As I was making my morning tea today, I was thinking about my new "tea" page here, and realised that the one tea review currently up isn't even tea, it's an herbal infusion! For a tea-lover like myself, this is almost sacrilege! So, I decided to review a wonderful tea blend by the Eastern Shore Tea Company: their Della Robbia.

My friend Nicole sent me this tea (she lives near Baltimore herself!) and I love it! It's black and fruity, with hazelnut tones. I don't think I've ever tasted a blend quite like this. Definitely a real treat!

Today was "supposed" to be a relaxing day at home, just puttering around, doing odd jobs. I should know by now that my "relaxing" days always get filled with more and more things that just "have" to get done!

My day started by waking up early (that's about 5:45 am for me) and feeding Eliyahu. He woke up and started giggling, apparently ready to start his day. So, about 6:30 I took him downstairs and Yehoshua woke up. I gave Yehoshua a bowl of homemade granola with milk for his breakfast, and managed to eat some myself, in-between changing diapers and getting ready for my walk.

At 7, I was pushing the double stroller down the street, meeting up with a friend who lives a couple blocks away, for our morning walk. We walked just over two miles (our usual), and I got home a little before 8.

By then, it was getting sunny and hot out, and I realised that I needed to get diapers in the washer. My morning practically flew by with attending to the children, making out a grocery list for the week, hanging out clothes, etc... In the afternoon, I was able to get the lawn mowed (since I thought it was going to storm this evening!) and kitchen cleaned up.

The only "real" cooking I did today was making a new dessert. We'll taste-test it and if it's good, I'll share the recipe. :) It took me a while to make because I was making my cherry pie filling from fresh cherries, as they're in season right now! Really good, but time-consuming. :D Yehoshua helped me, though!

I have a few more recipes to share before I head to bed, if time permits. Oh, and Joshua bought a salmon fillet at the store today! We haven't had salmon lately, but I guess the season is starting. Joshua makes yummy grilled salmon. We have served his recipe often for company and even people who say that salmon isn't their favorite are usually impressed and say they really enjoyed his! I like it better than steak! But, anything that Joshua grills is good. :) I hope he writes a review on his grill soon, because it makes great food.

I finally got the recipe typed up, and wanted to post this picture of our lunch yesterday:

This is one of my favorite uses for leftover chicken. :) I had some leftover Italian bread, so we had garlic bread with it, too. (We love gralic bread!)

Joshua turned this:

into this:

Have I mentioned lately what an awesome cook my husband is?! I have been so blessed by his willingness to grill meat for me, or help make a dessert or side dish when company's coming.

Speaking of company, we had some yesterday. (I was going to blog about it last night, but I crashed my site. Still trying to get the bugs worked out before we start telling all our friends and family about this website.)

Well, here's a photo taken as we were getting ready to start eating lunch yesterday. My mom and sisters were our guests.

I've been working on peas, and just got the last of them in the freezer. I decided to add a section for all my canning/freezing/dehydrating recipes. Since I'll be busy all summer and fall with stuff from the garden, why not? :)

I am SO excited about this blog and website. Joshua has put many hours into making me a functional, easy, and FUN site! He really gets all the credit for making this idea a reality for me! Thank you, honey!! :)

Well, Eliyahu is waking from his nap, so I will end here. Tonight I'll post a couple recipes and blog about what I made for lunch today!

Today was a nice relaxing Sabbath spent at home. I slept in and then we ate breakfast (Joshua had pan-scrambled eggs and I had mine with tomato) and went for a leisurely walk. There is a river about a mile away, and we walked there so Yehoshua could see the rushing water (we had a lot of rain this week!).

We came back home and had oatmeal for lunch, and then took naps. :) About 3 pm, I put a chicken in the oven, along with a dish of potatoes. By 6:00, our dinner was ready: oven-roasted chicken, snow peas, and oven-baked potatoes. Joshua had some leftover Italian bread with his plate, too.

Yehoshua and I made some dill dip, and he got to eat some with carrot sticks. He had never gotten to have dip before, but quickly decided that he liked it and kept asking for more! :) Here's a picture of him enjoying it:

A friend of mine sent me a box of tea, and as I was preparing myself a cup today, I thought I would share a photo. It is truly the most beautiful tea I have ever owned!

Almost too beautiful to drink, these teabags are full of large leaves and chamomile buds.

For high-quality tea with beauty, I recommend Revolution Tea!

P.S. If you drop in sometime, I'll make you a cup :D

My aunt, uncle, and twin cousins came over for dinner last weekend. Joshua, being the sweet husband that he is, offered to help me with the meal by grilling some chicken. I love Joshua's grilled concoctions and quickly accepted his offer. ;)

Joshua tried a new recipe, garlic lime chicken. It was wonderful! Our guests liked it, as well. We'll definitely be making it again!

Before we started eating, Joshua grabbed the camera (I was busy attending to children ;D) and snapped this photo:

A few days ago, Joshua and I were in the kitchen cooking together. Actually, I think I was washing dishes and Joshua was cooking. I love to clean up the kitchen, and particularly enjoy doing so when Joshua is there with me, so we can talk while we work.

Joshua was making his yummy strawberry sauce to serve with the fresh waffles we were having for dinner, and as usual, we were talking. Yehoshua (2) took full advantage of this situation. We didn't even notice when he disappeared (he had been running around the house, "talking" and asking for bites of fruit)...

...until we were ready to add the strawberries. Where were the strawberries, anyway? Hadn't we left them on the counter? And where was Yehoshua?

We found him in the living room, sitting on the couch, popping strawberry after strawberry into his mouth. Boy, those garden-fresh strawberries sure are tasty! He looked so cute, we just had to take a couple pictures of him. (Before we took the strawberries away.) ;)

Today I got up early and went for a walk. Eliyahu (5 months) was alseep, since I had fed him right before I got up. I took Yehoshua (2) with me in the stroller. We walked a mile and then met up with a friend and her doggie, and walked 2 more miles! It's always nice to have a calm, relaxing start to the day by getting out in the fresh, cool morning air, and getting some exercise.

When we got home, our day got busy. The largest portion of today was spent working on harvesting snow peas from the garden. I have several gallons of snow peas picked, washed, and ready to be blanched. They're taking up most of my fridge right now. Hopefully soon I'll get them blanched and in the freezer. I'll share pictures when I get them done! :)

With all the garden work, I didn't do much cooking today. Yehoshua and I ate leftover banana pancakes on our walk. For lunch we had leftover spaghetti (recipe coming soon!), and for dinner, Joshua grilled up a quick piece of Texas Broil.

Joshua also made his delicious sweet and chewy granola bars, which use my homemade granola in them. We snacked on those today, too. ;)