New Meal

Just made this delish dinner for my husband and me I'd like to call... Chevap' on Garlic Naan. The meat is my version of his family's famous chevapchichi, which I dont have privilages to the recipe so I made it up. I also dont make them into cute grilled meatballs because I like to cut corners. I could write more about the inspiration of my meal but I am even boring myself.

I usually [separately] mix the meat, bruschetta, and tzatziki throughout the day so that I'm not in the kitchen for too long at any one point in time. Then at meal time we just throw all of it together on warm naan bread and its quick and easy.


Ingredients for the Chevap':
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground turkey or chicken
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of tube ginger (this is a key ingredient, found at Publix in the fresh fruit/veg cold section- in a tube like all good ingredients)
a few shakes of cumin, paprika, garlic salt, cayenne, and salt/pepper
4 green onions chopped
squeeze of fresh lemon

Sometimes I shape this mixture into patties and we grill them like burgers or tonight- a meatloaf! So easy... or you could grill baby meatballs. Also a good choice.

Toppings:
bruschetta (recipe below)
tzatziki (recipe below)
thick sliced cucumbers
Naan bread (we buy this one- its at Publix)

Grill the naan on a pan that is hot with some oil coating the bottom. Flip it; when it crisps the edges throw it on a plate. Layer tzatziki, Chivap', tzatziki, brushetta, cucumbers. OMG. Use one hand to contain the mess and provide the other hand with a spoon to shovel all the dropped tomatoes into your mouth. Its pretty tasty and not at all complicated like this blog post makes it out to be.

Bruschetta:
2 fresh tomatoes chopped in small 1/2 cubes
chopped sweet onion
basil and oregano (fresh from your mason jar herb garden!)
garlic salt, salt, and pepper
drizzle of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar
small drizzle of maple syrup. Yes, I promise.

Tzatziki:
1 cup of plain greek yogurt
1 cup of sour cream
1 large cucumber (peel, scrape the seeds out, and shave over a cheese grater onto paper towel, then squeeze all the excess water out....)
salt (lots of salt. Keep adding then tasting), pepper, garlic salt, DILL (a few sprigs or several shakes of the dried stuff)

This isnt a first date recipe, unless you define romance by how much food is dripping off your hands and face. And it isnt something you should eat with your rugrats hanging around; you wont want to put the "sandwich" down and chase a toddler. Or share with one and watch them sling the yummy-ness all over the floor.

My Mason Jar Experience

In an initial strong start to my DIY-something-off-Pinterest each weekend, Jason and I did this when the kids took a nap:

I saw something similar [on Pinterest] that screwed the jars into wood then hung it inside the house on a wall, but I am a fan of having my plants outside in the sun where I can see them when I sit on my front porch or deck. And I didnt feel like doing any carpendry. This project was screwed into our crappy fence that surrounds our backyard. Love the privacy, but the wood needs some sprucing up.

So, I bought the hose clamp rings at Hoem Depot, a bag of tiny river rock pebbles, herbs... and mason jars from Walmart that are quart size. Those were cheap, but I still would've rather had some from Goodwill. They were out, though.

Jason drilled holes into the metal rings so a screw would fit through. That was the hardest part! Then he screwed them into the fence.

He might not appreciate this picture and how unattractive his gut is. But in his defence he was sticking it out at weird angles in order to drill... lol

We didnt measure anything. After this step above I held the jars in place while he tightened the clamps CAREFULLY.

We did that times 6 since I bought that many clamps.

Then he said he was spent DIYing (20 minutes worth) and I finished up. I added pebbles.

Then dirt. Then the herbs. That was the hardest part, to me. I had to stuff those plants into it. I put the rocks in hopefully so the water will drain and the roots wont rot. We'll probably get a hard rain, they'll drown, then die. But they looked good to begin with, here's proof.

6 weeks later....

Ok. So I thought its been a month, but its been longer. I need to blog.

(ps. I dont actually want to. I wish I were sleeping right now)

The Gligs have been....
Going to preschool
Learning to stand
Jason- Being Mr. Mom each evening.
Me- Going to work for Dr Punger weekly if possible.
Finally agreeing to wear a smock while painting.
Screaming first syllables ("ah!")
Jason- Golfing. duh
Me- Leaving the family for 5 days for a CLC conference. Now certified as a CLC!
Staying at Meme's for a couple nights to give parents a break.
Sleeping through the night
Its hard to name things for Jason. It just hasnt been about him this month, lol.
Me again: studying. Doing projects. Studying. Taking tests. Studying. Going to class. 

I've wanted to be in the Fall mood but with so much going on we barely bought a pumpkin. We did, a small one, and only b/c Sunny's teacher told us to bring one to her class. We attended several fall festivals, did Trick or Treating Monday night which was AWESOME. We had mom's gator (golf cart) and rocked that neighborhood.
I have 2 A's and 2 B's in my 4 classes. One of those B's is HARD earned (Anatomy & Physiology) and I am proud of it.
Lachlan is learning to sleep in his crib in his room. Its working out well, except he wakes up often especially at nap times. We use Dr Ferber's method for sleep training... loosely. Whats really worked was not nursing him to sleep each night, instead we feed him, bathe him, then put him to bed. He's growing up so fast- crawling after Sunny, standing on anything he can grab.
My parents just came last weekend to install more baby-proofing items. My dad did all of our cabinets. Sunny never got into the cabinets much at his age. I need reassurance that they are safe when I'm not looking. Sunny can open all of our doors now, too. Ugh.

Well thats it. I didnt mention time-fillers like cooking on Sundays for the entire week, laundry, dishes, and cleaning every Saturday morning, but basically you are caught up. I wont count this as a decent blog post, just that I did one. Maybe something interesting will happen at the same time I have a moment to write about it...