Summer Time! LOTS to come - and a pancake recipe for you

Ok, so I kinda fell off the blogging bandwagon. I have been focused on other things right now and it seemed like I could never get to it. BUT I ran into a friend while food shopping last night and talking with her reminded me of why I started in the first place. Sharing!

Sharing ideas of fun projects we tried or places we went. Sharing how to plan ahead meals and different ideas to keep things interesting as well as easy. Sharing fun places and events to go around town. And sharing some of my knits (and classes!!) too...

SO, I'm back. Thanks V for getting me back in the saddle....

We've had some BUSY few weeks. School ending always leaves me in a bit of a funky place. Love having my kids home to do things with, but it signals passing of yet another year. They really do go so fast. Too fast for me.

Five years ago, I had asked some friends to go to Adventureland the week after school was out and we had a blast. This has now morphed into a "the whole Love of Learning Montessori school is invited" trip and each year, more and more people take advantage of coming along and hanging out with friends. It is hands down, my children's favorite day of summer. All their friends! Unlimited rides! And it's less crowded since most schools are still in session. And we stay ALL day. Whee!!!
Here are some highlights...

Hoping this ride doesn't malfunction like last year......

My son, heading right towards us to ram his car into ours on the bumper cars

Happy Siblings

What I love best about this day. Seeing older kids eagerly jump on rides with younger kids who need someone of height to go with them so they can ride too. 

Who you gonna call?

Part of the group hanging out

Happy to catch this pic of my good friend and her boys sharing a happy smile

And to add to the memories for that day- the roller coaster stopped running while a whole bunch of our friends were on it! Luckily, they weren't high up. But they did have to wait in the sun for awhile and then climb down a rather thin looking ladder. Not the kind of ladder we were expecting to see...Thought it would be a very sturdy looking one. Ah well. All were safe and now have a cool story to tell.

This photo catches one of my favorite things about summer. Impromptu playdates. A friend happened to be stopping by to give me something and the kids started playing together, so we had a cup of coffee and watched our little Jedi's build Tinkertoy lightsabers and duel. Looking forward to many more of these in the summer!

I am planning on keeping this blog full of fun things to do, places to go, things to see, things to make and try...all summer long!

Stay tuned friends. There is a LOT more to come! Right now, it's pancake time!

My kids favorite pancake recipe:

Wet ingredients:
2 cups buttermilk (we use almond milk that we sour with apple cider vinegar- 1 1/2 tablespoons for the 2 cups- add them and let sit)
2 eggs
1 teaspon vanilla
1/2 stick butter, melted then cooled (or in our case, an Earth's Balance stick)

Dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour (all purpose will give you lightest and fluffiest, but isn't the best nutritionally. We use 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 3/4 cup of all purpose- but we sometimes mix it up- try other flours- rice, graham, )
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

Put all the wet together- whisking eggs first. Then put all the dry together. Add the wet into the dry and stir until mixed through but don't over stir.

Cook on the stove top. Make a few crazy shaped ones for fun. Same batter works great for waffles too!

To save time, make a double batch and refrigerate the batter. It'll keep for a few days in the fridge. I have some already made waiting for me.

summer on!

When Your Farm Share Gives You Peaches....

This year I joined a Farm Share (also called a CSA- Community Sponsored Agriculture) where you pay before the season begins for a share in the harvest. I had always wanted to try one, but always missed the deadline, but luckily this year, my friend Kate was looking for someone to split a vegetable share. We were in! And we signed up for a fruit share too! Whee! Let the yumminess begin!  (we are doing Golden Earthworm for those of you local people that might want to get a piece of the action. All yummy organic produce straight from the farm while supporting Long Island Farmers at the same time!) ! 

Every week, you go and pick up a box of the week's harvest. Everyone gets the same thing. And sometimes you've never seen or eaten it before. It's like a vegetable lottery! What will it be this week! Which is great for the adventurous palates in my house. Plus, the amazing Golden Earthworm farmers have a great blog that lets you know what is coming, how to store it and some recipes to cook with the items! They are AMAZING

I had grand plans of photographing each week's box and documenting what we made. Um. Sorry friends. Maybe next year. BUT....I was totally impressed with what I pulled off last night, so here goes.

We had a peck of peaches, some of which were eaten, but we had 4 really good peaches left plus another four or five that were getting a little squishy but still good eats. I remembered a recipe I had seen in Martha's American Food Cookbook (I am afraid to put the pic on the book up here since it's copyright, but since I am writing a glowing review, maybe I'll risk it and if Martha doesn't like it, I'll take it down?) Seriously Martha- this is a great book! I have quite a few of your books, but I think this is my favorite one yet! So many amazing things to try AND lots of great basics too!

I found this at our local library (the best library ever if I say so and I do, so there - heehee!) I was amazed at the photography and all the yummy recipes that focused on local ingredients. I stopped when   I saw a recipe for spicy peach barbecue chicken with grilled peaches. 

Yeah, I wanted some of that! And I HAD the peaches! 

But the recipe called for peach jam, so I took my squishy peaches and made my own with some water, a little cane sugar and some brown sugar. MMMMM. Made the entire house smell fantastic (and to prompt my son to follow his nose to the kitchen and pronounce me the best mom ever. Thank you Martha!)

So I used my on the fly peach jam and mixed it all up and prepped everything for my master BBQ chef, my hubby. He did an amazing job slow cooking the chicken until it was perfect and those peaches. MMM! 

Now, I should have taken the time to artfully arrange everything, but let me tell you, I couldn't stop myself from eating this. I am surprised I took these shots. Seriously good food.

And since you can't waste a hot grill, S'mores were in order! Have you ever tried a S'more with some Chocolove dark chocolate with chili and dried cherry? If not, you REALLY should. Wild By Nature carries Chocolove. Just saying.

I will say the marinade could have used a little more salt and a little more sweet, but I think that was from me substituting the jam for my fresh stuff. Next time I know.

And BELIEVE ME, there WILL be a next time. Soon!

Come on farm share....bring me some peaches this week!

More soon! In the meantime, Grill on!

Happy Earth Day and a Quick Yummy Recipe

Spent a lot of time this weekend outdoors taking care of our space. Weeding, tending our flower beds and prepping the garden beds. No pictures of all that fun! 

BUT...

with lots of fruits coming into season just around the corner, I thought it was the perfect time to share a little recipe I make when we have some fruit that is bursting with flavor but not at it's most pretty. Make some compote!

A compote is a recipe consisting of some sort of fruit that has been stewed in a syrup of sugar and some other flavorings added.

I made my first compote when we evacuated to my in-laws house during hurricane Irene. I had quite a bit of fruit and was afraid it would spoil if we lost power and didn't eat it fast enough. So I decided to cook it while we still had power.

I had a half pint of blue berries, a quart of strawberries and a pint of raspberries. I put them in a saucepan, added some water (a cup maybe) and a little sugar. Threw in a few lemon peels. Let it simmer on low.

Stir Occasionally. You cannot walk away from this. If it boils over or burns, you will not be happy! But it is a very quick cook!

Cook it down until it reaches the stage you like. If you like chunky, cook it less, if you like it less chunky, mush it up and cook it longer!

The result is a yummy, fresh fruit deliciousness! YUM!! It keeps very well refrigerated. Can't say exactly how long it keeps, as it tends to disappear in less than a week in my house. 

My daughter loves this on pancakes, french toast, or just by the spoon! My son likes it on corn muffins, which was the way he got it first during Irene. He protested easting it at first but then was slathering it on after I made him take a "thank you" bite! You can swirl it on yogurt, add to ice cream, endless uses!!

A "thank you" bite, is a Thank You to mommy for making it. I don't force him to eat more, just to try it. It has worked and has expanded his diet quite a bit...just in case you fellow mom's have a "challenging" eater too (I hate the word picky....)

Anyway, I know this technically isn't a recipe, BUT it is very handy to have in your pocket.

I have read Americans throw out upward of 20% of the food they buy, which is horrible considering cost of food and how many people are food insecure in this nation and the world. So we are trying to reduce the amount we waste and this is a VERY tasty way to do it. :)

I keep frozen berries in the fridge for when my fresh fruit is ready but I don't have enough of it for a full batch. Just add it in. Helpful tip: Use less water with frozen fruit as they will release more water as they defrost and cook!

You can get fancy and used dried fruits and liquors and add fancier flavorings like vanilla, cinnamon and cloves. 

As an added benefit, your house will smell scrumptious! 

Cook on!

Time to Make the Biscuits. And Scones. Mmmmmm!

I love to bake. LOVE IT. I remember when it started. I decided to make Baklava from scratch for Christmas one year. You know, the traditional, Italian Baklava ;)  Kidding. I was looking to make something to bring to my in-laws for dessert that wasn't already taken. There are many impressive bakers in the family and I knew this wasn't already an offering. 

Well, it was so easy and it was SO impressive to my family in-law! I realized that baking was going to be my thing. Now I do it as often as I can! 

One thing I love to make is biscuits. Just seven ingredients, a little time and viola! Layers of flaky loveliness. Then I discovered making scones was just as easy and that was my new favorite, but then we came upon a dilemma.

The males in the house love biscuits, while the ladies like the scones best. What to do? One sunday morning I looked at my favorite biscuit recipe and realized it was pretty similar to my favorite scone recipe, so I decided to make a batch of biscuits and divide the dough and make half biscuits & half scones! This is now what we do and I am lucky enough that Little Miss O likes to get in on the action and help!

So the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoom sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces (OR for a Dairy free alternative, substitute same amount of Earth Balance dairy free margarine sticks)
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (dairy free alternative- use 1 3/4 cups plain almond milk or milk substitute of your choice with 1 tablespoon applecider vinegar. Let sit for 10 minutes or a little longer to curdle)
A few tablespoons of melted butter or butter substitute to brush on top of biscuits prior to baking 
For scone option - a scone filling- we like dried apricots and sage

Equipment:
Pastry blender
Pastry brush
baking sheets/trays
rubber spatula
2 - 3" biscuit cutter

Preheat over to 375 degrees. 

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper trimmed to fit.

Add all dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  

Then pour in buttermilk and use rubber spatula to fold it in. Dough will be slightly sticky.

Flour a board liberally and get your hands floured up or they will stick! (we keep a measuring cup full of flour next to the board)

Take about half the dough onto the board and press out gently. DO NOT overwork the dough. You want nice, fluffy biscuits! Make dough about 1" thick and use a biscuit cutter (2" to 3" in diameter- use what you have on hand!) to cut out biscuits. We usually make 15 biscuits. The rest we use for scones.

To make the rest into scones, take half of the remaining dough and press it out into a rectangle. sprinkle a little bit of sugar 1/2 teaspoon or so in the middle of the rectangle. Cover the sugar with your scone filling- we LOVE to use dried apricot and sage, both cut into pieces. You can get very creative and use what you like! 

Roll the bottom up to cover the filling then roll the rest of the way. Cut the log you made into pieces-maybe 3/4" or so thick. When you are placing them on the tray, make sure they are wrapped well so they don't come apart when baking. I like to make sure the bottom of the scone is dough (not filling- the filling will burn) so I pinch the bottom to ensure no filling is showing through. 

Brush the tops of the biscuits and scones with a tiny bit of butter or butter substitute before baking with the pastry brush (you can always brush with buttermilk if you prefer) Sometimes, we add a tiny sprinkle of sugar on top of the scones. mmm. 

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating halfway in between so they bake evenly.

As with all baking check when you get close. All ovens cook differently. No one wants to eat a burnt scone!

Little Miss O using the biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits for the boys.

Make sure to flour up those hands!!

Only a few more biscuits to cut out and it's on to the scones : )

JUST FOUND THESE PICS from another day of scone making. Yes, little ones can bake! Look at her go. 

Wait until you taste these out fresh out of the oven. OUTRAGEOUS!

We make these all the time for functions, brunches and snow days. They are super simple, impressive, delicious and INEXPENSIVE to make! Using top quality ingredients, for less than  $4, we have over 2 1/2 dozen biscuits and scones! Price that out at a bakery!

What your favorite scone fillings??

Leave me a comment and let me know  Would love to experiment with other flavors!

Bake on!

Let's put the FUN in Funnel Cake

I have mentioned previously how awesome my hubby is. Well, he took that up another notch Saturday night. 

It was the first "Full Day" of spring break vacation and he had made a yummy meal including some hand-cut french fries (that he soaked in hot water first to remove the starches and then dried in our salad spinner prior to frying- so worth those steps!!) After frying them quickly, they made a delicious complement to the rest of our healthy meal. 

After making the fries, we had the oil left over, which we normally would skim and save for next time. But MCP had another idea.

"Who wants to make funnel cake?"

My son ran for the cookbooks, we soon found a recipe and amended it to be dairy free, and off we went. 

We had never made funnel cake before, although my hubby did throw zeppoli's  (fried balls of dough tossed in powdered sugar) at an Italian Fair many, many years ago, so he had some experience frying dough. 

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
2 cups plain almond milk (you can use regular milk if you like)
1/4 cup granulated sugar  (this is what is recommended- we are going to make them a little sweeter next time, they needed it...)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
vegetable oil for deep frying
confectioners sugar for dusting on top when they are nice & hot! 

Special equipment:
funnel with approx 1/2" opening  (we didn't have a funnel, so we improvised)
candy thermometer (or instant read)
8" heavy frypan with straight sides 
Tongs
Drain/strainer if you have it (drain on paper towels on a plate if you don't)
sifter

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add almond milk and granulated sugar and beat until combined.

Have the kids measure and sift the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time and mix until batter is smooth. Add more flour or almond milk as needed to achieve the consistency of the batter being able to flow through the funnel.   

Poor oil in pan until it reaches a depth of 1" or so. Oil must be at 375 degrees. Be super careful of spatters! 

Put your finger over the hole of the funnel, add between 1/2 - 3/4 cup of batter in funnel. Hold funnel over hot oil and remove your finger, and carefully pour the batter in the center of the pan, spiraling it around. 

Cook the funnel cake until golden, about 2-3 minutes. Flip carefully and cool on other side for another minute or so. 

Remove and drain.

Sprinkle (or sift) confectioners sugar on top of hot funnel cake.

Share and enjoy with the ones you love!

VERY important : Only make as many as you are going to eat at that moment. You can't save funnel cake. It gets really greasy. Not good eats.

If you have batter left over, you can save it and use it for pancakes the next day. Waste not, want not! :)

Let me know how your funnel cakes turn out! 

Tortillas + Tuna = Terrific!

Not a typical St. Patty's blog post, but we had a great meal last night and I had to share!

My husband, (we'll call him MCP), loves to cook. Lucky me! And he is very good at it. Luckier still! MCP does tend to use a lot of pots and utensils, which leaves a pile of dishes at the end, but honestly, I don't care, because what we eat at home is better than what we get when we go out to eat at most restaurants! Last night, he whipped up an amazing meal that we devoured! 

There are no measurement in his recipes. Sometimes he will start with a recipe, but by the time he is done with it, it bears little resemblance to the original. But they are always incredible. If I don't ask him immediately what he has done and write it down, we may never have that recipe again. He's on to the next version of it. 

Well, he decided to make flour tortillas from scratch to make a Tuna wrap. mmm. so yummy.

Make the tortilla dough first. It needs to set for 30 minutes before you cut it up & roll them out. The recipe used for this was from cooks.com (we fried them in a well seasoned cast iron skillet and they came our great!) 

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,2357,154176-235203,00.html

While the dough is setting, sauté the veggies with a little curry spice (we like the William Sonoma african curry blend) and Bragg's Liquid Aminos (like soy sauce). There are asparagus, shitake mushrooms, baby bok-choy and garlic in here. 

Cook the tuna (It's wild caught Tuna from Trader Joe's- we love Trader Joe's!) in a pan with peanut satay sauce. (we like a Taste of Thai brand) 

Assemble, wrap up burrito style and enjoy. Finish off with a little Sriracha sauce (a thai hot sauce condiment.)

Little Miss O loved them too (minus the sriracha)! We put the flour tortillas to good use and made an awesome refried bean quesadilla for MAP, so all were happy. 

Go Thai one on!  ;)

Banana Bread

Happy Wednesday!

My kids got on their bus and now I am cleaning up the kitchen. I spy some bananas getting their brown on. There is no way anyone is my house will be eating them once they get more than a few freckles, so I know what time it is. 

I wonder, do my children purposefully leave them to brown knowing it will bring on a baking session? I would not put it past them, smart little kiddos that they are. But I digress...

I bake banana bread often. It is an quick recipe, utilizing basic ingredients that are always in the house and one loaf will mean a week of lunchbox treats and happy children. 

I have been asked for the recipe many times and have been delinquent in getting it to all the people that have asked. So, here you are friends:

Banana Bread

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. 

Grease up your loaf pan (I use Pam baking spray, but you can use whichever you like. )

Dry Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup of All Purpose Flour - to make this healthier, I now use 1 cup of all purpose flour & 2/3 cup of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour- no one can tell the difference!

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Wet Ingredients

3 medium very ripe (read BROWN) bananas

2/3 cup sugar (I cut back on this a little bit. Of course, if your bananas aren't ripe enough, use the full amount or a little more)

1/3 cup vegetable oil 

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons of good vanilla extract

Whisk all dry together. In another bowl mix all wet ingredients together. Then add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just blended. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes. This truly depends on the heat of your oven. My oven makes these in 40 minutes. A friend of mine who makes this often as well, her  oven takes closer to 45-50. So set the timer for 40 minutes, test and see where you are.

Now, once you've made this, you can get a little fancy. I sometimes sprinkle in some mini dark chocolate chips (don't use full size, they get too gooey and fall to the bottom since they are so heavy) 

Helpful tip- If you toss the chocolate chips in a tiny bit of flour before you fold them in at the end, they won't sink to the bottom!

You can swirl in a bit of peanut butter. Today, I mixed in a little raspberry and strawberry compote I made for a fruity version. Yummy!

There's the timer! Gotta go check the banana bread. Don't worry, I'll eat a piece for you ; ) 

Bake on!