Easter at the Walkers

Tim, Isabella, and I were so blessed to have spent Easter with my in-laws. The drive on Saturday morning to Akin, SC was virtually painless, thanks to our DVD player. Our arrival was just in time for brunch and Isabella's nap. The rest of the day was spent settling in, walking around Downtown Akin, and preparing for Easter festivities.

Easter Sunday Isabella woke up to her Easter basket full of books, Veggie Tales DVD, stuffed lamb, and electric toothbrush. Then it was off to church for Easter service at Harold & Yvonne's home church. Isabella sat through the entire 45 minutes of worship...thankyou General Mills for your contribution via Cheerios. Yvonne hand made her entire outfit (with the exception of the shoes), I couldn't have picked out a better outfit myself.

Easter dinner was quite impressive. Baked ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cream corn, and home made yeast rolls. We all ate way too much, but it was worth every bite. Isabella woke up from her nap with an Easter egg hunt. I stuffed her plastic eggs with her favorite veggie puffs (basically a puff dipped in ranch dressing). Once she figured out what was inside she was all about the eggs.

The one disappointing thing was that she freaked out with our confetti stuffed eggs. As a child our friends and family would get together for what we would consider the ultimate egg hunt. We stuffed our empty (real) eggs with paper confetti (flour if we were really cruel) and once we found them hidden around our yard we'd would chase each other and crack them on our heads. Isabella got scared when I helped crack on on my head, so we quickly stuck to the plastic eggs. Perhaps next year she will enjoy the confetti eggs.

We do realize that this year will be the last year that she will have an uncontested Easter egg hunt. Next year, with baby grace being just shy of two and two other babies at 9 months, it's only going to get more difficult!!! Good times will be had by all.

Later that afternoon we visited an Akin park, and as always Isabella enjoyed herself. We even stopped for ice cream. We stay here through Tuesday, as Tim and the Walker men attend The Masters practice round. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ground Beef Wellington

Today's adventure in my world of Jamie Oliver took me to England making Ground Beef Wellington. Traditional Beef Wellington is a beef tenderloin coated in pate then wrapped in puff pastry; however this is nowhere near as fancy. I would best describe it as an extreme veggie meatloaf wrapped in a pastry shell. I paired it with asparagus served with a mustard vinaigrette.

Tim thought it was fantastic, but gravy would have made it out of this world. Perhaps when we host people for dinner I go through the extra effort. Even Isabella had a little, most of which ended up on her.

It took me a little over half an hour to prepare, but it was extremely easy. Good everyone!!!

Jamie's recipe for Ground beef Wellington:

1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
4 sprigs fresh rosemary removed from the stem and chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic
large handful of frozen peas
1 lb of ground beef
1 lg egg (preferably organic/free range) beaten
2 sheets of puff pastry
2 portabella mushrooms

Salt and pepper


Dice the celery, onions, carrots and mushrooms into small (1/4 inch) cubes and sauté together for approximately for 8 minutes until softened, adding garlic and rosemary a couple minutes in. Place in a bowl and mix in frozen peas. While that cools, mix a good pinch of salt and pepper, half the beaten egg, and ground beef in another bowl. With Clean hands, mix together with cooled veggies. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.


On a well floured surface, place the two sheets of puff pastry out. If using pre-rolled make sure its about 12"x16" roughly, and if using unrolled make sure to use plenty of flour to roll to those dimensions as it can be sticky or tear. Centre the beef mixture and brush edges with some of remaining egg. Roll around beef and seal the edges, then brush with remainder of egg. Place on a floured cookie sheet (use one with a lip because it will drip a bit), and cook for 1 hour or until golden brown.

***I used only one sheet and it came out fine, if I make this just for us I will make it healthier by using only one, for company I'll use two. I also made it during Isabella's nap and refrigerated it until I was ready to bake.

My Adventures in Cooking

After watching Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution., I was left with a profound need to start cooking wholesome unprocessed meals. Nothing over the top and not too organic (although I’ll try if it’s cost effective). So who better to lead me down that path than Jaime Oliver, via his new book Food Revolution. I wouldn’t recommend the book if you don’t like spices/exotic food. There are a lot of Indian and Asian inspired meals so not for the faint of spice.

Anyhow, today we tried Sweet and Sour Pork, and it was very good. The best part that it was very little prep and mess, can’t complain about that. Click on the link below for the recipe:

http://www.hubcom.com/recipe/cgi-win/recipe.exe?3$2$0$9$1465

A few notes: I used a pinch of crushed red pepper in place of the red chili, only used yellow bell pepper (but think I will use half of each next time). Also, it took me a while to fine Five Spice Power but it’s in the Asian food section.

Good luck!!!

Spring Time Mystery

Since we moved into our new house at the end of November we are seeing spring time for the first time. Every bloom is a new mystery for us, and certainly a learning experience as I am completely ignorant when it comes to horticulture. Today as we played in our yard, I decided to make my next blog entry an opportunity for people to help me identify what some of our blooms are.

I could not resist posting a picture of our little papoose playing in our front yard. Yes I know it's bad enough we have the ugliest house on the the street (I am not joking when I say ugliest), but we have our toys in the front yard. We'll change that eventually once our grass comes in some more. She's playing on my consignment sale bargain. I paid $5.00 for that entire setup.

This view is of our backyard. You may remember that this area was a mess after we removed the concrete slab. We had a lady with a company called "A Girl and Her Tractor" level out the yard and plant rye grass. Most of the brown you see is the hay she laid to shade the seed for better germination. It was a bit late to germinate, but we are very pleased with it's appearance. She did a fantastic job, although I was a little skeptical of hiring a women in this field. I will never again underestimate a woman in a male dominated industry, she did a knock out job!!! We'll eventually build out an outdoor space, but that will be much later down the line.

The two mysteries to us are the below pictures:

The tree to the left we thought was an Oak Tree, but to our surprise it's something else. These trees are pretty popular in Atlanta, but are a complete mystery to us. The bloom is best described as a red ball with tentacles coming out of it.

The yellow bush, I just noticed today as I was taking pictures. I was just wishing I had one as I was driving home, and low and behold I DO!!!!! It's on the other end of our property near the AT&T substation (that I just love) which is why I had overlooked it. Any ideas what it could be?

Finally the last picture is of a rose tree that we have in the yard. The blooms seem a little sad, but I think it's been neglected for so long. My goal is to trim it well at the end of the season, and see if they bloom a little more brilliant next year.

Walkers visit The Highlands, NC

We received an invitation from Tim’s boss to join him over the weekend at their cabin. So we quickly packed our entire house and jammed it into the car. Before heading out, I stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a portable DVD player for Isabella to watch on the way up. She watched about an hour and a half of Baby Einstein during the entire 2.5 hour ride. Although I felt guilty about using the TV to entertain her, we arrived in a much better mood than shorter trips we’ve taken in the past.

The big highlight of the weekend was Isabella’s interaction with Matt and Michelle’s two dogs Nelson (after Nelson Mandela) and Louise (after the famous King). Nelson was an adorable French Bulldog and Louise a black pug. She was fascinated with the two dogs, but the second they came toward her she would freak out. No best friends were made between her and the puppies, but we were all genuinely entertained. Saturday we walked around the shops in downtown, most things were way out of our price range but we still had fun exploring the area. Tim suggested that I get a manicure, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. Lunch was spent at a dinner in the local grocery store, where I had the best burger and fries I’ve had in a long time.

After Isabella’s nap, we found a little park and set her loose. It was a short trip, but it was so nice to get away from our to-do list here at home. I also got to know Tim’s boss a little better, which is always a good thing.

Beautiful Awakenings

One of my favorite parts of the day is walking into Isabella’s room after a good nights sleep/nap. She usually takes her time to let us know she’s ready, and is in such a playful mood. Her hair would best be described as a beautiful disarray. She plays this little game where she wants me to chase her around the crib, and then proceeds to hand me all her little night time friends. She sleeps with her baby girl, a red valentines teddy bear, a little sheep (given to her by her Auntie Amanda), and a glow worm. The singing glow worm was a gift from her cousin Christofer during Christmas. At the time I wondered why someone would get her a gift that was for newborns, but ironically it’s been a God send. I honestly think it’s helped her sleep through the night, and gives her something fun to play with when she gets up.

My little love bug.....

Isabella has grown into the sweetest baby I have ever know. We have taught her to give besitos (kisses in spanish). She's been doing this for a while now, but she so freely gives kisses to us, Elmo, her Aunts and Uncles, her BFF Mia Sewell, and my favorite....pretty much anyone. She even makes this "mmmmmmmmm" sound as she kisses you. Tonight Tim and I confirmed that she now knows to automatically give Tim a good night kiss after we say our prayers.

I don't know what we have done to deserve such a blessing in our lives, I just hope we never forget to cherish these special gifts.