2 1/2 Pounds of Luscious Goo

It starts out with a classical story.

My boy was in science class. He was asked to pass out the frogs to be dissected that day in class. He thought it would be funny to throw a frog (wrapped in plastic) at a girl. It wasn't really that funny, which he learned the hard way.

Fast forward. I got a call from the teacher who wanted to know if I had really read the note that had been sent home. Well, I did sign a paper and apparently Nathan craftily cut out my signature and pasted it to another paper. So, I didn't know the real story. Talk about looking like a fool!

Nathan was assigned to yard work duty for Saturday. For Sunday, he was assigned to make fudge and caramels for the teacher and the girl. I picked this punishment because my mom used to make me stir the strawberry jam for hours and hours and hours. It's not something I would wish on anyone. Fudge and caramel both take quite a lot of stirring!

Our first batch of fudge was overcooked. We decided to call it, "Brownie been sittin' on the counter for two days fudge."

The caramels turned out very tasty and very gooey. And the second batch of fudge, with walnuts is pretty sinful too.



Ever wondered what 2 1/2 pounds of luscious goo looks like? Here you go:

A Little Tidbit: Amaranth

A few years ago, I learned about amaranth and that it can be popped like popcorn while reading one of Dr. Weil's books. It's taken me a few years, but I finally tried it tonight. The family loved it.

Here is amaranth:

The seeds are tiny, much smaller than millet.

Here is popped amaranth:


Click here for instructions on how to pop it (the directions are within a yummy looking granola recipe).

Pies

I'm only writing this blog post to post the link to a recipe I don't want to lose.

A while back, Joseph introduced me to the sandwiches and desserts at Grand Traverse Pie Company. Pretty much, if you aren't from Michigan, I feel sorry for you!

Anyway, I love their fruit crumb pies and have copied a few of them in the last few months. While I was searching for a crumb recipe, I came upon this one. It makes for a pretty good copycat of GTPC crumb pies.

Mmmmmm!

Before:

And after:



Adapted from this blog post (we've tried blueberry, raspberry, and now raspberry chocolate chip).

Cake in the Cake Box

We have a fairly new discipline system over here. It turns out we had some good parenting ideas, but our application of the ideas wasn't always the best (still isn't!). Anyway, without detailing the whole concept, one of the privileges that our kids can lose is treats. I recently thought that something visual might be helpful as a reminder not to break the rules. I decided to keep a cake in the cake box at all times (hey, I didn't say this was a healthy idea). So far, we've had apple bundt cake with vanilla icing, chocolate bundt cake with chocolate frosting, sponge cake with lemon filling and fluffy vanilla frosting, and finally nut torte cake with chocolate butter frosting.

I decided that all the cakes will be homemade and so that I won't get bored, I'm checking out exciting titles like "Bundt Cake Bliss" and "The Cake Bible" and "The Perfect Cake." I'll let you know how this works and the accumulated poundage in a few months!

Yummy Uses for All of That French Bread

On Christmas morning, we ate a caramelly-apple french bread recipe from my sister which was wonderful. We'll make it again. I'd be happy to pass this recipe along (if you are interested, e-mail me).

Tonight, I tried to make something I had eaten at a Bed and Breakfast back in September. It was very simple.

Cut thick slices of french bread. Along the top of each slice, cut a slit. Load the inside of the slice with blueberry cream cheese. Then dip the bread in your regular french toast mixture (eggs, milk, vanilla). Fry. I looked up a recipe for blueberry syrup recipe on the internet. Voila! So yummy!

May's First Loaves of Bread

I'm teaching May how to make french bread. This baking was her first time to do all the hands-on stuff herself. Soon she'll be making it independently. THAT will be nice! She made the french bread that we used for our yummy french toast that we ate for Christmas breakfast.




Good job May! What a beautiful loaf!!

Baking and Cooking MAGIC

Even if you are only a mediocre baker/cook, like myself, all you need to become an excellent baker/cook is a husband who says things like, "Kids, do you know how lucky you are to have a mom who can cook so well? Do you know how lucky you are???"

I Sink So

The other day I was rolling out tortillas on the kitchen table. Brigham came out and started digging through the markers. He picked one up and took off the lid. I looked over and told him "Nope, you can't color with markers. If you want to draw, you have to use crayons." I know, I'm stunting his future art career! He was angry with me about this but tried to calm himself and say, "Can I use it a little bit?" "No, sorry!" He looked over at me and decided that it was his turn to censure my activities. "NO rolling!"

Today, he brought out May's hot pad weaving supplies. He told me, "The kids can't play, they are at school." He proceeded to try to stretch the loops over the frame and I worried that this would be an activity that was likely to get him really frustrated. He'd occasionally say, "I need help, pease!" I looked over later and he had put about seven loops on the frame.



Then he started to criss-cross them and he told me, "See, mom, I made a game. I sink so."



Brigham has just recently started singing with me when I sing to him before his naps and at bedtime. His favorites are Eency Beency Spider (as he calls it), Lady Moon, and I am a Child of God. He especially likes the songs with hand motions and I cannot begin singing until he is ready to go with them. Then he needs a hug and a kiss, a hug and a kiss and a hug and a kiss.

On Saturday, Joseph read a book called "The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein. It's a nice story about how anticipation of an event is sometimes better than the event itself. It has a cute little rhyme that repeats a few times throughout the book. Yesterday, we looked over and Brigham was leafing through the book singing, "I lookin' for my missin' piece," and then said, "Then he rolled away." (It is a circle with a pie shape cut out of it looking for the pie shape that will make him whole. He rolls around looking for his missing piece.) I love watching him learn to love books!

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And just for the record, since my posts are few and far between, here are the Thanksgiving pies.

Clockwise starting at 12 o'clock: Banana cream, Key Lime, Chocolate cream, Cherry, Pumpkin, and Berry in the middle

My dad came and we had a GREAT Thanksgiving together. He told stories of past Thanksgivings and stories from when he was a kid. Joseph's parents came to be with us on Sunday since Nathan was ordained a deacon and passed the sacrament for the first time that day.

Store-bought vs. Home-made

I usually buy most of our milk at the corner store. It's more expensive that way, but I think it saves money in the long run because we don't pick up other extras (unless you count the cider and donuts, chocolate bars...). When you buy a gallon of milk, you can get a loaf of their bread for $0.40. Now, this bread is not high quality at all, but I figure it makes toast or sandwich bread when I don't have any quality bread or home-made rolls. The other morning, I decided to use one of these loaves to make french toast. I pulled a stack out of the bag and placed it on the stove-top near my bowl of egg & milk mixture. I could make three slices at a time in my frying pan. By the time three had cooked, the top slice on my pile was already drying out!

About a day later, I sliced up a loaf of home-made bread. I gave a piece to Brigham as a mid-morning snack. About an hour later, we went for a walk. Brigham had left most of this piece of bread on the table. By the time we got back, about an hour and a half later, I figured his bread would be dried out. I was surprised to find that the bread was as moist as when I got it out of the bag.

My favorite bread baking book is The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. It was introduced to me about eleven years ago by a friend. I love the methods uses for whole grain bread baking and the recipes are wonderful! I'll be using it more often!

Single-Serve Brownies

The idea here is if you don't make a whole pan of brownies, you don't have a whole pan of brownies at your disposal to eat!!

You can view the simple recipe plus nutritional information here.

1 TBSP whole wheat flour
1 TBSP sugar (do not substitute)
1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa
a pinch of baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 TBSP of low fat vanilla yogurt, add more if needed to blend the mixture


Mix it all up and microwave for one minute.


I did make a few alterations. The recipe calls for whole wheat flour. I tried it that way and it tasted like chocolate bread. I decided that since it's a dessert, I'll allow myself to splurge with white flour. I didn't have vanilla yogurt, so I added plain yogurt and added about 1/4 tsp. vanilla. Then, I really got crazy and decided to add a little coconut and some diced pecans. I actually really like this!

Note: Once you have all the ingredients in your container and begin stirring, it seems like the dry ingredients will be too much for the yogurt. Rest assured, if you keep stirring, it will all mix up. If you have to add more yogurt, that's o.k. Play around with it until you get the consistency you like.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the process:

Small reusable container (9.5 oz) works great!

Dry mixture before yogurt

Just before microwaving

Just after microwaving

YUM!

Now, for a real splurge, I wonder what the recipe would be for a single serving of frosting!!

So, What's Quinoa?

I used quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) last year for the first time. I made a concoction out of a book by Dr. Andrew Weil which included quinoa and coconut milk and some other exotic ingredients. The kids first welcomed the new dish and then shunned it completely. I came back to it again this year for another recipe. This time a fruit salad where it was not a main ingredient (you'll like this one Michelle; it has coconut!). It was good to know that we were eating something so healthy without even noticing it.

You'll have to forgive me as my mind is a little confused right now. I just found out yesterday that my brother, who I had always thought was just a regular guy, is actually Batman (who knows, maybe I'm misinterpreting his Gmail custom message). So instead of writing my intended essay on Quinoa, I'll just quote the package:

"QUINOA (keen-wa) was a staple of the ancient Incas and means "The mother grain." It's high in iron and has a distinctive flavor and fluffy texture. It makes tasty choice for casseroles, pilafs and even salads when cooked."

Let me add one thing that I do know. Quinoa has all the essential amino acids which is unusual for a grain. It is often toted as the Super-grain. I think that makes sense to me even in connection with Batman, maybe because of the reference to "Super."

I'm not particularly keen on the flavor of quinoa as a substitute for rice which is one suggested use. I'm happier cooking it and adding it to things where it's less noticeable. I like to add some to my morning oatmeal. I'm interesting in hearing from the five people who answered my poll to say that they had bought and cooked it (and the one who had tasted it). How did you use it? Did you like it? Do you have any suggestions for me?

For the eleven of you who haven't bought it or tasted it, you can now consider yourself one more trivia question in-the-know!

Chicken Pot Pie

Now here's a labor intensive dinner!

Click here for the recipe.

Soy Milk

Speaking of allergies, over half my family is allergic to milk. Those of us who can't have "cow milk" or "boy milk" as Sariah calls it, drink "soy milk" or "girl milk." At it's cheapest, soy milk costs a whopping $5 per gallon. The more expensive brands like Silk can be up to $7 per gallon. For this reason, a couple of years back, Joseph gave me some information about a soy milk maker. We bought it and I used it for a good while and then stopped. Recently, I started making soy milk again. It takes approximately 25 minutes per batch and I have to make 6 batches every 5 days. It's quite a bit of work, but while the machine is doing it's work, like right now, I can:

1) Catch up on my Book of Mormon reading. I'm in the Isaiah chapters of 2nd Nephi right now. Loving those chapters more and more!

2) Observe several phases of the lunar eclipse. Right now, the moon is half-way covered by the earth's shadow. Supposedly near the end of the eclipse, I may see some turquoise color! May really wanted to see it, so I got her up and we viewed it together for a while. She was really grateful that I got her up. Nathan, on the other hand, wouldn't wake up. I kept asking him over and over if he wanted to see the lunar eclipse and he kept telling me "yes" and then wrapping the blanket back over himself and zonking!

3) Write a post about 'soy milk.'

4) Eat chocolate!

I got started late tonight, so I'm wildly tired. We read Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett in it's entirety before I sent the kids off to bed. I can't wait to get the final book in that series (Book #1 is My Father's Dragon and Book #3 is The Dragons of Blueland). This book had enough pictures that even Sariah could sit through it and enjoy it.

To fill the time until I can go off to dreamland, here's how soy milk is made, in case you've ever wondered.

First, I soak a mixture of soybeans, flax seeds, and oats over night or from morning until night depending on when I'm going to make the milk. They soak for 10-14 hours. I drain the beans etc. in a basket which attaches onto the soy milk maker (I use SoyaPower brand). I fill the soy milk maker with filtered water and add brown sugar, vanilla, and salt to the containers that will eventually hold the soy milk.


Then, I screw the basket onto the 'blender' part of the soy milk maker. The machine heats up the water and then blends the bean mixture. The basket has a very fine sieve effect so that the tiniest particles go out into the water, making the milk.


When the milk is finished the machine beeps at me. This is what I see when I take the machine apart:


I spoon all of that froth off the top and then using a fine mesh sieve, pour the milk into the container.

Finally, stir and refrigerate. Ready to go. Brigham and Sariah don't really mind the taste of the homemade milk. It grows on me over time. May and Joseph try to avoid it. I probably save $30-$40 dollars a month making this soy milk. Brigham still drinks about three 8 oz. bottles a day, which reminds me, I need to wean him off those bottles...still.

Mint Plus Chocolate

I don't know about you, but I think these two flavors were made for each other. Followed by Chocolate and Orange, but that is a subject for another post.

I guess if you were to press me, my favorite ice cream flavor would probably have to be Mint Chocolate Chip. The problem is that most brands have rectangular chocolate "chunks." It's hard to find Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with the little flecks of chocolate. It seems like I had better luck with that when we lived in Utah, the Ice Cream capital of the world. As a side note, when Joseph was a student he found that the topic of light conversation amongst the students and faculty here at MSU often turned to alcohol. Joseph sat silently having nothing to add to the conversation. One time somebody noticed this about him and asked what people in Utah talk about. He told them-->ICE CREAM!

So the ice cream that stands in for the kind with the little chocolate flecks is Fanny May Mint Meltaway by Country Fresh. I've only been able to find it at Walmart where I loathe to shop, but still must due to budget restrictions.

As seen below, it actually has layers of chocolate fudge swirled into it. This fudge melts in your mouth better than those rectangular chocolate chunks.

When I was at BYU, Hershey's made a chocolate bar with mint crispies in it. I tried to buy enough to convince them to continue making them, but alas, they stopped.

What's your favorite Mint Chocolate combo? Or if mint chocolate isn't your thing, what's your favorite chocolate of all time?

Chicken Noodle Soup (Warts and All!)

We've got several cases of a flu virus in our house this weekend. I won't go into the gory details of that, but I've washed all of the towels in the house within a 24 hour period.

I thought we might all benefit from some home-made chicken noodle soup. I also decided that I would brave the noodle making process, which up until this time has been Joseph's job. I should add that he makes the smoothest, most tender noodles that I have ever eaten! He had beginners luck, but the charm stays with him.

Noodles aren't that hard to make. Or so I thought. I mixed them, kneaded them, divided them, rolled them, cut them and left them to sit the prescribed 20 minutes before throwing them into the pot of already boiling soup. I went to the table armed with my metal spatula and to my dismay, those noodles were stuck to the table.

The recipe tells you to divide the dough into 4 equal part and roll them each out to a 12" x 12" square. These squares are then cut into noodles which are 1/4" by 2". I'm not going to do the math here, but there were hundreds of these little noodles STUCK to the table. Joseph was kind enough to try to help me out of my predicament. I laughingly said, "I bet when I get ready to throw these in the pot, they will have restuck themselves to the table." He said, "Yeah, that's why I'm turning them over after I peel them up." Boing! Lightbulb goes on in my head. Oh what silliness.

The soup turned out pretty well, despite the fact that many of the noodles were slightly chewy due to being over-cooked. It was a long process getting them into the pot.

In the midst of this, Nathan asks me if I'm going to take a picture to put in my blog. I answered no. I was a little irritated with the situation and also I felt like I was in a hurry and couldn't take the time to grab the camera to shoot a picture. Joseph said something about me not being willing to show my warts on the blog.

I got in a tiff about that one. Defensive. But now I'm remembering a comment from my friend Sue who said she thinks that I paint my life--on my blog--like a Norman Rockwell. That kind-of surprised me because:

#1 My life is NOT like that.
#2 I have anxiety when I see someone who seems to have a perfect smoothly flowing, happy life.
#3 I thought I was blogging about at least some of my warts.
#4 Warts give character! What would we laugh about otherwise?

Now I kinda wish I had a picture of all those little noodles spread around on my table with me madly working to peel them up and then re-peel them up! By the time I gave in to having the picture taken, it was too late!

Too Many Babas Soup

Elijah brought home a book called "Too Many Babas" by Carolyn Croll. As we read it together, I read a page, he read a page, I saw my dinner shaping before my eyes. The books starts off by telling about Baba (means grandmother in Russian) Edis who decided to make some soup. She used her ingredients on hand and put them in a pot to stew. Pretty soon Baba Basha stopped by to visit and was welcomed in. She made her own contribution to the soup. Baba Yetta, Baba Molka, all made their contributions. While the soup smelled wonderful, they found that it didn't taste very good. Then they decided that they needed to plan together and try again.

As it turned out, I had the ingredients necessary to make the soup, so I guessed at a recipe and we had that with breadsticks last night. EVERYONE was happy!

Click here to see the easy recipe. This will take you to a recipe blog that I belong to called "Do We Have To Eat This?"

The Trouble with Advertising

It was a Lego magazine. You know, the one that comes on a monthly basis which is designed to get kids to beg their parents for $50 boxes of Legos. As if that isn't bad enough, they put an ad for a delicious new SweeTarts treat called "SweeTarts Squeez" right on the back and available to all. Sariah put this on her birthday list. Just the kind of thing parents go for, I assure you. She ate a little bit and told me it was too minty. Poor little confused taste buds.

Birthday Brownie Torte

Here's the recipe I posted in July:

http://cindimartineau.blogspot.com/2007/07/chocolate-chip-brownie-torte.html

Here are the pictures to go with it!

What's for Dinner?

I slaved over Chicken Enchiladas tonight, what did you have for dinner?