Is this Texas or Holland?

We spent a gorgeous day at the Arboretum's "Dallas Blooms" exhibit two weekends ago. I've never seen so many tulips, pansies, johnny-jump-ups, and other blooming flowers in my life! And apparently everyone else in Dallas thought so too, as there were record numbers of visitors that week. When we left, they had closed the parking lot and were shuttling people from a lot a few miles away. Crazy! It was absolutely beautiful, and we took about a million pictures. The weather was cloudy at times, and that kept it from getting too hot or having blinding sun obscuring our view of the flowers. So here are some of the better ones (mostly taken by Joshua). I'm a little crunched for time, so I won't comment too much. But I wanted to get these posted for all to enjoy!

Wisteria, one of my very favorites, greeted us as we entered the park. It smelled wonderful!

Here's all the tulip pictures.



Reminds me of a field of Easter eggs!

This one looks like it's been painted with a paintbrush...

...and these like they've been dotted with a red thumbprint

Rachel enjoying the tulips with her Daddy

Rachel woke up with this flip in her hair that refused to go down! But I think it turned out cute.

Cherry trees in bloom

They had every color azalea...here's a couple of them

For those of you who blog on blogger.com...i'm really wishing they had a cut and paste feature right about now!!!

There were tons of squirrels that were definitely not afraid of humans

Rachel striking a pose

I've never seen johnny-jump-ups this color before.

Or like this either...

When she was let out of her stroller, it was pretty much impossible to keep her from touching the flowers. But she was very good about not being rough with them. We taught her to "be gentle" when playing with our beagle, and she's carried that on to apply it to other things too. She would gently pat the flowers like she does Max!

One of my favorite pictures of the day in the crook of a huge crepe myrtle tree.

Could She Make More Noise?

Usually Rachel makes noise by squealing, laughing, crying, and sometimes even screaming. Now she has moved on to noisier activities. If anyone ever buys her a drum set (which more than one grandparent has mentioned, especially after I posted the video of her banging the upturned mixing bowl), let this be a warning: you will be repaid, somehow, someday, when you least expect it!

However, I do love her reactions in this video. She's so focused! If sounds like she's saying "mush!" as if the baking sheets and pizza pans are her own little team of sled dogs!

time: 3min 35sec

She's All Girl Now

Wednesday we went to the mall and, seeing as how it was nice and springy-warm, I wore my sandals for the first time. This means I painted my toenails for the first time since last summer. I did this while sitting at the kitchen table while Rachel ate her breakfast. Once I started painting my toes, she completely quit eating. She was that enthralled with the process! I thought it'd be fun to paint her toes too, but wondered when would she ever be still enough for me to do it. Inspiration struck later that evening while she was eating her dinner. While her feet weren't immobilized, she certainly couldn't run or touch her toes with her hands really. Once she was done, I picked out a cute shade of pink and painted her little toes. She loved it! She was very interested in the whole process, and once I was done she just sat and stared at them! Here's how they turned out :)

I thought these pictures were cute too. I have the hardest time keeping her out of the pantry, especially when I'm making dinner and I'm in and out of it a lot. So I let her play with the potatoes in there. She likes to take them in and out of the bin (much like the cookie sheets in the video), though she got even more creative the other night. Maybe she thought she'd take them for a walk?

Dancing Queen

We bought The Blues Brothers on DVD the other day and were watching it when Rachel decided to bust a move in the living room :)

time: 1min 1 sec

What Is It About That Big, Stupid Purple Dinosaur???

I don't know why kids like Barney, but he must be doing something right to still be on TV this long. Much to our dismay, Rachel has joined the legions of his knee-high fanbase. But she's awfully cute to watch while she's watching his show.

Quick and Easy Chicken Salad

***Sorry if this is a bit hard to read...blogger isn't cooperating with it's line spacing today!

I may have mentioned this recipe before when I posted a salad with grilled steak. I made this the other night and it turned out really good. I'm notorious for being a slow eater, but for some reason I gobble this one up quickly! It reminds me of the Caribbean Chicken Salad at Applebees (or is it Chili's...they're the same aren't they?).

Southwest Chicken Salad

Marinade

3-4 chicken breasts

juice of 2 oranges (or reserved juice from one large can of mandarin oranges)

juice of one lemon (or 2 tablespoons of the bottled stuff...I often use that too)

1/4 cup olive or canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons garlic pepper

2 tablespoons Magic Dust (recipe follows; or any kind of cajun seasoning like Emeril's Essence, but you might want just 1 tablespoon as those are spicier than Magic Dust)

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Salad

8 cups chopped greens (I used half a head of Romaine and half a head of red leaf lettuce)

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved or equivalent of chopped tomato

1/2 cucumber, diced (peeled and seeded if not an English cucumber)

1 large can mandarin oranges (not the tiny size can)

2 carrots, sliced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (it sounds like a lot if you're not a big cilantro fan, but it's not too overpowering mixed amongst the greens)

1/2 jicama, diced or sliced into sticks (see below if not familiar)

Toppings

crushed tortilla chips to serve as croutons

shredded cheddar, optional

Ranch dressing ( you can use whatever you like, but I think Ranch works best with this...honey mustard would be good too)

Slice chicken breasts into longish chunks, about the size of half of a tenderloin, approx. 2"x4"(see photo below). Mix remaining marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine well. Place chicken in a bowl or ziptop bag and pour marinade over chicken and marinate in the refrigerator 30 minutes to one hour (don't marinate longer than about 2 hours or the citric acid in the juices will start to "cook" the chicken).

Assemble salad ingredients and toss to combine in a large salad bowl.

When ready to cook chicken, heat a grill pan over medium heat and oil slightly to prevent sticking (you can also just saute these in a regular skillet...I'm not a nut about "great grill marks" like some of the Food Network chefs are...it's not really grilled anyway if there's no charcoal or actual flame!). Cook chicken breast pieces 3-4 minutes per side until cooked all the way through but not dry. If they look a bit burned, but you know they're not overcooked, don't worry...the sugar from the orange juice will char a bit more than if it weren't in the marinade.

Fill plates with salad and top with chicken pieces. Sprinkle with crushed tortilla chips and drizzle with dressing to serve.

Magic Dust

This was originally a barbecue seasoning used at 17th Street Barbecue, a restaurant in southern Illinois. I absolutely adore it for seasoning all kinds of stuff. I use it like Emeril uses his Essence.

1/2 cup paprika

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons mustard powder

1/4 cup chili powder

1/4 cup ground cumin

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

1/4 cup granulated garlic

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and keep in a tightly sealed jar.

Jicama

If you haven't tried jicama, I encourage you to do so. I really do like it. It has the texture sort of like a potato, but sweet like an apple, but not as strong. It's common in South American cooking, and it's a lot easier to get now than it used to be. I've only ever seen it used raw in salads or slaws.

One last thing...

If you don't have or like mandarin oranges you could also use pineapple chunks, and replace the orange juice with the reserved pineapple juice from the can.

Lots of Pictures...We've Been Busy!

This past weekend we attended the North Texas Irish Festival and had a really good time. It was our 3rd time to go in the last few years, and maybe it's just because it's not new anymore, but it didn't seem as good as in years' past. It could also have been that they couldn't set it up as they usually do because of construction work being done in the buildings they're usually in, so things were a lot more crowded. It also seemed to Joshua and me that there were more "crap" booths, for lack of a better term or phrase, than before, making it seem like there were less of the true arts and craftsmen's booths. But the weather was nice: cloudy, warm but not hot, a bit humid, but luckily it never rained on us! And how bad can an outing be when you can get both Guinness and a funnel cake! :) Joshua's mother went with us, and we met his brother Joe, his wife, Georgia, her friend Casey and her little girl Carly, Joe's friend Randy, and our friend Maggie there as well (can you follow that? not sure if I can!). All in all, we had a good time!

Today Rachel went to her 15 month doctor's appointment. Everything seems to be going swimmingly regarding her health, and we're very happy about that. She's a lengthy 33" tall (doctor says she may be as tall as 5'8" but says he'll know more at the 18month appointment) and 2ounces shy of 23 pounds. She has the sniffles, and we think it might be allergies, but we'll just have to wait and see how that turns out. With the problems I have with seasonal allergies, it's not a far stretch to think she might have them too.

This was one of the many Great Pyrenees dogs there to represent their rescue group. I think Rachel liked all the dogs she saw there, but she was more cautious than I'd expected. Except the one time she reached up and petted a huge Irish Wolfhound right in the muzzle, getting a nice handfull of dog drool in his beard! Of course we didn't get a picture of that...

This rabbit at the petting zoo area was the biggest I've ever seen. It could eat chihuahuas for breakfast if it wanted to!

This is 8month old Carly (hope I'm spelling her name correctly!). She is such a cutie! She and Rachel got along quite well. Behind her is Sam, Randy's dog; Rachel was much more interested in her than any of the other dogs.

"Hey Uncle Joe...who you talkin' to?"

The festival was at Fair Park (where the State Fair is held), and it has some of the prettiest trees.

This is a pretty fountain there too.

The Dallas skyline from the parking lot we parked at.

This is the silver cross I bought at the festival. I've been wanting a silver cross for a while now (I have 2 pretty gold ones but I wanted one to go with my silver jewelry too).

Rachel and her Papa Tom sharing some cheddar cheese with Jake.

She likes feeding others as much as herself!

She really liked sitting in one of "the big people chairs" Sunday morning. But I still put her in her highchair for her breakfast. I'm not that brave yet!

You can buy kids a ton of toys, and then they're happiest with kitchen utensils....go figure!

She reminds me of a little tennis player in this outfit with her sneakers on.

I'll be so happy when her hair finishes growing out and she can keep it out of her eyes. Everytime, without fail, that I try to put a barrette or clip to hold her hair back, she takes it out!

This looks like trouble coming....

...and this is her reaction to her mischevous schemes!