My little helper

Last night, my parents came over for dinner and a game of canasta.  We had reason to celebrate!  My dad was laid off about 6 or 7 years ago from his company in California.  Since then, he's either been unemployed, or underemployed.  It's been really hard for him to find a job because of his age and his qualifications.  But, for the last 3 years, he's been doing seasonal work; however, last week, he was offered a permanent job at his company!  We were so excited.  He's still "over-qualified" for this job, but after 7 years of wishing he had full-time work, he couldn't be more thrilled.  So were we.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided I should make some dessert.  I thought of a Key Lime pie recipe that I have because it's super easy.  So, I started to work.  My sweet little helper, Juliet, made things a little more difficult.  She loves to come in the kitchen and open the drawers, which she can now reach.  She's not allowed to pull things out of them, with the exception of my apron/oven mitt drawer.  She promptly opened that drawer and removed all of its contents.  Since she wanted so badly to "help", I decided to put mommy's favorite apron on her.

It's so funny because I totally missed one step of the pie-making process and completely left out one ingredient too!  Despite that, the pie tasted great.  It also looked pretty yummy too.  I took a photo of it. 

Mmmmm.... meringue!  So, dinner was delicious, the pie tasted great, and Juliet didn't distract too badly.  However, I've decided I MUST buy some adorable fabric and make her a little apron of her own.  She'll need it when I start teaching her about cooking anyway!  

As a side note, I made a delicious salad the other day for dinner, and it looked so beautiful I just had to show you.  

It's a super-easy summer salad.  Here are the ingredients:

~ Romaine lettuce and spinach

~ Strawberries

~ Pan-cooked chicken breast, salted and peppered.  I also used Wildtree's Med. Balsamic Grapeseed dipping oil

~ Crumbled cheese, feta, goat, or bleu cheese (I used goat cheese)

~ Balsamic vinaigrette

Nuts would also be good on this, especially a candied nut, like pecan or walnut.  YUM!!!  Alas, I had no nuts...but this salad was still amazing!