family – Page 23 – Peaceful Reader

28 Days of Things I Love; #6

(Groovy Girl in a rare meditative moment)

Ohhh. Been busy. Love my life; not always happy with the chaos that comes with our hectic life.
So today I say I love calm. I need to embrace it and bring it forth more each day. My day at school is class after class and when I have a lot of student-led projects happening I end up working through my lunch to get supplies sorted and ready. After busy work days I am grateful to come home and peacefully make dinner, enjoying my time with children.

This week though I’ve yet to make a real dinner at home. Amy’s mac and cheese and some vegetables on a plate do not count for a family meal but that is what I left my children with as I pulled down the driveway headed to my daughter’s school conference and then to an art class I’m taking. Last night was similar as Groovy Girl had a make-up skating lesson and I helped at a school fundraiser right after. Two activities each night is exhaustive to my mind and spirit. How do you deal with your hectic schedules?

Breathe. Peace. Calm is what I love.

28 Days of Things I Love; #5

My dogs.

Tarah interrupting my reading.

Tarah, young black lab, and Isabelle, old chocolate lab, are my happy after-school greeters. They lick and bark; fighting for attention. Both seem a bit camera shy but love to eat-mostly trying to find a way to get people food. Tarah has found her way onto our kitchen counters, consuming butter, whole loaves of bread and once an entire array of whoopie pies meant for my book club. She’s banned from the kitchen now.

Isabelle

Bella’s too big for the love seat now

Trying to nap

Weekend Cooking; Adzuki Beans

(Photo Credit)

In December I reviewed Moosewood Restaurant; Cooking for Health which I’d checked out from the library. When I had the book I wrote down a few recipes and hoped that I might get the book for Christmas. I bought the ingredients for one of the recipes using adzuki beans because I’d never heard of them. Luckily I found them in bulk at my local organic store and it seemed like a sign. Well, you know how things go. I had those adzuki beans in a canning jar and it was the holiday season and the days got away from me. I never made the recipe but still had the beautiful beans staring at me every time I opened my dry storage cupboard.

Last week I got inspired to use them but realized I hadn’t copied down the original recipe. I did what everyone does; I googled a new recipe and this is what I found at Healthy Green Kitchen, a new foodie blog for me! Winnie at HGK credits Ree Drummond (do I even have to say it…Pioneer Woman) for her recipe. I made them and we’ve been eating them all week in different easy meals.

Beans

adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond
Serves 8-10

ingredients:

*4 cups dried aduki beans (or pinto or another type of beans)
*4 slices organic uncured bacon, sliced into 1 inch pieces- optional; bacon lends a nice smoky saltiness but you can leave out for vegetarian beans
*filtered water
*1 teaspoon course sea salt or to taste
*1 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
*1 teaspoon garlic powder or to taste
*1 teaspoon chili powder or to taste

directions:

1. If not using aduki beans, it’s best to soak your beans overnight in a large pot covered with water. After they have soaked, drain them and rinse several times. If you are using the adzuki beans just go ahead and use them.

2. Place rinsed beans and bacon in a large pot on the stove. Pour water over the beans to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.

3. Skim any foam that might rise to the top while cooking, and add additional water (or stock), if there does not seem to be enough liquid.

4. Cook until the beans are tender, about 1 1/2 hours (or as long as 3 hours for pinto and other beans).

5. Add the sea salt (don’t add too much if you’ve used stock) and pepper, plus the seasonings I mentioned (or others that you like) to taste. You can serve these in whole wheat or corn tortillas with the toppings of your choice: think grated raw cheese, fresh salsa, guacamole, organic sour cream, etc. Or have some in a bowl with a side of cornbread (I made a pretty good gluten-free one that you can see in the top picture). Fresh chopped tomato, cucumber, red pepper, and sliced avocado are also wonderful additions.

6. My favorite healthy way to eat these, though, is this: chop some collard greens very fine, add some olive oil and fresh lime juice, and mix with the beans, veggies, and salsa. Top with some green onions and minced cilantro- yum yum yum!

The first night we had them with brown rice, chopped tomatoes, a little curry sauce and whole wheat wraps. In the middle of the week I had them on top of a green salad while my children ate pasta. Last night I turned the last of them into my food processor with a little water, fresh squeezed lime juice and a few diced tomatoes with juice and created a refried bean consistency. We had soft shell small tacos using the beans as our base with freshly shredded mozzarella, avocado, tomatoes, and green lettuce from our co-op. The beans were delicious! My kids didn’t even realize they were eating the leftover beans re-purposed!

Adzuki beans are flavorful and very useful as you don’t have to soak them at all. If you can find them in bulk-give them a try.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted at Beth Fish Reads. Pop over and see what other food-related bloggers are cooking up!

28 Days of Things I Love; #2

I love my handsome husband!

We’ve raised a family together and we still enjoy each other’s company. He sends me sweet texts during the day. He makes me hand-crafted cards for special occasions. I’ve saved them all. He smiles when he sees me at the end of the day, whether it is 4:00 or 11:00 pm. He makes dinner on his day off. He works really hard on projects for both home and work. He is very creative and lends his energy to many of my teaching projects. He “puts” up with all my whims and truly tries to make me happy.
He is the perfect husband for me.

(He is a prisoner to his phone)

28 Days of Things I love; #1

image courtesy of vintagechica

#1 On the first day of February I offer up my children’s sunshine-filled peaceful moments.

I deeply love my children all the time but I am very nearly giddy when they get along, showing mutual respect and kindness for each other (not the terms they would use.) This morning in the bathroom was an example of this or when Teenage Boy helps Groovy Girl with her homework. There are many more times when he is big brother mean to her and she sobs little girl sobs and maybe those times make me appreciate the camaraderie that can occur. Life is rocky-I hope they can learn to count on each other.

Happy February!

Weekend Cooking; The Geranium Farm Cookbook

by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton & 10,000 Geranium Farmers

(2006) 136 pages

At our church Christmas Bazaar we have a beautiful book table with used books from our members. It is a wonderful way to share and recycle the books we have read all year. We are a well-read and well-fed congregation as recipe books take up an entire table.

This year a had this one in my stack and my intention was to give it to my mother as she is a true cookbook collector. I read through it one night though and fell in love with the uncomplicated recipes. I love to read through the vignettes interspersed throughout the book as well. I loved this quote from one

Baking Friday Afternoon

I could hardly believe my ears: Rosie requested that we bake a pie on Friday afternoon. Always say yes when your teenager wants to do something with you-anything this side of legality. It could be years before it happens again. (48) ~ Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

Words of wisdom there!

I’ve made these two recipes from this book so far-both excellent.

Curried Olive Spread

1 block of cream cheese, light or otherwise
1 cup pitted, chopped green salad olives (more or less to taste and you can use exotic olives if you prefer)
1 T. curry (more or less to taste)

Cube the cream cheese, then put cheese and olives in a food processor. Blend until mixture is slightly lumpy. Stir in curry. Can be served immediately, but sitting in the fridge for an hour or so allows the flavors to blend. Serve with crackers, celery sticks, or toasted bread squares.

My grandmother gave me this recipe when I entered the working world. She told me there would be many occasions where I would be expected to bring an appetizer to a dinner, and this one was quick, easy, and tasted delicious. After all, she mused, working women were busy and didn’t have all day to create fabulous food...(108) ~ The Rev. Laurie Brock, Mobile, Alabama

Can’t resist grandmother advice either! I served this dip with a loaf of my fresh homemade bread. The dip made enough for leftovers and I’ve been eating that as a snack with gluten-free crackers all week.

Corn Spoon Bread

1 cup (organic) milk
1 T. (unsalted) butter
1 cup cornmeal
1 can creamed corn
2 eggs, separated
1 T. (sea) salt
1 T (freshly ground) black pepper

Scald the milk in a saucepan. Melt the butter into the milk. Add the cornmeal and cook until thick. Stir in the creamed corn. Beat the egg yolks with the salt and pepper. Stir the yolks into the corn mixture. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the corn mixture. pour into a well-greased quart baking dish. Bake at 350* for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted int eh middle comes out clean. Serves 6-8
This is a favorite recipe of mine from my Indiana childhood. ~The Rev. Gerald W. Keucher, New York, NY (123)

I have a thing about creamed corn-a childhood food memory-so this appealed to me on that level. I made it for a church potluck and by the time I made it through the line it was gone, bowl scraped clean just as it should be at a potluck.

Link for Geranium Farm. This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Drop over and see what she is dishing about and many other food-related posts.

In other family news our new refrigerator has been ordered but is back-ordered. My hope is that it arrives somewhere in the vicinity of the first two weeks of Feb. Back order seems to happen with all appliance purchases now.
I’m reading Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz – beautifully written, taking many post-it’s to mark my favorites.
I watched Burlesque last night and loved it-don’t know why it took me a year. Cher and Christina Aguilera were wonderful. I watched Eat, Pray, Love also yesterday and while it dragged in spots was uplifting to me. Made me savor my own loves. So decadent to watch two movies in one day-it was a “free” day in a way.

Simply Monday

We made chocolate chip cookies at our house tonight. Groovy Girl and I owed Teenage Boy a batch because he walked her and two friends over to the cemetery on Saturday at dusk. We live across from a cemetery and this is a favorite “challenge” activity when friends sleep over. He remembers doing this when he was in middle school with a group of his friends. To thank him for following through we made him the cookies. He’s been eating them while he watches football and reads Inheritance, last in his favorite Eragon series..

I just made the recipe on the back of the Nestle package (yes, every once in awhile non-organic lands in my grocery cart-I don’t know how?) because it was there and easy. I know I have several good recipes but I’ve never hit on one that was so amazing that I have to make that one ALL the time, they all seem to be pretty similar. Do you have a favorite chocolate chip recipe? If so, please share.

My kitchen’s not clean but the cookies are done. Dinner was easy. My kids are happy. Groovy Girl and I had a serious conversation about an article in her Discovery Girls magazine. About bras. Ugh. She’s worried because other girls in her class have started wearing them. Double ugh.

When I went up to get her headed toward sleep she was dancing wildly to one of her Taylor Swift CD’s, lucky for her she was already in her pajamas with her teeth brushed. We read the last half of The Snow Queen by Amy Ehrlich and talked for a few minutes. She wanted to share one of Taylor’s songs with me. It’s a sweet song and it made us hug repeatedly. Listen to it; Never Grow Up, not an official video but still a good.

Hoping your Monday was peaceful and simple.

Weekend Cooking; New Year's Day Brunch recipe

photo courtesy of whatwhatwhat.com

This is what is cooking at my house right now!

I was a whirlwind yesterday; trying to get everything done. My goal was to begin the new year with a clean house and with the help of my new vacuum cleaner I accomplished that. I made three trips to various grocery stores to pick up items I needed. After shopping together husband and I made a light lunch for all five of us and then I set to the task of pretty much spending the rest of the day in the kitchen. I wanted to make the breakfast casserole that my mother-in-law created once before in my kitchen. My thought was to have something pre-made and extra yummy so I could properly relax today. After I finished making that I moved on to making dinner; my “family-famous” eggplant lasagna and two loaves of bread.

I got almost everything done on my list yesterday. I finished my 100 books in time; spending the whole morning immersed in Selznick’s Wonderstruck. I’m excited because last year I didn’t make it and really it seemed like such an attainable goal. It’s not unless you really read all the time or count picture books, which I choose not to. I also didn’t get my weekend cooking post completed yesterday like I’d planned but hey, I did what I could and feeding the family is pretty high up on the to-do list.

Here is the breakfast recipe we will be eating in about 30 minutes, if I can get the teenagers up…

Cinnamon Apple Baked French Toast Casserole

1 loaf French or Italian bread
8 farm fresh eggs
1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 1/2 cups milk
1 T. real vanilla
6-8 Apples, peeled, cored and sliced (McIntosh or Cortland, preferred)
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 T. butter
Maple syrup (warmed) for serving

Slice bread into 1 1/2-inch slices. Place the bread tightly together in a greased 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. In a bowl beat together the eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, milk and vanilla. Pour half of egg mixture over bread slices. Place sliced apples over bread to cover and pour remaining egg mixture over the top. Mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle over top of dish. Dot casserole with butter slices. Cover and refrigerate over night.
In the morning remove foil or pan cover. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. Place a cookie sheet under glass dish as casserole may overflow a little. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into big squares and serve with maple syrup.
Yum!

Later today we’re having black-eyed peas, salsa and spinach over brown rice for dinner. How many others participate in this tradition?

This post is connected to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme-drop by and check out all the food-related posts gathered there.

Happy New Year. Happy Reading.

Holly Jolly

Loads of game playing. These have all been played or attempted over the holiday.

Lots of eating.

Christmas afternoon-opening family gifts.

We’ve even redeemed a gift card already! Groovy Girl felt so grown up, getting her hair cut at my favorite Aveda salon.

We’ve snuggled up for movies and watched two episodes of Downton Abbey and several

episodes of Arthur.

Oh, the joy of everyone together!

Christmas Eve

We had a cozy day hanging out today. Even though we hoped to be all done with our shopping we still had a few things to finish up. My husband and I went out to look at a local appliance store which turned out to be closed so we continued on to get guinea pig food and a few other last minute gifts. While we were driving around with NPR on the radio David Sedaris read to us from his Santaland Diaries.

So there we are driving around, concerned with our day but laughing our troubles away as Sedaris’ recounts his brief (and hysterical) stint as an elf at Macy’s. I can’t get it to load on my computer for some reason or I’d have it here for you to listen to but the link is here if get the chance to listen. It was just what we needed. And right before that we heard Neil Gaiman on Wait, Wait don’t tell me. Love public radio!

Why, you ask, were we searching out an appliance store on Christmas Eve day? I know your curious…
The beautiful Sub-Zero that came with our old house died a sad and pitiful death two days ago. Now if it was a snowy Christmas we could use the outdoors to store our holiday groceries but that is not the case here-it has been balmy! No snow. Luckily our friend, Jason, saved us by bringing over his garage fridge and we are using that for the next month or so until we can research the best refrigerator for our galley kitchen. Thank you Jason!!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday however you celebrate-celebrate in style!
Merry Christmas to all!