grill out!

our friends becca and adam, anna and paul came over for dinner and games on saturday. we have officially re-named bola wrap and now call it hobo golf. paul and anna went home with their own purple and white (northwestern) customized hobo golf set.
here, anna looks like paul just lost their kids' college funds to adam in a hobo golf bet, but i assure you that this expression was just a fluke. then again, maybe becca was saying, "we always wanted to put gold-plated sinks in our house. and a trip to tahiti wouldn't be bad, either!"

as always, our entertaining menu included a fair number of brand-new recipes. will i never learn? while the au gratin potatoes were under-done in the middle (we ate around the bubbly, brown edges), the chopped salad was a winner. i love chopped salad. i've been a relatively late-comer to green salads and didn't really start enjoying them till college (i would ask for cottage cheese or fruit at restaurants, instead). the blendedness and uniform size of ingredients in a chopped salad, which usually includes yummy non-green things like chopped turkey or salami, cheese and chickpeas, remedies my main frustration when i'm eating a salad--i often can't get everything i want (greens plus veggies/nuts/egg/cheese/crouton/dressing) into one forkfull. here's the recipe i used:

sophie's chopped salad
(courtesy of bobby flay at www.foodnetwork.com)

1 head romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup cooked red beans
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup friend blue corn tortillas, diced (i just used blue corn tortilla chips)
1/2 cup diced monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup diced cheddar cheese
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

toss all salad ingredients together in a big bowl. combine vinegar, mustard, oil, salt and pepper. dress salad with the vinaigrette and serve.

one caveat--this one won't last overnight so you have to eat it in one setting. as a side at our grill out, i had quite a bit left over after all six of us had eaten. bon appetit!

baby doll and blender

it was a rainy day. here's some imaginative play that happened inside this morning...

jazz dance!

rob took this video on his phone, so please forgive the poor quality. despite the graininess and choppy sound (sorry, chris potter's underground!), i think it still captures the spirit of henry's spunky moves. watch and learn, so you think you can dance? hopefuls!

a patriotic and jazzy weekend

betsy, pete, henry and clara were here to celebrate the 4th of july and jazz fest with us this weekend. both kids gravitated to eleanor's new easel. henry drew some skunks and an awesome amusement park rocket ride. clara's artistry was a bit more abstract.
we walked to market square park on friday morning. E experimented on the ladder, while clara bounced on the turtle...

all three kids zoomed down the tube slide...



later that day, there was frolicking in the pool/water table...

i guess we got all photo-ed out on friday because i have no photos from the rest of the weekend. the 4th was rainy and grey--we had a fun breakfast at a new local favorite, the bluebird diner, and the rest of the day was calm and indoorsy. after eleanor and clara were in bed, betsy, pete, rob and i went downtown with henry for fireworks. yesterday afternoon and evening, we all spent some time on the pentacrest lawn at jazz fest, enjoying the music, sunshine and shade.

the days flew by--how can it be monday afternoon already?