The Pants

 

 



So I made pants for O, and they were WAY too big, so I tried them on JH and they pretty much fit! A little short maybe, but I think they look cute, and he is young enough to pull it off!  Someday they will fit sweet O. I don't have enough corduroy to make another pair for O, so I am going to have to come up with something new, and maybe pay more attention when I am cutting!

 



Quiet days

Autumn seemed to come overnight, one moment we were sweating and eating cucumbers and tomatoes, the next day we pulled out all things woolen. My urge to knit, cook soup, bake bread, and eat apples came with a vengeance. Now we are experiencing some odd warm and humid days which are no good for my autumn thing going on here.

Our rhythm is coming together for the new season. Tuesdays are crayon/drawing day, the boys received beeswax crayons for O's birthday -yes JH did receive a little something- but the crayons were the extent of it! 

 We collected leaves, and used the block crayons to make leaf rubbings. I am in love with the bright colors, and amazing results of using these in comparison to our old crayons.  We have a family joke about the cheaper crayons taking on the odor of body odor, which they do! These ones smell like beeswax, and we are all loving them.  Speaking of beeswax, tomorrow we do beeswax leaves!

Dragon Day Year 2

 

Our Michaelmas celebration went well this year, we made dragon bread, little O dressed up in a dragon costume,(knight JH wasn't feeling like getting a photo taken) Our bread recipe was taken from the awesome book Sun Bread which produced a very rich and sweet bread. We made it even more sweet with some fig jam we had in the pantry. Since the boys are small, we read The Knight and the Dragon which is a very sweet story, and as with last year, we painted dragons. We ended the day with our first fire of the season, Pete and I added the tradition of writing something down we want to conquer, and throwing it in the fire :) It was a fun and sweet celebration, which I am sure will grow each year.

CSA week 3

Our CSA is getting better and better each week, for weeks three we got: peaches, blueberries, eight ball squash, and a cantaloupe.

I made my yearly peach-blueberry pie, and it was very popular in our house which is funny because Pete turns his nose up to peach desserts. I made it on a day when the boys and I were going out. Pete was home alone and I left a note letting him know about the pie and what I had in the fridge for dinner. Pete isn't a peach pie fan, he said when he saw it he was thinking "blah" and then he tasted it, and  I hope he doesn't mind me saying this but he ate half the pie standing at the counter. The secret is the crust, and really ripe peaches!
I thought I would share my recipe, what makes it unique are the way the crust is made, and the addition of cinnamon to the fruit.  I added blueberries because we had them on hand, but it is just as delicious to stick with peaches.

Peach Pie

Filling:
Approx. 3 cups peeled and sliced peaches
handful of blueberries (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
3 TBS flour
1 tsp lemon juice
cinnamon

Crust:
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 cup cold butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBS vinegar


For crust: mix as you would regular crust, I do this in my food processor until it forms into ball. Instead of rolling out the crust you just press it into the pie dish, so no rolling it out which is a bonus for me!

For filling: Mix flour and sugar together, pour over peaches, add lemon juice and fold ingredients together. Let this sit for about 10 minutes and then pour it into prepared crust. Sprinkle cinnamon over top and bake in a 375 oven for almost an hour. Wait for the pie to cool to let it set properly, and enjoy!!

What we did with our CSA week 2

Week 2 we received a quart of cherries & a quart of raspberries......

Cherries, made into cherry syrup to be added to sparkling water for a summer treat.

Raspberries made into Raspberry-Agave Jam, so good!

Unrelated but had to add my latest addiction, frozen organic red grapes...YUM!

We picked up week three and it was 2 qts of cherries, which we will be serving at our 4th of July party tomorrow! Have a great holiday if you celebrate!

Weekend fun

Mud pies, nature walks, playing in the creek, and lots of rides on the swing with bare feet :)

What we did with our CSA week 1

We went for a half share fruit CSA this year. Week one was last Monday, and we received two quarts of strawberries and two bunches of rhubarb.

SO WHAT DID WE DO WITH IT?

Strawberry Muffins

Added it to homemade yogurt and granola

Made strawberry rhubarb crumble

Strawberry jam (we picked extra to make this, and made 6 jars)

Added to our green smoothies

Just picked up this weeks, and we got sour cherries & raspberries. I can't wait to show you what I am doing with them! Any guesses?

-kitchen-

In the kitchen I have:

** made this cake

** prepared lots of black bean burgers, which we love using a recipe from a friend

** enjoyed watching our little guy decide to forgo baby food for the real stuff, and no we didn't really let him dig into the apple, he wants to copy every single thing his big brother does! So sweet....

** prepared the Tomato Passata recipe from this book more times than I can remember, we are addicted to it, this has become a pizza topping, pasta sauce, sandwich filling, and eaten straight out of the pan. Next up I must try making the Raspberry Cordial recipe!!!

** realized JH will eat more foods if I arrange it *just so* on his plate, he is an adventurous eater but even more so when I make things more visually appealing.

** prepared and drank a lot of iced Passion Tea Lemonade, the whole family loves it

** told JH it was okay to play with his food, just this once ;)

** enjoyed roasted tomato tacos 2 times last week, recipe from The Organic Family Cookbook

It is sometimes insane at the amount of time we spend cooking, doing dishes, and sweeping the floor (oh my) but it is so worth it when I know we are nourishing our bodies, and it fills me with gratitude that we are able to do so, it is easy to forget that we are considered very wealthy in terms of having enough food to eat, not to mention clean water amongst other things. During our mealtime blessing we try to find a way to teach JH and O the importance of gratitude and giving back to those less fortunate. I find that as with most things our actions are always the greatest teachers, more so than our words....

2012 Intentions: Scratch

I feel the need to bring much less packaging into our home . Enter my first intention for this year: making more of our food and personal care items 'from scratch'.

I recently read that food costs are projected to go up another 4-8% this year, so now is the time to do this in our home. I will be posting my results of different recipes and tutorials that I find online. Some of these will have to wait until summer when the produce is available, or being grown in our backyard.

The BIG list (with links of sources/recipes):

1. granola
2. crackers: whole wheat goldfish, parmesan cream crackers, graham crackers,
3. muffins (I make 24 every two weeks and freeze them for easy breakfasts)
4. tassajara bread
5. sandwich bread
6. waffles (using baking mix below)
7. pancakes (same as waffles)
8. baking mix
9. sundried tomatoes (we do these in the oven)
10. pizza dough
11. 'our' simple marinara style sauce (1 can diced tomatoes, garlic, a splash of balsamic vinegar)
12. apple sauce
13. jam
14. breadcrumbs
15. croutons
16. salad dressing
17. mayonaise
18. mustards
19. ketchup
20. pickles (tried this summer '12 and was disappointed with the recipe I used)
21. stocks/broth
22. ice cream
23. yogurt
24. almond butter (I use the recipe from here )
25. baking powder (same source as almond butter)
26. enchilada sauce
27. soups
28. butter
29. diced tomatoes
30. stewed tomatoes
31. pizza sauce
32. baby food

Personal Care/Cleaning/Household

1. bar soap (the hubby is in charge of this one)
2. liquid hand soap (tried it and was less than impressed!)
3. deoderent (love it, I use the Angry Chicken recipe)
4. laundy soap (1 bar castile soap, 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup Borax)
5. dryer balls
6. all purpose cleaning spray (vinegar, water, essential oils)
7. soft scrub cleanser (baking soda and essential oils
8. window cleaner (vinegar and water)
9. dusting spray (made this and didn't think it worked that well)
10. wood polish (beeswax and olive oil)
11. candles (using locally sourced beeswax)
12. napkins
13. cloth wipes
14. cloth diapers (ended up buying these)
15. wool diaper covers

Have any sources or tried and true recipes for any of the above mentioned things? I would love to hear about them!

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember