Happy Memorial Day!


Happy Memorial Day everyone!  I would like to give a special shout out to Grandpa Huhnke and Grandpa Mark who both served our country as well as all the other men and women who have served and are currently serving our country.  My family is so thankful for your sacrifice and I cannot say enough about the wives, children, and husbands who also sacrifice while their loved one is away.  Thank you for making our country wonderful!

We were supposed to have Adam's parents in town for this weekend because it is Adam's dad's birthday.  (Happy Birthday!) but Lana got sick and they couldn't make the trip.  Luckily, Tia came through and brought over some cupcakes for the girls who couldn't quite understand why we weren't having a birthday party anymore.  Thanks Tia!  We've got to enjoy her a lot this weekend since she had the weekend off.  We all went swimming on Saturday and were joined by the Sundstrom family.  I played volleyball with Katie in college and she is due in 2 weeks.  We've been doing water aerobics together and she's ready for this little boy to get here!  Her husband, Sunny, brought over sausages, corn, and onions and grilled a fantastic lunch for us all.  It was a wonderful treat!

Sunday we were blessed with another visit from another great friend AND Tia got to join us again.  Our friend Josie came over to hang with the family and enjoy some BBQ chicken.  I had some chipotle mango bbq sauce leftover from the other day's Chipotle Mango BBQ Salad and so I threw it on some chicken and we enjoyed more corn on the cob.  Josie also helped us peel apples and we slapped together a pie real quick for dessert. 

The other day I tried out these corn cakes and they were a delicious treat.  Not hard to make.  I only made one adjustment to the salsa.  I smashed up the tomatoes a little more and added a whole lime instead of a half.  You'll have to try it and see what you would like to add.  They were fabulous!

 

Summer Corn Cakes with Tomato and Avocado Salsa

from ezrapoundcake.com

Makes about 12 large cakes; serves 6 to 8

• 3 ears corn, shucked
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal (If you can only find cornmeal mix, skip the baking powder.)
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Canola oil, for frying
• Chopped Tomato and Avocado Salsa (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a brown paper bag.
2. Cut the corn from the cobs into a large bowl, and scrape the stripped cobs with the back of the knife (or a spoon) to release the juices into the bowl.
3. Place 2 cups of the corn kernels into a food processor, and pulse several times, until the corn is slightly pureed but still chunky. Scrape into the bowl with the remaining corn kernels.
4. Add flour, cornmeal, onion, basil, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper to the corn. Stir to mix.
5. Add the eggs, buttermilk and butter, and stir just to combine. (Do not overmix.)
6. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add just enough canola oil to barely cover the bottom, and heat until sizzling hot.
7. One heaping tablespoon at a time, scoop the batter into the skillet. Cooking in batches of 4 to 5 to avoid overcrowding, fry the cakes 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.
8. Drain on the lined baking sheet, and place in the oven to keep warm while cooking the remaining corn cakes. Serve warm topped with a heap of Chopped Tomato and Avocado Salsa.

Chopped Tomato and Avocado Salsa

Makes about 2 cups

• 1 large tomato, cored and chopped
• 1 scallion, trimmed and minced
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

1. Place all of the ingredients (except the avocado) in a bowl, and stir to mix. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to serve, for up to 2 days.
2. Just before serving, add the avocado, and mix gently.

The girls and I have LOVED having Adam here all weekend.  It is always a treat to have him around for an extra day.  On the weekends, I always make breakfast for the fam.  I bought fresh strawberries with this muffin recipe below in mind.  They were SOOOO good.  And they were easy and bake quickly.  The crowd didn't have to wait too long before they were ready.  They have cinnamon and sugar on top.  Please try this recipe out.  You'll love it!  The only disclaimer is that you'll have to try to eat them or give them away within a day.  If you store them in a container in the fridge, they get too moist.  We didn't eat them all, so I just left them sitting out on the counter on a plate and they were still good the next day, but wouldn't have lasted any longer than that.  So try half a recipe if you don't have a crowd or take some into work.

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

from realmomkitchen.com

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries.

Spoon batter into muffin pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes.

Adam said that on the first day of summer vacation, his family would go pick strawberries in Mishawaka.  They would pick about three bushels and give some to grandparents and eat the rest.  Adam loves strawberries.  I love summer.  Everybody has things that remind them of summer.  I can't wait to see what my girls' memories will be of summer, but I hope they can remember some good ones.  They've been ready to go and have some fun!

Emilie never fails to wear her glasses upside down.  I love summer dresses and taking the girls wherever the wind blows us...

This is one of my favorites.  I took it with my phone and sent it to Adam while he was at work and asked, "Do you think anybody got hurt in this photo?"  He called immediately to ask if everyone was ok.  I know it looks like Emilie is just standing there and about to get a heel to the head, but she was actually walking towards me and Aubrie just missed her AND landed on her feet.  Wild times.  We went to the mall to get some sun hats and play.

Here's Josie showing the girls how to go all out and get wet.  Sometimes I hate having a kiddie pool because no matter what, they are going to get in it every time you go outside.  Aubrie got in first and Josie got in to show them how to splash and coax Emilie in.  It worked.  :)

I hope everyone else had a good Memorial Day weekend.  We were going to go swimming after dinner tonight.  We even told Aubrie we were going to go, but then all of the sudden it started pouring at our house and ruined our plans.  There were tears and promises made for a swim day tomorrow.  Cross your fingers a random cloud doesn't show up at our house again!
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