post heat wave sledding

Just a few days after our beautifully warm and sunny hike at M Hill, the weather snapped back to cold. After all, it was still winter. The last weekend in February brought snow. 

I kept Luna out after her morning pee so I could take a picture. How sad that there's a snowy bike against the trampoline? Until next Strider bike, until next time.

We made good use of our time though and went sledding at Meadowbrook for the fourth (?) time this winter. 

Samuel backwards.

Zipping and smiling away, there goes Evie. 

Ezra prefers to be a baby and have daddy go with him so he can haul the sled back up. 

I was so bored after like ten pictures that I left them and went grocery shopping at Safeway. By the time I got back (long lines at the store), they were more than ready to be done. But we didn't quite want to go home yet. We drove by Civic Center hill but the snow was already melting. We tried the hill above the park by my parent's but our hearts just weren't in it. Three times down between them was all they managed. 

They played instead. And daddy swung them. He was having the time of his life. Not. We were bored, but it's always good to get out of the house during the weekends. 

Noah and Evie in a tunnel. 

I amused myself by taking some photos. It really was pretty with all the fresh snow covering everything. 

Weeeeee goes Ezra! 

Wanting something yummy for dinner that night, I made spiral sandwiches and cheese soup, our favorite. 

Luna was pretty tired out. If you look closely you can see her purple squeaky toy under her head. Terry called her a bone-head. Ha!

Christmas cookie failures

The weekend before Christmas I finally got around to making Christmas cookies so we could give some to the neighbors along with a book. It didn't go well for me. Perhaps because I seem to do it only every other year  (2012 and 2014), I forget how the cookie press works and was failing miserably. I was getting so angry I was about to toss the whole thing in the garbage when Terry rescued me. Apparently I had been pressing down two or three clicks and only one was necessary. Thank goodness for a smart husband! 

Grace had been over to sled for a bit that afternoon and since the boys were more interested in their weekend video games, the girls had the decorating to themselves.

The cookies turned out lovely after Terry took over. What's funny about my failure was that it was my third Christmas cookie mess-up in a week. Earlier in the week I attempted fudge for small group for the first time since 2009 and when I added the chocolate in to the sugar mixture, it seized up. It looked more like hamburger than smooth fudge. Sickened I just put it in the prepared dish and called it good. It was all crumbly but still tasted great. 

Next I made peanut butter balls, Terry's absolute favorite. The chocolate began seizing up when I added it again! I was able to save it by adding some boiling water, but then it was more melty than it should have been. They still worked. 

This solution gave me an idea. Maybe I could still save my fudge if I added boiling water to it. It worked initially. But after days and days in the freezer, it never solidified. Instead it stayed the consistency of hot fudge. Though we had some spoonfuls over the break, I put all the fudge in freezer containers for adding to ice cream. Man, I don't know if I'll ever have the heart to make Christmas treats again!

my first turkey

The evening before Terry and I went to Dare2Share, I made my first turkey all on my own. I had made one once previously with my mom's help but I don't count that. Still, I had to call her for pointers - like removing the neck and gizzard from the cavity. Face palm. 

It turned out great!

In addition I made my own gravy. I've made it several times but somehow nearly forget how to every time.  

We were all excited, especially Terry. He adores gravy. Noah's favorite is mashed potatoes

It was divine.

apples, pies, peels

It's apple harvest time! Or it was the last week of September. A very next day after the kids picked up apples, there was a another ton load of apples dropped on the ground. It was incredible - that ground had been clean of apples just the day before! So when we finished dinner, we headed out to pick apples and clean up grounded and bruised ones.  

Samuel was not much help. But Ezra was. A little too helpful actually. He kept chucking the good apples on the ground and putting bad ones in the buckets. Mommy had lots to keep her busy. 

We picked these five buckets! All the grounded apples went into the field behind our house and it's been fun to watch the deer come nightly to eat them. 

It's been wonderful not having to buy apples every week.

The following Sunday, I heard what has been become known as "the carb call." It was a dull, cloudy day and I just wanted to bake. And eat. Terry wanted apple pie. I put him to work peeling the apples.

Noah is strange and likes the peels of the apples the best. His very favorite snack is apple peels smeared with peanut butter and a banana slice on top.

I made an extra pie to share with connection group the following night. 

Noah likes the apples peels and I like the carbs. I am pretty addicted to these homemade pretzels. Since my baking took all afternoon, that night we had apple pie and pretzels for dinner :)

chicken in avocado sauce

I made a new recipe last night. It had been hiding in my recipe box for I don't know how long but was recovered when I made my monthly menu plan last week. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I was richly rewarded for my nerve. YUM. It was so incredibly good. I wanted to eat more and more. I wanted it worse than the Armadillos ice cream we had after dinner. And when we came back in the house from our outing, the smell lingered and made me crave it again, even though my stomach was plum full of chocolate ice cream and hot fudge.

Here is my cooking station. I just bought that recipe holder at Menards for super cheap and I love it.

Chicken Breasts in Avocado Sauce

--> adapted slightly from their slightly adapted recipe

4-5 skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves (i used 5 b/c i wanted leftovers)

salt and pepper to taste

flour for dredging

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery (i omitted this since i didn't have any and it was delish without it)

1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered (i left mine unquartered)

2 Tab flour

1.5 - 2c chicken broth (i used one of those flavor booster tubs b/c it's cheaper than broth -Knorr homestyle stock- and added water until i had the consistency i wanted. the original recipe called for only 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup dry white vermouth, white wine or whit grape juice (i used vermouth)

1.5 cups grated monterey jack cheese (i forgot to add this and it was just fine without it. less fattening too)

2 ripe avocados (called for only 1)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flatten chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap. Put salt, pepper and flour in a paper bag and shake chicken pieces in it one at a time, shaking off excess.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan (used my new 12 inch skillet), and saute chicken until evenly browned on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside. Melt the butter in the pan and sear the mushrooms until brown and crispy, turning over to ensure both sides brown. During mushrooms second side, add onions over the top of them to begin softening. When mushrooms are finished browning on second side, mix mushrooms and onions and continue cooking until onions are soft. Add garlic, cooking until fragrant.

Stir the 2 Tabs of flour and heat, stirring, then add the broth (or tub of stock and water like I did), stirring and scraping until the mixture is thick and uniform. Gradually stir in the vermouth and cook, stirring until mixtures is uniform, adding more broth/water as desired. Stir in cheese here if desired. Halve, pit and scoop out avocado and mash thoroughly (i used my potato masher). Stir into sauce and heat through. I added about 3/4 teaspoons salt and a dash of pepper here. Put chicken in oven-safe baking dish (my 9x13 pyrex) and pour sauce over. Bake 15 minutes. Serve hot with potatoes, rice or pasta. I made seared potatoes in the pan while the chicken baked and that went together great.

I can't wait for leftover lunch today.

yogurt revisited

I have been making home made yogurt for several months now in my crock pot. I've had to add pudding to it though to thicken and sweeten it up (store bought adds lots of thickeners). It's been good, but not as thick as I'd like, especially after I tried some Greek yogurt this week. Yum-my! Plus, there's more protein in that somehow so I thought I'd give it a try.

It turned out amazing. Still not quite as thick as Greek yogurt but when I read that label there was thickener in it as well.

I made yogurt like I usually do (half gallon/8c skim milk in crock pot all day, etc. - see my other post link above). When it was done growing the bacteria last night at 1030 I placed all of it in a coffee liner lined colander (I used like 6 or 7 liners). I then set it over a pot to drain all night in the fridge. There are the liners left over.

Here's what's left in the pot this morning: whey, the liquid portion of milk. That's like half of what I started with. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Perhaps I will use it in place of water to make home made bread like I read here.

Like I said, it made half the yogurt I usually get, but it's much thicker and yummier. See how it's set up so nice? It was like sour cream when I dumped it out of the colander but then I whisked it and it loosened up a little. I think if I used 2% or even whole milk it would be a lot thicker as well. Might have to try that when Samuel is old enough.

Whey. I read that I should put it in a glass container so I might have to transfer. Not sure what's up with that...

I added 1 teaspoon vanilla and a quarter cup sugar and it tasted amazing. Terry said, "That's what yogurt should taste like - tastes like store bought." But no thickeners or additives. Just milk and starter yogurt! My belly thanked me after a donut breakfast - needed some sustenance this morning. It was delicious peeps. You should try it.

yogurt

We love yogurt around here - with fruit and homemade granola. But man, I do not like the price tag. So when I saw a facebook friend talking about making homemade yogurt, I was very interested. The recipe I found online was a little different from hers but it was easier.

Yesterday was the second time I made my own homemade yogurt in my crock pot! It's so easy and the results this time were even better.

Here is Noah sharing his milk duds with me...

So all you have to do is cook a half gallon of milk in a crock pot for 2.5 hours and then turn it off and let it sit for 3 hours. Then, add 1/2 cup yogurt with 2 cups of the warm milk, whisking to combine. Then wrap the crock pot in thick towels (so the milk stays the proper temperature for the bacteria to proliferate) for 8 hours or overnight. Then all you have to do is refrigerate to thicken, sweeten and enjoy.

My first time making the yogurt I added 1 cup sugar and 1 T vanilla and it was good, but a little too runny. Runny is normal, but I wanted to try to thicken it up without straining the fluid out (b/c I'm lazy - but you can do that with coffee filters and a sieve and the yogurt is supposed to get as thick as greek yogurt/sour cream). So I added a large package of vanilla pudding before I put it in the fridge. It turned out really really great! Still a little runny, but it tastes even better. Terry was like, Mmmmmm yogurt pudding, my favorite =) But You could add fruit or any kind of flavoring.

Oh, and I added red food coloring to one to satisfy Noah. He wouldn't even try it before b/c it wasn't pink. Hopefully now he will =)

fall apple pie time

It's cloudy and gloomy today. They're hanging around after the huge thunderstorm last night. It freaked Noah right out. But I'll take it over the 2 freak snow storms we had by this time last year.

Anyway, since Terry has to preach tomorrow (again), he's working all day. So what better way to pass the gloom away then in the kitchen? I made homemade mac and cheese, beef soup in the crock pot, homemade bread and apple pie! I must be getting comfortable at this point in my cooking career b/c I didn't even use a recipe for the soup. I used what I had on hand and put in some things that sounded good from some other recipes I browsed. So we shall see if I am indeed a "good" cook.

As I was cutting up the apples for the pie, Noah got all excited about the peels. Said they were his favorite part! He promptly tucked in and ate a whole bunch of them. Strange right?! Here's my proof:

Noah enjoyed helping mix the flour up and watching me do the rest. Here is the empty pie shell and apples a-juicing. Oh, and the cheesy boy. That is the face for when I say Cheese.

Apples with butter on top. I always forget this part, but not today

It's ready for the oven

Time to cool off. I can't wait to eat it tonight (and the soup and bread)!!!

jalapeno poppers

My parents arrived the day of the Harvest Festival. The following day brought the same weather though we were hoping for better. So for dinner I made Austrian cream cheese soup, which was delish. Terry was given a bucket of home grown jalapenos after the parade and took initiative of using them up. He made jalapeno poppers, or rat tails, all by himself =)

Seeded jalapenos filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.

They were yummy but I forgot to take a photo after we baked them =(

Terry's bday meal

Terry turned 32 on Friday, September 3rd. He didn't have that special of a day (no date like I would want since he just likes to eat my food). I did all I could for him - stayed busy in the kitchen all afternoon. I made his requested spiral sandwiches, cheese soup and angel food cake with strawberries.

Here is the dough rolled out and sliced into eighths

Here is one sandwich rolled flat and ready for the filling

Filling - beef salami and pepper jack cheese

Evie was sitting at the table waiting for dinner to be served, though no one else was there. She musta been hungry and the food musta been good b/c we didn't have to remind either of them to eat =)

Delicious pile of sandwiches

Yummy! This one actually has pepperoni and mozzarella. It's what the kids had and perhaps that's why they liked them so much!

Dip the sandwich

Admire the sandwich

Eat the sandwich!

Time for cake slicing and singing. Apparently cream cheese frosting, strawberries and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream go well together b/c I was getting rave reviews from the company (pastor rick and shelli and 4 kids) that we served this dessert to last night =) Just add water peeps! Haha