Today is last the day of school for my little one. She is so exited about the summer vacation, sleeping in and having fun by the water but most of all no school. She is not the biggest fan of school and I can see that on her report card. She is smart and knows things but she gets distracted very easily and when you are in a class of 20 eight year olds its hard to focus on your work. Sometimes I wish I could home school her but the reality is different. I still do some extra school work with her at home everyday, that is how I know she is where she she should be so I don't panic after receiving the report card.
We live in a big city and on the way to school we see all sorts of stuff like traffic, garbage and stuff left on the grass by irresponsible pet owners, but I like to focus my attention on the nice things we see, like flowers and birds. Here are just few things we look at on the way to school.
The preserving season is officially open, I froze some blackberries for delicious pie in the winter months and also some local asparagus for a soup or pizza.
Weekend dinner was home made hamburgers with lettuce from the garden and oven baked fries.
I love any kind of beans but my favorite are green and yellow beans in summer. I make them often for breakfast or lunch. Just boil the beans and then fry some breadcrumbs on butter. Delicious.
It's so green here, the beans are getting really tall so I had to add some sticks and strings. Cucumbers are blooming but I have to pretend to be a bee because I haven't seen any bees yet so I walk around with little brush and help the cucumbers grow. Daily we eat fresh lettuce, green onions and there is a lot of herbs hanging in my kitchen. My potatoes are finally growing and yesterday I found one sweet potato sprouting so I might plant it too.
For the weekend I made something new and delicious. I got a magazine that is full of great recipes and the first one that I tried come out really good. It's a Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, Make & Take.
Mushroom and Kale Vegetarian Lasagna Bake.
- dried lasagna sheets, break them in small pieces,
- olive oil,
- 3/4 cup chopped onion,
- 3 cups sliced mushrooms,
- 2 cloves garlic, minced,( I used my minced garlic in a jar)
- 6 cups chopped kale or spinach,
- 1 jar pasta sauce,
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese,
- 1 can tomato sauce,
- Italian seasoning,
- black pepper,
I used what I had at home at that time so the next things I didn't use but they are in the recipe.
- 3/4 cup ricotta cheese,
- 1 tbsp milk,
- 1 tsp shredded lemon peel,
1. Preheat oven to 375 F, coat a baking dish with oil.
2. Cook the pasta, drain and return to the pot.
3. in a large skillet heat 1 tsp oil over medium heat, add onion cook for 3 minutes, add mushrooms cook for about 6 minutes, add garlic cook for another 1 minute. Add mixture to the pasta.
4. Wipe the skillet, add remaining oil, heat over medium heat. Gradually add kale tossing and cooking for 6 to 8 minutes until kale is tender( if using spinach cook for 1 to 2 minutes). Add kale to pasta, stir in pasta sauce, tomato sauce and 1 cup of cheese. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish.
5. Combine ricotta cheese, milk, lemon, Italian seasoning and pepper. Spoon mixture in small mounds onto pasta. Cover dish loosely with foil.
6. Bake for 35 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, bake loosely covered about 5 minutes.
let stand, covered for 15 minutes before serving.
Now that everything is growing big I had to put some fence everywhere so that my cat stays away from the plants.
While cooking I found few potatoes with some sprouts so I plant them and I'm hoping that this time they will grow.
Last week I finally made second set of place mats, until now I had to take the mats to laundry every week to keep them clean and if anything spilled I would just wipe it because they had to last until the next laundry day. But now I have extra ones so we always have clean place mats on the table.
