Busy packed day!! Karen and I said farewell to Mom + Dad (crazy the next time I see them I will most likely have a baby!) and departed for Cville around 11:30 this morning – sandwiches in tow!
Leftover London Broil with provolone, tomato, mustard and pickle for me
Plus we each took a plum from dad’s plum bowl!
3 super fast hours later, the unpacking began.
Obsessive nesting ensued. Labeling. Washing. Arranging.
The nursery is really coming together – but at the same time, it’s also getting rather busy with patterns so I had to rearrange a few things to simplify a bit.
Very funny Karen – you got me! [She brought home some of my mom’s rubber snakes for pranks]
Not sleeping well plus this afternoon’s frantic (but enthusiastic!) unpacking left me totally exhausted. I finally slowed down for a little fuel in the form of yogurt, cereal and jam.
Matt spent the day making and then pressure canning tomato sauce!! His own form of nesting perhaps!? Or just a love of tomatoes.
This is about as close to his grandmother’s pressure cooker as I wanted to get – scary!
Then for dinner, we had a dinner guest!! It’s about time we had a movie night with Hillary!
She brought over some Twin Oaks Tofu which Matt pan-fried and topped with an incredible reduction of soy sauce (~1 tbsp), ketchup (~1/4 cup) and apple cider vinegar (~1 tsp), all spice, garlic powder, sriracha (~1 tsp) and chili powder.
I was in charge of roasting okra and green peppers from the garden (olive oil, salt, pepper and smoked paprika @ 400* for 30 minutes)
And ears of corn on the cob went in at the same time!
Hillary surprised us with her new favorite Jeni’s flavor: Lemon Frozen Yogurt!
This was tart and only slightly sweet and perfect for a light summer treat!
With our dinner, we watched the documentary Babies. I really enjoyed the film – the un-narrated story of the first year of life of four babies in four countries. Highly recommend it!
While we watched Babies, we DVRed the Olympics and just finished watching synchronized diving!! Woo hoo. Next up: gymnastics (my fav), although bed is sounding like an awesome option as well…
Just reading this post made me exhausted for you! Props for being so on top of organizing, though. I’m envious! It generally takes me 2 weeks to unpack from anything… whoops.
I wish I knew how to preserve things!! I love pickled beets and wish I could make them but canning your own tomato sauce is super impressive!
LOL at Matt’s version of nesting!
Yummy! That lemon frozen yogurt looks delicious! I’ll have to see if I can find it around here.
I hope you had a lovely baby shower 🙂
did you roast the corn too? (you put it raw in the oven right?) any oil on it while it roasts?
Thanks!
Yes, and olive oil and salt rub first
I can’t stop watching the Olympics even laying on our brand new amazing mattress !
Go USA!!!
I loved Babies! Soo cute and so interesting to see how similar the first year looks even across the world.
I love that Matt is canning. My youngest son is a canner as I am. We bought him a pressure canner for Christmas one year. It’s a dying art and needs to be preserved. I worry about the next generation not knowing where their food comes from, so it’s exciting for me to see young people getting it. Sounds like the day was a nesting day for everyone.
We’ve been meaning to for ages – I want to make jam!
I can EVERYTHING, from black beans and chick peas, garden produce and even meats and chicken when I find a good price. I can get a little obsessed. I may be a prepper.
Fun! Would love to hear your very favorite recipes!
Get a Ball’s Blue Book guide for preserving. It has all the information on canning dehydrating and freezing. And it’s put out by the Ball jar people. There are some great recipes in it and it’s an inexpensive little book. We especially like home canned chicken or beef vegetable soup.
Cool, thanks!
love that you had london broil for lunch and tofu for dinner! definition of balance! sounds a lot like me… flank steak with the bf last night, tofu for dinner tonight 🙂 i love my meat, as well as tofu!
Me too!
Same here! Tofu has a bad reputation as crazy bland hippie food (at least it does here in the UK), but there’s no reason why one couldn’t love both beef and tofu – perhaps not together in the same dish LOL
You had a busy day! Sleep well tonight. 🙂
I’ve been looking for a new tofu recipe—sounds delish!
Those plums look perfect!
And that lemon frozen yogurt really does seem like the PERFECT thing for summer dessert!
I canned today too! Pickles! Can’t wait until our tomatoes are ready… buy oh my tomatoes take so much effort to can lol. And I loved Babies! I would love to see some similar films like that.
Question – what’s your absolute favorite way to have okra? I bought some for the first time yesterday and want to know the tastiest way to eat it! Thanks!
Have a great night!
roasted… in any shape
I love that Babies documentary. And the music. I couldn’t believe that woman climbing on the back of the motorcycle right after giving birth. Ouch!
What do you mean “busy with patterns?” as in, too much chevron? Or too many different patterns?
a little of both.
I love how the plate of food is assembled. Pretty plates always make me happy 🙂
The nursery looks amazing!
That tofu sounds so good, will have to give the reduction a try!
I love that breadboard! And glad you got to try a new flavor of Jeni’s with a friend 🙂
Love okra, havent had any this year:( Again your way of eating amazes me. Seems like very lttle processed foods and not so much of meat. Is this correct?
I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and the pressure cooker is practically a necessity in most Moroccan households! I have one, but got a nasty burn from the last time I tried to use it. They are kind of scary! Also, those sandwiches look heavenly. I miss sliced, whole wheat bread. It doesn’t exist here!
i’ve got to try this twin oaks tofu- i always get nasoya because it’s the only brand my grocery store carries, but maybe i could trek to whole foods would have a more diverse selection…looks like you had a good weekend!
That’s Grandmother Younger’s old cutting board. Cut a lot of sandwiches in it’s day, I bet.
Have you ever grilled fresh okra? Our son always does this, and it is delicious! He puts whole okra on skewers, brushes them with EVOO, and sprinkles on his favorite seasoning (usually Tony’s)—-and grills it! Fabulous!
Yes, delicious!
Did you scream when you saw Snakey?
No, just jumped back!
That reduction sounds great! I will have to try it. Agree with you that “Babies” was great!
I will have to try that kind of Jeni’s, because I like sweets that are not overly sweet.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
I loved that movie (Babies)! My 13 year old daughter does as well. We need to re-watch it soon. Thanks for the reminder, Kath!
Matt is canning! Is there NOTHING that man cannot do?
Hi Matt! 🙂
I love that also that Matt and you are such a good team!
I never thought about roasting Okra until I see you mentioning it here. I bet it’s really good fresh from the garden. I will have to go for the store bought version and give it a try. Thanks for the idea.
Oh darn, I thought that tofu dish was a copy cat recipe of PF Chang’s eggplant dish. Does anyone out there know how to make the eggplant dish with or without the ground chicken?
Yum! I’ve never thought to put Pickles and plums on a sandwich but I’m glad you recommended it. Now I might have to try it out!
The plums werent on the sandwich! On the side!
Ahh more Jeni’s! I’ve heard all about it (even on a podcast) and am dying to try!
You are so adorable; love this fabulous meal! Hope you are doing well Kath. Miss you tons.
xoxo
hugs!!
Up until recently, I was very much a sandwich person…but for some reason, I’ve hardly had any sandwiches at all this summer! So unlike me. However, that sandwich looks DELICIOUS. I think it’s the london broil…something out of the ordinary!
I’m curious: What’s that photo of your yard showing? What’s hanging to the ground?
P.S. Lemon Frozen yogurt!!! YUM! You have a smart friend, remembering that pregnancy sparks that citrus craving!
It’s a rain chain – a bit more fun than a plastic drain spout