Friday, March 30, 2012

Oh, Helloooooo Friday! (random)

Hey, Friday. Glad to see you. The week before spring break is always so BRUTAL. And this week was no exception. The weather turned angry again. No snow, thank god, but chilly and pissy. Which I guess is what March is usually like, it just was a bummer after two weeks of glorious weather. Whatever, it's still Spring! And I have a new banner that reminds me every morning while I make my coffee.


Yes, I realize this is super easy to make. Guess what? I have zero desire to do so. Thanks, Target
 for making something cute so that I don't have to. 

Today is the calm before the storm, so to speak. I have a first birthday shoot tomorrow, a 1st birthday party on Sunday, my little ones 3rd birthday on Monday, my parents are arriving on Tuesday....What, doesn't that sound restful? No? Oh. But I'm excited! It's all very fun, good stuff. And besides, I get to hold babies and eat cake. Which are two of my favorite things. PLUS! I get to give the babies back!! And with the arrival of my parents means more bedtime stories read to little ones by my dad and homemade chocolate Easter candy by my mom. And it means loads of good food and trips into the city. Dear, Weather. Please be nice. We have plans, man. We have to get ready for this guy to come....

She loves him. Can't you tell? I know, I'm cruel. It's just too good. 

15 minutes later....see?? HAPPY! 

Yeah, Spring! Yeah, Friday! Go do something good for yourself, peeps. You deserve it. 
xoxo
Erin 




Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs (tutorial)


Wanna to make really awesome Easter Eggs with minimal mess? Of COURSE you do. And you probably have all the stuff on hand to make them, I did! And lord knows I don't bake..just happened to have food coloring around for making homemade playdoh. You don't even need very much. I stumbled upon these awesome Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs over on Pinterest. The original tutorial is from Disney Family Fun. They have tons of great ideas over there, you should check it out! Including all sorts of April Fool's Day fun. AWESOME. I love a good prank. 

Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs:

Materials:
Hard Boiled Eggs
Vinegar
Food Coloring
A Colander
Cold Water


First things first, we hard boiled some eggs. I always put all my eggs into a large sauce pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and cover. Let sit for 12-15 minutes. That's my preferred hard boiled egg recipe. I know some people like to let them sit longer but this always works for me. 


What you need: Hard Boiled Eggs, Vinegar, Food Coloring, (We used gel and regular. I'd recommend gel if you have it or can get it. It's less runny) Water and a Colander. That's it! 


You can see my eggs lost a little bit of the, "I'm Local" stamp. I was happy :) 


Put a few of your eggs into your colander and set it over your sink. 


Excited!!! 


Pour a cupful of vinegar over your eggs. We didn't measure. Just eye balled it to make sure the vinegar covered all the eggs. We made three batches of eggs with different combinations of colors. We started with 7 eggs. 


Starting with yellow, drop a few drops of color on the eggs. Just a little is needed. Feel free to use whatever colors you have on hand. But I would always start with yellow, and not use more than three colors per set. Just so the colors don't get all muddied up. 


Then swirl and swish the eggs around in the colander. They'll look like this when done. Let the eggs set for about 30 seconds. 


Take another color, we did red, and drop a few drops of the dye over the eggs. 


Swish and swirl again. Let the eggs set again for 30 seconds. We totally forgot to let them set after this part. Whoops! Still worked. 


Drop your third color. We did blue. 


Swish and swirl again! You can see the blue came out a LOT faster and messier than the red and yellow which were gel dyes. 


Here are the eggs. All swished around. Let set for another 30 or so seconds. That one in the middle is sweet. 


Now, pour cold water over the eggs. 


TADA! Awesome. Let set for about a minute. 


We then picked up each egg and lightly dried it off. It helps to stick our your tongue. Everyone knows that. 


Look how awesome! 


Like a little gift. And each one was so different. 



All our eggs! With virtually ZERO mess. Which, of course, is my favorite kind of mess. 




So cool, right?? We loved making these. It took next to no time at all and the results are outstanding. HURRAY!! Try them out and let me know how it works for you! Off to eat some egg salad.

Happy Wednesday,
xoxo
Erin

Monday, March 26, 2012

Monday Meal Planning (Scary Easter Bunny)

Oh hey, Monday. I'm ready to tackle you! I'm taking this week by the horns and shaking the hell out of it! See, it's the last week of school before Spring break. Which means I have approximately 6 hours and 45 minutes to myself this week to get anything and everything I want to get done. In those 6 hours and 45 minutes, I will take my regular two yoga classes and brave Target for Easter Basket supplies. I will plan a little girls 3rd Birthday dinner, plan our little family birthday party AND our Easter menu. I'll probably pass out when done. But hey, next week is CRAY CRAY. I'll take what I can get.

On Saturday we went to our town's Easter Egg Hunt. This picture pretty sums up my little one's feelings about the Easter Bunny. 

But seriously, this dude is freaky. I don't blame her! 

So of course I'm taking them to the mall today to get their picture taken. I'm so cruel. Drives my mom crazy. Sorry, mom, but it's tradition. 

And it turns out I bought way too much Beef for this week. I apologize. I don't know, something came over me. Maybe I was feeling low on iron? So this week is high in meat. I promise next week won't be! I'm sure I'll be over it by then and want grasses and fish or something. (probably not) Here's what we're having. Join us!

Monday: Steak Teriyaki
Thursday: Soba Noodle Salad

I'm off to torture my kids at the mall! Toodles!

xoxo
Erin 

Friday, March 23, 2012

blah, blah, blah..it's Friday!!

It's totally Friday and my laundry situation is dire. Send in some troops, y'all, because this shiz is beyond bad. It's just been so nice here! I can't spend my afternoons folding clothes when I could be playing in the dirt with my girls and getting sort of burned at the playground! And Popsicles need to be eaten. I mean, come on. It'll probably snow next week. Besides, it's supposed to be craptastic this weekend. I can do all the laundry on Sunday. The girls can wear my husbands boxers as pj's. It's FINE! I'll wear weird old dresses and maternity jeans, NBD. I got a pedicure on Monday. So..I've got that going for me.

See?? I'm wearing old lady Worishofer's today. These babies are two years old and look brand new.


For some reason my husband decided he wanted to start collecting antique toy tractors. Like all at once. We had three already, but this week boxes of old tractors started arriving at our house. The girls were psyched! I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be playing with them.....



SNAP! She caught me. I didn't realize I needed a waiver. She has that indignant, hands on the hips, teenager thing going on. She's only 5. I'm so screwed.


This morning we had to drive my husband to the train station, and decided to run over to Stew Leonard's for some food and eggs for our Easter Egg Extravaganza (tm) this weekend. And as happy as I am that my eggs are local, I'd rather not have my Easter Eggs announcing it to the world. 

There were a bunch of dudes walking around the store talking about whatever dudes that work for Stew Leonard's talk about, and I stopped them to point it out. It was rather hilarious. I wonder if you buy your eggs next week if they'll be stamped??? I'm betting, no. 

And then they spotted it, the Easter Bunny Candy Crack House! So of course we had to get it. 


Oh my. That is a boat load of frosting


Her sister shows a lot more restraint. 

Except when it comes to licking the drippy frosting off the base. She can't help herself. I tried it, it tasted blue. 


This little guy's gonna haunt my dreams! "I'm melting!!!"

TADA! It's like the Easter Bunny had one too many mai tai's and puked all over our house. They are so proud of it. It's awesome. 

Oh! And, we got a bed. 

We're grown ups now. I'm so proud of us. It's the 19th Century Quatrefoil Iron Bed from Restoration Hardware. I love it. 

And now I have to go. We have a baby sitter coming in 2 hours and my legs are hairy.

Happy Friday!!
xoxo
Erin

Monday, March 19, 2012

Monday Meal Planning - Spring has sprung!

You guys, the weather this week, is going to rock. I can't even stand it! Another week of sunny skies and bare feet in the grass?? Yes, please! Check out this weather forecast!


























I live in New York. This is weird. This is probably bad. Probably why my throat is on fire and my post nasal trip is out of control. Gross. But still. I love the sun. Love the warmth! And LOVE the grill. Which is what we're going to be doing a lot this week. Grilling. And eating yummy salads and simple sides. Hurray! 
Join me, will you?


Ok. It's time to get outside and enjoy this weather, before the weather gods wake up and realize we need some snow. Eeks! 

Happy Monday!
xoxo
Erin 

Monday, March 12, 2012

Monday Meal Planning - St. Patty's Week, 2012.

Hey Peeps. It's SPRING-ish here. I'm so friggin' psyched. Yeah, yeah, I know we didn't have that much of a winter, but still. I love me some Spring. I love the flowers and smell but not the allergies. It's fine, I can deal. I have Claritin and super awesome allergy eye drops. I just don't wear mascara. SPRING!!! Oh, and it's St Patty's day on Saturday. Which means the Erin in me comes out. It means Colcannon and Corned Beef. YES. But because my hubs is gone this weekend and my super awesome veggie friend KS is going to be here instead, we'll be eating our St. Patty's day feast on Thursday. Fine by me! Last years meal was so insane, I'm making it again. And you should too!!!  Yeah, food!


Monday: Asian Sesame Chicken Salad (Panera copycat recipe)

Tuesday: Crock-pot Kaluah Pork

Wednesday: Smoky White Bean Chicken Chili

Thursday: 
Honey Marmalade Mustard Glazed Corned Beef
Roasted Cabbage with Lemon
Colcannon

Friday: Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta

Saturday: Lightened Up Protein Power Goddess Bowl

Sunday: Barbacoa Beef

Happy Spring-ish Monday!
xoxo
Erin


Monday, March 5, 2012

Monday Meal Planning

Oh, Monday. How do you sneak up on me so quietly and calmly only to SLAP me right in the face. You're so mean like that. We had such a lovely, lazy weekend. Complete with a date, a new bed, an antique show, a really big salad at Chipotle and some super delish meals. YAWN. What should we eat this week? Loads of good stuff, that's what.

Monday: Chicken Ropa Vieja (with Flank Steak, so really just Ropa Vieja)

Tuesday: Arugula Salad with Penne, Garbanzo Beans and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Wednesday: Turkey Sausage, Kale and White Bean Soup

Thursday: Tangy Spiced Brisket

Friday: Black Bean, Chicken and Rice Bowl w/ Apple Salsa

Saturday: Chicken and Artichokes in White Wine Sauce

Sunday: Marlboro Man Sandwich, Adorned.

Oh hey, I'm doing the March Photo challenge from The Maternal Lens, wanna join me? Of COURSE you do. Here it is:


Everyday, take a picture (I'm using my iphone, just simple and quick. No editing ) and upload to your facebook page, instagram, your blog ect..label it w/ the day and the theme and the hashtag #tmlphotoaday. Here's what I've done so far. 

Day 1. Something that makes me smile. My slippers and this stripey rug. 

Day. 2. Water

Day. 3. Black and White. Worms

Day 4. Tree. 

Today is something you love...well that's pretty easy. I have loads to work with. Join me! There's still plenty of time to catch up. Snap, snap, snap away! 

Happy Monday, peeps. 
Make it a good one!
xoxo
Erin