Happy belated Fourth of July! On Friday night my parent’s neighbors shot off a bunch of totally awesome {most definitely illegal} fireworks at their house, so we enjoyed a show right from my parents’ porch. Then on Saturday night we went to Vernon Township, New Jersey for their show put on by the local fire department. I’ve been going to big city fireworks shows for so many years that I forgot how wonderful a small town show is. It was perfect in so many ways.

Fireworks from the back porch!

I have a kinda-sorta-menu this week! I’m not going to get all fancy with a PDF and stuff because it’s not a particularly helpful menu for anyone, but at least it’s on paper, right? 😉

MONDAY:
– Fondue night! (We’re going to try making fondue with the kids, I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!)

TUESDAY:
– Taco night

WEDNESDAY:
– Chicken and hot dogs on the grill
– Corn on the cob and fresh fruit

THURSDAY:
– Eat out

FRIDAY:
– Leftovers

SATURDAY:
– Driving back up to New England that evening, eating on the road

SUNDAY:
– Not even sure what town we’ll be in that night, so playing it by ear!

Your turn! Please pretty please with a cherry on top share your menu for the week! We need your inspiration!

Right now I’m visiting my parents in New Jersey. My brother and his wife had TONS of fresh basil from their garden, so they decided to try drying it in my mom’s old food dehydrator.

Drying the basil was easy and very hands off, BUT here are a few things we learned:

• A LOT of fresh basil makes just a LITTLE dried basil. The basil you see in the photos is all the dried basil we got from 8 large trays of fresh basil.
• It takes a looooooong time for the basil to get completely dry. We followed the instructions and cooked the basil at 105ºF. The dehydrator was running for about TWO days. It’s an old deyhdrator, so maybe a new one would be different, but holy smokes it took forever!
• If you already have a food dehydrator or know someone who has one, it’s definitely worth drying basil if you have a whole bunch because it’s so easy. However, if you’re only planning to make dried basil with your dehydrator, it’s definitely not worth buying one. At least that’s what we think!

Here are my posts on Cosmo this week!

• 23 Reasons to Eat Cake for Breakfast (i.e. MUFFINS!)
• 20 Unexpected Ways to Use Cereal

Show and tell! Feel free to share whatever you like!

As you know from my non-existent weekly menus, we are on a multi-week trip visiting our family in the Northeast! We started our trip in New Hampshire and I wanted to share a little of the fun we had in that beautiful place.

To start, well, you know, when in Rome…

Pat, my mother-in-law, got a good deal on a ONE GALLON JUG of maple syrup so she had to buy it. I just wish I could take some on the plane with me! Owen was hilarious when we took pictures of him with the bottle (don’t worry, he had a diaper on!), but when we actually let him stick a straw in the bottle to drink, he refused. Shocking, I tell you.

For dinner one night we visited Kimball Farm in Jaffrey, NH and thoroughly gorged ourselves. For you New Englanders out there you’ve probably been to Kimball’s already and know just how yummy it is. We ordered quite the assortment of food, including to-die-for fish and chips, lobster roll, clam chowder, and onion nuggets. And, of course, NO salad.

We ended the night with Kimball’s homemade ice cream. See that there cone? That is the smallest size you can order. For a little perspective, that is a giant waffle cone being held by Nate. Ice cream insanity!

Another day we returned to Hillsborough Center to show Nate how beautifully magical this little village is. And to give Cate a chance to properly leap over puddles.

On a side note, we are loving the Highlander Hybrid that Toyota lent to us for the trip. It’s sooooo nice having a big car that gets almost 30 miles to the gallon, especially since we’ve already driven almost 1,000 miles! Plus, it’s just a really nice car. Nate’s great aunt couldn’t get over it, in fact. And it drives so quietly and smoothly. Basically, we’re taking it on the plane home with us.