I think lemon week is fizzling out. I had high hopes of making lemon jelly (marmalade without the rinds) and salted lemons but then work got busy and I ran out of daylight hours so I might have to end with this little number that Carrien made when she was over last week. What am I saying? It’s the end of the week already? Well, it sort of is for me. Mondays and Tuesdays are my most productive days and then somehow the rest of the week always seems to run away from me. I’ll try though. Just no promises.

This is Lemon Beer Chicken. It was pretty tasty!

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup beer (We used Pacifico because they came in cute little bottles.)
• juice of a lemon
• a dash of hot sauce (like Tapatio)

Directions:

1. Marinate chicken in beer and lemon juice for one hour
2. Drain juice and beer off chicken. Discard.
3. Sauté chicken in 1 tbs olive or vegetable oil until browned. If too juicy, drain off excess until chicken is lightly browned on edges

4. Serve with rice, black beans, cotija cheese, fresh avocado, silantro and tortillas

Don’t forget to add cumin and a dash of garlic or onion powder to your black beans to make them extra tasty!

And here are some complimentary pictures of the kids enjoying those burritos:

You guys: This recipe is amazing. I don’t know where you are on the spectrum of appreciating spicy Indian food but I strongly suggest you try this. It’s delicious. It’s one of those things I think about all day long until it’s time for dinner and I can finally make myself some.

It was actually my friend, Carrien’s idea. She heard about lemon week and told me that in India they make something called “pickle” with lime rinds. It’s not like what we think of like a jar of pickles but more of a relish or condiment that you put with rice. It sounded interesting so Carrien did some research and came up with this recipe which is loosely based on this recipe.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

• 2 serrano peppers
• 1 habanero pepper
• 12 lemons
• 1 inch section of fresh ginger, chopped
• 10 chopped garlic cloves (keeps the vampires away)
• 2 cups distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbs salt
• 2 tbs mustard seed
• 1 tbs coriander
• 1 tsp whole cumin
• 5 tbs vegetable oil
• 6 small canning jars (or the equivalent)

Directions:

1. Heat 3 tbs of oil in a large frying pan until hot.

2. Sauté lemons, turning them over until their skins are golden brown. Do you like our fancy way of dealing with the spitting hot oil? That was my fault. I washed the lemons and then plopped them into the oil without drying them first. Water and oil can make a spitting hot mess. FYI.

(These smelled really good right about now.)

3. Dry the lemons and cut them in half with a knife. Then cut them into smaller slices with a handy dandy pair of kitchen scissors (or use a knife if you happen to have a sharp one). Save the juice.

4. Chop your peppers, ginger and garlic (gloves are super smart when chopping spicy peppers.)

5. Put 2 tbs of oil into a blender or food processor, add chopped peppers, garlic and ginger. Blend to a paste.

6. At the stove using the same oil you sautéed the lemons in, add mustard, coriander and cumin. Heat the seeds until they pop open.

7. Add the paste, stir and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.

8. Add turmeric, lemon pieces, lemon juice and vinegar and stir until thoroughly mixed.

9. Spoon lemon slices into jars, and pour remaining fluid over the lemons ensuring they are just covered.

10. Stir with a chopstick or knife to remove any air bubbles and seal jars.

Aren’t they pretty? They smell divine. We didn’t pressure can these so I’m just keeping them in the refrigerator but I think you could store them in the pantry since they are technically preserves.

Serve over rice or potatoes or sweet potatoes or yams or chicken or fish…pretty much this would taste good on anything. It’s spicy though so you might want to go slow. Think of it as a condiment and dip something into it! Then come back here and tell me how delicious it is!

Bug and I visited the Blues this last Monday. It’s Presidents’ Day Week so Bug has the whole week off from school. I had no idea she had this holiday coming up but I am loving it! Sometimes I wonder if I’d like homeschooling because outside of me not getting my freelance work done in a timely manner, I sure do love having her at home. We have so much fun together.

Especially when we take little trips to our friends’ houses and they take us on long hikes by a lake!

Carrien and her little guy.

Bug and Pink Kitty. That cat has seen more geography than most stuffed animals and the inside of the washing machine too.

The first part of the hike was a little bit challenging for the kids. It was big wide dirt road that seemed to go upwards interminably.

Of course they got tired and refused to go any further.

It was a beautiful day to be out and about.

The view was amazing.

Here Carrien is pretending to be a mountain lion as we discussed the dangers of hiking in an animal habitat. The whole trip was pretty educational. Carrien knows a lot of plant names and quizzed her kids along the way.

I now know this is Laurel Sumac by the way. It smells really pretty. All the plants do, really. Their scents instantly take me back to all the camping trips I’ve ever been on and I realize how seldom I get outdoors like this. It’s a shame.

(Encouraging each other to keep going.)

More plant research!

Carrien’s littlest got to ride in the backpack. We didn’t hear a peep out of him the whole trip. I’m assuming that was because he was happy as a clam.

We finally reached the top of the ridge and things really started to get interesting. The path that had been wide, dusty and somewhat boring suddenly narrowed, twisting and turning between boulders and brush. The kids that had been lagging behind complaining were off like jackrabbits running up the hill as if every turn held held a new adventure, which it did. When we should have been turning back because the sun was just starting to begin its descent toward sunset, when the park closes, we were progressing forwards at lightning speed because suddenly it was SO FUN!!

As the kids ran onwards Carrien and I settled into a comfortable pace and got a chance to really talk. It was so nice.

Finally we got to the top and caught up with the kids. We sat for a few minutes and rested. I had brought some dried fruit bars with me in my purse and the kids enjoyed them as if they were their last meal on earth. It’s amazing what hours and hours of fresh air can do to your appetite.

About now, it finally set in that we should have turned back earlier and there was going to be some difficulty getting out of the park before the rangers locked up the gates for the night. We gave it our best but getting five kids to walk back to the parking lot quickly is like trying to corral a bunch of squirrels and make them all go in one direction in a maze. Of course thinking about being a mountain lion’s dinner was some motivation.

So down the mountain we went, as quickly as little legs could go without slipping and falling in the downhill dirt. There were a few scrapes but we managed.

I think I held everyone up the most trying to take pictures of all the amazing views.

When we got to the bottom, a ranger met us with a bright light and a very large poodle, a ranger dog I guess. He gave us a friendly lecture about animal habitats and strongly advised us to never make this mistake again, especially with small children. Thankfully the rangers had heard us across the lake loud and clear and knew to keep the park open for us. I never thought about our voices echoing off the hillsides but I guess they would. We were a noisy bunch—which is also good to keep away mountain lions. We inconvenienced the rangers slightly but they was surprisingly nice about it. So lesson learned: when the sun reaches its apex, it’s time to head back. No matter how much fun you’re having.

You know what they always tell me: It always works out. This party was no exception.

No matter how much you fret and worry and freak-out about the severe storm warnings, the wind, the lack of space, the unknown-non-rsvp-ing mystery guest list, the kids who get bored in five minutes if there isn’t a bounce house and all the many many things you wish you could fix in your old broken-down mobile home…it all works out. It all worked out perfectly thanks to many whispered prayers.

Of course everything started really early in the morning. I was making the stump cake (which by the way came together exactly how I imagined and completely architecturally amazed me. I think I’ll do a whole post on that.) my mom was making her little cherry-tomato-ladybug cracker things, my dad was hanging lights in the carport and Toby showed up which turned out to be quite providential because right then Bug and I had a pretty big disagreement over her costume for the day.

I had thought she was going to wear her blue leotard with this really pretty light purple tutu that my friend Wendy gave her. It was perfect for the party. It was gauzy and had flower petals inside the layers. Except there was one problem that I guess Bug and I had discussed already and somehow in my absentminded party-planning-craziness I had forgotten.

It was the wrong color.

Now in a normal family the mother would say to the daughter: Tough. Get over it. I am the mom, you are the kid. And then the daughter would pout for five minutes and sneak a cupcake or something. Not this family. Color is EVERYTHING. If you’ve been following this blog for the last five years, you know how Bug feels about color. First there was green, then there was fuschia and now there is this peacock blue/teal/turquoise family.

Bug has her dad’s perfectionist eye when it comes to color. They can both see shades and nuances in color that even bees and hummingbirds can’t see. Seriously. If you know Toby you’ve probably heard him discuss how a photo has a green cast to it and go on and on about it until your eyes roll back in your head. Like father, like daughter.

So, apparently sometime in the last month or so I had told Bug that I would sew her a blue skirt to match her leotard. I’m sure I did. I had waxed on about all sorts of costume ideas and I’m sure she overheard me talking about them with all sorts of people. There was a time when I was thinking of sewing material to the leotard in waves to make her look like a water fairy and then I had this idea that I would sew up an old 60′s pattern my mom had in a pretty turquoise raw silk…But when it came down to the week of the party and I had way too much to get done (plus work deadlines), I just shelved all those fancy costume dreams and figured she was okay with the purple tutu. She had worn it several times before and flounced around so happily. I thought we were good.

I was wrong and Bug has a memory like an elephant.

Just when I thought it was going to be a whole day of “It’s-my-birthday-I-can-cry-if-I-want-to” Toby showed up. Of course he took her side, he always does. So I hatched a brilliant plan. If Toby would take her to the fabric store and buy her some blue tulle in the perfect color, then I would sew it right then and there. Never mind that I had 50 cupcakes to ice, animal masks to cut out and assemble, counters to clean, a hot cocoa bar to set up, craft tables to be set up, lemonade to make…blah-ti-blah-crazy-party-zilla rant here.

I figured either Toby would refuse to go to the fabric store on principle (places like that give him the willies) and then he’d be stuck convincing Bug that the purple tutu was perfectly fine OR they’d go together and have a wonderful father-daughter bonding time over color and fabric and they’d both be out of my hair for HOURS.

As you can see my plan worked brilliantly. They were gone for hours and everyone was happy. And yes, I can totally sew a tutu out of a yard of organza (not tulle) in five minutes flat.

Next came the spread. Amazingly, I was able to get everything done at the last minute. My mom went completely crazy over-the-top with these super cute little bug appetizers that I did not really get a good photo of. (That is my one big regret of the day. I never handed my camera off to someone else to take photos. And all my regular photographer friends weren’t there so the only photos I have are blurry ones. It breaks my heart too because I think this is my favorite party and all I have to show for it are a dozen blurry photos. Oh well.)

My mom made ladybugs out of cherry tomatoes, ants on a log, snails out of cucumbers wrapped around some kind of cream-cheese-sundried tomato mix and some green leafy-looking tortilla pinwheel things. I never got to taste them but I heard everyone else raving so I guess they were really good.

I was just so happy the cake turned out. The mushrooms my aunt made and these funny little malt ball acorns we made by rolling one end in melted chocolate and chopped nuts were so cute!! It was the best cake ever. I’m just so sad I didn’t get better photos.

Anyway, you get the idea.

But you know what else turned out? Everything else!!! I was so happy and relieved.

I had cancelled the bounce house because all morning it had been drizzling and the weather report forecasted nothing but rain and wind. But then one hour into the party, the sun came out and my Aunt Keren called the bounce house company back up and told them to get there ASAP. I had really given up on the idea. The driveway was full of cars, it just seemed monumentally impossible but never under-estimate the power of a short red-head. They get things DUN. Cars got re-parked, the bounce house people showed up and five minutes later we had kids bouncing in a giant fairytale castle in the sunshine. I couldn’t believe it.

Really, I should include one other thing in this story. Earlier in the day, probably around 2pm, I had remarked to my Aunt Keren (who had gotten there early to help) that I really wanted to brush my teeth before the guests arrived at 3pm. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, I hadn’t even had my coffee…things were crazy. All my kitchen counter-tops (which is really only one counter) were a mess and I was starting to get a tiny bit snappy at my mom because most of the mess was her mess—which I love her for dearly because LADY BUGS! SNAILS! ANTS ON A LOG! All not part of my plan but so WONDERFUL!!! Actually, I take that back. I did ask her to make the ladybugs but the rest were her creative embellishments. Super super cool but sort of worrying me because now we had about five thousand things to do at the very last minute. You can imagine my party-zilla distress.

My aunt pulled me by the arm into the bathroom and made me brush my teeth. She physically made me do it. I’m sure partly because I had horrible breath and partly because she knew I was going to explode and yell at my mom if she didn’t. So there we were in my tiny bathroom and while I’m brushing she held my hand and prayed out loud. I don’t remember what she prayed but I know it was something about it being a wonderful party for a happy little girl who we love so much.

And that’s why when the sun came out and my counters were all perfectly clean and there was a giant pink bounce house in my driveway that I felt like God was smiling at me. I hate being a gushy Christian going on about how God makes things “easy” because he doesn’t but for one moment I realized that if I just throw up my hands and let Him take care of things he totally does! It wasn’t supposed to be sunny!! It was rainy and cold and people were freezing. I did actually have to hand out blankets to the moms who sat outside and watched their kids in the bounce house but it was wonderful. It was cozy. We had hot chocolate and the lights my dad hung in my carport made it feel warm and inviting.

We had sun.

The fairy house kits were a hit. (Thank you Momfluential for that wonderful idea!) Some of the kids were baffled by it, others were engrossed. It’s really fun to watch how creative some children are naturally. They don’t need any prompting at all. The others didn’t get it at all so they went bananas in the bounce house instead, which was perfectly fine with me.

The lemonade turned out perfectly. You should really use this idea at your next party. The hole-punching was a bit of a chore but so worth it.

The hot chocolate bar was wonderful, thanks to my friend Deb who acted as bartender and some tasty six dollar amaretto from Trader Joe’s.

The masks were a fun photo prompt. I always like to have some silly thing like this to prompt people to take photos. You can download your own copies over at Alpha+Mom if you were thinking of having a woodland creatures party. (I strongly recommend it!)

Some people don’t need much prompting. Love her.

And of course there were presents…

And everyone fit in my tiny house!!!

And cake!

I love these candles that don’t burn out. They give you plenty of chances to get a photo even if you are the hostess with the mostess and you’re too frazzled to check your camera settings.

Blow little Bug, Blow!

She finally got them all out and everybody cheered. It was great.

Carrien cut the cake for me because I was afraid of it. I’ve never made a cake that big before and the chocolate sticks were in there making it all weird and unpredictable. I just let the professional take care of it. Do you know what else Carrien is a professional at? Cleaning stoves. Yeah. She’s has OCD about it. It was so funny. As the party was dying down and we were cleaning up, she started cleaning my very dirty stove. At first I tried to stop her, but then she got in there with a little bread-tab scraper and I figured I better shut up because that stove was going to be cleaner than it’s ever been in it’s entire life!!!

So that was pretty much it. These photos are from the after party. I love the after party. Chatting, cleaning, kids playing dress up…it was just a whole bunch of wonderful.

A very long, tiring day of wonderful.

Bug has been begging me to pick lemons for weeks now. I was putting it off because once you start picking, you have to process the lemons right away. You can’t just let them sit around on your table looking pretty for weeks and weeks. They can sit around on the tree for months and months however. But the draw of fresh lemons was strong so I finally gave in and let Bug pick a bushel when Anna was here visiting. We had to treat our out-of-towner to something special after all.

So we squeezed them and made lemonade.

Anna taught me how to make sangria with lemonade. I had no idea that was the a way to make it and here I’ve had a lemon tree at my beck and call all this time. The sangria is made with just one part orange juice, one part lemonade and one part cheap red wine with lots of fruit thrown in for the pretty. It was delicious.

I made some lemon bars too because that’s just what you do when you have guests and a whole lotta lemons!

All photos by Anna.

My friend Anna (aka BeachMama) is here from Canada and she’s been taking photos of me for all my various “head-shot” author needs. Surprisingly, they’ve been many and I’ve been winging it with hand-held crap shots which was not really very professional. Don’t even get me started on the shot that is on the back page of my first two books.

Anyway, It’s very weird being on the other side of the camera. I’m probably the world’s most awkward model. But she’s making it fun, thankfully.

I’ve tried to show her all the best sides of the sticks, which is a tiny bit challenging. Of all places to come visit when you’re in California…I don’t think my town is on the top of anybody’s list. Unless maybe you’re working for People of Walmart. There are a few amazing spots but of course since I’ve been on the lens side of the camera (and trying desperately to keep my giant green purse and camera phone out of the shots), I don’t have many photos to show you.

But I will soon! She’s taking tons of photos of me and making me look fabulous! She’s a pretty amazing photographer.

So I took her to Palm Springs. She took a thousand photos of me.

I instagrammed it.

Today I’m taking her to the beach. Then she has to fly away home which is very sad. But it’s been a blast having her here!

Woohoo, it’s the last day! Zebrabelly’s closing up the tour for me with a foray into 7days! Thank you Bonnie!

Soon (though I’m not making any promises) I will do a recap with highlights from the tour and an announcement for the secret spy sentence round-up. So you have a few days to be collecting those clues.

Is this book tour done yet? No?!!! Man, who knew the alphabet could be so long. Well, just when you thought there was nothing new that somebody could write about these silly books, Metalia has gone and got all creative with it. She wrote a post using every letter of the alphabet! Even X.

Fly me over the moon! This post makes me swoon!

We’re on the home stretch! Only three more days!!

I’m so happy to have my good friend, Sarah, post for me. She even included an old video of Bug and Wito. It’s so funny. Pretty much Wito destroys Bug’s tea set, classic boy vs. girl theme.

Le Sigh. The good old days…