Challenge wrap up

Since it is almost the last day of the month, I wanted to make sure everyone knew that I successfully completed my challenge. I made a total of 10 recipes, and my goal was 6. I still don't think I am ready to resubscribe to the magazine, but maybe I will in the future.

The last recipe that I made this week was the Grilled Salmon and Roasted Corn Relish. I would give it a strong ok, good, but I probably won't make it again. It did come together really easily though since the whole thing was done on the grill. Clean up was a snap. No picture - sorry!

Anyone up for a challenge in July? How about an ethnic theme? I am starting a new blog just for challenge results and those of you who participated in this challenge should be getting an email soon about posting to this blog. It is a work in progress, but the link to the blog is here.

A lot to learn

Perhaps I am the worst mommy in the world. Why? Because I am not teaching my baby to be the next baby genius. Is it wrong to just want him to be a baby? I went to Toys R Us to buy James a table he could pull up on and play with. He seem to have fun with the one at a friend's house. This isn't any old table, this is a learning table. It teaches shapes, colors, letters and numbers.



I just want James to have a good time and maybe not cry or get into trouble for 5 minutes. Is that to much to ask? Everything is multi sensory. Even the sippy cup is a "sip and learn" because it has the shapes of the food on it. Isn't the whole point of the sippy to learn how to drink from a cup? Isn't that enough to learn?

Besides, he is already to big for the learning table. I think it hurts his back.

BLECH!!

Last night I made the Lemon-Tarragon Grilled Pork Chops. See title. I thought this recipe sounded interesting because it is a brine. However, because of that brine, they were really too salty. Mark liked them ok because it reminded him of country ham. However, I hate ham. It tastes so....hammy. Every once in awhile, you would get a taste of tarragon, and oh yeah, tarragon isn't my favorite either.

With this I made the Grilled Eggplant Salad, as recommended by Robin. Again, part of my challenge was to make something I normally wouldn't make. I never made eggplant before and too be honest, I don't ever remember eating it. I thought this was really good. I was very impressed with the texture of the eggplant and loved the tangyness of the salad. It was really easy I would make it again, however, once Mark found out that he was eating eggplant, he wouldn't finish his LAST BITE.

So all in all, dinner sucked. Good thing I also made a bunch of muffins to redeem myself.

Did I mention the pool?

It is finally warm enough to swim! Pool party at my house.



FYI - it is only warm enough to swim during the day. At night it is still a litle chilly.

We just can't have nice things!!

In the future, if you come visit to see our new house, mind the mailbox.



Your fancy backing up safety features and rear camera may not work as well as you might think!

Tofu anyone?

Yes, that's right, I said TOFU. See, you thought I was bad, but Robin had to go and out foodie me by making tofu. Well, good for Robin. See review below...

We made the Orange Glazed Tofu Triangles with Sesame Rice last night. It got great reviews on the board so I tried it since we both love tofu. It was fabulous. Once in a while, Cooking Light surprises me with a great keeper recipe and this is one of them. I really did follow the recipe as posted this time. I didn't use sesame oil because I don't care for the strong taste of it ... I just used vegetable oil. And I browned my tofu in a nonstick pan on the stovetop instead of in a grill pan. The picture Alex took doesn't do the dish justice ... I think he was more interested in eating than taking pictures so I apologize. And my tofu is a little more browned on some sides because I got distracted by the little one... happens often these days! If you like tofu you should make this ... it was really tasty.



To be honest, I have a package of tofu in my fridge right now. I bought it to make some finger foods for James, but I might just have to try this one. I don't think Mark will ever let me get away with it though. *Sigh, anyone remember Pei Wei's pad tai with tofu? That was good stuff.

New Review

I made Melissa's dinner of Grilled Chicken and Tapenade Sandwiches and New Potato Salad and just wanted to add my take on it. The whole meal came out really well, although thanks to a little rain, I made it indoors on my grill pan, so it took a little longer than it should have. The potato salad was the surprise hit, and will probably become my go-to potato salad from now on. Part of my personal challenge was to make an entire meal from Cooking Light so I also made the dessert suggested in this "Dinner Tonight" section. To be honest, this was a lot of food and I wasn't really hungry for dessert. However, when Mark heard we had dessert, he was all for it. "Is it PIE?!?!?" Um, no. I tried to tell him not to get too excited. "Oh, is it key lime pie?" No, the cooking light suggestion was cantaloupe drizzled with port. Mark was not happy.



We aren't big melon people, but I thought it was ok. Would have been better to be cantaloupe soaked in port. Or go all the way as sipping port served with leftover warmed brownies from last week. Mmmmm.....