family – Page 11 – Peaceful Reader

Weekly Recipes

What I cooked this week…

With two kids home again I’m back to that grind of “what can I make that will please everyone…” It’s never easy to please everyone, even when that means only 4 people. I like it when those four/five people eat the food that I prepare with minimal fuss/pickiness. Working full-time to come home and prepare dinner, I want that sit-down affair to be a happy time.

For a year and 1/2 teenage boy was living on his on in Colorado and it was just husband and I with Groovy Girl to attend to and I could cater my meals in her direction. My husband literally will eat most everything set in front of him as long as it’s not peanut butter or shellfish.

We are ecstatically happy that Teenage Boy returned home to go back to school even though he does throw a new twist into my meal plan. If I went way back to early blog posts he is the one who “asked” us to think about eating meat. He played sports and as an active young male he begged, pleaded, and begged some more for me to add meat into our diet.

I don’t mind meat as long as it comes from a healthy and local source, which also makes it expensive. We can’t do meat every night (which is what Teenage Boy would like). He can through a meatless meal if pasta is involved.

The last couple of years I’ve tried to stay away from so much gluten. We’ve ruined wheat and it makes it hard to enjoy bread, pasta, sandwiches, and a nice cold beer. It’s okay; I’ve found many other delicious pleasures like hard cider, but it makes meal planning that much more interesting.

With all our different preferences it makes it difficult to plan the perfect meal. It takes creativity and ingenuity. And sometimes I just have to have a salad and be happy with that. It’s all good.

{source}

1. Calzones: I made these on Monday night when husband was not home and I needed a purely kid-friendly dinner. I mixed two recipes together and Groovy Girl did the calzone part on her own for both. I made a lovely salad for myself and let the kids enjoy the cheesy, steamy calzones. They loved them. I used this pizza dough and filled it with good sausage, marinara, black olives, and cheese. Will make again especially because GG did all the work.

2. Artichoke and spinach pasta: This we enjoyed all together. Love it when we are all at the table as one. We had a salad so I could have just had that but the pasta looked and smelled amazing so I had a small portion. Yum! The family ate it up. Again I combined two recipes from Pinterest: food network and budget savvy diva; I used what I wanted from both recipes making it as natural as possible. I used real spinach, 1 can of artichokes, parmesan shredded, fettuccine noodles, and a little cream cheese to add creaminess. The roux was easy to make and the people at my table had 3-4 helpings. I filled my plate with salad and had a small amount of pasta to try it. (meatless)

3. Bean burritos: I created these one night using quinoa, a can of black beans with sautéed sweet peppers mixed in. The kids ate these with flour tortillas and I had corn, tastier, to me, and a much smaller portion. (meatless)

4. Stir-fry: This cleaned out my vegetable drawer; the last few spears of asparagus, last stalk of broccoli and cauliflower, a few peppers, a jar of Trader Joe’s simmer sauce, a pot of brown rice and we had dinner at the table in record time. I mixed in a little coconut milk for a change of pace and to tame the simmer sauce a bit for Groovy Girl. They didn’t even know they were eating “leftovers”. (meatless)

5. Black bean soup: this is for tomorrow. I cooked down a pound of black beans earlier in the week.

So all-in-all it was a creative week of meals at our house. And the BB soup will be a wonderful way to begin the week because it can be used in a variety of ways. How was your food week?

Starter curry from Jenny

I love my copy of Dinner; A love story for many reasons. It has fantastic recipes, amusing stories, and I agree with her on many topics. We love dinner at our house. Sitting down together eating and sharing conversation. When my son moved back after living on his own for a year and a half it was the dinners together that he raved about missing. Every night he felt blessed to be back at the table eating good food with family surrounding him.

Even though I love this book I’ve only made a few of the recipes from this book. Chicken cutlets and dark and stormy are two top favs. I pulled the book out the other night and decided I was going to experiment with more of her recipes.

Tonight I made Curried Chicken with apples. Everyone had 2nds and fought over scraps. Groovy Girl sadly didn’t like some of the ingredients but she loved the chicken and the sauce. Apples confused her and those she refused to eat. She suggested a potato instead of the apple.

[yep, already had a bit or two but you can see the cilantro, yogurt, etc}

Here’s the recipe so you can try it yourself.

Starter Curry; Curried Chicken with apples (it is only one apple…really)

2 T canola oil, plus more as needed
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 large stalk celery, chopped
1 large apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
2 T madras curry powder
3 medium-sized boneless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs) {Organic or farm-raised by someone you know preferred)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup light coconut milk
Handful of frozen peas (optional) {I opted out-don’t like frozen peas, or any pea from a pkg}
Few dollops of plain yogurt
Suggested garnishes: chopped cilantro or mint, sliced or chopped almonds

Heat the oil in a deep, large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until it begins to soften, about 2 minutes.
Add the garlic, celery, apple, and ginger. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then add the curry powder, stirring to combine.
Push the ingredients to one side of the pan, add a little more oil, and brown the chicken on all sides. If your pan is too stuffed, you can do it in two batches.) Stir all the ingredients together then add the broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Add the peas (if using) then cover and cook 10 more minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with basmati rice or flatbread and top with a dollop of yogurt and desired garnishes.

Enjoy this delicious recipe and many others in Jenny Rosenstrach’s book and website.

Could it really be Spring?

I do hope so. I need warmer weather. I’m tired of the cold.

One tree cut away}

We had warm weather a few weeks ago then it got cold, cold again. I had to get my winter coat back out of the basement storage closet. Yes, that cold.

Today it was warmer and we worked outside on the yard. Last week we had three trees cut down. I had the tree man leave them free standing as I didn’t want them just gone. We carried limbs from the front yard to the back and clipped them into smaller parts. They were river birches that had been planted years and years ago. They were tall and majestic and had bark that peeled back creating texture on the trunk.

Now we have enough logs for family fires all through the summer and fall. Lots of s’mores. The trees will continue to bring us joy but it’s still hard to see them gone.

They were dead though and had to go. Recently we had a large branch fall on a windy day, taking out the garage gutter. Another day, another storm and one of them could easily land on the roof. That would be an unexpected surprise.

I also had a chance to plant a few flowers, herbs, and 3 tomato plants. I’m ready for healthy spring eating and spending more time outside

{Groovy Girl enjoying new perch}

{My new reading spot}

Weekly Update

It’s been a week of quick meals, crazy schedules and yet I’ve managed to create a few recipes to share.

{Janssen’s granola and photo}

I’ve been meaning to make Janssen’s granola recipe for quite awhile now and when the last few clusters of my TJ’s ginger mix landed in my morning yogurt the opportune moment was upon me. It took me 3 days to gather ingredients and find a space of time to make and bake it. It’s delicous! Just because it’s my nature I will play with it next time. This time I did add in some mixed nuts (cashews + pecans) because they were sitting in our nut jar and some chopped dried mango.

Last night I hosted book club and I gave the granola away in little cloth giveaway bags (that I made from white cotton squares). It was a combination Earth Day/May Day gift from me to all my book club friends. Hopefully it brightened their morning yogurt.

I also whipped up a jug of ginger beer this weekend. Jenny from Dinner; A love story introduced me to the Dark and Stormy and ginger beer is a major ingredient. I don’t like the jacked-up expensive price of ginger beer ($10 for 4 bottles) so I thought it would be worth it to make my own. Now I know why it’s not cheap…it’s hard to make. I chopped up two large roots and then squeezed it through my mesh strainer to just barely produce 3 tablespoons. I rinsed cold water through the pulp to eek out 1 more tablespoon. I thought with the added yeast in this Epicurious recipe that it would be fizzy but it is not. It does have ginger flavor though and I will use it. Maybe this weekend I will test run it with a Moscow Mule. I will probably have to add club soda though to give it that extra POP and zing.

I planned to make Dark and Stormys (we’ve had rain + the last time I hosted we had a tornado warning) for book club but I changed plans when I wasn’t happy with my fizz-less mixture. Luckily we had plenty of wine. And delicious food. My favorite was Katinka’s Greek salad.

What I’m reading:

Book club: Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline ( I read this months ago so didn’t have much to contribute)
School: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Groovy Girl: Nest by Esther Ehrlich

Next up: Swamplandia by Karen Russell

Reading retreat bliss

Our journey to Little Rock was a success. We drove first to Mountain View, AR for a bluegrass festival at the beautiful Ozark Folk Center. I enjoyed listening to the music and I was able to read while listening, which was important as I was desperately trying to finish Lucy Dillon’s A hundred pieces of me for our reading retreat.

From Mountain View we headed South to the Little Rock area, staying in a gorgeous and new Best Western, picked because it had an indoor pool area. Groovy Girl loves to swim and we love the hot tub. I had one lovely night sleeping there and a relaxing morning before my friend V. picked me up for the first leg on the reading retreat. We relaxed at her house for just a few minutes, waiting for A. to pick us up.

{cheers}

Our next stop was their local Whole Foods, a spectacular-looking store, basically a prettified Wal-Mart for natural food shoppers. It doesn’t give me the same healthy feeling to be in there like Whole Foods used to, it is different but it did have many of the picnic-type items we were looking for so we picked and chose carefully. Oh, to eat like this all the time! We had rice crackers, good hard cheese, a seedy hearty bread, a mix of olives, two delicious bars of chocolate, pears, apples, a box of salad greens, and two bottles of wine. Except it was a Sunday and we could buy everything BUT the wine. Drats!

A. luckily had a friend living nearby that had a bottle of wine, the funny part was that the wine had been a gift from A. so she borrowed her own bottle of wine back. We could live with one bottle of borrowed back wine and we headed to the hills of Greers Ferry. I sat in the back and pulled out my book again to continue reading. I wanted to finish before we made it to the cabin and they wanted me to finish so we could talk about the book. It seemed to be the crowd favorite.

Our cabin was lovely with way more space than we needed. The best part was the large back porch that looked out on the lake. It was a perfect spot to talk, enjoy the weather, and share a meal, family-style.

We had a great time. It was rejuvenating for me. We talked about our books, friendship, the world (and all the world’s problems). We talked about ourselves, our husbands, and our children. Everyone has joys and trials, let me tell ya’. We did a little bit of yoga. We sat outside and inside. We stayed up later than usual. We laughed. We drank just the one bottle of wine. We shared chocolate with fruit. We had 24 hours of solitude with each other; three strong women.

{breakfast}

And the morning was filled with sunshine and hanging in our jammies. And then A. got the phone call. The one where her husband told her that their borrowed cat had been hit by a car. It was a sad note to end on yet it illustrated how life just keeps happening around us. The cat was a hard loss for her family-hopefully they’ve found joy in their shared memories of their friendly feline mate.

I hope we will get to do this again in a year or two. The theme of A hundred pieces of me by Lucy Dillon is about what’s real and important to you and the memories of our reading retreat are high on my list.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Like everyone else out there I loved Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park (2013) and knew that I would want to read whatever else she produced. Then you get on with life and read a bazillion other authors because you have a pile to read. Then fast forward into my Christmas break and I came upon review or an online conversation about Rowell’s book Landline and how it takes place leading right up to Christmas. And just like that Rainbow was back in my life.

I need to keep up more as she is quite a prolific writer; four books in basically two years. Wow.

Landline (2014) is an amazing story of Georgie McCool, a television scriptwriter who has a major writing opportunity right before Christmas. In order to accept the gig with her hip writing partner, Seth, they have to put together several scripts over the holiday! This is a chance of a lifetime, Georgie tells her husband Neal. Neal, though, chooses to travel to his mom’s house in Omaha on his own with their two daughters, Namoi and Alice. She can’t believe he does but he does it and while she feels a little abandoned she puts in long hours with Seth working on the show.

The first few nights she can’t face going back to their house on her own she finds reasons to end up at her mom’s house. It is here in her childhood room where she fishes out an old rotary phone to call Neal one night. She has cell phone problems and it’s easier than going home for the charger. The phone makes a call to the past and she ends up talking to a young Neal, a college-age Neal. And the conversations are so wonderful that she gets pulled back to that time herself as they chat and flirt and remember all that was good.

A quote:

“Hi Mrs. Grafton,” Georgie said.
“Yes?”
“It’s Georgie.”
“Oh hi, Georgie. Neal’s still asleep. He must have been up pretty late. Do you want him to call you back?”
“No. I mean, just tell him I’ll call later. Actually, I already told him I’d call later. But-I was going to ask him something.” She couldn’t ask about the president; that would seem mental…”Do you happen to know who the Speaker of the House is?”
Neal’s mom hummed. “It’s Newt Gingrich, isn’t it? Did it change?”
“No,” Georgie siad. “I think that’s right. His name was at the tip of my tongue.” She leaned closer to the base of the phone. “Thanks. Um bye. Thanks.” She dropped the receiver onto the hook and stood up suddenly, taking a few steps away.
Then she dropped to her knees and crawled under the bed, reading for the telephone outlet and unclicking the plug. She pulled the cord away, then backed out from the bed and crawled to the opposite wall staring at the nightstand.
She had to deal with this.
It was still happening. (108)

If you haven’t picked this one up please do. I now have to wrestle Fangirl from my librarian friend Denise’s hands.

2015~bring on adventure

Starting 2015 off right for me. Yes, that is a Bloody Mary but before that appeared I did 53 minutes of power yoga from my new connection with GaiamTV. I can stream it from my laptop or our PS3 for a variety of content. I signed up to do a year challenge~yoga everyday. They send me an email with my workout embedded and because I check my email first thing in the morning before I even touch my feet to the floor I will be reminded to get my sore legs up and onto my mat. Right now I need that kind of motivation.

Groovy Girl even joined me for part of my session this morning. Starting off with a bang! (or a twist, forward fold, or three-legged dog). All work-out and no play is not our way so we made chocolate chip pancakes after our yoga. Playful. Balance.

I juiced and had one small pancake. Just one. Must leave room for the veggies in my Bloody Mary.

Now it’s time to really relax and drink the delicious Bloody Mary as we have a minimal to-do list for us. Watch some football, Groovy Girl has two games she wants to play (Gin and Mexican Train), I have two book reviews to write, and a Netflix movie to watch with my husband. A full good day.

And my husband is making dinner~salmon with a side of black-eyed peas. Health and prosperity in the new year. 2015. Make it your best year ever.

2015-Happy New Year to You.

{Xmas morn}

I can’t believe it’s here! I don’t have everything checked off my list from 2014! Do you? I still have miles to go in fact. I didn’t write enough, didn’t do enough downward dogs, and I’m three books behind on my Goodreads challenge.

I can reflect back and know that while I didn’t get everything done I did get so much accomplished. And I’m grateful for the year that I’ve had especially school-related. I didn’t think I could love kids the way I loved Highland students but Hansen proved me wrong. Grateful.

I’ve survived a year with handsome son out of the house and living in Colorado. I miss him fiercely but I’m happy he’s working on the next part of his own journey. I love to text back and forth with him and have received some amazing messages from him throughout the year. Grateful.

Groovy Girl and I have survived the first half of 7th grade together. Middle school is harsh because her elementary school was like home; filled with love and understanding. Middle school is the opposite of that. Rules, rules and more rules. She’s learning though and I’ve learned to listen as she rants about this teacher or that rule. In the long run we’ll both be better off. Grateful.

I’m happy that oldest daughter has figured out her next step after graduating in May from Oberlin. She’ll be off to Portland, ME in a week to study at the The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Just browsing their website makes me know she will love it. It’s good when each person knows what their next step into space is going to be. Grateful.

This new year will bring more surprises, more journeys, and more inner peace. What will the new year bring for you?

{Last night together for 2014 @Ciao Bella/Minneapolis)

The night before Christmas…

and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. I stirred most of the day though.

What a beautiful Christmas Eve day we’ve had here in the Holt household. The kids woke up lazy and late, eating breakfast for lunch. I, on the other hand, had been up since 5 a.m. putting together dough for three loaves of bread, making my last list and checking it twice. I dislike to be all crazy on a holiday yet I didn’t want it to be Christmas Day and not have what I needed for our meal and our, most importantly, mimosas! So I did have a long list of things to do since it was my first day off and even though I’d shopped previously. I blame it on our too small refrigerator.

We’ve done a lot of sharing over this holiday since it is now rare for all 5 of us to be together. Somehow it’s made us more appreciative. The older kids have shared many memories and both said that eating breakfast together on Christmas morn is very special to them. That over opening gifts! That is a happy thought I will savor all through the year.

Tomorrow morning we are having this french toast recipe which I picked just because I could make it in my crock pot. I adore the idea of getting up and having it all ready. We usually only look at Santa gifts and stocking gifts before we eat so this will be perfect. I am also going to cook some bacon (for our meat-loving men) and fried eggs to round out the meal.

(Bon Appetit clam chowder)

Christmas Eve meals have always been special in our house and many times I’ve many lasagna but the last few years we’ve had clam chowder. In my family we always had oyster stew with fresh bread which was so perfect but I married a man who cannot eat oysters so we came around to clams-for some reason clams are okay. I will use this Bon Appetit recipe again -it had excellent flavor and I’m sure it came from the pound of real clams I started with and I was so excited when they all opened. The fresh bread was perfect for dipping and soaking up the broth. I made a double batch and we have just a small amount for leftovers.

Tomorrow we have a hodgepodge of favorites for all types. My husband and son will enjoy a spiral-cut ham (a gift from a friend) and the rest of us will enjoy a variety of veggie dishes + a big salad. Mostly I want to just sit and enjoy my kids as we laugh together, go for a walk, and play board games. I think watching a movie is in the works as well.

Appreciate the love of your family as you celebrate this holiday season! Feliz Navidad.

Tough beginning to December

My kid’s favorite month has had a tough start for me. I’ve been sick for about 4 weeks with a cold that turned into a sinus infection. I finally took myself to the doctor (which I’m always slow to do) and am now on an antibiotic (which I really dislike) but I am beginning to feel human again.

I watched copious amounts of Parenthood, making me cry, and read several books (The Wednesday Wars, The secret life of bees, The invention of wings). In all that sick time I just didn’t get any blogging done-I blame it on a the snot. Really though I was just so tired. It took all the strength I could gather just to finish a day at work.

I wasn’t writing but I did do all this:

I made this lasagna from Martha Stewart. Good flavor but a bit dry. It tasted much better the next day.

I hosted my husband’s work Christmas party so we had 11 people over for a potluck dinner; I made bread and the lasagna. We cleaned house for 2 days. It was dusty.

I went to my school Christmas gathering hosted by my principal. It was lovely and I made this artichoke dip from Paula Deen. It doesn’t have any butter in it but it was a huge hit.

I made a second artichoke dip for book club (The invention of wings) which happened on the exact same night as aforementioned school party.

I also hosted a reception for my husband’s Christmas play (A Coney Island Christmas by Donald Marguiles.) The play was a huge hit and Groovy Girl even had a good role.

In between but mostly just the last two days I’ve been able to finish Christmas shopping and prepare for our two oldest to come home. We picked up the oldest, Kaylee, yesterday in Iowa City. Tomorrow the second, Tristan, flies into Mpls/St Paul airport. Last spring for Kaylee’s graduation is the last time we’ve been together and we are so excited to be together.

You can see from my list why the writing drops off the list so easily unfortunately. Too tired, too much to do. I hope your list isn’t as long!