Feeling Green

This little sweetie belongs to my good friend. Because I have only boys I enjoy taking photos of her whenever I can. My choice for "green" was a no-brainer for me.

See more at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

The Simplicity of Black and White

Black and white photographs have always been my favorite. Sepia tones are nice but there's nothing like the clean, simple beauty of a black and white.

See more beautiful black and white at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Wonder

I love this photo of Bear taken during his first big snow storm. Oh the wonder of it all!



Check out more wonder-ful photos at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Cup of Joy

I found so many photos in my archives that qualified for the category of "Joy". But I couldn't resist using this one. This was taken during a pit stop at a cozy cafe after walking down main street, enjoying ice sculptures and Christmas lights with my three favorite men. This is the 7 year old of the bunch enjoying a Peppermint Hot Chocolate. His eyes just scream joy.

Don't be too jealous - this was only seconds before my 5 year old spilled his "cup of joy" all over the table, my wool coat and my camera...

Comfort Food

Life as Mom is hosting a recipe swap with the theme of Comfort Food. I searched my mental recipe box for something that would qualify and what I came up with is Toast. There is no recipe to swap but I thought that good old, white bread, melty butter covered toast should get an honorable mention as my favorite comfort food. We rarely have white-bread in the house and whole wheat just isn't the same. Whenever we have the rare loaf of white or better yet Scali bread we all ask for toast.

Now for an actual recipe. I think everything that I make regularly, the things I learned from my mother all count as comfort food. I guess the king would be Shepherd's Pie. This recipe came from my French-Canadian grandfather and we always called it Pate Chinois and frowned on my peasant friends who called it by it's common name :) It wasn't until recent years that I even knew what the name meant. If you are interested you can see it here . After that I got embarrassed by a lifetime of mis-pronunciation and let my family call it Shepherd's Pie.

Here is our recipe.

I've tweaked it a tiny bit because I don't enjoy buying creamed corn - for fear that someone important will see it in my cart and somehow think less of me. This is the original version - no real measurements.

1 small onion

1 lb Ground Beef

1 can Creamed Corn

1 small package of frozen corn

small batch of mashed potatoes (make 'em good)

butter

salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare the mashed potatoes and brown the ground beef with the onion. In a medium casserole dish layer the ingredients in this order starting with the meat.

Browned Meat

Creamed Corn

Regular Corn

Mashed Potatoes

Score the top in fancy swirls with a fork. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper. Bake for approx. 1 hour or until the top is all crispy and everything is bubbling over. I usually put a cookie sheet underneath to catch any rogue liquid. Let it sit for a bit before serving. And dump as much salt and pepper as you can stand all over it.

Like a lot of comfort foods this has as many variations as there are families. My sister-in-law uses carrots. The Irish recipe is very different. Enjoy your version or try mine!

I Heart Faces

I am a total novice when it comes to photography but I love to capture the hearts of my boys in a photo - and nowhere is their heart more obvious than in their faces. This contest caught my attention big time. I hope you enjoy this entry. Down to this very moment I'm undecided between two possibilities...

The Babytooth Chronicles

Loosing your first baby tooth is a big deal. When you wait until almost 3 months past your seventh birthday - it is a VERY big deal. This baby has been loose for quite a while. My legalistic little Bear refused to even try to pull it out until yesterday when it started to hurt when he ate...

That didn't go very well.

This morning when I sent him off to brush his teeth I told him to make sure he brushed extra hard - especially his loose tooth so the new tooth underneath could get clean too - I know, I'm wicked to my children.

But I'm also brilliant!

Tada! That is little brother's hand pulling down his lower lip while he talked to Daddy on the phone - isn't he helpful?