Lionden Landing

This is one of my favorite salads to take to potlucks.  It is based on this recipe but they make it so hard to get to I tweaked it a bit and put it here for easier reference.  2 tablespoons sesame seeds 1 box mini bowtie pasta 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon sesame oil 3 tablespoons rice vinegar 3 tablespoons lime juice 3 tablespoons honey 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 4 green onions, thinly sliced 2 carrots, grated 3  mangoes, peeled and diced 1.  In a large pot, boil the noodles until tender but firm to the bite, 8 to 9 minutes. Drain and rinse under running cold water and drain again. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. 3. In a large bowl, combine the remaining vegetable oil with the sesame oil, vinegar, lime juice, honey, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, if using. Whisk to mix well. Add the noodles, green onions, carrots, mango, and cilantro a

Guess who is 6 months old! Little Bit is awesome.  She is cooing up a storm telling us all her stories.  Her smile lights up our existence and her giggles are the best music. She discovered her hands awhile ago but now she is using them to discover the world.  She loves to ring the wind chimes and feel the leaves of Froggy's lemon tree.  She is working really hard on rolling over.  She has stumbled into it a couple of times but can't do it reliably. She weighs 15.5lb and is 23.5" long which places her in the 40% percentile for weight though she is not yet on the chart for heght yet.  Pediatrician says that is normal.  She is meeting all the milestones for her adjusted age.  She has her first visit with the physical therapist this week and her first visit with the developmental pediatrician later this month. She got to experience her first snow fall.  She did not like the blizzard but was much less dubious about the snow itself when we went out later.  Sledding though

Bread is an important part of our lives and I am always experimenting with new ideas.  I was very inspired by this recipe and created my own multigrain mix.  It took a long time for me to work up the courage to try it.  I was afraid of grinding the grains. But it was easier than I thought.  My grinder didn't work at all but the blender handled it with ease.  And the best part is that the bread turned out AMAZING which is a good thing because I have tons of the multigrain mix left.  I winged it and created my own mix using what I had an what I could find easily at the local market. I used purchased rice flour purchased semolina purchased cracked buckwheat oats ground at home corn flour ground barley flaxseed unground - next time I will grind this as well   I prepped the dough the day before I intended to bake it and let it rise gently in the fridge.  On baking day I took the dough out and let it rest on the counter for an hour then tried to shape it.  It was much to