family – Page 7 – Peaceful Reader

April Days

Terrible rain storm here tonight, rumbling, with lightning. I enjoyed a walk with friends this afternoon around a large lake and it was cloudy and smelled like rain but lucky for us it held off. It came tonight with lots of rumbling and a light show display.

Groovy Girl and I are dog sitting for a friend and I had to bring the dog back here with me. Her sad yellow lab eyes looked at me through the door and I just couldn’t leave her alone. So we have a doggie sleep over guest who’s had a good time getting to know our house and our two labs.

{Pre and Post-baked shells}

I made one main major meal this week-Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce from Giada on Food Network. My brother made it for GG and I a few months ago and we both liked it. It’s a little labor intensive though so I made it last Sunday afternoon when I had the time. Throughout the week GG was able to eat the leftovers for dinner before dance. Next time I’d leave out the pancetta; I didn’t really enjoy the flavor.

While I was looking through some old blog posts I found this Sweet Potato Black Bean burrito recipe that I love. It is perfect to make and keep extras for lunches as well. Also I found this great recipe for breakfast sandwiches that can be made ahead. I’m trying to make Anton one every morning so he leaves for work with something for breakfast. The recipe says you can freeze these; I’ve just been keeping 3-4 ready to go packaged up in the fridge. It’s easy to take one out, heat in the microwave for 20 seconds, and hand it to him before he heads out the door.

Tomorrow we celebrate Easter with a church service where Groovy Girl will do a celebratory lyrical dance for about the 4th year and after we head to MN to have dinner cooked by my stepmother. I’m very excited to just sit at her table and enjoy the family around me. Blessing abound.

March has blown in and surrounds me now.

I need a break. I’m tired. Spring Break is just around the corner.

Our Scholastic Book Fair for the spring is up and running. Lots of books, lots of excitement from kids and parents. This time I requested less crap. You know the stuff, pencils with fuzz on top, pens that have heads with tongues that stick out, weird stuff but kids are always enamored with it) I want them to see the books. We have less days for the fair but I hope we do really well on our two conference nights.

Anton is getting along. He’s met a friend; the nephew of one of my friends and they’ve done a few things together. He misses having people his own age around all the time. He is getting more hours at his job which is a positive. He still has a difficult time getting up and going in the morning which reminds of so many mornings with my other son’s high school years. Slow as molasses we said. Now I have a repeat performance. I have to keep reminding myself that a 22-yr-old still has a developing brain, teen-like emotions. Part of me just wants to shout “get the hell in the car!” I don’t. Good or bad, I don’t know.

I’m getting ready to take off for sunny Indiana over my break. Visiting my friend Barb and her family. Groovy Girl and I love to make this road trip together. We have a yoga workshop planned, kayak’ing out her back door, and maybe a pedicure. Otherwise we will just be relaxing together. Old, close friends are like that. Comfortable.

Usually I like to post what I read in a month but February was a terrible reading time for me. I guess my husband’s desire to see all the Oscar movies took a toll. I read one book; My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I thought it was lovely but s-l-o-w going. I got confused with the many quirky characters and I just could not pick up the pace. I finished it though and moved on to my book club choice, Circling the Sun by Paula McClain. I didn’t finish it by our meeting date but I have finished it now. I liked it and am interested in many of the other stories like Out of Africa that go with this book.

I’m on to The Mothers by Brit Bennett which I am actually already half way through. It’s exciting and I love Nadia. I’ll have more time to read this month.

I’ve also been cooking a lot but my cooking has changed with Anton in our house. I have lots of work to do to encourage him to eat healthier choices. Upward battle. He is used to eating processed foods, things that are quick and easy, microwavable. I try to balance a few good home cooked meals with some of his favorites. Suffice it to say he is NOT a fan of tofu. He has eaten sweet potato burritos, fish, turkey lasagna, chicken cutlets, and he was quite happy the day I made fried chicken. We are a work in progress. I try not to be grossed out as he gulps a bright blue or red “juice”-type soda.

I try and remember right now there are bigger worries than processed food.

Enjoy!

Life is filled with surprises

Here is my life changing moment.

One day last Spring I received a message on FB’s messenger, it just happened to pop up on my phone while I was sitting at my desk. The message stunned me and I cried right there at my desk.

It said: “Hey Mrs Holt! Do you remember me?”

Anton was a student of mine in North Little Rock, AR at Seventh Street Elementary. He’d been searching online for 6 years for me. 10 years ago we left Little Rock and moved back to Iowa. It’s not much to go on when you’ve only ever called someone “Mrs. Holt” but eventually I showed up on FB for him. Miracle.

We communicated for over a year back and forth from Iowa to Texas and eventually his situation changed and we made the family decision to bring him here to Iowa-on the bus. It took 3 days. He’d never travelled that far on his own. He was so proud of himself for being willing to go far from home.

He wants to go to school, he wants to work, and live life like others do. He just needs a leg up. He is the first in his family to graduate from high school and he wants more out of life than what he has seen. I knew he was worth it way back in 5th grade when I helped him frequently at home and at school. He is adjusting to Iowa, the cold, and being part of our family again.

Every day teachers make connections with students. We are teaching young human beings how to be human; how to think, create, and navigate the bigger world around them. It is seriously important work.

Most often we make a daily brief impression (make it kind) but every once in a while you make a life-changing affect on a person and that is monumental for both. It might make you cry at your desk at some point. That Anton would look for me for 6 years brings me such joy; knowing that as a 5th grader he was paying attention to everything we did together. I wish he could have found me sooner but it worked out when it did. I’m grateful for our time together now.

Cooking keeps me sane

Recently I’ve made some amazing recipes that I should share. It’s been a wild last couple of days. My brother visited last week. Inauguration. My husband’s performance of Rocky Horror opened on Friday night. And our son came back from school for the weekend to see last night’s show.

I’m much like my grandmother in that I cook for people when they come to my home although I was caught a little unprepared when my brother and his family hung out with us last Sunday morning. I didn’t let the same thing happen for this morning’s brunch. The show was very late last night so Tristan and Heather slept in which was perfect. It gave me the time to do some morning yoga and then prepare food without a rush. Heather’s vegan and my son follows suit when they are together. I found several new recipes that I was happy to try.

My initial inspiration came from this post, 30 Vegan Breakfast Recipes, by Sam at It doesn’t taste like chicken. Breakfast is one of our favorite meals and it was great to have so many wonderful choices all in one spot. There are several more on this list that I plan to try like the breakfast sandwich but for today’s breakfast I picked the biscuits and gravy and potato hash. I served those two with grits, grapes, sliced oranges, and fresh orange juice. I’m terrible about snapping pictures of my plated food; trust me that the food looked delicious.

{Source}

Simple Vegan Breakfast Hash-This recipe was very filled with flavor. Peeling the potatoes and cutting them into bite-sized chunks took some time but they roasted to such hot perfection that I was pulling the crusty parts right off the pan. Mine had a more prominent mixture of sweet potato!

{Minimalist Baker}

Best Damn Vegan Biscuits- I thought I’d get ahead of the game by preparing these last night before I went to bed. I must have been overtired as I mixed up the measurements for baking soda and baking powder. They baked up beautifully and it was lucky that I tried one hot out of the oven. They were H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E! Really heavy flavor of soda. So I redid the recipe this morning and they turned out just right. This is a very easy recipe to follow with minimal ingredients.

{Minimalist Baker}

If you’re going to have biscuits then you should probably whip up some vegan gravy. I’ve made vegetarian gravy many times but had no clue how to make a vegan recipe that would taste good. Again I turned to Dana’s recipe at the Minimalist Baker. Her gravy is packed full of mushrooms giving it a hearty quality. I even wonder if I could pass this recipe off on my husband instead of that jarred gravy he sometimes uses in a pinch. Give it a try: Vegan Breakfast Gravy

I didn’t get to march yesterday but was there in spirit. I did manage to slip in some reading; My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and Pax by Sara Pennypacker, both interesting stories of friendship.

I host book club on Monday night and I’ve made another great recipe for that: Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup, a very easy and flavorful recipe. I love soups and this one has a nice kick to it.

Happy Week! February is truly just around the corner. We are at the halfway mark for winter. One step closer to spring is what I think.

Holidays

{G.G.had to take a panorama shot before
we ate thus annoying her siblings just a bit}

I hope everyone had a very merry winter break. We had a lovely holiday together with all three kids at home. Kaylee came from Brooklyn, Tristan from Iowa City, and Groovy Girl emerged from her lonely only child funk to enjoy her siblings. It’s tough to be the youngest.

I’m enjoying this last little bit of break by catching up on sleep, on a few shows I like (This Is Us, Empire, and Atlanta), and end-of-the-year reading, more about that in my next post.

My refrigerator is full of leftovers so I do NOT have to worry about cooking for a few l-o-n-g days. Everything I made for our Christmas meal was fantastic! This is unusual my friends. Normally something goes wrong just by the law of averages. Prepping in the two days before helped me immensely. It’s a little weird to spread recipe love before you’ve actually made them so here is what worked:

Turkey brining is always the way to go. I brined it outside for about 24 hours in my grandmother’s crock with snow packed around the outside. I let the gorgeous 12-lb bird air rest in the fridge. It cooked in about 2 hours and it was very tender and flavorful with a crispy skin. I also thanked the bird for giving its life for us to sustain us. To counterbalance this meat at our table Tristan’s vegan girlfriend brought a Gardein turkey roll with it’s own gravy and it was good also. We’ve always loved to mix up our meals and almost everyone tried some of the turkey roll. I did not follow Emeril’s brining recipe to a T; just simplified it to the bare minimum. I did stuff the turkey as per his recipe though.

Wild Rice and butternut squash-huge hit. I will make this again and I have enough leftover for lunches. I forgot how much I like wild rice. The whole carrots-delicious as well.

I did a trial run on the sweet potato dish from Thug Kitchen and while I liked it, I didn’t think my people would love it so i scrapped that recipe for simple baked then smashed together. No brown sugar, no marshmallows; just the deliciousness of sweet pots. Love ’em.

Brussels sprouts were amazing. I just cleaned them, halved them (except for little ones), tossed them with coconut oil and olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and roasted them on a baking pan. They were good although I would have preferred them crispier. It is a fine line between almost burning them and crisp and I’ve crossed that line before. I served them with shaved parmesan on the side.

Clam Chowder was a huge hit on Christmas Eve but the oyster stew not as much. I don’t know if it was the recipe or just something I did; it was lacking the wow! factor.

Enchilada breakfast dish made everyone happy I think. It might have been the mimosas though. But you have to eat and I did play with this recipe adding in our regular green enchilada sauce and made only a 1/2 batch of the heavy cheese sauce. I didn’t need it to be THAT cheesy. We had a whole plate load of toppings as well; sour cream, avocados, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and our own family-made salsa)

I love it when meals come together. It makes everyone happy to sit at the table and know that we are blessed to share food in the same space for just a few days. We are ready to rock another year even when we are not in the same place.

Weekly Recipes; Food for thought

I haven’t posted any weekly recipe posts for quite awhile because I feel like I haven’t been cooking. Of course we’ve still eaten dinner but with my husband gone every night for rehearsals – Rocky Horror Show – right now so dinner is usually something I can quickly pull together before we head to dance. Making pasta, soup, or the occasional grilled cheese for Groovy Girl allows me to eat dinner how I like which is a small plate of crackers, cheese, and some fruit/veggie or blue chips and homemade salsa. I tend to be hungry right after school depending on what I had for lunch and I feel better when I eat mini-meals. My husband, the athlete, always-on-the-go, needs a full meal.

That said this morning I was inspired to whip up some waffles. I have a recipe I’ve used for years but this morning my head was foggy and I could not recall exactly which recipe book it was in. In order to not waste precious time I googled for a recipe. Several links down I spotted Ree Drummond’s signature site and clicked to see what she had to say about waffles. Sometimes I just click there to be amused and then move on to different site for another recipe but today hers seemed doable and interesting. My arm hurts now from whipping up the egg whites but I definitely would make this again and soon with holiday season just a week away.

From Ree’s site:

RECIPE

Waffles

February 18, 2014 554

PREP TIME:: 10 Minutes

DIFFICULTY:: Easy

COOK TIME:: 10 Minutes

SERVINGS:: 8 Servings

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the waffle iron to the regular setting.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, 2 egg yolks, and vanilla. Pour over the dry ingredients and very gently stir until halfway combined. Pour in the melted butter and continue mixing very gently until combined.

In a separate bowl (or using a mixer), beat the egg whites with a whisk until stiff. Slowly fold them into the batter, stopping short of mixing them all the way through.

Scoop the batter into your waffle iron in batches and cook according to its directions (lean toward being a little deep golden and crisp!) Remove and serve immediately with softened butter and warm syrup.

I know it seems labor intensive with the whole egg white thing but I do think it made ours fluffier. The two teenage girls on sleeping on the sofa complained about my kitchen activity until I told them I was making waffles. They wrapped themselves in blankets and moved on over to the table as soon as I plated up pretty waffles. I would have taken a photo before they dug in but I’ve somehow managed to lose my phone somewhere in the house. Enjoy!

P.S. I made this recipe exactly as it says except I used almond milk.

P.P.S. I have one last assignment to turn in for my Google class which has been difficult. I’ll be glad once again to not have to think about homework.

Thanksgiving Delights

I made a sweet potato pie last night. It looks beautiful. I have to wait until tomorrow to taste it. It looks simple in the photo but the flavor will be great. The cool thing is that new stove sitting in my kitchen. Love it.

To make the pie I used the best pie crust recipe I have in my files, given to me by my mother-in-law, Phyllis.

Perfect Pie Crust

For a double crust pie:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cold, cold water

Mix together dry and cut in Crisco with a pastry blender. Pour in cold water and mix only enough to stick together. Roll out one-half of the dough at a time for double crust pie.

I never fail with this recipe. My sweet potato pie is not a two crust pie so I have the second half of the dough in the fridge waiting for inspiration. I didn’t have any Crisco way down in my pantry so I tried a butter/Coconut oil (in solid form) combination and it seems to have worked. The true test will be tomorrow when we eat it.

Sweet potato pie is very easy; a handful of sweet potatoes, baked, then peeled, a little organic sugar, 3 eggs, fresh nutmeg scraped in, and evaporated milk (I used regular after boiling it down). Work it all together, pour it in the pie shell and bake it at 350* for 45 minutes. The middle won’t jiggle when it’s all done. Best served at room temperature with a small dollop of fresh whipped cream seasoned with cinnamon. Can’t wait.

Tomorrow night we are having a friendsgiving and I’m making a big dish of vegetable lasagna with some organic, local ground beef thrown in. I found the veggie lasagna recipe at The Pioneer Woman. Crusty french bread and a large tossed salad will be perfect together. For one guest I’m making homemade mashed potatoes with gravy and some cranberries so it will seem a little more like Thanksgiving. I don’t ever really miss the turkey because the side dishes mean more.

Be grateful for everything in your day; the sweet and the sour.

Wisdom through the years…

My dad’s birthday today. Sorry he’s not here with us. He is a reminder to me all the time of how short life is. I miss him often-

Appreciate the people around you who help you, give you strength, buy you new tires when you really need them and you had a baby instead. My dad was a very understanding sort of guy. He gave my husband good advice before we were married: “Love her and take her where she wants to go…” My husband does that mostly and he’s a great driver while I read in the passenger seat. A win-win for me.

(Boating-circa 1970’s)

When Bush took office the first time I had a negative bumper sticker (something about the red party and their intelligence) on my station wagon and he reminded me not to lump a whole group of people together; that it wasn’t fair. I removed the bumper sticker and found one that was more peaceful and kind thus more thoughtful. He’s right, of course, and I keep thinking about that pearl of wisdom but I’m still struggling with this post-election. I just won’t add it to my bumper. I’m already tired of the massive flag-waving that is happening right now in my own “River City”.

I’ll try to keep my cool but I cannot say all will be fine. It won’t be.

Today though I’ll honor my dad and focus on two little spitfire nieces who were born on this exact day-two little dreamers who could easily run the country one day. I hope we don’t have to wait that long but we need to keep raising them thoughtfully so they will be ready.

Weekly Recipes 16; October

A friend at school gave me a huge grocery bag full of swiss chard and I’ve had fun experimenting with it. I’ve made it only a small handful of times, mostly just wilted in a pan with lemon squeezed. It was less than exciting. But I was very willing to try again. In handing over the swiss chard Kristin gushed about a swiss chard and potato recipe she made and so that very next weekend I googled it and put it together. I found this one from the NYT; Potato and swiss chard gratin.

Mind you it was not something Groovy Girl would stick her spoon into but my husband and I loved the creamy change of pace. After that recipe I still had half a bag of chard but I had other things to cook and forgot about it. I expected to open the bag a few days later, maybe a week, and find wilted, grossness but nope it was still hanging in there. Book club was just around the corner and I felt like a crisp salad. Googling brought this swiss chard recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen and it was so lemony and delicious. A few days later I was actually craving the crispness of the salad again. So I guess I’ll look forward to the next time I find swiss chard. I’m a fan now.

This weekend we had another family over to hang out around our fire pit. The days are getting nippier and soon it will be too cold. Hopefully this wasn’t our last weekend out there but if it is we certainly had fun. I had some very good brats in my freezer from a local locker that I simmered in two cans of beer and then roasted over the crackling fire.

My friends Marek and Erin recently shared a jar of homemade sauerkraut and we had lots of toppings; spicy mustards, diced red onion, Amy’s ketchup, TJ’s wasabi mayonnaise, feta cheese. We had our salsa and blue chips and a garbanzo bean recipe from BudgetByte’s that I’ve wanted to try. I served the chickpeas over a bed of arugula from last week’s farmers market run. I am a huge fan of garbanzos and I thought this one turned out great; interesting spicy and sweet flavors mixed together. Of course around the campfire we roasted some marshmallows and made s’mores for dessert.

Swiss Chard Salad
Cumin Lime Chickpeas

Even though it’s October I haven’t made one thing with pumpkin in it. I like to look at pumpkins-the color is so vibrant-but I’m not a pumpkin pie fan. I should maybe try a pumpkin soup. On occasion I like a pumpkin spiced latte or chai. Maybe in the next week I can get locate a few more Fall flavors.

Books and food and so many other tidbits

Dance has taken over our life and when we are not at dance Groovy Girl is on my computer working on homework. 9th grade honors classes are pushing her and keeping her busy.

School has me super busy as I’m constantly tweaking lessons and working with our young leadership team. In between and sometimes because of school I’ve been reading some great books. Hansen’s 6th grade book club just finished The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. This book is underappreciated. A few libraries in our district don’t even have copies!

It is a beautifully written story of a young Ojibwa girl and her family as they rotate through the seasons. The accelerated kids in my book club thought it was interesting and the book brought forth a lot of discussion.

At home I finished The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald; a fresh fun story about a young Swedish woman who travels to Broken Wheel, Iowa to meet her bookish pen pal. By the time Sara arrives her pen pal, Amy, has died. The very small town rallies around her and the results are often strange and bittersweet. I enjoyed this tale for its quirky cast of characters and all the book trivia.

My husband and I sometimes read books to each other and we recently finished The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. This is a psychological thriller and I’ve seen a lot of up and down reviews. We enjoyed it and love trying to figure out where the story is going. This one kept us guessing for a few plot twists. Next up we are going to read a classic thriller by Nancy Price-Sleeping with the Enemy.

I made the butternut squash soup, the potato and swiss chard dish and the butternut tabbouleh from my last blog post. All were delicious. Later tonight I’m going to make my stepmother’s zucchini bread for my husband because I have two that are oversized from our school garden. First I’m going to relax with some friends, music, and wine. Just the way to spend a Friday night. Groovy Girl made me dinner also; a veggie wrap using gluten-free wraps from Aldi. Something she watched a YouTube video about…

I’ll have to work harder to wrestle the computer away from her so I can write more before the month closes out.

Enjoy the weekend!!