This morning I made coldslaw.  SO good.  I don't think i have posted my recipe so here goes.
1 cabbage
2 medium onions
2 stalks of celery
3 large carrots
1 pepper
Run it all thru the food processor slicer. Set aside in a large bowl.

1 cup of vinegar
3/4 cup of veg oil
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp of celery seed
1 1/2 tsp salt
Bring to a boil and pour over veggies, then toss.  This will keep in a fridge over a week.

I picked up a cabbage sunday at the local farmers stand. This salad is almost a whole meal at our house.  Today I also picked our first veggies from our garden.  They are small but Ashley and I are proud.

Planning meals

Planning meals saves money, stress and time.  It has been so hot that we have been eating crock pot meals a lot. Chili, roast in the crock pot, then stew with the leftovers in the crock pot. I even picked up a Pizza in town last night.  This morning was cool so I took the opportunity to refill my freezer meals.  Two weeks ago we were suppose to go to a family do but I had a sick kid so I was very thankful when I opened the freezer and found a loaf of bread, a bag of muffins and a lasagna. It sure was nice to have grilled cheese sandwiches and lasagna and muffins for the weekend since I was busy caring for my kiddo.  This morning I baked chocochip banana muffins and blueberry muffins. I will freeze most of the muffins in bags of 6 for a quick snack or even a breakfast at the cottage.  I made spaghetti sauce for supper and split it in half and layered a lasagna for the freezer. I am going to make a pasta salad tonight with the extra noodles from supper.  This weekend will be hamburgers and hotdogs since I will be away and Daddy is cooking. The salad will go good with that.  I also have chicken fingers and fries in the freezer for another quick meal. I have some porkchops for the BBQ next week and some chicken legs for the crockpot. Since it will be another hot week I am glad I have a plan.  Good luck to you all avoiding the heat.

P.S. The pulled pork was so easy and good.  Pork tenderloin and 1 can of root beer. Cook in the crock pot on low for 7 hours.  Drain off rootbeer and shread meat. Put back in crock pot with 2 cups of your favorite BBQ sauce. Mix and eat with buns. It was a hit with the company.

It has been another steady stream of busy adventure here. Summer has been doing it's thing with kid's playdates, swimming at the cottage, berry picking and bbq's.  I have been making a selling quilts which I love but it keeps me away from the kitchen. This week I cooked in one day chili, speghetti sauce, taco salad, 2 quiche and chicken pot pie.  I shared a couple of meals with a friend who is a new mom. Today I clean out the fridge and start again.  Today is a beautiful day so probubly BBQ hamburgers tonight.  I am having dental surgery tomorrow so I am thinking about soft cold foods I will be eating for the next 2 week. Any suggestions? I am also having friends over for Canada day celebrations and I want to try pulled pork in the crockpot. I'll let you know how it goes.  I make one great potato salad.  Here is the recipe. The secret is to pour 2 tbsp of vinegar on the cooked potatoes while they are hot.  The potatoes soak it up and gives the salad a ZIP.
Potato Salad
Hard boil 3 eggs, cool, peel and cut up.
6 med potatoes
2 tbsp of vinegar
peel and cook potatoes, add vinegar and put in fridge for an hour to cool.
Chop finely
1/2 large onion
2 stalks of celery
6 pieces of cooked bacon
 Put all together in with potatoes.  You can cut up the potatoes now while they are cool. I find the potatoes with hold together better this way rather than cutting them up before you cook them.
Add 3 tbsp of mayo
chopped dill pickle
2 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of salt
2 squirts of mustard
I add plain yogurt if i have it to make it creamer without adding more mayo
Also I add 1 tbsp of ranch dressing.
This recipe is a lot of work and many of these ingredients can be optional but this is the full knock out potato salad.  We will be having this with our pulled pork for sure. I wonder if I can talk Gary into making it....

It's a hot day.  I can feel the storm coming that will break this muggy weather.  Hopefully it brings lots of rain.  We need it for the fields but also for our well.  I am on water alert week 2. Less dishes, less laundry, less cooking and cleaning.  With this heat it is a great excuse to enjoy my girls in the shade. Today was a morning visit to the park which was on the Napanee river.  I let them go in up to their knees but once the splashing started they were soaked.  We took a naked drive home and they slept all afternoon. I cooked 1 lb of ground beef in a fry pan during their nap.  At 4pm we went out to play in the shade and we did crafts.  It was a very successful day.

At 5:30 we came in for supper.  I made Taco Salad for the first time.  My own recipe.
I made a layered one so I can keep it for supper tomorrow night too and it won't get soggy.
Bottom of a big bowl I chopped half a head of iceburg lettuce.  When I cooked the ground beef at nap time I sprinkled 1 tbsp of chili powder on the meat and stirred it up before I drained the fat off.  Once it was drained I put it in the fridge to cool and keep til supper.
So I layered the ground beef on top of the lettuce. I chopped a ripe avocado on top of ground beef with 1 green pepper and 1 large tomato. I put 3 tbsp of sour cream and 3 tbsp of salsa in the center on top of the veggies.  Then I grated old cheddar cheese on top. It looked so pretty.  I scooped out half into another bowl and mix it together for the girls and I.  Ashley liked it.  I will try it again when Gary comes in and we all sit down for supper.  I bet if I put ranch dressing on it Emily will like it.  Nice cool supper with little mess and effort.

Saturday I did what many others also do every May long weekend, plant a garden.  I went plant shopping with my mom and daughters.
P.S. don't do that, leave the kids at home. At age 2 they must pick every flower they see in the greenhouse.
I bought tomatoes plants and green pepper plants, basil and pansies (to bribe my daughters to leave other flowers alone).  I bought lettuce seeds as well and a big pot to put herbs in.  This is all in preparation for my lovely produce for the summer.  I can't wait to eat toasted tomato sandwiches and salads with basil.  I love to do canning especially my salsa. My parents are planting potatoes, onions, squash and beets for us. My inlaws grow lots of cucumbers.  So my garden is in.  I learned a few things this year from my mom.  Pansies like cool shade.  Petunias and marigolds can take the heat. Geraniums are in between.  Last year my neighbour said if you pluck the dead heads off your marigolds and leave them inside over the winter (I used an open mason jar) you can plant them in the spring.  It worked and Ashley loves seeing the little green shoots that she planted come up.
I am looking forward to enjoying all the fruits of the season. I want to pass on a link to those of you who are new to gardening. This is a rough guide for those in Ontario for what is in season and when.  I encourage you to enjoy the fruits of the season as well. Feel free to raid your local farmers market or fruit/veggie stand and let someone else do the work.
http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/availability.html

Great rhubarb cake recipe from the united church cookbook.  This is by far my favorite cookbook.  everything in the cookbook had turned out right and the ingredients are everyday items I have in my home.
Rhubarb cake
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 egg, beaten
vanilla
1/2 cup of margerine or butter
2 cups of flour
1 cup of sour milk (just add 1 tbsp of white vinegar to make it sour)
1 1/2 cup of fresh rhubarb
1 tsp soda
Mix together.  put in a 9x13 pan.  Top with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Bake 45-50 mins at 350.

Today I made this with my girls.  They just LOVED picking the rhubarb and adding all the ingedients and stirring.

Time sure flies...don't it!  I am way to tired to blog anymore.  I am afraid my entries will turn into venting so I have kept what I was always told true.  If you don't have anything nice to say - don't say anything.  I can tell you many wonderful things that are happening in my life.  My children are healthy and growing like weeds.  They are hilarious and beautiful beams of sunshine (with minor fits of rage).  My life is full of dairy farm life and fresh air. My house is not under construction anymore and though we have a few more boxes to unpack and furniture to move, my kitchen is REDONE and beautiful! 
My time in the kitchen has come to hault.  I run the same 12 meals through this house.  I rotate the order depending on what I have on that day but the grocery list is the same.  I can tell you I don't mind not having to think much about food right now.  I occasionally look for more crock pot recipes but the desire to cook is gone. For right now....
My 12 meals are:
BBQ hotdogs, hamburgers
Pizza (sometimes just a frozen one)
BBQ porkchops with rice and salad
Homemade battered sole fish with salad and oven fries
Roast in the crockpot with mashed potatoes, frozen peas and corn.  This is a weekend meal and often can be stretched into 2 nights.  I put a can of mushroom soup with the roast and add beef stock to make it's own gravy in the crockpot.
Speghetti ( I use the leftovers to make a lazagna and I freeze it for next week)
Taco's or meatloaf or chili or sheppards pie (no one else in my family likes these anymore because I used to cook these too often so I rotate them)
Stew or Beef Stroganoff. I make this after we have Roast beef and use up the leftovers. Also can be made and froze for a crock pot meal in the future.
Chicken fingers and fries with veggies and dip (for the kids)
Chicken legs in a roasting pan with  carrots and potatoes. Very easy  and cheap to make and surprisingly quick to cook. It is always a hit in my house.
Ham and scallop potatoes. (more of a once a month meal)
BBQ Steak and microwave potatoes finished in foil on the BBQ.

  I write my menu on the calendar for that week.  Things change daily but it keeps me from having to panic at the end of the day when I am too tired to think - What are we going to eat tonight.  I find most of these meals easy to make. Also everyone in the family will eat them.  I don't make substitute meals for those who want something else.  If Gary is looking for brownie points he will look on the menu and pull out the food from the freezer the night before.  I really appreciate him doing that.  The other nice thing about this plan is that we don't run to the store to buy groceries at the last moment. I buy what is on sale and most of all these items can be frozen til you want to cook it. If you need to pack a lunch for work, leftovers from the night before really help on the budgeting.  Over all a little planning goes along way.  You could almost make a whole months worth of meals out of this list.  What is you family's 12 favorite meals?  Make a list and make meal time easier for you.