Hog Maw Cabbage Rolls

Here is the story of I came up with this meal.  One night I was laying in bed thinking about what was going to be for dinner tomorrow.  (This has been my best strategy of late.  Planning dinner in bed the night before. It has really been working for me! I have time to mull over my options, think about what we have available, toy with a few different ideas... I can get out of bed to soak beans if I have to, or plan to soak them right when I get up... I can even make a last minute run to the store the next day if I need/ want to!)

I was listing all the available ingredients on hand in my head: "I really need to use up that cabbage, what could I do with it?  I could saute it, but what would we have with it?  What else do we have?  Oh, I bought a pound of meat the other day at the store.  What can I do with cabbage and meat? Well, I could make cabbage rolls, I guess.  They weren't a big hit last time... hmm, what can I do to make them more interesting?  We have potatoes... potatoes mixed with beef sausage makes yummie hog maw... I wonder if i could stuff cabbage leaves with the same filling?  Ok, let's go for it.  I will try it tomorrow."

The next day as I was planning my approach to this meal, I called my MIL to get her hog maw stuffing recipe (which really comes from her mom...) Basically, it's onions, potatoes and beef sausage all mixed together. Okay.  But I only have ground beef.  Must find beef sausage recipe.

Online I found a page with all kinds of beef sausage recipes.  I didn't really like any of them better than the others, so I used them as a basis and came up with my own seasoning recipe.

On to the sauce.  Will I use a tomato sauce in which to cook the cabbage? Yes.  Basic spaghetti sauce recipe.  

Once I figured out all the separate components to the recipe, it was time to actually put it all together.  Here's what happened:

Hog Maw Inspired Cabbage Rolls
1 lb ground beef
2 medium white or red potatoes
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1+ tsp. salt
3/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp mace (if you don't have it, just leave it out, or use 1-2 shakes nutmeg)
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp fennel seeds

24-28 oz crushed tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic
1 TBS olive oil
2 TBS chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper

cabbage leaves

Cube the potatoes (1/2 inch cubes). Dice the onion (small dice). Mix first 10 ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Heat olive oil. Press or dice garlic and saute until fragrant, 30 seconds.  Add tomatoes, basil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep tomato sauce warmed on the stove. Assemble cabbage rolls: put about 1/8- 1/4 cup of the meat/potato mixture into the cabbage leaf.  Roll it up and put it in a 9x13 pan.  Repeat until the mix is gone and the pan is full.  Spoon sauce over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 300* for 1 1/2-2 hours.

Cabbage rolls are special because there is no way to get uniform ones!  Some of mine were really tiny and some were huge!  I just tried to fit as many in a row as possible and then when space got cramped in the pan I wedged them wherever I could.

My kids and my husband all gave this recipe rave reviews.  I will DEFINITELY be making this again!

Homemade Barbeque Sauce

The other day I wanted to make some grilled chicken, and add some pizzazz. I usually just grill the chicken... but I felt that would be boring this particular evening.  I thought of barbeque sauce because we were also having potato wedges and Chris and the kids love to dip their fries in barbeque sauce.

Again, I 'poked around on the internet' meaning, I googled "homemade barbeque sauce" and clicked on the first one.

I modified it, mostly because I didn't have enough ketchup to make the original recipe. (And also because it has WAY too much sugar for our family.) And I don't have red wine vinegar.

Here's what I came up with:

Homemade Barbeque Sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup honey
3 TBS- 1/4 cup molasses
Generous TBS Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp ground mustard
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Whisk all ingredients together. Put on whatever you want!  Yum.

We really liked this.  Chris said if I hadn't mentioned it, he would have assumed it came from the store.  :-) I will definitely be making this again.

Zucchini Ice Cream

Zucchini is always so abundant in the summertime!  I struggle with making it fun to eat.  And to use it in creative ways.  Recently, I have wanted to make everything into ice cream.  I think it is because I have a great, wonderful, delicious vanilla ice cream recipe that I can use as a base and safely add almost anything I want. (I'll let Chris come up with something un-appetizing to add to ice cream.  He's always good at that. :-)

Here is my zucchini all grated up and my homemade vanilla in an old frank's bottle.  and some vanilla spilled on the counter.  :-)

My vision was zucchini bread as ice cream.  I love zucchini bread and I love ice cream.  and I love eating them together.  So, this must be a perfect match!

I came up with my recipe by poking around a bit on the internet. (Actually, I googled "zucchini ice cream" and clicked on the first link that came up.) I looked at the recipe, took away what I needed to know, and came up with my very own version.

Zucchini Ice Cream
1 egg yolk
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1 TBS arrowroot, tapioca starch or cornstarch
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup (or so) zucchini
2 TBS alcohol (I used brandy, and I quite like the pairing with the cinnamon and raisins.)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup raisins

Mix all ingredients except zucchini and raisins. add in zucchini and raisins.  pour into ice cream freezer.  stand impatiently by until it is finished. (or go read something, or do the dishes, nurse the baby, etc.)

One note about the alcohol-- you don't have to use it; it is to help the ice cream stay soft in the freezer.  You know how store-bought ice cream stays all soft and homemade gets hard as a rock?  Well, they put anti-freeze in ice cream to help it stay soft!  Alcohol does the same thing. And I personally would choose it any day over anti-freeze.  :-)

Things I would do differently: grate zucchini finer, use smaller raisins.  or maybe currants.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tacos and Rice Pudding

Okay, I did some number crunching tonight after dinner because I was wondering if dessert would actually end up being more expensive than dinner!  Here's what I found: 

Chicken Tacos
1 Chicken Breast (from a whole chicken roasted yesterday)-- 3.00
1 cup chopped Spinach-- 0.85
1/2 cup stonyfield yogurt-- 0.40
24 tortillas

• 4 cups sprouted whole wheat flour-- 1.00
• 2 TBS organic palm shortening-- 0.20
• 1 tsp Real salt-- 0.02
• 2 tsp baking powder-- 0.20

1 Pepper-- 1.25
1 onion-- 0.75
1 cup uncooked rice (I actually cooked 2 cups, and used the rest for dessert...)-- 1.00
Total: 8.67

Rice Pudding
3 cups cooked rice-- 1.00
3 cups raw milk-- 1.32
2/3 cup organic raisins-- .56
1/3 cup maple syrup-- 1.50
Vanilla-- gift
1/2 tsp cinnamon-- 0.12
2 eggs-- .60
Total: 5.10

So, it turns out dinner was more expensive than dessert!  Also, there is enough rice pudding leftover for tomorrow night, so that's about $2.55 per dessert.

The chicken was roasted yesterday and then we used the leftover chicken for dinner tonight.  Also, I will make 4 quarts of broth out of the bones.  The chicken cost 12.00 for an organic whole chicken. I figured 3.00 for dinner last night, 3.00 for dinner tonight and then 1.50 per quart of broth I will make.  Not bad for one chicken.

Also, I was excited to find out how cheap it is to make tortillas!  $1.42!!! We only ate about half of the tortillas tonight and I will use the rest for lunches during the week.  They are cheaper than the bread I make because of the oil and honey in the bread. 

Okay, this has been another episode what things cost at Janet's house.  Thanks for playing! (Or, at least.... reading... )   :-P

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies

As some of you may already know, I have quite a history with oatmeal and breakfast. :-)

Well, it happened again that I had two separate days of leftover oatmeal in my fridge-- totaling about three cups of cooked oatmeal.  I wanted to serve the leftover oatmeal and make it a little more exciting for the kids.  (Also, Sam requested cookies for breakfast.)

It wasn't perfect, but the cookies turned out well. I will give the recipe that I would use again in the future if I choose to make oatmeal cookies for breakfast again. Which, I can say that I will probably do.  Who doesn't like cookies?  Even Ellie woke up asking about the cookies we were promised for breakfast.

Only two left from the first 17 that came out of the oven...

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies
3 cups leftover oatmeal (mine had all the fixin's and sugar in that I usually apply to oatmeal)
1 1/2 cups flour (mine was sprouted wheat)
1/4 cup sugar (more if your oatmeal isn't pre-sweetened like mine)
1 egg
6 TBS butter or coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla (I used Laura's homemade vanilla that someone made me for Christmas!)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
other things like raisins, coconut, chocolate chips, hemp seeds,... (use your imagination!)

melt the butter and mix with the sugar.  add everything else and stir until combined.  drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie trays.  bake until golden brown at peaks, 10-15 minutes.

Pitas with PIctures

Hello,

Back in December, I shared my long lost pita recipe with you.  By long, lost, I mean I lost it on the internet.  :-) 

Bowl of pita dough

Anyway, I made some yesterday and they ALL PUFFED UP!  I am so pumped to have this recipe.  It is so easy and I like it as an alternative to bread in loaves. 

6 rolled out, 6 awaiting rolling, my rolling pin with the thickness bands, and my 1/4 cup of water for the oven

I also discovered if I cook them on my pizza sheets, I can get all 12 pitas in the oven at once!  You know what that means... doubling the recipe takes almost no time at all. 

All puffy

I have discovered it is all about how thick they are that makes them puff.  I was rolling them too thin before, and thus they were not puffing.  I started using my handy rolling pin bands, so I can't roll them out thinner than a 1/4" thick.

Pretty Pita Pocket!

One last comment about making pitas--Put 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the oven when you put the pitas in, to make it all steamy in there.  For some reason, pitas like that.  :-)

ps. did you see my tiny rolling pin?  I brought my two regular sized rolling pins to a cookie party in December, and I haven't gotten them back yet.  Guess I should work on that...

I Love Canning

Here is just one more reason I love canning. 

The other day, I had no idea what to make for dinner.  I was already four o'clock and I couldn't thaw anything.  I needed something quick! 

First I peeked at my food log calendar-- the calendar that hangs in my kitchen and on which I write what we eat for dinner every day.  I'm not a great plan-a-menu ahead person-- you all may have figured that out by now-- but I do like to have a record of what we ate.  This helps so much on days just like this day when I was unprepared and needed to think of something but couldn't think.  I just used a meal that I made before.  (I usually try to make something that I made more than two weeks ago, so my family isn't grumbling at me--- Lentil Shepard's Pie AGAIN??!?)...

I found it-- butternut squash soup, biscuits, applesauce.  Perfect.  Then, I went to my cabinet and grabbed:

Canned chicken stock, canned crookneck squash and canned applesauce! While the soup was cooking, my little helper and I made some quick baking powder biscuits (using sprouted wheat flour!) and I even used my cast iron griddle for a cookie sheet-- no clean up!  Yes!

ps. two cooking tips are hidden in this post!  Get a food log calendar!  And use cast iron cookware for quick, easy (sometimes little or no) clean-up.

pps. Here is my butternut squash soup recipe (more or less) in case you are interested.  I used to look up recipes for this soup but by now it has kind of morphed into it's own thing.


Butternut Squash Soup
about 4 cups butternut squash
about 4 cups chicken (or beef or turkey) stock
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp kelp powder (Salty, also has iodine, since our salt doesn't)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
two shakes or less red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of milk, or cream (if using cream, it will come out creamy using less, too-- one time I only had about 3TBS cream and it was still delicious!)

place all ingredients except cream/milk in stock pot.  heat to boil. reduce to simmer. use immersion blender to make smooth.  taste and adjust seasonings.  add cream.  serve. 

Homemade Butter

This evening I will be sharing a project that Chris actually undertook and completed while I was out of town. He bought the supplies, took the pictures, and shared the results.  I get to write the post.  :-)

As we have been reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (I mentioned this in my kombucha post), we have been more convinced and convicted to really get back to the roots of our food.  We want to prepare our food from the most natural state in which it comes.  The least processed.  And prepare it in the most nourishing way.  Usually that ends up being the most 'traditional' way.

While I was gone today, Chris made butter.  mmmm.

Here's how it all went down.  He started with two quarts of organic heavy whipping cream from a local yogurt maker, Seven Stars Farm.  We actually drove out to the farm earlier this week, but the cream is only available on Tuesdays at the farm.  Luckily, Kimberton Whole Foods carries it!  It would be great to get raw cream and make raw butter, but the sale of raw butter is illegal in PA!

Next, take the cream and dump it into a (the AWESOME Kitchen Aid that Chris got me for Christmas) food processor .  Process it using the metal blade for about a minute-- until the butterfat separates from the buttermilk.

Then, take it out of the food processor, and separate the buttermilk from the butter.  Pour it into a mesh strainer and squish it in with your hands to get as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible.  Then rinse it in water. (Look at how beautiful and yellow it is!!! No extra food coloring here.)

From the mesh strainer, put it in a clean cloth and squeeze it to get the last bits of buttermilk out of the butter.  The buttermilk will spoil the butter, and that's why it's important to get as much out as possible. Rinsing with water also helps.

Finally, when you are satisfied that there was no more buttermilk in the butter, form it into a pretty ball.  :-)  and take a picture.

So, we didn't weigh the butter at the end of this, but Chris guesses that each quart of heavy cream made about 12oz. of butter. Here's the finished product:

We also bought some raw milk last week.  We let the cream separate from the milk, skimmed it off and Chris made butter out of that.  We got about 2 1/2 cups of cream from a gallon of milk, and that made about 4oz. So now, we have about 28oz. of homemade, delicious butter. Yum!

Kombucha!!

Have you ever heard of kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented drink made using tea and sugar and a starter, called a scoby.  Scoby stands for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts."  Here is a little blurb about kombucha that I found at seedsofhealth website.

A couple of months ago, my mother in law gave me a kombucha scoby.  I made it once, it didn't ferment quite like it was supposed to-- when properly fermented, it gets slightly effervescent-- and I just kept putting off brewing tea to make it.  Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas have passed, and I am trying all kinds of new things in the kitchen (and also on my sewing machine!), I made time to brew some more tea to make some more kombucha.  (You would think, as I drink tea multiple times throughout the day, that I would not have to 'make time' for this.  And really, I didn't.  I was just telling myself I would have to make all this time for it and thus putting it off and putting it off... ANYway...)

Making kombucha at home could not be easier.  Seriously.  And, if you already know about this stuff and how good it is, and you already have a craving desire for it, let me save you some (a lot of) money!  Get a kombucha scoby!  I can share mine with you, if you want and you are in the area.

Ok, so here is how I have been making mine, which method I got from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  (Great, awesome book, with lots of information and TONS of recipes covering all types of food.)  I seriously recommend this book to anyone who is serious about their health and crazy enough to think outside the conventional-food-available box.  :-)

Am I rambling a lot this evening, or is it just me?

Back to the recipe...

Kombucha
One scoby
1/2 cup of kombucha from another batch
2 tea bags
1/2 cup white sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
2 quarts of water
1/2 gallon jar

boil the water.  add the tea bags and the sugar.  stir until sugar is dissolved. let tea brew until it has completely cooled. pour tea, scoby, and kombucha into the glass jar.  cover with a cloth (and I put a rubber band around the top). leave on the counter 1 week- 3 weeks, until the kombucha is tasty and has bubbles around the edges. 

My latest batch of Kombucha-- you can see the scoby floating around in there. Actually there are two 'mushrooms' that have separated...

After a week or so on the counter, a new 'mushroom' should start forming on top of your kombucha.  It IS creepy, and looks slimy, but it is good!  It means your kombucha is working! Start tasting the kombucha, and when it tastes good to you (the longer you let it sit, the more vinegary the flavor will be), then it is ready to drink. 

You can brew another batch right away and use the scoby over again right away or store it in the fridge, with some kombucha for awhile.  Mine was in there for almost two months and it still worked when I used it this month. :-) I don't know if I will be storing mine in the fridge anymore, anyway, since the entire 2 quarts of kombucha was gone in two days at my house. 

Why drink this strange weird drink? Well, for one it tastes delicious.  It has a bit of bubbly-ness that is reminiscent of when I used to drink soda.  Also, it is packed full of B vitamins and other things like antioxidants and even more things that I don't know about because I honestly haven't looked up ALL the health benefits. :-)

Also, it's super cute to have your almost two year old say, "More kombucha, please, Mommy." :-)

Oatmeal Pudding

For the last two weeks or so I have been craving warm vanilla soother.  I made this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers last year and it was so delicious and warm and comforting.  mmm.

However, the recipe calls for quite a bit of milk and eggs and I know my kids will just drink it down in two seconds and then want more.  Or something else. Or both.  Oiy.  So, I wanted to bulk it up a bit, that it might hold their tummies for at least a little while.

I made the warm vanilla soother recipe, (but only with three egg yolks because that's all we had), and I added one cup of oatmeal to it while it was cooking.  It ended up like warm vanilla soother oatmeal pudding.  Yum.  It was delicious.  :-)

Check out that yummie food!

But still, I did not want to make it very often because it really used up so much of my milk and eggs and also, even with the oatmeal added, the kids ate the whole thing and were still asking for more.  How can I tweak this recipe so that it is still yummie and creamy like pudding but still uses less eggs and milk?  Here is what I came up with:

Watch how I can eat it!

Oatmeal Pudding
3 cups water or milk
1 or 2 TBS yogurt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 ripe mashed bananas
2 TBS ground flax (or you could add two eggs, or one egg and one TBS flax)
honey to taste (i think i added about 1/3 cup)
vanilla to taste (about 1 tsp)
cinnamon to taste (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)

the night before, put the water/milk, yogurt and oatmeal in a pan and stir it up.  cover it and leave it to soak overnight. in the morning, mash the bananas, and add the bananas, flax, honey, cinnamon and vanilla to the pan. cook over medium heat until it is nice and creamy.  stir frequently if you used eggs to make sure they don't scramble in your oatmeal-- gross! add more milk if you want it more creamy.  (i added 1/2 cup milk while cooking)

Yum, yum. :-)

Okay, so what would I do differently the next time I made this?  I would probably use one egg and 1 TBS flax and soak the oatmeal using at least 1 cup milk for added creaminess. And that's it.  I will definitely be making this creamy oatmeal pudding for breakfast again, and often. :-)

Pita Bread Recipe!

One time, long ago, I made pitas and they turned out perfectly!  I was thrilled to make them and they actually puffed up in the oven all by themselves! Then, I lost the recipe for hmm, over a year or so to the interwebs.  just couldn't find it. until, .... TODAY!!!

And I will share it with you, and myself, so I can find it again soon.  Because I love homemade pitas!!

Make sure you only roll them out to 1/4".  I used my handy rolling pin spacers that my husband got me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) a year or two ago!  I was rolling mine too thin all those times I tried to make pitas and ended up with thick tortillas instead. 

Also, I took the suggestion of the first commenter, and added a 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the oven for each batch of pitas I put in.  I only baked them for 4 minutes at around 500*.  They were great.  mmmm.  You better believe I will be dreaming of warm homemade pitas tonight!  :-)

Lentil Shepard's Pie

The other day I was wanting to eat Shepard's pie.  However, I didn't really want to make a meat based one, because we had had meat the last two or three days in a row.  I really wanted this comfort food, but was trying to figure out how to make it vegetarian.  I thought, what about lentils?  (I make a killer "Sloppy Sam's" using lentils!)  Lentils are very high in protein, but rather inexpensive to buy.  I happened to have some, and we had not eaten them for awhile. That being said, I googled, "Lentil Shepard's Pie." 

Here is the recipe I found and everyone really enjoyed it.  Sam, my picky one ate his whole bowl the first night (But wouldn't touch it the next day for lunch.)

I changed the recipe just a bit.  Cut up a carrot and cooked it with the lentils. (Make sure you add the carrot right at the beginning of the cooking, because I didn't and then the carrots were not quite cooked.) I used earth balance instead of butter and unsweetened coconut milk instead of milk.  I left out the thyme and added about a 1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce.  Then I sprinkled peas on top of the lentil layer instead of corn. 

I really enjoyed this lentil Shepard's pie recipe and I will definitely make it again.  Also, I want to try the 'black bean burgers' and the 'simple french lentil soup' recipe listed on this site.

Menu Plan... Kind of!

Hey, everyone!

I have finally come up with somewhat of a menu plan for the next week or so.  I had to go to the store, and I wanted to make sure I bought lots of fruits and veggies-- but also ones that I would use up in the next week or week and a half.  I didn't want to just buy veggies all "willy-nilly" and then not know what to do with them or never end up using them before they went bad!

So, here's the list of meals that I came up with to eat in the next week.

• Lentil Shepard's Pie (recipe coming tomorrow!) 
• Split Pea Burgers and spaghetti squash
• Spaghetti and Salad
• Vegetable soup
• Baked Beans with sweet potatoes and broccoli
• Indian Cauliflower and Potatoes with Indian veggie patties
• Bean soup 
• Pizza
• Farfalle with Broccoli

Yay!  This whole list is vegetarian.  Allright, I lied a bit.  The broccoli farfalle has anchovies.  :-) 

Pumpkin Scones

I made these pumpkin scones yesterday, and I think they are delicious!  I didn't even put the glazes on them and I cut the sugar almost in half. (just 1/4 cup!) Also, I used unsweetened coconut milk instead of half and half and 2/3 coconut oil and 1/3 butter.

Ellie calls them pumpkin pie. 

When we got back from the Nutcracker last night, we ate them for dessert-- one that would hold us over since we had eaten dinner so early. I drizzled a bit of warm honey on them and we all ate them right up. 

So, if you are in need of a pumpkin scone recipe, I would recommend checking this one out!

Applesauce Pie

A few weeks ago, I had no idea what was for lunch, and it was already lunch time!  I was in the mood for something different, and I thought of apple pie.  But, to make a whole apple pie and then bake it would not work for eating at lunch.  I tried a recipe I just thought up while we were making it, using things from the fridge, cabinets and fruit basket.  It turned out too sweet.  But we enjoyed it nonetheless.  I would definitely make this again, but it would have to be about half as sweet for me. 

First assemble three crazy helpers

First, we started with the crust.  This is where most of the over-sweetness was.  I will have to think of something other than dates to hold this crust together.  Or maybe see if less dates would work.  We used 1 cup of nuts, about 3/4 cup of dates, about a tablespoon of coconut oil and 1/2 cup of oats for the crust.  Just whiz it up in the food processor. 

Make sure to cover your ears while the food processor is on!

Next for the filling, we cut up three apples (I would do four or five next time!) and chopped them in the food processor also.  Then I added 2 TBS chia seeds, 1/2 cup of water and about 1 cup applesauce to a bowl and let it sit for a bit.  When you put chia seeds in water they kind of make a gel, which is what I was going for.  This is where the other extra sweetness came in-- we had sweetened applesauce that someone had given us leftover from Thanksgiving.  I put the apples into the pie crust and then the applesauce mix, but next time I would stir them all together before dumping it in the crust. 

The chia seed mixture

Finally, we let it chill in the refrigerator until it was time to eat.

As I said before, this was good, but it was too sweet.  I would try this again with less dates in the crust (and more nuts to replace them) and unsweetened applesauce. 

I am really interested in using chia seeds as a thickener, especially to make pudding like foods.  I hope to have more experimenting on this soon!

Crust:
1/2 cup dates
1- 1 1/2 cups nuts
3/4 cups oats
1 TBS coconut oil

blend together in the food processor.  press into pie pan.

Filling:
4-5 apples chopped in food processor
1+ tsp cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
2 TBS chia seeds
1/2 cup water

mix all ingredients in a bowl. dump into pie crust.  let the pie set up and/or chill before you eat it.  mmmm. 

ps.  now that I'm looking at this last picture it could really use some crumbly oat topping!

A Sandwich!

Now, I have to start off this post by telling you, I had nothing to do with the invention of this sandwich.  I can take no credit.  It was all Chris.

Some of you may remember Chris' last sandwich experiment.

I would venture to say this one is ten times better!  :-)

One night, the kids were getting to bed late, and we had eaten dinner early, so I made them a snack (mostly so the three year old wouldn't wake at 5:30 screaming he was hungry.  This has happened before, and it's not pretty.).  I made almond butter and banana sandwiches on potato rolls we had leftover from something.  While I was making them, I was thinking,  "Man, it HAS been awhile since we have eaten, and I am hungry too!"  So, I decided to make myself and Chris sandwiches too.

I mentioned this to Chris who leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Only if it has Reese's  Peanut Butter Cups on it!" The man is a genius.  And they were delicious!

Quick Lunch

The other day, I had NO IDEA what we were going to eat for lunch.  I could not fall back on the good 'ole peanut(almond)-butter-and-jelly because we didn't have any bread.  I had not been to the store in who-knows-how-long because I have just been avoiding it because I have not had a menu plan in place for weeks and I am in denial that my kitchen spirals out of control with no direction when I do not have a menu plan which I do not have and the kitchen is spiraling even at this moment.

but i digress.

Anyway, as I was bathing the kids (we spent the morning in the garden-- pulling out brussels sprouts!) I was scouring my brain to think of something to have.  In the end, I was just pulling things from the fridge and the cabinets, hoping it would come together into some semblance of food my children might like.  Here's what happened:

Garlic-Butter Spaghetti with Lemon-Tuna Salad
The spaghetti was easy: 
1/2 lb spaghetti
2 cloves garlic
4 TBS butter

Melt the butter, press in and saute the garlic, toss with spaghetti. 

The Salad:
1 can tuna
Small can sliced black olives
1/2 green pepper, diced to desired size
1 tomato, seeded and diced to desired size
Lemon juice

Mix the first four ingredients.  Toss with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.  I probably used about 2 TBS lemon juice, but I can't be sure.

I think it turned out pretty well.  I served the spaghetti with a spoon of the salad on top, but just mixed it all together as I was eating it.  Ben had two helpings, Sam had to be forced to eat (this is not unusual at our house), and Ellie-- well I think this picture sums up what she thought:

Cucumbers!

 This weekend, I came into the possession of some cucumbers:

DO YOU EVEN SEE HOW MANY THERE ARE HERE?!!?

Chris' grandfather has a garden (and grows a bit more than he needs...)  so, he gave us some while we were visiting this weekend.  I already made a batch of pickles with six pounds of these babies, and I didn't even use half of them!  I am so excited to have cucumbers to make pickles that we can enjoy for the rest of the year.  I think I will make another batch tomorrow.  We'll see.  Any ideas for cucumbers?

I juiced one with four kale leaves and a carrot this morning for my breakfast. The kids resoundingly rejected it. :-)

Recipe to make pickles
Taken from the book Stocking Up
6 pounds of cucumbers
1 gallon of 5% brine (3/4 c. salt per gallon)
2 cups vinegar
1/4 cup salt
3 cups water
2 teaspoons pickling spice
2 teaspoons mustard seeds per quart
2 cloves garlic per quart
handful dill per quart

cut up the cucumbers into the size pickles you want and soak them in the brine over night.  the next day, combine the vinegar, salt, water and pickling spice in a pan and bring to a boil.  i put the spices in a tea ball so you don't have to strain the liquid. sterilize five quart jars, rings and lids. pack the jars with the mustard seeds, garlic, dill and (of course!) the cucumbers. fill jars with the vinegar water to 1/2 inch headspace. process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.


Today, I am grateful for cucumbers, and people who share them.  :-)

join us at heavenlyhomemakers.com for gratitudesday!

Zucchini... Series, Part IV

I used my zucchini in a new and exciting way tonight for dinner! 

New to this series?  Check out the rest here, here, and here. :-)

Ok, so the actual prep on the zucchini itself is not a new concept.  But the combination of ingredients was weird and different, and... good!  So I will share it with you. 

Here is what I stacked on our plates for dinner tonight, starting from the bottom, going up.

Breaded, pan fried zucchini
Leftover pasta tossed in leftover vegan alfredo sauce (that's a post for another day!)
A slice of tomato
A fried egg

Let me tell you, it was definitely a weird combo, with the egg on top, but I thought the zucchini, pasta and tomato needed something.  And we like eggs.  And it just seemed to fit.  And, it did!  The flavors went really well together, and the three 'serious' eaters in the house (my husband, myself, and Benjamin) ate all of ours, and liked it. 

Do you have a new and exciting way to prepare zucchini? Please share!  I still have seven in my fridge! :-)

Zucchini... Series, Part III

Wondering what to do with all that zucchini?  Catch up on my other posts here and here!

Zucchini Patties -- These were inspired by this recipe for corn fritters. We ate them with our hands, but you could even serve them as a hamburger replacement-- on buns, with all the fixin's!
1 medium zucchini, shredded
1 cup (about) coarse bread crumbs (I used bread I had on hand and cut it into tiny pieces)
(1 egg) -- again, I would have used it if I'd had one!
1 1/2 cups millet flour, masa harina, or corn meal
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 tsp salt
garlic powder
-- beat the egg. mix the zucchini, bread crumbs and egg together.  mix the flour, water, salt and garlic powder together. this is where it gets messy. scoop out some zucchini mix with your hand (about an ice cream scoop's worth) and plop it into the flour mix.  then turn it over in the flour mix to coat the other side. then plop it into a heated cast iron skillet with some oil or palm shortening covering the bottom of the pan. flatten the blob into a patty looking shape. fry until golden brown and flip. fry the other side until golden brown.
-- this is messy.  don't say I didn't warn ya!  But it is good.  everyone liked them, and gobbled them all up!