Category: Helen

Easter Brunch at Home-Our Menu!

4/18/2019

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I am so excited to be hosting an Easter Brunch this year at our house! Traditionally, we have had a big Easter Dinner, but in order to accommodate everyone's schedules this year, everyone is going to attend church with us and then come back to our house afterwards for brunch! There should be about 18 of us, including children. That is a lot for our small house, but we have done that before. But, coming up with a menu and how I want to decorate has been the things I have struggled with. Today I will talk about the food and save the decorating for another day.
When I think of brunch, I think of food items that can translate to breakfast or lunch. They shouldn't be too heavy and everything should look beautiful and appetizing! I also have had to consider many types of diets with so many people. I have come up with a mixture of home cooked and also purchased items that I think will provide choices for everyone that they will enjoy and that will make everyone feel like this brunch satisfied their Easter holiday food expectations. I hope that you can find some ideas to add to your menu! These could also translate to a Mother's Day Brunch as well!

Main Dishes

I've decided to purchase croissants and crackers and to have 3 choices for fillings:

Baked Ham sliced for sandwiches-Ham is just so versatile and such a traditional Easter menu item. But, we have some who don't eat it, so there are alternatives.
Chicken Salad-Lindsey posted a great recipe for Chicken Salad a couple of years ago. It is a favorite with grapes and chopped apple. Sometimes I add a little curry to the spices.

Veggies for the vegans! I will have lettuce, spinach, sliced peppers, tomatoes, onions and probably pickled onions as well! You can go to the link for the pickled onion recipe.

The nice thing about all of these foods is that they can be eaten without bread by those who are gluten-free or low-carb eaters, or with crackers! Of course, there will be condiments on the side as well, like mayo, mustard, ranch and Italian dressings, salt, pepper...you know.

Side Dishes

Fresh Fruit-melons, strawberries, etc. This is a no brainer, right? This is something that is easy to ask someone to bring.
Deviled Eggs-These are required at any Reynolds' Family eating event! Lindsey posted a recipe for them last Easter!
Cheese Platter-This can be for the sandwiches or just to enjoy with the fruit or alone.
Vegetables and Dip-I saw a really cute idea that makes your vegetables look like a garden, with carrots in rows in the dip and maybe radish roses and some green onions. When I get mine made, I'll take a picture and show it to you.

Beverages

We will be serving a variety of juices and water. This is one of the things I've assigned out!

Pastries and Desserts

Carrot Cake Roll!-Go here to find out how to get this recipe!

Coffee Cakes from the Bakery-These are a holiday treat I love to serve at Easter.
Blackberry-Lemon Bars-To me, these just look like Easter! (or Valentine's Day, or Mother's Day, or any day)! That lemony sweetness is so bright and sunny with the sweet blackberries to set it off! If you haven't tried these bars yet, Easter is the perfect time to do so.

Vegan Cookies-Maddy makes these Triple Chocolate Vegan Cookies and they are just so good! you won't know that they are vegan! She tells me that she will be bringing these and another variety of vegan cookie! Sounds delicious!

See's Candy and various other Easter Candy treats-Many of these will be used in my decorating. Easter and Christmas are good reasons to splurge on See's Candy!

The Plan!

My plan is to shop and cook so that everything is finished and ready to put out the day before. I will also set and decorate my tables. The platters for food will be out and ready to fill. Then, when we get home, it will be easy to pop everything onto the platters and serve! We will serve buffet style around our kitchen island and counters. Here are a few tips to help everything to work well:

My husband keeps reminding me that it is okay to assign things to others to bring. That does help a lot with both the budget and your sanity! People usually offer to bring something, so let them!
Check in advance that you have enough platters and serving utensils, as well as eating utensils, glasses and napkins.
I love to use my nice dishes rather than paper plates, especially when there will be so much food. But, if you prefer paper, get something sturdy and nice. Don't forget dessert plates as well!
Set food out in stations! I put the main choices first and then the sides all around my island. On a separate counter I have a beverage station. Some things can go on the tables if necessary, such as the deviled eggs and crackers.
Don't get so overwhelmed with the details that you forget the real reason we are celebrating. #BecauseOfHim.

Those are my ideas! I would love to hear yours and what you are doing for your Easter dinner or brunch! Drop me a line in the comments! Most of all, have a blessed, wonderful, happy Easter!

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Easy, Practical Urban Organic Gardening Tips

4/15/2019

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In 2018, I set the goal to get back to having a vegetable garden in my backyard! Well, in 2019 I have finally reached the goal of having a small garden again. Never give up on those goals! It doesn't take a lot of space to produce quite a bit of food. See the garden box in the above photo? That was Alicia's garden behind her home where she lives in the Bay Area. (It is much greener there than it is in Phoenix!)
Since we live in Phoenix, AZ, there are a lot of strikes against us when we garden. The soil is terrible, the heat is terrible, there are weird bugs and water is expensive. Also, although my husband and I no longer have any pets, we do have grandchildren who frequent our backyard, so we don't want anything harmful or toxic in our garden. So we try to garden organically in the easiest way possible! I thought today I would share some tips with you about how we do earth friendly and child friendly things to keep our garden healthy and thriving!

We put little wells around the tiny plants to hold the water around them. Later we added mulch as well.

Watering Tips

That is a picture of the garden when we just put it in and the plants are tiny. That was a month ago. Shortly after this, my husband added straw as a mulch to help keep the moisture in the soil and to keep down weeds. It has worked really well so far. Our tomato plants are now huge! Look!

This was taken a week ago. They are even bigger now.

As the weather here gets hotter and we start using the AC, we will use the free water that it pulls from the air and drains out of the unit to water our garden. This is as simple as adding a hose to the drain of the unit. You will be surprised at how much water you can get in a day from your AC unit. That will really save on your water bill!

Amending Soil

One of the problems with our soil is that it is low in nutrients, such as calcium. A consistent problem is blossom end rot on tomatoes. Lack of calcium is a cause of this problem. One organic solution is to save your egg shells and grind them up and put them at the base of your plants.
Another way to add calcium, and the one I have been using this year, is to use my expired milk, diluted with water and pour it around the base of the plants and then water as usual. I wouldn't spend money buying milk specifically for this purpose, because you can buy additives more cheaply, but using the last bit of milk in the jug or milk that has gone bad is a good way not to waste the milk that is no longer good for consumption and it will add a small amount of nitrates and other nutrients to the soil as well as the calcium. I guess time will tell about how it solves the blossom end rot problem. But I have heard from others that it works quite well.

Non-toxic Pest Control

Attract good bugs that eat aphids, etc with flowering plants. We were so excited one day when we saw a ladybug on our plants!
We were having a problem with some sort of little gnat-like bug in our garden. I mixed a couple of Tablespoons of vegetable oil, and couple of tsp. of dish soap in a spray bottle and then filled the bottle with water. I spray it all over my plants over and under the leaves. It has really helped to solve the problem. As you can see, our plants are healthy! I've also read that some essential oils, such as a citrus oil mixed in with the recipe help with the bug problems. My granddaughter can help me in the garden and I don't have to worry about her coming in contact with toxins!

You can see the bubbles on one of the leaves. Ha Ha.
Now our tomatoes are getting loaded with baby tomatoes! I can hardly wait! I love garden fresh tomatoes! I don't care what the current fad is about nightshade vegetables, I love them anyway!
I hope these simple tips will help you have a successful garden. Let's face it, we don't all have hours to spend in the garden, but this little bit of effort can help you have some success and the results are so rewarding!

Remember, when you are out working in the sun, be sure to take care of your skin!

Easter Week: Because this is the beginning of Easter Week, here is a simple way to help you remember the true reason for this special holiday. You can read about Sunday and Monday today, then go back everyday to see what happened during this week so many years ago that changed our hope for eternity. #BecauseOfHim

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Fun With a Toddler on a Windy Spring Day

4/11/2019

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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support.

I have shared activities I've done with my grandchildren with you on past posts. I love to try to make memories with them. For example, this post was from last year when my grandchildren who now live in Wyoming were here. (sigh)
At this time in my life, I am watching my 15 month old granddaughter 4 days a week. She is at the age where she is curious about many things, strives to be independent, needs to be constantly supervised, is a little too young for art projects and loves to be outside. I know that this stage is going to fly by quickly and I am trying to enjoy it with her as much as I can. It is so cute to hear her learning language and to see her experience new things. I am so blessed to be a part of her growth.
Now that the weather is nice, she loves to go outside as much as possible, I thought I would share with you some of the fun that we have together during these beautiful Spring days.

After we eat breakfast, we put on sunscreen (a must all year round in Phoenix), and then we go outside to water the garden. She "talks" to me all about it as we water. This watering can is heavy for her. I get it started pouring and she holds it for me. I am ordering this cute child sized watering can from Amazon for her to use. It is a Melissa and Doug Brand, which I have always been happy with. Compared with all of the kid sized watering cans I've seen, this one is a very good price! Look how cute it is! She will love it, as will my other grandchildren when they come to visit. I had some small metal cans for my older grandchildren, but they have seen better days. If you would prefer metal, this is a reasonably priced one.

While we were in the garden today, we found a great surprise! Look!

We have tomatoes! They look bigger in the picture than they really are.

I think I counted about 6 so far!

After the excitement of finding the tomatoes, Emily started picking up rocks to carry around. If she doesn't have a rock in her hand, she likes to have a piece of sidewalk chalk. She loves to use the back block fence as her canvas to use the chalk on and likes me to draw with her. If you don't like getting your hands all chalky, my daughter-in-law purchased some chalk holders for my grandson that help with that. They are awesome because they provide good grip for little fingers. These are by Melissa and Doug. The others are Peppa Pig themed. My grandson would love those. Chalk with chalk holders would be a welcome Easter Basket gift!

Today, as Emily picked up rocks, I thought about the rock painting craze that seems to have happened lately. She is too young for paints, but I found some rocks that we could draw on and she really got into that!

Coloring on the old bench was also a lot of fun.

A few of our creations.

One thing that we are thankful to have in our backyard is a wagon! Emily has to have a ride in it everyday. When her cousin Spencer comes to visit, our wagon is a two seater and they can both have a ride together. Our wagon is a hand-me-down, but here is a similar one. The kids have all loved to either ride in it or pull each other around. I love pulling her around the yard not only because she gets a kick out of it, it also gives me some exercise! 4 laps around my yard gave me 200 steps this morning. Then we did 2 more laps in the afternoon! The added weight of pulling the wagon with the toddler in it has to burn more calories, right? Ha ha

Sometimes she likes to pretend that she is driving!

When we come in from our time in the backyard in the morning, she is about ready for a morning nap, so we wash our hands and read a book and then listen to some songs on the Echo Dot, more commonly known as Alexa. Emily loves to dance to the songs, but if I play some quiet ones, she will often fall right to sleep on my shoulder. (Sometimes, if we're lucky.) Later in the afternoon, we will go out and do our backyard routine all over again.
A little sun for vitamin D, a little exercise, a bit of gardening, some exploring and creativity. What could be better than that?

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Easter Brunch at Home-Our Menu!

Easy, Practical Urban Organic Gardening Tips

Fun With a Toddler on a Windy Spring Day

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