Recent Eats! Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman and Raddish Kids

Checking in after another long hiatus of cooking updates (since January)! As per usual, I was burning through cookbooks that didn't wow me or have more than one or two dishes to report back on - though Bittman's book has definitely turned the tide. 

But first I wanted to give a little plug for this awesome subscription service I got for the kids because they have become increasingly interested in getting into the kitchen. I got a few cookbooks geared towards children and we would help each kiddo make a dish of their choosing. This was fine, but they would inevitably pick meals like breaded chicken tenders or mac and cheese, not really broadening any horizons. I started searching for meal kits for kids (I mean, there are about one million options out there for adults) and came across Raddish - extra D not a typo, as in RAD dish! I got a six month subscription and it has been awesome. 

Each month we get a themed meal kit that includes a kitchen tool (pastry cutter, garlic press, silicone tart molds), a patch for their apron (which comes in the first box), dinner table conversation starter cards, and sturdy laminated recipes for a main dish, dessert and some sort of side or extra that fits the menu. 

I wasn't really interested in getting actual ingredients in the boxes, as I am already a weekly meal planner/grocery trip person, so this was perfect - and not terribly expensive. I also love that the menus are somewhat adventurous but still have kid appeal like mango sticky rice with chicken satay, or rainbow taco salad. Plus, there's no hemming and hawing about their choice - they get what they get and we help them make the meal. 

Not having the ingredients shipped also gives us a lot of flexibility. It's been a little busy around here with Spring Break and school sports, so I've saved the most recent delivery and might hold on to the next month's to break out over the summer. And, I do have a referral code which gives me some $$ off my next boxes if you are so inclined - you can use BB9H2W for $10 off a subscription. All this to say, that even if there was no referral code, I'd still be telling y'all about it! 

Okay, as for the rest of our meals, I have been over the moon about Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express. I don't think I've marked this many recipes in a cookbook EVER. Although there are over 400 recipes in there, so... He packs them in by eliminating pictures, long ingredient lists or step-by-step instructions. Just an easy paragraph explanation for each recipe. At first I was a little disappointed, because I usually look through recipe books based on the picture! But, I do cook in a more laid-back way, like the recipes are written. They are all so simple, obviously, but have unique ingredients. I can’t believe I’ve never used a Thai chili before, but I’ve used them twice already in recipes from this cookbook that appealed to me, such as fish with Thai pesto sauce.

And chicken in a basil coconut curry.

We've also used his simple spice rub and sauce for spicy chicken chipotle tacos, which I forgot to snap a picture of before gobbling them up. I look forward to trying at least a dozen more recipes from this book, so good!
I also picked up Milk Street: Tuesday Nights a few weeks ago and so far we've made the Lemongrass Tofu a half dozen times. DELICIOUS. Can't go wrong with America's Test Kitchen/Christopher Kimball.

And, folks inevitably ask about how our kids like these meals. And, I give my inevitable answer: they try it, but get a modified version such as chicken and rice without sauce, or chicken without the chipotle and a quesadilla, or fish sticks and a wee dip of pesto, etc. We might save tofu for a night they're eating pizza, though. Haha! They are coming around slowly but surely thanks to our modeling and their interest in getting involved in cooking!

Summer Bucket List 2018

We've been pretty busy this first week of summer break, already putting a dent in our annual summer bucket list! We've hit up the pool, the Y for some indoor games and rock climbing and a trip to a local farm/amusement park. And even though the list only varies slightly from year to year, I thoroughly enjoy writing it all down and aspiring to check off as many items as we can in between the inordinate amount of time we spend at the beach or pool. Without further ado:
Blueberry picking (The photo above was from some raspberry picking we did this week, but we'll be back at it when the blueberries are in season soon!)
Mini Golf
Go to the Movies
Bowling 
Point Defiance Zoo (We're Woodland Park Zoo members and love it, but every summer we take a trip to Point Defiance as it's MY FAVORITE.)
Visit Paradise at Mount Rainier (We bought a national park pass when we did our summer road trip last year and are headed back to Crystal Mountain this summer! I'm hoping we can do a separate trip to the Paradise entrance to Rainier and get the most bang for our buck.)
Hike Big Four Ice Caves trail and Wallace Falls 
Go to an Outdoor Concert 
Annual Car Show
Art Project (I bought origami papers from Michael's before school got out, so I'm hoping to do a little origami. Perhaps a tie dye party if I'm feeling brave...)
New to us Museum (The kids have been to a few on field trips that my husband and I have yet to visit, so I'd love to finally see MOHAI, MoPOP or the Museum of Flight.)
Deep Clean/Purge and Rearrange Kid's Rooms (Not necessarily a fun task, but while we have the time...)
Complete Library Summer Reading Challenge and Read Harry Potter Books (My eight year old is ready for The Prisoner of Azkaban and my eleven year old is on to The Order of the Phoenix. I'll likely read with the younger, and this might be the first year that my older will read on his own. Although, I might butt in and read to him or have him read to me from time to time, because I enjoy the experience so much!)

Visit Wild Waves (This has never really been on my list because uggghhh, CHAOTIC water parks are not high on my list. However, we get free tickets doing the summer reading challenge, so... Also, I'm pretty pumped to have my own adult challenge sheet!)
Yoga Breaks (My daughter loved her after school yoga class, and she's been doing some Cosmic Kids Yoga on her own. I'm thinking I might get my older guy on board with the Minecraft or Star Wars yoga sessions...)
Have Each Kiddo Pick a Meal to Make for the Family (This will be with our help, of course - and I'm referencing this helpful post from Shutterbean.) 
Theo Chocolate Tour (This has been on my list for awhile, as I've never been and both kids are old enough now!)
Redmond Night Bazaar (I'm usually dead tired by nighttime in the summer, after long days in the sun at the beach or pool, but this sounds so fun.)
Ferry to Bainbridge (Like the aforementioned museums, we have shamefully never visited Bainbridge! Perhaps something to remedy this summer.)
Try a New Cocktail Recipe (I'm already eyeballing this one using the fresh raspberries we just picked...)
Try a New Restaurant for Dinner (Lots of new restaurants have opened in our neck of the woods on the Eastside of Seattle and the bucket list is a perfect impetus to check them out!)

Do you have a summer bucket list? Any suggestions or feedback? Happy summer y'all!

Scoring my Summer Bucket List

Ah, that bittersweet time of year is upon us! The end of summer and beginning of the school year gives me such conflicting emotions, especially as my kids get older - they get more fun as they mature, and it's sad to think about the dwindling number of childhood summers we have together. 

On the other hand, they were breaking out into intense bickering sessions way more frequently near the end there, and I am enjoying eating my lunch in silence (sitting down, even!) again...

Anyway! Evaluating the summer bucket list is a fun way to look back and preserve the memories of another summer:
Try one new hiking trail and also do the Big Four hike
Well, we definitely got a new trail under our belt on our trip to Rainier National Park. Alas, we didn't get over to Big Four this year. (Half a point for this?) The trail to Grove of the Patriarchs and Naches Peak were both excellent.

Go bowling
Check! Full marks for bowling and FINALLY ridding ourselves of those cursed prize tickets.

Go to the movies
Check! Just one outing to see the latest Minion movie, but it was fun.

Play mini golf
This is an easy and fun favorite we checked off early in the summer.

Teach the kids the art of making friendship bracelets
Big fat ZERO on this one. Although we have been keeping up with our creative side over the summer with Kelly Kits. (Half a point?) I got a deal for a trial three month subscription and might just subscribe for the year now, they are that awesome. It is a nice low maintenance option for those of us who feel so overwhelmed by the craft store. Each kit has just what I need to do at least two art pieces for two kids, with a really thoughtful and educational handout on the theme for the month.

Hit up a farmers market
Alas, this did not happen - hopefully we can squeeze one in before the season ends...

Annual summer road trip!
Yay! This was a blast and I think I might do a photo dump here soon for posterity. Short version: the Alta Crystal Resort is adorable (and I'm fervently hoping every day that our wildfires do not inflict damage to this lovely spot), the Gondola and Summit House at Crystal are both excellent, and you can never go wrong with a visit to Mount Rainier National Park.

Go blueberry picking and make blueberry dump cake
Check! We went to a new blueberry farm and it was great - we decided on these Smitten Kitchen muffins instead of dump cake. 

Make smores
Handily supplied to us at our resort on the aforementioned road trip:

Picnic at a new-to-us park
We didn't picnic, but spent an afternoon exploring the Lewis Creek Visitor Center one afternoon.

Visit Woodland Park Zoo (and hopefully see new baby giraffe!) as well as Point Defiance Zoo
Check and check!

Visit MoPop
Womp, womp. Hopefully soon...

Visit the Bellevue Art Museum
I visited TWICE. The cut paper exhibit is just amazing and we brought the kids to their first Bellevue Arts Fair.

Visit Pike Place and the new waterfront market
Check!

Try a new restaurant
It had been a long time since we had gone out for Italian, and as I mentioned in my monthly meal wrap up, we decided to try the new Carmines in Bellevue and it did not disappoint!

I also took the kids out for my kids first sushi experience and they ventured just as far as I thought they would: cooked crab being the most exotic choice. Baby steps.

Make frosé
I did this almost weekly! Maybe two points? This recipe continues to be a favorite. 

Make a new cocktail recipe
I mentioned this in the July monthly meal wrap up - this Gold Rush cocktail is so simple and DELICOUS.

Take a blog break
I still posted almost weekly, but I think I found a good rhythm for going forward and hope to stick with it!

Bonus points for my daughter finally tackling the rock wall at the Y this year!

She came thisclose to ringing the bell at the top. We may have to hit up some open climb times so that she can achieve this summer goal!

Bonus points for mother nature bringing a solar eclipse pretty close to our neck of the woods! It was a morning we'll never forget.

Peace out, summer of 2017! Now it's time to look forward to THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR...🎄🎄🎄

Should Reading to My Kids Count Towards Tracking on Goodreads?

Recently, Book Riot had a post on whether to count audio books when tracking your reading. It seems crazy to me NOT to count them! To your brain, they are not 'cheating' and you are spending almost similar amount of time consuming a story. The same goes for re-reads in my opinion: you are taking that precious time to engage with the written word, that for sure counts as reading. 

I sometimes feel not quite guilty, but some small hesitation when I add children's books to my Goodreads 'read' pile. For example, graphic novels - I never counted re-reading A Wrinkle in Time in graphic novel form. And when I read The Amulet Series after my son finished them, I only counted it as one book in my tracking. Should I go back and add six more books read?? Raina Telgemeier writes the most amazingly heartfelt stories with her pictures and words: Smile and Ghosts are must reads. Since they only took me the time it would take to watch a movie, I hesitated adding them to my list. Yet I read We Should All Be Feminists in the same amount of time! It all seems to even out to the length of an average book at the end of the year (a respectable 341 pages per book last year) so I count my monthly Newberry book, occasional middle grade read or graphic novel. It evens out with all that time I spent reading The Queen of the Night, right?

In thinking about time spent reading, it got me thinking about ALL THE TIME spent reading to my kids. Does that count for anything? I mean, aside from the obvious benefits of bonding and building my kids vocabulary, empathy, education and all. I'm certainly not talking about counting Goodnight, Moon or the millionth reading of Madeline. However, my kids are at an age where I am reading books to them that have some heft. I am a huge advocate of reading to your kids until they go to college, if you can swing it (also corroborated by Connecting Boys with Books) and I am still going strong with my seven and ten year old. This year I've read every Roald Dahl book you can think of with the younger, and just finished The Goblet of Fire (when Rowling starts to get particularly loquacious) with the older. We read a new Harry Potter with him every summer, and oftentimes we're reading for more than a half an hour a night. The caveat: my husband and I take turns and do a quick catch up on what happened with each other between readings. When we read Flora and Ulysses with my ten year old, I wanted to add it to my Newberry list of books read. Yet I had that 'guilt' feeling of counting it since I didn't sit and read it the whole way through. At least it's one I easily sat down and read on my own in an evening or two. But half of Harry Potter? Does it count for anything? I'm genuinely curious if parents count any of these books. Perhaps this means I SHOULD go back and add those other Amulets...

Ultimately, it's about what my goals are - if I want to conquer a set number of pages per year, I suppose I could figure out a way to work that into my Goodreads challenge. But that doesn't seem like a goal I want to pursue. More than anything, I like to look at the breakdown of the books I read: how many new releases vs backlist, fiction vs nonfiction, or how many books written by women or POC. My yearly goal is somewhat arbitrary, in that I usually just aim for more books than the year prior. So, I'll probably just keep on with not counting the books I read to my kids, unless I take the time to read the other half or whole on my own, and continue to see it as one of my favorite things to do together. A practice that I hope doesn't end anytime soon.

Summer Bucket List (and my screen time philosophy)

School is out and we've already hit up two pools, two ice cream stores, two parks, the Y (complete with time on the rock wall), and the library, of course. Summer reading is in full swing! To that end, this weekend I purchased two tents for fifteen bucks each on Amazon and declared them summer reading nooks.

The rule is that they are for reading, writing, drawing or coloring only. It's basically my attempt at curbing electronics more, since I don't have terribly hard and fast rules about screen time. My philosophy is you can play with your devices if you've checked off the requisite daily tasks: your room is clean, a page from your math workbook is done, you have done some other activity for at least an hour, and it is after lunchtime. The only struggle is with the first two items which, ironically, take the least amount of time. Making them wait for screens until after lunch/other activity for an hour minimum is kind of a gimme, since we leave the house by 9:30 almost every morning to go to the Y for at least an hour or two before lunch. 

Today at the Y

On top of that, we usually go to the pool, beach or park afterward and don't end up at home until at least 3 o'clock. Once they've exhausted themselves out and about for the day like that, I have ZERO problems with them playing even two hours straight on the X Box or Kindles. But, that's just me, you do YOU. And, I gotta keep it real, I have caved to just requiring one hour of non-screen time in the tent prior to allowing the kids to play with devices in them. Oh well, I figure it's another screen free hour I wouldn't have gotten out of 'em otherwise and they are getting more fresh air...

And to break up the monotony of the daily trip to the Y, pool/park/beach, tent time - here's this year's aspirations:

• Try one new hiking trail and also do the Big Four hike
• Go bowling
• Go to the movies
• Play mini golf
• Teach the kids the art of making friendship bracelets
• Hit up a farmers market
• Annual summer road trip (we're going to stay for a couple of nights near Mount Rainier this year)
• Go blueberry picking and make blueberry dump cake
• Make smores
• Picnic at a new-to-us park
• Visit Woodland Park Zoo (and hopefully see new baby giraffe!) as well as Point Defiance Zoo
• Visit MoPop
• Visit the Bellevue Art Museum
• Visit Pike Place and the new waterfront market
• Try a new restaurant
• Make frosé
• Make a new cocktail recipe
• Take a blog break

As for that last task, I think I'm putting the weekly meal posts on the back burner for the summer. I've been feeling repetitive and I'm making an effort to NOT make an effort in the kitchen this summer! I will still be posting from time to time, definitely monthly and ARC book reviews. 

Yesterday at the pool, ahhhh.

Anything I should add to the bucket list? Do you have a summer to-do list? I'd love to see it in the comments! Happy summer y'all.

Everyday Life and Menu Plan (1.29.16)

This was a pretty nutty week, in so many ways... For us, it was school conference week interspersed with sick days - one for my girl and two and a half for the boy child. Thankfully, they were okay-ish on conference day and missed school on mostly short days. Though, we didn't get out to celebrate their achievements with a trip for fro yo like usual, we DID go to the Bellevue Arts Museum for the first time this weekend. The free family day was a FANTASTIC experience. 

The theme for arts and crafts was Cultures Around the World and the amount of art, QUALITY art, we came home with was plentiful and so much fun to create: Aboriginal animal dot painting, 

make your own felt flag, Japanese kimono cut outs 

(so pretty, I made one too), Egyptian gold cuffs, and appropriately Chinese dragon puppets on the beginning of the lunar new year. It's also been so long since my husband and I have gone to view art. We had a lot of great discussions, and the bingo game for the kids was a perfect way to get them engaged, too. 

We will for sure be back for family day at the BAM.

And at the beginning of the week, I got to catch up with friends and see Laurie Frankel at Elliot Bay Book Company on the launch day of This is How it Always Is (review here). 

She was interviewed by Nancy Pearl, superhero Seattle librarian. What a fun book nerd extravaganza! Laurie was super charming, a fellow serial novel reader, and we were surrounded by so many authors. Laurie's husband and his band did an opening number which included Garth Stein - who you hopefully know as the author of the amazing The Art of Racing in the Rain! 

(Laurie's husband is in the lovely pink hat, and Garth is on the right.)
AND Carol Cassella was sitting just a few rows behind us. Cassella is a doctor and bestselling author - I quite enjoyed her novel Gemini, and she helped Laurie shape the mother's character in her book, a doctor. I'm sure there were others in attendance, but those two stood out to me!

On to this week - thankfully the kids are well and are back to FULL DAYS at school...

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Curried Lentil Soup (a top recipe of 2016 from The Cozy Apron)
• Wednesday - Buffalo Chicken Burgers (from How Sweet Eats)
• Thursday - Thai Turkey Meatball Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
• Friday - Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Crema (a longtime favorite from Cooking Light)
• Saturday - Chicken Parmesan (fantastic recipe from Tyler Florence)
• Sunday - Pinto Bean Turkey Chili (Superbowl day recipe from Food and Wine)

As always, I'm linking up with Org Junkie - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!

Everyday Life and Menu Plan (9.25.16)

Urghhh. It has been one of THOSE weeks around here. Super crabby kids getting back into the swing of the school year, lots of after school commitments and my husband having to work late recently all conspired against me. At least we had dinner at our favorite restaurant on Saturday for an early 14 year anniversary celebration.

I was rather looking forward to this drink, and one of the reasons we decided to go a little early was because was Daniel's was having a September whiskey celebration and this Original Sazerac didn't disappoint. Luckily I was able to enjoy it, along with our appetizer when...for the first time ever... We got a call from our babysitter (just as we put in our steak orders) to tell us that our youngest had vomited! Did I also mention that this was a new sitter? Yeah. I was more mortified for that girl than I was truly worried about my kid. Kids puke. It happens. But when they are totally fine when you take off and leave them with the sitter? Not usually. GAH. So we ate rather rapidly and it wasn't exactly the relaxing meal I had hoped for. Alas, we'll probably schedule another dinner out soon and one to Daniels in a few short months. And we're still working on rescheduling that day date hike from last week the OTHER kid decided to postpone with a fever. GEEZE. Kids, man. When it rains it pours. Good thing they're pretty cute.

Our little trooper at one of TWO soccer games we had this week, with all of her entertainments. Looking forward to a hopefully incident free week...

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Butternut Squash and Quinoa Bake with Brussels Sprouts
• Wednesday - Satay Chicken and Roasted Broccoli (easy recipe from about.com)
• Thursday - Portillos Hot Dogs!
• Friday - Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Crema (awesome Cooking Light Recipe)
• Saturday - Saturday Night Pasta (our Arrabbiata recipe)
• Sunday - Turkey Chili Taco Soup (trying this one from Skinnytaste)

As always, I'm linking up with Org Junkie and Mommy Run Fast- be sure to check out all the great weekly menus! 

The Stages of Introducing My Child to MY Favorite Childhood Book

When I wrote about experiencing The Amulet Series with my son, I shared my absolute favorite book from my youth: A Wrinkle in Time (and my treasured signed copy).

(Apparently Chelsea Clinton's favorite book growing up, too! Here's a great article from The Atlantic on the subject. Nerd girls unite!) As I mentioned in that post, I wanted to read it with him before introducing the graphic novel. We read it together at the beginning of the summer and I was surprised at the myriad feelings I experienced. Sure, I was excited to share Harry Potter with him for the first time and we finished The Prisoner of Azkaban this summer (We're on a 'one each summer' schedule.) But, although I'm a HUGE fan of the boy wizard, I read J.K. Rowlings books in my twenties. It's not quite the same anticipation of sharing something that shaped your own childhood.

First stage: Trepidation. Will he like it? What if he DOESN'T like it? It IS a little weird with flying space centaurs, creepy children and disembodied brains... I hadn't re-read it in a good twenty or so years and these things were making me chuckle. This fascinating New York Times article explores the idea: Is It Harder to Be Transported By a Book as You Get Older? And it made sense to me. So! I decided that even though it wasn't totally transporting me like it did the very first time I read it eons ago, it might be a different story for my kid.

Second stage: Nonchalance. Feign indifference: d'you want to read it tonight, or something else? *while crossing fingers that he wants to continue reading* 

Third stage: Hope. He wants to keep reading! Can you read with me for ten more minutes, please!? Well... OKAY.

Fourth stage: Dry Mouth from suuuuper long reading sessions. But that's fine because...

Fifth stage: Elation! He loves it! And I feel really lucky in that regard. Everyone has different taste in reading, and what they want to get out of a book. He really has a thing for the silly (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc.) and I don't think that was ever my bag, so this is awesome.

Sixth stage: Endless Conversation. We got into so many great discussions about the book. A Wrinkle in Time is rife with conversation starters about big topics like good and evil, spirituality and being yourself. Not to mention all the inevitable questions about my childhood, when I read the book. We even spent some time researching all the different cover art, because he wanted to see what the version I read looked like. If you google Wrinkle in Time Cover Art, there seem to be DOZENS. Mine looked like this:

Like the heyday 70s Are You There God? It's Me Margaret covers. 

And, of course, he got his own copy of the graphic novel when we were done reading. 

It sits on the floor next to his bed (well, there's lots of stuff on the floor) and he's already re-read it twice. I've purchased the rest of the quintet and I hope that he enjoys them, too. Something tells me he will, though...