Bread and Butter

Hannah has a school assignment that came home, she needs to choose something that we celebrate in our family and make a presentation about it to her class. There's a list of suggestions, birthdays, holidays, special events or whatever she would like. The problem beauty is that there are so many celebrations and gatherings in our family that she is having a hard time choosing. How lucky we are...

I made butter this week. We don't actually use very much butter/margarine in our house and I have recently decided to stop buying margarine, since we eat very little of it, I think we will stick with butter. I loved making it, it was so simple and very cool, I followed the instructions in The Homemade Pantry.

500ml whipping cream
1 tsp salt

Using the mixer with the paddle fitting I poured in the whipping cream and salt, covered it with a dish towel to catch the splashes and I began to whip the cream. Peeking in every once and a while, and getting sprayed in the eye with cream, I witnessed it go from this.

To this.

To this!

At this stage I poured off the liquid, buttermilk, put it in the fridge for pancakes this Sunday (it will keep in a closed contained in the fridge for three days). I squeezed then butter together into a ball and continued to rinse it under cold water until the liquid ran clear and then was all out of the butter.

That's all, and then I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge.

It was extremely messy though, depending what size mixer you have I would suggest doing it in half batches which is what I will do next time.

I am not a huge butter person, but this is honestly the best butter I've had, it's so much creamier in taste, lighter or something - which could become a problem as we cut into the fresh bread that evening and smeared it with butter. I am hoping this phase will pass.

A mother needs to have a keen sense of smell. It's true, and sometimes it's not fun, like when toddlers are in the diaper diving and smearing phase and you need to be able to sniff out any item they may have touched, not fun but very necessary. It is also important when doing room cleaning checks, teeth brushing checks, hand washing checks, you get the picture. But, there can be a reward for that keen sense of smell and it's sunshine. There is nothing I like better than the smell of my children after they have spent the day playing outside. It's intoxicating, mixing memories from my childhood with ones from the day, it makes me feel like a "good" mother that my children have played outside, even if it was a particular yelly day for me it all becomes a blur when I'm cuddled up with them and smell the sunshine in their hair.

 

 

 

I honestly thought that the good weather would never come, does it feel like this most years? I forget from year to year, but we were desperate. I know why we are, that end of day feeling where your limbs are a little achy from walking and bike riding and chasing children, everyone's feet are dirty and need to be washed before bed (need to be, they don't usually get it), when I keep pushing bedtime back further and further because they are just enjoying themselves so much outside, it's impossible to match. Would it be so wonderful if we had this weather year round (after such a long winter I may be willing to test that theory)?

Before the sun came out, we had another day of crap weather snow.

On that day I made this soup which was a huge hit. It's funny how that happens, I was just looking for something warm to make while using up some of the dribs and drabs (as my grandma would say) in the fridge. It ended up a favorite, everyone cleared their bowls, even Harper who can sometimes be less than thrilled with soup.

3 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery sticks
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 cups veggie stock
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1/4 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 can lentils, rinsed and drained
salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium low heat; add the salt, onion, carrot, celery and bay leaves, turn heat down, cover with lid leaving it just ajar and sweat veggies until soft. Once veggies are soft, pour flour and some of the stock into a jar and shake until combined and add to the soup with the rest of the stock and milk, turn up heat until it starts to bubble, stirring. Once it is bubbling, lower heat to simmer until it thickens slightly. Add the cauliflower, zucchini and lentils and simmer until cauliflower is tender.

We had it with biscuits, which I'm not sharing with you, honestly because I can't for the life of me find the recipe I used - ooops.

The girls have started soccer, this is the 4th year for Hannah and Harper's first. Although the season has started a little late due to wet fields we are now officially in it, the only free evening we have is Wednesday and as long as the weather's nice, I'm alright with that.

Hannah seems to be a little more focused this year. They are starting to learn some more rules and a few more skills which is pretty exciting.

 

 

This is Harper's first year, she has the cheering down, tow arms in the air no matter who scores! She also has the run around the field down in a sort of bouncy sort of way, the going after the ball is a little hit or miss.

 

 

 

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!

Flawed Lessons

We're getting closer to Spring!

I made flour tortillas this week to have along side a black bean soup. Traditionally they are made with lard, but I used vegetable shortening instead and I think they still tasted pretty good. They were also super easy, the dough was so soft and easy to roll out it felt like it took no real effort to make them. The recipe that I used mentioned that because they had baking soda in them they were more Tex Mex than traditional Mexican and so I think I will try omitting it next time to see the difference.

The recipe is from Shared Appetite.

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 and 1/4 cups warm water

 

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then cut in shortening. Once the mixture is crumbly add in the warm water until a sticky dough forms. Knead the dough on the countertop until it is no longer sticky, a couple minutes.

 

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest 20 minutes. Pinch off ping pong size balls and cover them again and let rest for another 10 minutes.

 

Roll out the first one, preheat a dry skillet over medium-low heat and cook a minute or two a side until golden. Roll out the second one while the first one cooks and so on until they are done. I wrapped them in foil and kept them in the warming drawer until they were all done and we were ready to eat.

 

They were pretty simple and mixed together easily, of course it's always easier with a helper.

There was a little kneading, but only for a couple minutes.

I tried my tortilla press but, as suggested, they were too thick and so I just rolled them out, it took a couple minutes for each one. I got 18 small ones out of the this recipe.

 

 

On my stove I started them at 5 and then turned the pan down to 31/2 after a couple and they browned quite nicely and quickly there.

 

 

We had them with black bean soup.

1 Tbsp Grape seed oil
2 onions, chopped
4 (large) cloves of garlic pressed
2 Tbsp cumin
Pinch of salt
3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
3 ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup green salsa
1/2 cup cilantro
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp of Miso

Saute the onions in the grape seed oil until soft with a pinch of salt and the cumin. Add the garlic when they are just about soft and cook for a couple minutes. Add the black beans and cover with water (about three cups), bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in half and whirl them up in the food processor with the salsa, cilantro and salt until liquid. Add this to the beans and pure the entire soup. If you like, add another cup of black beans whole, take out a small bowl of soup and dissolve the Miso paste in it and then stir into the rest of the soup.

Dance Break...

 

 

Sleepy Time...

 

We let Hannah stay up for the last Jet's game, once she found out they were out for sure - she didn't feel the need to watch the end.

Do you ever have those days where you cook all day and at the end of the day you end up with pretty well nothing? Yeah, I hate those days, although today ended on a high note. On the agenda today was crackers for a party that I'm going to tomorrow, bread and ravioli.

I made the bread and let it rise by the front window where it was nice and warm while I made the dough for the crackers, which needed to rest before being rolled out and cooked.

The long and the short of it is that I forgot about the bread which rose and fell, and I threw it out in frustration. Dave told me after that he thought I could have rerolled and let it rise again - oops.

The crackers turned out to be easy enough to make and good except, I didn't have any fresh rosemary and so I added dried, but not thinking, used the same amount as I would have fresh which was obviously, well just gross.

The ravioli was the last thing on the list to make, and it was for dinner. By the time I was ready to roll it out and make the fillings I was fully frustrated and kinda wishing I had planned peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. But then this kind of magical, wonderful thing happened.

Dave rolled out the first sheet of pasta. Hannah asked to help roll out the pasta.

Then of course Harper wanted to help too.

I was racing against the clock and paying little attention to what was happening, my ravioli looking huge and ridiculous with very little filling. I burned my hand and wasn't really paying very close attention that the sheets were too thick and quite honestly I would be kinda embarrassed to show pictures of them here, I'm not kidding some of them were as large as the palm of my hand, except that we all made them together. Sometime after burning my hand I realized how everyone had pitched in, and stopped to appreciate this wonderful chaotic rhythm we'd fallen into.

When I decided I wanted to make as much at home as possible it was for our health and of course the challenge. I want to know and understand the ingredients that we are putting in our bodies. Because of this, I have also switched over to purchasing some organic produce. This is always a little painful on the bank account, but if it's possible I think it's worth it. My main focus is to stay away from the dirty dozen. I was really frustrated because I couldn't find organic grapes and strawberries, a usual staple in our fridge, and was thinking I'd have to buy non organic ones. As I was heading for the green grapes it suddenly occurred to me that I could just forgo buying them, it was like an epiphany. I know, ridiculous, of course I could just not buy them, but I think that I'm not alone in this thinking. I think that we have become so accustom to the convenience of our food that we (and I'm generalizing here, of course there are tons and tons of people who have made this realization long ago), don't even really think about it.

Hannah and Dave just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together and she was amazed at the part where he gets a chocolate bar for his birthday and makes it last a whole month, starting by smelling it, then only having a tiny nibble each day. Of course it fascinated her, she lives in a time (and a socioeconomic bracket) where food is never ending, the fridge is always full and when we run out of something we just run out to the grocery store and buy it. If we run out of time to make something, we can run out to the store and buy it as well. Although a month for a chocolate bar is a little extreme and not what I'm suggesting, but the lesson is there. Start making your own bread and suddenly that loaf of bread becomes very precious, time and energy went into mixing it and kneading it. The poorly executed ravioli that we had for dinner tonight was delicious, even though it was thick and heavy (OK, perhaps delicious is the wrong word here), but we all ate it happily and decided that it was still better than store bought. The leftovers did not go in the garbage, but tucked away in the fridge for a lunch tomorrow.

My Memere use to tell the story about how when she was a girl on the farm her and her siblings wanted some ice cream and so they made it from scratch. The first step for them was to milk the cow. I'm not suggesting we get a cow, and I realize that being at home with an almost four year old affords me certain time luxuries that others don't have, but I would like to be a little closer to the cow milking ice cream and a little further from those Drumstick thingies. It is more than a challenge, it is a lesson in patience, appreciation and effort.

So here is our flawed, heavy ravioli in all it's homemade glory...

 

 

I think that perhaps, we are going to have a spring after all...

 

 

 





Let's hope spring is here to stay and the sun shines down on all of us!

 



Pasta and Granola (but not together)

So, I don't really eat cereal. I prefer toast and peanut butter or toast and eggs for breakfast. Dave and the girls eat cereal every morning, even mornings where we make pancakes or waffles they still start out with a bowl of cereal, Multi grain Cheerios to be precise. I feel the need to make them stop eating this! I know, it's probably not fair, but I just feel like it's unhealthy so I made granola. It went over really well at first, but then they asked for Cheerios yesterday morning and my heart sank, the girls, not Dave, but I am hoping I can still sway them away from the Cheerios (it will be easier when they finish the ones we have in the house).

I had no idea granola was so easy to make. The first batch I made just with what we had around the house and it wasn't nearly as good as this last batch. I looked at this recipe from Catherine Newman as well as the one from Eating From the Ground Up and came up with this one that seems to work for us.

10 cups oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup ground flax
2 cups chopped whole almonds
1 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup honey (although I will try Maple Syrup next time)

Preheat over to 250F.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then mix in the coconut oil and honey.

 

 

Once all the dry bits are mixed in, spread out on two parchment lined baking sheets and bake for an hour and a half, shifting it around a bit in the pan and turning the pans every 1/2 hour.

After the hour and a half turn the oven off and let it cool completely, I did this in an afternoon and left in the oven until morning. In the morning I pulled it out and there were lots of chunky granola goodness. Store in an airtight container. Dave eats it plain, Hannah and Harper like to add raisins and a little dried apple, I like a small bowl as a snack with banana.

Sam Roberts in playing in the background (Me and Julio) on CBC, the girls are anxiously waiting for Busytown Mysteries to come on and have thanked me twice for letting them watch TV this morning (we have come to a time where we feel comfortable having both girls get up and watch TV while we sleep a little later - Hallelujah!). I am enjoying an uninterrupted cup of coffee, the kitchen is littered with various dishes and bits of breakfast food here and there, we are all still in our PJ's and the sun is shinning outside. It's Friday and Hannah's off today, what a treat!

Hannah loves having days off school and I love having her home, I take these days to try and say yes every chance I get, we never get anything that needs to be done, and there usually involves some baking and cooking. Plus, there's someone to play with Harper and I often get more than a few minutes to myself here and there. The best part is, we all know it's a treat, even though we never actually say it, and are all light of spirit. The only down sides are that Dave's not home and that when Hannah has a day off, that usually means that Harper has the day off preschool the day before. Harper does not enjoy days off. Wednesday night my heart broke for her as she tried to understand why she didn't get to go to preschool the next morning, and she eventually fell asleep on top of me, with her face buried into my neck and her little body still sobbing. It was really sad, school is the highlight of her week, well that and lunch. Harper asks if it's lunch time from the moment we drop Hannah off at the bus stop (I often feel that way too, wishing for lunch the moment after I take the last bite of my breakfast).

After a small bout of craziness where I had to insist the girls play outside to exert some of the energy that was busting the seams of the house, we baked. Before we baked, I looked out the window to see my two darling girls pounding a downspout drainpipe into the snow in the middle of the front yard. I went outside and asked them not to take parts off of our house and play with them. Hannah responded, "It wasn't attached, it was just laying there" to which I actually had to respond, "Please don't take parts that have already fallen off our house and play with them." This category actually encompasses more than just this drainpipe...perhaps the kitchen wasn't the smart choice of where our house needs improving - but it does make us the most happy! After this, we baked.

 

 

 

 

I think I have posted this little cookbook before, which Dave's parents bought for Hannah. She has been known to sneak it over to my parent's and ask them to bake with her. She has also mentioned she needs to know where it is for Grammie and Grampie's upcoming visit. The cookie recipe in it is really great because it only makes 10 cookies! Brilliant!

While the dough rested the girls decided to make kites and fly them outside. Hannah complained that she just couldn't seem to keep hers up and Harper's advice was, "lift your arm higher!" She then looked me square in the face and said, "Hey, I named my kite John!" and ran off around the car.

As they ran around with sheer glee I couldn't help to think of the child that died in Boston this past week, the havoc, the craziness, the sadness, the loss. Dave keeps texting me about the hunt that is taking place today, how they are in lock down and I wonder, how is it that these things happen? Why does it feel like the world's gone crazy when there is such joy and innocence that exists? My prayers and thoughts go out to all those affected.

I have been a little worried and excited about Friday night's pasta all week. I borrowed my parents pasta maker and it has been sitting on the counter, taunting me. So today, while the girls flew their kites, I dumped the flour on the counter, poured the salt and eggs into the middle and started to mix.

14oz flour
4 eggs
pinch of salt

From Eating From the Ground Up.

There were many moments when I was pretty sure I wasn't doing it right, but wondered how I might be doing it wrong.

 

 

It all mixed in and after breaking a sweat kneading it (don't let that scare you, I break a sweat pretty easily - too much info?), it became all uniform and I was able to divide it into 5, lay it to rest, covered in plastic for thirty minutes.

I then rolled it out with the pasta machine, with a little help.

When I put it through the cutting side, and I first saw the little strands of spaghetti my heart skipped a beat, *blush* is that maybe an embarrassing omission? Well it did, I was so excited! I made pasta and it wasn't even really very hard.

Now, I refuse to buy a proper pasta drying rack until I know I'm going to continue to make it so I draped it over various racks that I had around.

When Dave came home and I had a pot of water boiling I was suddenly nervous again, will it really work? I dropped all the pasta in and it cooked, doesn't it look...like real pasta!

 

When it came out I mixed it with a little sauce and voila it was gobbled up! Raved about! Hannah declared, "This is probably better because it's homemade!"

 

 

 

 

I had been roasting tomatoes for the sauce all afternoon, so it even smelt like an Italian restaurant!

For the sauce I lined a roasting dish with tin foil and squished in as many halved deseeded Roma tomatoes I could. I drizzled them with olive oil and whole cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like it, I used a whole head of garlic), a sprinkle of salt and roasted them in a 200F oven for 6 hours. When they were ready I put them in the food processor with a cube of pesto I had in the freezer. The sauce turned out a little thick and so I thinned it with a little olive oil and cooking water from the pasta. It was still a thicker sauce and I just mixed in a little at a time to coat the pasta. It was yum and then I froze the rest!

When I reread this post before publishing, I moved around the part about Boston, finding it awkwardly sandwiched into our day and wanting to mention it, but not in any way wanting to seem flip about it. I realized there was no easy way to add it. It's not clean and neat, it doesn't fit into a certain part of the blog or our lives. It is messy and scary and sad, it horrifies us and then we must carry on with our days and lives. Count ourselves lucky that we don't live there or haven't lost any loved ones, count ourselves unlucky that this is the world that we live in, where a whole continent is rocked by the actions of a couple. It creeps into our day, finds us in some of our joyess moments and reminds us of how our worlds can be shattered in an instant. I wish that I had proper words or prayers to help those that have been so closely, emotionally and physically affected, I don't. But, I do hope and pray for them and all of us...