Bean, Tomato & Caper Salad

Bean, Tomato & Caper Salad, originally uploaded by HiMalta.

Just finished making some bean and tomato salad from the Basic Italian cookbook. Everyone I make this for really likes it.

Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad Toppings, originally uploaded by HiMalta.

At 1PM today I looked in my cupboard and wondered what I was going to make for dinner. I saw some tri-colored pasta and "Pasta Salad" seemed to be the only way to go. My Pasta salad is NEVER the same. What it tastes like depends on what I have in the fridge/pantry. Here is what I came up with today.

The pasta is underneath. Today I included:
* 1 red pepper chopped
* 4 generous teaspoons of capers
* 1 can of chick peas
* 2 hard boiled eggs
* 1/4 block of Colby cheese cubed
* 4 green onions
* 1/5 purple onion
* 1 zesty Italian seasoning packet
* some fresh chopped parsley
* 1 pepperoni chopped
* 2 boxes of pasta
* olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt & pepper to taste

Before serving I always add some fresh chopped tomatoes.

What I wanted to add, but didn't have on hand were some black olives. It still tasted great, but I think they would have given it a nice kick.

Homemade Granola Bars

Tried this recipe for Homemade Granola Bars.

The taste was AWESOME! But I couldn't get the bars to cut right without falling apart. I am not used to having things not turn out for me, even when I alter the recipe on the first attempt like I did. I made a couple of changes to the recipe which I will detail below, but I think my real problem was that I didn't chop the Almonds enough before putting them in. Next time I want to make them, I will used slivered almonds instead.

I also made the following modifications:

• I used caster sugar because I couldn't find the sticky bun sugar. I think this is a contributing factor to the cut failure. The recipe says it should be bubbly, but mine never got bubbly.
• Instead of Oat flour, I used half oat bran and half wheat germ
• I used three cups of fillers: dried cranberries, coconut, almonds, pepitas and peanuts.

Next time I plan on following the recipe exactly, but after that I already have an idea for a modification. If you have ever had the Nature Valley crunch PB granola bars, the top has a super thin layer of Peanut Butter on them. I will try this in a future attempt and let you know how it goes.

Felt Play Food

Felt Play Food Sandwich, originally uploaded by HiMalta.

The kids got a kitchen for their birthdays. I saw some great felt play food online and thought "I can make this" So for .20 a sheet, I bought some felt and came up with some creations.

Here is the rest of the felt play food.

If I wasn't going to make my own, I would probably buy all of the Haba Biofino Line up from Amazon. I think it is SUPER cute!

Turkey Burgers

Finished Turkey Burgers, originally uploaded by HiMalta.

Made some turkey burgers last night for dinner. They turned out pretty good. What I was most disappointed about was that the ground turkey wasn't that good. I usually buy my meat from the butcher, but it was closed when I went grocery shopping Sunday night, so I got it at Kroger. It didn't really cook up as well as the butcher ground turkey.

You can see the rest of the pictures here: Turkey Burgers

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Sell Your PDF eBook, end up in Gozo

I was reading Seth's post on eBooks when something caught my eye....he says "The math is simple: sell 10,000 at $30 each and you too can move to Gozo and sit in the sun." Well, I haven't sold any eBooks, but I am on a working vacation in Malta right now so anyone who has made their fortune selling eBooks, I can pick you up some real estate brochures ;-)

btw...a big thanks to The blogger guide on getting this blogger template to 3 columns.

Losing Nap Time

My 2-year-old has started trying to avoid his nap times. Today I put him down for his nap at 1:15 and he didn't fall asleep until 2:30. When he did fall asleep he slept until 4:15, so he needs the nap, but I don't understand why it is taking him so long to fall asleep. Today he was calling me saying "I awake, please come get me." I didn't get him because I knew he was tired, I just told him to lay down and rest. I don't know what I am going to do if he stops taking a nap. I think I might just make an afternoon quiet time where he has to play by himself and I do my own thing. I need his nap time so I can get things done around the house.

Christmas is Coming

Yesterday I received my first batch of Christmas catalogs in the mail from LL Bean and the Right Start. Sunday I was looking through the advertisements and they are already showing Christmas stuff. It seems like they are skipping Halloween and Thanksgiving completely this year.

My new website

I am working on a new website for parents who are researching things before they buy them online. The site is still in development, but if you have any input, I would love to hear it. What is great about this new site is that all of the reviews include video of the products. You can view it here: www.baby-product-video-reviews.com and the accompanying blog here: blog.baby-product-video-reviews.com