The Pioneer Woman’s Summer Stir Fry

We’re Back!!  After a long and glorious trip up to Maryland for a visit with Mom Mom and GP, we are finally home.  Three weeks is a long time to be away….but I’ll tell you right now, I did not miss cleaning my house! =)  There’s something so refreshing and renewing about getting to do whatever you want…with no guilt!!!  But. More about our trip later.  I’m still getting caught up on emails, laundry and uploading pictures.  So, stay tuned for some highlights.

For tonight, I want to share a little piece of Heaven I made for dinner tonight…courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.  She is one of my many bloggy idols, and so when I saw her new cookbook in Costco….I splurged.  With vacation comes lumps….mostly in the tummy, hippy and bummy areas for me.  So I’ve been craving fresh and healthy.  So I decided to try Ree’s Summer Stir Fry (which I later also found on her blog!).  Here’s her original recipe.  I tweaked it a bit to fit my current veggie situation (and give a little nod to Maryland with some Old Bay!), so here’s my take on it:

Summer Stir Fry (Old Bay Style)

Ingredients:

2 squash

1 big ole zucchini

1 red pepper

2 cans (or fresh) of corn

3 mushrooms (because no one in my house likes them but me and there will be so many other veggies the others won’t notice!!)  *wink wink*

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Old Bay

2 cloves of garlic

about 1 lb of shrimp

some rice to put it all over if you’d like

 

 Dump 1 Tbsp of butter and 1 Tbsp of oil in a really big pan over medium heat.

Dice all the veggies that you have.  Put them aside.

In the skillet, heat up your garlic and shrimp for about 3 minutes, or until they are opaque. Put aside.

In the same skillet, add the other 1 Tsbp of butter and oil, and dump your veggies.  Cook on medium for about 10 minutes.  If you are going to cook rice to go with your meal, do it now.

Add salt, pepper and Old Bay to taste….if you are from MD, that means a lot!! =)

I admit that I had no fresh corn…so I went the canned route.  Not bad….but fresh would have been better!

 Sidebar….my basil plant really missed me while I was in Maryland.

Remember when I taught you how to chiffonade basil in my recipe for pesto?  Yeah. Do that.

Add the shrimp back into the stir fry and heat over medium.  Sprinkle the basil and squeeze the lemon on top.

And….YUM.

And it’s even better with this.  Firefly (vodka) and Lemonade. What a fantabulous way to kick off the summer!  Thank you Pioneer Woman!!

Don’t Worry! I’ll Be Back!

Hello faithful followers!

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I’m doing some editing and moving my site around.  Please don’t give up on me, and excuse my dust!  I’m actually up in Maryland visiting Mom Mom and GP with the girls for the next couple of weeks, so hopefully I will have some time to get everything straightened out!  So, if you haven’t already, please subscribe to my site (or “like” Palmettos and Pigtails on Facebook), so you can get a firsthand message when I’m back up and running!  And it’s a great way to stay connected and check out my latest Instagram photos too!

See you soon!

Amelia’s First Haircut!

My baby isn’t even 8 months old yet and we’ve already given her her first haircut.  Well, actually second….I cut off her rat-tail at around 4 months.  Why do my children have weird hair-growing patterns?!?!  But we finally got tired of having to deal with her sideburns (aka Amish man/Rabbi curls). I had no problem hiding them under massive bows and headbands, but she is kind of getting to that age where she pulls them off faster than I can put them on.  Which results in a major case of the fly-aways….

Which proves to be a big problem on windy days!!

So we took her in for her first salon haircut.  We see Ms. Kelly in town (and looooooove her!).  She is great with the kids, and Jayna loves going to see her because she can watch her beloved Beauty and the Beast while getting her hair trimmed.  Amelia did awesome…she too watched Disney while Kelly trimmed away.  She held really still and smiled the whole time!

It’s amazing how just trimming the sides made her look so different!  Isn’t she a cutie?!?!

And hopefully this little trim will stimulate her hair growth all over her head….evenly!!!  In the meantime, she still has enough hair for us to continue playing Salon at home too!

April Photo-a-Day Challenge

I wish I could consider myself a photographer.  I love to take photos.  I love to look at photos.  But unfortunately, I just feel like my job description can’t be “photographer” right now.  I struggle to even remember to take my baby’s monthly pictures (I will NEVER tell you that I just took her 7 month pictures just the other day….and she turned seven months on March 20th).  So I’m not sure if I will ever be able to complete one of these Photo-A-Day challenges.

But, I love the idea.  These creative types that come up with the photo ideas for each day of the month are oh-so clever.  Wish I had time to appreciate them more!  Here’s the Photo Challenge I’d love to participate in someday.  I think my goal will be to take ONE of these pictures this month….maybe I can work my way up!

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How about you?  How many of these can you commit to taking?  Which ones?

Spring in our Step

Happy Easter!  What a wonderful week we’ve had in preparation for Easter.  My parents came in late last week to enjoy the Flowertown Festival and the beach with us.  Luckily, the weather has been beautiful (some showers, but mostly cloudless skies and 80 degree weather), so we were able to spend a lot of time outside.  Jayna has always loved the beach, and I think Amelia will end up being a fan as well!

Although we don’t usually decorate for Easter, we di add a few Spring touches around the house.  Of course, there was the paper wreath I made, but I also added a Hydrangea and  Easter Egg centerpiece in our dining room.

And despite our diet, I also made Zucchini Cookies (without the frosting, so they are healthier!!)  And some chocolate covered strawberries for Jayna’s Easter party at school.  Jayna did her part by bringing home some lovely Spring-themed crafts, including dyeing eggs at school!

I also have been busy finishing the bowling ball for Jayna’s Easter Bunny Bowling Set, and making a taggy pillow for Amelia.

And of course, the true reason for the season….Although they mostly just cover Jesus rising and the celebration in school, Jayna had a lot of questions about the cross this year.  I didn’t really think I needed to go into too much detail yet, as she is so little and so sensitive.  But I did tell her that the cross is a symbol of Jesus’ gift to us.  He died so that we could live and be forgiven.  She seemed to kind of get that….she said, “like when I am bad and then I say sorry, you forgive me and God forgives me.”  So I left it at that.  We went to the playground and got some sticks to make these little crosses.

But, little girls will be little girls…she was still really excited to see the Easter Bunny too!  Jayna got to participate in three different egg hunts….one with her class at school, one with the church and one in our backyard.  The church’s celebration also included a visit from the Mr. Bunny himself, and a delicious spread of cookies!

Jayna was very concerned about all of the gum and other choking hazards, so I assured her we would leave them for the Easter Bunny, who would swap them out for kid friendly candy.  And sure enough, he left eggs filled with jelly beans all over our yard!  He also left tracks all over our house!

After a heavy scrutinizing, we discovered the tracks lead to the girls’ Easter Basket!  Filled with Bunny Bowling, Easter Veggie Tales, a taggy pillow, and a couple of Reese’s Peanut Butter Bunnies.  Jackpot!!

What was in your Easter Basket?

Happy Easter!!

April Cleaning Calendar

Happy April!  Sorry ths is a few days late….I’m sure you were on the edge of your seat waiting for it, right? =)

Click here for the full document 

Miss a month?  Catch up with us!

January Cleaning Calendar

February Cleaning Calendar

March Cleaning Calendar 

 

 

Cooper River Bridge Run

I’m exhausted! I was up late on Friday night picking up a friend from the airport, and then up early Saturday (4am to be exact!) to prepare for Charleston’s Annual Cooper River Bridge Run.  No, you didn’t miss the part where I became a runner….I volunteered!

You may remember that I work with an organization called Camp Happy Days (who help kids with cancer).  Remember when Loo Loo and I participated in Ansley’s Attempt and got in the Guinness Book of World Records?  All courtesy of Camp Happy Days!  Well, CHD is one of the beneficiaries of the funds raised by the 10K in Charleston, The Cooper River Bridge Run.  It’s a really famous race and we have people from all over who come to run it (including a handful of Africans who almost always sweep it!).

Photo courtesy of www.bridgerun.com

Loo Loo, our friend Danielle, and I volunteered for the race on behalf of Camp Happy Days.  We were given a little yellow rope and a strip of caution tape and told to keep our section (about 1,500 people out of the 44,000 total runners) in place.  I held a tall sign that told our section whether to WALK or STOP.

We arrived at 5:30am, and by 10:00 am had slowly guided our section to the starting line.  Where our 1,500 continued to attempt to push through the caution tape wait patiently until we were instructed to start the race.  They had a staggered start so it wasn’t a mob scene.  It pretty much was anyway, once they told our group to start running!

While we were waiting, we made lots of friends and saw lots of hilarious and clever costumes!  Sure, there were your groups of girls in tutus, masses of people in bunny ears, matching shirts/pants/socks/wigs, etc.  And then there was the larger than life Pac-Man characters that took off chasing each other toward the finish line.  And the Green Fairy…in his skin-tight, neon green outfit and pixie wings.  I’d post a picture, but to put it politely, he had NO PANTY LINES!!!! =)

One of my favorites was the Flinstones, complete with their car!

But our absolute favorites were our Southern Belles!  Loes, Marilyn and Glenda were standing right behind our caution tape and so we struck up quite a little friendship while we were waiting.  They were from Anderson, South Carolina and were part of a Senior Follies group there.  They were wearing costumes from one of their variety shows…..I even got a preview of their Can-Can!  I might just have to take a little road trip to Anderson some time to see them!

Once the race began and our duties were over, Loo Loo, Danielle and I did walk over the bridge and back, but decided that we needed a beverage at Red’s IceHouse rather than walking the whole race!! =)

What did you do this weekend?

Failure

A couple of weeks ago when I was at Blissdom, I met Erin from Two Story Cottage.  I had read her blog before (I love her DIY posts about her house renovations), and so it was quite a treat to meet her in person.

While we were talking, she mentioned that she was participating in a linky party to promote this fancy little number:

It’s a cute little rustic box that has 365 cards inside with quotes on them.  Good tabletop conversation!  Anyway, the linky party is being hosted by Love Feast Table.  Erin was working with them, handing out the cards from the box, asking us bloggers to write a little post relating to the quote.  They were hoping to get all 365 cards blogged about, and giving one of the boxes away to one of us too! (I love giveaways!!).

The quote I got was:

I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.                      

  -Thomas Edison

I am certainly not a perfect mother.  In fact, on most days, I am about as far from it as possible.  I have a 6 month old who is just discovering that she has separation (from me!) issues.  And a toddler who can’t decide whether she is a whiny three-year old, or a precocious thirteen year old (and often alternates between the two without any warning)!  Needless to say, I have my hands full with these two.  I read about these blogger mommies who have 4, 6, 8 kids….who eat fresh out of their lush gardens every night….who homeschool their kiddos….who still find time to blog about their craftiness with lovely photos.  I don’t know how they do it!

So when I saw this quote amongst Erin’s choices at Blissdom, it immediately struck home with me.  Some days I feel like I am stretched just a little too thin…trying to be perfect at everything.  Jayna has always been mature for her age, and always extremely verbal.  I can remember when she was just a one year old, and thinking how crazy it was that I could actually reason with her!  When telling her to do (or not to do something), I could tell her why, and she would usually comply after a simple explanation.  But now, she’s older.  And even smarter.  And yet she is harder to deal with.  I can’t rationalize with her anymore….she’s too emotional.  So, I have to get creative.  Enter my 10,000 ways.

When Jayna is being unreasonable, defiant or whiny, my first instinct is to get annoyed.  Or, if it’s been a really long day and I’m feeling particularly spread thin, my instinct is to get mad.  And both of those emotions tend to be fruitless with my little bundle of joy…and usually end up with me completely upset and her on the floor in a full-out temper tantrum.  Failure.

Attempt two: Trying to appeal to her immature side.  Treat her like a baby.  I’ll talk to her using baby talk, cradling her in my arms, etc.  She usually falls for this one hardcore.  Especially since Amelia was born and she has to fit the role of Big Sister all the time.  Not only does this approach distract her from whatever meltdown she is on the verge of having, but she also craves the same type of attention Amelia constantly gets.  So Jayna gets into her role as “Baby Jayna” by crawling around, making incoherent noises.  The only problem with this strategy is that it is hard for Jayna to come out of the game…she will follow directions to a point, but it still takes forever for her to comply, and she wants to continue being “Baby Jayna” long after I’ve tired of it.  Failure.

I even tried putting inanimate objects in time out.  Sometimes that is less of a fight than putting her in time out for using something incorrectly.  So for instance, when she was caught using crayons on the table, instead of on the paper, rather than risking a temper tantrum and putting her in time out, or just taking the crayons from her…I put the crayons in time out (in the corner!), and it drove my point home to her, without escalating the situation.  The only problem with this is that I started finding all sorts of objects and toys in “time out” in various corners of my house for months after trying this! Failure.

So I am constantly trying new ways to solve daily issues.  Almost all of them end up failing in the long run, but some of them work in the short-term.  And that’s all that really matters….preserving my sanity (for now!)!!  And I just have to remember that I don’t have to be perfect.  It’s just a phase.  Jayna is growing up healthy and emotionally stable despite her perfectly normal temper tantrums.  And in the meantime, I’ll just keep finding ways that don’t work!

Check out some of the other quotes and posts on the linky party by clicking here:

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Top of the…uh….evenin’ to ya!  I had every intention of writing this post this morning, and then life happened!  We aren’t really celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year, but if I had like three extra hands and about 6 more hours to each day….we totally would have!!

But alas, Pinterest has made me jealous yet again of those out there who apparently do have a longer day than I do!  Check out what could have been….

Had I made cake pops…

Ambrosia

 Had I decorated my door…

Tatertots and Jello 

Had I dressed the baby…

The Adventures of the Stepanoffs

Had I not broken my sewing machine this morning….

 Inhabitots

Had I been a crafty mama with my kids…

B. Inspired Mama 

Had I used a little more toilet paper….

 Moments of Mommyhood

Had I gone to the gym….

Holy Taco (FYI: I don’t condone this site…I was just trying to be funny while still giving them photo credit)

So, I admit I wasn’t super mom this year.  However, I did have a little leprechan magic happen in our kitchen when Jayna’s milk and eggs magically turned green!  She was so suprised!

Have a great St. Patty’s Day!

A Taste of Spring

Happy Daylight Savings Time!  It’s like a switch has been slipped in our house.  Despite reoccurring pink eye, stomach bugs and the terrible threes, there seems to still be an underlying sense of happy  that has crept into our house this weekend.

Our weekend began with a lovely dinner with our good friends Will and Diana, at their parents’ house.  Our kids are about the same age, and Diana is my good friend from childhood.  When I moved to South Carolina (almost 15 years after their family moved!), Diana’s parents took me under their wing and helped me acclimate into the Southern life.  And we’ve been so lucky to not only keep them all as close friends, but also see a lot of Will and Diana even though they’ve since moved about 2 hours away!  Now we just need to convince them to move closer….

Saturday, it was Dave’s turn with the stomach bug…but he powered through it, even managing to wash the cars!  I decluttered the house (and Lysoled EVERYTHING!), and washed the windows.  With the arrival of spring happiness, also come a coating of pollen!  In the afternoon, we took a walk over to our neighborhood playground and met some new friends.

Yesterday, the weather was sunny and in the 70’s….we decided to forego church in oder to spend some time appreciating some of God’s blessings to us: nature and a healthy family (finally!).  We packed a lunch and the soccer ball, and drove all the way out to James Island County Park.

They have one of the coolest playgrounds around.  All three of us enjoyed it!!

And the park was packed to the brim with kids playing flag football, dogs splashing in the pond, runners, and old men sailing miniature sailboats! (I so wish I had managed to grab a picture of that!!)

On the way home, we stopped bu the Angel Oak Tree-one of the oldest oaks in the Lowcountry.  Fun Fact: Angel Oaks got their namesake because their branches grow down and touch the ground before stretching back up high toward Heaven!  They are beautiful…and our famous one is no exception!

It was so nice to have the extra hour of daylight yesterday…we were able to grill out at 7pm! (Or was it 8?!?!).  And I was so pleased to have such a productive weekend, as well as some time with the fam.  Want to jump on my Spring Cleaning bandwagon?  Check out my Cleaning Calendars and posts!

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Have a great week!