Hey mybaby peeps! I know we focus a lot on the little munchkins...but in reality, we often have to feed the fathers.

Here's 3 TOTALLY easy ways to make him happy...and he'll even volunteer to get out there and grill! And the best part...they're easier than 90% of the recipes you'll ever make.

STEAK TIPS
This is one that'll cost you $10 but it'll last 2 meals...
Buy steak tips, marinade in this (2 days will make them awesome):

WORCHESTERSHIRE SAUCE
GARLIC (I go heavy on it)
SALT & PEPPER

GRILL AND WATCH YOUR HUBBY MELT.



FLANK STEAK
Buy one flank steak. Marinade in 1/2 bottle of terriake (sp?) sauce.
Add garlic and ginger root to wow to a new level!
GRILL, baby, grill.




SUPER BURGERS
Take the ground beef, marinade in worchestershire, garlic, salt & pepper.
Make paddies...OR marinade frozen paddies before grilling.

WOW. WOW. WOW. Serve with microbrew (Magic hat #9, kettle chips & watermelon!!!)

MAN STUFF...DELICIOUS.

Too Hot to Cook?
(and the weather's nasty too?)

TRY THESE 8 SIMPLE RECIPES TO PULL TOGETHER WHEN IT's HOT
AS H-e-double hockey sticks.

If it's blazing out, chances are you won't want to slave away in the evil trenches of the domestic kitchen.No, you'd rather get the dinner thing over and done with before your frozen daiquiri melts in the sweltering humidity.

That's why I've gathered some real crowd-pleasers below (thanks about.com):
http://busycooks.about.com/od/summerrecipesandmenus/a/toohotcook.htm

1. Curried Shrimp Salad (although I'd do chicken)

Try substituting cooked chopped chicken, turkey or ham for the shrimp for a totally new recipe. Other fruits like peaches or nectarines would also be delicious in this salad recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. curry powder
1/2 cup mango chutney
2 cups red grapes
1 cup chopped celery hearts
3 cups fully cooked medium shrimp, thawed if frozen

PREPARATION:
In large bowl combine mayonnaise, yogurt, low-fat mayonnaise and milk; stir well. Add curry powder and chutney. Gently stir in grapes, celery and shrimp. Chill well before serving to blend flavors. Garnish with toasted coconut, cashews, and chopped mango.


2. Mexican Chicken Salad

Try using jalapeno cheese instead of cheddar cheese in this easy and delicious no cook salad recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups cooked cubed chicken
15 oz. can corn, drained
15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup thick and chunky salsa
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 cup oil and vinegar salad dressing
PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients except salsa, cilantro and salad dressing and toss gently. Combine salsa, cilantro and salad dressing in small bowl and drizzle over chicken mixture. Toss to coat. Cover and chill for 1-3 hours to blend flavors.


3. Chilled Cucumber Soup

his simple soup is perfect for a hot summer night. Serve it in white soup bowls for a cooling effect.

INGREDIENTS:
1 garlic clove, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
dash white pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1-1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cracked ice
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and sliced
PREPARATION:
In blender or food processor, combine all ingredients and blend or process, using on and off function, until soup is of desired consistency. You may need to add more cracked ice. This soup can be chilled for a few hours before serving, or served immediately.



4. Easy Pita Sandwiches

INGREDIENTS:
2 whole wheat pita breads, cut in half
1/4 cup thinly sliced smoked turkey
1 cup marinated vegetable salad, drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
PREPARATION:
Fill pocket bread halves with turkey and vegetable salad. Sprinkle with cheese and serve. Serves 4




5. Fruity Tuna Salad

This simple salad is so easy to make on a hot summer day, because it needs no cooking. Use a melon baller instead of cutting the melons into pieces if you'd like.
INGREDIENTS:
4 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp. oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. dry mustard
dash white pepper
1 tsp. lemon juice
6 oz. can white tuna, drained
1/2 cup sliced celery
2 Tbsp. sliced green onion
1 cup cubed cantaloupe
1 cup cubed honeydew
1 cup red grapes
1 cup chopped Granny Smith apple

PREPARATION:
In small bowl, combine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, mustard and lemon peel and mix well. In medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and toss with dressing. Chill for 1 hour and serve on lettuce lined plates.


6. Asian Chicken Salad

This quick and easy salad recipe tastes homemade, even though you start with deli ingredients!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups creamy deli coleslaw
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
8 oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
10 oz. bag mixed salad greens
1 cup fried chow mein noodles
PREPARATION:
Combine coleslaw, chicken, pineapple and ginger and mix well. Arrange lettuce leaves on 4 salad plates. Spoon coleslaw mixture over lettuce and sprinkle with noodles. Serve immediately. 4 servings


7. Cobb Salad Wraps

You can use other vegetables in this easy no cook sandwich wrap recipe. Try sliced red or green peppers or thinly sliced summer squash. You can make the filling ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you're ready to make the sandwiches.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/3 cup chopped green onion
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1 avocado, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup red wine vinaigrette salad dressing
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
6 (10") flour tortillas
1-1/2 cups shredded fresh spinach
1 cup crumbled blue cheese

PREPARATION:
Combine chicken, green onion, tomato and avocado in medium bowl and gently mix. In small bowl, combine salad dressing and dijon mustard and whisk to blend. Add to chicken mixture and stir to coat.
When ready to serve, spoon chicken mixture into each tortilla.



8. Marinated Greek Salad

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cauliflower florets
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 cup green olives
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 cup Italian or Greek salad dressing
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
PREPARATION:
In large glass bowl, combine all ingredients, cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours to blend flavors. Makes 8 servings


PLUS EASY SIDES:
rolls
raw veggies
fruit
hummus
guacamole & chips
beans (from a can, it's ok)
apple sauce
yogurt

Last summer, I posted a WICKED long list of sumertime ideas.

This year, I'm posting a WICKED long list of "classics" to read with your kids over the summer. I'd say pick two to four and commit to reading them out loud to your kids. If yours are younger, grab a bunch from the library and consider yourself well-read. :).

I've been reading Peter Pan for like 2 months now- we have one more chapter and I trust we'll eventually get there.

10 Other ideas for SUMMERTIME LITERACY:

1. Dedicate 30 minutes everyday to sitting with books (if the kids can't read) or reading if old enough. If you start the summer off on the right foot, you can say, "this summer, we don't play video games until we've read for a half hour." If your kids throw fits, offer to spend a half hour reading as well. I find evenings in the summer evaporate with bbqs and movies and outside play. Try to work it into the morning routine. Then, later, they can watch tv or play video games and you won't feel bad because they read for 30-45 minutes already!
2. Let the kids dictate stories. This one is fun. Give them a visual like a magazine ad or a picture from an pld book (go to the thrift store for odd-topic books/photography books you can cut up. Even recipe books can have cool pictures). Glue the image to large cardstock/cardboard (cereal boxes) and ask your child to look at the picture and explain a story of what happened or what is going to happen or how the image got the way it looks. You write it down as they tell the story. Then you can print it up or just paste the story under or next to the picture.
   
3. PRACTICE LETTER SOUNDS, not just letter names.
4. Practice REAL LIFE writing. Have your kids make to-do lists, keep notes, make shopping lists, etc. This is just as important in some ways.
5. Have your child write lyrics to a song. If your child knows a song on the piano, have him or her write new lyrics to an old fave.
6. Listen to books on tape, story cds and other enriching tales.
7. Go to storytime at the library. I'll admit, I never do this one....but my neighbor LOVES to go. :)
8. TIVO reading rainbow & sesame street. It beats watching a half an hour of spongebon (although he's pretty cool).
9. GET BOB books for preschoolers just on the cusp of reading...Clifford's Phonics Set is also decent.
10. LET YOUR KIDS SEE YOU READING. Even if it's a people magazine, make a point to get comfy cozy with the tv off. It sets them up for an appreciation of boooks & magazines.
    

That's my strategy!
Good Luck & Please Share Yours!

CLASSIC BOOKS:

Kindergarten through Grade 6

* Recommended for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them.

• Adamson, Joy - Born Free
• Aesop - Fables*
• Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women
• Andersen, Hans Christian - Fairy tales
• Atwater, Richard and Florence - Mr. Popper's Penguins*
• Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin - Miss Hickory
• Barrie, J.M. - Peter Pan
• Baum, L. Frank - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Bemelmans, Ludwig - Madeline series*
• Bond, Michael - A Bear Called Paddington
• Boston, L.M. - The Children of Green Knowe
• Brink, Carol Ryrie - Caddie Woodlawn
• Brown, Margaret Wise - Goodnight, Moon*
• Brunhoff, Jean de - The Story of Babar*
• Burnett, Frances Hodgson - The Secret Garden
• Burton, Virginia Lee - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel*
• Butterworth, Oliver - The Enormous Egg
• Clark, Ann Nolan - Secret of the Andes
• Cleary, Beverly - Henry Huggins series
• Coatsworth, Elizabeth - The Cat Who Went to Heaven
• Dalgliesh, Alice -
  • The Bears on Hemlock Mountain*
  • The Courage of Sarah Noble*
• De Angeli, Marguerite - The Door in the Wall
• De Jong, Meindert -
  • The House of Sixty Fathers
  • The Wheel on the School
• Dodge, Mary Mapes - Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates
• Du Bois, William Pene - The Twenty-One Balloons
• Edmonds, Walter D. - The Matchlock Gun
• Estes, Eleanor -
  • Ginger Pye
  • Moffats series
• Farley, Walter - The Black Stallion
• Field, Rachel - Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
• Fritz, Jean - The Cabin Faced West
• Gilbreth, Frank B. and -
  • Ernestine G. Carey;
  • Cheaper By the Dozen
• Gipson, Fred - Old Yeller
• Godden, Rumer - The Mousewife*
• Grahame, Kenneth -
  • The Reluctant Dragon*;
  • The Wind in the Willows
• Gray, Elizabeth Janet - Adam of the Road
• Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm - Grimm's Fairy Tales
• Hawes, Charles - The Dark Frigate
• Haywood, Carolyn - Betsy series*
• Henry, Marguerite -
  • King of the Wind;
  • Misty of Chincoteague
• Keith, Harold - Rifles for Watie
• Kelly, Eric - The Trumpeter of Krakow
• Kipling, Rudyard -
  • Captains Courageous
  • Just So Stories for
  • Little Children*
  • The Jungle Books
• Kjelgaard, Jim - Big Red
• Knight, Eric - Lassie Come Home
• Krumgold, Joseph -
  • ...and Now Miguel
  • Onion John
• LaFarge, Oliver - Laughing Boy
• Lamb, Charles and Mary - Tales from Shakespear
• Latham, Jean Lee - Carry on, Mr. Bowditch
• Lawson, Robert -
  • Ben and Me
  • Rabbit Hill
• Leaf, Munro - The Story of Ferdinand*
• Lear, Edward - Book of Nonsense*
• Lenski, Lois - Strawberry Girl
• Lewis, C.S. - Chronicles of Narnia series
• Lindgren, Astrid - Pippi Longstocking series
• Lofting, Hugh - Doctor Doolittle series
• London, Jack -
  • The Call of the Wild
  • White Fang
• MacDonald, Betty - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle*
• MacGregor, Ellen - Miss Pickerell series
• McCloskey, Robert -
  • Blueberries for Sal*
  • Homer Price
  • Make Way for Ducklings*
• McSwigan, Marie - Snow Treasure
• Meigs, Cornelia - Invincible Louisa
• Milne, A.A -
  • The House at Pooh Corner*
  • Now We Are Six*
  • When We Were Very Young*
  • Winnie-the-Pooh*
• Minarik, Else Holmelund - Little Bear
• Montgomery, L.M - Anne of Green Gables
• Mukerji, Dhan Ghopal - Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon
• Norton, Mary - The Borrowers series
• O'Hara, Mary - My Friend Flicka
• Pearce, Philippa - Tom's Midnight Garden
• Perrault, Charles - Cinderella*
• Potter, Beatrix - The Tale of Peter Rabbit*
• Pyle, Howard - The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
• Rey, H.A -. Curious George series*
• Richter, Conrad - The Light in the Forest
• Selden, George - The Cricket in Times Square*
• Seuss, Dr. - The Cat in the Hat*
• Sewell, Anna - Black Beauty
• Sorenson, Virginia - Miracles on Maple Hill
• Speare, Elizabeth George - The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• Sperry, Armstrong - Call It Courage
• Spyri, Johanna - Heidi
• Steinbeck, John - The Red Pony
• Stevenson, Robert Louis -
  • A Child's Garden of Verses*
  • Kidnapped
  • Treasure Island
• Travers, Pamela L. - Mary Poppins series
• Van Loon, Hendrik - The Story of Mankind
• White, E.B. -
  • Charlotte's Web
  • Stuart Little
• Wilder, Laura Ingalls - Little House series
• Williams, Margery - The Velveteen Rabbit*
• Wyss, Johann - Swiss Family Robinson
• Zion, Gene - Harry the Dirty Dog*

FROM MSNBC.COM....

Boy’s death highlights a hidden danger: Dry drowning

10-year-old died more than an hour after getting out of swimming pool

“I’ve never known a child could walk around, talk, speak and their lungs be filled with water,” Cassandra Jackson told NBC News in a story broadcast Thursday on TODAY.

On Sunday, Jackson had taken her son, Johnny, to a pool near their home in Goose Creek, S.C. It was the first time he’d ever gone swimming — and, tragically, it would be his last.

READ THE STORY here...

oops!

I royally f-ed up his classroom end-of-year ceremony.

Well, let me start by saying my 4 yo has been talking about singing in his ceremony for about 2 months. I just bombed the event by showing up at the wrong location...imagine where: his school! (who realized the notice said it was at the congregational church downtown? oh, right every other parent...duh).

I only pick up or drop off about 1/3 of the time -- so I don't know where the flier was...TO make it worse, I was so nervous about screwing it up that I even went to chat about today's schedule (last friday w/his teacher) but she was out so I must have glazed right over the information...I had the right time but man, not cool.

So we get there in a mad dash and we're late and under-dressed and he missed 50% of the stage show...and wouldn't go up for the second half...I felt bad because I was cursing the whole way up the stairwell- I was in a church--- it wasn't pretty!


This day was a whirlwind, literally....I went to a morning meeting and then my other son's luncheon...then, my 8 year old'school was delayed coming home b/c of a tornado/storm warning (In vt???what??). Then, I had to pay the piano teacher, get groceries for the 22 kds coming to my house tomorrow, fill a prescription, deal with a re-write of an important project and a crapload of other details...like go to the bank...organize and coordinate cars with visiting guests...food and the dog...it's like I feel I screwed up but why is it my fault? because I'm the mom--- working 4 part time thankless jobs (meaning nobody cares if I do a good job...but man, I do one bad job and I'll never live it down...).

VENT SESSION OVER...I still feel like a sh!pwreck...


PLEASE tell me you've screwed something up!!!!!

GOOD MONDAY!

Weight Watchers sure knows how to show off a big wiener. Actually, it's called frankfurter spectacular!

I haven't seen THIS MIND BLOWING COLLECTION of recipes in a couple years. It's only now that I fully appreciate this collection of 1974 WEIGHT WATCHERS recipes. PLEASE take the time to read the commentary.

HYSTERICAL!

I stole this from heavenlyhomemakers.com It's AWESOME...and SIMPLE...just what I like!

This week one of our kitchen projects was making cool shaped pancakes.  Using this whole wheat pancake recipe with a couple of extra tablespoons of milk stirred into the batter…we filled a ketchup-like container with pancake batter and started getting creative with pancake shapes and letters.

This little tool didn’t make it quite as easy as I was hoping it would when I first read the idea…but it was really fun to experiment and play with!  (And of course the pancakes tasted good no matter what they ended up looking like!)

Here, Justus is working on a “J” for Justus.

We were pretty happy with the way this bear and bunny turned out. 
We decided the bunny reminded us of Buster on Arthur! 

I LOVE this extra “down time” with my kids!  I’ll look forward to sharing more ideas with you during the next several weeks!  Here’s to a wonderful fun summer with our kids!

You all need to check out this site...notmartha.org.

If you need clever ideas for father's day- or any day for that matter, check these out!


Bacon Bowls

These things are the bomb! You could serve eggs, blt salads, mashed potatoes - anything in here! So fun...wow.


Hostess Snack Sushi

Wow, this is next level. I think this would be hysterical to bring to school for birthday snacks (for the kids) or for father's day desert. LOVE IT!