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A Life From Scratch.

A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

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It’s What We Wore Wednesday, and that means it’s time to show off you little one(s)! Let’s see those cute spring outfits… we had two days over 50 degrees, what a concept! Play along by commenting below or joining our super fashionable Pinterest board.

On L: It’s baseball season and that means time for a fun baseball tee from Crewcuts. Abercrombie jeans and huh, he’s not wearing shoes. Ok then! And wow, I’m actually surprised he has socks on.

On B: Striped tee from the Gap and skinny jeans from Old Navy. We got 3 people commenting on how cute ‘she’ looked. I really thought the girl comments would end once his hair was cut…

On C: I love using maxi skirts/dresses as a way to transition into spring. They are long so your legs aren’t totally bare, meaning you stay a bit warmer and of course, super comfortable! Mine is from CAbi and I could not love it more. Target tank, Banana Republic cardigan, and Gap scarf.

That’s my crew – let’s see YOURS!
C

The perfect tator.

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Perfect Roast Potatoes

I’ve been making roasted potatoes for what seems like forever. Let’s face it – they are the perfect side, especially next to grilled meat, and they are so easy to throw together. Lately though I’ve just been… unimpressed.

That’s when it began – the search for the perfect roasted tator. (Allie, are you laughing?)

Naturally, I turned to Google. Upon my search I was lead to this recipe for roast potatoes, which claims to be the best and hello, they look gorgeous. I tried it out and while they were good, for the effort I had to put into them (peel, boil, and roast) I’d only give them a 7 out of 10. Not the best.

Yet I did learn something really cool. Preheat your pan in the oven to get it nice and hot and pour in your oil and then heat that up. Once the oil is hot and sizzlely you toss in all the good stuff, then back into the oven it all goes to roast away.

Jackpot. I knew that was the secret I had been missing that turns decent potatoes into over the top ones. My life is now complete.

Perfect Roast Potatoes
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Ingredients
  1. 2 lbs yukon gold potaotes, cut into 1 inch chunks
  2. 5 TBS olive oil
  3. 2 springs rosemary, stemmed and roughly chopped
  4. 5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  5. cracked black pepper
  6. sea salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven and tray to 500 degrees.
  2. Pour in your oil and preheat for a few minutes.
  3. Gently toss in all remaining ingredients and roast away until browned and golden, roughly 45 minutes.
Adapted from A Cup of Jo
Adapted from A Cup of Jo
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Eat up!
C

C’s picks.

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Well well well – back to reality here! After an almost 6 hour flight home from Florida (don’t ask!), we made it. I’m back in my kitchen, L is back in his yard, M is picking out a dishwasher at Home Depot, and B is… reorganizing the goat herb vitamins (???) at the Walgreens Clinic. Yep, I spent a greater part of my morning there as my poor little guy has a double ear infection. Not fun.

Anyways – time to talk FOOD! I’m so excited to be back to cooking. Here is what’s going on in my kitchen this week:

Well, we didn’t bring home the 80 degrees from FL, it is 55 here so hey – we’ll take it! We’ll be lighting up the green egg and getting some burgers from the butcher going.  A rainbow of grilled veggies and crack potatoes on the side.

Monday night let’s go with this  marinated chicken that I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. Sweet potato fries on the side.

Tuesday we go back to some uglier weather. Let’s have this pretty spring minestrone soup to help us through it.

Chicken stir fry with crisp snap peas for Wednesday! Love this recipe.

Thursday M is back to FL (lucky duck!). I’ll be dining on soup leftovers.

We’ll close the week with our pizza – haven’t had it in so long.

That’s our line up – what are you cooking this week? I’d love to hear!
C

A mom’s vacation.

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The words “vacation with kids” are funny. Of course vacation is still vacation, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you are responsible for getting little ones from point A to point B and then back again.

On this most recent jaunt to Florida I made sure to truly reflect on what vacation means to me now, as a mom. When you’re little it’s all airplanes! Sand! Pool! Smoothies! You have no clue that your mom spent the prior week doing every single piece of laundry and packing everything from your underwear to your gummy vitamins to your Nintendo DS charger to your sound machine to your ear rx (just in case).

The prep can be daunting and sure, once you’re there you aren’t lounging by the pool full time reading fashion magazines, but there are major changes from your normal day to day grind. Without further ado, I give you my 10 best mom’s vacation moments:

  1. Making it through the flight with anyone yelling at me about my yelling (/kicking) toddler. Whew, victory.
  2. Housework slacks, for sure. I tidy up from time to time but to be honest there are pretty much clothes and toys everywhere. 
  3. I’m not doing laundry daily – yippee!
  4. 3:00 glass of wine? Sure! It’s vacation!
  5. Dad is around, so, a morning run happened daily. Running. alone. with my music. #neverhappens
  6. Nap time is actual downtime. At home nap time means run around the house like a crazy person cooking, cleaning, blogging etc. On vacation nap time means reading alone by the pool. 
  7. Hello, the chance to wear new spring clothes! Would highly recommend these shoes. 
  8. Actually being able to take my children outside. I was thankful for that every time I stepped outside.
  9. A break from the homework, a break from the bus stop, a break from packing lunches, a break from the activities, a break from the kitchen. 
  10. Seeing how happy my boys were made the trip. I’ve told M over and over that I feel like a completely different family in warmer weather. That Chicago winter killed a lot of joy, and I’m happy to see 61 degrees on the radar for this upcoming weekend. I’m bringing as much sunshine as I can back for all of us.

Thanks for all the Facebook love during our trip. I can’t wait to get back in my kitchen. C’s picks will be up and running per normal next week!  

C

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