Miss Traci -13 1/2 months

After Church on Sunday Traci looked so cute in her pigtails I had to take some pictures. Maybe one day I'll go get professional pictures of her taken, but for now these will have to do!

Bye bye!

A walk along the C&O

Took a nice walk along the C&O today. It was a nice day and my favorite part was seeing the baby geese.



The great blue Heron was pretty cool too.

New camera fun!

So, I have been practicing with my new camera, mostly on Traci Jane. She always is available for some reason. =) These are just a few pictures that kind of show her personality I think.



Anyways, I would love to practice taking pictures of people. So if you want pictures of you for any reason/event or pics of your kids, I would do it for free, because let's face it, I'm a beginner. They might not be the best pictures, but I have a nice camera now and could give you free prints to do whatever with. I get practice, you get free pictures. Fair trade, I think. =)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Love,
The Rogers

Cherry Blossom Bloom

If you are ever in D.C. at the end of March you are in for a treat! This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

tucson's best

The best time to visit Tucson is in the spring. It is beautiful. My husband and I went for a hike up Agua Caliente Canyon and this is what we saw.

Strawberry Cream Pie

Holy deliciousness! This recipe takes time but is well worth the effort. It is sad that now-a-days most people will never ever get to eat a pie like this with home-made cream filling and sauce and fresh berries.It's kind of funny because in general I loath pie. Nasty cooked fruit and bland dry crust. YUCK! HOWEVER, this pie is not at all like the others because it is chilled and not cooked and I could eat it forever. It's like vanilla pudding with berries and the crust gives it a little crunch.

WARNING: Once you make this pie you might never be able to go back to the store-bought kind.

This pie has 3 elements. I have included here what you might need to buy at the store to make it
Crust (graham or regular)
Filling (whole milk and heavy whipping cream mix)
Topping (strawberries!)

First you need to make your crust. You can either buy one (cheater way, which I like because I dislike even the best normal pie crust. I buy a Graham cracker crust for me (the only kind I'll do) and make a real pie crust for my husband)

Here is a great recipe for crust if you want a light and flaky one. My Aunt Stacey taught me the techniques and it makes a killer crust. Those who like pie crust will go crazy for this!
1 C flour
1/4 t salt
1/3 C plus 1T shortening
2-3 T Ice water (the less, the better. I did 2 and my husband said it was awesome!)

SIFT flour and salt together. Sifting makes a difference! Cut in shortening until it is pea-sized. Sprinkle 1 T water and mix lightly. Repeat until just moistened, but NOT sticky. The trick is to mix as little as you can! Gather up dough with fingers and form a disk. Refrigerate at least 30 min.

Preheat oven to 425. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of wax paper, turning over and pulling paper off often when dough starts to stick. Roll from center of pie towards edges only. Take off top layer of wax paper and center dough over pie pan. Gently peel off paper and press dough down into pan. Fold and crimp edges. Poke a few holes with a fork. Bake 8-12 min or until golden brown.

Yeah, I know its a picky recipe, but then you get this:Now make your creamy pie filling! You will make most of it on the stove, and then fold whipped cream into it with vanilla. You will need:

For now:
1/2 C sugar
3 T cornstarch
3 T flour
1/2 t salt
2 C milk (use whole!)
1 egg

For later:
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1 t vanilla

Mix top ingredients in a large pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and stir until thick (happens pretty fast!) remove from heat. In a small bowl slightly beat an egg. While beating egg, slowly add 1 C of cooked mixture. This is called TEMPERING and it is important to do so you don;t end up with a bunch of cooked egg crap in your pudding. BLEH!

Add egg mixture back into pot and bring just to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat and dump into a bowl. Place plastic wrap over bowl pressing down on mixture and chill in refrigerator or in bowl of ice water.

Now make your sauce. You need:
1/2 cup strawberries, crushed
1/2 C. water
1/4 c. sugar

2 t cornstarchCrush strawberries. Add water and heat to boiling. Simmer 2 min. Strain juice into bowl and dump back in same saucepan. mix sugar and cornstarch and gradually add to saucepan. cook until thick and clear over medium heat. Cool.

BACK TO FILLING:
Whip the 1/2 C cream. When the other filling mixture has cooled fold in whipped cream and vanilla. Dump into pie crust. Arrange washed and cut strawberries to cover pie. Drizzle sauce over the top. Chill at least 3 hours.

Taste it. Love it. Devour it. Make more. =)

Calzones

We make homemade pizza quite often, but my husband suggested a twist -calzones! Pretty much need all the same stuff for pizza:
Dough
Sauce
Cheese
Fillings!

Here are the recipes I use for sauce and dough, although you can buy cheater versions of both at the store. (Prego is a great sauce for these!)

DOUGH:
1T yeast
1 C warm water
1 1/2 t sugar
1-2 t salt
2 T oil
2 1/2-3 C flour

Combine yeast and water. Let sit 5 min. Add remaining ingredients and knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 10 min.

While dough is rising make your
SAUCE:
1 small onion diced
1 clove garlic diced
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 t oregnao
1/2 t basil
pinch thyme, rosemary
pinch cayenne pepper

Sauté onions and garlic in a small sauce pan. Add other ingredients and simmer 5 min.

Gather toppings (we used mushroom and sausage)

Divide dough into 4 even parts (or I guess you could make 1 or 2 giant calzones instead of 4)

Stretch dough into a flat disk about the size of a salad plate. lay dough on greased cookie sheet. Lay sauce, cheese and desired toppings on one side of disk. Stretch other side of dough over toppings and press down edges with a fork, pinching tight. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake at 375 for 20ish minutes until they are golden brown. Serve extra sauce in a bowl on the side for dipping. We had a salad too!

tired of lettuce salads?

I guess that this is kind of turning into a food blog. But what can I say? I love to cook!

So if you have a husband like mine, he hates salad. I love salad. I like to have it a lot but my husband tires of it quickly. So to change things up a bit, make this instead:

Cucumber ginger salad! Its super easy and comes from a Japanese/American couple (the Watanabes) that went to church with my husband's family when he was young.

Before you start making your entrée just get 4 cucumbers and slice them as thin as you can. Sprinkle them with salt and let them sit in that as you combine these:
1 C. sugar
1 C. vinegar
1 t. grated ginger

(if grating ginger with a zester is not appealing to you, you can now buy already grated ginger in little tubes you keep in the fridge! They are so worth a few extra bucks! I do this with garlic too so that when I'm making pasta sauce, or stir fry I can just throw it in without stopping to smash and chop a clove up!)

Then just pour the stuff on the cucumbers and pop them in the fridge to chill while you're cooking. Then when dinner is ready, you just take them out of the fridge and BAM! You have a salad that most boys aren't afraid to try and might actually eat because it's tasty.


It goes great with stir fry, like this delicious SWEET AND SOUR PORK:
My husband LOVES this because you make a batter for the pork (I use chicken breast and its just as good) and fry it. It is a great way to get your man to eat veggies!

I love it because it tastes like the stuff you get at restaurants and it is amazingly good.
I got this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, but have adapted it to my liking. Here is my version:

First, start your rice cooker! I have forgotten this before and it sucks when everything else is done.. and there's no rice. =(

Then cube the meat (about 12oz) and put in a bowl. Splash with soy sauce and oil (For people that HAVE to measure -about 2 T. soy sauce and 1 T. sesame [or whatever kind] oil).
Cover in plastic wrap and set aside to marinade.

Make sauce using:
1 C. chicken broth
1/3 C. sugar
1/3 C. rice vinegar (or whatever kind)
4 t. cornstarch
1 T. soy sauce
Set aside.

Heat up your wok, or pot with about 1-2 in cooking oil. You'll know it's ready when it starts to smoke, or when you drop a match in the oil and it lights (trick from Brazil).

While the oil is heating, make batter by stirring the following until smooth:
1 egg
1/2 C. cornstarch
1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. broth

Drain and meat and pat it dry. Dip it in batter coating well. Drop as many pieces as will fit in hot oil. Cook 4-5 min. until brown. Remove all pieces onto a plate lined with paper towels, and add more meat to oil. You can keep the meat warm in an oven set at 300F if you wish.

Next you want to fry up the veggies on med-high in a separate skillet that has about 1T oil in it. Add:
1 clove garlic, minced (or about a t. of the already chopped stuff that comes in a jar)
3 medium carrots (sliced thin)
2 peppers chopped (we like orange)
onions -3 green or one small normal one

Cook 4-5 minutes or until crisp-tender and remove veggies from skillet.

Give your sauce a stir and add to same hot skillet. Cook until bubbly and then cook 2min more. Add an 8-oz can of pineapple if you have one, and then put the veggies and meat back in. And then dinner is done!

Here is my husband decorating his plate. He did it of his own free will. I think he was excited for fried food.

So anyways, this is a great recipe, but it does take a little more prep than some dinners. But if you have the time and want to make a fantastic meal, then this is a crowd pleaser.

Snow!

It snowed again. I threw the baby in her crib while I went out and took pictures. I thought she would nap, but she was hyper when I got back so I took her out. She has yet to nap in her crib today. Maybe snow just has that magic about it. I mean, who would want to sleep when the world outside looks like this:




I love when the bases of trees peek out of the snow. Trees are such warriors!

My street


If there were no trees to hold the snow, it just wouldn't feel like winter!