4th of July Mantel & Food

Coming home on Tuesday, we've spent the last few days unpacking, cleaning, getting things in order...and resting- it's amazing how tired you feel from a 'vacation'. I suppose its just that its not the normal routine, not your own bed. We had so much fun and were so sad to see it end. Our daughter claimed it to be the 'best week ever' of her who life! Love that girl. We also spent several hours Wednesday afternoon at the lake, soaking up some water and sun, a much needed family day after a week without 'dad'.

4th of July Mantel...and Crafts

Amongst the cleaning and chores, we researched online and printed out some 4th of July crafts we will all work on this weekend...

Hanging Rosette's (this one is for a banner but we want to paint them ourselves and hang them from the ceiling)

Tissue Paper Pom Pom's

Confetti Paper Rockets

Printables from Pinterest (We used some for our mantel)

Our Mantel in progress....for 4th of July.

This Week in Food...

Simple, easy, good....

A favorite that we haven't had for a while that we shared quite some time ago...

Falafel with Tzatiki Sauce

We half the Tzatiki Sauce as it makes so much! But its a favorite just as a dip with tortilla chips as well as in the pita sandwich.

Also, in a pinch for time- I didn't make the falafel early enough to use the crockpot- so we put them in the oven to bake- at 400 for 1 hour- flipped them over at the 30 minute mark- turned out fantastic! So oven or crockpot, these are a hit! Pile a couple in a pita with some romaine lettuce and dip. 

We served the sandwiches with a side of roasted red potato's with garlic, salt and pepper.

Last night, we made a simple Tempura Vegetable with a side of Steamed Rice with Soy Sauce.

Tempura Batter Recipe:

Ours has a little zing, there's others out there that are mild, but when you cook this one, it give it just a little bit of spice!

1 1/2 cup Flour

1/2 tsp Ground Coriander

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Tumeric

1/2 tsp Chili Powder

1/4 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp ground fresh garlic

1 cup Water

(Needs to be consistency of pancake batter)

Heat oil in a pan over med-high, dip in batter and put into oil, remove when golden brown.

Last night we battered: Zucchini, Broccoli and Mushrooms and dipped them in soy sauce.

Friday is here, bringing a day of more cleaning, preparing for our 4h meeting for poultry, waterfowl and Clover Kids. Then its a stay at home weekend so this momma can work, we can care for our animals and get some cages cleaned out. We hope for cooler weather to do some outdoor chores but it looks like the heat will require us to stay inside until a different weekend.