Meal Planning Monday

Perhaps you're as hungry for hands-off, simple, wholesome meals as I am?  Here's what we ate last week.  I'm bringing back Meal Planning Monday!  If you want to join in, leave a link in the comments.  Please.  Mama wants more easy recipes!

Monday: "Leftovers buffet", watermelon lemonade (used this whole fruit limeade recipe as a base- blended the watermelon first, then added a halved lemon and let it blend a little longer.  I strained all the pulp out, and didn't need any extra sugar.

Tuesday: chicken salsa soup (chicken broth, salsa, leftover shredded chicken, corn from the freezer) with tortilla strips, sourdough bread, sliced cucumber (Bread baking day)

Wednesday: quinoa cooked in broth, sliced cucumber, brown sugar chicken thighs in the crockpot (it was OK, nothing spectacular, but sometimes that's best for kids!)  Used up the rest of the strawberry ice cream I made Sunday, with lemon-lime soda from the chicken (it calls for a 1/4 cup) and had the kids' first-ever ice cream floats.  They were seriously impressed.

Thursday: Mushroom and egg tart with criminis.  A family favorite- easy to pull together if you caramelize the onions and mushrooms earlier in the day.

Friday: Family outing for sushi, to celebrate Ernie's successful performance in the summer camp play production.  (Bread baking day, and pie.)

Saturday: Sandwich and movie night with the kids.  Baked s'mores for dessert.  (Bread baking day again.  Turns out we really, really like sourdough.)

Sunday:  Shared a meal at our friend's house- he smoked an enormous brisket, and we brought sourdough bread.  He served greens, melon, baked potatoes, and corn.  Dessert was a dutch oven blueberry cobbler and homemade dulce de leche ice cream.  Yes, he and his wife are PHENOMENAL chefs.

An easy week, with very little hands-on prep at dinner time.  I like it, the kids like it, and everyone ate well!

November 14th (Recipe: Browned Butter-Buttermilk Pie)

I'm back!  Honestly, I was kind of shattered, emotionally, after that reception.  Do you ever get that way after a big project finishes?



Saturday was a driving day for me.  I can't remember the last time I drove that much in a day!

• 8:30-10:00, receive produce at the co-op site, divide it into basket.  Go home and see my baby.
• 10:30-11:30, take the girls to the library.  Go home and see my baby.
• 1:00-2:00, use my two-day coupon at Michael's for loads more wire.  I cleaned them out, actually.  I took E with me.  Go home and see my baby.

The rest of the day was chores, and shooing Wonder Daddy out the door to his last dress rehearsal.  Oh yes, he's been a busy boy- rehearsals were once a week, and then twice a week, and this past week they had him Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday.  Plus a two-hour curtain call before the show on Sunday.

BUT.  His show, He Is Jesus Christ (a cantata with soloists, choir, narration, and FULL orchestra written by Rob Gardner) was Sunday evening.  It was amazing.  Eight years of marriage, and I've never seen my husband perform.  Do you know any performing artists?  If you've never seen them on a stage, you've never seen them.  

My husband really, REALLY doesn't like to dance.  When he was in high school, his dad got an electric guitar for Christmas- Wonder Daddy took it to his basement bedroom, and didn't come out for weeks, except to eat.  He lived and breathed guitars when he was in high school.  While everyone else was building gun racks and boxes in wood shop, he built a new electric guitar.  When everyone else was dancing at the church dances, he put together a band and performed the music!  (Remember?  Loathes dancing?)  

Wonder Daddy sang the part of Pilate, the Roman governor who gave the Jewish citizens permission to crucify Jesus.  He made me bawl like a baby- luckily for me, a show about the Savior, in a church building, makes a lot of people bawl like a baby.  I didn't stand out too much :)  I was so very, very proud of him.  And so very tired from everything that's going on.  And so wrapped up in the message of the show.  And so happy for him to have this chance.  And so sad I wasn't on that stage.

That last part sounds ugly.  Yeah, I tried out.  Yeah, I didn't get one of the soloist parts.  (The ladies who DID get them were phenomenal!)  But.... you know, I feel the same way at most concerts.  Is that bad?  That I can be at a Johnny Lang, or a Trans-Siberian-Orchestra, or a Farm Aid concert...and think "Hey!  I wish I could be on that stage with them!"  I absolutely knew going in that I wouldn't have time to join the choir- they've been having nigh rehearsals since September, and that wasn't going to happen with a busy husband, and three small kids who need to get to bed on time.  I'm pretty sure, now, that I wouldn't have been able to do a solo part either without a looot of difficulty, and a lot of stress on my  kids.  I'll have time later.  I think.

 

Anywho.   I really came here today to talk about pie.  You need this pie, but if you eat this pie...eat nothing else.  With three eggs, 2 egg yolks, and 3/4 of a stick of butter, there's no messing around here!  BUT (and this is a big but.  Ahem.) You need this pie.

 I cook a lot.  A lot, a lot.  And this is the best thing to come out of my kitchen in a long time!  Crispy pie crust.  Soft custard.  Nutmeg that floats to the top.  Add this to your Thanksgiving line up, folks.

(If you don't subscribe to Martha's "Everyday Food" magazine, PLEASE do.  It's that good.)

Brown-Sugar buttermilk pie
from Everyday Food originally, in my own words

3 Tbsp flour
3 large egg eggs, plus two more large yolks, beaten
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1. Press your favorite single-crust pie crust into a glass pan, and bake at 425 for about 10 minutes.
2. Put 6 tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pan on the stove, over medium heat, for 8-10 minutes and let it melt and cook.  It's going to froth up, and it's going to turn brown.  Swirl the pan occasionally, especially towards the end.  When the froth subsides, and it's nut-brown, it's done!
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, eggs, and brown sugar until smooth.  Whisk in buttermilk, nutmeg, and cinnamon until combined.  This pie, with such small amounts of spices, is already heavily spiced.  I wouldn't recommend increasing them at all.
4. When the butter is done, immediately whisk it into the buttermilk mixture.  It will foam up dramatically, be prepared!  Pour mixture into baked pie shell, and bake at 425 for 25-35 minutes, until the custard is set but still jiggly.  This will continue to cook a bit as it cools.
5. Let cool completely, 2 hours, before serving.  Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

(If you use this pie crust recipe, you won't be sorry!  It mixes together with a fork, IN THE PIE PLATE.  Then you just smash it out with your finger tips.  No rising, either, so it's perfect for this.  My  mom has always, as long as I've known her, left her pie crust behind when she eats pie.  It's just wasted calories, when she could be eating more filling! She ate this crust, and relished it :)  

The Fall Event (and Marshmallow Popcorn Treats Recipe)

These seasonal "events" are a HUGE deal for Ernie.  Huge.  We started a year ago, hosting other kids once a season to celebrate all that season has to offer, make a huge mess, (and do everything I thought Ernie might be missing by not attending school class parties.)  Oddly, the majority of my friends have switched to home schooling the past year or two, so we get a really great mix of ages.  This time we had 13 kids, ranging from Wonder Boy up to a 3rd grader.

I think this event was our best yet, and I'll tell you why.

1. We had it in the afternoon, instead of the morning.  No over due naps, and no rushing!
2. The girls helped decorate.  (The pipe cleaners.  They're "crazy candy canes" and Ernie was having a blast making them up in bulk and finding places to put them.)

3.  Marshmallow Popcorn treats.  Yes, it's your favorite rice crispy treats, but made with popcorn.  And yes, it's amazing.  (Plus, I always have popcorn on hand- cereal, not so much.)  I think some of the toddlers spent the bulk of the party just noshing on these.  I subbed shortening for the butter to make them dairy-free, and added a splash of vanilla.   Thanks Wonder Daddy for snapping this picture! (Recipe is at the end of this post.)

4.  We chose 2 of our favorite-of-the-moment crafts and had them set up on the table.  We had paper sacks to decorate, for kids to put their candy in after Halloween, and we had supplies for q-tip skeletons.

5.  The moms, for the most part, sat in my sunny school room and watched Wonder Boy-- and whichever toddlers were there at the moment -- play.

6.  The moms were able to sit and gab, BECAUSE I set everything up and then turned the kids loose.  The kindergarten boy who loves to build things?  He lugged enormous rocks from the woods, and dead branches, and built a tee-pee on the lawn.  The toddlers who just want to orbit around Mom?  They played with baby toys and ate snacks.  The kids who never get hungry?  Had a hey-dey in the playroom downstairs.  (Seriously, I think they dumped out every single box of toys...and then their moms "helped" them put EVERYTHING away before they left.  Best thing ever!)  

Ernie made what she called "homemade bracelets" for everyone before they came- they were pipecleaners, twisted at the ends to make a loop.  I thought she was pretty thoughtful to do that, and we turned the girls loose on our beads-n-beans sensory bucket, to fill up their bracelets with beads.

This party was so relaxed, and so easy to get ready for.  Everyone did exactly what they wanted to do, without me cajoling kids to line up for a game, or leave the toys to come have snack.  (WHY has that been the normal for every party before this??  No more!)  More importantly, everyone had a great time, the kids were all fantastic, and I can't wait to do our Winter Event.  I feel so lucky to have friends close by we can gather with, who are such good friends for my kids!

Marshmallow Popcorn Treats

Makes two 9x13 pans- can be halved

Pop one cup of popcorn.

In a large pot over medium low heat, melt 3/4 cup shortening.  (You can certainly use butter here- I made these dairy free on purpose.)  Add 1 large bag of mini marshmallows, about 10 cups, and melt them, stirring occasionally.  You want to keep the heat low, so the sugar doesn't cook too much and make your treats crispy!  Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popcorn, and mix quickly before it cools off too much.  I did this in another large pot, or you could do it in batches in a big bowl.  This is a LOT of popcorn!  The easiest way is to grease your hands and just dig in and mix it around- wait just a minute or two for the sugar to cool enough to handle.

Press lightly into two well-greased 9x13 pans and let cool.  Turn onto a cutting board and cut into squares.

First Week Done (Recipe: Sweet Potato and Carrot "Mac and Cheese")

We made it through the first week of first grade homeschooling...oh man.  The first few days were rough, I can't lie.  We tried doing school in the afternoon, we tried doing school in the late morning, we tried doing school instead of nap time (ACKK!  Never again!)  In the end, it worked best to start after breakfast around 8, so we could be done by 9:30 or 10:00.  Haha, not that you need to know that level of detail!  Consider this as me decompressing.  Ernie loves her new curriculum, and we're both really looking forward to this year (especially since a few of her good friends are starting home school this year too.  Hooray!  Finding friends to play with is hard when everyone's in school and I teach in the afternoons a few days a week.)

I actually got my big camera out today- we had our cousin over (Ming Wai) and I wanted to capture the day.

This big girls came up for a dancing party- Jack Johnson was a great sound track for this!  All the girls are totally digging skirts right now.  Ironically, both of my girls were wearing skirts made by Aunt LoLo...and Aunt LoLo's daughter was wearing a skirt handed down from Ernie.



Wonder Boy did what he does best in the middle of a room full of girls.



Yeah, he's playin' it cool.



If this kid naps or falls asleep, it's most likely in my lap after a snack (but that never lasts long) or he drifts off during blanket time, in the middle of everything.  If he just won't sleep in the evening, most of the time I'll stick him on a blanket and just do my own thing until he falls asleep!

Lunch.  I cut up TWO POUNDS of strawberries, and made 5 sandwiches.  The girls ate it all.  Lunatics.  I was going to make a pie with the leftover strawberries, who knew they could eat so much?



Later in the afternoon, I saw our new neighbors had arrived...and there was a little girl carrying things from the truck!  We packed up a fresh loaf of bread, a gallon of homemade lemonade, and some cups, and trooped over to say hi.

I realized later that while that all sounds great, I actually stink at being nice.  The bread wasn't sliced yet, and now she has to remember to bring back my pitcher.  Smooth.  Plus, I think I scared the daughter.  She came back with us to play in the yard.  I wouldn't let them play in the house (mean!) and I kind of ripped into Ernie when I came outside and found they'd nearly stripped my strawberry bushes bare.  They'd even eaten the green ones!  So, I wasn't yelling, but I get the feeling she wasn't used to seeing kids being PARENTED in front of her.  Luckily, none of my kids got a stomach ache, I hope the neighbor girl was as lucky!

Ah, here we have Mimi basically collapsed, waiting for dinner.  How can these kids be so hungry?



I totally scored with dinner tonight, thanks to Aunt LoLo.  I'll let you know when she posts her real recipe on the cooking blog, but I steamed two sweet potatoes and three carrots in the microwave, while sauteeing 2 onions with some oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Once everything was nice and soft, I threw it all in the blender with a can of evaporated milk and whizzed it smooth.  Half went into the freezer for later, and the other half got added to a pound of hot pasta, with a few handfuls of Tillamook cheddar and some splashes of pasta water to smooth it out.  The kids all ate THIRD helpings, and my husband ate an enormous bowl of it (and he despises sweet potatoes in all forms.  I have found the only sweet potato preparation on this earth that he will eat.)

Lunch Now and Later

Lunch today.  You want this.  At least Ernie was excited!  (It's hummus.  Please ignore my lack of food styling finesse.)  I'm pretty sure if you pair up corn chips with bean hummus, it's a healthy lunch.  There was milk involved, too.





This concrete is where a hot tub used to be.  Now it has three garbage cans of mulched leaves, and a whole lotta dismantled retaining wall.  Wait till you see what we have planned!!




Cole crops!  They're sprouted!  In fact, everything but the brussels sprouts have sprouted...I don't know why I'm surprised, since those same seeds never sprouted last year either....durrr.  The kids are pretty excited to see these little green things, and I'm really hoping that means some cruciferous vegetables will be eaten in a few months.  Yum.

Mr. Baby Face has been a bad napper this week, and we've had insane and hail when he HAS slept....but by golly, I WILL get my peas and spinach planted soon!  I've been watching Spring start to happen around here- most of my bulbs are sending up shoots, the azaleas and rhodies are budding out, and so are the raspberries and (new!!) blueberries.  The birds are coming back- robins, blue jays, crows, and finches.  No starlings yet, though.  All their spring songs are so different, Ernie keeps asking me what the noises that she hears are!  The squirrels are still running around, but that's no big surprise, they've used our deck stairs and railing as a highway all winter.  The railing is actually a launching/landing pad for them, because the highway runs across the deck you see above, up the stair railing, onto the upper deck railing, and then they LEAP into the cedar tree that's nearby.  (Then down the trunk, and onto the fence, and off to who knows where.)  We're going to trim that cedar tree soon, it's practically growing onto the deck.  And boy does my husband want  a camera running when the first squirrel leaps off the deck to the tree branch that used to be there.  

A Lot of Eggs, All of them Good

I'm lucky enough to still be in touch with some girlfriends from high school/middle school (I KNOW!!) and we've been making a point of meeting up once a month for the last little bit.  We had a fabulous jambalaya spread at K's swanky downtown apartment, we had a caroling party at Aunt LoLo's, we had a Chinese feast at Aunt LoLo's...and it was my turn to host, so we had an afternoon tea party.  So, so fun.  Especially for certain little girls in our families.  (And an ecstatic little boy.)

The spread: carrot cake, scones, rooibos chai, hot cocoa, cucumber sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, fresh bread with nutella, curd, and peppermint meringues.

Unfortunately, we were too busy dealing with the kids' enthusiasm to take any pictures.  BUT, I took pictures before hand!  (Of what I made, at least.)

(You know what else I did before hand?  I took a gamble that the baby would let me sleep that night, and spent an hour and a half cleaning the house.  I started at one end --our bedroom-- folding laundry, and finished up on the other -- the kitchen-- sweeping.  The baby did NOT let me sleep that night, but by golly I had a clean house!)

There, isn't that pretty?  Grapefruit-meyer lemon curd, and peppermint meringues.



The curd used 3 eggs and 4 egg yolks...that's a lot of eggs!  I saved the 4 egg whites to make a double batch of meringues, and Ernie decided they should be pink.  Win-win situation, yes?  The kids adored these cookies- I think Mimi had six, and then snagged a few more after the party while I was cleaning up.  They tasted like concentrated candy canes, so I'd use way less mint extract next time but that's just personal preference.  I cooked them in a 200 degree oven for 2 hours, and then left them in the (turned off) oven for another few hours and pulled them out just before the party.  They got nice and crispy, with no browning, on my silicone baking mats.



Another thing that happened on Saturday?  This book came.  It's awesome.



It's called "Vintage Notions" and is a compilation of excerpts from newsletters printed by Mary Pickens, founder of a women's college for domestic sciences.  She's like a mix of Martha Stewart and Gordon Hinckley!  Seriously, she's talented in everything, and has such a sunny outlook on life.  I love this book, and I love that Su, at Vively Online, hosted a giveaway and sent it to me :)  Thanks, Su!!

(The page you're looking at there has a "magic pattern" for an apron- instructions on how to take a yard of fabric and turn it into a pull over apron.  And, of course, it's an amazing vintage style because the pattern was written in the 1920's.  Very awesome.)

Keeping Warm

Every February that I can remember, living at my parents' current house, we had a late snow that took *everyone* by surprise, but wasn't a big deal...except at my house.  Our street was seemingly always just above the snow line, and was just windy and steep enough that when everyone else was driving to school and to work, we were sliding backwards down the hill praying that we wouldn't end up in the ravine.  (Shortly after they moved in, one neighbor's wife very  nearly DID end up in the ravine.)  It doesn't help that there's a gate at the top of the street, so if no one remembered to lock it open the night before you'd have to stop and wait for it to swing open...and by that time, you'd slid all the way back down!

Anyway, February is almost over, and we've got our snow.  And the snow has basically come and gone (and left some very cold temps behind) EXCEPT in our neighborhood.  We still have about 6 inches, our front steps are covered in at least half an inch of ice, and this afternoon I found out how to get Ernie interested in going outside.

Do you see what they're doing?  Two spray bottles, five drops of "neon pink" food dye each, a couple cups of water...they had a blast.  I envisioned them making pictures....maybe faces...but I forgot that I handed this project to Ernie.  She informed me, after coming inside, that she needed to go back out tomorrow to "finish" coloring the snow pink.  She won't rest until it's ALL COLORED IN.  

You like their outfits?  I won the "sock" battle, they're both wearing socks.  I told Ernie to put some pants on, and I can see (in the first picture) that she complied by putting on madras shorts.  They coordinate with her short little skirt.  *sigh*

While the girls seem totally oblivious to the need to stay warm, I've been warming my belly with some Korean cooking this week.



Doesn't that just look HOT??  The recipe is here, it's called "dok boki."  The rice cakes/rice sticks were found at a local asian market, a Chinese brand.  These are AMAZING.  Think super chewy mochi, you boil the rock hard rice sticks until they're all bendy, then cut and pan fry in lots of oil.  I don't keep Korean chili paste around, so I used equal parts Sriracha and soy sauce, with a bit of sugar and some seasoned rice vinegar for my sauce, then sprinkled on lots of sesame seeds.  I used more sugar than the recipe called for, and still these are SPICY.  Oh my.  So, so, so good.  And, since no one else in my family likes spicy in the least little bit, all for me!  I've thoroughly enjoyed my lunches this week :)

Cooking in the Rice Cooker

I kept trying to think what to write...I'm not really "crafting" anything right now....my amazing energy spurt was rather short lived....BUT, I've actually been preparing meals!  My dad is a bit clairvoyant, and just *knew* that we needed a new rice cooker for Christmas.  I received a plain-jane cooker as a wedding gift- little metal pot, held about 6 scoops of rice, with an "on" button that popped up when the rice was done.  This new one?



For one thing, this one is BIG.  A 20-cup capacity means no more asking Aunt LoLo to bring rice to family functions!  A non-stick pot means no more hours of soaking after every batch of rice.  It even has a little cup near the lid hinge to collect the condensation before it drips on the counter, how nifty is that?

My kids adore white rice.  Actually, my kids love most anything white.  Bread, mashed potatoes, rice, cereal, pasta, tatties and neeps, crackers...if it is processed and pale, they are all over it like ...white on rice.  So, predictably, there have been big salty tears at the dinner table this week, especially when the toddler girl comes running to the table, clapping and cheering in anticipation of me opening up the rice pot...only to find NOT white rice.  Poor baby.  Someday she'll forgive for not letting her subsist on a diet of processed foods.

Anyway.  Recipes!  I've had way too much fun with this rice cooker (do you do anything fancy with yours??)

• Oatmeal for breakfast.  Super easy way to get a hot breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning.  Takes longer to cook, but there's no tending!
• Brown/wild rice cooked in chicken stock with black pepper and onions.  I love cooking quinoa this way too.  But be aware, this took nearly an hour and a half in the rice cooker on the "brown rice" setting.  It turned out amazing, but don't be putting your rice in at 5:00 and expecting dinner any time soon.  Just saying.
• Rice with squash.  I cubed a danish/acorn squash, threw it in the steamer basket sprinkled with dried rosemary, and just let the squash cook while the pot of rice bubbled away.  It turned out FANTASTIC, especially served with a quick dipping sauce of soy sauce/peanut butter/sweet chili sauce/and a bit of water.  Oh, I'm not kidding anybody: I hogged most of the sauce and dumped it straight into my bowl.  Too bad no one else in my family likes spicy and peanut all in the same sentence!
• Steamed gyoza-  I haven't done this in years, since I prefer my potstickers pan fried, but it's super easy to throw frozen pot stickers into the steamer basket to cook while your rice cooks below.  Plus, it flavors the rice a bit.  Yummy!  I'm excited, because I have bags and bags of homemade potstickers in the freezer that I know the kids will LOVE, even if they're steamed and not pan fried!
• Tapioca pudding.  This was probably the messiest thing I've done, because it bubbled up a bit and I ended up cleaning out a gummy lid.  But still, to soak the tapioca for a bit and throw everything from my favorite recipe into a rice cooker, and just walk away?  Definitely worth a bit of cleaning up afterwards!  Just don't walk away too far- most recipes call for using a "porridge" setting that I don't have, so you DO want to stick around to check on it once in a while and stop the process when it's thickened.

So, nothing TERRIBLY fancy yet from our rice cooker, but still so nice to shut the lid and press a button!  It's like a crockpot...but faster.  And it cooks rice perfectly.  Yeah.

Cooking

Cooking, cooking....how LONG TILL THIS BUN IS DONE?!?!!

Sorry, I'm kind of completely insane these days. Tonight's the full moon, right?? So....lots of ladies have their babies on the full moon. I'm sure it even works on ladies who by all historical records have another MONTH before any chance a trip to the hospital.

Sigh :)

But, I've been keeping busy cooking other things, too! I'm lucky enough to have a good friend with good kitchen skills, similar taste in food, and a daughter Mimi's age (her Ernie-aged daughter is in school during the days, much to Ernie's chagrin.) We've had a few cooking sessions, and the chest freezer is bursting at the seams!

• A double batch of spinach and feta turnovers made about 20 for each of us.  I made these before Mimi's birth as well, HUGE hit with the husband!
• A double batch of my favorite gyoza/potsticker recipe made about 80 for each of us (and cleaned the local grocery store of its entire stock of round dumpling wrappers)
• A quadruple batch of my favorite biscuits, and we each have about 35 biscuits cut and frozen away for a soup night. (And can I say, I make a good biscuit?? Try the recipe!)
• A triple batch of butternut gnocchi gave us each two trays full (and we ran out of time and tray space to make the potato/ricotta gnocchi- those are still to come!)

All those things, plus gallon bags of sloppy joe mix, beans, chili, and soup. Oh, and about 20 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese, plus mozzarella and parmesan. Add another 40 or so pounds of chicken breasts in various whole, cubes, strips, and cooked/diced variations. Yes. We shall eat well!

PS- Wonder Daddy says I was photo bombed by the hippo.  What do you think?

The Week Of Thanksgiving

++Updated to fix the picture links, thanks!++

The weather man warned us that we may get some snow...maaaaaybe an inch, he said. Hi there, 4 inches later, our half of the state is SHUT DOWN. Outsiders may laugh, but we have nasty hills, no one even knows how to use chains, we don't have enough snow plows or sand trucks, and our snow is...ahem...slicker n' snot. It's true. It took my husband 3 hours to get home from downtown yesterday- when he called to tell me he was OK, he was STOPPED on the freeway and watching cars slide. Stopped cars.

The girls had fun making snow angels... mostly. (See those scrunched up eyes??)

 ...sort of. Mimi didn't think it was funny at all to be in snow up to her shins, but she (for some reason) despises her boots. I figured 15 seconds of standing in the snow in sneakers wouldn't hurt her!

This is what our yard looks like this afternoon- all that wonderful sunshine is making indoors look nice and cozy indeed, especially since I know that it's about 23 degrees outside!

Ernie is industriously working on her Christmas friends for "kids that she loves." (I think that's code for cousins...) She's making these, and we're not telling the kids that there are toys inside! Toy dinosaurs, actually. She picked them out herself- when I suggested bouncy balls, she cocked her head and thoughtfully said "Nooo....Ming Wai already HAS a bouncy ball!" Alrighty then. One word of caution, though- she grated up the soap yesterday, and that was all good, and made two snowballs out of this first bar, but by the end of the second snow ball she was starting to get a little teary-eyed, because her hands itched SOOOO much! Dry weather is dry skin, and soap itches! (Yes, I finished up this ball for her!)

We've been enjoying being cozied up in the house, but I think the kids are starting to get a bit stir crazy. A friend brought over a bag FULL of Korean goodies yesterday from her freezer, and we've been keeping our bellies toasty drinking cinnamon juice over ice, mixed with milk to calm down the spice a bit. I'm not sure what she put in there, but when she warned us that even Koreans only drink demitasse cups at a time, she wasn't kidding! Mimi is a champ, and drinks it straight up. When I tried that last night, I very nearly went into labor...definitely something to remember for a few months from now! So yeah, drink it over ice...with half milk, half cinnamon juice. Scrummy!

She also brought a bag full of frozen kimchi, which is DIVINE. Fishy, spicy, and delicious! She knew I've been craving kimchi fiercely for months, but I'm disappointed whenever I purchase it, and couldn't face making an entire batch just for myself and my sister, since I don't know anyone else who would eat it!

I'm making my final list of pies for Thanksgiving, here's what's on the docket:

Brown-Eyed Baker's Dutch Apple Pie
Sunset's Pumpkin Pie
Taste of Home's Pineapple Meringue Pie (I've made this for years, it's delicious and totally unexpected!)
Peach-A-Berry Pie, from All Recipes (I have frozen peaches from this summer, and frozen raspberries from the garden)
Lemon Chess Pie, from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook! blog

My only issues...I'm short ONE EGG for this list, and I only have two nice pie pans- all my remaining pans are depressingly shallow, tin affairs left over from frozen pies. My sister has 3 pie pans for me to borrow...but her house is halfway up a small mountain (true story) and the roads are nothing but ice. The peach pie could easily become a gallette, and I think the pineapple meringue and dutch apple will just need to be cooked in square bakers. Yeah? Yeah. I'm just grateful the weather should warm up by Thursday afternoon, so we can have a family dinner! (Oh, I'm in charge of green bean casserole, too, but I'm going to make a sauce based on this recipe I came up with a few weeks ago, easy peasy!)

Glass Noodles with Shrimp and Cucumber

In search of a dinner for tonight, I thought about the "glass noodles" (mung bean thread noodles) that I keep in the pantry- they're quick to make, love sauces, and don't heat up the kitchen. Granted, our 65-and-cloudy days don't CARE if the kitchen is heated up or not, but I do! Tonight I had cucumbers, basil from the garden, and "poached shrimp." Gosh, I love that euphemism for "I filled a pyrex cup full of water and nuked some frozen shrimp." Drained and set aside to cool on ice, they were pretty good. The girls topped their noodles with just cucumber and yoshida sauce, but the sweet chili sauce and soy I coated mine is was perfect. Do you like spicy? I do. Nuanced, and balanced with something else sweet or smoky, I love spice!

This takes about 20 minutes from pantry to table, dirties on pan, and some bowls. Definite win!

Serves 4
Glass Noodles with Shrimp and Cucumber
4 bundles glass noodles (mung bean thread noodles)
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped a few times into large pieces
cucumber, halved, seeded, and sliced
5-10 shrimp, cooked
2-4 Tablespoons oil
basil leaves
Sauce (sweet chili sauce, soy, terriyaki, etc.)


Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a wok over high heat until it smokes- add the onions and garlic, and stir for a few minutes until they smell good and are softened. Scrape into a bowl and set aside. Add more oil to the wok if you need to and let it heat. Add noodles and stir fry quickly until translucent, about 2 minutes- they want to stick together, so stir and separate and lift as best you can. Scrape noodles into a bowl and set aside.

Let everyone make their own noodle bowls, and top with sauce.

Chirashizushi and Sumeshi and Crabs

Gesundheit.  You know you wanted to say it, didn't you?

Last night was another rotten sleeping night- I let Mimi fuss from about 3:30 to 4:15, changed her diaper, and listened to her howls and whimpers of disapproval until about 5:00.  This is after I managed to fall asleep around 11:00, and fed her (I know, I know...we're working on it!) at 12:30.  Gah.  Whenever I go right to her, she's absolutely fine and I should have left her.  When I try and let her work it out...I discover she has a nasty diaper.  Bad Mommy!  sigh.

BUT, some great friends that we hadn't seen in a very, very long time popped over for a play date this morning.  One of the best parts of having adults over, besides finding out over and over that your child is NOT alone in their ability to test our parenting mettle, is fixing adult food!  Kids had ramen with yoshi sauce underneath the play fort, while the moms ate red leaf lettuce tossed with grated parmesan, quick skillet croutons with parmesan and greek seasoning (follow the link to my recipe site for instructions), and my vinaigrette from the other night.  Yes, I love having adults to share lunch with- do we ever take the time to make good food for ourselves?  Not really.

Luckily both girls took naps this afternoon, I had time to rest on the couch and finish up a fantastic book- if you like fantasy and "girls who DO things" then you'll love this book.  (Girls who do things are kind of the antithesis of...girls who wait for other people to do things.  Heh.)

We finished up the afternoon with a family trip to the library- Ernie (very easily) met the halfway mark for the summer reading program (500 minutes in a month?  Oh please, she reads at least 2 hours every day!) but was pleased as punch to show the librarian all her colored-in squares and collect her fancy new notebook, complete with an elastic loop on the front to hold the pen she'll get if she can read another 500 minutes before September!  Actually, the challenge is keeping track of that piece of paper until she can turn it in!  It's the traveling reading chart- today we found it in the art cabinet.  She's decided that this notebook will be her special notebook for when we start school in September- good thing she's still excited to home school!

A quick stop in the grocery store* for supplies and Mimi's special lactose-free milk (she's been without for 3 days now, and was beside herself whenever we tried to serve her water or even juice.)  and home for...sushi! Poor Ernie, we only had one sheet of nori left, so I wrapped up one special roll for her, and made chirashizushi for the rest of us.  If you've never tried making sushi at home, but love the taste, or simply don't want to take the time to roll up enough sushi for your family, this is the way to go!  It means scattered sushi- think casserole.  A nice layer of seasoned rice, and all kinds of yummy toppings sprinkled over the top and the whole thing served family-style.  We had sliced omelette (just a few eggs with a pinch of salt and sugar, scrambled and cooked like a pancake in my skillet), crumbled cold leftover salmon, chunks and rounds of cucumber, and a good drizzling of my spicy sushi sauce I normally use for tuna sushi rolls.  I figured out why my sushi has been so bland- where I normally use a pinch or two of salt in my vinegar-sugar solution for the rice, Mr. Lopez-Alt instructs 3 whole teaspoons.  (see "seasoned rice" link above for more instructions.)  Wowzer.  Salt, where have you been until now?!  Totally made the difference, and actually made the sushi much more filling and satisfying because of the seriously upped taste quotient.  And yes, I found myself gulping back milk- that probably contributed to the "filling" part!

*Oh yes.  Our trip to the grocery was memorable not only because Ernie had to be carried screaming to the car for misbehaving, which has NEVER EVER HAPPENED BEFORE, our car battery died while Daddy and Ernie were waiting for Mimi and I.  The first woman he asked "Would you mind giving us a jump?"  She baldly said "Yes, I would mind" and drove away.  So much for making friendly eye contact and smiles on the way out of the grocery store together!  Granted, I was the one smiling, so maybe she didn't know we were together...the second woman I asked (why are there only woman at the grocery store tonight) apologized, but she simply HAD to get to a barbecue.  Third, a man pulled up, took the 30 seconds to help jump start the car, made sure we didn't have to drive too far, and went in to get his groceries.  Seriously, all we needed was about 30 seconds of power- we were so grateful for the help!  When Ernie figured out the car wouldn't start, I thought she was going to cry.  "You mean it won't go?  Ever again?!"  Umm...no, sweetheart.  It needs a new battery, that's all.  So when I got home and found 2 gorgeous crabs from my dad waiting in the sink...and knew I needed to serve dinner 15 minutes ago to my quickly melting family....sushi casserole won.  I am SO looking forward to those crabs tomorrow!  Dad's a total sweetheart :)  I found some of Mimi's favorite cheese, a super sharp 2-year-aged cheddar from Tillamook, in the fridge too, and some tuna for Ernie.  Ernie LOVES tuna fish.  Plus, this afternoon during naps I heard a quiet knock, and the front door opening...and Mom was there with some dresses- she bought a dress for herself a few weeks ago, realized it did not suit her shape at all, and would look fabulous on me!  I liked it so much, and wear it so often, she picked up two more colors, plus leggings.  I have the nicest parents in the world :)  Good looking, too!

Salmon, Salad, Bread, Pasta...what you could have for dinner tonight

I have to tell you about our dinner.  No, I didn't take a picture- that would mean I'm, like, a good and SERIOUS blogger.  Nope.  I just want to tell you about it.  Because this is the most dishes that have come out of my kitchen on a weeknight in a LOOONG time, and they were easy, and delicious.

First off, you have to know I slept last night.  After weeks of Mimi getting up 2 or 3 times a night, my own insomnia (laying awake in bed from 2 to 5, after getting up with a cranky toddler twice, and then finally falling asleep...only to have her wake up again at 6:30...I have not been a happy Mama.)  But last night, oh my.  Yes, she was up at 1:30 for a snack.  Yes, she was up at 5 for a diaper change.  BUT, we both slept till 9.  That was nearly 12 hours for me!  And the diaper change was forgiven, because it was the first thoroughly used-up diaper since Saturday, and I've been fretting about that.

OK, so we slept.  Friends came over for an impromptu and long-overdue play date.  Kids played fabulously well, friend-mom and I had a fantastic talk, and it was a wonderful morning!  Naps happened about 2 hours late, and Mimi didn't get up until five.  Score 3 more hours of sleep for our cranky miss!

4:45 I realized I had a fierce hankering for fish that would not be denied.  So!  Here's the dinner you're going to make soon, because it was awesome.  Plus, it's pretty darn easy.  Just make sure you go for a walk afterwards, yeah?

Oven Baked Salmon
Sprinkle salmon fillets with your favorite seasoning salt liberally, and wrap individually in foil.  Place in a single layer in a baking pan and bake at 350 until flaky.  (Ours were frozen so it took about an hour.)  Our favorite seasoning salt is Cavendar's Greek Seasoning- it's amazing on green beans and eggs, too.

Next up is your salad.  We had a head of red leaf lettuce torn up in the fridge (why do I always forget to do this to my lettuce?) but you can dress anything with this vinaigrette.  I used a few different sources for this one, but here's my final recipe:


Balsamic Parmesan Vinaigrette
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (white or red is good)
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon mustard (all I have is yellow, but dijon would be amazing)
2 garlic cloves, finely minced or smashed
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup olive oil

Dump everything into a screwtop jar and shake shake!  It's best if it gets to sit for a while.

Salad, fish.  This is getting good.  Next up is bread.  Since lately the smell of wheat bread makes me gag (what kind of granola head AM I??)  we've been enjoying french bread.  It's just bread, you don't have to baby it.  In fact, it's fine with one nice long knead in the kitchenaid machine and an hour rise, just like any other bread.

Finally, the noodles.  Yeah, it's a bit of over kill, because we already have bread on the table...but noodles are delicious, and bread is necessary for wiping up the last bits of vinaigrette after you finish your salad.  See?  Everything has a purpose in this life.  Bread just happens to be the cleaning crew in this case.

This recipe caught my eye in the Moosewood cookbook, Simple Suppers.  If you haven't checked this book out at the library yet, I recommend that you do!  If you don't like it, well...that was easy.  If you DO like this kind of cooking, I think you'll find a lot to like in this cookbook.  Vegetarian, easy, real.  Nothing stuffy or fancy.  Nothing complicated.  The cooking notes say this recipe was from Ruth Reichl, in Comfort me With Apples, and SHE picked it up from Danny Kaye.  I adored Danny Kaye as a kid, so that caught my eye!

I cut the butter by just a smidge, to make myself feel better.  (HA!)  I also used 3 tablespoons of jarred lemon juice instead of the juice of a lemon and zest that it called for, because it's what I keep on hand.  This says it serves four, but they'd have to be four pretty hefty eaters- it's rich, rich stuff.  I'd say it would serve 5 or 6 admirably as a side, and could definitely stretch even farther if you stirred in a load of veggies.  The cookbook suggests peas, and that would be perfectly lovely.  One more note- it looks impossibly thin, until you add the lemon juice and then it just thickens into the creamiest sauce....mmmm.  Ernie tried a few bites, but Mimi would have used a shovel to eat this, had a shovel been at hand.

Creamy Lemon Pasta
Paraphrased From Moosewood Restaurant: Simple Suppers


In a small skillet on low heat, melt 1/4 cup butter.  Add 1 cup of cream, and heat slowly.  Stir in 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice and set aside.

Stir sauce into 1 pound of cooked pasta, with a cup of grated parmesan cheese.  Thin with reserved pasta water if needed.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  (We didn't need any salt, but everyone peppered theirs lightly at the table.)

And there you go! Baked salmon, a quick salad, bread from the cutting board, and a 4-ingredient pasta sauce.  (By the by, this sauce is remarkably similar to a sauce I made last year for gnocchi- a little cream, a little gorgonzola melted in, and thickened over low heat with a little pasta water.  Why is cream so darn delicious on pasta?)

What We Ate

Thought about not posting...but I'm kind of on a roll with this, and I like to have a written record for when people say "but what do you EAT?"  You'd be surprised how many people ask me that, and it kind of makes me giggle.

Onward!

Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches.  You can tell this is going to be a fancy week.
Tuesday:  A quick-ish lentil dish.  I won't bother with a recipe, because it lacked depth, and it made Ernie cry.  No joke, I've never seen her break into tears after closing her mouth around a spoon.  When I try it again with a few different flavors, I'll post a recipe.
Wednesday:  Beef-Vegetable-Barley soup from the freezer.  Yay for eating down the stash!
Thursday:  Joy School graduation!  Hotdogs, chips, fruit, and potato salad for everyone!
Friday: Spaghetti with a quick chunky sauce- sauteed ground beef, onions, and celery, and our last jar of purchased spaghetti sauce.  (Note to my summer garden: I'm counting on you to produce tomatoes.  The end.)
Saturday:  BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's- it's not every day hubby's grandpa turns 80!  Steaks, hot dogs, salads- very good.
Sunday:  Another big family meal at Grandma and Grandpa's, because 2 sets of aunts/uncles/cousins are in town for the weekend.  Lots of ham, and leftover salads.

OK, so obviously dinner time was kind of a bust this week.  BUT, we had house guests for the weekend (yay!!) and we had some pretty great breakfasts so maybe that could compensate?

***On a side note, both my husband and I were sick the first half of Sunday, although no one else was.  My husband thinks it might be all the meat we ate- hot dogs on Thursday, meat sauce on Friday, steaks on Saturday.  We ate more meat in those three days than we normally eat in a month, I think.  I don't know, because it isn't uncommon for me to be sick quite often.  But my Dad often says that animal fats upset his stomach, so maybe??***

Saturday: Marion Cunningham's overnight yeasted waffles.  Great freaking crispy goodness.  Thank you Molly for pointing out the way. Make them.  And cut the butter in half...or less.  I used half as what was called for, and they were amazing still.  (Aunt S said they were like scones, I'm assuming she meant fried bread, because otherwise she would have said scohns, right?)  So, yeah- these are like fried bread: crispy on the outside, steamed on the inside.  Slight bite from the yeast, and all the sweet comes from the syrup you pour on top (or lemon juice and powdered sugar in my case.)  ALSO, you mix them up the night before.  The only thing you have to do in the morning is whisk together 2 eggs and a bit of baking soda to stir into the mix before you cook them up.  Any morning that doesn't involve measuring cups is easier than a morning that DOES.  (And now I'm wondering how similar these are to sourdough waffles?)  Recipe here.  And all over the internet actually, these are getting to be quite famous.  (If you follow that link, there are two recipes.  I tried the "WIG" or Waffles of Insane Greatness.  They're good, and you wouldn't regret making them.  But if you have time and remember to get ready the night before...these are better.)

Sunday:  Early morning, with our guests scrambling for showers before their church meetings.  Followed Mary Ostyn's advice and made a big batch of oatmeal in the rice cooker- no stirring, no adjusting of temperature, no waiting for the water to boil, AND it keeps itself warm for stragglers.  Sold.  (Just follow the regular oats recipe- 1 cup water, 1/2 cup oats, pinch of salt, if you're making quick oats.  A friend said you can melt a bit of butter in there, saute your steel cut oats for a few minutes, then add the water and turn it on.  The rice cooker will turn off when the water is gone.)  And when you've made your oatmeal, please stir in peanut butter and brown sugar.  Your tummy will thank you.

Monday: Our guests left this day, and J's uncle had mentioned he'd had a soft spot for grits ever since his mission in the Southern states of the US.  Wish granted.  Plus biscuits, fried eggs, toast, juice, milk, and fried ham (from our Sunday dinner.)  Never let it be said that a guest left my kitchen hungry!

Saturday morning was busy, and this is the second weekend in a row I missed the farmer's market.  If the kids and I can snag the car, we'll try and hit another local market- there's one almost every day of the week within half an hour of here now.  If we don't...well, there are onions, carrots, celery, avocados, strawberries, burger patties, potato salad, mozz cheese, blue cheese, sour cream, and lettuce....all screaming to be used up.  It all sounds a bit heavy, but with all the rain we've been having, heavy is pretty good right now.  We can make it another week without greens.  In fact, I'm sure the kids don't mind at all.  (My mind is drawing a blank...do farmers markets around here ever sell anything BUT greens and onions?  I mean, besides the $5/lb tomatoes that I can't afford.  Because a $10 tomato is not going to grace my table, sorry farmer with a fancy greenhouse that sells tomatoes in April.)

What We Ate

Quick run down of the eats around here.  Living proof that leftovers, pantry staples, and $20 worth of farmer's market veggies can go a long, delicious way.  Oh, and some blue cheese.

Monday was leftover redo night- rice and salmon from Sunday's dinner with my parents.  My sister walked me through the first part- the trick is to lightly cook a little garlic and ginger in hot oil before adding your veggies, meat, and rice (in order of longest cooking time to shortest.)  I threw in a fat bundle of pea vines for the veggie.



Tuesday, I finally remembered to start dinner early enough to make Ernie's long requested and long awaited sushi.  (Spicy tuna salad, avocado, and steamed asparagus were the fillings tonight.)


Wednesday was hot and sour soup night.  (Chicken broth based, with bok choy and tofu- I changed the recipe up a bit.)  Wonder Daddy wasn't home.  One of those nights where I was left wondering "Why do I bother cooking?"  Then I ate my soup, and remembered: I really, really like good food.

My dinner:

Mimi's Dinner:

Ernie's Dinner:

Leftover sushi rice, ochazuke wakame furikake, and spicy tuna salad

Lots of bread this week.  Thursday I made a double batch of my cinnamon swirl bread- roll the bread dough out really flat, dump a bunch of brown sugar and cinnamon on, and roll up tight as you can.  This was  HUGE hit at the piano recital, especially with the dads.  At least, the dads were the only ones gutsy enough to run at me yelling "This is FANTASTIC!"  One was hungry enough to be giddy when I pointed to an entire extra loaf on the counter and told him to help himself when the plate was empty.  Awwww...I love feeding people :)

Tried out a new kind of swirled loaf, on a whim.  FLIPPIN' FANTASTIC.  Stupid delicious out of the oven, and still addicting even when it was cold.  Wheat dough + blue cheese + sliced almonds.  Just try it, you'll love it.



(The sun has officially left for the week- look how gray this picture is!!)

Friday was scrambled eggs with garlic chives, and stir-fried pea vines.  (I won't be getting pea vines again- no one else in this house would eat them.)  Girls wouldn't eat the eggs, and when I set leftovers out with out breakfast on Saturday, they got left on the counter for hours while I went to a baby shower.  Hmmm.... my kids don't like scrambled eggs anymore, and I think....everyone is getting tired of my huge batches of greens from the market.  Kale all winter, now bok choy, garlic chives, asparagus...I totally understand- they have a strong taste, they're (mostly) leaves (Ernie has never willingly eaten a leaf in her life), they're new....but I think I have to press on anyway.  If we're going to have produce in our diets, and there's a cheap/plentiful/local option...I'm going to take the local option.

What We Ate

So, my meal planning has gone by the way side.  But hey- let me show you what we ate this week?  It's better this way, right?  No maybe's...lots of pictures.... yeah, way better.

Sunday (Mother's Day)  I requested a shrimp boil, thinking it would be an easy Sunday dinner for Dad to cook. Dad?  I'm sorry you spent roughly 23 hours driving around town to different grocery stores, looking for obscure ingredients (like huge tins of Old Bay), and chatting up Costco shoppers trying to discover the perfect sausage.  It tasted really, really good- I think all shrimp boils should have jumbo prawns, Walla Walla sweet onions, chicken-apple sausage, and red potatoes.  Nom NOM.

Monday- Leftovers from Sunday.  Umm...I forgot to take a picture, until the end.  Will this do?


Tuesday- Had leftover pinto beans from my parent's church party, so I kind of did a riff on this recipe, virado a paulista.  Her recipe calls for black beans, kale, cracklings, pork chops, sausage, and a fried egg.  So, pinto beans, potatoes, onions, prawns, sausage, and kale is pretty close, right?  This was pretty good!  Definitely recommend it.

Wednesday- Adapted this recipe to what we had- brought a huge pot of water to a boil and threw in a bundle of asparagus for a few minutes.  Pulled them out and started throwing in handfuls/chunks of butternut squash gnocchi I had stashed in the freezer.  (The gnocchi might have been this recipe.)   Browned a bit of butter in a sauce pan, then threw in olive oil, lemon juice, leeks sliced thin, and a bit of white balsamic vinegar.  The sauce went over the plate of asparagus, and the gnocchi.  OH BOY, amazing.  I love hot vinaigrette, so this was superb.  (If you like german potato salad, try this.)



Thursday- Daddy was out, it was leftover night.  I chose gnocchi, kids chose bread and cheese.  Different strokes for different folks.


Friday- The end of the leftovers.  Finally.

Saturday- It was a long day, the kids deserved pancakes.  I felt all "pioneer"- our water main was shut off, so I used "emergency storage" water.  We were out of milk, so I used powdered.  I even made a quadruple batch of mix, so we have our own "pancake mix" in the cupboard.  Booyah.

There you have it.  The easiest week of cooking EVER.  I cooked a batch of kale.....and boiled some stuff...and made a sauce.  And pancakes.

Oh, and snickerdoodle bars.  Not quite a success, they were awfully crunchy.  But when you don't have 45 minutes to roll cookie dough into balls, and watch a toddler and a preschooler finagle their way through dunking the balls in cinnamon-sugar...well, a 9x13 pyrex is your best friend.  Kids still loved them, anyways.  I used my regular snickerdoodle recipe, smashed it into a pan, and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and sugar.


I made it to the farmer's market today, and came home with asparagus, garlic chives, bok choy, and 2 fat bundles of pea vines.  I have firm tofu, leeks, sweet onions, red potatoes, blue cheese, and a bit of sour cream that needs using up.  Why does that last list sound to patriotic?  red potatoes....white tofu....blue cheese....hmm.

(Market breakdown:
asparagus @ $2/lb.....$7
garlic chives.....$1
bok choy @ $2/bundle....$4
pea vines @ $2/bundle....$4
Total: $16)

Nikujaga is sounding really good for this week, with the potatoes and onions.  Sauteed greens are definitely on the top of the list.  Eggs with garlic chives, and maybe scramble in the sour cream before I cook.  Marinated tofu is sounding good, too.  I'll let you know what we come up with.

This Week's Meals

Totally missed the boat on Meal Planning Monday- I forgot to ever plan anything!

But, we've had some good (and bad) stuff this week.  Here it is!

Our treat for the week was snickerdoodles.  I love snickerdoodles.  (I see I haven't posted our recipe- I'll try and fix that soon.  They're awesome.)


Made bread to replace Tuesdays doughy batch.  Forgot the oven was at 400 for the snickerdoodles- they're a bit dark!  Still haven't re-found my baking mojo.


Monday's dinner was eaten at the Costco food court, until Mimi spilled her lemonade, my purse fell off my lap into the puddle when I stood up, and I yelled ENOUGH! and shoved everyone's food into my (soggy) purse.  We bought 4 pounds of strawberries, along with flour, sugar, rice, bullion, milk, butter, pajamas, brown sugar, and powdered sugar.  We ate about half of the strawberries when we got home, along with the remainders of everyone's hot dogs.  It was an interesting night.

Tuesday was peanut butter and bread, with a little tuna salad thrown in for the lucky (quick) ones.  Remember, that was a rough day too.

Wednesday was a lot better.  Fresh biscuits, pan grilled asparagus from the market, and scrambled duck eggs with garlic chives.  Yum.


After dinner, my brother-in-law, parents, and 2 siblings came over for strawberry shortcake, with the rest of the biscuits, and fresh whipped cream.  It was very, very good, but no pictures.  Sad.

This...is just lunch.  But it's in a muffin tin!  Why is it in a muffin tin, Mom?  Are we pretending the muffin tin is a plate?  My daughter is so literal sometimes- whimsy is lost on her :)


Mmmm....THIS is good stuff.  The last bits of my yogurt are always soupy- the longer yogurt sits, the more it separates.  (Ok, that link takes you to how I used to make yogurt.  It's changed and I need to update!  Way easier now.)  I try and pour off the whey, for Mimi's sake, as we go along but at the end of the batch it's nothing but soup.  I threw it in a colander lined with a paper towel and let it strain for an hour or two, then twisted up the towel and squeezed out as much liquid as I could.  I ended up with something similar to cream cheese- slightly sweet, vanilla, a little tangy.  Good stuff!


The vanilla yogurt cheese was especially good on french toast (when life gives you dark loaves and lots of eggs, make french toast!)  I smeared last summer's figs over the top and enjoyed this a lot.  So did Mimi, but she mostly licked off the yogurt cheese, shoved fistfuls of figs in her mouth, and then grinned happily.  It wasn't a pretty sight...but it was a beautiful thing.  You know?  (Figs are a family specialty- Grandma used to bring home pints of them from Alabama when she visited her sisters, and I tried a few recipes last summer with Mom's bumper crop of backyard figs.  This batch we're eating tonight turned out the best.)


I still have some asparagus, leeks, and kale to work through from last Saturday's market.  I think the kale will become a smoothie for Saturday morning.  Bwahaha, the kids will never know!  Hubby is home late again Friday night (he was late on the french toast night, too.  No-Dad nights are breakfast nights!)  So I'm not sure what we'll have Friday night.  Might just go crazy and make pancakes.  Do you have any favorite ways to use asparagus?  I can't eat a whole bundle by myself!  (Umm...Dad, if you're reading this...I have some asparagus for you :)