Camping: what to cook!

So I'm just going to give you the rundown of what we ate on our last trip, because that is honestly the easiest way for me to do this. I also recommend Googling camping recipes (Fresh Off the Grid is my favorite site for achievable campfire food that actually tastes good) and thinking about how you can adapt your family's favorite meals at home to the great outdoors. Also, just plan for some hot dogs, because they are somehow delicious when camping even if they're gross at home.

Our basic approach is to have a loose schedule based on what is perishable and plan around that. We also consider whether we are going to be on a super long hike or have an easier day--that factors into what kind of energy & time we will have for cooking. And then we figure out if we need to swing by a grocery store mid-trip or if we are going for a short enough time (4-5 days) that we can just pack everything in.

And here's the most important rule about camping food: NO JUDGEMENTS. Basically you are just trying to get calories into your people so that they don't drop dead of exhaustion. So yes, you might be eating differently than you do at home (which ahem is why we always bring dried prunes with us and everyone eats a handful every day) but a week of less-than-perfect food will not kill anyone. Plus when you get home everyone will be SO excited for salads.

Breakfast ideas:

• Kodiak pancake mix and add milk + eggs. This is a great way to get some protein at the very beginning of the day into our kids.
• Yogurt--our kids love the Noosa yogurts so this is another good protein one for them. 
• Bacon + something else. Usually eggs. All of our kids LOVE bacon so this is another mega hit in the mornings. Sometimes hash browns. 
• Instant oatmeal--we buy both the crummy kind that's full of sugar and the steel-cut kind that's full of dried fruit. People pick and choose and everyone ends up happy.
• Muffins--I will usually bake and freeze muffins or quick breads before we leave and then we will eat them when they thaw. This time we also grabbed some Costco muffins in Montana and they were a perfect (indulgent cake-like) breakfast on the morning when we peeled everyone out of their sleeping bags at 5:30 AM so that we could get a parking spot at the Avalanche Lake trailhead. The chocolate muffins were a surprisingly effective motivator for the kids to get up and going. 
• On the day that we break camp, we usually eat Quaker Oatmeal Squares in the car so that we don't have to deal with dishes. 
• Hot chocolate--always hot chocolate. It was usually in the 40s in the mornings on this trip and dang, hot chocolate has never been so welcome.
  
  And repeat! 

Lunches/snacks: 

• Canned beef stew (Dinty Moore somehow tastes so freaking good when camping--the kids would not stop talking about how heavenly this meal was)
• Quesadillas
• PBJS/PB & honey/deli meat sandwiches with King's Hawaiian rolls
• Chunks of smoked kielbasa, string cheese, wheat thins/Triscuits
• Gratuitous amount of hiking snacks: before we go on hiking trips we hit Costco and get all the things we never buy: variety packs of Oreos/Nutter Butters/Chips Ahoy/Ritz Bits, Sun chips, trail mix, then we throw in a few hundred Nature Valley & Clif bars, a lot of fruit snacks, beef jerky, some of those chocolate pandas, clementines, carrots, string cheese, etc. We let the kids pack their own Camelbaks with their chosen snacks for the day, they eat whenever they are hungry (they're really good at rationing things out--we always track mileage and they are aware of how long we're likely to be out) and often if we are out long enough everyone just manages to eat enough snacks that we don't end up having an official lunch. 
• Apples/bananas/plums/peaches--these don't last long but boy are they good while they do!!

this chili wasn't ready until it was already dark, but gosh it was worth the wait!!

Dinner:

• Chicken tikka masala + couscous + broccoli. We cut and freeze the chicken beforehand, then saute it with onions and peppers, add canned tikka masala simmer sauce, and serve it with couscous (which is our preference because it cooks so quickly). 
• Hot dogs--just don't squish the buns!)
• Sloppy Joes (meat and sauce precooked at home, frozen, and reheated on the propane stove. Again, watch the buns!)
• Chicken & bacon with onions & red potatoes in BBQ sauce--so so good but we did NOT put in the pound of butter (camping food yes but I do have to draw the line somewhere). 
• Boxed rice jambalaya + smoked kielbasa
• Cast iron skillet pizza--oh my heavens this is so good. We tried both pepperoni + cheese & fresh mozzarella + tomato + basil and just...so so good. 
• Tin foil dinners (kielbasa, hash browns, onions, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, and carrots--we made these at home, froze them, and then popped them in the fire the first night we arrived)
• Cornbread-topped chili in Dutch oven 
• Sausage cooked with potatoes, onions, and bell peppers

For dinners, we added in whatever assortment of veggies we had from the cooler. One night we had pan-fried broccoli, sometimes we had baby carrots, peppers, snap peas, and hummus, sometimes we've done frozen beans that we then reheat, etc. We've also done bagged Costco salads that were met with great appreciation. I just about wept tears of joy over my sweet kale salad our first night in Glacier.



Desserts: 

• many many marshmallows and s'mores
• Dutch oven cakes: pineapple upside down cake, Dr. Pepper cherry chocolate cake (everyone's very favorite), peach cobbler, etc.

Drinks:

Sometimes we have juiceboxes or made lemonade, but we usually just stick with water. When we brought the Yeti cooler this year we kept milk in it which made certain people (ahem Luke ahem) VERY happy. Everyone in our family has one Camelbak waterbottle that stays in the car, everyone except Matthew has a hydration pack (that's the 3L one I have; here are smaller 2L and 1.5L versions that the kids carry) and we also have a water purifier that we carry with us when hiking. We didn't end up pumping any water this year (on our super long hike I was just about to start filtering water and then this nice girl at the Sperry Chalet asked me if I wanted some of the Costco water bottles from the pallets they'd just helicoptered in--yes please!), but in other years when we've been in hotter climates we have used it a ton (Smoky Mountains, Rockies, Tetons) and it is WELL worth the investment. Plus it's fun to be able to actually drink from those ice-cold mountain streams! 

the day after we went to Costco! Oh you blessed baguette and Brie...

Toasted Coconut Muesli with Cardamom, Ginger, and Dried Fruit

things I could be blogging about: I turned 35, we went on a ten-day spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Utah, Isaac turned 9, the kids start school in less than 2 weeks and the summer is almost over, Isaac started orthodontia, my sister started chemo, our garden is crazy huge, I've been doing tons of home projects, my tumors were benign.

things I'm going to blog about: the recipe for this muesli, because I wrote it up for a friend today and people are always asking for it.

so here it is. 

Toasted Coconut Muesli with Cardamom, Ginger, and Dried Fruit
6 c. old-fashioned oats

1 c. shredded coconut

1 c. pepitas

1 c. sunflower seeds

1/4 c. flax seeds (honestly for this part I just throw in all the seed varieties I have on hand). 

optional: chopped nuts (we like slivered almonds)

Combine that list of ingredients, and then boil together scant cup of sugar, 1/4 c. oil (I like to use coconut oil) and 1/4 c. water. Or you could just do 3/4 c. honey and 1/4 c. oil but I usually end up using sugar because I'd rather save my honey for other things where I notice it more. Then I add a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ginger, and cardomom (sometimes I throw in fennel or nutmeg or whatever seems good), boil everything until the sugar has dissolved, and stir it into the oats mixture.

Grease 2 rimmed baking sheets, divide the mixture in half, spread evenly on sheets, and bake at 300 for 22 minutes, stopping halfway through to stir/swap sheets' places if your oven doesn't accommodate them side by side. Remove immediately from baking sheets when done so they don't continue to cook.

Then I like to add dried fruit--my kids' favorites are slivered apricots, Craisins, raisins, dates, prunes, etc. 

And voila! Should keep in an airtight container until you've eaten it up (which is about 3 days in my house so I don't know how long it would last otherwise!)

ps I like to buy my spice's from Penzey's. They are awesome. 

eleven thoughts on a thursday

I have so much I want to write down but never time to do it! Stealing some instagram photos and jotting down a few notes.

1) First of all, Matthew is 18 months old! I have just savored his babyhood so much. So delicious and delightful and wonderful. I'm so grateful we are ending our baby years on Matthew; all of our babies have been a joy but some have been more stressful than others. ;-) And it's great to go out with beautiful memories of this chapter of our lives. A few years ago I was just absolutely devastated by the thought that we would have no more babies. And now I am at peace. When I look at pictures of the girls when they were little, I still feel an ache of missing my sweet girls at that stage...but having older children really is a delight in so many ways. (Is it weird that I'm looking forward to grandbabies in the next decade or two?)

But Matthew certainly keeps us on our toes. He isn't talking much (which is starting to become more and more stressful). He seems to understand everything we say, and he says a few words, but most of his energy seems to be funneled into death-defying stunts. At his 16-month checkup the pediatrician watched him rapidly scale the exam table, then looked at me and said, "I'll bet he's not talking much, is he?" and reassured me that some kids focus on speech and some on movement...but I hope the movement slows down soon and the speech picks up! (A few days ago I found him standing on 5 stacked stools that he'd climbed in order to get at a box of applesauce squeeze pouches, which are stored above my head height.)

Matty loves his stuffed cats, his bottle (argh, gotta get rid of that thing), Legos, anything mechanical/building-inclined (he likes to stick screwdrivers into all the electrical outlets...like all the time), feeding himself food he scavenges for himself as opposed to food placed on his high chair tray, turning off the washer and dryer, hiding in the laundry room cubbies, sneaking out into the garage and dumping all the cat food into the cat water, sneaking into the girls' room and getting out all the tiny ceramic animals in Juliet's drawer, coloring on the walls/floor/windows/doors, digging with a spoon in all the houseplants, climbing inside the dishwasher, taking baths, eating hummus from a spoon, drinking from everyone else's waterbottle, biting into clementines and furiously chewing through the skin to turn everything to pulp, bringing everyone their shoes all day long, taking rides in laundry baskets...basically he's a full-fledged toddler. Some of my favorite things about him at this stage: he always folds his arms if anyone says the word "prayer" or "Heavenly Father," when you ask him a question and he nods yes he will bow from the waist instead of just nodding his head, and he loves music SO SO SO much and is basically the most enthusiastic dancer you can possibly imagine.

Whew--that was a lot! Still with me?

2) Isaac had his first Pinewood Derby this week for Cub Scouts. To say it went well is an understatement--he won every heat that he was in, won his age group, and then won the 1st place overall. He tried so hard to be a good winner and not celebrate excessively while he was still around his fellow competitors, but man that kiddo was so darn overjoyed when we got home! He's slept with his car every night since. He's so much like Neil in his ability to analyze the mechanics of an engineering problem.  As I was watching him pour melted lead into his car I thought back to 2-year-old Isaac doing puzzles every day for 3 hours straight and 3-year-old Isaac following advanced Lego instructions before he could read and 4-year-old Isaac building wildly complex K’nex roller coaster tracks that took up his entire bedroom. This kid is single-minded in his love for engineering, physics, and mathematics, and he understands them intuitively in ways I never have until he explains something to me and suddenly the concept clicks into place. One of the most delightful things about parenting is watching my children surpass my own abilities and excel in their passions.

And now some shorter thoughts. :-)

3) Neil has been traveling a looooot lately. We are adjusting and I'm pretty proud of all of us. The first few trips were pretty rough (going to Germany for 2 weeks back to back will do that, especially if the house floods during the resident engineer's absence) but I feel like we're settling into a groove. We've got this!

4) On that note, one of the things I like to do when Neil is gone is watch hair tutorial videos on YouTube. It's pretty fun and I've gotten some great ideas. My hair is so long now that I braid it most days and it's exciting to have it be a production rather than something I'm racing through. :-) I feel very Edwardian as I brush my hair out and rebraid it at night before bed. I've also been trying to really up my skincare game and so now I have this whole routine that I do every night and it is SOOOOO calming! I've always been pretty good about skincare and I always take off my makeup before I sleep and I literally cannot skip moisturizer or I feel like my face will fall off, but...there's a difference between washing your face because you have to and taking care of your skin because you love the ritual of it. I've been using this Neutrogena face wash for literally the last twenty years (if I'm super tired I use the Costco makeup wipes), so that hasn't changed, but recently I switched from this L''Oreal overnight brightening moisturizer (which I really liked but I didn't like mixing the things together because it always made me worry that I was mixing unevenly) to this Baebody one  and I am so in love with it! I also use this eye cream and then I spritz my face and chest with this rosewater & glycerin spray. And once a week or so I work coconut oil through my hair and then braid it, sleep on it, and wash it like normal the next day. So there you have my nightly beauty routine that brings me so much calming joy (I also wear a silk kimono my mom brought me from Hong Kong which really adds to the whole experience, haha!).

5) Earlier week I made a really good salad out of random stuff in the fridge: romaine, beets (sauteed them with rosemary in olive oil), feta, bacon, quinoa, clemintines, and Craisins. I dressed it with olive oil, black currant balsamic, Himalayan salt, lime, and honey. Sooooo good and I'm  eating the leftovers as I type this.

6) I have a half-marathon this weekend. I'm actually still signing up for the full marathon which will make this the first race I have not completed as scheduled...but man, plantar fasciitis is NO joke and I am super super grateful to be able to just run the half! I'm on week 5 of a strength-training program I'm doing with my sister and I really feel like it's made a huge difference in my running, both in the absence of fascial pain and also in my speed. Fingers crossed that it's a fun day Saturday--I'm not racing it but I'd still like to enjoy it and the forecast is for cold rain--yikes!

7) The kids start spring break tomorrow and I can't WAIT. I am SO SO SO excited. Of course this rain could seriously mess up all my awesome plans, but...I think we will still have fun. On the schedule--Conner Prairie, cheer for my race as it winds through our neighborhood (!!!), playdates with friends, the zoo, Decker grandparents for Easter weekend, lots of hiking, cousins Addie & Idris, and Aunt Rosalind & Uncle Chris!

8) I am kind of obsessed with Great British Baking Show. Most Sunday nights we watch an episode together as a family but last Sunday we were slow on dinner jobs, didn't watch our show, and I am DYING. I seriously love that show and it gives me inspiration all week!! Plus we get super into it and we all have our favorites and we've gotten to be pretty invested armchair critics (and it's awesome how much more appreciative my kids are whenever Neil or I bake something! Always fun to hear someone pronounce "this is a good bake").

9) I feel like Neil and I have grown a lot closer in the last six months, and I'm so grateful for this. We had a pretty rocky patch after Nathan was born, and we've been good since then, but the last six months I feel like we've really stepped up our game. We've spent more time together working on projects around the house and discussing long-term future plans (for so long we've just been focused on graduation and not able to look beyond that step) and it just reminds me how dang head over heels I am for this guy.

10) Last week I ordered 5 fruit trees, rhubarb plants, and a whole bunch of raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry bushes. I'm so excited to plant all these new friends and start a little orchard in our big beautiful backyard! Already daydreaming about bees...

11) And finally--I am so grateful for how well all the kids are doing in school. There's a huge hubbub right now because our district is phasing out high-ability programming (WHY ARE YOU INSANE?!!!) and while I am very frustrated by it and I've been contacting people and writing letters and attending meetings, I am very at peace at the same time, because I'm confident that my children will continue to thrive. We were prepared for a pretty big dip in grades as they adjusted here, but they came through with flying colors and have continued to absolutely ace every evaluation and in many ways are doing better academically than in our previous district. Abigail was invited to join the Junior National Honor Society and is continuing on the highest honor roll with her 4.0; all the other kids have straight A's, and Luke has been invited to participate in (whatever they have for) high-ability programming next year. And Nathan is constantly asking me how to spell things so he can write messages to all of us, and it is pretty much the cutest thing ever. Isaac just finished up programming club, Abigail is involved in space & rocketry club, and we're about to start spring sports. Life is good. 

Day 5

Today's five good things:

1) Stake conference today meant that church started an hour later, which meant there was time for me to make waffles for breakfast! (And for the kids to exhaustively recap all of the nightmares they've ever had that they can remember. Interesting way to start the day off...)

2) Abigail & I made orange rolls for dinner tonight--the last time I made them all of the kids HATED them and tonight they loved them! Good thing because who does not love orange rolls?!

3) Neil got a nap today. He's been living on the knife-edge of exhaustion, so I'm glad he got a break this afternoon.

4) I got an email earlier today notifying me that my federal and state tax returns, which I filed yesterday, have both been accepted--hurray!

5) Morning church means more leisure in the afternoons (the best!), so we made Juliet's favorite little tuna cakes for lunch today:

2 cans tuna, well-drained
1 small onion, diced finely
2-3 eggs, depending on size
1 c. panko crumbs
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. mustard (either Dijon or yellow)
1/2 t, salt

Mix all the ingredients together--you should be able to squeeze them into a cohesive ball in your hand without it either slopping away or crumbling apart. It was a little crumbly today so I added another egg. Flatten into little round cakes (I usually do them 3-4 inches in diameter). Heat a nonstick pan, add a couple tablespoons of oil, and fry the cakes until golden-brown (2 minute or so), then flip and fry another 2 minutes. Yum!

Five for February

And here we go again with another year of Five for February, which I started back in 2011 as a way of instilling some gratitude into my bleak winter days. :-)

1) Tonight while Neil & the girls were at the church for Scouts/Activity Days, I had a peaceful hour reading stories with all four of the boys. Lovely! I reflected on how different storytime is with the computer-in-the-pocket era here to stay, as we ended up watching four YouTube videos when the shark book we were reading left us with lots of unanswered questions about the different swimming styles and leaping abilities of various sharks. Is it possible that my random shark facts obsession is passing to another generation? :-)

2) On the reading note, a new book arrived today! This is such a silly one that we all loved, but it's never checked in to the library so I finally just ordered our own. Luke giggles like crazy whenever we read it.

3) And speaking of which, Luke is a reading superstar! He's progressing so well (right now he's reading at a second-grade level). I love watching that world of words open up. We're getting close to the magical point where I start having him read Harry Potter to me and from there it just explodes. (Sidenote: Isaac finished the 7th Harry Potter book over Christmas break and Abigail just read Anne of Green Gables a couple weeks back. Good golly I love how reading takes us on such fantastic journeys!)

4) We had some great news today about Neil's research. I'll blog about it more in a few weeks, but things are looking really good for him these days.

5) Tonight's dinner was met with much acclaim from the kids, which is always so great to hear (Neil got home late enough that I didn't even hear his reaction to dinner, poor guy). It was not the dinner I'd planned to make, mostly because the last 3 days I've been too tired to go to the grocery store and get all the stuff on my list (Matthew is totally killing me with the 4-6 wakeups a night!!!). But the broccoli was SO good and got so many rave reviews that it made me feel like I'd pulled off some amazing feat overall. ;-)

So I was scrounging for dinner stuff tonight and this is what I ended up making: broiled chicken and apple sausages, garlic mashed potatoes (combo of russets and red potatoes because I didn't have enough of either), rice pilaf (with jasmine rice, which was a little odd but it tasted okay if you like rice pilaf, which 2/5 kids did), and the REAL hit--broccoli sauteed so that it was crisp in spots and tender in others (such good flavor with slightly blackened broccoli!!) and then tossed with lemon zest, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and pink Himalayan salt. I've roasted broccoli quite a few times but this was the first time I've tried to replicate it on the stovetop. And Luke, who was my dinner helper tonight, was SO proud because he chopped the potatoes and broccoli, then squeezed the lemon juice. (I have this juicer-thingie and it is a total game-changer. AMAZING.)

Fabulous Greek Yogurt (a recipe)

Oh my goodness, there are literally 1000 things I need to blog about. But so little time! And I really must share this recipe because I've been perfecting it for months and I've finally got it.

There were three things I wanted to achieve with my yogurt recipe:

1) Delicious
2) As easy as possible--i.e. walk away and forget about it
3) Super-thick consistency that maximized yield

And this one fits the bill!

So here it is without further ado.

Ingredients:
1 gallon whole milk, NOT ultra-pasteurized
1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
3 T. powdered milk

**The quality of the milk and yogurt you start with really do matter. Locally, I've found that I get the best results with Kroger milk rather than Meijer, and Aldi milk just doesn't work AT ALL. Oikos-brand yogurt gives a great yield; Kroger store-brand regular (non-Greek) yogurt just gives a sloppy mess.

Equipment:
Instant Pot (I know, I know...but I promise it is so much better than making it on the stove or even with a yogurt maker. I've tried both for years and this seriously is SO much easier and the yield is 1000 times better)
Nut milk bag (I love this one!)
Cooking thermometer--I have a cheapie poultry one. You don't need anything fancy; this one is inexpensive and has good reviews.

Method:

1) Add 3 T. powdered milk and entire gallon of whole milk to the Instant Pot. Stir vigorously to combine, then replace lid, press "Yogurt" button, then "Adjust" button so that the screen reads "Boil."
2) Walk away and let the Instant Pot do its thing.
3) When you hear the beep signifying that the milk has come to a boil, grab your thermometer and check that the milk is at 180 degrees. In Indiana, I usually have to turn it to saute for about five minutes more, but my sister (in Utah) gets 180 on the first try.
4) This next step is the finicky one--you want the milk between 110 and 120 degrees. You can wait for it to cool down on its own (takes about an hour), or you can speed the process up by putting the pot in a sink full of cold water (just don't splash any into the yogurt). This method takes about 5 minutes--you just need to watch carefully to make sure it doesn't get too cold.
5) While you're waiting for the milk to cool, measure out your 1/2 c. of plain Greek yogurt. This is your starter. I like to use a larger measuring cup (a 2.5-cup plastic cup works really well; I prefer this to glass just because it's lighter and more maneuverable) so I have plenty of extra room to stir in milk.
6) Once the milk gets to 120 degrees, immediately remove it from the water (if you're using that method) and dip out at least a cup of the hot milk and whisk it vigorously with the starter yogurt. You want to really make sure that starter gets dissolved. Once it's dissolved into the hot milk. then pour the mixture back into the Instant Pot basin and whisk away again until it's REALLY dissolved. I opt for 120 so that when it inevitably cools as I'm stirring I don't miss that crucial 110-120 window.
7) Put the Instant Pot basin back into the heating unit, put the lid on, and press "Yogurt" again. Then use the up/down arrows to manually increase the amount of time. It's programmed to go for 8 hours; I like to do 10 hours to get a really thick yogurt.
8) Once the pot beeps after 10 hours, pour the resultant mixture into your nut milk bag and hang it over a large bowl (because it's going to drip, and you can use that whey later!) for about an hour. This will make it really thick, so you can skip it if you don't care about Greek yogurt, but I think you should do it. :-) The easiest way I've found to do this is to just tie the bag's drawstrings onto a cabinet handle. I've also used a flour sack towel & baker's twine instead of the nut milk bag, but it's a pain and makes it a two-person job.
9) Squeeze the yogurt out of the nut milk bag and into a big container (I get about 10 cups of yogurt). And voila! You're done!

**Save that whey--it's great in smoothies, baked goods, etc. It has a nice tang to it that my kids LOVE! I just pour it into quart jars (I get about 1.5 quarts from a gallon of milk) and pop it in the 'fridge until I'm ready to use it.

**Your yogurt will be plain, i.e. without added flavors--it should have a delicious tangy taste, but if you'd like it a bit sweeter, you can drizzle in honey, jam, etc. I recommend adding these as you serve it rather than sweetening the whole batch.

**The entire process takes about 12 hours. I recommend either starting it first thing in the morning, or about an hour before you go to bed so that the yogurt cooks overnight.

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Bits and bobs

I hate catch-up blogging. I really do! My favorite kind of blogging is the kind that happens every day, where I'm recording the funny or interesting or dismal or transcendent things that happened that day. It's a much better journal because I can really see the change over time. With catch-up blogging, I feel like I'm just blogging events that don't really change that much in their overall scope. Every year we have birthdays, Christmas, spring break, etc., and they mostly follow the same pattern, but it's the day-to-day stuff that is most interesting to me.

With that said, I'm a terrible daily blogger lately. So terrible, in fact, that when I downloaded some photos from Facebook tonight (yes, this is one of those recycled photo posts) that I realized that it's April and I haven't even made monthly folders for my photos. I always organize them by year and then by month--I have 2015 but that's it. We still haven't replaced that camera that's somewhere in a snowbank in Aspen; any photos are being taken on my iPad and then posted to Facebook with some little caption because that's so much easier than blogging. But here I am anyway with some old photos that you've probably already seen if we're Facebook friends but I still like them so here they are.

The day Luke wore this costume, he told me he was half skier, half princess, and half nothing. 

The other reason that blogging has been hard for me lately is that I just don't feel like there's much that's interesting in my life right now. We're still in the exact same place doing the exact same things. No new babies, no graduation, no new job or house or renovations or projects. I made strawberry jam last weekend, just like I've done in spring for the last nine years. I'm training for a half-marathon, just like I've done over and over again. I'm working more than I'd like to and worrying about the children and wondering what I can do to help Neil graduate. Winter is over. Spring is coming. And I'm hoping desperately that it lifts me out of my ongoing funk.

A few weeks ago the children were on spring break. We stuck pretty close to home most of the time--we went to the library one day and met some friends at the local children's museum another day, but one day we ventured further afield and went to the zoo with Neil. It was SO wonderful to be outside--it was one of the first warm(ish) days that we'd had in forever (it snowed the next day but boy did we enjoy our time in the sunlight while we had it!)

Another day I made strawberry pies--my very favorite recipe here. Soooo good.

And lots of friend time over the break--one day all of the kiddos made this giant fort city out of the living room. This was about halfway through.

Homemade playdough one morning...

...and a grumpy monkey the next.

A rainy afternoon playing with Isaac while the two little boys took naps (simultaneously! Hasn't happened in ages! Sweet manna from heaven!).

My old blender finally gave up the ghost and shattered catastrophically, so I no longer had a valid excuse not to take the plunge I'd been debating for the last two years. And you guys--I am SO in love. We've had it for less than three weeks and I've already made 59 smoothies (it has a counter). I love love love the fact that everything gets perfectly pulverized; I have been drinking regular green smoothies for years and it is soooo nice not to fish bits of spinach or chunks of blueberry out of my teeth or the sippy spout of Nathan's cup! I didn't think I would feel so passionately about it but I totally do. :-) (Plus Abigail is now obsessed with making us smoothies all the time which is pretty awesome. The only downside is that I discovered I have a kiwi allergy, which is a total bummer. I probably wouldn't have noticed without making a 3-kiwi smoothie one day that made my tongue go completely numb for 4 hours.)

Oh man have Luke and I been knocking heads lately...I keep asking him when "sweet Luke" is going to come for a visit--you know, the one that doesn't lie on the floor screaming when his slightest wish is defied? And he scrunches up his face and glares at me and says, "MOM I AM YOUR SWEET LUKE!" and then I kiss him and say, yes, you are Luke, but can you be the happy version of Luke? You know, the one who's not sitting on your brother and calmly looking at a book while he screams his head off?

So I love this photo. Happy Luke! Not screaming-at-me-and-throwing-things-Luke. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a hard time with four-year-olds. 

And last but not least, some new little chickies to add to our flock. Abigail has been begging for bantam hens ever since we saw how tiny and dainty and adorable they were last year. She is in total heaven right now and has spent a great deal of time cooing over them in their little bathtub home (we will begin integrating them with the older hens in another couple of weeks).

Meet Eleanor...

 ...and Rosemary. (Yes, I was totally sitting on the edge of the tub holding a chick and rereading Animal Vegetable Miracle...I couldn't remember if they had any bantams.) :-)

February 10th

1) Piano lesson for the girls today and for once I didn't have any laptop work to do--so I just got to sit there and read the whole time! Yippee!

2) Ran all of the errands that have been nagging away at the back of my mind (bank, grocery store, library). Just little things but so freeing once I was finished with them...for this week, anyway! And I was able to completely reconstruct my grocery list from memory when I realized I'd left it on top of the dryer at home (which is really saying something because it was a very complicated list that included all of the things we were out of at home, plus all of the meal ingredients for the week, plus all of the stuff I need to host book group/do treats for class parties/valentines for class parties/kindergarten snacks for Isaaac's class for the whole week).

3) We finally got all of the K'nex cleaned up because Isaac finished his latest project and agreed to disassemble it, which is awesome because a) Abigail and Isaac's room is sparkling clean & vacuumed b) the K'nex are all locked up in their bin instead of hiding around the house to nab unsuspecting bare feet and c) I don't have to listen to Abigail complaining about running into the roller coaster in the middle of the night and Isaac complaining about Abigail breaking his roller coaster when she runs into it in the middle of the night. Tomorrow I am rearranging the furniture in that room to accommodate my little builder (as I type this I can see his rolling ball machine out of the corner of my eye--he cannot build in two rooms simultaneously!!).

4) I made one of my favorite dinners tonight--mushroom & chile carbonara. It's one that Neil and I used to make a lot when we were at BYU, but it doesn't make an appearance as frequently with only one mushroom-loving kiddo (Luke was in heaven!). And it's soooo easy...saute a pound of mushrooms in butter with a few cloves of garlic and a pinch of chile flakes while you cook 10 oz of thin spaghetti. Beat two eggs together with 1 1/4 c. cream, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 t. basil, then turn the cooked spaghetti into the mushroom mixture and add the cream/eggs. Heat gently until it thickens (don't boil!), and then top with 3-4 chopped tomatoes (and fresh basil if it's summer). Then we add fresh Parmesan. It's totally not a calorie-counting dinner, but it is ohhhh so good! (We love this paired with a green salad, but tonight I didn't have time so we just ate raw veggies with hummus and some more of those yummy clementines.)

5) And on that note, I have time tonight to do a long run so I'm off to the treadmill. Yippee! (I'm trying to convince myself that I'm excited instead of just wanting to go to bed.) :-)

a week or two back

It seems like I'm always a couple of weeks behind in posting things--I need to focus on taking photos with just one device instead of two so that I can update everything at once rather than alternating back and forth! Oh well. These photos of our sushi night a few weeks back are just so fun to me--it is the first time we've ever tried rolling sushi and it was a hit!


I just spread out a ton of ingredients and the kids were able to pick and choose what they wanted to include in their rolls (trying to remember what we had--I think orange & red peppers, cucumber, pears, kiwi, mango, scrambled eggs, avocado, hard salami (no raw fish but the salami was a kid-friendly substitute). We went through the first batch of sushi rice really quickly and then it was kind of a pain to wait 20 minutes for the second one to cook, so I'd recommend making more at the beginning. And the nori sheets went over surprisingly well! The kids were very skeptical of the smell but decided that they couldn't actually taste it in the rolls.



While the younger kids helped with ingredient prep, I put Abigail in charge of writing up instructions on our kitchen whiteboard. She watched a few YouTube tutorials to figure out the best technique and then wrote up a little 5-step process for us to follow.

 Some of our finished rolls--I was really pleased with how well they turned out! Super yummy and lots of fun to make--definitely a nice change from nights where I make dinner while the kids play outside and then they all come in and complain about the food. :-)

One day this past week it was lovely and breezy so we put Tot down for his nap and then all went outside together to read stories on a blanket under the tree (very cozy since it was a small blanket and there were five of us!).

We planted this tree in October of 2006 just a few days after we closed on our home--the little sapling was shorter than me.

We spent a few days with Legos all over the library (we moved the couch to block Tot from coming in when we weren't there) while we sorted through and found missing pieces from various sets. On the second day Luke got tired of stepping on Legos, so he decided to climb up and watch us from the couch and ended up taking a 3-hour nap. Love that kid. He totally isn't bothered at all by the noise and chaos around him!

Abigail loves Pinterest--she found a pin about making ice cubes out of KoolAid and was so excited to try them! First time my kids have ever had KoolAid--I could see their horizons broadening rapidly as they stirred it up. ("You mean we can make juice-stuff from a packet, Mommy?") Sidenote: I was also similarly unfamiliar with KoolAid when I started college, but I thought it was awesome how it always woke me up when I was faced with a long night of studying. It wasn't until after I married Neil that I learned that you were only supposed to make it with one cup of sugar per packet rather than two. Oops...that explains a lot!

 ps--the rest of that dinner was really good too! Makes me hungry just looking at it--I had tried out a new baba ghanouj recipe and it was amazing!! plus my favorite baguettes, the "zucchini stir-fry of glory," as my sister calls it (recipe at the bottom of this post), and apricots which are my very favorite fruit!

 The kids are endlessly entertained by the bizarre places Hermes loves to sleep...

 The other night I was really tired so I persuaded the kids to style my hair (my favorite way to just relax and get a delicious head-rub/hairbrushing/braiding time...I swear, nothing feels so good as having someone else do your hair! Neil was feeling bereft so the kids decided to give him a "flower helmet" (Isaac and Luke aren't in this picture because they were still busily giving me a similarly beautiful hairstyle).

More reading under the tree..

 And some of the things that make me happiest at this time of year--glorious beautiful fruit in my favorite bowl. I rearranged all of my serving dishes the other day so that I can see them first thing every time I open up my cupboards--pretty things make me so happy. Sounds materialistic, I know, but I just love beauty whether it is a bowl full of delectable fruit or a mountain sunrise or a table set with serving pieces I adore. :-)

 See? So very very beautiful.Makes my heart happy.

And here's that recipe! (If you're in my ward this might look familiar--it's the one that I demonstrated a year or two ago at recipe group.)

Zucchini, Corn, and Peanut Stir-fry 
recipe from Fast, Fresh, and Green by Susie Middleton

1 large zucchini (10-11 oz)
1 3⁄4 c. fresh corn (I have used frozen corn with good results)
6 large scallions (or one large onion), diced
2 t. thick hoisin sauce
1 t. fish sauce
1 t. lime juice
1 T. finely chopped fresh ginger
1 1.2 t. minced garlic
1⁄4 t. chili-garlic sauce
2 T. oil
1/3 c. unsalted peanuts
1 t. kosher salt
1 1⁄2 T. finely chopped fresh mint (or 1 t. dried)
1 1⁄2 T. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Trim ends off zucchini, cut in half crosswise, and cut panels off all four sides of each of the halves, revealing inner core & seeds. Discard core, and dice panels. Combine zucchini, corn, and scallions and set by the stove.

2. Combine hoisin sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, and chili sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Heat 1 T. oil over medium heat and stir-fry peanuts until spotted, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer peanuts to a bowl. Add remaining oil, zucchini, onions, corn, and salt. Stir occasionally (more frequently as they start to brown) until the corn is nicely browned and the zucchini is somewhat browned and starting to look translucent.

4. Add ginger-garlic mixture and stir-fry abou 30 seconds until well mixed. Add hoisin mixture, scraping it out of its bowl, and remove the pan from the heat, stirring to incorporate the sauce. Stir in reserved peanuts, mint, and cilantro.

Mix well and transfer to serving platter. This is delicious warm or cold!

Foodie Friday back from a very long hiatus: Thai peanut soba noodles with stir-fried vegetables

image

Most days I consider dinner a wild success if two out of my five children will eat it happily. Earlier this week, I sat down to sheer magic: all five of my kids gobbled up their dinner and asked when we could have it again. Of course, it was one of those ones that I'd just made up as I went along, so Neil told me to write it down right then before I forgot the proportions and could never again recreate it! So here it is--feel free to adjust the veggies according to your own preferences, but don't skip out on the soba noodles or delicious sauce! I had the leftovers for lunch the next day and it was even more mouth-watering (in fact, as I was eating it all the kids asked if we could have it again that night).

Thai peanut soba noodles with stir-fried veggies

Ingredients:
2 packages (and by this I mean those banded portions as shown in the photo) Japanese soba (buckwheat) noodles

3 large carrots, sliced into rounds

2 cups broccoli florets

1/2 red onion, sliced paper-thin

6-8 button mushrooms, sliced

1 T. fresh minced ginger

2 T. coconut oil
1 cooked chicken breast or extra-firm tofu, if you want extra protein--I had roasted some chicken earlier in the week so I sliced it up and mixed it in (roast unfrozen breasts at 350 for 30 minutes...so moist and delicious! I don't bother adding any seasoning. If you're using tofu, press it between two cutting boards weighted with something heavy--I use mixing bowls--for about 30 minutes and then cook it so it gets a sort of crunchy brown coating on the outside. Sometimes I just eat it plain & uncooked but I know that's weird.)

**This is just what I had on hand--things like zucchini, snow peas, and mung bean sprouts would all have gone in had they been available!

Garnishes:
Grated coconut

Peanuts
Chopped cilantro (1/4 c. or so--I love cilantro!)

Sauce:1/2 c. natural peanut butter

1 T. agave nectar

1.5-2 T. Thai Kitchen green curry paste

enough milk to thin it into a slurry--I used whole milk but coconut milk would be preferable!

Preparation

1) Prep all of the vegetables before beginning--this will cook quickly so you'll want to have everything ready to go!

2) Cook the soba noodles according to the package directions, then rinse in cool water so the noodles are no longer hot.

3) Melt the coconut oil in a large frying pan or wok. Stir-fry the red onion and ginger together for 3-4 minutes, then add mushrooms. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes, then add carrots and broccoli for an addition 3 minutes.

4) Pour the sauce over the vegetables and stir to coat thoroughly, then add the vegetables to the cooled noodles. Garnish with cilantro and serve with coconut and peanuts so that each diner can add them according to taste--yum yum!


P.S. Remember when I actually used to blog about food? Yeah, me too. You can find past Foodie Fridays by clicking on the label at the bottom of this post, or go to my sadly neglected recipe blog here.

Squirrel Land + a recipe

Underneath Isaac's bed is a place my children all call "Squirrel Land."  Remember how we have a couple hundred bottles of water for emergencies?  The children have moved the waterbottles into different tunnels and caves and dens under the bed, and they love playing under there.  The great thing about the waterbottles is they are so easily rearranged to suit the fancy of whoever is currently playing in Squirrel Land. 

Isaac was playing in Squirrel Land just before naptime and I asked him if I could take some pictures.  He was absolutely thrilled  to pose and kept saying, "Nunner one picture, Mama?"




  The thing about Squirrel Land is that it's kind of a one or two-person thing.  Juliet and Isaac are okay together; Abigail tends to get kind of territorial and blocks the other kids out (and then Juliet starts crying because she doesn't want to break down the "walls" to get out, but Abigail has fenced her in.  Oh, the drama!)

Speaking of drama, Luke is on his first-ever round of antibiotics.  I was so hopeful that we were going to break the pattern of constant doctor visits, since he's gone 4.5 months without getting really sick, but...poor little buddy has an ear infection (which, considering everyone else had strep, he's gotten off lightly).  Hopefully he will not pull a Juliet and have 9 ear infections his first year and surgery on his first birthday, or an Isaac and spend his first two years on daily breathing treatments.  (My lucky children inherited some awesome genetic predispositions:  I used to be on an inhaler & opti-chamber and Neil has had pneumonia 3 times since we've been in grad school.) 

But he is so cute that I can almost (almost!) forgive him the sleep deprivation.  I took some pictures of the two of us today--I took some yesterday but I had such deep shadows under my eyes that I honestly looked like I had two black eyes.  It was pretty bad.  I made sure to put on a lot of concealer today to spare the world a repeat.

On a completely different note, I made a dinner last night that everyone actually liked!!  Abigail even told me the kitchen smelled delicious as she was getting ready to eat (so nice to hear that instead of the gagging and retching that usually accompany us to the table).  It's a modification of a recipe from this month's Real Simple (I changed the herbs and cheese and added kale & more mushrooms).

Tortellini with Kale, Mushrooms, and Butternut Squash

1 package frozen tortellini (16 oz)
1 bunch kale (the bigger the better--this is my kids' favorite part so I use a TON)
1 butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks
10 oz cremini/baby bella mushrooms (best part!  add more if you like), quartered
1 c. crumbled feta cheese
3 T. olive oil
2 T. dried rosemary
kosher salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss the squash, mushrooms, rosemary, salt (3/4 t.), pepper, and oil in a large bowl.  Spread onto rimmed baking sheets.  Roast for 25 minutes, stirring once.

While the vegetables roast, tear the kale into bite-sized pieces and stir-fry it in heated olive oil until it wilts down and turns very vividly green (your pan should be totally overflowing at the beginning, so don't worry if this is the case...just keep stirring as it wilts down).  Salt to taste.  Just before the vegetables are done, cook the tortellini according to the package directions.  Drain the tortellini and toss it with the squash, mushrooms, kale, and feta.  Add another 1/2 t. of salt or so, then serve.

Foodie Friday: Homemade Mozzarella

Okay, it's finally here!  I've done more trial-and-error, and I think I've got it.  Go here for the cheese!

caramelized carrots with rosemary and beans

a quick note to self for future replicating purposes:

caramelize 1/2 c. shallots in olive oil. remove.

slice 2 cups carrots on a deep bias. saute with plenty of rosemary (10-12 minutes), then add a bit of brown sugar to caramelize those as well.

add 3 cups white beans. more rosemary, drizzle with olive oil.

toast 1/3 c. walnuts. toss everything together and splash with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice.

so divine.

resolution: start writing down things I make up for dinner.

(like that kale and white-bean soup with rosemary that a lot of people asked me for but guess what?! I forgot how I made it. so now I need to make it again and write things down as I'm going. and then I will post a real recipe.)

note: this recipe was a wintertime riff on this, which sounded delicious but a little too springy (and too much olive oil).

I served this with a spinach salad (with baby portobellos, avocado, sunflower seeds, and raisins plus a freshly-made red onion dressing) and homemade whole wheat bread. really really yummy.

Today we went to craft time at the library and made this(I'll post the picture later). Abigail was in love with the tinsel tail.

I'm glad there was something good in her day, because the poor kid had an unpleasant morning--it was Immunization Day, except it almost wasn't. We went to the clinic this morning for her shot, waited around for our turn, etc., etc., and when the nurse FINALLY came in, she said "I'm sorry--we had her scheduled for Hep B, but she needs Hep A, and we're all out of those! Sorry!"

So I asked, "Do you know when they'll be there?"

And she responded happily "Nope...we've been waiting for them for weeks now! Sorry!"

"What about flu shots?"

"Nope--we don't have those either! Sorry! You'll just have to keep calling and checking!"

The thing is...we totally rushed out this morning in order to get started on the 20 minute drive and make our appointment in time. So it wasn't exactly convenient to pop over every now and then to see if they had the shots yet...

As long as we were there, I asked if the pediatrician could look at Abigail's mouth and check if her little lesions were gone and write a note to the dentist saying so, so that we would not have to come in to see the dentist the next week (I kid you not--we have been at the clinic once a week for the last four weeks. Literally. Which is also why I was not excited about going back for shots at various non-simultaneous times).

Upshot (heh heh) of the day was, we saw the pediatrician, after another healthy wait, he confirmed that she didn't need to see the dentist again, whereupon we canceled the dentist appointment, and we got a referral to the Health Department, which the happy nurse perkily told us "might have shots! We don't know!"

So we went to the Health Department, and were told by a snarling receptionist that it was adult flu shot day, and no, they could not do toddler immunizations (at this point I was standing alone in an empty waiting room very much not full of people wanting flu shots). Fortunately, the actual shot technician person took pity on me and gave Abigail both her immunization and the flu shot, after a brief altercation with the receptionist. Fun, fun, fun. And all for Abigail to get stabbed in the legs...

After that we went to the library and she had a blast playing in the castle they've built in a corner of the children's room, and we saw a couple of her friends from church there, so we all went in to storytime together. I'm glad she had at least one happy hour today!

It's our turn to babysit tonight, so it will probably be pretty crazy around here, but hopefully fun for Abigail. The last time we had kids over, she was really possessive with her toys, so we'll have to see how she does tonight...but it's definitely good for her to learn to share her toys, table, and parents!

On another note, I tried a new recipe last night and loved it, so I'm posting it here. I'm planning on making it for Thanksgiving, so those of you who will be here, I hope you like ginger!

Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Carmelized Applesfrom Martha Stewart Living
Serves 6

4 large sweet potatoes (yams), pierced with the tines of a fork
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 T. heavy cream
1/2 c. applesauce, preferably homemade
2 t. grated fresh peeled ginger
1 t. coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
2 apples (1 lb) pelled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 T. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Arrange potatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment. (Note: I skipped the baking sheet and the potatoes dripped sweet goo all over the bottom of my oven.) Bake until tender, 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand until cool enough to handle.
2) Cut each potato lengthwise. Scoop flesh into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; discard skins. Add 2 T. butter and the cream; mix on medium speed until smooth. Mix in applesauce and ginger, season with salt and pepper.
3) Transfer potato mixture to an oven-proof dish. Bake until heated through, about 10 minutes.
4) Meanwhile, toss apples with sugar in a bowl. Melt remaining 2 T. butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are golden and carmelized, about 10 minutes. (I ended up adding about 2 t. brown sugar while the apples were cooking.)
5) Remove potato mixture from oven, top with carmelized apples, and serve.