I don’t know about you, but I am so glad it’s Friday! This weekend, I am happy to say, I have nothing too major for which to prepare  looming on the agenda. That’s a rarity! After finishing all of my grading for the fall semester earlier in the week, this is such a welcome change.

While I was busy scoring student films, I managed to sneak in a smidgeon of photos on my cell phone. I’m linking up with Jeanett at Life Rearranged.

This is LJ.

Isn’t she adorable?  Look at those cheeks!

She’s my friends TJ & Jaralyn’s little cutie. They came for a visit from across the state last weekend, and we took them to our local children’s museum. She had a ball!

Here are my two cuties, also at the museum.  I can’t believe they are nearly three and seven! They are huge hams, bound for the lights of Broadway, ready to set their mama and daddy up for life with their millions (ha!).

My Teensy is ga-ga for the Recess Monkeys.  She’s seen them about four times, and she got her picture taken with them the last time. This is her second fan letter to them.  After the first, they promptly sent her a big package with autographed pictures, a cd, stickers, pins, a letter, etc! Wow!

Those guys are totally the bee’s knees for a kid. They’re pretty easy on the parents’ ears, too, which helps!

On my walk to work this morning, I spotted some daffodils already blooming in my neighbor’s yard!  I was dumbfounded.  Usually it’s another month before this happens.

It was awesome to see it and everything, to feel the promise of spring, but I couldn’t get around the fact that the start of last spring seems just like a month ago.

Why does it all have to go by so fast?

While we ponder that question, let’s hope that this weekend doesn’t go by too fast! I’m going to the library with my girls, the roller rink with Teensy and her Girl Scout troop, and to see our family friends in the musical “Seussical.”  

All fun stuff; can’t beat that!

What are you up to?

Get out your grocery lists, because here’s what I’ve been cookin’ (and eating. a lot of eating happening around these parts! and i’ve got the parts to prove it!):

This is from Gwyneth’s cookbook, and it’s called “spaghetti limone parmeggiano.” Could not have been simpler! I mixed up some cheese, some lemon juice, etc, cold in the pasta bowl, cooked some spaghetti, coated it with the stuff in the pasta bowl with the help of some pasta water, tore up some fresh basil from my little plant and – voila! I tried to tell the girls it was “lemonade pasta” to get them interested, but it didn’t really work.

Kids.

I served a nice salad of just greens afterward. I love that. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that I eat my salad with just a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper on top. My kids don’t even know what salad dressing is! I hope that’s a good thing.

Another night last week, Mr. Fresh Scratch made us his “mac and trees,” which is homemade macaroni and cheese with some lightly boiled broccoli, all thrown together and broiled.

Love.

The kids love it, too!

I love to go all-out with dinner when we have long weekends or house guests. This past Friday I roasted a chicken, made my very unhealthy mashed potatoes, baked some biscuits (I used the Stay at Stove Dad’s recipe, but they tasted like baking powder. Back to my old standby!), and made gravy on the fly for the first time ever with no recipe!

Everyone enjoyed lingering at the table and gobbling down some rhubarb cobbler after dinner. It was my last bag of frozen rhubarb from last summer’s harvest….the next day, Mr. Fresh Scratch saw my rhubarb plant poking up from the ground! Perfect timing!

I love a great pot roast, and the one from The Pioneer Woman’s cookbook does not disappoint!  It was also the thing she made on the first episode of her Food Network show, so it was nice to know just what to do since I’d seen her do it! It takes about a half hour of active prep time: chopping, then searing the veggies and meat. Then it all just goes into the same Dutch oven you prep in, lid on, for a few hours.  That’s it! The house smells like heaven for like four hours (if your idea of heaven is the smell of cooking meat!).

{As an aside: I don’t get a jillion cable channels. Therefore, no Food Network. And PW’s show isn’t on YouTube or Hulu or Netflix or even available for viewing on the Food Network. But, you know what? You can download it on iTunes. This discovery was one of the happiest moments of last week!}

Confession: I absolutely adore the carrots from a pot roast. Seriously one of my fave foods. This sparked a, “What’s your favorite vegetable?” discussion around the dinner table with our friends, which is always very interesting. You can learn a lot about a person this way!

What’s your favorite vegetable? Mine’s actually a beet…

So glad it’s Friday…and a 4-day weekend for us! We’ve already gotten a trip to Lowe’s for some new lighting into our day, plus the whole house is cleaned in anticipation of our dear friends’ visit from eastern Washington!

Whew! It’s nice to sit down with you for a moment.

I’m linking up here:

to show you what I’ve been up to in the last week. Enjoy!

Last weekend was supposed to be a romantic get-away for Mr. Fresh Scratch and me in Seattle.

It was badly needed.

However, Teensy-Weensy and her cold had other plans for us, so we ended up having to take. both. kids. with. us.

Oy.

Aside from changing our hotel room from a lovely king size bed to two beds, the Mr. and I also had to work hard to change the mindset from relaxed to busy-busy-busy to keep the kids happy and entertained.  As my friend Emily says, “They are not family vacations, they’re family trips.”

I just love exploring the nooks and crannies of Pike’s Place Market, which is where I found this little guy high up on a wall, peeking out.  Very quirky!

Teensy Weensy had never been to the aquarium before, and she’s almost three! So we made that our second stop.

While Teensy is reserved and doesn’t get easily excited, her little sis is quite the opposite!  She thought every fish was the coolest ever. It was how I always expected a trip to the aquarium to be.

A baby sea otter was born last month, so we watched the mama float around with baby on her belly ’til she fell asleep. She must’ve went around their pool 4 zillion times. Then, upon realizing her sweet furry one was asleep (at last!), she promptly booked it to a rock under about an inch of water in the corner, dumped the baby off (still snoozing), and then rolled around in the water, scrubbing furiously at her belly as if to say, “Sweet Jesus! She finally went to sleep! I’m free!!!!”

Just like a human mama.

I loved sea otters even more at that moment! And I already loved them a lot. They were my dad’s favorite critter, so, naturally, they have been mine, too.

On our walk back to the hotel for some 35th floor swimming pool fun (while Mama sat with the towels, read a magazine, and looked out the expansive windows at Seattle’s twinkling lights popping on as the city grew dark…finally a moment of relaxation!), we stopped at The Chocolate Box/Molly Moon’s Ice Cream. They have a flavor that is called “Theo Chocolate.” If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you know I am a devotee of Theo Chocolates because they are tasty, fair-trade, organic, and wind-powered. Now I can add “best ice cream ever!” to the list of reasons to love them!

We took the kids to our favorite Neopolitan pizza joint in Queen Anne, Via Tribunali.  They have the best margherita pizza with buffalo mozzeralla ever! Pair it with a carafe of red wine (for us, not the kids, silly!), a table that looks down on the giant oven so the kids are occupied, and you have a meal that almost makes up for the fact that it is not the romantic get-away you’d planned and pined for…almost.

On our way home the next day, we met our old pals at the Museum of Flight, which we’d never explored before.  It was huge and overwhelming and amazing!  The kids loved climbing into all sorts of planes, and I loved touring JFK’s Air Force One.  I do believe it is the very one that carried his dead body. What a piece of history.  There was even a dog door inside!

The rest of the week has been busy, first with Valentine’s Day. I went all-out, starting at 5 am when I made heart-shaped cinnamon rolls (please! they were from a can!) and blueberry and yogurt parfaits for everyone. Then it was rush, rush, rush to buy balloons for the kids, set everything out, make dessert, and and and. Whew!  They were all happy, which made me happy, and I was happy with a little cake pop maker. But it really felt like Valentine’s Day to me much later when I was sipping red wine, eating some of the chocolate dessert I’d made, and watching “The New Girl” with my hunny.

Semester grades are due Monday at midnight, and I have two classes yet to finish, so I must dash!

What are your plans?

Wishing you a cozy winter weekend!

The question this week isn’t just, “Are you ready with your grocery list?” but also, “Are you ready for Valentine’s Day?!”

It is tomorrow, after all!

This year, I have it all planned out for making my family feel loved all day.

If you haven’t gotten dessert figured out yet, here’s what I’m planning: a chocolate trifle.

You can make the components from scratch or (gasp!) buy them, so it’s not too late for you!

Layer in a clear bowl over and over in the following basic order:

chocolate cake, broken into big pieces

a few dashes (or more!) of Kahlua

broken pieces of Heath Bar

chocolate pudding

When serving, top with whipped cream and some Valentine-esque sprinkles.

Voila!

And now, get out your menus….

This is the Pioneer Woman’s Sour Cream Noodle Bake.

It was absolutely to die for.  It was like a fabulous lasagna, but in a different form.

Plus, it too very little time and expertise to make!

Click here for the recipe on her Tasty Kitchen page.

This is her tomato soup from her cookbook.  We loved it!

Next time, though, not so much chicken stock.

This is a soup I am so stoked about: Katie Lee Joel’s Asian Chicken Noodle Soup.

A fair amount of chopping was involved, but it was so worth it!

It’s served over rice noodles.

It has that key ingredient of toasted sesame oil….mmm….

and I controlled the spice factor by adding sriracha only after it was in the bowls (no hot sauce for the kids!).

I’m excited because I think my friends with lots of food allergies could still eat this!

Finally, last night I made “Stop Light Pasta” from the Working Parents Cookbook.

It was way better than I expected while cooking it;

the whole sauce kind of steams together at the end,

really letting the flavors in the Italian sausages come through.

So, I shared my Valentine dessert idea with you; what dessert do you have in mind for the big day?

I’m linking up with:

Last Saturday morning, I drove downtown to drop Teensy off at her baking class.

I stood at the bottom of Budd Bay and tried my best to capture the fog as it disappeared into a gorgeous day.

That afternoon, Teensy-Weensy and I drove north to my godson Aiden’s 3rd birthday party.

Shara (his mom) always makes her kids the sweetest cakes.

I love that he adores Mickey Mouse!

Teensy-Weensy goes ga-ga for party hats!

She is such the Ms. Congeniality! *

*no idea where she gets this trait…ha!

The party was at a fun-center, which means it was crawling with munchkins and there was this human hamster toy (that’s what I call it) that was probably 3 stories tall.

Guess who needed Mama to climb through it with her?

Yup.

My purse was a swingin’, my shirt kept lifting up, and I broke up a fight.

The kids loved me!

Every year on Super Bowl Sunday, I bake my Touchdown! Cake.

It’s very minty. Those are Andes Candies!

Next year, I promise to get with the program and get you the recipe.

I swear.

Jumped through an official hoop this past week: got my business license in order to secure the “Fresh Scratch” name!

Holla’!

I am now legit for freelance writing & selling my photo cards to local stores.

Once the cottage baking application process is finalized, I will get a license for my baking, too!

Is it weird that I am excited to now buy stuff at a wholesale rate?

Mr. Fresh Scratch and I had a little lunch out yesterday, then we trolled through a new store in downtown Oly: The Mod Fix.

OMG.

It’s an homage to all things 50′s/60′s/70′s.

It’s pretty much your childhood.

Those dishes your mom had?

They’re here.

Furniture you remember your grandma having?

It’s here.

Cool new “mod” stuff?

Here.

A bright green rotary phone you were glad to ditch when your parents finally bought a cordless in 1990?

It’s here…for $65. Who’d ‘a thought?!

My friend Amanda will die for this store!

She loves mid-century modern.

I bought a little red chalkboard yesterday.

I had a piece of art hanging above this desk in our entryway since we moved in.

It never looked right to me.

This does! I love a trifecta!

I have a turquoise frame with a found key and Teensy’s 3-year-old handprint,

and that’s one of my sea star photos.

Love!

We are gearing up for some “Who do You Think You Are?” on tv tonight.

Any other nerds out there who love this show each winter??

Then it’s off to Seattle for the Mr. and me while my dear, sweet love of a cousin has a slumber party for my girls.

What are you up to?!

The best part of the Super Bowl is always the food.

Oh, and half-time. I love Madonna! Now my girls do, too, though I hope they didn’t really understand what “Material Girl” was all about when we danced to it in the play room before bedtime last night!

Enough Super Bowl talk.  Get out your grocery lists! Here are a couple of ideas for you:

This was supposed to be a panini of salami, apple and cheese on fancy bread, but Mr. Fresh Scratch forgot all of his fancy intentions and made it like a grilled cheese.  Don’t you love the combination of meats and apples on a sandwich?  We sure do.

This is Turkey Bolognese, the Gwyneth Paltrow version {wow! Aren’t you surprised?!}.  It has ground turkey and some sweet Italian sausages in the sauce.  The sauce was supposed to simmer on the stove for 4 hours, but I felt better about using the Crock Pot, as I was running all around town the afternoon I made this.  I browned all the meat first and caramelized the onions.

Well, honestly, I did not get the onions as caramelized as I would’ve liked before shoving them into the Crock Pot, but I was in a hurry.  I think if I followed through on that step next time, I’d be happier.

We’ve been eating a lot of mixed greens with goat cheese, dried cherries, and a lemon-infused olive oil lately.  Delish!

I posted a different photo of this Swedish Apple Pie last week on Word-less Wednesday.  It was sooo good!  I adored it.

So did my kids, but I don’t think they’ve ever not enjoyed a dessert.

The key in using raisins in baking is to plump them in water for a good half hour (or way longer!) first.  It was a great dessert, a great snack, and a great breakfast with yogurt on top.

Like I said, yesterday I went pretty nuts with all the Super Bowl foods.  Mmm.  Tonight it’s time to buckle down and get back with the program: we’re going to get back around the kitchen table instead of the coffee table.

What’s your favorite Super Bowl food?

It’s that time again!  I’m linking up with Jeanett at Life Rearranged for the weekly show-down of our cell phone pictures! I was so glad to have a normal, head-straightening week. No major catastrophes. A bit of renewal. I can get with that program!

This is my friend Stacee’s little guy’s self-portrait.  He drew it for the cover of his 1st grade memory book.  I was glueing them onto the covers while volunteering the other day.  It really is a great likeness!

Last Friday night my girlfriends Emily and Stacee joined me for the production of “Our Town” put on at the high school where I teach, followed by an outing to the uber-mysterious “Bearded Lady” bakery that, until very recently, was only open weekend nights. It also only takes cash.  The rest of the week, their storefront downtown is shut up tight.  It was tiny and warm and cozy. The bearded lady herself served us!  She was a sweetheart. I saw her after my French cooking class on Monday night, and she recognized me!  Such fun. They specialize in gluten-free and vegan and the regular stuff, too!  I had a delightful apple bacon tart…bacon in the crust.  Mmm. Great combo!  And a great night out with my homies.

Teensy’s friend and fellow Girl Scout had her birthday party at a kids’ hair salon last weekend.  They got all dolled-up: makeup, nails, hair…glitter everywhere! And they’re seven. Oh, my.

The birthday girl’s mom made this awesome cake that was completely edible!  So good! Isn’t it amazing??! Click here if you’re interested in having her bake for your next party within a 100-mile radius of Olympia!

After all the craziness that was January, my BFF Shara and I were dying to meet up and re-hash all of our nightmarish pitiful tales of woe. It’s good to have a friend you can have fun with and commiserate with!

We started off with a hug and an, “OH, MY GOSH! I AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!” and headed to Seattle on the light rail.  We had lunch at Tom Douglas’ pizza place, Serious Pie.  It was seriously amazing.  I’d eaten there before on a busy December night with Mr. Fresh Scratch and Teensy when she was three, so it was a crazy experience.  This was very laid-back and easy. We had some house red (enough to make me feel like I never wanted to leave the the place!), the below-featured apple salad (amazing concoction!), and a sausage and red pepper pizza.  The crust was nice and salty.  Perfect.

We headed off in the direction of Pike’s Market, as we wanted to explore Watson Kennedy, which is located in the Post Alley.  Such a lovely shop filled with fancy and fun little baubles of all types.  Loved it.

This is the quintessential, rainy-day-in-Seattle picture of the market.  Couldn’t resist!

We have had so many fun adventures together over the years, and Seattle has been the setting for more than a few, so it’s always fun to go back together and see what we can drum up.

The last day of the “January Photo-a-Day” challenge on instagram was Tuesday and the assignment was a picture of myself.  Here I am with my low side-ponytail, as my hair has gone without the world’s best curly hair product for many a’ day.  Don’t you hate it when they discontinue the best thing that ever happened to your hair?!

I will leave you with this promise of spring…fuzzy buds on a tree near my street.

Dare I say it aloud?

Could it be?

Shhhhh….don’t let Mother Nature hear us.  I don’t want to jinx it.