Liver Bread Recipe (with mouthwatering photos!)

Liver Bread (via)

Ingredients:
· 1 lb liver (any kind- I used chicken livers)
· 1 cup flour (any kind- I used Self-Rising this time, but the texture was better with regular old All Purpose)
· 1 cup corn meal
· 2 Tbsp garlic powder (more or less)
· 1 Tbsp oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Cover a baking sheet with foil and oil it.

2. Dump the livers into a blender and puree.

3. Mix in all the other ingredients.

4. Spread liver mixture over foil. Bake for about 25 minutes. Open all the windows in your house; the smell will be overpowering.

5. Let cool. Slice into bite-size chunks- a pizza cutter works well. (I forgot to oil the foil this time around and so had to flip the bread over and peel the foil off the back before cutting it up.) Divide and store, refrigerated or frozen, in ziploc baggies.

Enjoy!

Mountains n' Sterrrburry pickin'

[Here's what you've been waiting for: a post by Brooke! Enjoy.]

Recently we had a Saturday morning free, so rather than rise at the crack o' noon and mutter about the darn kids across the street that are always gettin' into our recycling and playing with the bottles and cans to make Björk-like music at two in the a.m., we went in search of nature's gifts to fill our empty bellies. I'm talking about strawberries. We picked a few baskets worth, then got the heck out of there before the workers had a chance to realize that Jude had eaten his bodyweight's worth of free berries.























Christina got all haute couture on me after I mentioned that James McAvoy had been spotted down at the local Golden Corral. She swore she would converse with him over Snackums and Skillet Cornbread and she was so excited about the prospect that she screamed "MAAAAACAVOY" and bit this hole in the rug. Isobel snapped the pic on the right below while Mommy was gone for the next 36 hours with McAvoy on the set of his next documentary movie: "American Food Buffets: Why I love those wee houses of deliciousness."























Then we took our redneck coonhound to the top of the Pilot Mountain so she could feel at home with all the squirrels and birds and other rednecks.







Isobel, 3 and a half, is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world. Just try and deny it. You'll find yourself in a world of hurt if Stella hears.

PA

Six cousins in a box!

We love visiting Brooke's family in Carlisle. It's so convenient, having two of his three siblings AND their parents, all in the same town. And that town is a manageable six-hour drive from us. Now if only we could get Allison to move in an Easterly direction. Actually, I'd like all of my family to move Eastward, too. C'mon, people!




But yes, a highlight of this trip was the fantastic and enormous sandbox that Bobby built for the twins' birthday. My children LOVE sand. LOVE. More often than not, Isobel comes home from preschool with sand in her hair and shoes and underwear.

Another highlight was watching Stella and Maggie play together. Maggie is Brooke's parents' Brittany puppy; she's about a month older than Stella. They loved each other! It was a huge relief for me to not have to watch Stella all the time; she and Maggie (and the ol' timer, Simon) ran around the Shifflers' nice big yard all week. Next time we go up, I'll have to remember to get a video of puppy playtime. They were moving too fast for me to really get any good photos with both pups in the same frame.





Grandma and Papa have a nice-looking and sort of working piano that we all like to play a bit when we visit. We don't have a piano, so all four of us fight over anything with 88 keys. I try not to think about how ridiculous it is that I have a degree in piano performance; I only play about once a week, in church. Brooke, whose playing-by-ear abilities are miraculous, has even fewer opportunities. How depressing. Now I'm feeling sorry for us, which I should definitely not do because we have this adorable JUDE to gaze at all day every day!

This last photo is by Nicole. Oh, how I love it so!

Remember that holiday we had last month?

What was it called again? It was so long ago, I almost don't remember... oh yeah! Easter! We celebrated it!

We had a very quick egg hunt in the front yard. Yes, one of the most glorious things about living here is that an outdoor egg hunt is actually possible! When I was a kid we almost always celebrated Easter indoors, since Spring is still Winter in the Midwest.

One of our holiday traditions is Mommy trying to get both children to sit nicely and look at the camera. HAHA! It's a hilarious game. Here are the fruits of my labors this time around:













On Easter Sunday we drove up to Brooke's parents' house in PA and stayed for the following week so that I could attend Yoga for Congo Women, this incredible benefit event organized by Nicole. It was a very nice visit, and I have lots of pictures of Cousin BFFs and Puppy BFFs to share. I'll do another post soon.

Life with Puppy: week one

Not long before we brought Stella home, I was talking to a friend of mine and I mentioned that we were getting a puppy. She said, "Oh, wow. Get ready to have another newborn!" And I was all, "I know, right?!" I mean, I had read FOUR puppy training/preparedness books and I had dogs growing up, so I felt like I knew what I was getting myself into. And there haven't been too many surprises. It's just an adjustment, having another family member.

Those photos make it look like she sleeps all the time, but the fact is that she's moving too fast for photos when she's awake. She does take several naps a day, but overall Stella's not much like a newborn. She's more like a toddler who doesn't wear a diaper, doesn't speak English, and has very sharp teeth.
BUT, I gotta give Stella some props, too. She's a real champ in the housebreaking department! I don't think I need to go into more details with that, but yeah. She's doing well. And as puppies go, she's really quite calm. A few times a day she'll get rowdy and clobber the kids, and I'm not sure how to get her to stop doing that. I'd love some advice from you veteran dog owners.
Walks are fun, and I like that having Stella has forced us to get out more than we usually do. So far we've been good about taking her for at least two walks a day, and today we even got out in nature. Complete with lake and forest. Beeeeeeautiful. My favorite of the pictures below is the one in which Isobel looks like some kind of intense warrior maiden. Too bad I didn't dress her tough-looking clothes.
Check out Stella's shiny red coat! She so purdy. I tried and tried to get a photo of her holding still AND looking at the camera, but had no luck today.

Stella!

She is wrinkly and soft and cuddly and good. We love her.

I thrive best hermit-style, with a beard and a pipe.

I haven't left the house since Sunday. We all have colds, the weather's been uncooperative, and Brooke is in Las Vegas at a food show. Not the funnest week ever, but not the worst either. And I can't really complain because we had an awesome weekend! It was the big NO KIDS trip up to the wedding in Baltimore, and everything went swimmingly. I took a few photos with my phone (thank you, instagram, for helping me to not regret forgetting my camera).







































The wedding was held in an incredible library in The Peabody Institute- Johns Hopkins' well-respected music school. It was a stunning setting, a lovely ceremony, and a lot of fun. Nicole captured the event with beautiful photos that you can see here if you're into wedding stalking. (I know I am.) Here's one of my favorites:
And while I'm at it, I've got a few other fairly recent instagram pics to share. I love this app.