Hello, Autumn!

Most Sundays I have some "mom time."  A cafe and a book for a few hours for this introvert mom to recharge her batteries.  Every once in a while this is flipped;  I stay at home and Sam takes the kids out.  This is my favorite mom-time mode.  Today was all about celebrating autumn:  some baking during nap time and some soup and reading while the kids and Sam are out.

I know it is blurry, but this was too cute.  Atticus was making soup for his Rupert Bear while I threw split pea soup in the crock pot.

I found some plates for our "friend Thanksgiving" this year.  Even better -- 50% off!

This afternoon is overcast and grey.  Perfect.

Baked a cranberry upside down cake during naptime.  I'm having friends over for dinner tomorrow and I knew I wouldn't have time to bake after work.  Oh yeah, that kickin' owl tea towel was also 50% off at JoAnn.

Split Pea soup for a nutrient dense snack.  Recipe coming tomorrow!

New warm, bulky yarn!

Of course, a big mug of milky Irish Breakfast tea and Harry Potter.

Now I'm off to do the less glamorous mom tasks (i.e. dishes). 

A Season of Super Soup: Curried Butternut Squash Soup (week 2)

My family isn't too terribly picky about food.  Sam doesn't like spinach and Hope doesn't like mushrooms and that's about as far as the flavor dislikes go. For some reason, though, soup doesn't get the love it deserves in our house.

If I make something traditional: chicken noodle, vegetable, tomato.... they'll eat it.  But they only eat it once. Leftover soup doesn't appeal to them in the least.  Conversely, I think soup -- like chili and spaghetti sauce -- gets better after it hangs out in the fridge and all the flavors meld and intensify.  Apparently I'm a weirdo.  They also don't care for strange soups; only easily identifiable soups reminiscent of popular Campbell flavors get their vote (which is strange, because Sam loves Thai soups and Vietnamese Pho). 

Well I get tired of chicken noodle.  I want something different and since I will be the one eating leftover soup for lunch every single day, I get to pick the soups (not to mention, I'm the only doing all of the shopping, chopping, and cooking).  This week was a me choice:  Curried Butternut Squash Soup.

It is absolutely heavenly.  As a plus, it not only is chock-full of butternut squash goodness, but it also has Granny Smith apples.  Healthy, spicy, and delicious.

Apples, celery, and onions browning in a bit of butter.  Between that and the freshly roasted butternut squash, my kitchen was smelling awesome!

I didn't change a thing in the recipe, except that I didn't put cheese on top of the soup.  I'm thinking about trying this same recipe, but replacing the butternut squash with sweet potato.  I have a picture of the soup in progress, but I couldn't get an attractive picture of the after results.  Visit the Cooking Light website here for a delicious picture of the soup.   

Because I didn't adapt this recipe in any way, visit the link above for the recipe.  I don't like to type out unchanged recipes due to copyright issues.  Let me know what you think.  I thought the soup smooth but kicky (like me). 

Previous Super Soups:

Week 1 -- Chicken Stock

A Season of Super Soup: Chicken Stock (week 1)

I've been insanely busy this weekend.  Sam was booked up with tattoos (yay!) and so it was pretty much just me and Atticus at home all weekend as Hope was visiting her grandparents.  I made chicken pot pie Saturday night, ham and mac'n'cheese on Sunday night, and right now Apple-Cranberry pork loin is simmering in the crockpot (can you tell I'm eager for Autumn?).  In addition, I also made two batches of chicken stock for the freezer.  I had intended to photo document the entire process, but I had a toddler in the kitchen and while cooking I was singing "Rubber Duckie."  I can only multitask so much.

So here is a very basic recipe with some pictures here and there; oh yea...and I don't really measure:

Chunky chops are fine

 Basic Chicken Stock (adapted from Cooking Light)

• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• a few dashes of dried parsley
• a shake or three of dried thyme
• two pinches of dried rosemary
• 4-5 lb of chicken (a whole fryer or pieces)
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped 
• 1 tsp of minced garlic ( I use the type in the jar)
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 large onions, peeled and quartered
• 4 quarts cold water

Straining... see all the color (ahem flavor) sucked out of the veggies?  The flavor is now in your broth. 

Wash and chop your veggies.  Throw 'em in a big stock pot. Rinse and pat dry the chicken and then throw it on the veggies.  Add the water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 4 hours.  Strain through a colander into a large bowl; discard the veggies, salvage the chicken!  Cool stock to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. Skim fat from surface; discard fat.  Store in freezer bags or containers for easy use.

Pre-chilled and skimmed broth. 

After my chicken cooled I deboned it and used some in biscuit-topped chicken pot pie.  I have some in the fridge waiting for me to make chicken salad.  The flavor gets sorta sucked from the veggies while making stock, but I'm always appalled when recipes advocate throwing the chicken away.  Dear Lord have they seen the price of meat!

Another hint, anytime you have vegetables that are looking a bit "sad," just throw them in a freezer bag and pop them in the freezer.  Fennel, parsnips, celery, carrots, etc.... all can be thrown in the broth.  I'll be using this broth as a base for a lot of the soups I'll be making the next few months. 

Oh My.... How Pinteresting: 07/19/12

What's catching my eye this week on Pinterest

Another lovely embroidery pattern

This is a brilliant idea!  Freezing fresh herbs with butter or olive oil in an ice tray.  Bag it, freeze it, and use it later.

YES PLEASE.... Banana Pudding Cake!

I'm looking at my dull craft table lamp and getting inspired

I need to do this.  No more digging around for wee jars of cloves!

Things I'm Loving: 11/04/2011

Photo Credit

I love my little rental house, but the kitchen is functional and ugly as sin.  I'm been thinking of ways to spruce things up a bit and I love the idea of this fabric backsplash and the open cabinetry option. 

As I chopped a butternut squash last week to make chili I thought to myself, "my death will probably involve a knife and a butternut squash."  Here is a great tip for roasting a squash so I don't maim or kill myself with a knife. 

I'm totally signing up for this reading challenge.  In fact, next year I think I'll make a month my "read from my stacks" month.  I love supporting libraries, but I need to read the books on my shelf!

I desperately need a needlebook.  Luckily, I found a pretty awesome set of directions for a cute, scrappy needlebook.  I need to bust out those scraps and get to stitching!

I'm loving these beautiful Dahlia pins!  

As if I needed another excuse for plate thrifting.

Hello to all my baking and book buddies, Penguin is releasing in the US several titles from the Great Food series.  I want them all!  Geez those covers are lust-worthy.

Reason #372 on the "why I need a doughnut pan" list. 

Owl brooch!!!!!!!!!!!!

More embroidered book cover goodness.

Photo Friday: My Lunch Break

F is for Food

Who doesn't love food?  This post could easily be a list of top restaurants or favorite eats, but I decided to focus it a bit more and discuss my favorite dairy-free foods.

Atticus has issues with processing dairy and since I'm nursing him this means that I've had to eliminate dairy in my diet.  I love cream in my coffee, cheese, butter, and other delectable dairy items and I was depressed and stressed when I had to cut it out of my diet.  What really sucks is I had stocked the fridge with things like yogurt and cheese sticks just before Atticus was born.  Healthy, packed with protein, and easy to eat while mothering a newborn, I thought I was ready to go.  Then I learned I couldn't eat those things and that many of my pantry items (cereal, crackers, granola bars, etc...), frozen foods (quick dinners, pre-made frozen casseroles I made while pregnant, frozen veggie combos), and refrigerator items (my lunch meat had dairy) had dairy.  What the hell was I going to eat?  I consume a steady supply of fruit and veggies, but  geez-louise, no dairy?!?! And of course the entire time I was nursing around the clock which left me exhausted and STARVING.

With a bit of research and help from a vegan friend I discovered a bevy of delicious items to eat.  Some of the food choices I already knew and loved and it was exciting to know I could continue eating those things.

Here we go, my top non-dairy eats:

Asian Food
My favorite food before ditching dairy was Thai food, so going dairy-free was the perfect excuse to indulge in basil rolls, curries, Pad Thai, coconut soup and other delicious Thai dishes.  Also, I can have non-Americanized sushi (no cream cheese, please) and big delicious bowls of Vietnamese Pho.   

Almond Milk
I'm pretty sure that even when I go back to dairy I'll still embrace almond milk.  Smooth and nutty and low calorie (often 60 calories a serving) this milk works in baking and on breakfast cereal.  However, I like it best with hot drinks: creamer in my coffee, mixed with chai, or warmed with a little bit of nutmeg and vanilla.

Chocolate Almond Dream Ice Cream
I adore ice cream and this has been the most difficult item to give up.  I've tried different "non-dairy frozen treats" but most of them are meh.  I like this one, though, it is chocolatey, but not too rich.


Sweet Potato Tater Tots
This is the most brilliant food ever created.  I love sweet potato fries, but this is a step up.  I bake them in the oven and then salt/pepper them.  I think they'd also be good sprinkled with cinnamon before baking.  Now that Atticus is eating some solid food I can give him sweet tater tots to eat and I feel better than giving him straight-up potatoes.  At least sweet taters are an actual veggie!


Vegan White Pizza
The recipe is here and I promise you it is DELICIOUS!  In fact, I think I want a slice right now.

Cake
I've had many delicious vegan baked goods, but these two cakes are my favorite and I couldn't choose just one.  The Chocolate Vegan Death Cake at The Grit is divine; it is so rich and smooth I'm sure women through themselves at this cake.  I'm happily married and I still thought about running off with a big slice.  The second cake is one my friend Heath made for my birthday, Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake. The recipe is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook.

Earth Balance
This vegan fake butter spread is pretty good.  It doesn't taste gross.  In fact, I've been using it on pasta, toast, and veggies for Sam and Hope and they aren't complaining.  It also works okay in baking.  I've only had one recipe not turn out so hot from using this spread (it was blueberry pecan oatmeal cookies, the cookies fell apart and didn't hold together)

Muffins
Once again, I'll have to pimp Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance.  I made the pumpkin muffins over the weekend (but I cut the sugar in half and used applesauce rather than oil) and Atticus eats them for breakfast.  Really any muffin recipe can be turned dairy-free (at least in my experience).  Simply replace butter with Earth Balance and replace milk with Almond Milk.  There you are, breakfast that isn't cereal with labels you must scrutinize!




It has been a struggle switching to a dairy-free lifestyle, but once I found some delicious things to eat things were smoother.  One day (after I wean Atticus) I'll go back to dairy, but I'll probably still use Almond milk, make healthy muffins, and eat vegan pizza and Thai food with some regularity.

Yay food!

Vegan Food for the win!

In early May I set two goals:  one, to eat a vegan meal at least once a week and two, to work on assembling my clothing for the summer months.  I'll focus on the clothing situation in another post, but I'd like to update you all with my foray into vegan food.

As many of you already know, I'm certainly not a vegan (i love bacon) but I wanted to eat more vegan meals because:

1. I love veggie based meals!
2. The farmer's market is in full-swing
3. I'm broke and meat is way too fucking expensive
4. I'm currently dairy-free since I'm nursing and Atticus has a dairy-intolerance
5. I'm utterly bored with meat/starch/generic veggie for dinner every night

I have to say that the project was a success.  My goal was to eat one vegan meal a week and I managed to make vegan meals for THE ENTIRE FAMILY at least twice a week.  I'd like to share some highlights and a new favorite recipe:

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

 

Chana Masala with Curried Couscous

Rosemary Squash and Potatoes

 

"White" Pizza with Asparagus, Basil, Spinach, and Sundried Tomatoes

The recipe above is my new favorite and it is so super easy.

1. Take your favorite pizza dough recipe (I used the olive oil recipe from Artisan Bread in 5-Minutes a Day) and follow all the pizza cooking instructions with said dough.
2. In a blender, zap 1/2 a block of silken tofu and a teaspoon of salt (next time I might try adding some basil or other herbs.  This makes your "white" sauce.
3. Smear on the tofu concoction and top with favorite veggies.
4. Cook until is reaches your favorite level of doneness.  I like my pizza dough doughy and my veggies NOT cooked to death.

I'm making this for dinner tonight with different toppings:  spinach and summer squash.  YUM!!!

I'm focusing on keeping up this habit.  On Saturday's we have farmer's market veggies and homemade bread and Sunday is vegan pizza night.  In the fall and winter I'll replace the fresh-cut veggies on Saturday with a soup.

Now -- on to my June goal -- DRINKING 72 OUNCES OF WATER A DAY!

I'm not too bad with drinking water.  I'd say I already consume about 48 ounces of water a day.  But Georgia summers are so damn hot and by golly I've got a milk supply to keep up.  I have a bad-ass reusable water bottle and I'm keeping track of my water each day in a teeny notebook.  Increasing my water intake will also help me reduce the amount of other liquids I take in (hello sweet tea and coffee) and this is a good thing.  Alright, time to drink more water!!!

Snow Day 2011

I snapped a few pics of how our snow day went.  Sam was home from work and Hope was home from school.  Alas, Hope didn't get to go out and play in the snow.  She woke up this morning with an upset tummy and seemed pale.  I'm of the old school mothering stock; if you are sick you must have blankets piled on you and eat soup.  End. of. story.  Despite our lack of snowmen and snowballs, today was a wonderful day with the family.

This is what 8am looked like:

I spent the early morning hours writing letters and drinking Earl Grey:

Then I went out in my teapot pajamas and bright blue boots to feed the birds:

I had some tummy time with Atticus the Drooler:

Meanwhile, Hope was camped out.  We rolled the tv stand into her room and she watched The Two Towers AND Return of the King:

Then I made a reading nest -- tea, Tolstoy, and my favorite blanket:

Then I made a huge pot of soup:

Hope was going to spend her evening reading The Hobbit, but she conked out the minute her head hit the pillow:

I realize I didn't take any pictures of what Sam was up to, but when he wasn't holding the baby he was 1). watching anime on the laptop or 2). playing video games.  He is kinda sick of me hovering with the camera, so if he isn't holding a kiddo I don't take his picture.  Also, I didn't photograph the laundry or the baby crapping up the back of his pajamas.  You can thank me later.

Tomorrow is another snow day:  no work and no school!

 

Thanksgiving.....

The past two days have really been delightful:  I've had time with Sam and the kids, baked and cooked, spent time with family, and had a marvelous time hanging out with one of my best buds in the world:

Both of my babies cuddling on the couch....

Sausage Cheese Balls...

Ginger Molasses Cookies...

Catherine's family came by for a visit.  Catherine had some quality baby holding time!  Also, we stayed up late (I didn't go to bed until almost 3 am) watching MST3K, chatting, giggling, and eating far too many cookies!

baby feet...

Hope, Julie, Sam's Grandpoppa, and Atticus....

Aunt Diane loving the baby to pieces...

Five generations - my mom, my granddaddy, my great-grandmother, me, and Atticus.

I'm so thankful for my kids, my friends, my family, and quiet days at home to do things I love (like preparing for the holidays, baking, and reading).  Today I wasn't able to snap a picture of who I'm most thankful for... Sam.  We were so busy trading off baby holding and kid supervising, I wasn't able to snap a picture.  He makes me so very happy and I'm a very lucky woman to have nabbed him.  He, as my grandmother would say, "is a catch."

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with people you love!