Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Keep It Simple

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I love to give presents.  I love shopping for presents.  I love to make presents.

Sometime’s it’s just so overwhelming, I can’t stop.  Sure, I make my lists throughout the year, but so many good ideas and not enough resources, and the whole thing falls apart, and the gifts are late or don’t make it.

Well, I keep remembering this post from the fabulous DesignMom herself, over at RealSimple.  And it’s just so freakin’ simple.

Here’s Gabby’s amazing rule: Something to read, something to wear and something to play with.

Keep in mind, if you have kids, this is a great guideline, and it can certainly apply to the adults you give to as well.  This was also written with holiday gift giving in mind, but I’m going to try to remember it all year long.

This wonderful advice will also help me stay focused and make sure the gifts I make/purchase are useful and will last.  There’s nothing worse than a pile of chotchkes that collect dust or end up in the bin (or even re-gifted!

London’s Calling

Sure, I’ve been listening The Clash, but I’ve also been watching what’s been coming down the runway.  I think that if I were able to ramp up my wardrobe, I’d be pulling my key pieces from Charles Anastase’s Fall 09 collection (or here).  It’s the right amount of “punk” for me.  I like the jackets, the layers, the plaids, the stripes and the colors.  I like the shoes, but I can’t chase Iz through the grocery store in those.  I mean for real.

charles-anastase-aw09-12

(image is from Fashionista, which you must visit, totally love the runway shots!)

Pay Dirt

Organic Gardening

That’s right people, 18 back issues of Organic Gardening all free on Google Books. I love the internet.  via YouGrowGirl.com

I’d love to say that this would replace my actual subscription, but alas, I have a thing for magazines…

Organic Gardening

Ode To The Cookie

If you’ve been reading along, you know that we’ve been cooking a lot together.  And making cookies.  I found a lovely recipe for sugar cookies, and the best part for us, there’s not much sugar in them.  It’s a super versatile recipe, you can add more sugar if you want, you can roll them, press them, mark them with and “I” and put them in the oven for Izzy and me!

I made a batch, and we only take off what we can roll thin with the rolling pin, and save the rest in the fridge for the next day.  Iz loves it (she’s not too into the sweet things).  I have a set of cookie cutters, yes, they are all Christmas shapes, but they are tiny, perfect for her hands and portion control, so we eat a lot of Christmas cookies.  Today, we rolled the dough into balls and stuck dark chocolate chips into the center.  DELISH!

Cookie Love

Here’s the recipe.  Enjoy! from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Remember when we planted last spring?  It was outside, we were wearing our coats, our fingers were cold, and we were having so much fun.  I love my garden, we love our garden.  It’s been a wonderful experience for us, growing responsibly, eating responsibly and really enjoying it all.

Now, we don’t have a garden, we left it in Western MA, and while our little apartment building has a strip of grass that would make for a perfect garden, it’s also a litter box, dog poop pile, and gigantic ashtray for the other tenants.  So, no way.

But! We do have an enormous south facing window.  So….

Dirt Love

We brought home some Filthy Rich Organic Soil.

Row Markers

Made our Row Markers (plastic container cut into strips and a little Sharpie magic…)

Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard seeds.


Careful PlantingCareful Planting

and careful, careful planting….

Careful Planting

Careful Planting

Our Garden

Our view out the back window isn’t so glamorous (we can see the mtns from the kitchen window on a clear day!), but I think it will improve soon, it will be lush and green.  Fingers crossed we can grow lettuce, chard, peas, tomatoes and basil in our apartment window.  Any tips?

Mom - Where Are The Plants?

Iz wants to know where the plants are.  So we’ll be looking for the everyday, keeping track here in our garden journal.  Maybe in 60 days, we’ll be eating tomatoes.

Any tips from apartment gardners would be greatly appreciated!

Dancing Queen

Time Together

We’ve been pretty busy around here.  School, work, school, work, then finally the weekend!  Since I’ve started my full time job, we spend less time together as a family.  I love having my new job, I love the work, the people, it’s great.  Then there’s the mom-tug, and I can’t help but wonder what this means for my family.  My mind races back and forth, rests for a while on how good this is for all of us, all the while hoping Iz is happy with the arrangement too.

Movie Star

I’m pretty sure she is.  We’ve had a week or two of trantrums as soon as I would walk in the door, but they’ve seem to have subsided.  She’s pretty independent and fully confident.  She knows that I’m here for her and love her.  Makes me realize that starting her at preschool when she was 2 was the right thing (even though I lost sleep / was nauseous  over us being apart, and wondering HOW IS SHE GOING TO MAKE IT WITHOUT ME – but maybe it was how am I going to make it without her?).  She can totally handle herself in so many different situations, and she’s confident to know what to do when I’m not around.  It’s all good.

Twirly Skirt

So, now what to do.  It’s quality, not quantity, right?  You might have noticed, but we have a thing for food around here.  Food that we make. Nice slow food.  Food that we grow.  Healthy, complete food.  So we’ve been spending time cooking and we are having SO MUCH FUN!

Since I can’t start dinner at 3:45, and have maybe, 30mins to really make something before we fall on the floor when we get home, we’re making quite a bit on the weekends for the week.

Saturday morning, we made German Pancakes.

German Pancake

They are so easy to make, fun to watch and take less time to cook than our trad pancakes.  Izzy LOVED watching them puff up in the oven.  Iz has been a fantastic kitchen helper for as long as I can remember.  Now that she’s 4, I’m just blown away by her cooking ability.  She’s an excellent pourer, stirrer, cutter, and a super taster (except when there’s raw egg…).

The pancake was a hit, super yummy, and Iz and I even whipped up some whip cream, sliced up the strawberries and piled them on the pancake.

Dutch Babies

Here’s the recipe.  Enjoy!

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 6 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Vanilla Extract – all to taste.  If you like sweet, you can add 1/4 -1/2 cup sugar.  We don’t want sweet, so the nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla was perfect for us.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt butter in a medium/large baking dish.  Keep an eye on it, you don’t want it to burn.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, milk, eggs and salt. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Bake on center rack in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. These can puff up pretty high, so definitely cook these in the center and remove the rack above it.  And, if your dish is shallow, put it on a cookie sheet so it doesn’t fall to the floor of your oven.

To make the whipped cream, chill a medium mixing bowl in the fridge for 20 mins.  I use Heavy Whipping Cream, pour  a pint in the chilled bowl, using your hand mixer, mix at the highest setting until you like the consitency.  We don’t add sugar, but if you want it sweeter, add a bit of powdered sugar to your liking.

* I think this would be really yummy if you added crushed apples or mashed bananas too it.  You could even add a mashed butternut squash, YUM!  The possibilities are endless.


Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

I remember going to vegan restaurants and having flourless chocolate cake, the first time, not sure what I was going to get, I mean how good could cake be without flour.  REAL GOOD!  Yep, amazing.  If you’ve never had it before, make sure you try a taste somewhere, it’s a bite of amazing deliciousness.

I thought these would be a good idea for Iz’s birthday party, with some attendees not able to tolerate wheat.  And of course as usual, I like to experiment on unsuspecting guests, so I was a little nervous.  So, the day before Iz and I made a batch.  Izzy poured in all the ingredients, stirred together the melting chocolate and butter and kept asking when she could eat them.

The Most Amazing Cupcakes...EVER

I decided on a mini muffin pan.  The cakes would be rich, and while we could all certainly CHOW DOWN on these scrumptious bites, we didn’t need to, a taste is all we really needed. (But I’ll be making another batch any day now…).

Iz and The Magic Cupcakes

These are a happy treat.  No fat or calories because I made them in the mini muffin tin, super easy to make, and puts a smile on everyones face.  Along with a bit of chocolate.  Enjoy!

This is a great recipe.  Most of the recipes for Flourless Chocolate Cake calls for coffee.  No good for little kids, unless you are crazy.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes from Bakers Bites.

  • 14 tbsp butter (2 sticks minus 2 tbsp)
  • 7 oz bittersweet/dark chocolate (65 or 70%), chopped
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly grease a cupcake pan or set 12 foil molds on a baking sheet.

In the microwave, working in 30-second increments, melt together the butter and chocolate in a large bowl, stirring after each time increment.

When melted, stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool for a few minutes before whisking in the eggs one at a time.

Once all the eggs have been incorporated, whisk in the cocoa powder and vanilla extract.

Pour batter evenly into prepared pan(s) and bake for 10 minutes.

Turn off oven and let cakes sit inside for an additional 10 minutes. Remove pan to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Use a spatula to gently turn out the cakes before serving.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

Makes 12.

** My notes:

  • I melted the chocolate and butter on the stove.
  • I filled each cupcake only 1/2 way.  If they overflow too much, the tops break off.  Which is ok, because someone has to eat the messed up ones, right?
  • I doubled the recipe, and made 12 regular sized muffins and 48 mini muffins.  We liked the outside cooked a bit longer, the sugar carmelizes and makes the outside a bit crunchy/chewy.  I’m still getting used to our oven, so I burned a few that were way back in the oven, and they were still delicous!
  • I started the day before, with a test batch.  These totally leak through paper cupcake holders, if you want to use something, use foil.  I cooked the mini ones without a holder (too much waste).
  • The batter held up great in the fridge overnight.  I took it out 2 hours before making them for the party.  I made them during the party so they’d be hot, it was easy, and I still got to talk to everyone.
  • Laminate this recipe and share it with all your friends, it’s AWESOME!!!!

Izzy 4.0 and a Birthday Quiche

Iz 4.0

Iz 4.0

It was pretty exciting.  Surrounded by family and friends, making, then eating really yummy food, opening thoughtful and exciting gifts.  It was a busy day.  But so much fun.

It Takes A Lot Of Practice To Blow Out Candles

Flourless chocolate cupcakes.  Yes, let me repeat that FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES. Yum.  Oh, and the candles.  Totally cute, she blew and blew and blew, then finally aimed at the candles.

We Love Quiche

It was a special day.  Amazing for me too.  I can’t believe Izzy is 4 years old!  I mean, how did that happen?  Wasn’t it just a few days ago we were in the birthing center?  It’s been amazing to watch Izzy grow up to 4.  She’s an incredible human being, my very best friend, and totally inspires me.  I am continually amazed at her thoughts, stories and even jokes.

We have a lot of fun together.  Izzy and I made the above quiche.  You see we LOVE quiche.  (In case you weren’t sure.).

  • Izzy’s Birthday Quiche:
  • Pie shell  – room temperature(I sometimes make them from scratch, but this one was ready made from the store, it’s ok, you can do that.)
  • 6 eggs (1 separated, keep the whites in a separate bowl)
  • Tomatoes  – we used 2/3 pint of grape tomatoes – halved or sliced
  • Fresh Basil – 2-3 springs, de-stemmed and finely chopped
  • 1-2 cups grated cheese, we used cheddar, but mozarella would be yummy too!
  • 8oz or 1 cup heavy whipping cream – you could use any milk product here, non fat, low fat, half & half.  I like whipping cream, it makes the quiche fluffy!
  • Salt & Pepper

These are great served hot, warm, room temp or cold.  ENJOY!

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

I use a 10″ tart pan for a 9″ pie crust.  It fits, and there is no pastry shell waste.  Smooth pie shell into tart/pie pan.

Pour egg white in, paint (we use a brush, but I’ve used my fingers in a pinch) the entire pastry shell with the egg white. (this is so it doesn’t turn to mush once you pour the egg mixture in)

Place tomatoes in first.  I like pretty layers, and so does Iz  – see above.

Then sprinkle the chopped basil evenly over the tomatoes.

Sprinkle the grated cheese even over entire quiche.

In a separate bowl, mix all the eggs together, pour in the cream, mix well, add pepper and salt.

Pour well mixed mixture over quiche.

Place in the center of your oven.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the center doesn’t wiggle like jelly.