cooking

Less to clean, bacon-wrapped jalapeños, and gardening

I figured out what to do with the jalapeños we got from people in our neighborhood! I made bacon-wrapped, stuffed jalapeños thanks to Amy’s idea 🙂

Bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapeñosStuffed bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers

I just sliced the fresh jalapeños in half, stuffed them with cream cheese, wrapped them in bacon, topped them with brown sugar, and baked them at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sadie and I had a sticker party the other day. Jimmy was out running an errand and I needed to do some cooking so I just pulled her chair and booster seat up to the kitchen counter and gave her some stickers while I chopped vegetables for a pot of bean soup.

She thought it was pretty neat to put stickers all over us.

Mom and daughter playing with stickers

While Jimmy was out running his errand, Niva decided to jump on our back storm door and break through the glass.

We have so many funny stories with that storm door, like when Jimmy accidentally punched through it because of Lola, Niva cracked the top pane recently, and then we just lost another to her jumping habit.

Husky broke glass door by jumping

My first thought? Well, that’s one less pane of glass to clean! 🙂

The garden has been giving us lots of yellow squash, zucchini, and arugula lately.

Zucchini, yellow squash, and arugula from vegetable garden

I got a cupcake order for our cousin Leia’s fourth birthday! I feel like I was just baking cupcakes for her first birthday. Crazy!

I had some cupcakes leftover, so I delivered a few boxes to our neighbors!

Cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles

I took Niva to the vet for her shots and they did curbside pick-up, so Sadie and I had to wait in the car while she was getting her shots and checkup.

Sadie got bored pretty fast, so I decided to take her outside to walk around and realized I didn’t put shoes on her before we left.

Barefoot toddler picking flowers

Oh well! Sometimes you just have to go barefoot and pick flowers while you wait for your dog to get shots because you can’t go into the vet’s office. This is 2020!

Have you had an “this is 2020” moments lately?

Toddler snuggling with mom on couch

Summer Sniffles + Why I Love Our Neighborhood

I loved all the comments on my last post! It made me feel a lot better to read about your kitchen mishaps and hear that a few of you thought the melted carrier looked like art. Jimmy and I were thinking the same thing! He thought we should name it “Sunday Afternoon in The Zottola House.”

I’m happy to report that my $77 mistake is all fixed! I ran a self-cleaning cycle on the oven yesterday and the new racks came in the mail. I even did some baking and nothing tasted like plastic. I thought all was right until Malcolm knocked my beloved milk frother (which was still plugged into the outlet–eek!) into a pan of sudsy water in the sink. When will I learn to wash dishes ASAP?!

I slept in a bit yesterday and was reading my Bible before Sadie woke up. I spent some time in 1 Peter and read the chapter that our monthly memory verse is in. Since becoming a parent, I truly treasure any quiet time I can get with my Bible and prayer journal!

Bible

Once Sadie woke up, I realized she had a case of the sniffles. Poor girl must have sneezed 50 times yesterday. Her nose was running and she was pretty miserable unless I was holding her. 

Toddler snuggling with mom on couch

We made it through the day and did one of my most favorite rituals: we took a walk as a family in the evening.

We were walking past a house that has beautiful landscaping and a garden when we came across this bag taped to their fence. 

Bag of free jalapeño peppers from vegetable garden

The homeowners were sitting on their porch when we grabbed the bag, waved, and thanked them. That is one of the many reasons I love our neighborhood 🙂

What should I cook with the jalapeños?