We be jammin'

I just made strawberry freezer jam for the first time! If it turns out I'll post the recipe ( which isn't difficult OR a secret).

Recipe: Banilla FroYo

We've been trying out some frozen yogurt recipes lately, both because fro-yo is less expensive to make than premium ice cream, and because it's lower in calories.  I've collected a variety of recipes from the interwebz, and last night combined a few to come up with a very yummy banana-vanilla frozen yogurt.

Banilla FroYo

Ingredients

• 3 medium bananas
• 2 cups low-fat vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 can (14 oz) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 1 small box (3.4 oz) Jell-o French vanilla pudding mix

Directions

1.  Puree the bananas in a blender.
2. Add remaining ingredients to pureed bananas and blend until combined.
3. Pour contents of blender into pre-frozen bowl of ice cream maker (we have a CuisineArt that we LOVE).
4. Run ice cream maker for amount of time recommended by manufacturer (ours takes 25 - 30 minutes).
5. Transfer frozen yogurt to freezer-safe container and freeze for several hours or over night.

Serving size: 4 ox (1/2 cup)
Number of servings: 14

Nutrition data from http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Quickie: 'S'mores

We had 's'mores on the patio tonight, thanks to Mr. Mamie's ingenuity! He got the little Smokey Joe camping BBQ from the backyard, bought some wood at the store at the corner of the highway, and voila! Summertime happiness!












Note the marshmallow on my face - sign of a good 's'more!

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What I'm reading...

I finished Courting Trouble yesterday. Getting through it had become a bit of a chore, unfortunately. Definitely NOT Scottoline's best effort in the "Rosato & Associates" series. There were a few good twists and surprises, but overall it was too far-fetched with regard to the main character's persona and actions.

Happily, on Thursday I picked up four books at the library that I had requested: A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch, both memoirs by Haven Kimmel that were recommended by Wide Lawns; Freakonomics, which has some wacky and controversial ideas but which for some reason rivets me every time I read bits of it while at Barnsie; and the newest book in the Ali Reynolds series by J. A. Jance, Fatal Error.  I'm already a third of the way through it and so far it's a very satisfying read. More comments on this later, I'm sure!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Quickie: Zion on Sunday

We spent our Sunday at Zion, the best place on Earth! Here's Mr. Mamie headed up the Watchman trail.



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Current trashy mystery novel...

 

I have a LARGE number of paperbacks taking up space in my living room and dining room, 95% of which were passed on to me by the Wombat.  I really want to get them cleared out, so I'm going to start listing them on PaperbackSwap.com. First though, there's a fair number I want to read. And, it's EIGHTY DAYS until school starts, so I've got a little time! 

This is the one I grabbed yesterday. It's okay, not spectacular, but there's enough of a plot that I'm hooked. If you're familiar with any other Lisa Scottoline mysteries, it's from the "Rosato & Associates" series.  If it seems worth it, I'll do a quick review when I finish.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

What I'm reading...

Well, more like "What I Just FINISHED Reading..."

Last weekend I started my mental vacation a little earlier and tore through these  three easy-reads:

Unfortunately, The Penny Pinchers Club wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It was kinda shallow and not all that realistic. The lack of depth and my inability to feel a real connection with the main character mad this book kind of a waste for me. Too bad.

I try to read the Newbery nominees each year, and I had high hopes for this book, given the number of awards it's won. Having lived in Oakland/Berkeley for over ten years, I was looking forward to making some connections with the setting of the One Crazy Summer, and I was interested to read a young-adult novel take on the Black Power movement of the late 1960s.  Again, though, I was disappointed. While the protagonist had some depth to her character, the book overall lacked the kind of depth I had hoped for.  I'm not sure how much a young reader would take away in terms of understanding the historical period through narrative. More details and some additional information via and afterward of "historical notes" would have helped.

 

Turtle in Paradise  was by far the best of last weekend's reads. I felt a good connection with the main character, the historical details were plentiful but not pedantic, and the plot moved along well enough to keep a young reader engaged. There's an afterward with some additional details that as an adult I found especially interesting.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday 5/26/11 #2

Twilight tiki torch on the patio.


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Nearly Wordless Wednesday 5/26/11

 Teachers and staff (and the principal - she's on the far left) doing a kick-line, singing, and waving as the buses pull out on the last day of school. I'm in the middle of the line, three to the right of the big green guy. The buses honk and the kids scream - it's quite a scene! Thanks to Mrs. Igor for snapping the pic on her phone. :)

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

What I'm reading...

Nerd alert! Today was the last day of school, and by 5:00 p.m. I was already reading Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations book. I know, I know... give it a rest, right?

However, I'm following along with a "hosted book study blog party" (via my teacher blog), and the discussion on the first chapter begins on June 1st. I like to be ahead of the curve, so yeah, I plunged in tonight! :)

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

What I'm reading...

 

On the couch next to me right now - hilariously written!

 

Finally started this last Sunday night when I couldn't sleep.  I'd had it in the house for a couple of YEARS, but for some reason it never "spoke" to me. However, I ended up HOOKED from the beginning, and read 70 pages the first night!  I expect that we'll go see the movie as son as school's out, which is barreling up fast.

 

Also quite hilarious; read it in one fell swoop last night. 

My current professional reading. I've had it since last fall, but have been too overwhelmed to even think about changes in the literacy structure in my classroom (especially with this year's new curriculum adoption). However, now that I'm thinking about next fall, I'm ready to take it on. I read about half of it last weekend, and am definitely thinking in new directions.

I've got more contemporary fiction, professional reading, trashy mysteries, and classics lined up and waiting... can;t wait for the summer to arrive so I can plunge in!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Favorite Things - Homemade Salad Dressing

 

For the last few months I have been making salad dressing weekly, and I've reached the point where I pretty much ONLY like (and consume) homemade dressings. Bottled dressings all taste too sweet or too chemically to me now! GrandmaT has a favorite bottled dressing she uses, and Mr. Mamie is about 50-50 in using homemade or bottled, but I'm 100% homemade now. 

The one I ALWAYS have one hand is this Greek Salad Dressing - very simple to make and REALLY good. I make a double batch almost every week, which gives me enough for both green salad in my lunch at school five days a week as well as green salad at home most nights.

My other favorite is a Cafe Rio-style creamy tomatillo dressing from Kalyn's Kitchen.  I usually make it with buttermilk and fresh jalapeno peppers, though it's almost as good with regular milk and green Tabasco sauce.  This is so yummy that several teachers at school are now making it after seeing and trying mine from my lunch!

LOVE the homemade salad dressings - totally  favorite thing!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Favorite Things - Bed Faeries

 Every night the "bed faeries" come and turn down the covers on our bed... I love walking into the room and seeing this, it's just so comforting and nice.

(And I really love the bed faeries' boss, Mr. Mamie....)

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday 5/4/11

 Starring line up for allergy season - UGH!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Favorite Things - Front Patio

One of the nicest features of our house is a good-sized front patio. It is north-facing, so we can see the mountains, and it gets good light in both the morning and early evening.  We have a huge cottonwood tree and a red-tipped photina that has grown up quite nicely to provide shade and a wind break to the west.  Travellin'Dad and CrochetMom gave me a wonderful, large, round glass outdoor table and four awesome chairs (much nicer that I could have afforded) when they moved, and we've got a fabulous umbrella to go in the middle of the table. Mr. Mamie's favorite thing is our burnished metal tiki torch, for which I recently created a cool stand out of a basket (inherited from the Wombat), some lava rocks (free from the field next door), and some glass pebbles (also inherited from the Wombat). I'll have to take a picture and do a post on just the tiki torch!  We love to eat on the patio, including breakfast on school mornings in the spring and fall. Wireless computers and a good homework network mean we're connected outside if we want to be - so I can do my lesson planning out there, too!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)