Advent Activities

Better late than never, I guess!
Some of our advent calendar activities were kitchen based...
We made "Almost Gingerbread" cookies which Jacob and I dipped in melted white chocolate and decorated with sprinkles. We packaged them up and attached a small Christmas card and then we went and delivered them randomly around the village. It was fun. Daniel dropped a package on the ground and they broke so we actually got to try some.
Then we made "Gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers. Daniel was so cute stuffing the candy in his mouth as fast as he could. We gave the houses as hostess gifts to some family members who had us over. I think this activity will be even more fun next year.

Ready for Packing!

Candy!!

All done!

Merry Christmas!

An Early Christmas Gift

Our lucky boys...

My Aunt in Germany sent these beautiful mugs for the boys. They are personalized, which is so cool, and also extra special because my siblings and I each have a mug with our name on it from there that we got as kids. I don't know much about where the mugs are from other than that the town is somewhat famous for its ceramics. Such a special gift. Thank you!

Vegetable Soup

From "A Yummy Book About Numbers" by Ellen Appleby

The first thing you need is ONE big soup pot.
Pour inTWO quarts of broth and cook till it's hot.
Chop THREE green peppers and FOUR nice potatoes,
FIVE tender carrots and SIX ripe tomatoes.
Slice SEVEN baby onions and EIGHT celery sticks,
Throw it all in the broth then stir till it's mixed.
Add NINE spoons of noodles and a dash of some spice,
Then call TEN of your friends - have a party - how nice!



Deanna says: I am wondering if this is a valid recipe...

Hungry?

The other day we had oatmeal for breakfast. A favourite for Daniel, and a you-never-know for Jacob. Anyways, on this particular morning Jacob was not enamoured with the oatmeal so I left it on the table, because sometimes he will change his mind and come back for it. I don't know what I was doing but when I turned around the boys had dumped the cold lumpy leftover oatmeal on the floor and were eating it. That's right, Jacob is eating it like an animal... at least Daniel is using his hands. I was a little appalled at this and yet I didn't stop them until after I took a picture. Then I got them some real fresh food to eat.

And, I have been wanting to make cinnamon raisin bread for a while, so I went ahead and made some. This stuff is so good I could have eaten a whole loaf on my own... just give me a toaster and some butter! I made it even more special by rolling out the dough, sprinkling with cinnamon and brown sugar and then rolling it back up into a loaf shape. When done, I brushed melted honey on top. Yum.

It's Advent!

Alright, so I am a little late with this post, since it is already the second week of advent, but I finished making my advent calendar in time! I even had it filled and hung up the night before. Each day the boys get a little character from their nativity set or an activity to do. So far it has been fun.

And here are the boys making me supper the other night...

I am not sure what Daniel was making...

But Jacob said he was making an omelette with lots of cheese.

Delicious.

Happy Advent! Enjoy the WAIT until Christmas.

Thought of the Day

"I was only going to eat three cookies but I forgot to count." -Little Critter

The Way I See It...

We participated in "No Impact Week" twice this year (you can google that if you don't know what it is) and both times came away with some new insights and ideas. Above is the list we made during the most recent week. We started at the beginning of the year with small changes like recycle more, restart composting, eat vegetarian once a week, make less garbage, and buy less stuff. Once it started I feel like it snowballed, in a good way! When we started writing down the ways we have and the ways we can make better use of this world's resources this time around, it was amazing to me how easy it was to change my own mentality. Suddenly it just made sense. I want to be a good steward of creation and what a better way to start than with little changes that over the course of one year turn into life-changing ways of living. I really believe our Earth needs saving and I really believe we CAN save this planet.

Chocolate and Mint? YES PLEASE!

Want one of these?

Because this is how good they taste:

For New Year's 2011 my Mom made several resolutions to spend one-on-one time with her kids. One of her "resolutions" with me was that we would each try three new baking recipes over the year and in December we would get together and bake each of our favourites. I did pick out three recipes at the beginning of the year: Chocolate Mint Cookies, Nutella Cookies, and Chunky Cheesecake Brownies. Okay, the Nutella cookies were edible, but overall a flop. I don't know if I ever blogged about the brownies but they were incredible. And these cookies... just plain awesome. So here is the winner for the year.... I guess I saved the best for last.

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Chocolate Mint Cookies
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Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 (4.5 ounce) packages chocolate covered thin mints

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted.  Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

2. Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.  Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, Press one mint wafer into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute. When the mint is softened, swirl with a toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer. For smaller cookies, break mints in half.

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Oops Can Still Taste Good

We had some friends over for lasagna the other night, and I had everything organized. The dessert would go in right when I took the lasagna out, would bake while we ate, and would come out warm and ready to eat. This is the dessert:

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Hot Fudge Sundae Cake
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When done this tastes like cake on top of chocolate pudding. 

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp baking cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4  tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 3/4 cups water, very hot

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Mix first set of dry ingredients together directly in 9x9 ungreased pan.

3. Mix in milk, oil and vanilla, until smooth. Spread in pan.

4. Sprinkle brown sugar and cocoa over batter. Then pour the water evenly over everything.

5. Bake 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

6. Top with vanilla ice cream.

Notes:

Place cake pan on top of another larger and shallow pan in case the pudding bubbles over some.

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Sounds delicious, right? Well it is. What is not to like about it? I don't even use a bowl! I make it right in my pan! Anyways... the cake was all prepped, except for the hot water which was waiting in the microwave to be warmed up. When the lasagna came out, in when the desert. Forty minutes later my oven beeped and I pulled it out. Something was wrong. The top was just crusty cocoa powder and brown sugar... you can probably guess that I forgot about that water in the microwave. Well, I dumped the water on, stuck it back in the oven for ten minutes and wouldn't you know, it wasn't wrecked. It was an "Upside Down Hot Fudge Sundae Cake" since the pudding was on top of the cake instead of underneath. Delicious, yet stressful. So much for being organized.

Want a Car Slurpee?

Bet you can't guess what flavour a car slurpee is.... 

I just love it when Jacob gets creative in order to achieve some project or other. Especially when he get Daniel totally involved. It all started when I gave Daniel my mostly empty container of rosemary to play with while I was trying to make supper. Daniel promptly took the lid off and dumped rosemary all over the floor. Now Jacob wanted a container. He got the empty oregano container. Well, next thing I know they have filled the jars up with cars and stuck straws in them and were having "Car Slurpees." Now most of our cars smell like herbs because this is a new favourite game.

Creativity = Car Slurpees

And here is a picture of Daniel in his halloween costume. 

My little bunny.

Also, for those of you who access this site from our "family" web page: We obviously aren't updating that page and it is because sooner or later that server will be shutting down. So I am just going to keep posting photos here, but they won't always be from in my kitchen.

Boys Love Peanut Butter

One day this week, I was busy doing something (don't remember what) and the boys got all quiet. That usually means something is wrong. Well they had got our giant jar of peanut butter out of the cupboard, took the lid off, and were eating it with their hands. I didn't get a picture of Jacob, but his face was just as covered. Now I can't make anything with peanut butter that I want to feed to anyone outside the family. Needless to say, neither of them were hungry for supper.

Daniel loves peanut butter. He can even say peanut butter.

Also, here is an AWESOME recipe for PB cookies. They are chewy, not crunchy, but I think delicious. I ate WAY too many, so it is a good thing it is a big recipe. I made these the other week (before the boys made my peanut butter unhygienic) and I was kind of upset (okay I was ticked) because neither of the boys would listen when I asked them to move away from the stove so I could take out the cookies. I ended up burning two dozen because I was having a power struggle with them. The funny thing is is that I always ask them to "go stand by the table" when I have to open the oven, and they do. So it wasn't like I was expecting something unusual or inappropriate from them. Anyways, here is the recipe. You have to make them for yourself because now I can't make them for you.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies
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Yield: 5 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup hard margarine
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix butter, peanut butter and honey. Add eggs; mix well. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powdert; add to peanut butter mixture and mix well.
2. Roll into 1- to 1-1/2-in. balls and place on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with a fork dipped in flour.

3. Dip fork in sugar instead of flour for a pretty look. (Sprinkles as Jacob calls them)

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 6-7 minutes.

And for those of you who have been asking.... a non-kitchen picture of Jacob's Halloween costume. 

Pass or Fail

So I was cooking a roast in the oven this weekend... I pulled it out after 2 hours so Jeff could cut into it and see if it was cooked. It needed a little more time, I thought, so I reached out and grabbed the roasting pan WITH MY BARE HANDS. Jeff said his brain saw it in slow motion and wondered what in the world I was doing because that pan must be hot. Well, he was right. It was hot. I immediately stuck my hands under cold water, then put ice and aloe lotion on my fingers. I burnt five fingers and both thumbs. To tell you the truth, I don't know how it wasn't way worse. I was in intense pain for about two hours that evening but I managed to play the piano at church the next morning.
Despite all that, my from scratch gravy was deemed "savory" by my in-laws. Which I think is a pretty good compliment.

EEEEK! Spiders!!!

So Halloween is coming. It is not a day that I particularly look forward to but our playgroup is having a party on wednesday so I volunteered to make cookies. And here they are:

Jacob helped me put the eyes on...  however Jacob and Daniel ate at least four chocolate chips for each one that ended up on the cookies. It was fun to get them involved.

There is a bit of a story behind these cookies which I am going to share and I will finish with the recipe. Last Christmas I was looking for a gingerbread/gingersnap recipe. All the recipes had molasses in them which is not a stocked pantry item in my kitchen and I didn't want to buy it. Well.... Christmas passed and I found this recipe. It is called "Almost Gingerbread Cookies." I was very excited by the recipe and even planned to use it in my 2011 recipe challenge as a "Christmas in July" kind of thing. But then my challenge became an epic failure because I didn't keep up with it.

Anyways, what could be better than fake gingerbread fake spiders for halloween?

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Almost Gingerbread
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1 pkg butterscotch pudding mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350. On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 6-7 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.
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Harvest at Our House

Just wanted to share some pictures of the bounty our small garden gave us. These pictures are from a few weeks ago and are taken in our front yard.

Rescuing the tomatoes before the frost.

A butterfly visits my marigolds and eyes my parsley!

Ready to help.

Fresh out of the dirt. Yum.

Digging for carrots.

Found one!

We really enjoyed watching all the butterflies.

Apples, Apples, Everywhere

So I may have gone a little overboard with the apples. I was invited to someone's house to pick apples and took home three full grocery bags worth. My neighbor brought over a bag and then my in-laws brought me a bag. Last week I ordered a case of mixed apples from our food co-op because I really want to taste a Shamrock Apple, and tonight I ordered a case of Gala apples from some 4H kids doing a fundraiser.
I have already made mini-wrapple pies (which you can see here), several apple crisps, apple brownies (which was more like apple cake to me), three pans of apple bars, and over a dozen jars of applesauce. With the applesauce I have made carrot muffins, zucchini bread, and low-fat brownies. And I have enough apples sliced and frozen in the freezer to make eight large apple crisps.
And I won't even get the two cases of apples until the 25th. So if you have any good apple recipes, please please send them to me!



Low-Fat Brownies

Ingredients:

- 1 cup baking cocoa
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup soft margarine
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup apple sauce
- 2 tsps vanilla
- chocolate chips, if desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Use 9x13 glass pan.

3. Mix all ingredients.
Sprinkle chocolate chips on top if desired.

4. Bake 35 minutes.

Okay, I know brownies are probably never really no-fat but these are so delicious and so easy! Plus the recipe calls for applesauce.

Pass the Salt

I need to thank three friends for their help in this post: Shannon, Kurt, and Marc.

These are my salt and pepper shakers.

The salt is on the right.

And here is the story behind them.

About three years ago two good friends (Shannon and Kurt) were moving out of the country and had an "Anti-Housewarming Party" which basically means come over and take any of the stuff for yourself that they didn't want to move with them. I picked up a really cute salt and pepper shaker set. The salt was an orange wedge and the pepper was a lime wedge.
About two weeks ago Jacob dropped the pepper shaker on the floor and it broke. I don't know what he was doing... he has been known to "drink" from the shakers and then I would have to empty and clean them which annoys me, so maybe it was that. Anyways....
So now I only have a salt shaker. But then I notice the little grain elevator that has been sitting on the back of my stove for about six years and has made three moves with us.
When I lived in Saskatoon I saw a commercial on TV for these commemorative salt and pepper shakers (the salt one had a white roof) for the city's 100th anniversary. The only problem was you had to buy a bottle of Polar Vodka to get one. I told my my friend and co-worker, Marc, about my problem. A couple weeks later he surprised me at work with the pepper shaker. (You had to buy something else, I don't remember what, to get the salt shaker).
And that is the story of my somewhat unique salt and pepper shaker set.

Like New!

So here is a picture from June 2009 when we recovered our kitchen chairs.

Isn't he cute and little?

I just LOVED that fabric. The chairs were a beige micro-fibre which I found a little boring. So we snazzed them up with this funky upholstery fabric in a geometric pattern. Now imagine two years later.... I wish I had taken a picture for you. The fabric was so stained and discoloured... these chairs needed a makeover. But what to do about two messy little boys? I cannot take credit for the solution since I read it in a magazine, but I decided to cover whatever fabric we chose with clear vinyl so they would be easy to clean. Now choosing the fabric became a bit of a chore since I have painted our pew bright purple, but Jeff found this awesome matching fabric on a 5$/m clearance table of quilting cottons.

Taa-Daa!

I LOVE my NEW chairs.

Blue Kitchen Fun

Our plum tree gave us 12 plums. Tasty.

Jacob holding "Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber"

Daniel modelling Mama's slippers.

Birthday Pictures... As Promised!

So for at least a month leading up to Jacob's birthday he was asking for licorice. Specifically black licorice and he wanted to share it with Mommy, Daddy, and Daniel. So what does this Mama do? Why throw a licorice party, of course! With 12 people to sing to him and to share his licorice he had a great time. Also, I HATE black licorice so I picked up four different kinds of licorice for him, including black.

NIBS to decorate the cake...
the top half was white cake and the bottom half was chocolate.

Jacob clapping after we sang "Happy Birthday"

Daddy helping blow out the candles.

Black Licorice PLEASE!

Black, Rainbow, & Red.... the rainbow were gross but the kids liked them.

Happy Third Birthday Bean!

And... Daniel eating cake. He also likes black licorice.

Sad Recipe - a poem

I didn't have potatoes
So I substituted rice.
I didn't have paprika
So I used another spice.
I didn't have tomato sauce
I used tomato paste,
A whole can, not a half can
I don't believe in waste.
A friend gave me this recipe
She said you couldn't beat it,
There must be something wrong with her...
I couldn't even eat it.

-author unknown

Lame-O

Sorry friends... Once again I feel as though I have neglected my blog. I don't have any particular reason, but I shall update you a bit on what has gone on in my kitchen... We BBQd a lot, we celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday (pictures to come), and just this week finished bringing in the garden. We had lots of green beans, some onions, tons of parsley and lettuce, carrots and tomatoes. It has been delicious and exciting to grow our own food. I tried making squash (yuck), kale chips (yuck again), apple bars (yum), Amish friendship bread (not really bread, but still yum), pea soup (decent), and sish kabobs (love!). I made up my own bacon-mushroom-potato soup for Jeff who wasn't feeling well, and I perfected my oatmeal cookies (only 1/2 cup of brown sugar in one batch!). It has been a pretty great month in the kitchen.
Sorry for being lame.

Fire!

So we bought a big bunch of dill at the farmers' market for 1$. We both love the smell, so just the walk home was worth the money. Well, I used it in a few things and then wondered how I could 'save' the rest. I found a website that said I could dry it in the microwave and then store it in an airtight container. So I stuck my dill in the microwave, and as you can probably guess, next thing I know there is fire in my microwave. I open it, toss a glassful of water in and remove the now terrible smelling dill. Burnt dill stinks!

Tastes Like Strawberries?

It was a cloudy, cool, rainy day today... so what does that mean? A perfect day to heat up the house (and our tummies) with some yummy baking. Only one minor problem... No butter. No hard margarine. No soft margarine. No oil. How is this even possible? As it turns out, this is more of a major problem when I start scouring recipes for something,anything, to bake. And then I come across pretzels. Well, I had been wanting to try these again, so I used a different recipe this time. I doubled it (except for the egg), used grated mozzarella, and topped with cinnamon and sugar. The recipe made 16 mini pretzels and they were pretty good. Next time I would add more sugar to the dough.
... I just asked Jacob if the pretzels yesterday were yummy and he said "Yup." I asked what they tasted like and he said "Strawberries."
. 

Lenten Pretzels
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Recipe By: Taking Faith Home

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3 tbsp warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp cheese, grated  
1 egg
coarse ground salt

Directions:

1. Sprinkle yeast in warm water and stir to dissolve.

2. Add sugar, flour, and cheese.

3. Stir and knead until smooth.

4. Divide dough into 4 and roll each piece into a snake.

5. Shape like a pretzel, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.

6. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

A is for Apples

Well, Jacob knows his whole alphabet now, and is constantly doing ABCs on our fridge with our letter magnets. He lines them all up (not in the correct order), names them all then wants me to sing the song. He sings too. His new thing is to spell all of our names out. Today he put up "GATT" and said "that's mommy's name." I think I like it. Last week he spelled his own name...

He was pretty close and I was impressed.

Also... This week I was invited to a parishioner's house to pick apples. I got 1 big bag of eating apples and three big bags of baking apples. The next day I made nine jars of applesauce, one apple-rhubarb crisp, and one pan of apple bars. I had tasted some apple bars at church, they are so yummy, just like apple pie, and I was told they are easy. So I opened up my church cookbook, and sure enough I found the recipe. I wouldn't say they were the easiest thing ever, but they sure were tasty. The boys both love to eat the baking apples because they are small enough to fit in their hands. Daniel eats the whole entire apple, and i think Jacob ate four just today. Oh yea, and with all this baking/cooking/eating, I didn't even use up one whole bag of apples. But I did use up all my butter/margarine so now I have to wait until grocery day to do anything else with them. Though I have an interesting looking recipe for appe brownies that I think I will try.

Apple Bars
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Recipe By: Edberg Cookbook

Summary: 

Says it freezes well, but they are too delicious and don't last long enough.

Ingredients:

2 handfulls corn flakes 
1 egg, separated
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup margarine
1/3 cup milk
10 apples, small
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Dough: Sift flour and salt together. Mash margarine into flour. Add egg yolk and milk. Mix until it clings together. (Add a little more milk if needed.) Divide in half and roll out to fit bottom and sides of 12x17 cookie sheet.

2. Sprinkle dough with corn flakes.

3. Filling: Mix apples, sugar and cinnamon. Place on top of corn flakes.

4. Place top crust, sealing edges like apple pie. Brush with egg white.

5. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and glaze. Cool and cut into squares.

Easy To Impress

Just HAD to share a tasty new recipe with you. These are so easy and sure to impress, plus I guarantee they will disappear and you won't have to eat the leftovers.



Toffee Bars

Recipe By: Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup chocolate chips, or more
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Mix butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk. Stir in flour and salt. Press into ungreased 13x9 pan.

3. Bake 25 minutes.

4. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let sit 5 minutes until melty. Spread evenly. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool 30 minutes on wire rack. Cut into 8x4 rows while still warm.

5. Refrigerate to set chocolate.


I didn't use any nuts and these were awesome! I think they would look amazing if you swirled white and dark chocolate chips for the top. I just used milk chocolate.

While I made these I also made some oatmeal cookies that I have been trying to perfect. I think I am close, and there is only 1/2 a cup of sugar in one batch! Which I think makes them almost healthy cookies... Especially since my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which makes the same amount of cookies, has 2 cups.

What is your favourite and most impressive recipe that you make?

The Boys get Buzzed

Well, I cut Jacob's hair, and then it was Jeff's turn, and then we decided Daniel needed a cut too! His hair was turning into mad scientist hair.

I love his Wings.

Anyways, Daniel was SO BRAVE. He flinched a little, but he didn't cry. He looks super cute with his new 'do.

Before the haircut. 

Smile my Brave Baby! 

My Three Boys looking so GOOD.