When I first got married, I was telling my Auntie Barb about how I had just gone to the grocery store to “stock up” on necessities…spices, condiments, wax paper.  To which she replied, “Wax paper? Why do you need wax paper?” I had no answer. I just knew my mom always had it so it must be important, right?

10 years later I can answer that question no problem!  I use wax paper all the time. When I tray freeze food (veggies, cookie dough, etc). For greasing pans. For lining pans when baking (as long as the batter completely covers the paper, see comment #5 below for more information regarding baking). The list goes on! Last week our good friend Nikki helped me make Nate’s birthday cake (she’s a baking extraordinaire, even though she’ll deny it). She used wax paper under the edges of the cake so that icing didn’t get on the cake plate.

{Here’s a shot of the finished cake…isn’t it cute? And take note of the clean cake platter! Thanks, Nikki!}

On a side note, Nikki didn’t believe the cake strips tip I shared last year. I asked her if she saw the picture…she figured those cakes were not done cooking. What? Doctored photos on This Week for Dinner? I think not! I used my homemade cake strips while she was here, to great success once again.  And, believe it or not, Nikki is still skeptical…what’s it gonna take, girl?!? 

Back to wax paper…if you have some genius uses for the stuff, please share!

 Hello dear readers!  Okay, there’s just ONE MORE WEEK of voting for the BlogLuxe awards.  I really want to get into the top 5!!!  I’m close…so go vote! Click on this link, then click “Tastiest” and scroll to find This Week for Dinner. Voting is easy, free and you don’t have to register to be a member of anything. You can vote ONCE A DAY, so you’ve got 7 more votes to put towards a good cause…that would be me. 😉 

Thank you!!!!  If you all go vote this week, for sure I’ll make it into the top 5. We can do it! 🙂

The other day on a walk with my girls I saw a neighbor picking fruit from a tree in her yard.  I asked her what kind of tree it was…and she offered to send us home with a bag of the fruit!  It was a plum tree and this is about half of what she gave us.  We don’t even know the woman.  I love friendly neighbors with an overabundance of plums!

I must confess, I did a terrible job sticking to our menu last week…I was SO busy, I never even made it to the grocery store! Which reminds me, I’ve kept track for several weeks and I’ll do a post soon comparing my menu plans with what we really ate…stay tuned for the scoop!

MONDAY:
– Caprese Salad

TUESDAY:
– Fancy Nachos (we didn’t do this last week)

WEDNESDAY:
– Asian Spinach Salad (if you’re new to the blog, I LOVE this recipe)

THURSDAY:
– Leftovers

FRIDAY:
– Grilled cheese and tomato soup

SATURDAY:
– 4th of July! I think I’ll plan a cookout!

SUNDAY:
– Cookout leftovers

Please share your menu for the week – last week or upcoming! And have a happy holiday weekend!

Today it’s all about kiwifruit. I had the opportunity to attend a really fantastic lunch this week…more on that another day. One of the companies at the lunch was Zespri. Zespri represents all of the kiwifruit growers in New Zealand. They had samples of kiwifruit on hand and every course of our lunch had kiwifruit incorporated…and it was delicious!

I learned a lot about kiwifruit.  Here are a few of my favorite facts:

• Kiwifruit is SUPER healthy.  Tons of potassium, vitamin C and fiber. 
• There are two varieties, green and gold.  I’ve had green many times, but I’d never even heard of gold. I LOVED the gold variety. It’s sweeter than green and is harvested ripe, so it’s always ready to eat. Sadly, gold kiwis are harder to find in stores.  Asian food markets are more likely to carry gold kiwis, but you could also put a request in at your supermarket if they don’t carry it.   
• Green kiwis contain an enzyme that tenderizes meat (and curdles dairy, if you ever need to do that!). If you leave a couple of slices of green kiwi on your meat for about 30 minutes before cooking, it will tenderize the meat!

The moral of the story?  Go track down some gold kiwis. You’ll thank me.

Zespri’s website is a great resource, with lots of recipes. 

Summer is upon us…which means the farmers’ markets are in full swing all across the country!  Living in California means there is an abundance of farmers’ markets, many of which run throughout the year. Sadly, I rarely take advantage of these fun, tasty, and oftentimes economical local treasures.

Here in lovely Menlo Park we have a year-round farmers’ market that Nate says is great (I trust him!). We’ve also been to the Palo Alto Farmers’ Market (seasonal), which is also great fun and has live music. Cate could not tear herself away from the blue grass band playing when we went. It was adorable. She showed her appreciation afterwards with a toss into the violin case. 

I love getting fresh flowers at farmers’ markets, but there is so much more to be found. What are your favorite farmers’ market finds?

Feel free to share your favorite farmers’ markets, as well! Please list your city and state so it’s easy for people to figure out which markets are close to home, wherever home may be!

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Hope it’s been a great day!

Cate and I got up early this morning and made Nate’s grandmother’s blueberry muffins for him. The muffins were divine, as always…and the batter was pretty darn good too. This is honestly my favorite batter (yes, I’m a dough and batter eater), even more than chocolate cake mix. And that’s saying something.

MONDAY:
– Spaghetti (I know, we’ve been eating this a lot lately…but BOTH girls actually gobble it up, so gotta run with it)

TUESDAY:
– Nate’s Birthday…celebration meal TBD!

WEDNESDAY:
– Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

THURSDAY:
– Asian Spinach Salad

FRIDAY:
– Hot Dogs
– Fresh Fruit

SATURDAY:
– Eat out

SUNDAY:
– Nachos Supreme, whatever that means 😉 

This isn’t the fanciest menu, but keeping it real for a busy week.  

PLEASE SHARE YOUR MENUS! And don’t worry if your menu gets posted later in the week.  I peruse them the following Sunday, so keep ’em coming all week!

Okay, a non-foodie post, but I think Mozy is a great idea…so, here we go!

My computer is an important part of my life, both personally and professionally. I back up my files on an external hard drive, which sits right next to my computer.  While I have the files backed up, I must admit I’ve always had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind…what if something happened to our home, I’d lose all of our pictures, music, work files…SCARY.

When Today’s Mama approached me to do a review of Mozy, a secure online backup service, I jumped at the chance. For one year I get to use Mozy Unlimited for free, which I’m very excited about. My computer is backing up files to Mozy as I type…and I finally have some peace of mind. I’m excited to see how the service works over the next year, and I’m so glad to have my files backed up off-site!

Interested in Mozy?  You can sign up for a FREE Mozy account and back-up 2 GB of data. Mozy Unlimited is only $4.95/month! And you can get a free t-shirt by clicking here to sign up!

Today’s Mama is also giving away five 1-year Unlimited accounts.  Click here to enter!

Be sure to check out my first contributed article on Make and Takes, a very fabulous website that I’m excited to be a part of!  Today’s article is about tray freezing and I really don’t want you to miss it…click here!

Remember my wicked awesome party I’m co-hosting at the sold-out BlogHer conference?  

Do you want to go? To the party AND the conference? Now’s your chance! Be sure to check out the “Get me to BlogHer” contest sponsored by Whrrl…you could win a trip to BlogHer! I’m crossing my fingers that one of YOU wins. BIG THANKS TO WHRRL!  Be sure to check them out!

Click here to find out how to enter. Good luck!