Lately

What I've been cooking, reading, wearing, teaching, growing and decorating.

I felt like doing a “just for fun” post today, a jumble of ‘musings’ and hodge-podge things I’ve been enjoying recently, a post that could be a creative release of sorts, without being too deep or require a ton of brain power. Just for fun!

Here’s a roundup of what I’ve been cooking, reading, wearing, teaching, growing, planning… all the things! Sharing as a homeschooling, stay-at-home mother of three young children, with one on the way (getting closer!), who lives in a doublewide mobile home on a farm in the countryside of Texas.

Cooking

Let’s start off with cooking, because if you’ve followed me for a bit, you know I’m a passionate home cook!

I get asked about things in my snapshots of meals I share, so I’ve started doing a monthly “What’s in my Kitchen” compilation of, yes, links to things. A tad hypocritical on my end, but also fun to share and another creative expression for me. Here’s What’s in my Kitchen: June edition. It features platters, linens, table items, kitchen cleaning products, cookware and more, including a bowl we received as a wedding gift (8 years ago next week!) that I use multiple times a week and is on sale.

I thought I’d share three recipes I’ve been making on repeat lately, although I have a ton of recipes in recent posts, from Summer Vacation Menu Series to Summer Superhero: Muffins to All Things Freezer Food and Oatmeal Jam Bars.

Sausage Goat Cheese Flatbreads
I have a recipe for Apple Sausage Goat Cheese Flatbreads in A Month of Dinner, Volume 1 (a well-loved recipe!), but I tweak it a little during the summer, opting for sweet seasonal peaches instead of apple! It’s a treat to use arugula from the garden, and I like to add some chopped garden mint as well, plus a little drizzle of balsamic glaze.

Sausage & Goat Cheese Flatbreads
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Naan flatbreads
2-3 Chicken Apple Sausage links (or sausage of choice)
1 log goat cheese
Peaches (or apple), thinly sliced
Arugula
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon honey
1/2 lemon

1. You can either use your grill or your stove top/oven for this recipe. If using your grill, heat it to medium heat. If using your oven, preheat to 300 F.

2. Cook sausages either on grill or in a skillet on the stove so that they’re warmed and have a little char.

3. While sausages are cooking, toast your flatbreads by either heating on the grill or directly on your oven rack. It only takes two to three minutes on each side.

4. Spread goat cheese over warmed flatbread then top with thinly sliced fruit. I like to cut my fruit slices in half or in thirds to make it easier to eat.

5. Make the dressing by whisking together salt, pepper, olive oil, Dijon, honey and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

6. Once sausages are done, remove from heat and cut into thin slices. Place on goat cheese, followed by the fruit slices. Top flatbreads with a handful of arugula and drizzle dressing over entire flatbread. Cut into quarters to serve.

Lemony Chicken Meatball Orzo ‘Soup’
It’s criminal to make soup in Texas during the summer, but I threw this dish together one evening when everyone was feeling a bit under the weather, and now it’s becoming a reoccurring request for dinner. The orzo really soaks up the broth and liquid, so it’s not exactly a typical soup in all honesty. It’s lemony, creamy, packed with nutritious broth, veggies and herbs, and protein in the form of some easy chicken meatballs.

I don’t have a formal recipe with perfect measurements on this one, perhaps I’ll work on that as I continue making it. For now, here’s a summary of the dish:

Meatballs
1 pound ground chicken
Panko
1 egg (or egg replacer)
Fresh herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, oregano), finely chopped
Red pepper flakes
Grated parmesan
Yellow onion, chopped
Garlic, minced

Soup
Butter or olive oil
Yellow onion, chopped
Garlic, minced
Flour, roughly 1/4 cup
Dry white wine (a splash)
Chicken broth (3-4 cups)
Peas and chopped carrots (I use a frozen medley)
Orzo
Cream
Grated parmesan
Fresh herbs, chopped
1 lemon, zest and juice

For the meatballs: I do a pound of ground chicken mixed with panko, egg (I use egg replacer), finely chopped fresh parsley and basil, a dash of red pepper flakes, grated parmesan, and finely chopped onion and minced garlic. I mix all that together in a bowl, then form the meatballs and bake them at 400 for 25 minutes. You could definitely use pre-made frozen meatballs to save yourself time.

While the meatballs are baking, I add butter to a pot, some more of the onion and garlic and let that sauté, then add a bit of flour, stirring to coat, followed by a splash of dry white wine (you can skip this), followed by a few cups of chicken broth. I add frozen peas and carrots, maybe a little more broth, then toss in the orzo and bring everything to a boil. Once orzo is cooked, I add in the cooked meatballs, some heavy cream (you can omit if you need to be healthy, but I highly recommend) and some grated parmesan. More chopped herbs, zest and juice from a lemon and then serve hot!

Potato Asparagus Salad with Steak
I’ll immediately preface that this salad recipe is not my recipe! It’s from Two Peas & Their Pod and one of my best friends sent it to me a few months ago; it’s been on repeat ever since. The dressing is what makes this recipe so delicious! My husband has asked for it weekly, and that’s really saying something because he’s not a big salad guy. I always add protein in the form of steak to this salad, but some grilled chicken or shrimp would be delicious.

The recipe calls for lentils, but we aren’t big on lentils, so I use farro instead. I also skip the pistachios, just because we have nut allergies in our home and I rarely use nuts. We really enjoy goat cheese and typically have that on hand over feta, so I’ve swapped that a time or two as well.

Here is a link to the salad.

Reading

I was a staunch “I’M NEVER BUYING A KINDLE,” physical books only type of gal. I took a hard stance against the Kindle… until I didn’t, and I caved and bought one in May. Since buying the Kindle I have read more in the last few months than I have the entire year combined. In fact, I was reading so much it became a bit of a problem, as I found myself staying up so far past my bedtime, like a child reading with a flashlight under the covers. I had to cut myself off and put the Kindle away for a bit in order to actually get some sleep.

I’m all over the place when it comes to my choice of books. I went through a thriller phase, all the Frida McFadden books and the like, and I still have a ‘book hangover’ three years later from Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale (how I wish I could read that for the first time). But I got tired of dark and twisted, needing something lighter, happier, comforting. So I’ve shamelessly been on a beach-read kick and thoroughly enjoying them!

A friend recommended Kristy Woodson Harvey’s A Happier Life and I was sad when it ended, such a great read! I then proceeded to read three more of Harvey’s novels, all of which I enjoyed, but A Happier Life being my favorite. Saving her ‘Peachtree Bluffs’ series for middle-of-the-night feedings in a few weeks.

I’m currently finishing Susan Boyer’s Trouble’s Turn to Lose, my son has been pressing Kindle buttons and bought and downloaded it so it wasn’t on my list intentionally but feel compelled to read since I paid for it… and I have Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe on deck.

One recent read I highly recommend is Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. A very fun, historical, informative read!

I’ll also add my current faith-based study I’m doing to this ‘reading’ category. I’m thoroughly enjoying Blessed is She’s Home: A Study on the Virtues of Mary! This has been a wonderful study for me and it’s been easy to incorporate into my morning routine with approachable, digestible sections. The book is written as if Mary is inviting us into her home, as our mother, our friend, our mentor, our comforter. In treating us with love, hospitality and kindness, we can study her virtues of sweetness, charity, prayer, wisdom, patience, humility and more. I believe you can use code LARSONFOLKERTS to save 10%.

Wearing

I’m 7+ months pregnant right now, so when it comes to what I’ve been wearing, it really just comes down to what fits and what’s comfortable… especially in our Texas heat. In my previous pregnancies (also all summer third trimester), I tried with all my might to not buy maternity clothes, opting for pieces I could wear during pregnancy and beyond (think maxi dresses, stretchy shorts, oversized t-shirts) and while I’ve done the same this pregnancy, fourth baby belly doesn’t play. I looked 16 weeks pregnant at 8 weeks pregnant, and quickly realized I’d need to add some maternity items to the closet. Lately, I’ve been living in an Amazon workout top with a built-in bra, maternity athletic shorts and an oversized Old Navy button down. I’ve put together my recent maternity-friendly wears here.

I just treated myself to a pair of these Rothy’s clogs that people rave about, envisioning them with my favorite Quince jeans (very flattering, comfortable and budget-friendly, have worn postpartum previously) and either a cute top or oversized sweatshirt this fall. I’ve been a longtime wearer of the Birkenstock Boston clog, so adding the Rothy’s clog to the mix felt like a solid move. I ordered the Chestnut brown.

Teaching

I did a post that summarized our homeschool year as a first-time homeschool mom, featuring what worked, what didn’t, what our summer and fall plans are. In June, we were pretty lax on school and I knew coming back from an early-July vacation that it was time to add regular school work back into our routine. My children LOVE school, they’ve been asking for it and while I’m not quite ready for us to dive into our first grade and preschool curriculums (we will start in August, when Texas schools begin), I think we’re all ready for our familiar daily routine to take shape and that includes a little regular school work.

Right now I’m focused on basic review of what we learned in Kindergarten (math, CVC and sight words, reading, phonics) for my son and basic preschool work for my daughter (ABCs, 123s, shapes, pencil holding, practicing writing our name). Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers are two great websites that have hundreds of practice worksheets. I’ve bought a few on Etsy for just a couple dollars that I download and print a few pages off at a time for the kids to do, really just for 20 minutes of sit-down work time! Sure, I could write out the work myself and save a few bucks, but the kids get excited to have new pages and love to hear them coming off the printer, and I love that the work is done and it’s worth the $3 to save myself some time, plus being digital downloads, I can reprint whenever I’d like.

We’ve chosen a chapter book to read each month, and after finishing the book, we have a ‘party’ day in which we discuss the book, do a themed-craft, have some book-themed food and watch the movie adaptation! In June we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was a huge hit with my children! They begged for more chapters every day and we flew through the book in less than two weeks. July’s book will be Misty of Chincoteague, one of my personal childhood all-time favorites.

Growing

Apart from growing a baby, we are growing a number of things in our backyard garden! Although the heat has definitely begun to take it’s toll, and going on vacation without regular watering (bless my father-in-law for kindly watering it a day or two during our absence) didn’t help either. The garden looks a bit sad, brown and fried at the moment, apart from some very happy zinnias. Not to mention the deer are happily enjoying their all-you-can-eat buffet, between the garden and my various rose bushes.

Our cucumber plants have been stellar producers this summer and there are plenty of tomatoes coming on the vine, some of which we enjoyed last month. It’s crazy to think here in a few weeks we will start planning and prepping for our fall garden, even though fall weather is very far off. I’ll start seed planning, I order seeds from Eden Brothers, and my dear friend gifted me a lovely garden planner from an area small business, The Garden Girls, that I’ll use to layout our fall plans.

Decorating

On the home-decorating front, I have a few projects in the works at the moment. I’m in serious nesting mode and working through my to-do list. I get very, very ‘nesty’ and the type-A clean freak in me absolutely thrives during this hormonally-driven, instinctual urge of a phase. I love nesting. I’m currently picking out wallpaper for our powder bathroom and pantry, something I’ve wanted to do since we moved in two years ago. There’s various artwork that’s been set out to be hung for far too long and will make it’s way onto the walls shortly. I’m planning to hang a screen door on our porch, another project that’s been on the to-do list for some time. And suddenly I have a strong desire to do something with the wood floating shelves in our kitchen.. cover in a ticking peel-and-stick paper?

I recently bought an antique pie safe off Facebook Marketplace and added some curtains to it, which was very exciting for me and the piece is already doing a great job serving it’s purpose in providing more storage.

As for baby sister’s room, she will eventually be bunking in big sister’s room, and all we really need to do is assemble her hand-me-down crib, organize baby clothes and move the nursery chair from our son’s room to the girl’s room. None of that feels like a huge rushed ‘to-do,’ as baby girl will be in our room with us for quite awhile (despite what my three-year-old daughter says, as she’s adamant sister will sleep in her room and she will do all the feeding, changing, rocking, dressing, holding). I very much take a ‘less is more’ approach to all the baby things, especially at this point with baby #4. Just need my boobs, the two arms God gave me to hold her and a box of diapers!

If you made it this far, thank you for reading my ‘lately’ post! I hope you’re having a fabulous summer and had a blessed 4th of July holiday weekend with loved ones.

This post includes commissionable links.