family – Page 17 – Peaceful Reader

Random Recipes + sneaking in some greens

It is pouring rain outside tonight. The television is off and Groovy Girl is off playing somewhere which means there will be a trail and a mess to clean up. How do I help her learn to clean up after herself? This is major life trauma right now. She’s 10 and we’ve made every kind of challenge, chore chart, and list we can think of. We’ve worked with her to show her what it looks like to play and then clean up. I’m glad she plays, I really am; I just which the second part of playing came easier to her.

When we were in New York City in June Groovy Girl, Greg, and I tried a sample of a Mojito Tea (non-alcoholic) that some tea shop was passing out on the street. We loved the zingy flavor and we made a list of what ingredients we thought it might have in it. I have been meaning to whip up a batch of what we thought might be in when I found a recipe in Bon Appetit/August edition that seemed pretty similar to what we thought. I made it tonight with Groovy Girl’s help. It was refreshingly wonderful and I will definitely make it again. It doesn’t have that mojito flavor we were going for yet so close. I may play with it to see if I can get any closer.

(image source)

Here is the recipe:

Honeyed Lemon-Mint Iced Tea

4 cups water

4 bags green or black tea (we used green)

1 bag mint tea

1/2 of a can of 12-oz can frozen lemonade or limeade concentrate, thawed

1/3 cup honey

ice cubes

fresh mint sprigs or leaves

thin lemon slices (we used lime)

1. In a saucepan, bring the water to boiling. Remove from heat. Add tea bags. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add lemon or lime concentrate and honey, stirring until honey dissolves. Cool thirty minutes.

2. Transfer tea to a 1 1/2 quart pitcher. Cover and chill for several hours.

3. To serve, pour tea over ice cubes in tall glasses. Garnish with mint and lemon/lime wedges.

Makes 6 servings.

You could easily add a splash (or two) of alcohol to this for an adult beverage. In the heat here, right before the rain came down, we gulped it down as is.

Our garden is beautiful this year with cucumbers just about ready, tomatoes heavy on the vein, basil beginning to bush out, and many zucchinis! Groovy Girl does not like this delicious squash and will do anything to avoid it. Tonight I decided to disguise it in a curry soup. She likes curry!

Also from August edition of Bon Appetit:

Curried Squash Soup

4 servings

Heat 3 T. vegetable oil (I used coconut) over medium high heat. Add two chopped large summer squash, 1 chopped small onion, and 1 tsp of curry (I used 1 T.); season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Cook until tender, 8-10 minutes. Add 4 cups chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, 25-30 minutes. Puree until very smooth. Serve soup warm or chilled, topped with sour cream, cracked pepper, and cilantro sprigs.

When I got to the 3rd paragraph of this I frantically searched for veggie broth paste in my refrigerator and came up empty handed. There were some old beef cubes from a chili recipe my husband made like two years ago but I didn’t want to use them. So I added just water, upped the amount of curry powder, a little more sea salt and pepper and hopped for the best.

I pureed it using my Braun hand-held immersion blender which I adore-I’ve had it for about 12 years and I have no idea what i’m going to do when it stops working. I am pretty positive that the second one I get will not be as good or as inexpensive. This one I bought after watching Emeril use it on his early shows on the Food Network. (I wonder if I should pre-prepare myself by buying this exact replica i found on Etsy)

The soup was not perfect but again I plan on trying it again with good broth and kicking it up a notch or two. Groovy Girl ate about half a bowl with a dollop of sour cream stirred in. She asked me twice what kind of soup it was and I said simply, “curry soup”, which was true. She did not say “Ewwww” or even use the zucchini word so I think I got away with my disguised soup recipe. I think once I play with the recipe she will enjoy it more. She never needs to know the main ingredient is sautéed squash.

I spent the better part of my day reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth. I’m half way through and am wowed by her writing. This is the first truly lazzzy day i’ve spent this summer and I’m pretty happy with it. And because I was taking it so easy Groovy Girl stayed in her pajamas for the day. We have a busy rest of the week so it was good to relax.

Weekend Cooking; Desserts {feeding the men}

It has been a crazy week here and some how in the midst of that I made two pretty incredible treats. While we were out of town my mom stayed at our house to dog sit and garden sit and we thank you for that so much! She even had dinner waiting for us on Monday night as we drove in to town. Thank you Mom!

She left us some rhubarb (yes, MORE!) so I made a pie. When College Boy was young he made this blindingly goofy statement to us that he didn’t like pie “never tried it, never will”, which is funny coming out of a 5-year-old’s mouth. And then about middle school he tried it. I don’t know what inspired him to try it but it was while we lived in Arkansas. It is my husband’s favorite dessert-especially rhubarb. I found this wonderful Martha Stewart recipe for rhubarb pie-with a crumb top. I think this might be my forever-go-to-pie. It was that good and pretty easy. I made my own crust.

Then as I cried my eyes out on Wednesday night (see this related post for explanation) I made amazing chocolate chip cookies. I’ve spent time looking for a wonderful recipe and this one just might be it. I found them at The Tender Crumb blog. I didn’t have pastry flour and I did use dark chocolate chunks instead of the chocolate suggested but I loved that this recipe made a large quantity. They were delicious and I was able to pack up a large box for College Boy to take on his road trip and fishing.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Life is one big emotional roller coaster…

We’ve been back from our big East Coast trek just two days and now it is time for College Boy to head to the mountains to live! I’ve never experienced this horrible emotion of feeling like my time to fill him up with knowledge is over and he’s now going to be out there on his own, hopefully putting all that he’s picked up to use.

Time flies while you are making dinner, cleaning the house, wiping noses, and working. Oh, there’s been plenty of laughter along the way. It makes me think a little of playing with play-doh; you’re having fun as you mold and shape this intricate human being and then after you look back and think “Hey, he’s turning out pretty good!”-he packs his car up and waves good-bye.

Tomorrow is actually when he drives away. After I have breakfast with him I am going to toddle off to a meeting and try not to cry. Today he’s spent time seeing friends and packing. I bought him a Garmin GPS. It eases my mind to know that something will be there to help him find his way in my absence. It’s a small consolation. It’s his first road trip on his own and we had to talk him into stopping half way across Nebraska, sleeping in a comfortable hotel, before continuing the journey. His young and determined spirit was thinking it would be much better to drive from Iowa to Colorado all in one stretch. I’m thankful he listened to us (?) and agreed to stay overnight. As someone who’s made that trek quite a few times I know it can make you stir crazy and sleepy.

I’ve packed up a box of supplies (toothpaste, yes), some of his favorite foods (crunchy peanut butter, yes) and am in the process of making some dynamite chocolate chip cookies for the road. He laughed at me when I told him I had a supply box for him-I don’t think he’s laughing any more!

It’s going to feel very strange not having him here. He makes me laugh and he is easy to converse with on a wide array of topics. Bless him as he travels and as he settles into his new Colorado life. He’s been waiting 15 years to get back there.

Ahhh, the bookstores…{NYC}

Of course we ventured into a few bookstores in the city and bought a couple a books but mostly we just loved the comfort zone of books surrounding us.

{G.G. @TheStrand}

The Strand; Oldest daughter spent last summer in NYC working as an intern and loved pretty much everything about being a New Yorker. Her favorite book shop was this one. Groovy Girl and I met up in the children’s section and picked up the exact same picture book, read it, set it down minutes from each other and laughed about it when we realized we’d been reading the same book. I ended up buying the picture book as this was a pretty significant moment and later in life or even tomorrow I can look at this picture book, Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer, and remember that we had this “in sync” moment.

Shakespeare and Co.: Big Daddy saw this bookstore just two blocks away from The Strand and we ducked in to see what we could see. It might have been a quick {ish} stop if he hadn’t found the downstairs script area. I think he bought about 8 plays to review for this coming year. They had a lovely selection of children’s book as well and we loved just browsing.

{G.G. @Shakespeare&Co.}

We could have spent hours at both bookstores just for the respite in-between walking. I’d wanted to find Books of Wonder but we never made it there, which means there must be another trip.

O what foodie fun!

We are now back in DC after three fun-filled days in New York.

{College Boy Relaxing at the Milburn}

Our Highlights:

The Millburn-fantastic, friendly staff especially if you get Adam on the phone. The suite we had was spacious and it was wonderful to have the kitchenette space. I could keep my water bottle cold and save the few leftovers we had. We’d go back if we wanted to be in that neighborhood again. I loved the romantic lounge, the breakfast, and the lending library. My husband picked a book for me from the shelf; Pete Hamill’s Forever.

{Groovy Girl w/ her Milk Bar Cereal Milk shake}

{Veggie Bun from Momofuko’s}

Momofuku’s flavors! I loved the veggie bun (David Chang’s) with an egg cracked on top as much as the cereal-infused shake. We hit this spot kind of late last night (8:00-Friday) for us and we walked back to the hotel with food in the bag and shakes in our hand. Guess who finished their shake first?? If you think me; you are wrong. (Groovy Girl took that honor as she sucked it bone dry before her dinner)

{Doughnut bench}

Doughnut Plant; unfriendly staff but delicious doughnuts. I loved my vanilla bean and jam but the big hit was the carrot cake cake doughnut! The cinnamon was powerful and made for an aaaamazing flavor combo.

{Favorite “Big Nick’s” Pizza}

College Boy loved all the easy places to get a slice of pizza and he sampled several “best pizza” spots around town. We had several on the fly meals from local spots like the fish and chips we ordered at 8:00 for dinner while Groovy Girl had a bowl of chicken orzo soup. It was greasy (the fish) but hit the spot.

Friday lunch we went to Lupa in Greenwich Village which College Boy had picked as the one BIG place he wanted to go. He knew about Lupa because Action Bronson worked there as the chef. I’d made a reservation and had talked to staff there before our visit but once we got there I felt much less excited. I knew it was expensive so the prices weren’t a shock but the staff and the ambiance did not provide a relaxing experience. The pace was frenetic and the space was cramped but the kids loved their pasta dishes. I had a lovely spinach salad with roasted fennel and spring peas. I wouldn’t need to go back though. Once was good.

I loved walking through Greenwich Village and as we window shopped I know I spotted Jane Lynch walking through with a beautiful brown leather backpack on her back. We also completely loved Central Park, which was the highlight when I was a teen as well. Groovy Girl and her dad rented one of the motorized sailboats at the pond. We also spent a long time hanging by the Alice in Wonderland statue. All in all it was a wonderful trip, too brief, but it was like giving the kids just a taste of the big city.

Hanging in the City; NYC.

We’ve driven cross country to visit my in-laws for two weeks. For something completely different we took the bus from DC to New York today. It was College Boy’s last vacation request before he leaves his home roost and heads to the great West.

We walked a lot today; from Madison Square Gardens through Times Square and Broadway trekking all the way over to Central Park West (through the park) and to our hotel, The Milburn.

Tomorrow we will head to Greenwich Village for lunch at Lupa owned by Mario B., which will be our only sit down meal for the most part. We ate at a Pizzaria for dinner close to the hotel. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up bagels, cream cheese and fruit for breakfast in our room. The hotel is old but refurbished and has a lovely but tiny kitchenette in the corner.

It is exciting to be in the city. I was lucky enough to come several times while I was a teenager but my kids have never been. It was fun to watch College Boy melt right in with the crowds while Groovy Girl was left hanging with her mouth open for many sites including the huge billboards and lights in Times Square.

Also it is Freezing here so the weather is pretty much the same as Iowa.

Weekend Cooking; Rhubarb, sweet rhubarb

Even though the calendar says June Iowa is experiencing spring weather. I have a light sweater on as I type. Our old brick house stands on a very shady lot and our house is usually cool inside but this cool and rainy weather is throwing our growing season off a bit. While the farmers are unhappy I’m happy to slow down our growing time as there are two spring crops that I adore; asparagus and rhubarb. Asparagus is pretty easy to enjoy plucked straight out of the earth but rhubarb takes some time in the kitchen to bring out its essence.

My mom made me a rhubarb cake a few weeks ago; it was delicious but she didn’t leave me the recipe and I wouldn’t want to repeat anyway but I had several bags of rhubarb from my mom and my friend Janice that needed to be dealt with before we leave on vacation. I know, I know I could have stuck them in the freezer to deal with later but frankly that felt like a cop-out. I do well under pressure.

Two years ago when we had the pleasure of vacationing on The Outer Banks, NC my mother-in-law brought the MOST delicious rhubarb-ginger jam with her for our toasting pleasure. I stumbled upon this jam recipe the other day as I went through my recipe folders. I made it that day adding almond flavoring instead of ginger because I didn’t have any. I made it again Friday night because the first batch was licked clean from its glass container. The recipe is so easy.

Try it:

Rhubarb-Ginger Jam

(makes about 5 cups)

8 cups rhubarb in 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

zest of 1 lemon

Combine the ingredients in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over med.-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium to medium and cook at least 20 minutes (it may take a little longer) stirring often, until the mixture thickens and mounds on a spoon.

Store in the refrigerator or put in sterilized jars to can.

Changes: I used brown sugar instead of white and I didn’t have crystallized ginger but I did have ginger root so I grated it but used probably only two tablespoons.

And here is my mother-in-law’s notes: “This can be eaten warm as a compote or chilled as a jam. I suggest straight out of the jar with a spoon. It would also make a great topping for ice cream or cake.”

It is just that good. I love it on a good piece of wheat toast or straight out of the jar!

{big fat rhubarb-lemon muffins}

That took care of two bags of rhubarb but I still had one more large bag and I took that and turned it into delicious rhubarb-lemon muffins. Oh, they are so good. Groovy Girl’s comment, “The rhubarb makes them so moist and the lemon makes them tart,” as she gobbled one up for breakfast. I replaced white sugar for brown sugar in the recipe as well.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. Happy eating!

What's up?

Boy did May fly by or what? I cannot believe the last time I posted we were in Green Bay, WI. Since that wonderful trip we’ve had many graduation open houses (lots of food), baby showers (more food), and two weddings (more food and drink). For all this extra food and drink one might hope I’d done extra yoga. Sadly no. I’m too tired from all that extra food and drink and over scheduling.

I hosted book club two weeks ago, in fact the day after we returned from Green Bay. I like to host book club with something special and this time in connection with our book, The Snow Child, I made adult snow cones. If you’ve read this book you know the two mothers in the book often relax together with some homemade hootch and I replicated that idea with my own. I took a little from several different online recipes, waded through many snow cone pins and came up with a basil-infused simple syrup, mixed with a lemon-lime vodka and a twist of raspberry puree mix to give it a two-toned affect. Groovy Girl churned snow from ice cubes in a borrowed snow cone maker and I layered the mixture over. We had about six or seven pre-made drinks served in martini glasses and waiting in the freezer for the guests to arrive. This made it easy to hand them out as people shed their coats. We’d also stock piled some extra “snow” so all I had to do was pour over the lemon-lime mixture and the fruit puree.

{source}

I did not take any pictures although I should have. The book club members said they liked them and asked for more. We had a great time discussing this book as we sipped our icy drinks. We all liked the fairy tale quality mixed with the harsh background of 1930″s Alaska. I look forward to more from Eowyn Ivey. According to Good Reads she has another book in the works, something to do with wolves. I hope that is another fairy tale connection.

{King Arthur Flour}

I also hosted the first annual Memorial Day waffle breakfast for my friends Rocky and Mary Kay. The greatest part of hosting a casual brunch is that I stayed in my red plaid flannel pajamas for pretty much the whole day. I’m not one to wear my comfy’s all over town EVER but on a day off from school it just felt right. The waffles were delicious. My kids are little foodies when it comes to waffle or pancake toppings. The middle of the table was filled with fresh whipped cream, syrup, my Pampered Chef sprinkler filled with powdered sugar, peanut butter, TJ’s chocolate almond spread, a cinnamon shaker, and a bowl of sliced, fresh strawberries with just a little bit of sugar sprinkled on top. Oh, the possibilities were endless and you needed to have more than one waffle to try new combinations. The perfect a accompaniment was our white wine and orange juice mimosas served in new glasses, a gift from MK.

So we’ve been doing a lot of eating around here. I have a hard core yoga boot camp planned for this week to counterattack. Now that I’m technically done with school I can focus on other projects for a bit. {jumping up and down mentally for the end of this school year}

After The Snow Child I read the ARC of The Real Boy by Anne Ursu (loved it) and Defending Jacob by William Landry (excellent mystery!) -all reviews to come. My summer plan includes more reading mixed with my yoga boot camp.

Happy June!

Exhausting Mother's Day events

What a day we’ve had. It began with my beautiful Groovy Girl sobbing because I woke up before her and she wanted to wake me up with breakfast in bed. She did not read my blog post from yesterday (or ever) but I did get that menu exactly sans orange juice as there was none in the refrigerator. She only made me breakfast once I convinced her that I would fall back to sleep, which I did {wink} until she left and then I read under the covers until I heard her creeping back up with the tray.

It was youth Sunday at church so both my children read and or sang and after church we headed to a rabbit show. Yes, we have one little dwarf bunny but that is a post for another day. We went just looking for ideas to build a bunny hutch for outside.

Driving home we decided to ride our bikes to a local restaurant for lunch which was so relaxing and enjoyable as we can watch the bike path traffic in a very green area. It was cool but sunny as we pedaled to and fro. We had a delicious lunch and I enjoyed a spicy Bloody Mary with my fish tacos. Perfecto.

I seriously planned on taking a little nap once we made it back up our driveway but my front garden needed weeding and my husband needed help with the mower which wouldn’t start. So I slipped on my garden shoes and it was like they had wings. For the next three hours we got a lot of yard work done. We weeded the front garden which has been a project for the last two years after we pulled up three huge {ugly} evergreen bushes. Everything I’ve planted in this front part is a perennial and are mostly flowering bushes or herbs. Last year I transplanted a rhubarb plant from the back yard to the front and it looks great.

We then rolled our compost ball over to the far side of our rectangle garden plot and my husband dug down in three feet wide trenches so we could deposit compost under good top soil. It was back-bending work as he piled the dirt back and I scooped and deposited the compost. We got the entire garden turned and our compost ball is fairly empty. Starting over fresh.

We took a small break from turning dirt to linseed oil the small free library my step-father made and gave me for Christmas. It’s been living on the floor of our living room since then and now is the time to get it outside. My husband and son have a hole already dug for it and a post ready to go in the ground. Stay tuned for more of the project later.

We’ve had a small pool awaiting us for another backyard project and we just weren’t tired out enough yet so we {all three of us} dug the hole for the plastic pool. We still need a pump to make it lively but the first step of the project is complete. Amazing how a little sunshine and fresh air will motivate us!

Enjoy the photos to prove all we accomplished.

18th Birthday-Wow! That can't be right…

{3rd birthday with his hand-painted crown}

College Boy @ age 10
{look at that smile}

Happy Birthday little boy!

Eighteen years ago I gave birth to this amazingly beautiful baby. He was 4 lbs, 3 ozs of joy. My labor lasted less than 10 minutes. I know, crazy! Nursing came easy for both of us. Jealous yet? Well, the flip side is I spent almost a month in the hospital before he was born and a few weeks after as well. The day I was finally released from the hospital with him I ended back up in the hospital hemorrhaging and spent a few days away from him as they couldn’t readmit the him back into the maternity ward. I have high stress pregnancies because I’ve had 2 open heart surgeries and am on a blood thinner for my St. Jude’s plastic valve. Groovy Girl’s birth was just as traumatic with it’s own set of medical emergencies.

So after ALL that College Boy turned 18 today at 7:11 pm. We had an after church lunch together out on the patio in gorgeous weather! My husband grilled two good steaks that we shared with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and broccoli. The highlight though was this amazing chocolate cake from Averie Cooks. It was moist and super chocolatey! I believe it will be my go-to cake for all future celebrations as it was easy to put together. I didn’t admit how easy it was to the family though, making them believe it was an intense labor of love I was only willing to go through for special occasions!

{Best chocolate cake with ganache}

The cake is so incredible both my husband and I have been “evening it” out every time we pass it on the kitchen counter. I’ve had to cover it to save both of us and the cake. I followed all the directions to a T except I doubled the recipe. College Boy will want to snack on it all week long and the original was only a 9 x 9 size. I poured the doubled recipe into a 9 x 13 and it is perfect to the top with the frosting. The recipe called for yogurt and that makes the cake super moist. Oh no

In other news I finished reading Jodi Picoult’s Lone Wolf which was wonderful. I like wolves and feel like they get a nasty press. This book did a great job of explaining to me what I already felt; that wolves have an interesting social structure and instincts.

The weekend is almost over but I’m still linking this post to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme because I love being part of that community. Click the links to get to the chocolate cake recipe-you WILL want to make it.