old school

i found my recipe box from when i was a kid tonight.  i enjoyed rummaging through and finding a few gems, including this one.  mostly because i got to see my old handwriting and misspelling, though i didn't do too bad!  i wish i knew how old i was when i wrote this.  i was really into recipes as a youngin'.

this one is my grandpa skip's buttermilk recipe.  we eat it almost every sunday, family tradition.  the best is when strawberry season finally hits again and the toppings for the pancakes are my favorite.  growing up i didn't put anything on my pancakes except butter.  and i would cut it like i would a pizza and eat it with my fingers.  we weren't fancy in our home with pancakes, but that was just perfect.  my brother and dad had theirs with plain old syrup.  probably aunt jemima or something.

but as soon as stephen took over my dad's role in our own home with the pancake-making, we started to get fancier.  strawberries, freezer jam, homemade whipped cream, chocolate chips, peanut butter, apple butter, nutella, bananas, you name it...we are putting it on our pancakes!

just one more reason to look forward to sundays!

questions

do you have children?

do you have a five year old?  or a six year old?

then you must know what i'm talking about when i say that having children this age requires serious patience.  i remember my brother-in-law, john talking about his then five-year-old.  he was saying that he finally understood why his father used to tell him, "because."  question after question after question.  one leading to the other.  other questions having nothing to do with anything else.

these questions happen a lot in our home.  and then there's also the repetitive question.  the one that demonstrates your child's lack of understanding of the value of time.  today, this week, next week, a few weeks, a month, a few months, next year, etc.  because of the confusion with learning time values, i swear i get the same questions over and over and over.  especially from sienna.  it could have something to do with the fact that the girl doesn't listen to me when i talk to her...though she has the keenest ears in the car when i'm talking hush-hush to stephen.  funny how that is!

i'm learning to just have more patience, but i truly do just have to tell her sometimes, "you're not allowed to ask that question anymore!"  for reals.  i do that.  i get so tired of it.  as bad as i feel about that, i need it to be so for my sanity.

Source: yourhomebasedmom.com via brooke on Pinterest

and then....there's those!  yuuuuuum!

my mom has an awesome visiting teacher.  after my stepdad broke his hip (yes, ouch!), said visiting teacher brought dinner and cookies for them to eat that night.  i happened to be there the next morning for chloe's piano lesson and my mom showed me the root beer float cookies.  sounds strange, right?  when she first stated what they were, i thought "ew", "gross."  but no!  stop right there!  if you're saying those same words, take them back quickly.

i took a bite of one of the cookies and was instantly hooked.  it's awesome how it really tastes like a root beer float.  and it's not gross!  it's delicious!

so, to welcome stephen home today, we made him some honorary root beer float cookies.  we'll see what he thinks of them!

yummy easter!

i never did show you our fabulous easter cookies, did i?  these were for our good friends.  yum.  we had more than plenty left for us to eat as well!

i heart san francisco

just a few pictures to share from my recent quick trip to s.f.  more on lovely.

mona lisa

we took a little visit to a cute little authentic italian market yesterday, tour by nina.  it was quite fun to see lots of italian pastas, cheeses, breads, canned items and meats.  nina is full italian and grew up eating only the best italian things, so this is where she gets certain things, when she gets the chance.

it's a cute little market on the outskirts of little italy in downtown san diego, called mona lisa.  nina helped me think of a few things i might like to make and eat.  some of the ingredients included:  mona lisa special sausage, parmigiano reggiano cheese, orechiette and homemade pizza dough.  YUM!  i also bought some fresh foccacia bread which we ate sandwiches on last night for dinner.  de-licious!

sienna staring at the cheese...i would too, they're italian originals!

of course, these cans of peeled tomatoes in a can.  yay for nina!

lia was quick, by the way.  we weren't even in the store more than 1 minute, and she found a nice bottle of red wine to crash into the floor.  poor nina.  she couldn't compete with that girl.  she's fast!  and despite nina insisting to pay for it at the end of our visit, they wouldn't let her.  told her "it happens all the time".  um, yeah.  the bottles are everywhere and practically on the ground.  they probably don't get many 1 year olds though.  so lia and the girls and i mosied on outside to wait for the italian girl to buy her stuff.

and regardless of the wind blowing hair into her face, she looks lovely...that italian girl.

the next time i'm in the area, i'm going to have to eat at puerto la boca!  it's right across the street from mona lisa.  i've been hoping to find a place that makes food similar to that of uruguay.  not because it's the best food, no.  because it's nostalgic of my time there.  must. eat. uruguay/argentine food.  it's basically the same thing anyway.  who's with me?

pancake love

here's some more pancake love for ya'll.  we can't get enough.  buttermilk pancakes...yum!  mickey mouse even stopped by to make an appearance!