Pinaceae family in our neighborhood.

Today we sauntered with camera in hand capturing the beautiful pine buds. I have been trying to find the name of all the variety of pines we found. At least we were able to differentiate spruce from pines:-). Pines and Spruce are of the Pinaceae family.
At this time of the year all the pine cones are in the bud stage and they will develop into cones (flowers) as the summer moves in. We are planning to go back in few weeks and picture the mature cones. Also planning to add "The Life Cycle of a Pine Tree" by Linda Tagliaferro to our summer reading.

Jack Pine, Norway or Red Pine (Pinus Resinosa), Scot Pine, White Pine (Pinus Strobus) and White and Blue spruce are the popular ones in Michigan.



Spruce

Red Pine



Some mature pine cones.

Yummy Blueberry Buckle

Wow! this was really amazing and I'm so proud of the results.

Recipe from SimplyRecipes





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Baked Chicken Pasta

Another one dish dinner.

Ingredients -
cooked pasta/onions/garlic/tomatoes/zucchini/cooked chicken/basil/salt/pepper/mozzarella & parmesan cheese

In a skillet cook onions and garlic. When the onions turn translucent add zucchini followed by cooked chicken and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. When the veggies are cooked (browned) mix in cooked pasta. Transfer the pasta and veggies to a baking dish and layer with parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Berry Muffins

Two days old strawberries were lying untouched in the fruit basket with no one showing interest to consume. Any withered berries and bananas can be used for making muffins. I got this recipe from Joy Of Baking. One thing I liked about this particular recipe is it did not need any butter so with no much planning and prep work the muffins were ready in few minutes.

The ingredients are all-purpose flour/granulated white sugar/baking powder/baking soda/salt/zest of orange/egg/buttermilk/canola oil/vanilla extract/strawberries

The procedure is like any other muffin mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then mix them together or in other words fold them with no lumps and towards the end add the berries and fold.



Adopted the same recipe for Blueberry Muffins. The result was awesome.

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Sunday night dinner

Sunday nights are the lazy nights. Kottu paratha is something no one would say 'no' to and a neat quick fix dinner. It can be categorized as a sumptuous street food.
The other day while watching Anthony Boudain's show on travel channel came to know Kottu paratha is very popular in Sri Lanka. I always thought its origin was Tamil Nadu.