Green Bunny Art: 10 Wonderful Years

Green Bunny Art? What's that, you ask?

I have been dreaming of starting a business for a long time. The goal is to design custom scrapbooks and create various other projects from home while still being a mommy. This dream is currently on the back burner until my boys are older, but I am taking baby steps now. I have named my company...Green Bunny Art (Yay!) More on the story behind the name in a future post! I plan to share some designs, receive feedback, and maybe (fingers crossed) start to grow my business. All posts featuring my work will start with "Green Bunny". Here's the first of many. Thought I'd start with a little history of our family since you are still getting to know me:

10 Wonderful Years...Made this layout after our 10-years-together milestone (will be 12 years next month). SO much fun to sort through pics to find one from each amazing year.

Joyeux Kitchen: [Meatless Monday] Easy Roasted Red Peppers Stuffed With Corn and Cheese

Getting ready to start the week sans-meat (more about 'Why? Meatless Monday' next week). This is a meal you can feel good about feeding your family. Kid-friendly (if they aren't sure about trying it, bribe them with after-dinner ice cream :) and guaranteed to please the most finicky palate.

You'll need:

• 3 large or 4 small-ish red bell peppers, tops cut off
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 bunch scallions, including the firm greens, thinly sliced
• 2 1/2 to 3 cups kernels from 5 ears of corn (I used sweet frozen from CostCo)
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced (I used almost a full, organic can)
• 1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese, 4 to 5 ounces, finely diced, or 1 cup grated Cheddar or Monterey jack (I used a third cup of each) 
• 2 tablespoons finely sliced basil leaves
• 2/3 cup fresh store-bought, seasoned bread crumbs
• Salt and freshly milled pepper
• Paprika

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter a baking dish just large enough to hold the peppers. If the red peppers won't stand upright, slice them lengthwise in half, leaving the stem end intact. Steam them for 5 minutes and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the scallions, corn, and tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes over medium heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese, basil, and half the bread crumbs (it will turn into a gooey, cheesy, delicious mess). Season with salt and pepper. Fill the peppers and *top with the remaining bread crumbs (see note). Set them in a prepared dish, add a few tablespoons water to the dish, cover, and bake until the corn is hot and the peppers are cooked, about 25 minutes. Uncover and brown the tops under the broiler. Dust with paprika and serve.  It was oh-so-good.  Handsome hubby loved it, and he's not big on vegetarian eating. 

*When I make it again, I think I'll melt some butter, stir in the bread crumbs and top it that way so it sticks together and gets crunchy.  The plain bread crumb topping was a little dusty.

Original Food Network Recipe Here!

Welcome!

So, why blog?

We often find ourselves having the same conversation over and over: we sometimes feel replaceable and taken for granted. We are COOK, MAID, NANNY, PERSONAL SHOPPER, HUMAN CALENDAR...but who are we really, as women? It's so easy to lose ourselves in the tedious stay-at-home-mommy routine. So we are blogging to remind ourselves that we are creative and capable, sometimes funny, always honest, resourceful, and passionate. We blog about what tickles our feathers and ignites our joie de vivre.

Sometimes we catch little glimpses of each other in what could be referred to as 'our natural habitat'. On our rare child-free nights, we probably appear (to the clueless outsider who doesn't know we have five children between us) like animals suddenly set free at the zoo with a wild, frenzied gleam in our eyes. Recently, while traveling to Bermuda, we were three sheets to the wind (What? --We can't let down our hair once every five years??) in an elevator with a group of very unamused-looking 50-somethings who were clearly under the impression that they were looking at a pair of obnoxious teenagers. We quickly shared our secret. They looked incredulous and, surely reminded of their own days with young children at home, agreed that we deserve to be three sheets to the wind, thank you very much. We caught winks from them in passing for the remainder of the cruise.

I digress. We are hoping this blog will serve as a creative escape in a world where the idea of having time to apply make-up is like a tale of fiction rather than a reality. We strive every day to continue learning about ourselves, our marriages, our kids, our dreams, the world…as we navigate through these early childhood years (whether we are loving the current 'moment' or struggling through until the magical hour called 'bedtime'). Sometimes our posts will be from tired, war-weary mommies covered in dinner and clueless as to when we last showered. And sometimes, our posts will be from a slightly more carefree perspective.

We intend to share our ideas on baking, scrapbook design, crafting, exercising, gardening, struggles, precious moments...We hope this entertains you and we can't wait to be entertained by you and your blogs or comments. Thanks for sharing a little piece of your day with us!

Here's where we're coming from in very yin/yangy (custard & beef trifle) kind of way:

• Scheduled vs. spontaneous
• Midwest vs. Northwest perspectives
• Raising boys vs. raising girls
• Super short vs. super tall :)
• Appreciation of rain vs. love of sun
• Generation X vs. Generation Y
• Hostess and organizer
• Introvert and extrovert
• Differing religious views
• And therefore, sometimes differing parenting styles

And, while we're introducing ourselves, here are a few things we LOVE:
All things Twilight and the twi-mom phenomenon, reading, Friends, Glee, Starbucks, chocolate, wine...

Learn more about each of us in our links on the right.