Spring garden season

Oh, I've missed my blog! I have a beautiful, fast, exciting new laptop, and I'm so glad that I'm able to get back to blogging!

I love the beginning of garden season. It's so exciting to see things start coming up and to start planning meals by the seat of my pants. I jokingly call my mom's garden my personal CSA....but it's not so much a joke as it is reality. She is very generous with her garden, and every time I see her, I come home with something exciting. She loves to grow things (as does my husband), and I love to cook them, so it works out very well for us.

This week, she had an abundance of dill (which is beautiful just in a vase as a flower), plus it was time to thin the baby beets. I got a huge colander full of baby beet greens (which cook down to nothing, but taste oh so good), as well as the dill.

I can't wait to see what will be growing the next time I get over there!

I was inspired by this recipe, and I added a little to make it mine. I was out of shallots, so I used green onions. Out of wine (the horrors!), so I just omitted it. And, I used about 1/4 cup of chopped dill. But, other than that, it's exactly as written.

To serve, I mixed the beet greens (quick sauteed in olive oil with garlic and chili flakes) with spaghetti noodles, then topped with the halibut and the dill piccata sauce.

This turned out so well! We loved it. It's definitely a repeater.

Missing!

I'm having terrible computer troubles at my house! It's gone from being a pain to post into being impossible to post.

Luckily, my sweet husband has ordered me a new laptop, and it should be here soon. He won't be my sweet husband (I'll have different adjectives!) if it takes too long to get here. As I'm sure you all understand, too long without visiting blogland can make a girl a little nutty.

I can't wait to be back. Lots of freezer cooking, organizing, at home date nights, late spring cleaning, and getting ready for our new baby are going on here. I'll have lots of pictures to share.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Today is my dear Mama's birthday. She had me when she was about 7 years old, so she's a mere 42 today.

She's a wonderful woman, a great mother, and an even better grandmother. I'm very pleased and thankful to have her in my life. She loves God with an indescribable passion, she grows some beautiful flowers, and she makes the best tuna fish salad around. When I was a child (up through college), she made all my special occasion clothes, and they were absolutely gorgeous. She modeled so many things for me--at this point, the biggest one is homemaking with a passion. A passion for your family. For making the everyday into the special. For treating your family better than you treat company. And, yep, that often means breaking out the good china for a 3 year old's birthday or "wasting" an entire day talking to your adult daughter.

She taught me that some things are worth fighting for. And some things aren't. And, you really, really have to lean on God to know the difference.

She showed me what it meant to spend hours crying out to the Lord. And hours seeking the wisdom of God. And hours soaking in His goodness. She mostly showed me that the Christian walk was worth it, and it was worth investing your life in the unseen.

I am so thankful that God gave me just the right mom.

Happy birthday! I love you.

Meal Plan Monday

The last two weeks have been hard for me to think about meal planning. We had a massive change of seasons (we're in the high 80s here now!), so I think that had something to do with it. My mom has a theory that everyone and everything adjusts with the change of seasons.

After my two week funk, and my childrens' two week reluctance to take naps, I think she is on to something!

This weekend, we dog-sat for my mom, and we were able to eat out FOUR times over the weekend. Plus one grilling out. That's crazy unusual for us, and it gave me just the break I needed. I'm ready to return to my kitchen with a vengenace. I am due with baby #3 in 11.5 short weeks, so I'm also starting to plan some meals that can be doubled, with one for the freezer. That'll be nice that last lazy month of pregnancy, as well as the first few weeks of having a baby home.

Friday: burritos from a local place
Saturday: steaks, baked sweet potatoes, salad
Sunday: spaghetti (doubled)
Monday: french dip sandwiches, peach cobbler
Tuesday: tortilla soup (doubled)
Wednesday: tacos (meat doubled)
Thursday: tamale pie

As usual, I'm linking this to orgjunkie's Menu Plan Monday. And, as usual, I'm not quite on time. ~people love me anyway, though~