March of Dimes- Walk America

Here we are, early yesterday morning, waiting for the walk to begin! The first picture is of my teammates, Maria, Cristina, Mike, and of course Jonathan! Jonathan was ready to roll, as you can see. Of course the water bottle was for Mommy!

More walk pictures...

Jonathan taking his morning nap! Strolling is hard work!

Views along the way

Some views of Long Island sound and some pretty gardens we passed on the way. Here is Maria leading the way, we're almost there!!

We did it!!

Here we are at the finish line! Woo hoo! 6.5 miles by the New Haven shoreline. Together we raised over $500 for March of Dimes as the family team "In Honor of the Canestri Girls". Can't wait for next year! Thanks to all of our sponsors, we had a great time, and helped a great cause!

Recipe of the Day- Hold the Mayo!

It's that time of year again, picnic time! While that may be very exciting in terms of outdoor grilling, the smell of bbq's and bug spray, there is one part of the picnic tradition that I could do without. Mayonaise based "salads." You know, pasta salad, potato salad, chicken salad, and worst of all, egg salad. How the heck is that a salad?? Anyway, as someone who despises mayo, this array of side dishes is very disturbing to me, and the thought of just having a hamburger is not that appealing either. My solution, my very own pasta salad, hold the mayo!

1 12 ounce box of tri color fiori- Barilla and Ronzoni are the best
1/4 of a block of pepper jack cheese, diced
1/3 of a block of monterey jack cheese, diced
1 can medium black olives
3/4 of a pint of grape tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
8oz diced pepperoni or salami (I found Carando deli cubes at the Big Y, what a find!!)
1 packet of good seasons Italian dressing prepared with the oil and vinegar of your choice- I use EVOO and red wine vinegar
extra salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste


Just boil the pasta in salted water by the directions. Drain, put into a large bowl and pour half the dressing on it, mix it well so it doesn't stick, and then put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool. When you're ready to eat, dice up everything, throw it all in, pour the remaining dressing on (you may not need it all, it depends on how much you like dressing) and toss. Finito! I made it last night for the first time this spring season. Love it, love it, love it! And even mayo lovers enjoy this refreshing change!

Play Ball

Jonathan playing with his roll arounds under the coffee table. Fun, fun, fun!

Planting- Day One

Well, it took about 2 hours, but my mom and I cleared about a third of the area that is going to become the butterfly garden and planted 5 plants yesterday. We planted some parsley which is an herb that the butterfly larvae need, one of my Elijia Blue Fescue plants (the bluish grass type plant), two of three moonbeam coreopsis and my butterfly bush, which I have the close-up shot of. We had to give the butterfly bush a circle with diameter 4 feet with no plants around it, because it will (hopefully) be getting bigger. Even though the rest of the bed still has grass and weeds on it, the garden looks like it is starting to take shape, and we even placed some pretty rocks from the area. The hardest part was digging up the weeds and vines, putting down some garden soil and trying to mix it all and level it out somewhat. We also found a lot of grubs, and tried to eliminate as many as we could. Can't use pesticides in a butterfly garden! There is still a lot to be done, and many plants left to plant, but so far so good! Would love comments/suggestions!

Recipe of the day- what we had for dinner!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_21026,00.html?rsrc=search

Another R.R. special. (Rachael Ray)

Parmigiano and herb chicken breast tenders... a little more involved than most of her recipes, but the tenders come out really good with tomato sauce (I use my own recipe, not hers) and also work well with caesar salad. The only part I don't like is dipping the chicken in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, what a mess! It is worth it though, they are very, very tasty. And don't be afraid to use dried herbs instead of fresh, I use them all the time!

Say hello to my little friend...

Jonathan and gypsy... friends forever!

strollin'

Strolling with Grandpa in my Sesame Street Stroller!

The Ants go Marching...

We have had an ant problem the last few days. What a nightmare! They were in the living room, not the kitchen, luckily, but it took me three days to determine where they were coming from. I also looked up every possible home remedy, not wanting to spray anything poisonous near Jonathan. So, in my quest, I've discovered that Cayenne pepper is annoying to ants, but not annoying enough to make them stay out of the living room. Spearmint gum, however, (I used Extra brand) makes a nice "caulk" for holes in windowsills and the ants really do hate the mint! Wacky, but true. So no ants in the living room for now... we'll see if we've eliminated them for good. Of course my mom had to put poison outside near where they were coming in, so I'll never know if my homemade repellent- a solution of white vinegar, cinnamon and cayenne pepper did any good.

Baby food blues

Today I tried to feed Jonathan part of a real banana... as in, not the kind that comes out of a

baby food jar. It was bad. I mean, he was gagging, coughing, turning bright red and generally making a "you expect me to it this stuff??" face. I don't know, I figured since he had already been "introduced" to bananas, a real mashed up one wouldn't be so different. Apparently, I was mistaken. So, my question is, what do they put in those baby food jars that makes bananas taste like, well, not bananas? My only thought is to next time only give him a tiny bit of banana and a lot of cereal and formula. This picture is actually from the other day, when he was eating regular baby food... you can see, he thinks he can handle this eating stuff all by himself! He certainly loves holding his spoon!

Recipe of the day- care of Dave Lieberman of "Good Deal"

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32429,00.html?rsrc=search


Dry Rubbed London Broil, a favorite of ours. Fast, easy and delicious.

My perhaps overly ambitious spring project...

Well, I decided to grow a "butterfly garden" this year. You see, they have these great "garden plans" at bhg.com (better homes and gardens). Well, it looked so pretty in the plan, and the flowers don't seem like they would be that hard to grow, and for those of you who don't know my back yard, it has these cute terraced beds that would be perfect for a flower garden. Anyway, I went a little overboard at Burpie.com and bought a LOT of plants. Well, not that many, but a lot more than I would normally buy in one season... or five seasons for that matter. But my reasoning was this, if I buy most of the plants needed now, I will just have to supplement a bit in the next few years and then the garden will pretty much run itself, since most of the plants are perennials. Now that the plants have arrived (two were D.O.A.) I'm thinking, what the heck have I gotten myself into? I'm no expert gardener, and getting the bed ready is going to be tough, because we have a lot of rocks (as well as a bit of grass). Also, it is not so easy to garden with a 7-8 month old... but if I don't keep these plants alive, then all my money will be wasted, and I'm not one for wasting money. So here's hoping for a good planting/growing season, of course tonight snow is forcast... luckily I haven't planted anything yet. With any luck, by July I'll have photos of the butterflies in my garden.

Bunny Ears 2

Nonnie's bunny ears... aparently this is what grandparenthood does to you... makes you buy bunny ears!

Bunny Ears 1

Grandma's Bunny Ears- How cute!

Easter

Easter outfit

Unbelievable

I just can't make this stuff up... freaky. And no, I never edited that last post, I wrote that last night after the Yankees lost. It is almost unbelievable that the exact situation came up today that I described yesterday. Luckily, my lack of faith was not an issue...



NEW YORK (AP) -Alex Rodriguez turned Kei Igawa's forgettable debut into a day he'll long remember.
Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs and the Yankees trailing by a run. Just the type of pressure situation Rodriguez failed at during the last two Octobers. Nearly the same circumstances as two nights earlier, when he popped out and tossed his bat to the ground in disgust.
"There's no way out," manager Joe Torre said. "There it is: You either produce, or you're going to read about yourself again."
This time was different. This time, A-Rod wound up getting shoved back onto the field by Derek Jeter for a curtain call.
Down to his last strike, Rodriguez came through in the most dramatic way, sending a soaring drive into the center-field bleachers, Yankee Stadium's famed black seats. His grand slam off Chris Ray, A-Rod's second home run Saturday, gave the Yankees a memorable 10-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Another cold, slow start

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270406110

O.k. so the Yankees are 1-2... this happens every year! They start slow and play so badly you wonder, how the heck is this the best paid team in the league? But you have to keep the faith, because, eventually, somehow, we will pull ourselves out of this and end up in the playoffs. It will happen. Just please, please, don't let A-Rod be our last hope, in the ninth inning, with the bases loaded and two outs. Good grief.

90 years

I hope if I live to be 90 years old, I can still wear high heels to my party, be surounded with family and friends and dance the night away. If I do live to be 90, it would be May 9, 2066. How crazy is that?

Prepare for Launch

This is what Jonathan does when I put him in the car seat. I don't know what he thinks of my driving, but as far as carrying him to the car, he always holds on for dear life. It looks so funny though, like he is waiting for a rollercoaster ride. The five point harness makes me feel like I'm strapping him in for a rocket ride to the moon or something. This was from our trip to the grocery store last week.

Recipe of the day-care of Rachael Ray!

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/?q=recipes/turkey-florentine-meatball-heroes

O.k., so I'm not making these today, but I made them last week and it is a favorite recipe of mine... really, really, good!!
Turkey Florentine Meatballs... sounds crazy, but they are delicious!

Yankees Postponed

The Yankee game got postponed today. I was looking forward to having something decent to watch or somewhat listen to on TV today. Oh well. I am so glad baseball is back, I really missed it! I'm sure Mike won't feel the same.

As usual, very little of my to do list is done, but I did manage to get my bathroom clean! Woo hoo! At least one thing can be checked off my list... and the laundry is being cleaned as we speak. Unfortunately, putting it away is always my least favorite part of the process...

Cutie Pie

Early Morning

Well, we were up early this morning, around 5:30AM. I hate early mornings! I dread going back to waking up early every morning when I go back to work. If my job started at 9AM it would be the perfect job. Seriously, I would gladly go to work each day. I realize that I would get out later, but probably still no later than most people in the world. I should be happy that I'm awake, as I have a to do list a mile long, and today is going to be a rainy, lazy day... maybe I'll actually complete most of the list! They just had a story on Good Morning America about people knowing more about American Idol Contestants than presidential hopefuls. Sad. What do you expect when they (the media) are more concerned about celebrities than politics.