Sunday, February 27, 2011
Menu Plan: February 27 - March 5
We have another countdown as well: Amira is counting down the days to her birthday. And telling us what she wants.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Cereal and Milk, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Baked Ham, Scalloped Potatoes & Rutabagas, Blackberry Cobbler - Monday
Breakfast: Leftover Blackberry Cobbler
Dinner: Sliced Ham and Biscuits, Sliced Apples - Tuesday
Breakfast: Poached Eggs on Hash, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Split Pea Soup (with the ham bone), Kamut Rolls, Pots de Creme - Wednesday
Breakfast: Kamut Toast with Almond Butter and Honey, Orange Slices, Milky Tea
Dinner: Potato, Onion and Herb Frittata with Feta Cheese, Spelt Rolls, Orange Slices - Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Red Beans and Rice - Friday
Breakfast: Cappuccino Muffins, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Eggs in Purgatory, Olive-Herb Cheese Bread - Saturday
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Toast, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Neighborhood Game and Chili Night, we are bringing Corn Bread
Bought:
Bacon
Labels: Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Tales from the Kitchen
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Weekly Recipes: February 26
So, I found this recipe online, changed it a bunch and made it a lot of different times and ways and here is what I've finally come up with and like the best.
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1/4 cup softened butter + more for pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
cornmeal or semolina
Mix together water, milk, honey and salt. Add 2 cups flour and yeast. Mix until you have a loose batter. Cover and let rise for about an hour. Add butter and remaining flour. Mix well and let rise again for about an hour. Sprinkle in baking soda and mix well.
Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Roll dough out on a surface sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina until dough is about 1/2 an inch thick. Cut out with a biscuit cutter or glass to make circles. Melt butter in pan and fry until muffins and browned and puffy. Turn once and cook on the other side. Repeat until all muffins are cooked.
Eat hot or cool and eat. Split with a fork and spread with something delicious.
Blackberry Cobbler
We're not in blackberry season yet (and out here, there isn't the abundance of blackberries we had west of the Cascades), but if you have some in the freezer, you can still make this. You don't even have to thaw the berries.
12 cups blackberries
3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your blackberries are - unless we froze them ourselves, I use the one cup when using frozen)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon (if you can get your hands on Ceylon cinnamon, use that)
3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup buttermilk
vanilla sugar to sprinkle over top
Use a huge pan. I use an 11 X 15 inch pan. I mix the berries, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon all in the pan, there is no need for another bowl.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F while you make the biscuit cobblestones for the top.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Rub butter pieces into flour until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with pea to lima bean sized bits of butter coated in flour dispersed throughout. Stir in buttermilk and knead slightly to form a cohesive dough. Pat out on a floured surface to about 1/2 an inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or a glass to cut the dough into cobbles, reshaping dough as necessary, but handling as little as possible. Layer the cobbles over the blackberries and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until cobbles are browned and risen and the blackberries are bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or chantilly cream.
Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen
Monday, February 21, 2011
FO: Amira's Socks
Amira wanted them finished by the time she was out of the shower last night. Sadly, that was not to be. However, they were finished before the night was through. This morning, when I showed her the finished socks, she immediately put them on and we took some photos. The one above is with her jeans hiked up to show off her socks. This next one was with her sitting with toes pointed, little ballerina she is.
Labels: Family, FOs, Homemaking, Knitting
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Menu Plan: February 20 - February 26
Amira is busy counting down to her birthday, which is the second day of Lent. Her birthday is the last possible date for Ash Wednesday in any year. However, she has figured that in two years her birthday will fall on a Sunday so everyone will be able to break the fast with her. Elijah's birthday is already a feast day and there is a party scheduled for that day this year with our homeschool co-op, so he'll get that, too.
Since Rich actually has Monday off, we will be having a bigger family breakfast. He so rarely gets to eat a real breakfast anyway, let alone with us. It's usually something he packs to eat at some point at work. He's also been pretty sick with a cold this past week, so having a three day weekend to recuperate was not a bad thing. We haven't gotten a lot of the things we wanted to do finished this weekend, but all of us who were fighting the cold or who had it, got a lot of rest and fresh air.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Dutch Baby Pancake with Butter, Lemon Juice and Powdered Sugar, Yogurt with Assorted Fruit Jams, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Leftover Enchiladas, Rice and Black Beans, Sliced Oranges - Monday
Breakfast: Apple Upside Down Pancake, Mochas
Dinner: Black Bean and Chorizo Soup, Spelt Rolls - Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Slow Baked Chuck Roast, Winter Squash, Roasted Rutabaga Wedges - Wednesday
Breakfast: English Muffins* with Almond Butter and Honey, Dried Figs, Milky Tea
Dinner: Vegetables Jalfrezi (using the vegetables we have on hand and garbanzo beans), Herbed Cous Cous - Thursday
Breakfast: Toast with Feta Cheese, Za'atar and Olive Oil, Sliced Oranges, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken, Sesame-Garlic Green Beans, Sesame Noodles - Friday
Breakfast: Giant Breakfast Cookies (we use nuts or raisins), Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter with Pasta and Parmesan, Onions, Olive-Herb Cheese Bread - Saturday
Breakfast: Cinnamon Apple Waffles, Sausage Patties, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Pepperoni, Pineapple, Onion, Olive Pizza, Blackberry Cobbler*
Bought:
Blackberries (frozen from Azure Standard)
Mozzarella
Milk
Labels: Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Tales from the Kitchen
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Weekly Recipes: February 19
Bolognese Sauce
This is what Chef Boyardee wishes it could be. It's what he wants to be when he grows up. The bonus is that you can make this in larger quantities and freeze the excess, so you have the benefit of the convenience while still having good, homemade food. I got this recipe from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I love Marcella Hazan. You can never go wrong using her recipes. I modified this very, very slightly and only to accommodate what we usually have at home. We double this recipe to feed our family.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons butter, divided
1 small onion, minced
3 ribs celery, finely minced
2 carrots, scrubbed and finely minced
1 pound ground beef chuck or veal
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk
Whole nutmeg
1 cup dry white wine (chicken broth can be used in a pinch)
1 1/2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, torn into pieces, with juice
1 1/2 pounds pasta (preferably spaghetti)
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese at the table
Put oil, 4 tablespoons butter and chopped onion in a heavy bottomed pot and turn heat to medium. Cook and stir onion until it has become translucent, then add chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat well.
Add ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble meat, stir well and cook until beef has lost its raw, red color.
Add milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add about 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and stir. Add wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated.
Add tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. When tomatoes begin to bubble, turn heat down so that sauce cooks at the slowest simmer you can manage.
Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours or more, stirring from time to time. Start the pasta cooking in the last half hour of cooking the sauce. While the sauce is cooking, you might find that it will begin to dry out and the fat will separate from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup water as necessary (I use the pasta water, rinsing the can of tomatoes with it before putting it in the sauce). At the end of cooking, however, the water should be completely evaporated and the fat should separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
Add remaining tablespoon butter to the hot pasta and toss with the sauce.
Serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side
Crab Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce
This is my recreation of the dinner Rich and I had in Leavenworth. The restaurant very generously gave me the ingredient list and basic method and I worked out the rest to make for our anniversary. It is quick and easy to make. It is all about the ingredients. And it is delicious. This is a big treat for us, because we no longer live where crab is easily and inexpensively gotten. This serves four easily as a main course. More, if the people aren't so greedily hungry for crab.
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 cups heavy cream (get the least pasteurized, without thickeners if you can manage it, cream)
juice and zest of two lemons
1 teaspoon salt (kosher or sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine
1 pound Dungeness crab meat (you can use whatever crab meat you like, but we strongly prefer Dungeness)
Cook linguine in heavily salted, boiling water.
While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Stir in the heavy cream and heat until it bubbles a little and starts to thicken. Sprinkle in the lemon zest and juice along with the salt and pepper and stir to mix. You don't want the cream to boil or burn, so watch well, stir frequently and reduce heat if necessary.
Drain pasta and add to the pot with the lemon cream. Stir to coat. Add crab meat and mix just to heat the crab.
Taste for seasoning and adjust salt and pepper as you like. Serve immediately. Swoon. Use your bread to sop up the remaining sauce. Or just spoon it up like cream soup. It is that good.
Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Menu Plan: February 13 - February 19
Rich and I are going to get to celebrate Valentine's Day a little later this week with a crab dinner. We are always so desperate for good seafood around here, so this is a real treat for us. As St. Valentine was martyred for his work marrying Christians against the will of the emperor, it really is only a romantic holiday for married couples. The other major saints who share his feast day are Sts. Cyril and Methodius and we will be teaching on them with our children.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Dirty Eggs, Toast, Fruit Salad, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Snack Tray, Milk - Monday
Breakfast: Heart Shaped Toad in a Hole, Sliced Oranges, Mochas
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese, Salad, Garlic Bread, Butter Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting - Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Beer Bratwursts with Grilled Onions and Mustard, on Whole Wheat Buns with Roasted Rutabagas, Coconut Pudding - Wednesday
Breakfast: English Muffins with Almond Butter and Honey, Sliced Oranges, Milky Tea
Dinner: Creamy Potato Soup, Spelt Rolls - Thursday
Breakfast: Granola and Milk, Mint Tea with Honey
Dinner: Saucy Sour Cream Meatballs with Green Beans, Egg Noodles - Friday
Breakfast: Giant Breakfast Cookies, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Huevos Rancheros, Pineapple - Saturday
Breakfast: Blueberry Muffins, Fried Eggs, Sausage Patties, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Enchiladas Blancas, Tomato Rice, Black Beans
Bought:
Corn Tortillas
Oranges
Rutabagas
Olives
Labels: Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Tales from the Kitchen
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
The Goodness of God
I won all of this from Kat at A Good Appetite and the California Fig Advisory Board. In the package were about 12 pounds of Calmyrna and Black Mission figs, a t-shirt, a big market bag, a calendar with recipes, some promotional material, information and more recipes.
A little over a month ago, a neighbor brought over about 50 pounds each of some extra potatoes and onions he had. It's nice living in farm land.
Yesterday, our Fred Meyer rewards came which will give us about $85.27 in free groceries, plus 40% off of two items of clothing for men, women or children. Also in yesterday's mail were several coupons for diaper supplies.
I list all of these things because when we bought our big van, we decided to keep my mini-van, since I prefer driving it, instead of trading it in or selling it to buy the new van. This meant that, for the first time since we've been married, we had a loan for a car. It was a relatively small loan, but it meant an extra monthly payment nonetheless. We were determined not to get a loan, but between the uniqueness of this van (it had doors on both sides, like our minivan) and its necessity for our family and the fact that after we went to take a look and test drive, they called us with an offer that was about $6000 lower than they initially asked and which was lower than the blue book value, we decided to tighten our belts and get the loan and make an effort to pay it off as early as we can. We really don't like having debt on anything but our house, but we couldn't take trips together as a family without this van. Even to church. We would have needed to take two vehicles.
So, as we determined to buy as little as possible and use up the generous riches of our freezer and pantry, we found that God provided little extras for us anyway. We won't be buying potatoes or onions for quite a while. We have figs to last us for some time (if we don't eat them all up standing in the kitchen, because they taste so good). We also have enough rewards money that we can cover quite a bit more than we had been planning for this month's groceries without actually using our own money.
One of the great things we have learned is to look for God's blessing and provision. Here are three examples of Him blessing us with plenty while we were planning to live on less. It is a good lesson on God's generosity and grace for us and for our children.
Labels: Faith and Morality, Family
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Menu Plan: February 6 - February 12
- Sunday
Breakfast: Leftover Coconut Sugar Cake, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Leftover Barbecue Beans with Sliced Hot Dogs, Chips and Spinach Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette - Monday
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Toast, Apricot-Apple Sauce, Milky Tea
Dinner: Taco Soup, Corn Tortillas - Tuesday
Breakfast: Baked French Toast (using vanilla syrup from vanilla pears), Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Kofta, Taratoor, Rice Pilaf, Slow Sauteed Green Beans, Coconut Pudding - Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Milky Tea
Dinner: Potato and Garbanzo Bean Curry, Rice - Thursday
Breakfast: Ful, Toast, Mint Tea with Honey
Dinner: Lamb and Guiness Stew, Soda Bread (the recipe is formatted a little oddly, the raisins are optional, not the buttermilk) - Friday
Breakfast: Giant Breakfast Cookies, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Mejeddarah with Yogurt and Crisp Fried Onions - Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Fried Eggs, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese, Garlic Bread
Bought:
Milk
Labels: Homemaking, Menu Plans, Tales from the Kitchen
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Weekly Recipe: February 5
I came up with this recipe after making some coconut sweet rolls and a German sugar cake. I decided to kind of merge the recipes and came up with this. We brought it to church for coffee hour once and all the youth demanded we share the recipe with their families. Once, we made it for coffee hour when my inlaws were visiting and we all ended up sick and not going to church. Rich and I ate nearly all of the two cakes ourselves that day. We saved one piece each for everyone else in the house. It is that good.
Dough:
1 cup coconut milk (not coco lopez or other sweetened, thickened coconut cream products)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried coconut flakes (I buy the Bob's Red Mill dried unsweetened coconut)
4 cups white bread flour
2 teaspoons yeast
Put in bread machine and set to dough cycle. When machine beeps, take
out the dough and divide it in half.
Grease two 9" or 10" pans (I use stoneware pans, and don't grease
them). Preheat oven to 350 F.
Roll each half of dough to fit pans. Place dough in pans and cover and
let rise for 40 minutes.
Topping:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
With two fingers, punch deep holes all over dough. Sprinkle sugar
evenly over dough, drizzle cream evenly on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes
until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Serve warm, or room
temperature.
Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen