



Another fantastic cooking club!