Peanut Butter Pie

I made this pie today as a tribute to a fellow food blogger. One whom I've never met, but who's blog, In Jennie's Kitchen, I've been reading for longer than I've had my own. Tragically, her husband passed away this past Sunday...suddenly, of a heart attack. The food blog community immediately took to the internet, reaching out, wanting to know what they could do to help her.
Amazingly, she posted to her blog this week, to talk about her husband and to ask her readers to make this pie today. It was something he loved, and making it is a way to celebrate his life. She also asked that it be shared with someone you love.

Banilla Smoothie

Last week I talked about a way to freeze and store fruit, to have it on hand for making smoothies. Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite ways to use some of that frozen fruit...namely, bananas! I don't know about you...but, in our house, if there's one fruit that goes from ripe to over-ripe faster than any other, it's bananas.
But, ever since discovering this recipe, having over-ripe bananas has been a happy occasion. It means that there will always be a constant supply of frozen banana chunks in the freezer for making this smoothie.
Along with the smoothie bag making discussion...I also talked about how smoothie obsessed my two boys have been in recent months. They've always loved them. But, the obsession took over shortly after our regular blender crapped out and I purchased this system as a replacement. It's a compact blender that comes with four plastic smoothie glasses and lids. You fill the glass with your smoothie ingredients, twist the blade attachment over the glass...then blend away. It's super easy...even for a child to use, and safer than a traditional blender. I've seen them sold in many places, but this online store has them in a bunch of great colors!
The recipe for this smoothie came from a little book I got from my DH for my 30th birthday {which was more years ago than I'd care to think about}. At the time, I had a 2 year old & a newborn and happened to be in the midst of my own smoothie phase. I used the book for a while...but, since the phase ended, it's sat collecting dust. My older son has taken quite a liking to the book nowadays. I love seeing him {every morning} with his little black book of smoothies, deciding what the day's blend will be...then gathering up all the ingredients he can find, measuring them, and whipping himself up some breakfast.
It's bittersweet that my son is now old enough to fix himself breakfast...more so, one that doesn't simply involve pouring some cereal and milk in a bowl! For all of you mother's of babies and toddlers out there...it actually does get easier...and, yes, it does go by in a blink of an eye.

Instagram Love

I first heard about the iPhone app, Instagram quite awhile back. But, at the time I was heavily obsessed with a similar {yet very different} photography app, called Hipstamatic...so, I didn't really bother checking it out. When I finally did, I couldn't believe I had waited so long!
Many of you out there have probably already heard of Instagram...in fact, many of my friends and family are currently just as engrossed in using it as I am. But, as popular as this app is, there are still plenty of folks out there who haven't. I know this because I get inquiries very frequently from people who see my pictures on places like Facebook, and ask...How did you do that?? So, this post is my answer to all those inquires.
It's also to share with you all of the cool things I've learned you can do with the pictures you take!

{The Basics} Smoothie Bag

I've spoken many times here about keeping a "stock bag". Whenever I'm using a whole chicken for a recipe, I save any remaining pieces I might have and store them in the freezer for when I make chicken stock.
Over the past year I have started using the same method for making a "smoothie bag". It came about around the same time my kids became smoothie obsessed. Both my boys love drinking them, but my older one is consumed with the smoothie.
He drinks them every day after school, as his snack. He drinks them for breakfast, or a pre-sports game snack. If he could he would drink them for every meal. But, I had to limit him to one a day...even with good things, it's easy to go overboard.

Bozo Picture of the Week...

My younger son participated in a theatre camp this summer and these pictures are from the performance they did at the end of the week-long session. It was called Mother Goose Retires...a story about the election of her successor once she retires to the Bahamas. The cast was made up of many of the typical Nursery Rhyme characters...such as Little Bo Peep, Jack & Jill, Nat King Cole, The 5 Little Piggies, etc. My little guy had the part of Little Tommy Tucker. He looks less than thrilled in the photo above...but, that was taken during a duet and he was super nervous about that part! Once he got through it he was so proud of himself.

I know that it's common to bring flowers for performers after a performance. But, I didn't think he'd be all that into getting flowers. So, I brought him a gift bag full of chocolates and a balloon.




I was so proud of him and got choked up at many points during the show. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and I hope he wants to do another course again soon!