Friday, July 4, 2008, by Leigh Anne
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Happy Fourth of July!
We are enjoying the holiday in Mazanita at our beach house. I love spending the Fourth there - complete with fireworks over the ocean and a parade. They throw candy from the floats except for the guy that owns the crabbing boats - he throws crab legs!
Some of our neighbors will be joining us at the beach for the holiday and we will be serving this week’s Friday Favorite for dessert. So onto this week’s favorite….
I have learned that one of the easiest ways to teach your children a skill is to pay someone else to do it!
I spent years teaching other woman’s daughters to sew - most of these women were seamstresses themselves.
There are some children that are just better taught by someone other than their mother! My youngest daughter is one of them. It only took me a few hair pulling, screaming matches to figure it out! (That was me pulling out my own hair not hers and both of us raising our voices a bit!)
So several summers ago I enrolled Tessa in a summer baking class. Someone else needed to teach her to bake.
She loved the class and now is she is as good a baker as I am.
Each day, in class, they would make a new type of cookie and bring home the recipe and samples. The samples were always in some type of cute packaging. The teacher believed in one of my life lessons - “It’s all in the presentation!”
Some were almost too cute to eat, although we never let that stop us.
The one cookie she made that summer that we have made over and over again is Butterscotch Blondies. It is a bar cookie so it is a perfect cookie for the summer - quick and easy.
Although we have enjoyed these cookies many, many times I have never actually made them. Tessa is the official Butterscotch Blondie baker at our house - no one else is allowed!
So if you are looking for a non-chocolate bar cookie this recipe is perfect. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Butterscotch Blondies
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, blending well. Stir in butterscotch chips and nuts, if desired. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until top is golden brown and center is set. Do not over-bake. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.
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Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Wednesday, July 2, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Both college boys are home this week - yea!! Even though my grocery bill triples I love having them home.
We are spending the week at the beach - my favorite week of the year. (In fact we are there right now, while you are reading this!)
This time Logan is bringing a friend with him, a female friend. We are excited to meet her and we hope she likes us!
We decided that we should put a Wilkes Family Survival Kit together for her - a kit to help her survive us!
Before you get the wrong idea - we are NOT the Family Stone but like every family we do have our quirks.
We put a few items into the survival kit that might help her get to know us a little bit better.
The kit includes the following:
A cute beach bag - how can you go to the beach without a cute bag!
A pair of sunglasses and a rain poncho - you never know which one you will need in Oregon in the summer.
A First-Aid kit - Logan has a bit of a history of causing injury to past girlfriends. He broke the shoulder of one and crashed a motorbike with another one. (All were accidents of course!)
Flip Flops - We hope she’ll Flip over us - and that we won’t be a Flop!
Kit Kat Bar - in case of emergency remove wrapper and eat (her favorite candy bar)
Popcorn with a package of M & M’s - the only way the Wilkes family eats popcorn!
Sand bucket and shovel - We hope she’ll have fun playing on the beach with us.
An Oregon baseball cap - She’ll fit right in!
Deck of cards - You can’t spend much time with the Wilkes if you are not a card player - if she’s not, we’ll teach her how!
A scented candle called “Beach House” - Welcome to the Beach House
Welcome to Oregon Becca!
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Categories: Connect, Family
Monday, June 30, 2008, by Leigh Anne
School has been officially out now for two weeks at our house. The first week was spent at Girls Camp so this week was our first “official” week of summer.
There is always an adjustment period. The girls think that since it is summer they can stay up as late as they want and then sleep in as late as they want….WRONG!
I am not a “sleeper inner” - never have been -at least I don’t remember being one as a teenager - was I mom?? Since I regularly get up at 6:00 a.m. my definition of sleeping in is 8:00 a.m. - my daughters’ ideas of sleeping in are a little different!
I have decided that sleeping until 9:00 a.m. should be adequate (especially if you go to bed before midnight!) but my girls have discovered a secret. I will let them stay in bed as long as they want if I find them in bed reading a book - yes, I am a sucker for a reader. I love finding my children curled up with a good book and I’ll let them get out of just about anything if they are reading!
So yes - this is where I found my girls this morning….
You see they have fallen in love with vampires - at least books about vampires. Tessa has already read the Twilight series and has finished the first two books in another vampire series (Marked 
and Betrayed 
and we are waiting for the third one to come into the library).
Cali was so busy with AP Literature this past year she didn’t have any time for recreational reading and she has just started the Twilight series.
Even I have succumbed to the “vampire trend” and have read the first two books of the Twilight 
series and need to finish the third one before the fourth comes out in August - and yes, I have pre-ordered my copy which can be picked up at the bookstore at 12:00 a.m. on August 2nd!
I love a good summer time read. I tend to read a little different genre of book in the summer, an “easier” read. We are headed to the beach this next week for our annual “Week at the Beach” so I have a pile of books to take along including my book club book for the month, Cranford 
by Elizabeth Gaskell. Also in my pile are Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer and her newest book, The Host: A Novel
I hope to finish Eat, Pray, Love which I started a few months ago and just haven’t seemed to get around to finishing as well as a couple of others! There is the one other book - a special book I take to the beach with me every year to re-read. I’ll share that one with you next week.
Do you have any favorite summer reads? What’s on your list to read this summer? Please share by leaving a comment below (remember to click through to the blog to leave your comment if you are reading this through an email update or rss reader)
One of my summer goals is to read a book a week - I better get busy!
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Categories: Inspire, Recommended Reads
Friday, June 27, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Sticky Coconut Chicken is definitely a Wilkes Family Favorite. It is one of our favorite ways to grill chicken in the summer. We really don’t call it Sticky Coconut Chicken at our house though.
We call it “Tar” Chicken. It earned it’s nickname from the sauce that you put on the chicken - you cook it until it is almost as thick as tar!
I don’t know where this recipe came from. It’s been in my recipe collection for years and it is a good one. The recipe calls for chicken thighs which is what I use all the time. Not only does it make it an inexpensive meal to serve and a great one for parties but the dark meat makes them nice and moist.
The chicken is marinated in coconut milk with some ginger and red pepper flakes. You can control how spicy it is by the amount of flakes you add to the marinade and to the sauce.
Watch the sauce closely as it thickens - it can go from “just right” to “burned” very quickly. (Believe me, I have burned it more than once!) I usually cook it in a frying pan so the liquid level is shallower and it cooks faster that way. You want it thick but not so thick that you can’t spread it easily - not quite as thick as “tar”!
After glazing the chicken we like to pour the extra glaze over our rice - yum!
I always serve it with rice - last week I used a brown basmati rice from Trader Joe’s.
Sticky Coconut Chicken or “Tar” Chicken
6-8 boneless chicken thighs
3/4 cup canned coconut milk (I usually am cooking about 10-12 thighs so I just use the whole can)
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Marinade chicken in coconut milk, ginger, pepper and red pepper flakes at least one hour. Grill on barbecue.
Chili Glaze:
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Bring above ingredients to a boil over high heat and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened. 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your pan. Glaze both sides of chicken and serve.
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Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Wednesday, June 25, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Strawberry season is in full swing here in Oregon - despite the lack of sunshine the first part of the month it looks like we’ll have a great crop. Our little strawberry patch out in the garden is going crazy! Now if we can just keep the mean old black crow away!!
Tessa and I made 3 batches of strawberry jam today and still have lots of strawberries to pick! My kids are spoiled and will only eat homemade jam with their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so we really have to stock up each summer.
One of our “first strawberries of the season” recipes is Strawberry Pizza, a sure sign that strawberry season is here. It is from my favorite cookbook - Portland Junior League Portland Palate.
I never have trouble finding the recipe because it is the dirtiest page in the cookbook - a true sign of a great recipe!
The pizza is made with a sugar cookie type crust, a layer of cream cheese and then strawberries and glaze on top - kind of sounds like the Strawberry Pie from last week - just in a different form! Guess I have a thing for strawberries and cream cheese.
The crust ends up being a bit fragile so it can be a bit messy to eat. I just use my pizza cutter to slice it up. Enjoy!
Strawberry Pizza
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
Filling:
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Topping;
1 cup fresh strawberries, mashed
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
8 - 10 strawberries sliced.
Crust:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and butter. Form into a ball with hands and press into a 14 inch ungreased pizza pan (I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone)
Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.
Filling:
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and lemon juice. Spread on cooled crust.
Topping:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine strawberries, sugar and cornstarch. Simmer until thick and glossy. Cool. Spread on top of cream cheese filling.
Cut fresh strawberries crosswise to make rounds that resemble pepperoni, place on pizza and serve (I actually sliced mine the other way - oops!)
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Monday, June 23, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Between the ages of 12 and 17 I spent a week each summer at our church’s Girl’s Camp in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We spent a week in the wilderness each year learning all kinds of survival skills, including one year having to cook all three meals, every day, over an open fire - not a good food week!
My favorite memory of Girl’s Camp was the day the boys came to camp - or at least a couple of boys. There was a lake near our camp and one day during the week the boys showed up with a couple of boats and we got to go boating. That was the only day at camp I actually put makeup on!
You can see what a fourteen year old beauty I was - can you guess which one I am? Enter a comment at the end of the post and let’s see if you guess right!
This past week I went back to Girls Camp - this time with my two daughters to our church’s Girls Camp in Sandy, Oregon.
I now know why each year when my daughters return from Girls Camp they are tired and hoarse! There is not much sleeping that goes on and there is a lot of yelling!
My oldest daughter was a counselor at camp this year, in fact she was her younger sister’s counselor. Counselors look a lot different now a days than they did when I was at camp….
and so do the campers…..
As crazy as the girls look and as crazy as they acted, it was an amazing week. I loved the opportunity I had to escape from the world, forget about my phone, my email, and focus on the girls and the beautiful outdoors.
I had the opportunity to share with them, through the lessons we taught, the amazing potential they have and the ability they have to choose - choose their actions and their attitude.
At the end of the week each girl was presented with a white box that represented the sweet, innocent spirit they came to earth with. There was a pretty pink ribbon tied around the box.
On the outside of the box was a saying that I actually have on my kitchen wall….
Each day comes bearing its’ own gifts….untie the ribbons
I hope that each girl left camp with the knowledge that their potential is great - that each day is a gift, a gift that just needs to be opened by them and that even when they can’t choose what happens to them they can choose their reaction and attitude.
Now, off to bed to catch up on some of that sleep…..
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Friday, June 20, 2008, by Leigh Anne
This week for Friday Favorite I am sharing two of my favorite things about June in Oregon - roses and strawberries.
Portland is the “City of Roses” and famous for its Rose Parade (the 2nd largest floral parade next to Pasadena’s), Rose Queen, the Royal Rosarians and its amazing roses. They are always at their height the first part of June. After a cool, wet spring we are now seeing a little hint of summer and the roses are magnificent.
We have about 35 rose bushes in our garden - my husband will confirm this as he is the one who prunes them each year around President’s Day.
Before I share my Friday Favorite recipe with you I want to share a few of the rose bushes that are blooming in the Wilkes Family Garden this week.
Now onto the strawberries - Oregon is berry heaven. The strawberries are the first of the many berries we will enjoy this summer. Others include raspberries, marionberries, loganberries, blueberries, blackberries and lots more!
This pretty bowl of berries is from our garden. This is what the big, bad, black crow that has taken up residence in our backyard had not eaten!
As pretty as they are in my cute little berry bowl, they were not quite enough for a pie.
Since Jim requested a strawberry pie for Father’s Day I headed down to the corner berry stand and picked up these beauties!
This particular strawberry pie has an added surprise in it - a delicious layer of cream cheese filling! This recipe is from my friend April and since she first brought it to a party at our house several years ago it has become a regularly requested pie around our house.
There are 3 steps to this pie. The crust, the glaze and the filling. I made the crust and the glaze the night before and then put it together Father’s Day morning. It does need to chill for 3 hours so plan ahead.
My pie would have looked prettier if I had strained the glaze. I have also made this pie and just used a jar/container of strawberry glaze from the store and it worked fine.
Strawberry Cream Pie
Graham Cracker Crust:
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs(this is one package of graham crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
Combine the above ingredients and press firmly into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 375 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool.
Sparkling Glaze:
1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup water
red food coloring
Crush 1 cup strawberries. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan. Add water and crushed strawberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until clear and slightly thickened. Strain through sieve(I skipped this step as I couldn’t find my sieve!) Tint with food color (this turns the glaze from pink to red). Cool.
Creamy filling:
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
4 cups whole strawberries
Blend cream cheese and sugar. Stir in vanilla. Fold in whipped cream. Spread evenly in cooled crust. Refrigerate
Place whole strawberries stem side down on top of creamed filling, pressing slightly. Spoon glaze over the berries. Chill for 3 hours.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Since I had a partial bottle of Key Lime juice still in the refrigerator left over from the Key Lime Cake last week I decided to try a new key lime recipe - you can never have too many key lime recipes!
This recipe is one I found on Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats- a food blog I enjoy. The cookies are a bit of work as you need to make the key lime curd first but they are worth it. I made the lime curd the night before and just kept it in the refrigerator overnight.
My cookies weren’t quite as thick as the ones in the picture on Good Eats. Next time I think I will add a bit more flour. The directions say the dough should be stiff but not dry and I don’t think mine was quite stiff enough. But they tasted great! Just the right amount of lime tartness.
Key Lime Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup key lime juice
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups prepared key lime curd, recipe below
1 cup powdered sugar, for sprinkling.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and the lime juice, and mix well.
In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to butter mixture until incorporated. Dough should be stiff but not dry. Shape into 1 inch balls, press thumb into center of balls to make an indentation, being careful not to press through to the bottom. Fill indentations with about 1 Tbsp. key lime curd.
Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool.
Key Lime Curd
3 eggs
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup key lime juice
1 tsp. key lime zest (I didn’t have a fresh lime so didn’t add this)
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the remaining ingredients, whisking continuously for approximately 8-10 minutes or until it becomes a custard. Remove from heat and continue whisking for another 1-2 minutes.
Allow to cool and then pour into a container and refrigerate. The curd will thicken considerably as it cools. Makes approximately 2 cups.
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Monday, June 16, 2008, by Leigh Anne
How many times does it take to get your attention?
I have decided to takes three times to get mine.
I have had several experiences the last couple of months that, finally, after hearing or seeing something the third time I figured someone was trying to send me a message and I should do something about it. So I’m a little slow sometimes….
Trying to get Leigh Anne’s Attention #1: Several months ago someone recommended the book The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch to me. Being the book addict that I am I went right out and bought it - and didn’t read it.
Trying to get Leigh Anne’s Attention #2: A couple of weeks ago in church someone quoted Randy Pausch in their talk -”Oh, yeah I bought that book, I should read it”
Trying to get Leigh Anne’s Attention #3: I record Oprah everyday and manage to watch about one episode a week. The one I watched last week was an episode that was a repeat from last year. Guess who was the guest? Yes, Randy Pausch. “I guess I should read that book”
Well, I read the book “The Last Lecture”(I added it to my Recent Reads list on the right side of the blog.) The book is based upon a lecture that professor Randy Pausch gave at Carnegie Mellon University last year. Professors are invited to give a lecture as if it was their “Last Lecture”. In Randy’s case it literally was. Randy is dying from pancreatic cancer and has only been given a few months to live.
The book is the lecture he gave at Carnegie Mellon as well as some of the “life lessons” that Randy has learned in his short 47 years. The title of his lecture was “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The inside cover of the book reads “the lecture he gave wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment.”
It is a motivating and inspiring book with short little chapters that make it an easy and quick read but leave you with lots to think about!
The lecture that Randy gave was not for attention, for glory, for the people that attended - he did it for his young children, so they will know the man their father was, the father they would most likely not remember if it was not for “The Last Lecture” What a gift he has not only given us but that he has left for his children.
You can listen to and watch the lecture by clicking here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
It lasts about an hour and 20 minutes and is worth the time.
I think my favorite part of the book was the second half where Randy shares some of his “life lessons learned.”
Some of my favorites were:
Don’t complain, Just work harder- “Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier”
Will someone please share this one with my fourteen year old!!
Watch what they do, not what they say - this life lesson is meant as future dating advice to his 18 month old daughter but I got on the phone and called my son Logan to share it with him. I think it is good advice for boys too!
All you have to do is ask - I have found this life lesson to be so true. So many times I have had people ask me ‘How did you do that or how did you get that?’ The answer is usually “I asked!” As Randy says, “Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you’d suspect, the answer you’ll get is, ‘Sure.’
Be the first penguin -this life lesson comes from the idea that when penguins are about to jump into water that might contain predators, somebody has got to be the first penguin in. “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
After reading Randy’s life lessons I decided that I needed to start a list of my own life lessons - Leigh Anne’s Life Lessons Learned. I hope it’s a long time before I have to give my “Last Lecture” but I’ve got the list started!
So here are three of Leigh Anne’s Life Lessons Learned!
1. Life is not fair. Thanks to sweet Mr. Winston, my high school chemistry teacher, for teaching me this one.
2. Everything is a choice. We might not always be able to choose what happens to us but we can choose how we react to it.
3. Kill them with Kindness. The advice I give to my children anytime they are struggling to get along with someone (usually one of their siblings!)
So do you have a list of Life Lessons Learned?
I’d love it if you’d share one or two in the comment box below. Remember if you are reading this through an email update or an rss reader you will have to click through to the actual blog to leave your comment. Thanks - I look forward to hearing from you.
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Categories: Inspire, Recommended Reads
Friday, June 13, 2008, by Leigh Anne
The baseball team of choice at our house is the Seattle Mariner’s. Well, if you have been following baseball at all lately you know that the Mariner’s aren’t doing too well - in fact they are doing terrible but we still love them! We’ve been attending Mariner’s games up in Seattle at Safeco Field for years .
O.K. - those of you who really know me know that I’m not much of a sport’s fan. In fact, the only games I like to watch are ones my children are playing in. But my boys - all three of them are HUGE sport’s fans and I mean HUGE!
I do agree to go along to the Mariner’s games once or twice a year, as long as I can take a book, - yes, I read at baseball games! I mainly agree to go because I get to go to the beautiful city of Seattle, eat Fish ‘n Chips on the pier, visit Pike Street Market and I get to eat Mariner’s Fries!
I go to baseball games for the food and for a baseball stadium Safeco Field has pretty good food. One of the first things you smell when you enter Safeco Field is the amazing aroma of garlic fries. They are so good and so garlicky!
This week’s Friday Favorite is my version of Mariner’s Fries. I made them on Memorial Day along with Oprah’s Favorite Turkey Burgers (they are so yummy!!) I made my own fries but you could easily just use frozen french fries too.
The first time I made these I didn’t put the garlic and parsley topping on all the fries thinking one of the girls might not like it, but I was wrong. They loved them and I ended up adding the reserved fries in with the rest. In fact when Cali saw me writing this blog post she said - “You need to make those again!”
Oven Roasted Fries
Non stick vegetable oil spray
2 pounds unpeeled russet potatoes, scrubbed, cut lengthwise into wedges
2 Tbsp. canola oil
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss potato wedges with canola oil in large bowl. Sprinkle potato wedges generously with salt and pepper; spread in single layer on prepared baking sheet. Roast potato wedges until tender and brown in spots, turning occasionally, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add Garlic and Parsley Topping
Garlic and Parsley Topping
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 cup garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian Parsley
Heat oil in heavy small skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic, saute until golden and beginning to crisp, about 1 minute. Using slotted spoon, transfer garlic to small bowl, cool. Mix in parsley. Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
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Categories: Friday Favorites, Nourish, Recipes
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