Three Things Thursday

*Apology for all the parentheses in this post. I couldn't stop myself.

Thing One: his first potty joke
Y'all. Boys start early with the potty talk and thinking it's funny. Yesterday, after changing a poopy diaper, Moo said, "Raffe make poo-poo" and then started hysterically laughing. (Raffe is his best friend/stuffed animal, seen in the picture below.) The joke went on pretty much exactly like that for a good 20 minutes. To his credit, it was kind of funny. And it gave me a chance to document his incredible smile that's hard to capture when he's on the move so much:

Thing Two: two new books on my bedside table
I haven't cracked open either one, so I can't recommend them personally, but they've both been recommended to me:

1. Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
2. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein

I'll let you know how they go!

Thing Three: three new recipes
With some inspiration from one of my best friends, Sarah, I've been trying to home-make more food around here. I already like to cook and make a lot of our food, but one things like breakfast food and rolls, I often take a shortcut. I'm okay with shortcuts, but am branching out a bit, so here's what this week's new recipes were:

1. Blueberry scones (They freeze well too!)
2. Banana Bread (Better than my Mom's, and that's saying something. We make this on a weekly basis over here.)
3. Southern Tomato Pie (sounds weird, but you could eat it for dessert it's so good. Even Moo likes it! No online recipe for this one; my mom gave it to me, cut out from an old newspaper.) Here ya go:

• 4 tomatoes, thickly sliced (you can use any size tomatoes, really, as long as you use enough to fill the pie crust)
• 8 fresh basil leaves (Go ahead and steal some from your neighbor's garden. Or mine.)
• 1 sweet onion sliced and sauteed until transparent
• 1 pre-baked pie shell (Here's where I use the shortcut. Feel free to make your own pie crust.)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese (shortcut: buy already shredded/grated)
• 1 cup freshly grated sharp cheddar (shortcut: buy already shredded/grated)
• 1 cup mayonnaise (or half cup mayo combined with half cup sour cream to cut calories)

Place sliced tomatoes, basil and onion in pie shell (I like to mix them together first). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired. Combine cheeses and mayo and spread on top of tomatoes and onions. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve warm.

For those who have smaller families, the first two recipes freeze well (banana bread could be made as muffins and frozen), so go ahead and make the full recipe and then enjoy weeks of homemade breakfast food!