Father's Day Brunch Recipes

In my recent post about what I did for Father's Day, I mentioned that I made brunch for all of us on Sunday morning. 

Doesn't that just look yummy? (And yes, that is ketchup you see sitting on that high chair back there !)

Here are all three recipes - all very good and, really, pretty easy to pull off in one morning.

First up was the Ham and Cheese Quiche.  This is a recipe that I've posted it before and it is still one of all time favorites.  It is so simple to make and so very tasty!! 

Next up is the Easy Cheese Danish which I adapted from The Barefoot Contessa on Food Network.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
• 2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.

This are so yummy!  I left the lemon zest out (we are not huge fans of the zest in things) I also made up a quick glaze with powdered sugar and lemon juice to drizzle on top as well. 

Finally, we had some Cheesy Hash browns.  The recipe I used was adapted from a Racheal Ray recipe on Food Network.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 cups shredded frozen hash brown potatoes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• 1 cup extra-sharp white Cheddar crumbles

Directions

Heat a large skillet with extra-virgin olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and let soften 2 to 3 minutes. Add potatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown and crispy. Season with a little freshly grated nutmeg, to taste, and add cheese. Turn the potatoes and onions with cheese to melt the crumbles and crisp the cheese a bit, about 1 minute. Transfer to serving dish

This recipe worked perfectly.  I just used shredded cheddar in place of the Cheddar crumbles and it worked out fine. 

If you try any of these recipes please let me know if you like them (and don't tell me if you don't LOL) 

21 Days of Prayer Challenge - Day 17 - Self-Control

Today's challenge is to pray the 10 prayers for your sons shared in the chapter on Self-Control. 

Short and sweet today :-) 

Tot School - The week I researched teaching ideas for the fall

Summer is in full swing . . . which means we are just playing a lot.  This past weekend, we went to a local Farm and Tractor Show because I have a 2 year old who loves tractors and had a ton of fun.  Josh would stop in front of a tractor, turn, and smile, waiting for me to take a picture because he likes them so much.  If that isn't good learning, I don't know what is!!  :-) 

As I really start to think about the fall and teaching my Pre-schooler (seriously???) I'm really trying to focus on some main ideas - or maybe it would be better to say, I'm trying to set my own focus on what and how I want to teach my little guy.  One of the key areas on my heart is Bible - how to incorporate daily learning into Bible.  I started digging and came up with some websites and a few blogs I thought I would share.  This doesn't mean I will be doing all of these ideas (or any of them - I'm still early in the process) but a couple of key thoughts keep hitting me.  1) I love literature based ideas and 2) I love easy, simple, ideas that build on each other.  At my boys ages, teaching through the ABC's seems to be the very best idea.  First, Josh is ready for that now (he knows his ABC's) and second, Nate can tag along this year and than be ready next year to get his full lessons. 

One thing that I did early on this past week was to set out a schedule of what to accomplish each week throughout the summer.  This week, my main gaols are:
1. To research the circle time concept; decide how I wanted to do that time in the morning; make a list of needed supplies; get as many of those supplies as possible.
2. Create or "morph" (from someone else) a lesson plan set up for our teaching.
3. Layout a basic overview (very, very basic) of Sept-Dec.

In doing research on Circle Time, I ran across a blog called The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M..  and found exactly what I was looking for!  (How exciting when that happens?!?!)   She not only shared what she does for Circle Time (or Calendar Routine) she also gives lots of links for the information she gathered as well.  So, if you start at her blog, and click away, you'll not only get the printables you need, you'll also see other examples of the set up and other ideas of what to use in this time each day.

I feel like I have this task moving along.  I do need to get lots of things printed and I'll probably use Staples or Office Max so they turn out with great color.  I have a Calendar that I used when I taught school previously which will work perfectly :-)  The only other thing I really have to do is decide how to set up my dining room decor for this to fit in!!  (A small house means rooms have many purposes!) 

For the second item on my list, I totally 100% "happened" upon exactly what I needed! 

I post a link every week in this actual post to this very blog but I had never really explored everything she had on her site.  She has a tab that is called Preschool Corner and in that little tab she has a link for Preschool Planning Sheet and Tot School Planning Sheet!!  Seriously??? That is exactly what I needed!

My plan is to use the Preschool Planning Sheet for 32 month old.  He'll be three in October and I think the set up will work well for him.  Looking at the Tot School Planning Sheet really helped me focus how I was going to work with my 19 month old as well.  Using the two separate sheets will allow me to focus on 2-3 three each day for him specifically.  One will always be circle time; 3 days a week he will be part of what I do for Bible.  After that, I'll just have something for him to do related to what his big brother is doing as well.  I really love how just finding that little list of things on a blog I've followed for awhile, solved a problem for me!

My final goal . .. I'm still working on this week :-)  I'll save those links for next week as well as a link to whatever I design for my basic plan. 

Please note, this concept is all new to me.  We are strongly considering homeschooling for our boys for many, many reasons and this is just a great way to do a "trial" run.  Maybe you are also thinking about something like this and what I write, share, post will help you out as well.  I'll share links to all of the ideas I find to use - it is so easy to get overwhelmed with what is available; maybe what I do can help someone else too!

Enjoy :-)

21 Days of Prayer - Day 16 - Gentleness

I really like what Brooke had to say on this topic:

Aggression in men is commonplace. It may not manifest itself the same way for all of them, but it’s there

nonetheless. For the physical boys, it shows up in their need to be on the top of the wrestling pile. For the

intellectuals, it shows up in their need to score the highest on the exam or be at the top of the class.

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aggression. I don’t want to break my sons of their

aggressive streak and I’m learning not to be afraid of it. But I do want to teach them how and when to use

it. I’m beginning to think that gentleness is more of an approach to life than a specific characteristic to

develop.

Since they were born, we’ve whispered these words into our sons’ ears:

God made men to protect women and care for them. God made you a big brother! Your job is to protect your

little brother, not hurt him. There’s a time to play and a time to listen. If you can’t listen, you have to feel (true in

so many aspects of life). God wants you to use your strength to protect, not to hurt. Superhero’s don’t look for

fights, but they will fight to protect others. It’s OK to want to be the best, but the best people in life are the ones

who serve others. A gentle word turns away wrath …

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits,

impartial and sincere." ~James 3:17

Your challenge today is to pray the 10 prayers in the gentleness chapter

:-)

What I'm Reading

This week I'll start with the books I've finished!

This is one of the best books I've read that dealt with the topic of parenting.  The basics of this book are teaching our children how to worship - not just to keep them quiet in the pew.  The author shares her experiences with her two boys and how she trained them to worship, even when others sometimes wondered what she was doing!  A few of the ideas she gave were to have your child stand next to you during any readings - for example, when there is a reading, have your child stand on the pew next to you and wrap your arm around them (this keeps them from getting antsy!) and point out the words as you read them.  If they know colors - tell them that you will be reading the red section while the pastor reads the black.  Or, while singing, if there is a line that repeats, help them learn it and then let them know when it is coming so they can sing it too!!  I could go on and on with ideas from this book but, I'll let you read it.  Not only would I recommend this for any parent to read, I would really recommend that pastors, youth pastors and worship leaders read it - they may gain some insight on how to help train children to worship too! Obviously, I highly recommend this book and will be reading it again!!

I also finished this book this week and it is just as good as the first book.  I don't want to give a lot away so I'll just say that you should read this book - it really shows the give and take of relationships and how, even when it is hard, when you love someone, you are willing to give up what you feel comfortable with as long as you are together. 

My devotional books haven't changed:

No new thoughts this week LOL  I need to get back into reading these each day - the kids have kept me running so I don't get my 15 minutes in a day!

And what am I reading right now?

I am enjoying this book very much and have already discovered that I fit into the category of "People Pleaser"  I really like Dr. Leman's writing - he is very straight forward and practical. 

For some odd reason, that is all I'm reading right now :-)  What's up with that???  I think it goes back to the whole having kids thing - I don't get as much time to read!  I do need to start thinking about my next quarter of book reading.  I'm actually almost done with most of the books I had picked out for this quarter.  Any suggestions - they don't have to be "deep books" - I like really good novels too!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving . . .  that as I'm writing this (which is actually late Tuesday night!) a storm has rolled through and now, as I open the windows again, it is sooooo much cooler.  Today was so hot and humid - it just is not fun!

I'm loving . . .. the memories from this past weekend.  We had so much fun together as a family and, taking the boys to a baseball game, topped it all off!

I'm loving . . . the cute little things that Josh is saying.  He saw a car driving through a flooded area and said "Dor Bath"  (Car bath). 

I'm loving . . . that my kids are going to spend a few days with my parents.  It is a win-win-win situation :-)  The kids love their grandparents, the grandparents love the kids and we love . . .the little break :-)

I'm loving . . . . or more that I'm thankful today that a friend of mine survived a boat accident this weekend.  Looking at it now and seeing pictures of what is left of the boat; he and his friends should not have walked away without even a scratch!

What are you loving today?



21 Days of Prayer Challenge - Day 15 - Faithfulness

There is really only one key here - that our sons would be Faithful to God.  If they do that one thing, all other areas of faithfulness will fall into place.

So today, pray the 10 prayers in the Faithfulness chapter today!!