I finally got all our camping pictures up on my Gallery.

There are lots of pictures of us hiking to Taughannock Falls. Check them out and you will know why Oscar was so pooped by the end of the day.

It's pretty early in the season but I still wanted to be prepared when we were camping. In an effort to keep yucky DEET and parabens out of our systems, I got Kiss My Face Swy Flotter (bah-hah!) and Face Factor sun block. It's an spf 30 for face and neck... gotta keep the wrinkles away.

I like that they are natural and organic. I also like their cute little bottles. They fit into a little bag to take with us on our hike.

Camp cooking experiments

We did some experimental camp cooking this weekend.

First we wrapped hot dogs in refridgerated bisquit dough.

When you grill the hot dog over hot coals, the bisquit bakes. Big pig in a blanket. Dip in ketchup. Dip in mustard. Yummers.

We also made special toasted marshmallows. You know how sometimes when you pull a toasted marshmallow off a stick all you get is the toasted "sleeve". That can work to your advantage.

While toasting the marshmallows, add mini candy bars to the end of the stick.

When you pull the marshmallow "sleeve" off, grab the candy bar inside of it.

Ho, ho, ho. Toasted marshmallow candy bars sleeves. Tasty!

Aaron also got to try out his new camp stove my parents found at a sale for us. Look at him tossing those sliced potatoes in the pan!

We went for a four mile hike around Taughannock Falls and Oscar was leading the way. There were some muddy parts and his under carriage got pretty dirty.

He was also pretty pooped by the time we got back to the campsite.

Really pooped.

Thanks to an unusually warm April we are already out camping.

Oscar was very excited to go camping. He was especially excited to try out his new dog lounger.

Oh and his little doggy sleeping bag. How cute is that?

I blogged about these Coleman pet camping supplies awhile ago. We ended up finding both the lounger and sleeping bag for a really good price at a Tuesday Morning.

I almost forgot to report back on the Friendship Bread. I really didn't know what to expect, but we baked it and it was DELICIOUS! Turns out it is a sweet bread... kind of like a coffee cake.

I took the starters to work to give out and everyone was suspicous until they tasted the bread. Joel and Shruti each got one. I had one for Tina or Aprille but another coworker tasted the bread and got it before they did.

That's okay, because contrary to what I previously stated... I kept one bag of starter for myself. So in ten days I will have more to give Tina and Aprille. It's that good. Soon we will all have gurgling bubbling bags slowly taking over our kitchens.

I wrote a post on 1000Words about Around the Table Panoramic pictures. I think it's a cool way to take pictures of your friends and family when you are gathered around a table together. Check it out and leave a comment there of what you think.

I am a pretty huge Method fan. So you can imagine how bummed I was when I found out they had an advocate program and NO ONE ASKED ME TO BE IN IT! *sniff*

Lucky Tiffanie is in it and got samples of their newest products.

Kid 3-in-1 shampoo and body wash. How cute are these containers?

Things to make your baby very clean. Bubble bath, body lotion, hair + body watch and diaper cream.

Toilet bowl cleaner and bathroom scrub. I love how the Le Scrub container had a notch in it to hold the scrubby. Great design!

I don't have a need to scrub any dirty kids or babies, but I am definitely getting some of the Lil' Bowl Blu and Le Scrub.

It all started when I was listening to NPR. I heard a report that Bisphenol A, which is found in number 7 plastics might cause cancer, early puberty and other nasty things.

So I googled it and found that even Nalgene, a local Rochester company by the way, has bottles made of number 7 and now they are pulling them off the shelves.

I kept finding more and more articles on the hazards of number 7 plastic and then I looked up what the story was on other kinds of plastic.

Well, I had heard enough. I've got enough to worry about without thinking my plastic containers are poisoning me. I already had a Sigg Bottle, but I still had a cupboard of plastic food containers.

I cleared them out of the cupboard for other uses like holding water for paintbrushes and went to Kmart and bought a set of Martha Stewart glass food storage containers.

We use a lot of containers for leftovers and for taking our lunches to work so I got a bunch of different shapes and sizes.

They are kinda heavy but the lids (made of "generally safe" number 4 plastic) seal well. Once again, thank you Martha.

I am loving my new "watering can". A Twist and spout garden spout. It's actually just a spout I can screw onto used soda bottles.

(I guess this is my Earth Day post... seeing as how I almost missed the fact it was Earth Day because my stupid Domo calendar made it look like it was last week. Next monday is the 26th again by the way. It worked out though... since it's kinda green to reuse a soda bottle instead of throwing it out.)

It's grilling season again! We were picking up the steaks at Wegmans when we tried a sample of grilled baby portabella mushrooms and grape tomatoes. I think we have a new favorite summer side dish.

I am also into cooking our corn on the cob on the grill wrapped in foil.

The weather in Rochester has been amazing. We have never had our yard and garden ready so early in the spring.

Aaron put together the potting table he got me for Christmas. (Why are they sometimes called potting benches? You can't sit on them)

I used it to pot a new rosemary plant. Potting plants has never been easier.

Ginger the cow is back in residence at the Pittsford Dairy.

I finally remembered to bring her a granola bar and she sucked it down in a nanosecond. Very anticlimactic.

When Aaron and I were in NYC we stopped into a CB2. He shook his head when he saw me pick up these little bud vases. I have a bad habit of buying things that are going to be a challenge to get home on the plane.

I got them anyhow and I am so glad I did. They are tiny, about the size of a lemon, just right for these little blooms.

CB2 had so many cool vases! I love the hanging ones! It was hard to limit myself.

There is another grey mini just like mine in my office parking lot. Like magnets we always seem to park near each other. Today I found "the other mini" snuggled up right behind mine.

You can imagine how many times I have stood next to the "the wrong mini" repeatedly pressing the unlock button with frustration until I realize it's not mine.

I have even tried to distinguish my mini from "the other mini". I added a Domo antennae ball.

And a Cram Cream mushroom air freshner. I still try to get in "the wrong mini" on a regular basis.

I had a brainstorm last night. We were getting ready to make banana bread with four bananas that were over ripe. Usually we add chocolate chips, but this time I thought... let's add peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows! Combined with the banana it will be like a fluffer nutter baked into bread!

I present to you Jenny's Fluffer Nutter Bread.

I also got to use the Martha Stewart silicone bread pan I got for Christmas. The loaf popped right out. Very nice.

Here is the recipe.

Ljc's Fluffernutter Bread

4 over ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Smash together bananas and butter in a large bowl with a spoon. Mix egg,vanilla and sugar into bananas. Mix in baking soda and salt. Mix in flour. Mix in peanut butter chips and marshmallows. Butter and flour a 4x8 in loaf pan. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for one hour.

As demonstrated here... Dutch Babies are pretty easy to make. But I thought I should point out that Williams Sonoma sells an organic Dutch Baby mix now.

I like mine with berries and cream, but the apples look good too.

When I was in high school, someone gave me a zip lock baggie of oozing friendship bread starter. The idea is you let the goo age for 10 days, add ingredients and then you bake it into a loaf of bread. The friendship part comes in when you separate a portion of that aged starter into other bags and give it to friends to make their own bread. And so on. And so forth.

I was obsessed with it. I kept making it. And it kept growing more. Soon we ran out of family members to give the bubbling bags of starter to, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. Throw out friendship?! There were gurgling, burping zip lock bags all over our kitchen and my mom finally had to throw them out bringing an end to my manaical bread production streak.

When I came home last week, this was on our kitchen counter. Ack! A coworker bequeathed Aaron with a gooey bag of friendship bread starter. We have begun the process of Day 1 - mush bag, Day 2 - mush bag, Day 3 - mush bag... etc.

This time I am giving away all the starter. I cannot allow our house to become a friendship bread breeding ground.

Tina, Shruti, Aprille and Joel. Prepare yourselves. In a few days you've got some friendship coming your way.

I was admiring Starbuck's new cup design with their older logo when Aaron pointed out what I thought were stirrers. "What strange little stirrers!" I thought.

Then he showed me that these "stirrers" were actually little plugs for the sippy hole in the lid. What a great idea!

I can't tell you how many times I have been transporting one or more cups of hot coffee only to have the coffee slosh out the little sippy holes all over me. One of our Starbucks even kept a scotch tape dispenser on the counter for people to tape the holes shut in an effort to stop the sloshing. I have seen Aaron unsuccessfully stuff a napkin in the hole on many occasions.

Now we can use the little plastic pluggy thingys to stop up the cup lid sippy holes.

I was looking to see if more people had reusable bags in San Francisco. Not sure if I noticed more than usual, but I did see some cool ones.

The flip and tumble bag rolls into a little ball and then pops open for use.

I like these Reisenthel bags that smoosh down into little pouches and snap onto your keychain.

Aaron got tickets to the Redwings Season Opener. We didn't stay for the whole game since I am still not 100% and it got pretty chilly... but it really helped it feel more like spring is taking hold.

I was still feeling pretty sick today so I stayed home from work. I got to see what Oscar and Stewie do all day when I am at work. This is about it. Follow sunbeams from room to room.

I made myself get up and go outside for some fresh air. Thought Domo should get to see at least a little of San Francisco before we go home.

Domo likes Citizen Cupcake.

Domo likes Lush. Domo plans on taking a bubble bath later.

I'm in San Francisco for another conference. It's been rough though. I went from getting on the plane thinking "Hmmm, I feel off" to getting off the plane thinking "OMG, I'm gonna die." I managed to hold out until my session where I whispered my presentation into the microphone. It went well though and everyone was great. Even the hotel staff offered to send chicken soup up to my room. How nice.

Not even Jamba Juice with an immunity boost could help. Blah.