homemaking

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna Recipe

July 17, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 22 Comments

vegetable lasagna recipe This recipe has taken 8 lifetimes to post so please someone make it and tell me about it.

I’m trying out a new recipe plug-in called GetMeCooking to make it easier for me to post and for you to print recipes.

This roasted vegetable lasagna recipe takes endurance and patience and should be planned for a day when you can spend some extra time in the kitchen. It requires 47 dirty pans but I promise the payoff is worth it.

This is also a recipe that should be doubled and the extra pan given to someone you love. It’s just as easy to make a double batch and then the effort and time seem justifiable.

My sister ate dinner with us tonight and demanded that this recipe be blogged so she can make it too. You can thank her for the fancy schmancy presentation! She loves you like that:)))

I’ve had a host of zucchini breathing down my neck, begging to be made into some kind of deliciousness so this was a good way to use those summer veggies. After dinner, sissy and I made 3 different versions of zucchini bread: one just plain (no nuts), one with dried cherries and one with chocolate chips. We are here to report that plain Jane is best. And for the first time in 3 weeks, there is no zucchini staring me down, waiting to be used.

Now, go forth and make roasted vegetable lasagna goodness.

And hire a sous chef to help you with the dishes.

p.s. I think this dish deserves really good cheese. I buy good quality cheeses at Sam’s for a fraction of the price of the grocery store. I buy blocks and cheese and then grate them myself (for this, I used the food processor) so that the flavor and texture is fresh. It adds to the time and dirty dish factor but again, this lasagna has a very fresh and delicious taste and I think it’s b/c of the good cheese, freshly grated!
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family fourth fest

July 14, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 34 Comments

The whole shebang was Stevie’s idea. He wanted the family to join us for a huge, week-long Fourth-A-July fun fest. He started inviting them a year ago so that everyone could make plans to vacation in Bean Station, Tennessee and celebrate with us the rebuilding of our home. It was a family fun week of epic staycation proportions. There were beds set up in every nook and cranny. We got up early and stayed up late. The fellas sipped on good whiskey late at night and talked theology, while we girls made food like we were running a restaurant and then layed on floats soaking up the hot summer sun. I don’t remember laughing so hard in recent history and I’m sure our very loud karaoke version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody will go down in history as my favorite family fun fest moment. I hope our guests, who had to endure our crazy, will forgive our temporary lapse in proper decorum.

I’m so glad I made everyone take a moment for pictures in the chaos of it all. The photos bring back so many good memories!

We set up a cute little ‘photo booth’ and then commenced snapping away. The outtakes were the best!

We spent oodles of hours on the water.

sunup

to sundown, most days….

cliff-climbing….

cliff-jumping….

jet-skiing……

wake-boarding….

water-skiing…..

and in general making every bit of daylight count…..

Then there was the food……

I’m such a foodie and had so much fun planning out the menu for the week. I’ve mentioned before that I had ten pages of hand-written notes on what to cook/what to marinate/what to take out of the freezer next.

Here are some of the things we had: roasted cauliflower and chick pea pasta, homemade waffles with homemade strawberry jam, peach and raspberry crisp, spicy vodka pasta, BBQ sammies, Texas sheet cake, corn and zucchini soup with southern cornbread, spicy meatball soup, and on and on. It was a food fest.

Then we had all the traditional stuff for the fourth, including a flag cake and the strawberry pretzel salad. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. If I were stranded on a deserted island and I could only have one food, it’d be cake with buttercream icing. I’ve got no lies to tell. And look at my little cutie-pies. How did they get this old when I’m only 25 myself?

The girls made homemade pickles one day and we ate a whole jar every time we opened one……

I couldn’t have made it through the week without these two, chopping and cleaning and making me tiny little strawberry shortcake shooters. I can totally understand the appeal of sister-wives. 3 women to cook and clean every night? You can’t imagine the efficiency. And soooo much fun to be around!

These three steered clear of the hen fest in the kitchen. They had issues and concepts to chew on. Church and world problems to solve. They like to really hash it out, confessional Lutheran style.

And I always enjoy seeing the brothers. They are HI-LARRY-US together.

We were so blessed to spend the week with our kids and family and won’t soon forget the happy times.

The ART of Enjoying Summer {with kids}::Creatively Made Giveaway

June 22, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 129 Comments

A heartfelt thank you to my friend Julie for the beautiful hydrangeas. Summer is always better when your friends visit and bring you flowers:)

I’ve written about this topic before. But I know this is a challenge for most of us so I wanted to update my thoughts and give you some tangible encouragement.

And you might think that since I homeschool, I should be used to being with my kids 24/7 and so summer shouldn’t present a challenge.

But it can be difficult to find the right blend of free time and structure. I want them to have plenty of time to nurture their creative selves but I die a little on the inside when I feel like we’re wasting time.

My goal this summer has been to find one fun project to work on each week with the girls. They are old enough now to do more involved arts and crafts so I wanted to find projects that would take 2-3 days to finish and would inspire them to think creatively.

The first week we made fairy gardens. And oh my word, it was so much fun. We found beautiful examples online and then began scheming and collecting little trinkets to add to them. We scoured our local antique store and found great stuff and then hit the jackpot at a local little shop called the Nest that had a whole section devoted to fairy gardens. They even had the most beautiful handmade fairies. We also collected moss, lichen and stones around the yard to add the ‘forest’ touch. We invited a friend over to do them with us and the girls worked for a couple of hours putting them all together. It’s been such a source of pleasure for us all as the girls water and tend the miniature little gardens. We keep them on the screen porch for our viewing enjoyment!
By the time we looked for inspiration, found supplies and made the gardens, it was a three day ordeal but totally worth it.

I was working on finding more ideas for the coming weeks when Jeanne Oliver emailed me about her art class. She’s an amazing woman who has followed her creative dreams and is using her gifts to the utmost. She has a four week art class where she encourages women to do the same. The girls and I took the first week of the class in two days and the girls spent 5 or 6 hours in the workroom making the most beautiful journals.

We were all so inspired by Jeanne’s creativity and her soothing, encouraging words. It looks like our next 4 weeks are perfectly planned! And my philosophy for the last few summers has been to splurge a little on supplies for arts and crafts in lieu of sending my kids to camp after camp. I like having them home and then we can work on fun projects together. For the last few years, we’ve found lots of inspiration from Patty’s site and used her supply list to keep our art closet stocked! We actually made the watercolor fish before 9am this morning. Yay, for summer 🙂

Jeanne’s class is a mixed media class so we’re learning about all kinds of art media that we’ve never used before.

There’s nothing wrong with summer camp and we might do one but summer is gone before you know it and I want to stretch out the lazy days and enjoy the kids while they’re still here. I know from my older kids that it goes too fast. As Nester reminds us, you only have 18 summers with them and I get a little teary eyed when I think I only have 7 left with Emme and Elea. We’re gonna make this one count!

Jeanne has graciously offered to give away 10 free art classes to lifeingrace readers!!! I couldn’t be more thankful and excited. You (and your children) are going to love this course. And if you don’t win a spot, it’s only $48 for the four week class. That’s much cheaper than a camp and you can do it at your own pace.
To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite summer time activity with kids and I’ll pick 10 winners this weekend. This giveaway will close at midnight on Saturday, June 23rd.

Oh and here’s a little trick to increase your chances—-you can enter extra comments for tweeting or face booking about the giveaway.
So, leave your first comment about your favorite summer activity. THen, tweet about the giveaway with a link and come back and leave a comment that says, “I tweeted it!” or something like that.
Then go share the post with your Facebook friends and come back and leave a comment that says, “I facebooked it!” and then you’ll have 3 comments entered for the giveaway.
Good luck and hope you win 🙂 You’re gonna be sooo inspired.

Garden Update, week 6

June 18, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 29 Comments

Morning sunshines! Hope you had a good weekend. I woke up extra early this morning with a whole host of things swirling in my head. I’m having about 10 house guests for the fourth of July week and have so many things I need and want to do. I’m beginning to think it’s not humanly possible to do everything on my list. So, this morning, I retreated to my garden to calm my busy mind. I harvested a bunch of basil this weekend and need to add “make pesto” to today’s agenda. Do you have any new recipes that would make good party food? I’ve started a 4th of Juuuuly board of patriotic food and decor ideas here. Do you have some fun Pinterest party food and decor boards that you want to share? Link to all your good ideas in the comments and I’d so appreciate it.

It’s a beautiful morning here in East Tennesssee! The sun is just peeking over the trees. Hope you have plans to enjoy it today:)

We’ve declared it an official Pearl Jam summer here on the lake. Add this one to your playlist and you’ll be happy you did.
Mwahhhhhh!

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies {and other threats to your thighs}

June 15, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 22 Comments

I blame this all on Sara.

She brought these cookies to our house on the 3rd of June and I’ll never forget the look in her eyes.

She knew what she was doing to me and she did it in cold blood.

And I was skeptical at first. Cherry? In my chocolate chip cookies? I don’t know about that right there.

And sprinkled with salt? (okay, fleur de sol but whatevs)

Where I come from we don’t sprinkle our cookies with salt.

But I’m here to tell you that this cookie connoisseur didn’t know what hit her.

I haven’t been quite the same since.

Whatever you do and for the love of all things toned and slim, do not, and I repeat DO NOT make these cookies under any circumstances.

If you ever hope to wear a swimsuit in the full light of day, you’ll take me at my word.

Now, for the rest of you, here’s the recipe. Make at your own risk.
I don’t want to hear your sad stories of how your husband found you in your closet hunkered down with a plate full of these.

I’ve got my own cherry chocolate chip cookie problems to deal with.

Thanks a lot Sara 🙂

(The recipe is apparently from Metropolitan Bakery in Philly!)

Ingredients

1 Cup Rolled oats

3 Cups All-purpose flour

1 3/4 tsp Baking powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking soda

1 1/4 tsp Salt

1 1/2 Cups Butter

1 1/4 Cups Sugar

1 3/4 Cups Brown sugar

3 Eggs

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

3 1/2 Cups Chocolate chunks

1 1/4 Cups Dried tart cherries

1 1/4 Sea salt

Directions

Grind oats into fine flour (food processor)

Sift flour, baking soda,and baking powder.

Add oats and salt.

Using mixer, cream butter and sugars until light in color and texture (about 3 minutes).

Add eggs one at a time.

Stir in vanilla.

Add flour mixture until combined.

Fold in chocolate and cherries.

Sprinkle each cookie with sea salt.

Bake @ 350 for 15 – 18 minutes.

Take a little journey to cookie heaven on first bite.

Dance Recital 2012

June 4, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 25 Comments

This is our 7th dance recital. I’ve been wondering all these years if my girls would REALLY ever be able to dance. I can tell you without hesitation that their performances were so inspiring that I could barely believe it. We finally see the fruits of all those years of practice. They’re really good. Stevie got verklempt more than once during the recital and the only reason I didn’t get verklempt was because I was running back and forth between backstage and the auditorium helping them change costumes and forcing them to breathe and drink water—-all the while, trying to capture the moments on camera and video. I still haven’t recovered. 🙂

Emme is 11 and takes ballet (mostly with 14 and 15 year olds), jazz, irish, tap, clogging and progressions. She has blossomed this year and has such grace while she dances, making it look effortless. She’s always had a certain purposeful restraint in her dancing but is full of poise and has natural perfect posture. We are so proud of her for all her hard work and practice. She is such a joy to watch!

She’s also amazing with hair and makeup and though I can claim no credit for her dancing ability, I like to think she gets her knack for the girlish arts from her mother.

The girls are in several classes together—which makes recitals fun and a little stressful. I think I’m gonna hire a clone of myself next year so I can just sit in the audience and enjoy.

This clogging number is soooo fast, hence the flying ponytails!

It was probably my favorite dance of the night. So high energy and such fast foot work.

This is their 3rd year to take Irish and it’s so much fun to watch.

I love the traditional costumes.

And the traditional Irish music.

And then there’s my little Elea, the hip-hopper. Girl has some moves and does not lack in the spirit department.

Taylor and Caiti got such a kick out of watching this one. She’s got it going on.

That we have such high quality instruction in such a small town is nothing short of amazing. Stevie came to the 2p show and called me later that afternoon to say how wonderful he thought it was. He sometimes grumbles about the time they spend away from home in the evenings but I think after seeing their skill level and their deepening commitment and passion, he sees the value. Teaching them to do something difficult, over months and years, to the point of excellence is a great gift to give a child. They have persevered and their/our investment is now paying off. I love that they are doing one thing and learning to do it well. I love that they love it so much. They can’t NOT dance. They dance every waking hour of the day. They sashay to the kitchen and jete to the schoolroom and releve nearly everywhere. They are dancers, in the fullest sense of the word. But, I think having passion and pursuing excellence in something is most certainly worth the sacrifice of time and money.
They make one proud momma outta me!

A big heartfelt thank you to the teachers at Lakeway School of Ballet and Dance. You are such a blessing to our family!

‘Dance for Life’ clogging video—my girls start out on the ends!