Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Now I've been to Boston in the fall


Two weekends ago (from the date above, not from today :) I went to visit my friend Sarah in Boston. I went for four days (Matt stayed home with the kiddos) and had a great time. On Friday Sarah had to work, but she let me borrow her car. I drove up to Maine to see the setting for a book I read recently, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. It was set in a tiny town on the coast of Maine. The main character in it was the son of the pastor at this church. It was historical fiction, but the church and town are real. I thought it was pretty brave of me to drive to a town in Maine all by myself in a borrowed car- but maybe I just don't get out much!

The pastor even let me see the inside.
On Saturday I went out sightseeing with Sarah and her boyfriend, Patrick. They were both great sports about driving me around to all the tourist places. Driving there was terrifying and confusing and I was happy that I only had to do it on Friday. Patrick took it all in stride and didn't mind taking several wrong turns! Although the roads are crazy, it seemed like the drivers were more tolerant of each other because of it. I was only honked at only once the whole day and I know I made of lot of mistakes. I'm honked at at least once a day in Northern VA, even if I don't make any mistakes.
This is the sight of the Boston Tea Party.

The Minuteman statue at Lexington.
Friday was pouring down rain, but you can see that Saturday was beautiful.

Here comes my very favorite thing about Boston: the colors of the houses. I have never been in a city with so many different paint colors on the houses. All different shades of red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, pink, and of course boring brown and gray. This blue one below was one of my favorites. I loved sitting in the car looking at all the beautiful colors as Sarah and Patrick tried to figure out which way to go. The little town in Maine had some of the best ones, but the road was quite narrow and the rain deterred me from getting out of the car just for photos. I feel like you couldn't pull these colors off in most suburbs, but something about Boston made them work.
This was one of the only houses I saw where I didn't like the bright color, but it still illustrates what you can do there that you can't most places. This house is huge and looked pretty new and is painted bright (the picture doesn't do it justice) yellow. Very bold.
A purple one! The only other purple house I've seen is my grandma's, and she had it painted purple herself. I saw several in Boston. And a lot of mauve and pink ones too.

Sunday we walked the Freedom Trail, which is a walking tour of Boston that passes most of the famous places in the city's history.
These are apartment buildings in Beacon Hill, an upper class expensive neighborhood in the heart of Boston. Beautiful, but Sarah told me they probably didn't have washers and dryer in the apartments, and maybe not even dishwashers. I wasn't quite as jealous after that.
The capitol building.
We saw a couple of old graveyards. This one had several headstones with interesting engravings.


The little cuties I left behind.


I had a great time. Matt is always willing to be a single dad for a weekend to give me a break and I know I'm lucky to have him. I've wanted to visit Boston for quite a while and I'm glad I got the chance!
Since I didn't label the last half of this post until January, I forgot a lot of the names of the buildings I took pictures of. Maybe Sarah can help me out with that. Also, although I didn't take any pictures of this, we ate out at several delicious restaurants, including a bakery that sold cannoli. I didn't know you could get cannoli that wasn't made with ricotta cheese. I enjoyed my chocolate mousse cannoli much more than the cheese one I had in New York. Cheese isn't a dessert!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter


Spring Outfits!

A doggy and overalls: two of my favorite little boy styles combined into one.

Rachel happily examining her pink egg.


(I started this post a month ago...) Our Easter weekend was filled with usual Easter activities: dying eggs, hunting for eggs, trying to take cute pictures of the kids, etc. Since it coincided with conference we threw a little conference watching in as well. I didn't hear nearly as much as I needed to, so as soon as that Ensign comes out I've got to catch up. Matt had the great idea of listening to one conference talk a day on his way home from work. For a while I was doing a good job of reading one a day, but I need to get on track again.
It was fun having Rachel be old enough to understand more of the Easter fun. She loved looking for eggs and really loved dumping the eggs in the dye. And not one cup of dye was spilled! An Easter miracle for sure.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Spring at the Ratto household

We've been going to parks, parks, and more parks these past couple of weeks. The weather has been (mostly) great and I've been trying to get the kids outside as much as possible before the hot summer sets in! I forget the camera every time, of course, but here are some pictures we've taken other times.

This one was taken pre-spring, so he is all bundled up. It was his first time sitting up in a stroller by himself. So cute!
These were taken just a week or two ago on a Sunday afternoon walk. Ah, the joys of a large stick and a big empty field.


Happy Spring everyone! I've heard that it is supposed to be 85 this Friday, which makes me worry what it will be in July and August... At least we got in a couple of good weeks!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lemon Pepper Chicken and Onion Roasted Potatoes

Here is another "healthy" Ratto favorite. We eat it at least once a week.

Lemon Pepper Chicken
Matt Ratto

2 Chicken Breasts
1 T. Olive Oil
Pinch of Thyme
Salt and Pepper
Juice of 1 Lemon

Cut thawed chicken in half through the middle (butterfly) and lay out on a cutting board. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap or wax paper and beat the ever loving tar out of it with a tenderizer (glass jar/cup works pretty well). Season both sides with thyme, salt, and pepper.

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook on one side, approx. 2-3 minutes. Turn the chicken and add the lemon juice to the pan and allow the chicken to finish cooking, approx. 1-2 minutes.

Serve with Onion Roasted Potatoes and coleslaw. We get the package of Fresh Express coleslaw and only add half the dressing. I used to hate coleslaw, but now I can't get enough of it.


Onion Roasted Potatoes
Modified by Matt Ratto

2 Lbs Red Potatoes
1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Marjoram
¼ tsp Pepper
1 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Butter, melted (optional, I think they taste fine without it)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Spray roasting pan thoroughly with cooking spray. Cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces and set aside. Combine all other ingredients then add the potatoes to the party and toss to coat. Transfer potatoes to the pan and roast for about 45 minutes until tender and golden brown.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Our Freshly Blessed Baby

We finally blessed Cole at the ripe old age of 3 and 1/2 months! (In case any of my 5 readers are not LDS, a blessing is sort of like the Mormon version of a Christening). There was some confusion about where we would be doing it, which is why it took so long. In the end we did right here in Virginia. Matt's dad came for the weekend and we had a really good time. We almost forgot to take pictures of Cole on his blessing day, which just goes to show he is the second child! We did get some in the end, though, never fear.
Rachel was already down for a nap, so we didn't get any with her.
Grandpa Ratto and Cole

Matt's parents came for a long visit last summer and did a lot of the tourist stuff in DC, so this past weekend Matt really had to be creative. The very first thing they did was go to the NRA museum that is just a few blocks from our apartment. I stayed at home with the kiddos (don't worry, I wasn't too sad to miss it). I saw that they bought something at the gift shop and asked what it was. Steve said it was a surprise. You should have seen the gleam in their eyes at dinner when Matt said, "Dad, I think Rachel needs a bib for this dinner!"

Very funny, guys! The NRA likes to start them young, I guess. By the way, this was dinner:
A dish involving 4 different pork products, red potatoes, and sauerkraut. Matt's been wanting to make it every since he read about it in "The Man Who Ate Everything" (a great book, by the way) and it turned out really delicious. And so healthy too :)
We also drove downtown for the first time (we always take the metro) to go to the Good Stuff Eatery, a yummy burger place that a friend told me about. The owner was the competitor on Iron Chef America on Sunday. Here we all are getting ready for the drive:

You can see we had our faithful GPS with us. And did you notice I got a hair cut? I've been doing a great job keeping it straight and haven't worn my old stand-by ponytail in two weeks! At 26 I've finally decided I can put a little bit of effort into my appearance.
Anyway, it was a fun weekend and we're happy to have our sweet baby boy blessed at last. He seems to have inherited his father's calm and happy disposition, thank goodness! Matt did a great job with the blessing and we are also so grateful to have so many great friends in the ward to share the experience with. So different from 2 and 1/2 years ago when we blessed Rachel here without knowing a soul in the ward.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Our Little Valentines

We tried to do a Valentine's Day photo shoot after church and this is how it turned out:


We finally got Cole calmed down, but then Rachel wouldn't stop cramming her fingers into her nose, eyes, and mouth. Matt finally got her to fold her arms, which is apparently the only way to make those appendages behave. I keep thinking we should get professional pictures taken, but I'm pretty sure we would just have a really nice picture of Cole crying and Rachel picking her nose.

For Valentine's Day dinner Matt made us a sumptuous feast featuring real, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano (the kind of parmesan cheese that many of our favorite Food Network chefs swear by). Dinner was delicious, but we decided our palates aren't too picky and that we'll probably just stick with the pre-grated parmesan cheese next time (which is great, since it's a lot cheaper!).

Wednesday Recipes: Chicken Noodle Soup

Lately Matt and I have been trying to eat just a little bit healthier. I've found that my biggest problem (besides wanting to eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and elevensies) is finding healthy recipes for dinner. We've been trying a lot of new ones, so I thought I'd start sharing the good ones. And please send me your favorite healthy recipe so that we can have some more to try! This is my friend Sara's recipe, and I could eat it every night. It makes a lot, but it freezes great. I just thawed out an individual portion that I froze in a small ziploc bag. Just as delicious as the first day I made it!

Chicken Noodle Soup
Sara Stevenson

8-10 cups water
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

5 chicken bouillon cubes
1 1/2 C. carrots, chopped
1 C. celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 T. minced garlic (we always used the kind in the jar)

Salt, pepper, and parsley to taste (don't add too much salt before tasting it, the bouillon adds a lot of salt on its own)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 C. milk

3 C. cooked noodles

~Boil the chicken in the water until cooked through, remove and let cool slightly.
~Add bouillon to water. Add veggies and garlic and boil just until tender.
~Meanwhile, cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
~Add spices, cream of chicken, milk, and the cut up chicken. Simmer for about 20 min.
~Add cooked noodles, stir, and serve.
Makes about 6 servings.

Let me know if you try it and like it!