Parties and Imaginary Friends

Monday: Mmmmm, I think we may have just eaten a loaf of homemade bread
Tuesday: Zuppa, Caesar Salad, Edamame Beans and Popovers
Wednesday: Samosa Wraps
Thursday: Pancakes, Eggs and Fruit
Friday: Pizza and a Jammie Party
Saturday: A Birthday Party
Sunday: Veggie Lasagna, Greek Salad, Bread and Apple Rhubarb Crisp with Ice Cream

Mmmmm, I think we may have just easten a loaf of homemade bread
So the girls had two really late nights in a row for them, both followed by very early mornings. So today we spent the day laying low and trying our best to avoid any major meltdowns. We watched a little T.V., played some board games, read lots of books and put together a puzzle. The girls told us all about the sleepover and my cousin and her husband's status has been elevated to rock star. We ate all our meals at weird times, having lunch around two making dinner more of a large snack spread out over a couple of hours than an actual meal. There was some protein and a little fruit, but mostly the loaf of bread I had made disappeared. The girls had baths and were tucked into their own beds, asleep by 6:30.

Zuppa, Caesar Salad, Edamame Beans and Popovers
I try and get the girls to sort out their clothes when they take them off and put the clean stuff in their drawers and the dirty ones in the laundry hamper. I often find dirty clothes in the drawer and clean ones in the hamper, but at least they're not on the floor. Today I asked Harper if her shirt was clean or dirty, she looked at it, it was covered in drips of soup, and said, "Ahhh, it's cwean." I said, "Really, clean?" She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Ye-es, it doesn't have boogers on it, so it's cwean!" It's good to know the girl has standards!

Recipe
This recipe is from the Best of Bridge Series: That's Trump. It's actually suppose to be made by cooking the onions and celery with 6 slices of bacon, but obviously I omitted the bacon. My parents have been making this soup for a very long time now and it's really simply and very yummy.

A glugg of olive oil
2 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp each marjoram, thyme
1/2 tsp each oregano, rosemary
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or 2 tsp dried
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
5 cups veggie stock (the recipe calls for chicken)
28 oz can tomatoes, chopped
2/3 cup baby shell pasta
14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle

In a large heavy pot, cook onions, celery, garlic, herbs and hot pepper flakes in olive oil until onions are softened. Stir in stick and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Add pasta. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, or until pasta is just tender. Stir in artichokes and season to taste. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Serves 6.

We also had caesar salad, I was out of bread and so cut up a thin bagel and two tortillas into squared and toasted them in a pan over medium heat with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of onion powder and oregano to make the croutons. The dressing is my mom's, it's one of those that's a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Start with a sprinkling of salt in the bottom of a bowl, crush a large clove of garlic into it and then mash with a fork until turns into a paste (I can always remember asking my mom, "like this?" she'd always respond, "no, it needs more" so keep that in mind). Once the garlic is paste like, add about a 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip or any of those other "sweet" ones) and about the same amount of olive oil and mix together. Then add a small dollop of Dijon, and a splash of lemon juice, mix and taste, you can also add a splash of red wine vinegar if you are so inclined. Toss some romaine lettuce, grated Parmesan and croutons together with the dressing and serve.

We also had popovers found here.

Samosa Wraps
I went and registered Harper for preschool tonight. I sat in a room with a lot of the same moms that I sat with three years ago when I registered Hannah, which is so nice to know some of the families and little ones that will be in her class. It was an entirely different experience. When I registered Hannah I think my heart was beating so fast as I asked the teacher all kinds of questions about how she disciplines or what the children play with, will there be musical instruments? Will they get to run around at all (like I was concerned that she wouldn't get to exercise for the two hours twice a week she was going to be there) I may have been slightly (very, very) crazy! This time, I looked at the sheet a little disappointed that the third day option was only offered at the 4 year old level. It is bittersweet though, the thought of my 'lil one starting preschool makes me a little sad. But, I feel like the first time I drop her off, I may actually skip back to the car...

Recipe
We had samosa wraps found here.

Pancakes, Eggs and Fruit
I hate potty training. I really, really do. I have very little patience and I feel I need to spend them very wisely, going back and forth daily with potty training isn't really where I want to spend them. Having said that, I really want Harper to use the potty. When Hannah learned, I pretty much waited until she was more than ready, took her diaper off and put a pair of underwear on her and away she went. Of course there were a couple bumps in the road...but, none of them were messy. Harper has been hopping on and off the potty training train, changing her mind daily and I don't want to discourage her or somehow damage her for further success, yet secretly half the time I just want to say, "Just go in your pull up." I don't, but I often want to - like today at the Y.

This is one of the reasons I hate this stage so much, I hate public bathrooms (who doesn't?). I hate crouching in front of a two year old who is perched on the potty trying to touch every surface in sight while my knees are aching, I'm sweating watching her bring her hand back to her face and mouth while I try and stay calm as the panic rises up as I think of all the germs and I say, "don't touch your face, keep your hands away from your mouth, do you think you're done peeing?" This was the scene at the Y today. We were in there for 15 minutes (no pee), finally she decided she was done and we were able to wash up and leave the bathroom, walk out to get a glimpse of Hannah in her swimming lesson before Harper announced that she needed to pee. Three times we were haled up in that stall (she did pee once), about a half hour in time. Once we got Hannah dressed and were on our way out, all I was thinking was, "can I keep Harper distracted enough while we're at Superstore so we don't have to use that bathroom?" Because, I HATE the bathroom at Superstore and feel like I just ended a year and a half stint of having to visit it with Hannah every trip, sometimes twice. Just as I was thinking this and we were turning into the parking lot, Hannah announced that she needed to pee, and so Harper also did. She did pee though, which is good, I guess...no, no it's really good, I am very proud of her, just a little sad that I will now need to visit every public bathroom on every outing for the next two years.

Recipe
My family was very disappointed that we didn't have pancakes on Tuesday for Shrove Tuesday, so I made them tonight with fried eggs and fruit. I never make fried eggs and the girls were in love with them, and also confused as to why I didn't cook fried eggs all the time. The truth is, I don't know how to fry an egg. Really I don't. I've never made one without breaking the yoke. All the same the girls didn't really seem to mind and I had Dave make mine when he got up from his run because he can fry an egg.

Pancakes
1 cup flour, (I use whole wheat)
2 tsp baking
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter or oil
1 Egg
1 cup milk

Pizza
Harper has an imaginary friend, her name is My Friend. I've noticed her talking to someone over the past few months and have come to realize that My Friend is actually the name of one particular friend, who seems to follow some sort of personality pattern of likes and dislikes. Sometimes, My Friend actually pops up and surprises Harper, you'll hear her exclaim, "Oh, My Friend! I didn't see you there!" She also does the classic, "No, no your sitting on My Friend!" which I kind of love.

Hannah had jammie day at school today, so Harper had to have jammie day at home too. Which seemed like a great idea, so when Dave got home he and I put our jammies on, we made pizza and watched Happy Feet picnic style in the family room (My Friend had put her jammies on earlier so we were all good to go...but, I did accidentally sit on her - I didn't see her, honest).

Recipe
I would like to start topping out pizzas with different things to add a little variety to our lives, but we all just like the regular (mushrooms, onions, olives, cheese) so much it's hard to stray.

A Birthday Party
I fell down the stairs at the birthday party. Which makes it sound like a real rock'n party or like I'm a very inappropriate party guest. In reality it was a lovely party, but I'm just a klutz. I've never fallen down the stairs like that before (to clarify I've fallen down many stairs, I really am a klutz, but never in this manner). I had a glass of wine in one hand (it was my first and I don't even think I'd had a sip yet, and of course it was red), and my foot slipped on the carpet and I actually tumbled or rolled over and over again, thinking I would stop but I didn't until I hit the bottom. I only have a little carpet burn on my arm and elbow to show for it, luckily my clothes and the carpet were dark and the wine seemed to come out of everything. The thing that I found very interesting is that Harper was coming down the stairs with me, somehow she managed to avoid the tumbling disaster of me (thank god), she just followed behind me, pushed past me at the bottom of the stairs (without so much as looking at me) and headed for the toys and chips. Hannah on the other hand, who wasn't there at the time and heard about it later, was horrified. She was so worried, embarrassed and fascinated and has been asking a million questions about if I was hurt, how exactly I fell, who saw, did anyone help me, did anyone laugh etc... So now I know who to call when I get old and take a fall.

The birthday was for my Grandpa Tait, he turned 90. He's not technically my grandpa, as I have described in an earlier post, but he is. I'm not sure when we went from calling him Mr. Tait to Grandpa Tait, I'm sure there was a period in between where we just didn't use his name as one was too formal, and as young children, the word grandpa was clearly defined as your parent's parent which he was not. Soon we came to learn that it's not always the blood relation that defines a person but the the relationship and he became Grandpa Tait. On a 90th birthday that is the theme, the loving relationships that you have built over your life. Is this not the theme everyday? Under all the daily crap that we deal with, good and bad, at the end of the day we all want to be surrounded and to surround loved ones, and today was no exception.

We didn't have dinner, there was a table full of snacks, on which we munched at the party and three cakes.

Veggie Lasagna, Greek Salad, Bread and Apple Rhubarb Crisp with Ice Cream
Hannah went to her first Jets game yesterday with Dave. She loved it. I was a little concerned that she may get a little bored, she often gets to watch the first period with us at home, but has never sat through a whole game. She was not bored. Dave said, she yelled and screamed the entire time. The game went into overtime and then to a shootout for which Hannah was standing on her chair yelling! She has not stopped talking about it all day.

Oh, Sunday dinners how I missed you. Dinner was delicious, there is something so comforting about lasagna and warm apple crisp with ice cream. It is also why I'm sitting on the couch with a very full belly, the second serving of apple crisp was perhaps a bad idea...

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!

Happy Valentine's Day

Monday: Pasta - Dave Cooked
Tuesday: Wednesday: Jambalaya
Thursday: Lentil Stew
Friday: Sunburgers and Kale Chips
Saturday: Risotto, Sauteed Peppers with Onions and Bok Choy, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Carrots and Beets with Greek Salad, Biscuits and Apple Crisp with Ice Cream
Sunday: Mushroom Soup, Caesar Salad and Biscuits

Pasta - Dave Cooked
So, I'm still cleaning like crazy. It has turned into something of a spring cleaning which I guess on the up side is good because I'll have it done ahead of time. Of course, by the time spring rolls around we will have abandoned all the new "homes" I've created for things and will be piling it all on top of the fridge again. But, that's alright, the point is that is was done at some point, right? Nobody actually expects that it'll stay that way.

Harper has been dying to wash the floors (crazy kid). Today she comes down and says to me, "We better clean these floors today mom, cause dere perdy derdy!"

Recipe
I cleaned all day and so I planned peanut butter sandwiches for supper, maybe a stick of carrot on the side to balance it out. When we got home from skating I went running and left Dave to make the sandwiches. He instead scoured the house and made a lovely pasta salad instead, I love it when that happens! There was no recipe (and when I went back to see, no picture either), he made some brown rice pasta and tossed it with tuna, olives, shredded mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and sun dried tomatoes. Basically whatever he could find in the fridge, he tossed it all with a little olive oil. It was quite good, a tad dry so I added a splash of balsamic to mine, perfect.

Sauteed Garlic Shrimp, Asparagus, Roasted Veggies and Potatoes with Tomatoes/Basil Salad
Happy Valentine's Day! I know last year I made heart pizzas and said that this year I would do something fun and share it the week before, clearly I was crazy! This year, I could be found at the grocery store at 8:30 last night wondering around with a friend trying to find a book or token of something for my kids and figure out what I could make for them for dinner. I am a procrastinator, there I said it - I've been meaning to admit it for awhile but haven't gotten around to it, yet it has been gnawing at the back of my mind for quite some time now. I was considering going without any real Valentine's day hoopla, but before Hannah went to bed she was frantically wrapping little gifts she had made for each of us and I broke at the last minute. I got the girls each a little book that I knew they would love, which made me feel good and bad all at the same time.

I'm not going to get all down on the commercialism of this "holiday". We're all people with free will, do what you want for Valentine's day (although, that's impossible when your kid would then be the only kid in the class without a backpack full of little paper valentines that he/she's painstakingly stayed up late writing their name on), but I did want to make a change this year. Every year we usually buy the girls a little book or something. I try to avoid giving them chocolate on a day where they will already get cookies and candies from school parties. Sometimes, like this year, I give them each one little chocolate too (so I buy a bag of them, Dave and I eat the rest the night before while watching T.V. and save two for the girls...perhaps I've said too much).

Hannah's school sent home a letter at the beginning of the month asking each child to donate $3.50 of their own money and in lieu of exchanging valentines they bought a school box to send to Africa and made a special valentine to put in the box for the recipient. I was thrilled! This made me think; I've always kind of looked at this holiday as either a) a reason to watch sappy movies and indulge in chocolate b) a justification for Dave and I to go out and spend money at a restaurant in either the six weeks leading up or following Valentine's Day or c) a day to do fun, cute little heart shaped things with the kids, but never a day to actually celebrate and teach about love. This is why I felt good and bad about buying the books. I had wanted to start putting meaning to this day, and instead of buying something for the girls planning a family activity and doing something nice for someone else, but alas that procrastination thing! Valentine's day snuck up on me and I realized the night before that I had not spoken to anyone about my plans. By the time dinner rolled around, Hannah was actually sick and the whole idea kind of got put on the back burner. So, next year I will (hopefully, hopefully, hopefully) take this holiday and put some meaning into it for my family.

Recipe
Now that I've rambled on forever, I chose a dinner that was not heart shaped but, some of the girls favorite food.

I sauteed the shrimp in a little olive oil and garlic. Cut up potatoes (Harper's fav), Brussel Sprouts (Hannah's fav) and carrots (mmm...well, we just seem to have a lot of them right now) tossed them in olive oil and a little salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 400F until the potatoes were nice and crispy. I steamed the asparagus and tossed together some tomatoes and basil. In the end Dave worked late and Hannah got sick after school so Harper and I sat together and had a lovely valentine's day dinner!

We topped it all off with sliced strawberries, which I had sliced this afternoon and added a little sprinkle of sugar, a splash of balsamic and tiny pinch of black pepper (trick I got from my mom who got from...somewhere), and whipped cream.

I may have topped mine with a little splash of Khalua.

Jambalaya
I kept Hannah home from school today, she seemed completely better but had been up all night sick. Her and I were dragging a little this morning from being up during the night so much yet she refused to nap because she was feeling better, so it was a bit of a touch and go day. The most amazing thing happened this evening though, Dave worked late and around four o'clock the girls disappeared upstairs and played up there happily without fighting or getting into anything they weren't suppose to for two hours. When they would notice me checking on them they didn't stop and follow me downstairs AND when I went up to get them for dinner they came down right away without arguing!

Recipe
We had lots of leftover shrimp so I made jambalaya with what I had left in the fridge.

Olive oil

3 baby yellow peppers, chopped
3 baby orange peppers, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 28oz can of tomatoes
1 cup of veggie stock
2 cups of minute brown rice
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup steamed edamame beans
1 cup shrimp

In a pot put rice, veggie stock, 1 cup of canned tomato juice (reserving tomatoes) and bay leaf and cook according to rice package directions.

Heat a glugg of olive oil in a large pan and saute onion for five minutes, add the peppers and garlic and cook until onions and peppers are soft. Add in the tomatoes and breaking them up, the rice (when ready) and simmer on low for 20 minutes, if shrimp is raw add them in and cook until they're cooked stirring frequently. As I was using leftover shrimp I added them in with the edamame beans at the very end taking it off the heat and stirring until they warmed.

Lentil Stew
A friend of mine popped by this evening to watch some of the hockey game, she showed up with a bottle of red wine in one hand and freshly made brownies in the other! N'uff said, clearly she's the BEST!

Recipe
Always popular around here, quick and easy to boot, find it here.

Sunburgers and Kale Chips
Well, today before the girls got in the tub Harper peed in the potty. I think it surprised her, it shocked me. It also pretty much sealed the fate of our day. She did really well for her first day and as I was putting her to bed to she said to me, "I"M BIG! I'm sooo proud of myself!"

Recipe
We had these from this post with kale chips.

Risotto, Sauteed Peppers with Onions and Bok Choy, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Carrots and Beets with Greek Salad, Biscuits and Apple Crisp with Ice Cream
This morning Hannah woke up beside me and said, "I have to get up to make the cookies, I planned it last night!" Honestly, I thought she was dreaming, but she actually got up and went downstairs. Dave and her worked together looking at different cookie recipes and then she made up this one:

1 cup flour
3 Tbsp white sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp cocoa
Rind of one orange
1 egg
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, in a separate bowl beat the egg and then add it to the dry ingredients along with the margarine and milk. Stir all ingredients together and then plop by the spoonful on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes.

Mix icing sugar and juice from part of an orange together and ice the cookies.

I was so proud of her, they turned out to be really yummy, Dave gave her guidelines as to the ratio of wet and dry and they looked at tons of recipes and then she decided what and how much to add, she really picked the right parent to help her with this too. I don't actually have a lot of patience, there's a shocker, which is one of the reasons why I like to cook and not so much bake, but Dave on the other hand has a lot of patience for that kind of thing. The only problem is later on she said to me, "I know what kind of cookies I'm going to try and make tomorrow." I think she may need to switch it up to some healthy experiments.

Recipe
We were invited over to friends for dinner tonight and to play games, but with Harper trying to use the potty we didn't want to stray too far from home (although it was not really a very successful potty day). So, they brought everything over to our place and cooked for us here, I know - we have really great friends! It was delicious.

Mushroom Soup and Biscuits
I was off gallivanting almost all day today. I went out to brunch and to see Stuart McLean this afternoon. I had never read or listened to any of the Vinyl Cafe and I immediately fell in love with his animated, funny, Norman Rockwellish stories. Then Dave and I were off to the hockey game tonight, our babysitter was hurt in a game and so my cousin offered to have the girls for a sleepover. It was their first sleepover (other than at my mom and dad's) and it was a huge hit.

It started with make your own sundays...really, it was bound to be a hit!

The hockey was fantastic, Jets won 5 -1 and the atmosphere in there is just amazing, we have tickets to one more game in March and I'm taking Hannah - I'm so excited for her to experience it! It was a lovely day, but I'm also so happy that tomorrow's a holiday here so we still have a family day left in the weekend.

Recipe
Dave made this mushroom soup recipe from Jaime Oliver: jaime's dinners the essential family cookbook. We had it with leftover biscuits from last night and were going to have ceasar salad with it but there was no time ad I flew in the door, we ate packed and ran out the door to drop the kids off and head to the game.

a small handful of dried porcini
olive oil
1 lb 6oz mixed fresh wild mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
a knob butter
a handful of fresh thyme. leaved picked
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 1/2 cups veggie stock
a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
2 Tbsp mascarpone cheese
1 lemon
optional: truffle oil

Place the porcini in a small dish, add boiling water just to cover, and leave to soak. Get a large casserole-type pan nice and hot, then add a good couple of lugs of olive oil and your fresh mushrooms. Stir around very quickly for a minute, then add your garlic, onion, butter and thyme and a small amount of seasoning. After about a minute you'll probably notice moisture cooking out of the mushrooms and at this point add half of your porcini, chopped up, and then the rest left whole. Strain the soaking liquid to remove any grit, and add it to the pan. Carry on cooking for about 20 minutes until most of the moisture disappears.

Season to taste, and add you stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. I usually remove half the soup from the pan and whizz it up to a puree at this point, then pour it back in, adding the parsley and mascarpone, and seasoning carefully to taste.

You can serve this soup as you like, but there are a few things to remember when finishing it off. Mix together a pinch of salt and pepper with the zest of one lemon and the juice of half of it, then spoon a little of this into the middle of the soup. When you go to eat it, stir it in and it gives a wonderful flavour. Other things you can consider are little slices of grilled crostini put into the bottom of the bowls before the soup is poured over. Or you could even quickly fry some nice looking mushrooms and sprinkle these on top of the soup. If I was going to use truffle oil, then I would use it on it's own - a few drips on the top just before serving.

I hope the sun shines down on you this week! Happy Louis Riel Day to all you Manitobans!



Wishing you a restful week!



There's Always a Lesson...

Monday: Roasted Eggplant Pasta and Salad
Tuesday: Cajun Spiced Dirty Rice with Roasted Veggies
Wednesday: Pickerel with Stir Fried Peppers and Rice
Thursday: Red Lentil Soup and Bread
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Burritos
Sunday: Chinese Food

Roasted Eggplant Pasta and Salad
Hannah has a pretty good vocabulary and has always been very inquisitive about words and the meaning of them. I'm always a little surprised when she starts using the new word that she's asked about regularly. Why am I surprised at that? That is essentially learning, isn't it? I think it's because she asks for about a dozen definitions in a day (usually in the spanse of about three minutes) and I just wonder at how she remembers them all and keeps them all straight. Today, as we're rushing out the door, and I'm a little tense - because getting out the door when we're trying to get somewhere for a certain time seems to always be a little tense these days - she's asking me definition after definition of words I'm using (and ones I've used over the last five years it seems), this is making me much less tense let me tell you. Finally, I said to her, "You know, I think I'm out of definitions for now, can we talk about this when we're all in the car on our way." She looks up at me, thinks for a moment and says, "What's definition mean?"

Recipe
I love this pasta, here it is again, from Marcus Samuelsson's blog. I've been meaning to make it for company some day because I just think the combination of the mint and balsamic in it is really genius - but I have yet to make it for anyone other than us. You can find it here on this post. We had two eggplants and no zucchini and it was still lovely. We also only had fettuccine, but this is best with a rigatoni like pasta.

1 medium eggplant, cubed

2 zucchini, cubed

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup mint, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste

salt and pepper to taste

4 oz goat cheese

1/2 lb pasta

Preheat oven to 450.  Line two baking sheets with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Place the eggplant and zucchini cubes on these trays in a single layer.  Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt.  Roast for 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions.

Mix the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, mint, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Toss together the pasta, eggplant, zucchini and goat cheese.  Add the dressing and serve.

Cajun Spiced Dirty Rice with Roasted Veggies
Hannah is very sensitive to her clothes. She has a pile of clothes that she just simply can't wear because they bug her. It also varies from day to day, some days her jeans are alright, but most days they bug her. This aggravates me beyond belief. I know, really have a little sympathy. I try very hard, it's one of those things that I feel bad that I'm not more sympathetic and I try very hard to be sympathetic on the outside, because honestly I would never spend the day wearing something that bugged me. But, it's always a few minutes before we need to leave and she suddenly doesn't have anything that feels good. I try to recreate the combinations, "I think these jeans worked when you had this shirt tucked in and this one over top..." but, if she's already tried them with something else that didn't work then there's no getting her back in them. Plus, really my head is full of a bunch of other stuff like, "If I wear those jeans with that shirt tucked in and this over top I look like a frumpy old bag!" See, there's  important stuff rattling around up there. So this morning when she was getting ready for dance and complaining for the third week in a row that her body suite bugged her (I forgot to buy her a new one, because apparently remembering was not one of the things rattling around in my brain) I took a deep breath and asked her if she wanted to wear it and then go buy a new one or miss dance and go buy one for next week instead. She opted to miss dance, which clearly says it really bugs her because she loves going to dance. We went out and bought her a new one. I'm going to try and remember that she opted to miss dance, I think that this will remind me that she is really sensitive and I need to be more sensitive.

Recipe
Good, quick (prep time was quick, there's an hour cooking time), easy and the girls collapsed in giggles when I told them we were having dirty rice for dinner. Thank you lisa is cooking for the recipe. We also had roasted beets and brussel sprouts (because we had them for Sunday dinner and I couldn't stop thinking about them). Toss them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 25 minutes, checking and flipping here and there.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 celery rib, minced
1 green bell pepper, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped
2 teaspoons Cajun spice blend
1 cup quick-cooking brown rice
1 ½ cups red beans or 1 (15 ounce) can, rinsed and drained
2 cups vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a three-quart baking dish and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cover and cook to soften, five minutes. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and Cajun spice blend. Stir to combine and cook until softened, two minutes. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir in the rice, beans, broth, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover tightly and cook in the oven until the rice is tender, about an hour. Serve hot.

Pickerel with Stir Fried Peppers and Rice
So have you ever wondered what you're going to do with that Rock Band set that got used about twenty times and has since been sitting in the basement collecting dust. Well, the girls decided last night in bed that they were going to play Rock Star today, and Rock Star they did play. There was a lot of the Little Drummer Boy, a little Pink and a few made up songs. The symbols were a huge hit and this occupied about an hour to an hour and a half this morning.

Recipe
I let the girls each pick a meal this week and this was Harper's pick. I just cooked the pickerel in a little olive oil and then squeezed some lemon over it with a little salt and pepper. I stir fried peppers, onions and asparagus together and we had some leftover dirty rice from last night!

Red Lentil Soup and Bread

We had to get out of the house five times today, four times by a certain time. This is the most frustrating part of my day - trying to get out of the house on time. It was one those days where between trying to get out of the house and the girls bickering all day long and complaining about everything little thing, I simply imploded this evening. Poor Dave, he came home and  I have to tell you I completely checked out, went radio silent (it was for the good of the family). I avoided every room with people and at crucial parenting moments was found to be way too busy scrubbing the spot on the counter that has been there since we moved in and is never coming off. It's amazing how one little day, two little girls whom I love more than anything can turn me catatonic. Here's hoping tomorrow is better or I go catatonic mush earlier in the day!

Recipe
We love this soup and have it often, you can find it here, it calls for 4 cups of greens, I used two bunches of Swiss Chard tonight (one green and one red) and it was probably almost double the amount, it was really good this way.

Pizza
Hannah (while she's making the pizza, totally out of the blue): The grade two classroom, is right across from the kindergarten classroom. So, when Harper's in the four year old room and I'm in grade two and you come looking for me, don't just go wondering around where the grade one classes are, you have to go the kindergarten class and then look across and you'll see the grade two class, that'll be my class. So don't go wondering around all randy mandy looking for me!

The chef.

Recipe
Pizza was Hannah's pick this week and she picked all the toppings: cooked onions and mushrooms, artichoke hearts, olives with cheese. Hannah chopped everything, except for the onions, I cooked the onions and mushrooms and then Dave brought some dough home and she stretched it out, put everything on it and he put it in the oven for her. She did a really great job and was really proud!

Burritos
We're in the car today and the song Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature comes on the radio. I know the title and the group because we still have the free year trial of satellite radio that came with the car or else this post would have started with, you know that song that goes, Hey Ohhh, Hey Ohhh kind of sing song like that came out in the 80s or 90s or maybe it was the 2000s...because that's the kind of knowledge I have when it comes to music. I know what I like when I hear it (and that's largely defined by whether I can sing to it or not) and that's about all. So, the song comes on and Harper just starts belting it out from the backseat in this total enthusiastic, low, scratchy little voice, "HEY!!!! OHHHHH! HEY! OHHHHH!!!!" then the fast rapping part of the song comes on and she declares, "I can't sing to tis, I don't ike tis song now!" She's definitely my kid.

Harper is not sensitive to clothes and put this little number together all on her own!

Recipe
I quickly cooked this up while Dave made a little fresh gaucamole and grated some cheese. We stuffed it all in warm whole wheat tortillas and added a little green salsa - Yum!

Glugg of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 baby yellow and orange peppers (or 1 to 2 regular sized)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato salsa (we used mild for the girls)
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (I still have some quick cooking from the dirty rice and used that but regular would be find too)
19 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained and half mashed

While rice is cooking saute onions, peppers and garlic in a olive oil until soft. Once rice is ready add in veggies, beans and salsa heating until warm.

Put the filling in a warm tortialla and top with gaucamole, shredded cheese and green salsa and roll.

Chinese Food
Dave and I spent the day continuing to get this house organized. I painted the bathroom and organized, organized, organized. Dave cleaned out his side of the basement and put up new towel racks, pictures, hooks, fans and other various odds and ends. We were on the go all day by the time dinner time came around we were very grateful that we were ordering in. We ordered Chinese Food and the girls were so excited about everything, mostly the plain white rice. We are both tired and ready to collapse in bed, as soon as those girls fall asleep. I feel like there's a lesson to be learned here...hmmm, what could it be? Something about procrastination? No, that couldn't be it. Oh well, I'm sure we'll figure it out one day...maybe.

Have a great week I hope the sun shines down on you!

The House of Unfinished Projects

Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Rice Wraps
Wednesday: Chickpea Piccata
Thursday: White Bean, Pasta and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Friday: Costa Rican Black Beans and Butter Honey Plantains with Pita Chips
Saturday: Dave and I are out, the kids are having Mac'n Cheese
Sunday: Salmon, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Beets, Asparagus, Couscous, Salad, Bread and Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

Leftovers
This picture is actually from last week, but this occurs every afternoon on the way home from the bus stop. There are these two huge pine trees and you can always hear tons and tons of birds chirping in them -winter, spring, summer or fall. Harper loves these trees and always stops and sticks out her hand to try and have the birds come land on her. She often looks up at me disappointed, "Why won't the birdies 'ome, I won't hurt dem?" I explain that they don't know that and, (here she interrupts me) "Dey want to be FEE (free)!!!!!" After a couple minutes we move on, but it is pretty much a guarantee that we will stop the following day.

Recipe
We had sloppy lentils again, Dave and I added hot banana peppers to ours tonight and it was really good.

Rice Wraps
The girls are still sleeping together and I have to tell you I love creeping in and seeing them all curled up together. They usually chat for awhile...actually, Harper chats and Hannah continually asks her to stop because she's trying to sleep. Often Harper gets up once or twice, but on the whole it's really working out well. They have woken up in the middle of the night and started arguing a couple times (seriously, will the fighting never end?), but I'm really able ignore this while I'm half asleep.

She's such a good helper, but this is her letting me sneak an action shot!

Recipe
This week the girls each chose a meal, Hannah chose rice wraps which you can find here.

Chickpea Piccata
Deep breath, today was a day of taking deep breaths. Hannah hit Harper, twice. The first time was this morning and all the dust settled and we talked about it I was sure that she would not hit Harper again...today. I was wrong, they were playing outside and Harper was not doing what Hannah wanted her to do and she hit her again. I opened the sliding door and asked her to come inside...she threw snow at me...can you imagine how mad I was? In the two or three seconds that followed my head was swarming with what can I do, take toys away? TV tickets? Cancel a play date? After all these and other thoughts, I knew I was mad and trying to make her feel like me...not super productive and not really teaching a lesson. I just looked at her and shut the door (Harper did come in). She continued to let off all kinds of steam back there and when she settled down I called her in and we talked about it (the hitting and respect), she apologized to Harper (who had really forgotten what happened and was just sad that Hannah was not coming in), but she said to me, "I was telling her and telling her, and she wasn't listening and I just got so frustrated that I had to hit her!" The thing is I can really relate...well, not the hitting part, but the frustration. I'm trying to figure out how much we need to focus on helping her deal with her frustration and how much she really needs to kind of figure it out on her own (hopefully not by hurting too many bystanders in the process). Deep breath. It's not the actual hitting and throwing snow that makes me take deep breaths (actually that's a lie, I was practically hyper ventilating to not scream at her when she threw snow at me) it's the potential of screwing her up. Deep breaths.

Recipe
You can find this recipe here and it's really very yummy. Even Hannah, who uttered her new regular, "Yuk!" reaction when sitting down to dinner, later volunteered a, "This is really yummy!"

White Bean, Pasta and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Well, I have been 30 days vegan. I'm looking forward to a little fish next week and having my regular cup of coffee in the morning (with cow's milk), but the idea of jumping right back into cheese and eggs gives me a nervous feeling or something. I'm not really sure what will happen, the thought of eating eggs cooked in something is fine, but the idea of an egg just sitting there staring at me...I'm not quite sure about. Same with the idea of eating copious amounts of cheese. Harper has chosen mac'n cheese this week and I've purposely put it on a day that Dave and I are going out because it just sounds so heavy (and it is seriously one of my favorite meals). I guess this challenge has kind of done what I was hoping it would, change some habits and the ease and frequency at which I would eat cheese and eggs. I'm sure that I will be back eating all these things soon, but hopefully in smaller portions (mac'n cheese as a little side part of the meal instead of the main). One of the really great things is that I discovered black bean hummus which none of us can seem to get enough of around here. I am really looking forward to fish though...and if I'm entirely honest milk chocolate!

Recipe
This recipe is from epicurious and it was a good and a nice change. I find that I get stuck on tomatoey soups a lot and this was such a nice change (there are sun dried tomatoes in it, but it's totally different). I doubled the recipe and used one can of red kidney beans and one can of white because that's all I had in my cupboard.

1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped, 2 tablespoons oil reserved

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried savory

3 cups canned vegetable broth

1/3 cup small pasta bows (farfallini) or small elbow macaroni

15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained

7-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained, sliced

Heat 2 tablespoons oil reserved from sun-dried tomatoes in heavy large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and savory and stir 1 minute. Add broth and sun-dried tomatoes. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Add pasta, cover and boil until pasta is almost tender, about 5 minutes. Mix in cannellini and peppers. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered until pasta is just tender but still firm to bite, about 4 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Costa Rican Black Beans and Butter Honey Plantains with Pita Chips
You know there's those things in life that are expensive, but you bite the bullet, pay for them and then admire them for a long time like, furniture, my new front teeth, that really great dress, your kid's dance/hockey/tae kwondo/insert expensive activity here, and then there's those things that you spend money on and it's like you just lost that money. You know those things, that work hard and silently in the background. They are often some of the most expensive and they improve your quality of life by a bijillion (it's hard to spell words that aren't real), but really when you pay for them it feels like you've just handed over all this money to someone leaving your house with a large array of tools. This is how I felt after the guy from Citywide Heating left my house. I know that he installed a new hot water tank for me after I found the contents of the other one all over the floor this afternoon, he was even leaving my house, done, two hours after I discovered the water, but it just kind of feels like I paid him for nothing - I checked out the new tank and it even looks the same (they should really sell them in flashy colours or something, make something fun about it). Although, I noted that the temperature of the water heated up much faster and I am grateful (grateful, grateful, grateful) that it was not the furnace, I just kind of wish I'd gotten to pick the colour.

Recipe
This recipe is from Warm Vanilla Sugar, I was going to make it with brown rice but the water was off while the guy installed the tank and so I made pita chips instead. We all really liked the beans and the plantains. I cooked two plantains for us, but still used the same amount of butter (I used vegan marg) and I only made one recipe of the beans (it said it served two), which was plenty for all of us but no leftovers.

2 tsp canola oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1 fat clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 can (15 1/2 oz) of black beans, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup vegetable broth
1/4 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
Juice of 1/2 lime
Chopped cilantro

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat, and add the canola oil. Once shimmering, cook the onion until translucent. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, and bay leaf until the garlic is fragrant and the tomato paste has cooked off a bit, about 30-60 seconds.

Add the beans to the pan and using a wooden spatula, smash about half of the beans. Stir in the veggie broth, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until flavours meld and most of the broth has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. Stir in lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper as needed. Sprinkle cilantro.

1 ripe (almost black) plantain, peeled and sliced in 1 inch slices
2 tablespoons butter
Drizzle of honey

In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add plantains, in a single layer. Cook plantains on each side, for about 3 minutes, or until they reach a caramelized brown color. Drizzle with honey just before they are ready. Transfer to a plate covered with paper towel and allow to drain for a minute


Out for Dinner and a Play
Dave and I dream big when it comes to our house. We have all kinds of plans and hope to be here until we are too old to walk up the stairs. We are also pretty good at starting projects, we are really bad at finishing them. I mean embarrassingly bad. So, we have been living in a house with a bunch of little (and big) unfinished projects and now, we are having someone come and asses it (because we want to start some renos, not because we're moving) and so we are trying to finish up all these little projects as well as clean and organize the entire thing. Every time I finish something, like painting the bathroom ceilings, I think wow that was easy and didn't really take very long at all. But, it also feels like for every little project we finish two or three more little ones seem to pop up on the list. Today, I did something that wasn't even on the list, which is totally annoying because writing it down and then crossing it off - not at ALL the same satisfaction. It does feel good to get things accomplished though. We will be puttering away all week!

Salmon, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Beets, Asparagus, Couscous, Salad, Bread and Pineapple Upside down Cake
We headed out to a play today with the girls, The Cat Came Back. Have I ever mentioned how loud Harper is, she is very loud - like most two year olds. So we're in the theater, the play's on and Harper is talking loudly pretty much throughout the entire play. I am shushing her, but really it's a kid's play and there are plenty of kid's talking all over the place (of course not right where we're sitting). The poor little girl in front of us was very stressed out by Harper and kept turning around and shushing her, much to her frustration Harper was oblivious. There's one point in the play where the whole theater is singing The Cat Came Back very quietly in an attempt not to scare the cat, the whole theater that is except for Harper who is singing it at the top of her lungs. I leaned over and started to say, "Can you sing quietly like everybody else, like you're whispering?" Except all I got out was, "Harper can," and she turned around and (extremely loudly) said, "Whaaat - I'm singing! THE CAT CAME BACK..." she was a hit with the rest of the audience, not the little girl in front of us though.

We had a lovely Sunday Dinner at my cousins (they too are Sunday dinner orphans). The meal was delicious (salmon, I was so excited I had two helpings) the kids played quietly, and we sat and chatted and played a game called Sequence - which was really very fun.

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!