Mother's Day and Birthday Weekend

 For Mother's Day and Gayle's 60th birthday, we all headed up to Lake Tahoe to celebrate. We got to stay in cabin 95 at Zephyr Point. We arrived Friday afternoon and got things started right away by unloading the food and setting out some pre-dinner snacks.

After dinner, we roasted marshmallows for smores.

Saturday we had a relaxed morning and waffles for breakfast. Then we packed sack lunches and headed for Emerald Bay. 

We had a picnic by the lake. 

Then Gayle, Bethany, Laura, Joshua, and I set out on a hike to the point of the bay. It was supposed to be five miles round trip, but I think it may have been more. Regardless, it was great and a beautiful day. 

After returning from our hike, Bethany and I jumped in the lake.

We took a family photo after our celebratory birthday dinner. 

Gayle had made beautiful quilts for each of her children. The quilts were unique and made for each one of them specifically. They were amazing. 

Sunday morning we made omelets for breakfast. 

This is one of many games played over the weekend. 

Bethany and Laura set up a slack line.

 We had to leave after lunch, but it was a great weekend and a fun time with family.

Chicken Marsala

I found recipe twenty-one in my Taste of Home magazine. It was a "fast fix," perfect for a weeknight. 

Speedy Chicken Marsala

8 oz. uncooked whole wheat or multigrain angel hair pasta

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (5 oz. each)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. lemon-pepper seasoning

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup dry Marsala wine

Cook pasta according to package directions. Pound chicken with a meat mallet to 1/4-in. thickness. In a large resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, lemon pepper and salt. Add chicken, one piece at a time; close bag and shake to coat.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add chicken; cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until no longer pink. Remove from pan.

In the same skillet, heat remaining oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; cook and stir until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add wine; bring to a boil. Cook for 5-6 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Return chicken to pan, turning to coat with sauce; heat through.

Drain pasta; serve with chicken mixture. Yield: 4 servings.

This was not quite as quick as I hoped it would be, mostly because my chicken was much thicker than 1/4 in and I didn't pound it. But it was delicious. The flavor was great. Of course, how can you go wrong with mushrooms, garlic, and wine? We didn't have Marsala wine, so I looked online to see what would be a good substitution and a number of people said not to substitute because Marsala has such a unique flavor. After saying that, many of them gave substitution options anyway. One of them was Pinot Noir and we happened to have that, so that's what I used. It probably gave it a different flavor, but it was great.

Watching the Kids

 I had help with recipe twenty. Joshua and I watched the kids today while Isaac and Heather were out of town. Micah and Natalie helped me put together Berry Cheesecake Parfaits. We used the brownies I made last night instead of Nilla Wafers and the parfaits were great.

We started the day by making omelets in bags for breakfast. You fill your bag with eggs and toppings of your choice, mash it up, then cook it in boiling water.

 The boys played basketball.

 Evan and Micah liked doing "exercise shots" where they dribbled the basketball around the whole court before making a basket.

 Natalie had a slam dunk.

We played lots of new games.

And went in the pool and spa, which wasn't much warmer than the chilly pool.

After the pool, we had popsicles, which I made out of strawberries, bananas, orange juice, and kale.

Isaac and Heather got back at dinner time and brought pizza, so we had pizza for dinner and parfaits for dessert.

Then the kids wanted to sing a couple of the songs that we sang in the morning again, so we sang the Penguin Song and Here Comes Jesus, which were rather lively after so much food. 

Needless to say, we were tired after all that, but had a great time with the kids.

Cucumbers and Chocolate

 I went back through the Taste of Home magazine I got last month and found a recipe I had marked for Creamy Dilled Cucumber Salad, so I decided to try that tonight for recipe eighteen. 

Creamy Dilled Cucumber Salad

2 English cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 t salt

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/4 cup snipped fresh dill

2 T white wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 t sugar

1 t coarsely ground pepper

Place cucumbers in a colander over a bowl; sprinkle with salt and toss. Let stand 15 minutes. Squeeze and blot dry with paper towels. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in cucumbers. Refrigerate, covered, at least one hour.

My favorite thing about this recipe was how light and fresh it was, and it had good flavor. When I made it I used a regular cucumber because they didn't have English cucumbers at the store. Also, I substituted plain yogurt for sour cream, sprinkled in a bunch of dried dill instead of fresh, and used red wine vinegar instead of white because that is what I had. All in all, we were quite pleased. Nothing particularly special, but good and a nice option for a side dish when it's hot.

 I also made brownies. I had never made brownies from scratch before; the box mixes turn out so well, why make the effort to make them from scratch? But I figured it was about time to at least try it and then decide if it is worth making them from scratch. I used a recipe for Ultimate Chocolate Brownies from my Hershey's Make It Chocolate! cookbook for my nineteenth recipe.

Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa

1/2 t baking soda

2/3 cup butter or margarine, melted and divided

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 t vanilla extract

1/4 t salt

1 cup Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease rectangular pan, 13X9 inches, or two square pans, 8X8 inches. In medium bowl combine cocoa and baking soda. Blend in 1/3 cup melted butter. Add boiling water; stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining 1/3 cup melted butter; stir until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, and salt; blend completely. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan, 30 to 35 minutes for square pans or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan(s); frost with One-Bowl Buttercream Frosting. Cut into squares.

Obviously, there is another recipe for the frosting elsewhere in the cookbook, but I didn't use that so I'm not including it here. These were delicious. Were they better than brownies from a box? Not particularly. Will I make brownies from scratch again? Probably. Will I stop making brownies from a box? Nope.