Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs

There are a handful of go-to recipes that are classics in our family...the ones you always bring out when you know what you're gonna get and you know it's going to be scrumptious. My brother Jakob and my sister-in-law Jessica introduced us to Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs several years ago and we've never been the same since! Anything with rosemary is typically a hit with me, so combine ranch and juicy, tender chicken and we've got a winner.



This chicken is a summer essential for the grill and is absolutely delish, not to mention fool-proof. There's just something about it that always turns out right...I think the white vinegar tenderizes the chicken to perfection. I think it was originally from AllRecipes but we've adopted it as our own and I like to assume it will live on for generations of Ondreys to come. Here's the recipe for six.




Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs
Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup ranch dressing
3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP minced fresh rosemary
2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
1 TBSP white sugar, or to taste (optional)
5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Place chicken in the bowl, and stir to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill skewers for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear. Serve with roasted vegetables or other preferred sides. Enjoy!

I Love a Parade

Our fourth of July began with a trip to nearby Mayville, New York where we attended their annual Independence Day parade...us and every other fire truck in about a 100 mile radius. This parade, though humble in its presentation, is NOT lacking in fire engines of every kind and from every county! Seriously, if your child likes fire trucks you won't be disappointed.


Jessica and I painted some festive shirts for the kiddos who would be in attendance at the parade so that they could show their holiday spirit. A 5-pack of Hanes t-shirts and some paint can give you the American shirt you're looking for without paying much for it!
It's also not lacking in CANDY! Sawyer and cousin Calvin made out like bandits on the candy front, especially Calvin who is a man on the move! When Sawyer wasn't chilling in his camp chair or shielding his ears from the fire truck horns, I think he actually enjoyed himself. What can I say, he's never been a fan of loud noises.



The parade also had its disturbing fair share of displays espousing Tea Party politics as well as a healthy dose of church "floats" who inadvertently professed their inseparable and simultaneous allegiance to the US of A and God, but that's a blog post for another day so I won't go there.

After the parade we enjoyed some back yard relaxing Ondrey style and ended the day with sparklers and a few fireworks.

Aside from totally ruining my pulled pork that was planned for dinner, all in all it was a great day spent with family. My brother Taylor and his family arrived Friday night and we all spent the weekend enjoying the outdoors, watching the kids and babies do their thing, and taking it easy.

Buzzed

Sawyer was overdue for a haircut and we couldn't avoid it any longer! We stayed strong and didn't relent until all the hair was buzzed off for a perfect summer 'do. It's always a bit sad to cut your little boy's hair because he inevitably ends up looking so much older, but just looking at the boy now I feel less sweaty. It HAD to go!

Gorge Hike

I'll be honest. The area we currently live in is (in my opinion) basically depressing all winter. I won't whine or go into details. The good news though is that this place comes alive when the weather warms up. As a summer tourist destination (wineries, nature, the lake, Chautauqua Institution, etc.), it's like we've collectively woken up to the good life.

Our dear friends Amy and Andrew visited us for a long weekend recently and we took advantage of the good weather and the outdoors by taking a trip to the Chautauqua Gorge. We hiked, skipped stones, and enjoyed mother nature beside a beautiful series of beautiful, small waterfalls. The photos below are courtesy Andrew Daigle who acted as our weekend photographer.


I swear Sawyer could just throw stones into water all day if we let him. Whether it's a puddle or an ocean, it makes no difference...he loves it. He also loved jumping off the shale rock ledges...which was a treat for me and his dad who did our best at just letting him be while praying he didn't slip into the raging river not more than three feet away from him. I'm still shocked we have yet to make a trip to the emergency room with this boy, but the kid is good on his feet.


Little miss took in the sites and sounds as well.


If you're ever in Chautauqua County, New York, I highly recommend a day trip to this stunning location! There are a few camp sites too available if you want to go all out and sleep over. Here are the details. What a perfect nature getaway for me and my posse who have been chomping at the bit to come out of our hibernation after a longer-than-expected winter!

Vegetable Garden

Our garden is finally in and ready to produce! We planted a variety of vegetables and herbs a couple weeks ago, but now the fences are up and the plants are starting to grow. We're starting out simple with just one raised bed (12'x4') and we've got tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, beans, basil, cilantro, rosemary, and thyme. We maintained a garden for a few years in Chicago and it's rewarding now to know the plants we're working with by just looking at their leaves and to have a better sense of how to grow them.


When it comes to outdoor living, TK doesn't do anything half-hearted so the plants are now protected from deer and other pesky animals with a heavy fence that was built with love, plastic fencing, and two-by-fours.



There's not much that warms my heart more than seeing my boys working together on something and enjoying the outdoors. Here's hoping our garden is bountiful this season and that it will provide for many meals enjoying each other's company!

Sea Coast

As summer passes and fall returns, most of us bid farewell to our favorite summer recipes. In come the chilis, stews, and hearty foods, and out go the potato salads, grilled goodness, and lite fare. Sure, you can grill all winter, but there's something about following a calendar of foods, anticipating the arriving season's culinary traditions that I appreciate and stick with.

This means after Labor Day, my family says goodbye to our favorite, most adored pasta salad....drum roll.....Sea Coast Salad! I whipped up a batch yesterday for a Labor Day picnic and I can't keep the recipe to myself. Sorry I didn't share it in the spring so you could indulge all summer long. Next May I'll remind you.

I got this recipe several years ago from the wonderful Edith Benson, one of the most hospitable women on this good earth and I've been making it ever since. If you have an Aldi nearby, I'd recommend getting your imitation crab meat there. Also, I've never used the real deal with this recipe when it comes to crab meat, so if you try it let me know how it turns out. I think artificial just works better with this recipe for some reason. Plus it's a little cheaper, and who doesn't want to save a buck?

It's as easy as this: boil water and cook the macaroni shells until al dente. While you're letting the shells boil, chop up and combine the rest of the ingredients.

Combine and refrigerate. So stinkin' good. Your family and your tummy will thank you. It's lite, easy, and delicious...all you need for a summer meal.

Sea Coast Salad
2 cups macaroni shells (medium)
1 medium cucumber (peeled and cubed)
1/4 cup green onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 TBSP dill weed (YUM)
1/8 tsp pepper
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
2 tbsp salad oil
2/3 cup mayo (do NOT put Miracle Whip in here)
1 12oz package of crab meat

Crash

As of a couple months ago, we've got a walker! Our boy was in no rush to get on his two feet, but he's making up for lost time and is all over the place these days. During one of his first, longer jaunts a couple months ago, this happened.



Poor kid! I'm not one for parading your children's embarrassing videos online for the world to see, but I felt like this was too funny to keep to myself. After a few tears, he was right back up, walking, and trying to find and play with the furry offender.

Marshall is my brother and sister-in-law's puppy and he and Sawyer are becoming fast friends, despite their run-ins. Sweet little guy!

Anchors Away!

We've been the benevolent recipients of our friends Bruce and Carol's hospitality over the last several years. They've got a boat. A nice big sailboat. Moored in Monroe Harbor, right smack dab on the Lakefront downtown across from Millennium Park!

Captain Bruce and his lovely first mate brought us out into the lake where there was swimming, competitive diving, and general merriment. I could get used to a life of leisure.

I Scream, You Scream!

I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. I mean, I'll certainly enjoy a scoop if one is offered to me, but I don't stock it in my freezer. Don't get me wrong, I've got my vices when it comes to food, but ice cream just isn't one of them. I don't crave it. I don't bask in it's goodness.

Last week I realized that because of my disinterest though, I've unintentionally kept my sweet child from exploring his potential love-affair with it. Oops! My mom was in town and was trying to think of a date she could go on with the little guy and suggested Dairy Queen, so I encouraged the trip. Evidently he was a fan, so TK and I went again with him this past weekend.

Sawyer got a twist and I got vanilla with sprinkles. I AM a huge fan of rainbow sprinkles. Huge fan. I shared and let him take a handful. Chicago has been brutal this summer, so it was nice to actually get outside and enjoy a tolerable temperature!

Bittersweet

When I imagined Sawy Boy as a toddler, I envisioned locks of hair, wildly flying with the wind and falling in a carefree, just-so manner. Picture Lord of the Flies.

Not the case. For better or worse, the poor kid has been cursed with the genes of his parents, both of which have boring, straight, lifeless hair. In my efforts to avoid a haircut to see if this is "just a stage," I fear I've allowed to grow what's turning out to be an unfortunate mullet.

Against my hopes, we had to break down and just cut it. I mourn the day because I thought we wouldn't cut his hair until it was longer, but you've got to know when you're beat. I even put a bobby-pin in it pre-haircut since it was getting in his way and he couldn't see I wanted to know what it felt like to put a barrette in your baby's hair.

TK refused to pay someone any money for something he believed he could do. And he was right... we put a video on the computer, and daddy got to work, snipping and pruning my little baby's precious locks.

Sweet little love! A big-boy haircut was the nail in the coffin that my boy is really growing up before my eyes. He's become so independent, capable, and lively over the last couple months, and now he's starting to look the part of a legitimate toddler.

Bittersweet.

Into the Woods

We have an annual group-camping tradition with some friends from college in which we joyfully participate each summer. We went last summer when Sawyer was 4 months old, and needless to say, this year was a little easier!

Like his mom and dad, he's a sucker for the woods and wide open spaces. He also loved running around in the tent like a maniac!

A dose of weekend camping in Wisconsin does the body good! Our campsite population grows every year with more kiddos (mostly of the female persuasion), and we all enjoy our fellowship in the woods relaxing and being together.

While a serene, adult-only camping trip definitely has its merits, it is a wonder to behold children outdoors, exploring new things and breaking free from the confines of every-day routine.

Bugs, games, frogs, s'mores, and campfires make life grand. Add in a remote controlled fart machine and they really enjoy themselves!

Alternative Moby Wrap

Sawyer hasn't been in our Moby Wrap since he was pretty small. When we were away from home though and had the opportunity to take a nice long hike, I had to make something on the fly to hold our mini-hiker in.

I don't have the cash to buy my dream Kelty Child-Carrier Backpack (in green if Santa is reading this), so I took a stroll down to the Salvation Army, bought a fitted jersey bed-sheet and whipped up my own wrap. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

Jersey seemed like the best material for some give-and-take, and for a mere $1.99 I couldn't resist. First, I removed the elastic off the sheet by just cutting in. I split the sheet down the middle and essentially created a long piece of fabric by sewing together the ends several times over with a very tight stitch.

We watched several videos on how to wrap your kiddo onto your back and we were off to the woods!

Also doubles as a head-wrap for a Bedouin wanna-be.

As a warning, this is NOT a tutorial on how to make your own child carrier. I can't be held responsible for weak seams, insecure knots, or your sweet baby's ability to breath when you wrapped him up. It worked for me, but please use at your own risk.