family – Page 19 – Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; Chef Love.

I’ve made several interesting recipes in the midst of our busy week. I had my heart set on re-making these amazing sweet potato black bean burritos and had even prebaked the sweet potatoes one night while I had the oven on for something else (green idea not to have to reheat the oven) and then my husband used those cooked sweet potatoes as a side for one of his meals. He makes dinner just ONE night a week of which I AM grateful for but he often uses something for his dinner that he thinks I am letting “waste away” in our fridge or cupboard, etc. He’s forgiven though because it is a joy to come home Thursday night and have dinner ready for me no matter what it is.

I easily rebought and rebaked those sweet potatoes and made the burritos the very next week. I also created the Mexican Casserole from Katie Workman’s The Mom 100 Cookbook., which was a huge hit at dinner.

My actual weekend cooking post is about this stack of cookbooks: like a great love affair I can’t live without them.

From top to bottom:

1. Deborah Madison is a queen and one of my first cooking crushes. Some people fell for Paula Deen or Rachel Ray-me it was all about Deborah. It stands to reason that my mother-in-law gave the book to me for a Christmas present about 10 years ago. The book now has a few food smudged pages showing my love. Love.

2. Giada D.L. my second crush helped me take pasta to a new level for my family. I learned to make pesto and a popping cherry tomato sauce through her tutelage. I’ve never watched her show but I’m sure it’s lovely. For me Everyday Italian will be my go-to for fun pasta.

3. Katie Workman is my latest crush. I picked her up at my Scholastic book fair and kept going back for more. Now her book The Mom 100 Cookbook is a staple for what I need. The Mexican Casserole I made this week will become a staple in my menu rotation.

4. The Grit (Athens, GA) Cookbook-okay I know this is a place not a person but if I could go work in one kitchen in the United States it would be at The Grit. Every time I open this book I find a great quote, a perfect recipe, or an idea I can use. I’ve never had the pleasure to eat there but it is on my food adventure bucket list. My mom gave me this one. (Truth: she bought it for herself and I talked her out of it.) Very crush-worthy. Anybody been there?

5. So Sweet! by Sur la Table. Again I know not a chef but just like #4 so worth the help this book gives me. My desserts leaped to new levels after I purchased this book for Groovy Girl. I’ve made many recipes from this tiny book and especially love the whoopie pie section. Yep, I’m crushing on the staff that put this little one together.

If you are looking for a new chef to follow or a new cookbook to love you would not be disappointed with any of these choices. This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.

Be peaceful~

Glorious snow day!

Snow was predicted but I didn’t believe it until early this morning when my phone buzzzzzed me awake. It was the robotronic woman informing that school was cancelled! Whoop.

I stayed in bed for as long as possible reading my book (I am J by Cris Beam) and playing WWF. Eventually I rose, through a wool shirt and yoga pants and headed downstairs. I whipped up some chocolate chip pancakes thanks to Katie Workman while my son snowblower’d the driveway so my husband could (why?!?)drive to work.

I’ve read more if I am J, great book, and listened to Groovy Girl read to me (Starry River of the Sky). I’ve watched some trashy tv with GG-it might shock you to know she does not have high brow tv standards. We watched an episode of “Say Yes to the dress” and an episode of “What not to wear” which was actually quite interesting for both my kids as the two snarky hosts helped a young woman shed her college super casual style to a career look.

We forced ourselves to turn it off and get some work done. I still have to organize how the Christmas decorations are put away and dinner to make and am happy that I’ve accomplished reading and yoga with kid-friendly fun.

Happy snow day to you-
Namaste…

Weekend Cooking; Curry and Chappati

(source)

We’ve been eating…lots of good stuff. Last night I whipped up an easy batch of fettuccine (pasta, olive oil, hard Parmesan, cream, thinly sliced garlic, and loads of pepper) after a crazy day with no heat in our house. Lucky for us by 5:00 last night it was fixed otherwise my hands would probably be too cold to type. But the recipe coup of the week was the curry dish I created last Sunday night for guests. We ate the curry over brown rice, washed it down with a couple of ice cold Stella’s, and popped edamame pods for something green.

I cleaned my house early in the day so I’d have plenty of time to cook with out hurrying which leads to worrying that everything’s not going to come out right. It came out great with very little leftovers. Because of the extra time I allowed I had time to whip up something special for the side that my husband loves; chappati. ( Indian Bread) As a 4th and 5th grader my husband spent two years in Malaysia and he loves most everything related to Indian and Asian cooking. My mother-in-law who I adore and bragged about in this post wrote a short cookbook based on her experiences working with friends in Malaysia. I’ve made a few recipes from her book but the chappati one is one of our favorites. It is incredibly easy and they work perfectly as the tool to get more curry into your mouth.

The curry recipe is from Serious Eats. This recipe called for lemongrass which smelled incredible as I chopped and whirred it together with fresh ginger.

And the chappati recipe:

3 cups whole wheat flour, or atta flour

Water, enough to make it pie dough consistency

Knead the water and flour well, at least 30 minutes before you are ready to fry it. Grease the top with ghee or corn oil, cover, and leave at room temperature until ready to use.

Pull off small tangerine-sized hunks of dough and work in your hand until it is smooth and round. Roll out into a flat, round circle about 1/4-inch thick.

Fry on a very hot griddle until golden brown on each side. May brush on a small amount of ghee or oil while frying to make chappatis soft. If they puff up while cooking, press the air out. Continue making until all dough is used up. Keep warm in oven or between layers of towels. Makes 10-12.

Thank you Phyllis!

There is a curry puff recipe here that is on my list to attempt soon.

I also have all the ingredients to make this Mexican Tortilla Casserole that I first spotted at Beth Fish Read’s interview with Katie Workman and now I have the book. I hope all my peeps like it.

We won’t be having it tonight though as Groovy Girl and I have tickets to the ballet…the Russian Ballet performance of Cinderella so we are donning our dresses and heavy winter coats and heading out, one foot in front of the other to the ballet!

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

Enjoy your weekend…

What an amazing day.

I spent two hours at a local church surrounded by volunteers, kids, and parents all wanting to do something to celebrate Dr. King’s memory. Groovy Girl wanted to spend the day playing with a friend and I wanted to check out the service day event so we compromised peacefully. We picked her friend up and attended the event together. They tied fleece blankets for a local women’t shelter, they frosted cookies for another organization, and they wrote letters, and drew pictures for the military. It was a joint effort between the Extension office, a volunteer group, and the church.

I heard many kids and adults ask if this event would happen again next year and the answer was yes although looking to the closer future the director for the voluteer group said she would like to do a few activities over the summer. Groovy Girl was not too happy to leave the house for the event as it is FREEZING here but she had fun with her friend and she ran into several other kids she knew. She is the soical butterfly of our family and easily moves from activity to activity with out a worry as to where I am.

There were more kids there than they expected so the activities went faster than they had planned. The girls thought they would be actually making cookies not just frosting them and think that making cookies at home would be just the perfect way to end their playdate. I love that Groovy Girl considers cookie baking a fun activity and is a bit snooty about the store bought variety; not that she’d turn either down but she appreciates a good homemade version. For now though they are happily upstairs surrounded by American Girl doll clothes having a peaceful day indeed.

Watch Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech hear and read this interesting Wikepedia article about the struggle to make his birthday into a national holiday. I know that I carry out King’s dream every day at school as I work to help students through education as well as a personal relationship with students that need a little (or a lot) extra kindness in their day. Let freedom ring…

I haven’t even focused on the inaugaration of President Obama today and I will later when my writing time is over. Maybe we can watch the event as we make cookies.

And how have you spent your day…?

Winter Garden

Basil and Rosemary

These two beautiful plants are making my winter much more thrilling in the kitchen. Last night we had lasagna and it was fabulous just to clip a stem and add the fresh basil. I’ve used the rosemary several times over the holidays for my chicken recipes. At our local co-op I bought some delicious rosemary bread and we LOVED it! So I’m thinking I should be able to recreate that myself.

All our snow has disappeared which I hadn’t really thought about until Candace from Beth Fish Reads tweeted photos of the fresh powder they received in PA overnight. Here in Iowa we are snow-less and I am wishing for Spring. I want to be digging in the soil and planting some seeds. To be craving Spring so early is quite a downfall-it’s only mid-January and winter in the Midwest can be most brutal through February and March. Hopefully these two herb plants will help me through. I’ll have to pick a more modest goal to look forward to, like Valentine’s Day! Enjoy the snow or the sunshine where ever you are today!

Weekend Cooking; Katie Workman's Lazy Oven French Toast

(source)

As she points out though it’s the cook that’s lazy not the oven. I love this recipe. French toast is easier to make than waffles or pancakes truly and this recipe makes it easier to enjoy all together at the table, especially if you have guests. It is assembled the night before so the bread soaks up all the egg while you are sleeping. I served it for breakfast for the five of us on New Year’s Day and it would be excellent and easy for a brunch.

Lazy Oven French Toast
Serves 6-8
Vegetarian

Butter or oil spray
4 cups milk
6 large eggs
2 T granulated sugar
2 T maple syrup, plus more for serving (optional)(to which I say really, optional?, I don’t think so)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher or coarse salt
1 large loaf challah bread, preferably slightly stale, sliced 3/4 to 1 inch thick
3/4 cup whole raisins, chopped dried fruit, or chopped nuts (optional)

Fresh fruit such as berries, sliced peaches or pears, and/or confectioner’s sugar, for serving.

1. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with butter or spray.
2. Place the milk, eggs, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to mix well. Set aside.
3. Arrange half of the bread slices in the prepared baking dish, cutting the bread so that it fits in a solid layer. Pour half of the milk mixture over the top, then evenly distribute half the dried fruit or nuts, if using, over the top.
4. Repeat, creating a second layer of bread and then pouring the rest of the milk mixture on top and distributing rest of the fruit or nuts over the bread. Lightly press the bread down into the liquid.

5. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap (luckily my pan has a cover so I’m able to skip this step) and refrigerate over night. The bread will have absorbed almost all of the milk mixture. Uncover the baking dish and if there are dryer looking pieces on top, take them off and carefully tuck them underneath the bread on the bottom so that the more milk-soaked pieces are now on top (this is messy but it all works out in the baking). Note that any dried fruit sitting on top of the French toast will get pretty chewy when baked and nuts on top will get toasty; the fruit and nuts tucked into the French toast will be softer, so disperse the fruit and nuts as you see fit.

6. Preheat the oven to 425*F.
7. Bake the French toast, uncovered, until it is puffed and golden, 30 to 35 minutes.
8. Let the French toast sit for 5 minutes to firm up a bit, then cut into squares and serve it hot with your choice of maple syrup, fresh fruit, and/or a dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

On the side notes Katie adds perfectly helpful hints as to what the kids can do to help but since I created this at about 11:00 on New Year’s Eve Groovy Girl was too busy being silly with her older siblings to help me pour and squish. It was her first late night NY’s Eve and I can’t blame her.

I made this exactly as the recipe states EXCEPT since my kids are not fans of either nuts or dried fruit I did a cranberry twist. I made a compote out of one bag of cranberries, a little orange juice, local honey, and some lemon zest and let it simmer on medium heat while I prepared the French toast. I poured this in-between layers and on top. The cranberries were a pretty addition against the yellow/white bread/egg mixture plus they were tart and perfect with our real maple syrup.

This post is connected to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. Happy Saturday. I know have to cart Groovy Girl to a drama class and an art class. I plan to take my laptop so I can do some writing and a book-I am just about finished with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

Weekend Cooking; Party treats

(cranberry salsa)

Over the last few weeks I’ve done a lot of cooking. When I cook I like to cook with love, with feeling, with happy thoughts in my head which takes me beyond the mundane of just cooking a meal, if that makes sense. It’s more than that or I might as well stop and go buy a take-out pizza!

We had guests to entertain a few nights before New Year’s Eve and I wanted to prepare a few special recipes. I had already made this hummus recipe because Eldest daughter likes it so I planned to serve that with crisp celery and a variety of crackers including these snappy little rice crackers from Blue Diamond that I love. I planned on serving quesadillas cut into thin wedges for an appetizer and served some of our own famous salsa with that. I wanted something just a little bit more and found it in this cranberry salsa recipe that I served with those little scoop chips that are perfect for well, scooping dips.

Cranberry Salsa

12 oz. cranberries

1 granny smith apple

1 red or orange pepper

3 T. cilantro

3 T. pickled jalapenos

1/2 of a red onion, diced

1/3 cup apple juice

3/4 cup sugar

Chop first six ingredients. Mix apple juice with sugar in a small saucepan and heat until dissolved. Mix juice mixture with chopped ingredients and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

My modifications: I didn’t chop up the cranberries because I like whole berries so I added the berries to the cooking apple juice (I used cider) and let them pop, pop, pop. I replaced the sugar with honey because why not?

This dip is tangy and wonderful on a tortilla! Our friends wanted some to take home with them (and they took a container of hummus as well!). I took a small container of it with me to work on Thursday and Friday and ate if with blue chips for lunch and I still have a little leftover for a sometime soon treat.

hummus plate mid-preparation

The original recipe is published in a school cookbook our staff put together a year or two ago. I found that recipe while I was looking for my friend Stephanie’s margarita recipe. Two recipe hits just pages from each other. The margaritas were a perfect balance for the spicy appetizers on our table.

I used Katie Workman’s The Mom 100 Cookbook to pre-make our New Year’s Day brunch menu. My mother-in-law made a french toast dish like this for us one year at the beach but dang if I could not find that recipe. It is such an annoyance when I know I’ve had a recipe but I’ve lost it in the midst of my recipe chaos. Katie saved me though as I paged through a few books looking for something similar. This one is it exactly I believe. It was so delicious served with warmed maple syrup and a dap of real whipped cream. I’ll save that one for next week’s post.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads where many other fabulous food-related posts are waiting for you to check them out.

Happy New Year's Eve day; welcome to our geekdom.

How do you usher in the New Year? We hunker down as a family. Generally we don’t go out on the town or even to parties. Last year we did go to a family friendly bowling party and we had fun but the kids begged to stay home this year. We are grateful for this. In just a few minutes I will be in the kitchen preparing a few appetizers most of which are planned leftovers from friends visiting us the other night. I have homemade hummus and a delicious cranberry salsa dip to share plus Brie cheese to heat up. Easy.

For dinner I am making a Thai chicken curry using the leftover farm-fresh chicken from our Christmas dinner.
We have some bubbly to share and we’ll play a board game or two. Over the holidays we’ve played the card game, golf, Scattergories, Guesstures, and lots of PS 3 Jeopardy. Tonight will probably be Mexican Train and Pictionary. Last night we put together a Christmas gift puzzle of classic baseball cards. It was really so much fabulous fun. As I type though I think there may be naysayers in the crowd who may be thinking “boring” and that’s okay we love our inner geek! I’m happy my kids are happy to be home hanging out. We also watch crazy movies after Groovy Girl’s gone to bed. That list defies our goody-two shoes image with titles as diverse as The French Connection, GoodFellas, Pulp Fiction, The Day of the Jackal, and Seven. My husband loves cinema and wanted the teens to watch specific scenes in each of these movies which involves watching the whole movie of course!

We spend a fair amount of time reading as well. Oldest daughter is reading Emma while I’m reading Abarat by Clive Barker. The girls commandeered the television away from the football boys to re-watch the very first Downton Abbey just to begin to refresh. I want to be ready for the January 6th.

I also have to soak our black-eyed peas for tomorrow’s hoppin’ john. Time to get into the kitchen, pour a glass of wine, and start making some magic.

Hey, how are you spending the day?

Christmas Eve.

Groovy Girl used this app to humor herself. You might ask why Teenage Boy has on a crazy Christmas sweater…? We were at a second-hand store and he tried it on for fun. Lucky me, he “allowed” this photo to be snapped.

On a quieter note; I’ve had the house to myself for the last couple of hours. Pure bliss.

The two teenagers are still sound asleep. My husband is upstairs working on something-I don’t know what but probably don’t need to disturb him. I used my time to finish a last grocery list for meals after tomorrow and then decided to not worry about that list until Wednesday. I whipped up a batch of sweet puffed corn-again with the unhealthy treats, I know! I made about six bags of this addicting treat and am going to disperse to my neighbors. I’d never had this snack before this year and now that I’ve made it will be happy to give it all away so I don’t have to nibble it’s buttery richness as we hang out together tomorrow. If you need a drink to serve for guests this peppermint treat by Brown-eyed Baker caught my eye this morning.

The plans for the rest of my day: (updated)

~~-yoga for renewal and balance.~~

-Read more Abarat by Clive Barker.
-Finish knitting mini-scarf for teenage daughter’s plant.
~~-Take my teenagers on a local adventure~~
a. coffee shop (closed)
~~b. two new vintage shops~~

~~-Take a long bubble bath to prepare for tonight’s two services.~~
~~-Heat Italian tortellini soup in crock pot to have between services.~~
~~-Make bread to share with soup.~~

~~-wrap gifts~~

~~-talk to Groovy Girl at the end of the day to find out her day’s adventures in Florida.~~

(Created my own from this pin)

I plan to have a very relaxing tomorrow, enjoying my family.

Peace be with you as you celebrate however you choose to celebrate this wonderful holiday.

A snowy yet green Christmas

(image)

I find it difficult to balance holiday cheer while staying true to my earthy self. There is mass frenzy to get so much done in such a short amount of time. I am always behind because I’m trying to do so much at school, at home, and at church. Here’s a rundown of my recent compromises that cause me small but real anguish.

Why does it bother me? I think it is just who I am.

At school:

All last week Janice and I made cut out Christmas cookies for each student and staff member at Highland. It is a huge project but so worth it when the classes line up at the end of their library time and see a tray full of cookies ready for them. They each get to pick one from the tray and carry it back to their classroom to eat. Too me this is one way to celebrate the wonder of the holiday as kids get to pick up a homemade cookie to enjoy. For me I balance the joy I feel at giving out the cookies with the huge process of cutting out, frosting each cookie with the fact that each cookie I just made has shortening, white sugar, powdered sugar, and dye in it. I understand it is just one cookie and my own kids have certainly enjoyed holiday treats like this but I cringe at the yucky ingredients that go into such a “treat”. I can’t justify the expense of doing an all-organic cookie though and their little taste buds would not care. I am happy it is a homemade cookie with out anything in it that we can’t pronounce!

Another family and I through school has an adopt-a-family to buy gifts for and I finished wrapping my gifts on Wednesday and loaded them into the car, unloaded them at my house (so they would not freeze) and reloaded them back into the car yesterday to drop them off for the family. Luckily my extremely handsome husband drove me there and back because driving in snowstorm-like weather is not on my favorite to-do list. My hope is always to get the gifts to the family while the children are still at school-it takes a little of the magic away if you watch a young man unload the gifts from the back of an SUV-but since it was a snow day everyone was home and happy to see the gift boxes come rolling in. We tried to balance fun things for the family with four small children with practical things like shampoo and diapers. It truly is the thought that counts and we did our best and hope they are happy. My unbalance here came from the fact that I had to walk through the doors of a local Wal-Mart to buy a uniform item for the family. I haven’t been inside a WM store for about 10 years or so. I felt a little dirty but I made it through.

At home:

I’m trying to finish gift purchasing and every year balance my Target shopping with downtown small store shopping. I feel much better about the gifts I purchase from local retailers than tapping my toe in the long Target line. I purchased only three gifts this year using mega-Amazon market place-only gifts that needed to head cross country were purchased through them. I wish I could be so organized that I’d purchased special gifts all year long and had them boxed up and ready to go by December 1st. I wonder how my stepmother, mother, and mother-in-law get all this accomplished as all their gifts are already under our tree. Amazing.

Our meal for Christmas dinner will at least be farm fresh and healthy. We have a local chicken thawing, cranberries to simmer, sweet potatoes from our local co-op, salad grown locally, and a strawberry-rhubarb pie made in Southern Minnesota by a small local group.

At church:

I am on a committee that will serve breakfast this Sunday, which I love taking part in this community activity. The unbalance comes from the hot dish “we’ve” chosen to make for this breakfast. It uses boxed hash brown patties-which are just disgusting to me. I am a real potato kind of woman and would prefer to buy a bag of potatoes, shred them, and add them to the egg dish but then each one would not be just like the other. At least I’m not asked to dump any processed sausage material into the egg dish. People loved this dish last year and it is difficult to speak up for change for two reasons; I am the youngest on the committee of more formidable church ladies. It is one of those things I’m willing to let go for the trauma it would cause. No one else is going to want to put that much effort into creating a dish that many will eat in a short amount of time. Just me. We do at least serve a cornucopia of fresh fruit at the breakfast. Not seasonal but at least fresh.

The list goes on and on and it is so often difficult to justify my moral ideas of what I want to feed and gift my family compared to the masses. I don’t belong with the masses but often in trying to hold up my own moral high ground I add more work to my list when I should be relaxing with my family. It’s the circle of life with a picture of me yapping at my own tail as I go merrily around and around!

What kinds of compromises do you make to share the joy of Christmas?

Happy Holidays!