We have been out of town for the past week, so I have a lot of blog catching up to do. Our Easter was not your typical Easter, instead it was cold, freezing cold! We had almost a foot of snow on the ground with beautiful blue skies. The kids woke up to way too much candy. Then off to church. When we got home, we took a few pictures . Then it was to the kitchen for me. My brother, Michael, His girlfriend, Lynette, and a friend from his work came over for Easter dinner. Our menu consisted of: Ham, Turkey Breast, Lamb, Sweet Potato Bake, Potatoes Au Gratin, Garlic Green Beans, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Broccoli Salad, Ambrosia Jello Mold and rolls. It really was quite a spread! Anyway, I am not left to cook an entire holiday dinner alone very often. Either my mom or mother-in-law (or both) is usually here to help. This Easter, it was just me. We had set the dinner time for 4:00. About 3:00, I was stressing!! Mike, Lynette and Michael showed up right on time. Well, right in time to help! I asked Lynette if she could follow a recipe, she said she would try. So I gave her the Strawberry Spinach Salad recipe I found online, it seemed easy enough. It was bagged spinach, cut up strawberries, sliced green onions, toasted almonds, feta cheese, olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. It doesn't get any easier than that. I continued with the other 30 things I was working on. Finally, about 4:45 dinner was on the table. It really looked great! To make a long story short, I took a bite of Lynette's salad...it had a very interesting taste. Kind of soapy. We all joked about why it could taste like soap. Did she wash the strawberries and veggies with soap? Did she not rinse the cutting board after washing it? Did she use palmolive oil? Needless to say we tossed the salad without anyone taking another bite. As Lynette and I were washing dishes, I discovered...
...my really cute soap dispenser! Thanks Jen Harvey for the great idea! I guess next time I need to use blue dish soap to make it a lot more obvious to a guest chef and to avoid another Soapy Spinach Salad!
Here is our house in the fall:
And in the winter of course:
I just need to get a good picture of it during the summer. Then I plan to have all four side by side, showing the season changes.
