Did you know way back when…oh maybe a year ago, I was on this oatmeal kick. I had oatmeal everyday for breakfast. That was what I was in the mood for, every single day. Oatmeal with raisins, oatmeal with bananas, with strawberries, or with honey. Anything with oatmeal. I think it was after Nathan was born and then went on for months and months if not for a year. Then one day I didn’t want it anymore. Breakfast was harder then, always with the, what shall I have today?

Well, lately, I’ve been in the mood for strawberry smoothies, not a strange everyday kick, only once in a while when the mood hits. So, today, I thought I’d share how I make my strawberry smoothies.

All that is needed is these four ingredients: raw almonds, water, frozen bananas, and strawberries.

Boil the almonds for 3 minutes in water.

Remove the almond skins.

Throw the peeled almonds into a blender and blend with a cup of water. Strain the pulp if you like.

Ta da! You have just made almond milk!

Add strawberries and frozen bananas and blend until smooth.

And that’s it, strawberry banana almond smoothies!

Yoink!

We are crazy, CRAZY I tell ya. What am I talking about? Well…we’ve been caught up in our own little obsessions lately. With Alan it’s gardening. Well more specifically growing food for us. These are some older pictures. I’ll have to share some more recent ones…when I get around to taking some. But just look at some pictures from two months ago.

Alan’s trying aquaponics. In our garage. Under a light. I worry that when we have our garage open, people walking by might think we’re growing marijuana.

The plants are watered by the fish he is growing for us to eat. Yes there are fish in here. I so handily dandily circled it for you because this is the only picture I have. I took one measly crappy photo where you cannot even see the fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah…more pictures I will take. And evidently I am now Yoda or something.

Look. Herbs. Herbs!!! Ok, these pictures are so old I think this is the only one that survived. Our thyme, cilantro, and parsley didn’t make it. But since then Alan’s planted loads of other stuff I don’t have pictures of.

And what have I gone cuckoo for? Film photography.

I bought a Polaroid Super Shooter. I mentioned it last month.

It is an instant camera that uses peel apart film.

You focus by measuring how close you are to your subject. I guesstimate it.

I obviously am very bad with distances. But I am still having fun.

So much so that I pulled out the Argus Super 75 that I bought three years ago. I bought it to take TTV (through the viewfinder) pictures with. I’ve only taken one. Now I’ve taken my second TTV picture.

And here it is before cropping. I never did get around to making the black tunnel sock like thingy that people use for TTV photos.

I had to get creative to prop up my 75 to take this photo. It was on Gorillapod.

I pulled out the 75 not to take TTV pictures but to use film in it. REAL FILM! It uses 620 film, which they no longer make. But 120 is the same size, it’s just on a different spool. The camera will not take it so I respooled film! It’s at the lab right now being developed. They are probably going to look like the instant photos above since it has the same measure to focus thing going on.

So yeah. That’s what we’ve gone crazy for lately. Wait until I show you some more recent photos.

Yum! Recipe on Not So Humble Pie.

Mine didn’t come out as dark. But of course I didn’t have the proper ingredients. No dutch processed cocoa powder, just cocoa powder. I don’t know what the difference is. And no buttermilk. I replaced it with milk and vinegar.

And when will I learn? I need to reread cooking recipes before I make them. I remember reading the word “simple”. “Simple” is not quick. The mousse takes at least four hours. D’oh. I didn’t get to eat it right away like I wanted. Lesson #1: read the entire recipe.

And another thing I need to learn, this is too much cake. No one ever eats these sweets except for me. Well, everyone will have a little but a little bite here and there does not finish a cake. And Alan refused to bring it to work for his coworkers for some reason. I was going to call friends over to help with it but just didn’t. At one point during the weekend when Alan asked what I wanted for dinner I thought, we have so much cake, that’s what I’m having for dinner! Lesson #2: I need to make smaller cakes!

Bwa ha ha!! This title makes me laugh because Alan watches some gardening guy on the YouTube who says, “What’s growing on?” (“the YouTube” that’s what my dad calls it, hee heee it’s so funny). “What’s growing on?” that saying rubs me the wrong way. But me using that here is making me laugh like a loon right now. Yep, I’m just sitting here, being silly.

But anyhoo…MUSHROOMS!! I saw someone on a blog somewhere growing mushrooms at home with a kit. I had mentioned it to Alan before but we didn’t know where to get one. Then one day we were at Home Depot and they had a whole shelf of them! So, we grabbed one telling Isabelle it was a fun science experiment.

I snapped a picture mostly everyday. I didn’t plan on making it into a little slideshow. I thought I’d share pictures with my regular posting. But I never got around to it so now it’s a slideshow.

It was very simple to grow, basically cut open and mist with water two times a day. Inside there are additional instructions that say for best results soak the mushroom bag for 24 hours. I decided we’d do that with our second batch. Because, yes, you get TWO batches! One on each side.

Well, everything was going good. The mushrooms started growing. It was so amazing how quickly they came out. But this is also where I messed up.

Isabelle was misting them regularly twice a day like instructed.

But I didn’t notice that she was supposed to be misting the mushroom medium that it’s growing in, not the mushrooms. And I think that’s why our mushrooms stopped growing and started looking dried up.

Well, we’re working with our second batch now and this time we’ve soaked it. I hope we get nice big ones like the ones in this time lapse video.

So, yep, that’s what’s growing on. Mushrooms.

Yesterday Isabelle turned six!

We asked her how she wanted to spend the day. Did she want to go to the zoo? Or the beach? She said no to everything. She didn’t want to do anything, she wanted to stay home. So, we did. I picked up a cake, which I wrecked a little right away by smooshing it in the front. And then Nathan smooshed the “b” a little by sticking his little finger in there.

But that’s ok. The great thing about cake is no matter how they look they can still taste good. I’ve made plenty of ugly looking yummy cakes.

Anyhoo, the cake, yes, I chose a Mickey Mouse cake. See Isabelle doing the ears?

And Nathan trying to copy.

Why Mickey Mouse? Because we’ll be going to Disneyland!!

What else did we do? Isabelle asked to smack a piñata. We didn’t get a piñata but we have two unsmacked ones from years prior so she said let’s use the Dora one. Smack, bam, boom!!

Even Nathan got in on the smacking.

With a little help from daddy.

And a little help from big sister.

That Dora piñata was such a big hit. Even with all the candy gone the kids took turns smacking her until her head fell off. Then they smacked it some more!

They were all tired out from all the smacking.

Just kidding. I was trying to get a picture of Nathan’s hair. It just looked like they were asleep.

And that was Isabelle’s birthday. I’m looking forward to adventures this coming year with our new six year old.