A Baked Oatmeal Reminder

It snowed all day yesterday and that snow is keeping us from getting to church this morning. The end of breakfast left me with an empty pan. Again. In a routine I find myself in twice a week, I pulled down bowl and ingredients and began mixing up the next batch of baked oatmeal.

As I was doing so, it occurred to me that a year and a half ago I posted our Backed Oatmeal recipe, but that since then, since it has truly become our morning staple- none of us getting tired of it after all this time (no matter what the season), we've adapted our recipe. The original recipe is fine if you're making this for your family occasionally or for special occasions, like when you have overnight guests. Our tweaked version is a healthier one that suits us better since we eat this day in and day out.

I went ahead and updated the post to include both the original and healthier version. Click here to check it out.

Also, if you are interested in checking out all the recipes I've posted here, visit our recipe indexes. This one is divided into the typical soups, main dishes and dessert categories and this index is organized by ingredient. "By ingredient" cooking suits us much better since we allow the ingredients we have to dictate what we make. (Both indexes can always be found along the right side of the page.)

Happy browsing and stay warm. Pin It

So In Love

Parenting has it's challenges. The constant refereeing, repeating one's self, wondering if you are doing things correctly, saying things in the right way. It can get quite overwhelming if we dwell on the complexities of it all too much.

But on the other hand, you have the moments when you can't imagine your life without these other little beings. You wonder who you would be if it weren't for them, if they hadn't come into your life and changed you so completely.

I find myself in awe of my kids most days. The way these little people construct their sentences, the way their little faces distort into such raw emotion, flitting from surprise to fear to utter loss when another has picked up their lego creation or disturbed the arrangement of their plastic animals. I catch myself on the verge of laughter at times. Not laughter at them but out of astonishment over who they are and are becoming.

In particular, is Miriam.

Seven and a half months old and as sweet as pie. With sugar on top. She talks to me, you know. A jibber-jabber of da-das and ma-mas and ba-bas. I know what she's saying. She's saying, "Where are those big kids?" as we emerge from her room after her nap. She's saying, "Carry me around a little bit longer, Mama, please?" She nuzzles into my neck, hugs me and gives me open-mouth kisses on my cheeks and chin. She smacks her lips after nursing and helps me carry whatever else I'm carrying when she's on my hip. She stares into my eyes, looking at her reflection in them. She pants like a little puppy when she's happy or excited and squeals as I clap my hands before picking her up.

She is my joy. I am overwhelmed with love.

This is the kind of love I believe our heavenly Father has for each of us, only intensified beyond our comprehension. It almost makes me feel uncomfortable to imagine that someone could love me this much. It's the love a parent feels- unconditional, I'm-with-you-no-matter-what kind of love.

To imagine that God loves my children even more than I will ever be capable of understanding just blows me away.

And makes me so very happy. Pin It

Peanut Butter Oat Chocolate Brownie Bars

I had been fighting the urge to make something chocolate for well over a week. Posts like this chocolate almond cake were wearing me down until finally, I snapped and gave in, still feeling guilty as I was pulling down bowls and melting butter.

On the radio at the time was NPR. More specifically the talk show, On Point with Tom Ashbrook. And who, might you ask, was Tom interviewing this particular day? Michael Pollan, author of the books Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food and contributor to the documentary, Food, Inc. He was on the show talking about his new book, Food Rules (you can listen to the audio of this program here). Now, Pollan is all about eating the best-for-you healthiest foods. His motto and the subtitle to In Defense of Food is “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”

Listening in to this program while I measured white refined sugar, cocoa and peanut butter did not help to alleviate my guilt. No, it did not. But then, wait! Tom read the next one of Pollan's "food rules". Do you know what it was?? In effect, Pollan said that it's okay to eat junk food if you make it yourself. He went on to say, that you should keep treats a treat (meaning you should not make them often). I hadn't made a "treat" in weeks!

Well, I'll be. It's as if Michael Pollan himself poked his head out of my little kitchen boom box, looked over my shoulder and gave me permission to make my sweet.

THAT, my friends, got rid of most of my guilt. What removed the remaining guilt? The results. I was craving chocolate, so initially planned on making a pan of brownies. I decided this was too boring and started flipping through my dessert binder (yes, a whole binder devoted to desserts) and had an idea. I took both my brownie recipe and a peanut butter oat bar recipe and combined the two. Both recipes I've had for years and have tweaked them to my liking (actually, to my loving). The idea of layering the two excited my taste buds to no end, so I gave it a go and am happy to say that this new recipe is worth making again and again and again. And, as a bonus, it seems to induce remaining guilt dispersion.

These are very soft and chewy. Both layers sport some fudginess which happens to be my favorite characteristic of a bar or brownie.

I do not recommend only eating two and a half of these bars for your lunch. While it may seem like a good idea at the time, there is a very good chance you will feel pretty jittery because of it. That, and I don't think Mr. Pollan would condone homemade junk food as a substitute for one of your main meals. Just a hunch I have.



Peanut Butter Oat Chocolate Brownie Bars
Even though these bars have two layers, they are very simple to make. If you really love brownies, double the brownie layer for a more intensely chocolate punch.

For the brownie layer:

3/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine the above brownie ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

For the peanut butter layer:

1 1/2 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter (I use chunky)
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 cups quick oats

Combine peanut butter layer ingredients in a large bowl. Coat a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray. Spread the brownie batter evenly over the bottom of the pan. Carefully, spread the peanut butter layer evenly over the brownie layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the top has turned a very light brown and a knife inserted comes out almost clean. Do not over bake.


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Hand Blender Winners!

First of all, I want to say how much fun this giveaway was for me- and I don't even get anything! I wish I could give you good folks free, useful things every day!

I want to thank CSN Stores for hosting this giveaway and want to remind you all that when you find yourself in need of stools, visit www.allbarstools.com!


Let's get down to business! There were 39 entries. Sam and Sadie each chose a slip of paper randomly and the winners are...

Patty R. and Alison

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Congratulations!!

Winners, please email me (thyhand123@gmail.com) with your mailing address and CSN Stores will ship your hand blender directly to you.

For the rest of you, do you think it's time you put one of these babies of your Christmas list? Better yet, Valentine's Day is fast approaching. What says 'I love you' better than a hand blender?! Pin It

Winter Chickens

It's been a long time since I've talked about our chickens. Our current count is 31. Our flock is made up of Golden-Laced Wyandottes (brown and black), Silver-Laced Wyandottes (white and black), Ameraucanas (lighter shades of brown), one lone meat bird (she was on the small side when we harvested so still remains) and several crosses (Wyandotte x Ameraucana) bred by our own birds.

Marv (the rooster in charge) has allowed our 'multi-colored' rooster (a Wyandotte and Ameraucana cross) to exist with the flock. Marv doesn't let him get too close to his favorite girls, but he does get a little action now and again. We're happy for him.

Marv, rooster in charge

'Multi-colored' rooster (He really needs a name, any suggestions?)

Winter can mean less eggs because there is less day light. Hens lay less when they are exposed to less light. Last year we had great success adding a light to their roost area on a timer to extend their day light at both ends of the day. This past fall, we were not quick enough in getting that lamp set up and their egg production came to a screeching halt.

That got our attention. As did having to buy three dozen eggs for the first time in almost three years. Ouch.

In went the light, but it took the girls a couple weeks to adjust and finally they started laying again. Then came the cold. We got two feet of snow followed by several weeks of frigid temperatures. Those poor birds rarely got off their roost. (Click here to see where our birds live.) Most of the day and night, they stayed huddled together for warmth. Egg production slowed again. Then the bulb burnt out. Heavens.

A new bulb went in, the temperatures crawled back up slowly and our pullets ("teenage" or less than a year old hens) finally started giving us some eggs (it takes about 5 months for a chick turned pullet to start laying). Our latest batch of bought laying hen chicks arrived this summer and are of the Silver-Laced Wyandotte variety. Their little pullet eggs are precious, so small they don't stand up very well in the cartons.

Regular-sized eggs on the left. Pullet eggs on the right.

The past week or so, we've been collecting 15 eggs a day. We have two families that currently buy eggs from us. If more start laying, we may be looking to add another.

Our chickens were plumb afraid of all that snow and didn't venture out until they could see patches of earth. During the winter months, they are allowed in the garden. They scratch up the ground, mixing the decomposing straw and leaves (our mulch) into the dirt and eating grubs. This stirring of the ground and their droppings add wonderful organic matter to our garden soil.

Our garden entrance

Three ladies in the garden

Can you find this hen? They love climbing/flying up on our hay bales- next year's garden mulch.

It's so nice to see them exploring their yard once again. I'm almost as excited for them as I am for myself to see those green shoots popping up everywhere. In the meantime, they scratch in the dirt and leaves, find things to climb on and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

Winter view of back garden and red raspberry canes.

It's so nice to know that the eggs we eat are products of this happy flock. We're so glad we have them. Pin It

Quilt Piecing Tricks of the Trade

Just because a person is born into a Mennonite family, does not mean she comes out of her mother and immediately picks up needle and quilting thread. No, it does not. Just like everything else I do, it has come with a lot of practice.

I mentioned my short little history of quilting here. During those first couple projects, I was winging it. I had a couple quilting books passed down from my grandmother and I kind-of read them. I asked my mom some questions. Then, I just went ahead and stumbled along. On Sam's quilt (the first I actually quilted), you can totally tell at which end I started. The stitches look childlike compared to the ones I stitched at the end. But, you see, this is how we learn.

Practice.

Another way I've learned is to watch experienced quilters and ask them lots of questions. Much of this has occurred while sitting around a quilt frame at church. Our old church holds a sewing circle during the Sunday School hour. A sewing circle is when a group of women (it's almost always women) come together to quilt for the purpose of donating the quilt (and it's proceeds) to a charitable cause. Sewing circles are great places to get practice and to glean quilting knowledge.

Here is a picture of my great grandmother, second from the left, at a sewing circle. She made the cover of a magazine. I have not.


Let's get some quilting jargon out of the way. To "piece" a quilt is to sew together the pieces of fabric that make up the top or back of the quilt. To "quilt" is to use special quilting thread to make small stitches all the way through the top, "batting" (the fluffy stuff inside) and back, to get that nice puffy effect. "Quilting" also allows you to make designs in the quilt (More about that later).

Here are a few of the things I have learned along the way.

Organization helps. I use a fishing tackle box. It's not an original idea, but it works so well. I've vowed to have no more small quilting supplies than what will fit in this box. So, there. Oh, you'll also need a sewing machine (minor detail), unless you're going to hand piece your quilt top. It can be done, Lord, have mercy. In this photo, you can kind of see my machine, an old Singer we bought for me years ago. I love this machine, but Jamey has been trying to convince me to move on and buy a newer model. It's just come home from the shop. Again.


An iron is a quilt-piecer's best friend. There are a couple reasons for this. First of all, it helps immensely to have your fabric completely flat and smooth when you cut your squares, triangle and trapezoids (Ok, most probably don't use trapezoids. I have trapezoids on the brain. I teach second grade math). The second reason will be evident in a minute.

A rotary cutting tool and mat save much time. This rotary tool can cut through several layers of fabric at once and cuts way straighter than I can even with my best shears.

Iron open your seams. Do you need me to say more? No problem. I didn't get it at first either. I had been complaining to a sewing circle friend about the fact that when I piece (sew) part of my quilt top to another part of my quilt top (both parts being made up of smaller pieces already sewn together), I have so much trouble getting the seams to match up.

Let me try to show you what I mean. Here is a picture where my seams (in the center) have come together pretty well. Imagine that they are, like, a quarter of an inch off target. It wouldn't look so nice, now would it?

Or, here. How would it look if this point, instead of pointing to the seam below, was pointing a half inch off to the side of the seam?

That is what was happening to me. I'd tear out the thread and try and try and try again. I was thoroughly frustrated. Don't cry like I did. Instead, listen to this. The kind, advice-generous quilter told me to iron my seams open. When you sew two squares or pieces together and look on the back, the extra 1/4 inch of material is laying off to one side. The idea is to iron the seam open, like this...

See how I splayed open the back of the seam and ironed it flat? This way, when you lay your two sections of fabric together face to face, you can SEE your seam from the back of the fabric instead of having to guess just where it is. Oh, I do hope this is making sense.


Note in the picture above how I can then fold the top down and line those seams right up. Then, all you need to do is pin it carefully and move on to the next pair of seams that need to be matched. If one of your next set of seams down the line doesn't match perfectly, you can at least SEE that and adjust things further if you need to.


Are you as exhausted as I am? Just take a deep breath, sit back and relax.

I promised to give you a peek at Miriam's quilt. Here are a few.


My iron wasn't so effective on this next fabric square.



The fabric above is actually cut into 10 1/2 inch squares. Since I'm not allowing myself to buy more fabric, I cannot make the back of her quilt all one print. Instead, I am going to try something new (for me). I am going to piece together the same number and size of squares (and borders) for the back as I did the front. The squares in the back will be whole squares of one fabric print while the ones for the front (shown further above) are made of simple designs (squares and triangles). My hope is that if I match them up carefully, as I quilt I will get the same quilting designs on the top and the back, making it a reversible quilt.

Now, if you've read through this entire post, please tell me. That is, after you've woke up from your quilt-talk induced coma or have untwisted your head on your neck.

I'll post more photos as I go along, but wanted to share some things I've learned in case you find yourself with the New Year urge to quilt. Pin It

My Favorite Kitchen Tool and a Giveaway!!

This giveaway has ended. The winners are Patty R. and Alison! Patty and Alison, please email me (thyhand123@gmail.com) with your address so I can have your blenders shipped to you:-).

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I love-love-love-love-love my immersion blender. Besides the big three (oven, microwave and dishwasher), it's my very favorite kitchen tool. Oh? I've mentioned this before? I guess I have.
In the past, I've even suggested that you should add one to your Christmas list. Did you? Did you get one for Christmas? Well, if you didn't, do I have some news for you?!

The kind folks over at CSN Stores are giving two (2) of my readers their very own hand blender. Whoohooo! I am so excited to help give two of you your very own blenders, I can hardly stand it!

How To Enter

Take a field trip and check out the stools at www.allbarstools.com (one of CSN Store's many websites). Browse around and then come back and leave a comment telling me which item you would choose if you could have anything on that site. Only one entry per person. (You are welcome to comment anonymously- just make sure you leave an initial so I can identify you if you win.)

Sometime next Wednesday, January 27th, I will randomly draw two names and announce the winners.

Only residents of the U.S. and Canada are eligible to enter. To my dear readers in South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and elsewhere, I apologize profusely.

What You Are Entering to Win

A Hamilton Beach 2-speed Hand Blender (and storage case) with whisk and drink mixer attachments. (Even I don't have whisk and drink mixer attachments!) Click here for more information.

I've talked about how I use mine when I make carrot soup, tomato soup, pumpkin pasta, vegetable chowder and baby food. There are other ways to use it, too. I just haven't written about them. Yet.


What are you waiting for?! Go on over to www.allbarstools.com, browse around, come back and enter to win! Pin It

Homemade Baby Food: Stage One

In light of our food values, you probably weren't surprised to read the title of this post. When I made baby food for Sam six and a half years ago, though, we didn't even have a garden. In fact, I'm not even sure I had thought about making my first baby's food before I was given a very thoughtful baby gift.

A family from our small group at church gave us baby food making "tools" as a shower gift. I remember thinking how creative a gift it was. And, if I had chosen to go the bottled-baby food route, I still could have used the tools in other ways. Included was a set of two plastic ice cube trays, a sieve and a potato masher (I know there were other things included, too, but I can't for the life of me think now what they were).

This gift planted the idea in my head. When Sam turned 6 months, the decision to make his baby food was not so foreign an idea. In fact, it went so well and was so easy (not to mention cheap) that I made Sadie's baby food as well. Over the years, I've used a couple different baby food cookbooks- yes, there are such books out there- and they are extremely helpful. It's not the actual making of the food the requires much thought, it's the thinking-up which foods to use at what stages that I find helpful.

clockwise from top: butternut squash, sweet potato, carrot

Miriam is 7 and a half months old. Just before she turned 7 months, we started her on rice cereal (in the typical recommended fashion). In the meantime, I picked up the book Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel at the shop where I take consignment items.


This book has a helpful introduction, gorgeous photos and very simple recipes for your baby's baby food divided into four stages. The first stage is called "First Stage Weaning" and this is the stage Miriam is currently in (I am not weaning her from breast milk yet, just adding solids to her diet).

Karmel lists three signs that your baby may be ready to start solid foods.

"- still hungry after a full milk feeding
- demands feedings more frequently
- wakes at night for a feeding previously slept through"

Miriam always seemed satisfied after nursing, but the second and third signs described her perfectly. Karmel also mentions the importance of starting babies out on real, freshly made vegetables and food. These tastes will resemble what we hope our children will learn to love to eat in the coming years. In her book, she notes that "most commercial baby foods have been heated to a very high temperature and then cooled, in order to sterilize them. This gives them a very long shelf life (usually two years) but destroys a lot of the flavor and some of the nutrients in the process." Feeding them what we ultimately want them to eat from the start, helps ensure a smooth transition.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is expecting a baby or will soon be starting their baby on solids. It would be perfect tucked into a basket with some baby food making tools and given as a shower gift as well.

pureed butternut squash

Ok, on to the food! For the First Stage, the recipes include one or two ingredients. Here is a list of what Miriam has been eating so far:

- pureed carrots with a pat of butter (fat enables the beta-carotene in carrots to be more readily absorbed)
- pureed butternut squash
- pureed sweet potatoes
- applesauce

Exciting, no? The method is simple. Wash and peel the vegetable. Cook it in water or steam or bake it until very soft. Puree it in your blender or using an immersion blender. Spoon the puree into ice cube trays. Freeze over night and then pop the cubes out and transfer them into zip-lock bags for easier storage. When it's time for dinner, pull a cube or two from the freezer, thaw and warm. Rice cereal can be mixed in prior to freezing or after you've thawed the cubes. A little makes quite a bit. One small butternut squash made about 25 cubes.

Combining the cubes works as well. Once Miriam was used to each flavor, I started thawing a sweet potato cube and a carrot cube together and combined them. A butternut squash cube with some applesauce. This will get her used to flavor blends as well.

pureeing sweet potatoes with an immersion blender

This really is simple to do- waaaaay easier than making dinner, I promise. In about an hour, you can have several different vegetables cooked, pureed and into the freezer. And the measure of your labor? A few WEEKS of baby food tucked away at the ready. Pin It

Oatmeal Rolls

We're not big bread bakers around here. I love the idea of baking bread. I love the smell of bread baking. I love the taste of homemade bread. I do not think, though, that bread making and I are meant to be. I've had some successes. I can make a nice loaf of French bread. I can make pizza dough in my sleep. Much beyond that and I find myself lacking. Talent? Interest? Probably a combination of both. I have come to terms with this and I am fine with it. I am not a bread baker.

Jamey, on the other hand, makes one kind of bread- oatmeal rolls- and he makes them incredibly well. The recipe he uses suggests baking the bread in loaf pans. We prefer the roll version. He will often quadruple the recipe and stock our freezer with these yummy rolls that are then pulled out to be served with soups or salads or to be used as sandwich bread.

My mother uses this recipe as well and these rolls have made appearances at at least two of our family weddings and countless Thanksgiving dinners. These rolls are exceptional right out of the oven. As in, I can eat four at a time. If you are careful not to over bake them, they retain their soft, moist, fluffiness long after coming out of the oven.



Oatmeal Rolls (Jamey has adapted this recipe from the More-With-Less Cookbook)
This recipe yields two loaves or two cake layer pans full of rolls. The rolls freeze very well.

1 cup quick oats
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter, sofetned
2 cups boiling water
1 package or 1 tbsp. dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
4-5 cups white flour

Combine quick oats, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, salt and butter in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oat mixture and stir to combine. In a small bowl, combine the warm water and yeast until the yeast has dissolved. When the oatmeal mixture has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast mixture and combine. Add the white flour one cup at a time, mixing with a spoon until the dough becomes too tough, then turn it out on a floured counter and knead additional flour into the dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise again.

Pull off clumps of dough and form into large round balls to form rolls. Place them in a greased pan with or without sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes and check the rolls. Remove them from the oven when the tops are just starting to brown and a knife inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Brush the tops with some melted butter (optional) and cool on wire racks.



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'Tis the Season for Quilting

This past fall, I started working on Miriam's cross-stitched Christmas stocking. It didn't get finished. In fact, it's not even a quarter of the way done. I figured she wouldn't mind...being only 7 months old and all.

Christmas has come and gone and it just doesn't seem right to work on that stocking right now. Christmas is soooo far away. That's a better project to pick up again next fall when the deadline of Christmas will spur me on.

The New Year means quilting to me. It seems as if every year at this time, I get the urge to start or pick up a quilting project. It might be because I love having a quilt-in-progress draped over my lap, keeping me very snug in our cold house. Making a quilt takes me a long time and I blame this squarely on my children. By the end of the day, it takes a lot of motivation to focus my eyes on small stitches. It's ironic, though, that in spite of them making me exhausted and unable to focus, it is for my children mainly that I quilt.

I am working on my fifth quilt. There are other quilts I've contributed to, at my Grammie's quilt frame when I was a little girl or in church at quilts to be auctioned off for relief.

The first quilt I made was for Jamey for his birthday or Christmas while we were still in college. My Grandma had a shoe box full of fabric squares that she had cut out and saved over the years. They were all the same size, about 3 inches x 3 inches. I sewed them together, adding batting and a back and finished it off by tying knots (with a lot of help from my mother). We still have that quilt, but the fabric squares I used were so old that with little wear they started to pull apart making the quilt quite fragile and therefore not very usable anymore. Lesson learned.

For my second quilt, I bought all new fabric. This one was for the baby Sam growing inside me. This quilt was a little larger than crib size and was very simple. Squares and rectangles pieced together with each side of each shape quilted. It was finished and folded over the back of the rocking chair in the nursery when we brought him home from the hospital. Over-achiever, yes, I was.

You can read this post about my Sadie girl's quilt which I just finished last year...when she was three years old. I started it while I was pregnant with her, piecing it rather quickly and then taking forever to quilt it. I enjoyed this one much more, using an actual quilt pattern with triangles and such (triangles were daunting to me for some reason).

While Sadie's quilt sat languishing in it's hoop, my mother and I conspired to make a quilt for my brother and his bride as a wedding gift. I picked out the fabric (my favorite part), chose the pattern and pieced the quilt, passing it off to my mother for her to quilt. It was hard giving that one away. Quilts are truly labors of love.

I was determined to start Miriam's in good time and have set some goals for myself. I started it while I was pregnant (last winter after New Year's) and, as of two weeks ago, have the top pieced. Not only do I want to have it finished by next Christmas but, I vowed to only use fabric I already have. This really shouldn't be difficult. I have a large plastic bin of leftover fabric from past projects, plus dozens and dozens of swatches from my dear friend and interior decorator, Laura.

All these patterns are in Miriam's quilt.

Well...this post has become way longer than I intended it to be. So, instead of straining your tired eyes, I will continue this post another day when I'll give you some peeks at the top of Miriam's quilt and share some largely valuable quilt-piecing advice that I have gleaned from some very experienced quilters. Pin It

Taking a Little Field Trip

Instead of reading my ramblings today, please hop over and visit Mary Grace's blog and read this post.

Her post is full of thoughts that have loitered around in the back of my head- how did she know they were there? Mary Grace has given them life through written word and drawn out of them depths I never took time to notice. Thank you, Mary Grace for this important and refreshing reminder.

Go on! Get out of here and go visit:-). Pin It

Malaysian Chicken Pizza, Oh My!

You may have noticed in my weekly dinner menu (to the right) that Fridays are pizza night at our house. We usually make a plain cheese pizza for the kids and a pesto and tomato (using roasted tomatoes during the off season) for Jamey and I. The kids love pizza and it's a no-brainer at the end of the long school week.

We end up having my brother and his wife over on Fridays more than any other day of the week. Last week, we invited them to come for pizza and games (the games were for after the kids went to bed) and I really wanted to mix things up a bit. I know, I'm just craaaaazy! (Really, I'm not, so it makes this extra craaaaazy).

I flipped through my cookbook indexes until I found this recipe. My mouth started watering instantly and I could almost taste it- pungent, flavorful, addictive. And that it was. This pizza was a hit and the leftovers disappeared very quickly.

I am giving you the recipe as printed in Cooking Light even though I changed a couple things. It wasn't until I started mixing up the sauce that I realized I was out of rice vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar and it tasted great. This is a good alternative if you think the rice vinegar may be too strong a flavor for you or your family. I used monteray jack cheese instead of swiss because we had no swiss. I also left out the crushed red pepper and chopped green onions and used cooked chicken. Who says you need all the ingredients to make a recipe?! Who, I ask you?!

This recipe comes together very easily. The sauce can be made in the morning and kept in the fridge so that all you have to do prior to dinner is asseble the pizza crust.

Malaysian Chicken Pizza (recipe from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2003)
(More of my little comments in italics and parenthesis)

3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. minced peeled fresh ginger (I used bottled.)
2 tbsp. chunky peanut butter
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
Cooking spray
1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup shredded, reduced fat Swiss cheese
1/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 12 inch pizza crust (We made our own.)
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Combine first 8 ingredients in a bowl and stir well with a whisk. Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add chicken, and saute 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan. Pour vinegar mixture into pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook mixture about 6 minutes or until slightly thickened (I got impatient here and removed a bit of the sauce, mixed in 1 tbsp. of cornstarch until well-dissolved and returned it to the rest of the sauce- this worked great.) Return chicken to the pan, cook 1 minute or until chicken is done.

(Since I knew the topping would be saucey, I baked the pizza crust for about 5 minutes by itself before sprinkling the cheeses to form a light crust and keep the pizza dough from becoming soggy-ish. It worked.) Sprinkle the cheese over the prepared crust, leaving a 1/2 inch border and top with the chicken mixture. Bake at 500 degrees for 12 minutes. When done, sprinkle with green onions and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

You're lucky I got any pictures of this pizza. It went fast.

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My Thoughts are Elsewhere

I'm sorry. I cannot hit the "publish" button on the post I was going to put up today. Today I cannot post recipes or garden planning updates or ideas about how we can come up with the money we need to buy Sam's Spanish curriculum for next year.

I am distracted.

I can't seem to get my mind and heart around what has happened in Haiti this week. What stopped me in my tracks was, not just 10 minutes after reading about the earthquake online, hearing Sam and Sadie playing "flood". Here were my two very privileged, safe, well-fed, well-clothed children pretending natural disaster when more than likely, they will never experience one.

This makes me feel guilty. Thankful, but guilty. Why their children and their families? Why not mine? I am no better than them. I didn't do anything to earn the fact I was born where I was and haven't experienced tremendous, family-tearing, physical injury-ridden, potential-to-starve disasters.

So, let's think about and pray for the people of Haiti...the victims, the aid workers, the officials. Let's do this not just today, but everyday for a very long time. If it happened to us, wouldn't we hope they were praying for and thinking of us? Pin It

To Warm Your Bones: Vegetable Chowder

Here is another great way to use up all that preserved produce. A taste of the garden in January, that's what it is. A couple years back, I made several batches of this chowder in the summer with fresh vegetables and froze it. It worked very well. This past summer I didn't have as much time on my hands, so I froze the veggies as normal and make the chowder as we want it. The recipe makes a generous amount, so plan to freeze a few servings for another day or eat it for lunches to give your family another good helping of veggies.

green beans, corn and red bell peppers thawing for the chowder

The other night when I made this, I substituted chicken broth (I had cooked two of our chickens in the morning) for the water and added a cup of diced, cooked chicken. We leave out the hot pepper sauce (for the kids' sake- they love this, by the way) and serve it with grated cheddar cheese on top. Otherwise, I very much stick to the recipe.

If you use a blender or immersion blender to puree part of this soup, it takes on a creaminess that is delightful. This is my favorite vegetable soup.

Vegetable Chowder (recipe from Everyday Food, July/August 2005 issue)
Click on the image below to make it larger. The handwritten amounts to the left are for doubling the recipe.


I feel warmer just thinking about it. Pin It

Garden Planning 2010

It's a little bit hard to imagine sun-warmed soil, gentle breezes and little green shoots right now. We're in the midst of several weeks of very cold days, topping out in the 20s and lower 30s.

Even so, this is the ideal time to sit down huddled under blankets, and plan this year's garden. This is an annual event for us. Jamey gets the garden notebook, full of notations and plans from previous years and I bring my notes of what we might want to change from last year based on how much we have left of certain things, what we might want more or less of, etc. Jamey keeps track of how many plants/feet of row we grew from each year. This makes it easy to make adjustments for the coming year. Of course, we have no control over how wet or dry it might be- these type factors play a role in our yields every year whether we like it or not.

After an hour of discussion, this is what we've come up with...

What we grew last year and will grow again (indicates amount we will plant this year):

garden peas- grow more (grew 190 feet? of climbers last year), try non-climbers this year
lettuce- same amount (spring and fall), more variety, build a larger cold frame
broccoli- grow more (12 plants in spring, 18 plants in fall), make sure planting area is mulched with chicken manure, research organic ways to keep worms away
spinach- grow more (spring and fall)
Swiss chard- grow same amount, harvest earlier in summer before bugs come
zucchini- grow more (4-5 plants)
red bell peppers- grow more and an early variety, don't mulch (6 plants)
green bell peppers- same amount, don't mulch (10 plants)
jalapeno peppers- same amount (2 plants)
garlic- same amount (60 cloves), let dry out several days before braiding
onions- we didn't get nearly enough of these last year (we're already out), same amount, new variety (~3 pounds sets, 125 feet row)
tomatoes for eating- grow an earlier variety (4 plants), grow 2-3 plants of new varieties we saved seeds from
Roma tomatoes for saucing (15 plants)
green beans- plant a little less (60 feet row)
potatoes- plant a little more (90 feet of row)
butternut squash- plant more (4 plants)
basil- grow same (30 plants)
parsley- grow same (5-6 plants)
corn- grow a little more (180 feet row)
carrots- grow more and try to find a variety that stores better, 2 beds- one for storing, one for eating and canning
watermelon- grow same (3 plants)
cucumbers for eating- a little more (3 plants)
sweet potatoes- grow more (90 feet of row)
pumpkins- 2 plants
sunflowers (seeds for chickens)- fill in where have room
cantaloupe- 2 plants
oregano- 2 plants


New things we want to try:

stevia- to use as sweetener, 6 plants
leeks or shallots- research how many
dry kidney beans- We actually grew a small row of these last year (just to try them out). We didn't get enough to eat, so we've saved the beans and will be planting them this year (with hopes to eat them, of course)

Perennials that we grow that may/may not need attention:

strawberries- plant another row (they were thinned heavily last year and the plants are several years old)
red raspberries- plant another row
asparagus
rhubarb
sour cherries- pray for no late frosts
peaches- hoping to get our first peach this year or next
pears- there is one tree left

So, there you have it. Jamey is already taking stock of seeds we have leftover/have saved and is making lists for our seed order. He also has the garden mapped out (we change it every year) and is scheming as to when we can move the cradle (where Miriam hangs out while I'm on the computer) to set up seed-starting tables in the office. We're off! Pin It

Our Ectopic Pregnancy #2

You can read about our first experience with ectopic pregnancy here.

Surgery to remove the first ectopic pregnancy happened in September (2001). Eight months later we were pregnant again. It took five of those months to get me cycling properly again and three months of trying to conceive. Sam was born in February.

With Sam almost two years old, we moved into this old house. I remember him exploring downstairs, crawling up and down all the little threshold steps in the doorways between each room. We were enjoying him so much and especially since we had just bought a three-bedroom farmhouse, we were looking forward to adding more children.

I was uncertain how long it would take to get pregnant again and therefore didn't want to wait too long. Jamey was convinced that having Sam was like "pushing the reset button" and set my cycles straight. He was right. We charted my temperatures as our form of birth control after Sam was born. I started cycling normally on my own after the usual six or so months of no periods due to regular breast-feeding. Three months after starting to try, I was pregnant again. Sam was two and a half years old.

The doctors and midwives had informed us that my risk of another ectopic pregnancy was higher than for those who had never had one. This was due to the possibility of scar tissue having formed where my fallopian tube had ruptured and been repaired. Did we expect to have problems again? Of course not. I, for one, felt like I had taken my turn with unfortunate conception problems, had our first child and would continue on without further incident.

I was about 8 weeks pregnant and had an early ultrasound scheduled in light of my history. One morning, prior to that ultrasound, I was going about my morning duties when I felt dull pain. Instantly and I mean instantly, I recognized the pain and knew I was having another ectopic pregnancy. Part of me was in denial, so I laid on the couch attempting to convince myself that it was something I had eaten or that I was possibly getting sick. But, as time went on the pain got worse and I could no longer deny the feeling.

I called Jamey at work (who had thankfully stopped traveling) and came right out and told him what was happening. I remember him asking me if I was sure. There was no doubt in my mind. I asked him to come home. Next, I called the midwives. As nice as she could, a nurse told me she didn't quite believe that I could recognize the pain and asked me to wait a few hours and see if anything had changed.

Now, I'm usually a people-pleaser. I usually do as I'm told (Jamey may disagree here a bit), but in this instance, I told her that if I was correct, things were going to get bad quickly and I didn't want to risk passing out at home with my 2 year old. She scheduled an appointment for an ultrasound right away.

Next, I called my friend, Shannon, and explained to her what was happening. Her daughter and Sam were best of little friends and she graciously agreed to keep Sam while we went in for my appointment. On the way to drop Sam off, the pain was increasing and yet so were my doubts. I thought, what if I was wrong? I had called Jamey home from work, made the nurse schedule an appointment for me and inconvenienced Shannon. I waited in the car as Jamey took Sam in to Shannon's, breathing through the discomfort. The pain wasn't in my head, but what if it was gas or something? How embarrassing would that be?

Less than an hour later, we were on our way to the hospital. I was right. What made this time even more difficult was that during the ultrasound, we saw and heard a heartbeat. Logically, I understood that even if it was possible to transplant that baby into my uterus, it would never survive. Even though the little heart was beating, it did not have the proper start to life, the proper nourishment there in my tube where it had begun to grow. We once again had lost a baby.

This time I was angry. Surprisingly, not at God. Just at circumstance. This pregnancy had implanted and started to grow in the same tube that the first one had. You can imagine how I felt about that blasted tube.

Recovery was once again difficult, both physically and emotionally. It was harder on me emotionally this time because of having seen that little heartbeat and because I began to wonder how we were to keep trying for children if this kept happening. They had removed the culprit (my left tube) during surgery, leaving me with only one. It seemed as if this was a sign that we should be done having children. This broke my heart all over again every time I thought of it.

We decided to do our best not to think that far ahead, to just get me well and see how things looked down the road. Six months down the road, the urge to add another child to our family outweighed our concerns. We decided to try again. We got pregnant the very first month we tried and nine months later welcomed Sadie into our family. We thought two was our magic number, but a few years later found us wanting to try for another. Once again, the very first month we tried, we conceived. This past mummer, Miriam joined us.

Our biological family is complete. I'm not sure how everything in heaven works, but I often think that I have the potential of meeting our two babies lost when I get there. Eternity with two babies? This would be my heaven.

Looking back, those two ectopic pregnancies seem like blips on the screen. At the time, they rocked our world. Our living children barely give me enough time to think of those who aren't with us. At times I feel guilty about this, but at other times think it may be God's way of helping to minimize my pain. When I dwell on it, it still hurts like crazy.

But if I stand way back and look at the biggest picture, the grandest plan, this life on earth will be the blip on the screen and I may one day be reunited with those babies for eternity. And that just makes me smile. Pin It

Apple Raspberry Crisp

My mother in law makes an incredible apple crisp. Jamey swoons every time he sees one sitting in her kitchen when we go to to their home to visit. It's very simple and very, very good.

I've adapted her version slightly, adding raspberries and cutting back just a bit on the topping. I figure if I can make it a little bit healthier, I can make it more often. That makes sense, right?

Apple Raspberry Crisp (adapted from Jamey's mom's apple crisp recipe)
I leave the peels on the apples if I know they are organic. For this recipe, my apples were local, but not organic, so I peeled them.

8-9 cups sliced cooking apple
1 1/2 cups red raspberries (frozen work well)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup rolled oats or quick oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
6 tbsp. butter, melted

Place sliced apples in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle red raspberries over the top. Pour 1/4 cup water over the apples and berries.


In a bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and stir until well combined. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and cover the pan tightly with foil.


Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into the apples slides in super easy. Then, remove the foil and return the crisp to the oven for another 10 minutes of baking to brown the top slightly. Let set and cool 10 minutes or so and serve with or without a dousing of milk or a side of vanilla ice cream.

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Training

Sam attends a homeschool PE class twice a week at a local university. In addition to the two hours a week of exercise and activity there, he has homework to do throughout each month. Click on the image below to enlarge it and to read how this works.

It's freezing outside (literally) and my poor child is incapable of jumping rope 200-300 times- he just learned for heaven's sake- so we've had to improvise a bit and Jamey has been a huge help in this regard.

Every day or so, Sam completes part of his requirement by running continuously for 15 minutes. He does this in the house (we have a circle downstairs...kitchen to mudroom to playroom to living room to front foyer to dining room and back to kitchen again) with the microwave timer set. He has a blast. Do you want to know why he has a blast? Because little sister Sadie and Daddy Jamey run with him.

They hoot and holler, try to pass each other and make Miriam giggle and squeal as they pass by her. Occasionally one of them goes down, but Jamey scoops them up his next time around, makes the hurt better and off they go again.




And, sometimes they get hot. Then the clothes start coming off.



Apparently, Sam's lower legs get especially hot.

If only all homework could be so fun. Pin It

Iditarod 2010

I couldn't wait all the way until my January homeschooling post to write about this because I'm too excited about it and because you might want to join in.

Jamey and I have been reading (Jamey's done, now I get the book back to finish) Gary Paulson's Woodsong. Paulson writes about his adventures with his sled dogs including their running of the Iditarod. It's a book that has sat on our shelf for awhile. It was given to Sam by a friend but I haven't had time to read it yet and therefore couldn't pass it on to him (I'm pretty picky). Parts would be fine for a read-aloud, but other parts are too intense (at least for Sam). Anyway, Jamey and I have really been enjoying it.

Then, just the other day, I read a post over at Blue House Academy reminding everyone about the eIditarod Project and how registration begins January 9th (Toward the end of her post, she provides a link to the other posts she's written on this subject).

The Iditarod is a 1,000+ mile dog sled race across Alaska. As a teacher or homeschooling parent, you can sign up for the eIditarod Project in which you learn about the race, make a course map, choose a musher to follow and then (during the actual race in March) track your musher through the checkpoints to the end (online).

Fascinating! Needless to say, we are all signed up for the project (it's free) and hope to start on our map soon. Here are the links you will need to get started if you're interested.

Recent Blue House Academy Iditarod Post (and link to her posts about participating in the project last year- very helpful)

The eIditarod Project

The Official Iditarod website (including teacher resources, etc.)

Thanks, Kellie, for cluing us in!! Pin It

A Must: Roasted Vegetables

Not only do we have a freezer and a pantry full of canned food to use up before summer, we have food stashed in crates all over the house.

There are sweet potatoes wrapped in newspaper in crates in our office upstairs. There are crates of apples under the shelves in the pantry. There are yet more crates of carrots, butternut squash and potatoes in the outer mud room.

One of the best ways to use the crated vegetables is to roast them. I'm going to tell you how to do it. There's no real recipe here. Don't be concerned about that. You can do it.

Peel and chop raw vegetables (carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, onions, etc.) into 1 inch cubes. Place them in a large bowl and drizzle them with olive oil until well-coated. Now, add a generous amount of salt, freshly ground black pepper and what ever herbs you love (dried or fresh in these combinations- oregano & basil, thyme & rosemary, parsley by itself). Stir it well to give all the vegetables a good coating of herbs. Now, spread them out in a single layer on greased cookie sheets. Roast them in the oven at 375 degrees until a knife inserted in the largest pieces glides in easily and before the edges get dark brown, about 30-40 minutes. Midway through the cooking time, turn them over a bit.

This tastes so good on cold, blustery days. The vegetables taste sweet and soft. Oh! Don't forget to take one or two of your garlic bulbs, chop off the top (so you can see into the tops of the cloves, leaving the bulb together), sprinkle it with salt, wrap it in foil and lay it on a rack in your oven to roast while you roast the veggies. Spread the soft, mild and sweet roasted garlic on bread or the vegetables themselves. Pin It

The Kitchen Towel Wars

Jamey and I get along very well. We occasionally have little disagreements, but we air our different perspectives and move on pretty quickly. Once in a while we have a doozy of a disagreement.

Now, let me define disagreement for you. Disagreement can mean that two people think differently on a subject. It can also mean, as it does here, that one person disagrees with how another person does something. Is that still a disagreement? Let's just say that it is.

Jamey is the easiest person to live with. I haven't lived with that many people, but that's beside the point. I can't imagine anyone would be easier to live with and get along with. Me on the other hand, I can be kind-of difficult occasionally. It's important for me to have certain things a certain way at times. I've let go of a lot over the years (thank you, Jesus). I used to be much more particular. But, even though I've learned to relax quite a bit there are still some things that I need just so and I am holding on to these last few things with white knuckles.

Just ask Jamey.

For example...one of the things I happen to be pretty particular about (still) are our kitchen towels. Go figure. It is my belief that two towels should hang on the oven door. One to dry hands. One to dry dishes. The one to dry hands with should be kept closest to the sink and should be thicker. The one for dishes should be a thinner towel and be farther from the sink. Simple. Makes perfect sense...to me.

So, over the years, I've tried to convey this need of mine for order (and let's face it, probably control) to my dear husband. He has made a valiant effort, I must say, to please me. The problem is, he often forgets my logic and therefore gets confused when he has to make a decision about the kitchen towels. I am sure visions of me sputtering and fussing come to mind every time he looks at or touches a kitchen towel. No wonder he sometimes confuses my logic and gets it wrong.

The other day, the issue came up again and I just about lost it. I felt bad for him, bad for me, stumped as to why we couldn't (in all our 12 years of tackling all sorts of marital issues and coming out together on top every time) put this issue to rest.

A list!

Why did I not think of this before? It's how all problems should be solved. Jamey just laughed (probably out of disbelief) as I ran to the living room to look up online how to spell 'etiquette' and start my list of kitchen towel guidelines. Here's what I was thinking. If Jamey is in doubt, he can open the cupboard near the oven (where the guidelines would be taped inside) and check to see what he should do.

Do you think I'm terrible? Do you think I am the worst wife and person ever? I promise...this is about the worst thing I EVER do to him.

Here's me writing frantically. He took my picture and I said, "What are you doing that for?" He replied that he wasn't sure but something about how he could use the photo to commiserate with the other in-laws in my family.


And here's the list.


Think what you will about me (and Jamey for putting up with me). I feel so much better. Now this issue will never ever come up again.

Right? Pin It