Appetizer Recipes

OK, so I'm tired of going to different web sites to look up different recipes. I'm going to keep them here and by me putting them here I'm clearly endorsing them having made them.

Appetizers:

Guacamole recipe:
Ingredients
3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced


Directions
In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, jalapeno, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.


Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/guacamole-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Cajun meatballs recipe:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
• 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 
  1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup barbeque sauce
• 1/2 cup peach preserves
• I didn't do it with the peach preserves but I bet it would be better with it.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix thoroughly the ground beef, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, onion, bread crumbs, milk, and egg.
3. Form the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until there is no pink left in the middle.
4. In a small bowl, combine the barbeque sauce and peach preserves.
5. When meatballs are done, place in a serving dish and cover with the barbeque sauce mixture. Toss to coat.

Salad Dressing recipes

Caesar

Picasso Art Lesson

This goes back to my student teaching days with Mr. Glenn Berry of Nesbit Elementary in Belmont... great lesson about opposite colors.

My sketch. Split face down middle. Cubism is seeing 2 different perspectives at once. So the face on the left is a side profile view and the face on the right is facing straight ahead.

Look at a color wheel. Opposite colors are vertical to each other (ex: purple and yellow, orange and green, etc.)

Student sample work from 6th grade art explorative

Preview or followup name activity. Draw horizontal line. Draw 2 diagonal lines that are somewhat vertical and steep. Mark out your opposite colors and write block letters over horizontal line. Continue contrasting opposite colors.

China cabinet / buffet assembling process

Thank you Christopher Columbus for Indigenous People day. I was able to be home for our dining room table to be delivered and spent 3 hours assembling this piece of furniture that was in pieces in 2 boxes from wayfair.com.

Start with the base

walls and top attached

drawers are in

front glass windows in

I would recommend that website. The directions were clear. Two pieces were mislabeled with incorrect number but the pictures showed the bolt holes in it so I was able to reason which was which.

Attitude is everything & math poster

This math poster has so much information.

American vs Chinese Math culture & a friendship

I can't take credit for my class being American math class culture, but it's definitely a CPM, problem-based, cooperative learning environment.

No one proved this more than a truly inspirational student I had last year: Cindia Wu. She came from China and had lots of background knowledge and was faced with the task of cooperating in groups with people that didn't speak her native language and deepened her own understanding by trying to explain the best way that she could. She wrote this though provoking learning log that I shared with multiple teachers and wrote me a letter at the conclusion of the school year.

Student testimonials

There's nothing better than getting a letter from a student at the end of the year!

Painting away

Thanks to Larry Gatt for all of the help painting! Couldn't have been done without him.

Thanks dad for helping with repairs and giving sound advice!

The yellow that didn't last long... way too bright. This room was painted 3 times, ended up being antique white.

Using my noggin to reach the high spots.

Our bedroom. We like this color.

Taking a break. Taupe paint is done, but about to rip up them carpets!

Dry rot before carpet and hardwood floors

I removed all the carpet from the upstairs dining room and hallway along with the stairs going downstairs. We opted for new grey carpet in the bedrooms. There was dry rot from old leakage from prior windows and thankfully my uncle Mike was able to help repair it before the carpet installers got to that room. Thanks!

front yard before and after

Completely dug up, new topsoil, new sod new shrubs. Jasmine from front transplanted to back.

Mike Moran watering after the new sod was put down:

azalea bushes and flowers in

Retaining wall back yard

We dug holes to cement in posts to build a wall. Basically, it also acts as a bench and has a bunch of roots from the humungous pine tree in my back yard. So, there's mulch and shrubs there now too.

What math do you think was involved in this project?

and this salamander, can you spot it?

Oh yeah, this test prep book thought D was the correct answer. I don't know what the correct answer besides a to the (9/4)th power.

Tan lines and comp books

Another trig joke:

Filled up the shopping cart, about 150 of them. One for each of my students.

Only a buck each, thanks Staples!

Active student brain breaks?

Haven't tried these yet.. Definitely can be used as a filler when breaking up a long period of time. Also allows some time to have fun. I like how most are pretty active and require some sort of thinking.

Trigonometry joke

Even if you don't know your trig identities you can probably guess what this means.

New kitchen blinds

Forget 3 day blinds! Got these from Loews, the brand is Levolor. Look nice, and are sturdy. Not hard to install.

Successful fire pit

Enjoying our firepit in my backyard the night of my 30th birthday party. My uncle Mike and I put it in. We bought it from Loew's thanks to a gift card from my uncle Sean and Bert. It was $200 but on sale for $160. Here it is in progress start to finish:

Picking a spot with 49 inch diameter and leveling the circle before putting sand on it.