Central Texas is not known for producing apples. In fact, I can’t find a pick-your-own apple orchard anywhere. So I will just have to watch all of you northern types, who actually have four distinct seasons and rain, and oogle over your baskets of apples. In the meantime, I stock up on the wonderful varieties that the supermarket brings in this time of year. Make my lists of appleicious recipes. And force fall into Texas.

With all of the apples, the first item on the list was to make an apple pie. So I googled ‘apple pie recipe’ came up with this FANTASTIC recipe. It is one of the best apple pie recipes I’ve ever tried. Yummy! Add these items to your shopping list and make it now. Okay, tomorrow. Or even next weekend. But you have to make this pie. And don’t forget the Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. That combination will knock your socks off. If you don’t have Blue Bell, you’re going to have to make your own. Just kidding!

Do you have any apple recipes to share? I’d love to collect them and put them on my blog in a post. Send me a link or comment with your favorite apple recipe by Friday. Can’t wait to try them all!

He said it was going to rain. The weatherman that is. A shower for five minutes this morning does not, in my book, constitute rain. Whatsoever. The grass is all brown. Most plants have dried up. And Lake Travis is beginning to look like Lake Havasu. Boy do I sound like Debbie Downer today.

Speaking of the lake, we spent a lot of time down there this weekend fishing and throwing rocks. And can I tell you that Makena’s little princess pole catches more fish than any pole we bring down there?!? Granted they are little perch, but a caught fish makes everyone happy. Anyhow, we’re not fishing for dinner. We’d starve.

On another note, why do people flip me off with my kids in the car? I was thinking about painting a huge sign on my back windshield that says ‘Keep your finger to yourself. My kids are in the car.’ How do you think that’d go over? Yeah, I figured as much. Fun to think about anyway.

Happy Monday friends!

A little something to take you into the weekend. Consider it my little mid-summer happy hour gift to you.

chikaustin margaritas

• 1 can limeade
• 1 limeade can full of tequila
• 1/2 limeade can full of triple sec (orange liquer)

Get out your trusty blender. Pour entire can of limeade into the mixer. Pour tequila into limeade can until it reaches the top. Pour into blender. Pour triple sec into limeade can until it reaches half way. Pour into blender. Mix. Now pour out half of your mix into another pitcher/cup. With half the remaining mix, fill the entire blender with ice. Blend. You will now have one pitcher of super yummy margaritas. Put the rest of the mix in the fridge and blend it with ice when you are ready for another pitcher. You might want to label the container so that other family members do not mistake this for juice. This has happened at our house and was caught just in time. It makes apx. 8 margaritas! Concentrate.

You can add strawberries, mangoes or fruit of your choice, before the ice, to your mix to make flavored margaritas.

Have a great weekend friends!

It’s dinner time and Makena is bouncing around the kitchen saying “I can hip and scop, hip and scop, hip and scop.” It takes me a second, but I soon realize what she means is skip and hop. Aaahhh the mind of a three year old.

With all of this talk about sustainable living and the planet, I’ve started giving some serious thought into what I feed my family. The above picture is not my family by the way. It was just feeding time along the Texas roadside and the perfect family dinner portrait.

I’ve been searching online, asking friends and hitting up the bookstore looking for new recipes. I took a night to myself this week and popped a squat in a comfy chair at the bookstore… all by myself… to peruse some cookbooks. After a few glances at the cost of these cookbooks I quickly got out my composition notebook, I love school supplies, and started copying recipes. Is this legal? Aw shucks, who cares. I’m trying to feed my family here.

I copied a few recipes and then got a few ideas of cookbooks to check out of the library. With my newly acquired knowledge and our recent trip to the library I was able to check out one cookbook by Jamie Oliver :: Cook with Jamie and another by Nigella Lawson :: How to Eat. Both of these books are now full of sticky notes of recipes I need to copy. I would think at this point they are worth purchasing, at a second hand bookstore.

Last night we had a recipe I copied from one of Jamie’s cookbooks and it was delish. In the middle of dinner, Makena leaned over to me and said “you know mommy, sometimes kids just don’t like vegetables,” just as she was putting another snow pea into her mouth. Strange these little three year old creatures are, very strange.

Since I took the time to copy it down, I might as well pass it on. Here is a great, healthy, easy recipe that the entire family will love. Courtesy of Jamie Oliver of course.

Salmon Escalopes with Watercress, Sugar Snaps and Avocado

• 2T. rice vinegar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. sugar
• 2 t. wok oil (I used evoo)
• 4 c. watercress
• 1 c. sugar snap peas
• 1 small avocado

Cook salmon. I cook my salmon with a little olive oil, sea salt and lemon. Whisk rice vinegar, sugar, salt, oil - drizzle on salmon. Drizzle oil/vinegar mixture over watercress, avocado and snap peas. I served this with Rice-a-Roni parmesan and romano rice. They have an all-natural version out. It’s yummy.

So what are you cooking these days? Any great cookbook recommendations???

A day filled with a flurry of activity getting ready for daddy’s birthday. Dishes washed, a cake baked, a card made, presents wrapped and colored and decorations hung. A wonderful day spent with my little ones to show daddy how much he means to all of us. Happy birthday love.

Today we are loading up the car and hitting the road for a little road-trip. Have a wonderful weekend friends.

If you were to ask anyone who knows me they would tell you that my favorite food is Mexican food, with Mediterranean food coming in a very close second.  So you might find it appropriate that those types of food are mostly what I fix at home.  I can fix one heck of an eggplant parmigiana (thanks to my Sicilian relatives) or throw fajitas on the grill.  I’m getting hungry just talking about it.

Just like all of you, my favorite foods involve fresh ingredients.  Some highlights in my eating experiences would have to be a trip Miles and I took to Italy about a year before Makena was born.  I can still see the Cinque Terre coastline covered with grape vines, basil and lemon and lime trees.  The fresh pesto we had was out of this world.  I’m patiently waiting for basil plants to arrive at the nursery so I can attempt to recreate that experience.

With tostadas on the menu for dinner last night, I began to gather my ingredients.  Before I knew it I had assembled my green picture for day 3 of Green Week.  With cilantro, avocado and lime on the cutting board I was ready for a Mexican fiesta.

The weather today has been absolutely beautiful in Austin so we spent a lot of time outside in all of the green goodness.  I’ll share those pictures with you tomorrow for day 4.  Until then, bon appetite!