Vincent

Nicole

Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is inspired by the party food we had at neighbor baby Paeton's birthday party. I was told the original dish was made with her grandma's secrete recipe. I did manage to find out one secrete ingredient-the dressing*.

Here is my version of the salad:
1 cucumber
1/2 medium size red onion
1 medium size Heirloom tomato
2oz Pepperoni minis
7oz Tri color Rotini
4oz gorgonzola crumbled cheese
1/4 cup pickled olives
*Girard's Champagne dressing

After School Snack

Banana Roll Up

Whole wheat tortilla (or Flat bread)
Peanut butter (Also try almond, or cashew butter)
Nutella
Banana

Spread a layer of peanut butter and another layer of Nutella on tortilla or flat bread, place a banana on tortilla and roll up.

I used spinach flat bread in this picture and mix nut butter from Target. Nikki likes it very much, for breakfast or after school snack.

Flower Loom Crafts

Easy looming projects anyone can do from American Girl Flower Loom Crafts, got from BN store.

My Coconut Curry Beef Recipe

Total Time: 4.5 hours

1.5 lb stew beef
1 tbsp curry powder
1 (13.5oz)can coconut milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
Salt to taste
1 medium carrots
1 cup of mushroom
2 medium onions
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
1 tsp chilly powder
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Steps:
1.Brown beef with salt in skillet.
2.Transfer to crockpot along with onions, carrots, mushroom, garlic and ginger. Add mixture of coconut milk, curry powder, brown sugar and chilly powder. Stir, cover and cook on Low for 4 hours.
3. Add cherry tomatoes halves and cook for another 20 minutes on Low.
Serve on rice or noodle of your choice(try black rice, or pasta). Another East meets West dish.

Knitted Bunny

This is the "Lovable Toys"--Rabbit from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, another book I checked out from the local library. You can use the pattern for the body and vary the head and ear patterns to make a bear, or an elephant. I finished this project last year and Nikki still plays with it. Since she's got a yellow bunny and this white one pairs well with the yellow bunny. In her world, they are the mommy bunny(knitted) and the baby bunny. I put them out for this coming Easter.

Chinese Way of Finding Someone's Age Without Asking Directly

This week is Parent Heritage Sharing week in Nikki's school, an opportunity to share family heritage with the little ones in her class. I figured Nikki would love to talk about animal years to her class, so I signed up for Tuesday's 15 minute time slot. Here is a website I found to be the best and with concise list of animal years.