Croatian Chard & Potatoes (Blitva)

Ingredients

• 3 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and cut in 1 in. chunks
• about ⅓ c. Olive Oil
• about 5 plump cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 big bunch Swiss Chard, tough center stalk removed, greens cut into ½ in. wide strips

Instructions

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Combine olive oil and garlic in a large pot and place over medium-high heat. After about 2 minutes, the garlic should be soft (but not yet browned) and the oil should be very fragrant. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring a couple of times, until the potatoes start to turn golden around the edges, 5-7 minutes.
3. Add half of the Swiss chard, sprinkle with kosher salt, and toss with the potatoes. Add the remaining chard, season with salt, toss. Cook until the greens have wilted, 3-4 minutes. Taste. Season with additional salt, if needed, and freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Our new Toy!

After 6 years of abundant automotive troubles and frankly not enjoying the blue van covered in dog hair and fishy crackers (yes, I know the latter is my fault), I am happy to say we are now the owners of a sassy new white 2005 Volvo V70. I really hope I can enforce the water and mess-less snacks only rule I'm going to try and impose. Some may say (ahem Bradley), how about NO food and NO drinks...it's just not possible, unless of course you don't mind listening to loud, obnoxious screaming from tired toddlers or "fart humor" from 5 year olds.

Oh Volvo welcome home. I hope you'll be with us a long time.

Happy Birthday Mama Jan!

This past weekend the kids and I drove to Fayetteville to surprise our sweet Mama and Grandma for her birthday. We pulled off the surprise quite well and enjoyed watching her stunned face as she found us hiding in Uncle John's apartment behind their house.

We really are blessed to have such a caring, sweet, mama and look forward to many, many more moons with this special lady.

Love you mom!

Salon Recommendation

I've been running short on time lately, sorry for the slack posting. Our recent search for our minivan replacement has left me spending lots of time googling and tossing car options in my mind endlessly.

Anyhoo, I'm always on a search for a good hair salon and have heard others mentioning the need for a new stylist as well, so thought I'd throw my suggestion into the pot. I recently visited Salon Blu in Brier Creek after reading quite a few good reviews on Triangle Mommies. I was really impressed! The salon fit me in the day after I called and I had Amanda give me a fairly simple "Raleigh Bob". What's a "Raleigh Bob" you ask? Suprisingly there's a whole N&O article written on said hairstyle. http://www.samandbills.com/1-C-Mon-July-21-03.php.
The cuts at Salon Blu range from $35 - upwards of $60. Amanda stuck closely to the pictures I brought in and gave me a cut that's both easy to maintain and actually looks the way it did when I walked out of the salon a few weeks after the cut.

The only negative I can say about the Salon was having Amanda try to sell me products constantly. If you can easily ignore people's requests for more money as I can then perhaps she's someone you might like as well. The salon was trendy and hip and full of funky stylists.

I'll definitely be re-visiting Salon Blu (not to be confused with Blo!) again soon.

Oak Island 2009

Yes, we're back! What a great vacation. We all really needed to get away and to re-invigorate ourselves for daily life and routines. Oak Island is just lovely and still small on the commercial side. There are a few things to do, but not much...just the way I like it. They do have one miniature golf course for the kiddies and a movie theatre, but other than that the ocean is the premiere entertainment around.

We spent most of our time enjoying our ocean-front house and the beautiful view from the deck. Jackson was finally old enough to really figure out the boogie/skim boards and entertain himself and Jessie thankfully didn't shove handfuls of sand into her mouth. Right up until July 3rd the beach was pretty desolate and there were only 5-6 people at a time on the strand where we were. Nice!

Other than basking in the HOT sun and eating LOADS of icecream we did have one "educational" day in which we actually scheduled an event. We took the ferry to Ft. Fisher and thankfully the first leg of the trip was exciting and fun, because from there on out....pure misery. We landed on Ft. Fisher with throngs of people heading to the aquarium. The aquarium is really pretty cool except when a large group of sweaty europeans who do not believe in any antiperspirant keep crowding around every exhibit your children want to see. Ugg! We spent probably an hour in the aquarium when it should have taken double that to really see and appreciate all the exhibits. Oh well. By this time the temperature outside is nearing 98 and Jessie is MAD. She cries most of the way back to the ferry in which we must wait a mere 45 minutes to board. We finally get back to Southport and are able to enjoy more icecream and some cute shops. We really would have liked to explore Southport more, but it was just so hot! So no more educational, structured activities for this family while on vacation. Sheesh!

We ate good seafood, we slept many naps, we bought junky toys, we filled our bathing suits with lots of sand, we played many board games and watched silly movies while eating many, many bowls of icecream. Great fun but happy to be back home!

Like Father.....

Yes, my son adores his father and can't wait to be just like him. During his graduation he expressed his interest in being a "builder" like his daddy. Like Brad, he's a huge fan of baseball, golf, and sadly enough, world extreme cagefighting. hrm.

So it doesn't come at any surpise that like dad, he wants his lily-white skin covered in ink. Brad was oh so kind to oblige his 5 year old fantasy.

Enjoy Mama Jan!

Lovely Lemon Loaded Goodness

I got this recipe from my mother's neighbor in Fayetteville and I've seen it floating around the web for some time now. I tried this lemon cake recipe last year and was disappointed with the result. It wasn't nearly as lemony as Ms. Enid's. I re-read the recipe again this year and realized I missed a crucial step in my previous cake. This cake is really all about the lemon glaze you drench over the cake. In order for the lemony goodness to penetrate the cake you must take a skewer or chopstick and punch small holes through the cake and then your lemony mixture of lemon zest, lemon juice and powdered sugar can thoroughly melt it's way through the cake. Oh my goodness. It's so good.

My father-in-law loves most lemon things and I thought he'd enjoy this recipe for Father's Day. It's such an easy recipe and great for summer. I love to throw the cake in the fridge and pull it out with some nice iced coffee.

I'm posting a recipe off a cooking site that I found that features almost the exact recipe from Enid. I used a 9x13 cake pan instead of the jelly roll pan. It turned out great

Quick and Easy Lemon Cake - Pinch My Salt

Nana’s Lemon Jello Cake
1 package yellow cake mix
1 small package lemon jello
3/4 C. water
4 eggs, well beaten
3/4 C. oil
glaze:
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
2 C. powdered sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 18 x 13-inch jelly roll pan.
2. Pour cake mix and lemon jello powder into a large bowl; whisk together to remove any large lumps. Stir in the water then add eggs and oil. Blend, using a wooden spoon, with 50 strokes. There will be lumps, this is ok.
3. Pour batter into a greased and floured jelly roll pan; smooth batter with a spatula so that it is even. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees, checking after the first 20 minutes.
4. While cake is baking, mix together powdered sugar. lemon juice and zest.
5. While cake is still warm, pierce with fork all over then spread glaze evenly over the top. Allow to cool, then cut into squares and serve.