A fabulous fairy garden and pancake party

My daughter turned nine and decided she wanted to have a pancake party for her birthday. When I asked her what she'd like to do with her friends, she wasn't too sure. She has a mixed group of friends, some from when she was younger in daycare and others she goes to school with now. So after much discussion, we came up with the idea to have a "fairy garden planting and pancake party". Sounds fabulous and fun, right?

We shopped and picked out small birdhouses at the craft stores in various shapes and sizes. Michaels and AC Moore have them for $1 each, and we used 50% off coupons to get them for just $0.53 each after tax. We also picked up special acrylic paint and a spray polyurethane to keep the paint from washing away in the rain.

In the weeks leading up to the party, we collected small twigs from the yard, clipped them into even smaller pieces and hot-glued them into little fairy benches and chairs. We realized we wouldn't have too much time during the party for everyone to build their own chairs, and goodness gracious I couldn't imagine working with a hot glue gun during the chaos, I mean party. So it was nice to lay out all the designs we hand-crafted and let each of the girls select their own.

The morning of the party, Mr O. worked as our chef on the griddle, in charge of making chocolate chip, blueberry, a mix of both and "just plain" pancakes. We created a pancake toppings bar in the middle of the table, complete with butter, fresh strawberries and blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles and syrup.

For a cake we stacked sprinkle-filled pancakes, poured a glaze on top and then placed 9 candles on top. This ended up being gobbled up by Mr. O., myself and my awesome partner-in-crime, Karyn. She's incredibly crafty and so very helpful when planning parties.

Here's a few pictures of the girls' masterpieces. They painted and drew on rocks, used blue glass stones as water - some created ponds, while others made streams, and then painted their houses and selected different flowers and plants to include in their gardens.

The girls had so much fun and then got to take their gardens home to plant in their real gardens. I loved doing this craft with them, and loved even more just watching their creativity come out while they worked on theirs.

Black bean, corn and tomato salsa

My good friend Carol shared this black bean, corn and tomato salsa recipe with me years ago and it's been one of our favorites ever since the first bite. We like to make this a lot in the summer when tomatoes are fresh and delicious.

The recipe can be easily doubled or tripled, and you can also remove any ingredients you don't like. A friend of ours does not like cucumbers, so they add a diced avocado instead. Still tastes delicious, just a little creamery than this version. And this calls for basil, but you could just as easily substitute cilantro for a more Mexican flavor. Go with whatever tastes you prefer. Just be sure to have enough Fritos Scoops or Tostitos Scoops - this salsa is addictive and you'll be licking the bowl once it's done!

Ingredients:

• 1 can corn kernels
• 1 can black beans
• 3-4 large tomatoes or ~8 roma tomatoes
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cucumber
• 15-20 basil leaves
• 1/4 cup (upwards to 1/2 cup) balsamic vinaigrette
• 2-3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions:

1. Grab a medium sized bowl and an apron, the tomatoes make a mess. 
2. Drain cans of corn and black beans and add to the bowl.
3. Remove seeds from tomatoes as best you can. We like to use roma tomatoes, also called plum tomatoes, as they are easy to slice 1/4 inch thick and then cut a circle around the seeds in the middle. Then dice your slices about the size of the corn kernels and beans. 
4. Mince or finely chop 2-3 cloves of garlic and add them to the bowl. If you've got large cloves, go with 2. If they're small, use 3.
5. Slice and then dice the cucumber and add it to the bowl.
6. Julienne the basil leaves. Don't know how to julienne basil? It's easy. Just stack the basil leaves on top of each other, roll up the pile and then slice across to make very small strips. Toss these in the bowl also.
7. Give it all a good mix and then stir in 1/4 cup of the best balsamic vinaigrette you can find. We like Newman's Own, as it's relatively inexpensive and tastes great. 
8. If you really like the taste of balsamic, add 2-3 tablespoons of a good balsamic vinegar and mix well. If you aren't a fan of the taste, omit this step. 
9. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for the flavors to marry for an hour or two (or can sit overnight if you have to make it in advance... just leave the basil leaves out until ready to serve).
10. Serve cold or room temperature with Tostitos Scoops or Fritos Scoops. 

We love to bring this salsa to BBQs and friends houses when we are invited to swim because it's an easy snack that doesn't have to stay refrigerated. Hope you enjoy!

Fajitas in the oven

We've been making fajitas in the oven for a while now and have blended a few recipes together to come up with what suites our taste. This is a super easy meal to throw together in under 10 minutes, then bake for 30 minutes while you're helping the kids with homework, tidying up, folding laundry, paying bills or whatever else you can cram in while dinner cooks.

We've even made this dish for a big group one year when we went to the Outer Banks. Side story - each family is in charge of making one meal/week while we're away (we go with 3-4 other families in the summer). We try to plan ahead and get most of the prep work done before we leave for the trip, so we can spend more time on the beach than up in the room cooking for a group 20. This meal is super easy to do just that. Chop, slice and marinate in a freezer bag, then freeze solid before your trip. You can even pick up all the fixins before your trip so you don't have to run out to the store as soon as you get there (if you are the lucky one to make dinner the night you arrive).

You can make this with whatever color bell peppers you have on hand. We like the look of red, orange and yellow peppers, but you could certainly add green to the mix, use all of one color, or mix it up to incorporate and mix of two whole peppers. And if you are organized (yay you!), you can cover the dish with saran wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours. But if you're like me and never know what you're doing for dinner until you walk in the door from work, it tastes perfectly delicious even when it doesn't have a second to marinate.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 chicken breasts, sliced into strips (around 2 pounds)
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 2 -3 teaspoons of chili powder (to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• Fixins for on top - sour cream, shredded Mexican cheese, salsa, avocado, etc
• Soft taco shells - we prefer Wegmans Tortillas, Fajita style

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix all ingredients into a 9x13 casserole dish, tossing around the spices, chicken and vegetables to make sure everything gets coated with the yummy flavor.
3. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes to steam the peppers. Then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. 
4. Serve with sour cream, shredded Mexican cheese, salsa, avocado or anything else you like on your fajitas.