Ophelia Yogurt

I am feeling a bit under the weather today so for breakfast I just asked what Ophelia wanted. She asked for yogurt with honey and cinnamon.  We usually buy Brown Cow Maple yogurt, but they didn’t have it at Trader Joes last week so we have Un-flavored Greek Yogurt. We added a bit of local honey and a pinch of cinnamon. Not only did Ophelia love it, so did Mira and I!

Honey Sesame Pork Chops

I made this shortly before Andrew left for Seattle, and am just now getting around to posting it. Here you go.

Honey Sesame Pork Chops

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp dry sherry
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/8 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp sesame seeds
8 pork chops

To prepare marinade, combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir thoroughly.

Place pork chops in a shallow dish and add the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place pork chops on a wire rack over a baking dish. Bake for about 35 minutes, brushing with marinade occasionally, or until tender (internal temperature should theoretically be 145, but mine never got that hot after nearly an hour).

Serve with grilled summer veggies.

Life at the Parents’

We’re all still alive over here, I swear. It’s just that Andrew has been in Seattle for the past six weeks for school and the girls and I have moved in with my parents for the time being, so cooking has been light and relaxing has been heavy. But I earn my keep by gardening, hanging curtains, making headboards, and cooking occasionally. Here’s dinner from a few weeks ago. Lemon Chicken with croutons, green beans with roasted veggies, and simple dinner rolls rolled in various seeds.

And this is of course all done while the littlest one does this:

(that was actually just an excuse to post a picture of her, but can you blame me?)

Butterfly Garland

Over our summer holiday, Ben’s mom bought the girls a really adorable butterfly garland during our layover in the Seattle airport. We kind of fell into a butterfly theme for their room some time ago and it stuck.  Since their bedroom has no overhead lighting, and the idea of putting standing lights in there made visions of crashing stands and broken light bulbs dance in my head, I opted to hang colored Christmas lights instead. We also found some cute patio butterfly lights at Target that fit right in and Ophelia is rather partial to them. The only downside to the arrangement was the single unsightly cord hanging from the corner. It’s tucked out of the way of the children’s reach, but still, there it was. Ben had the ingenious idea of wiring the new garland so we could wrap it around the cord to hide it. I had some craft wire on hand, and tied the garland tight in between a door knob and a cabinet to hold it still. After locking the cat in the laundry room (she thought it was all a fantastic game), Ophelia and I spiral wrapped the wire around the fishing line that suspended the butterflies and tacked it to the ceiling before wrapping around the offending power cord. Tada!
(Side note: Ophelia does not sleep in the crib. It’s in there for Mira, but since Mira hasn’t graduated out of the pack n’ play yet, Ophelia makes good use of the crib as a trampoline.)