Mohawks and Rustic Potato Chowder

I had the pleasure of getting to sleep in this morning as Travis had the day off, and so instead of napping when the boys did I was actually able to have some time to myself! What did I do with that time? Made some amazing Rustic Potato Chowder for lunch. I got the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, 101 Cookbooks

This was my first time ever cooking with scallions, and possibly my first time ever eating them, and they were fantastic. It definately gave a great flavor to the soup. Travis is pretty picky when it comes to potato soup but even he said it was almost as good as my Baked Potato Soup. I'll take that, and probably continue to replace that soup with this as it is considerably healthier and much lower in fat. Go here for the recipe for Rustic Potato Chowder

Now on to the mohawk! I decided it would be cute if Kaed sported a mohawk so I got Travis to just shave the sides of his head shorter than the top. It's barely noticeable with his super blonde hair, but it's pretty cute that way. I had a nearly impossible time trying to get a picture of him with his new do, but in the end I got this awesome expression out of him!! You can't really see the cut but who cares with a face like that!!

Pizza!!

Travis' favorite food is probably pizza, so naturally, we have a lot of it. He doesn't just like any pizza though, it has to be homemade, and preferably fresh. (meaning I can't just make a whole bunch of them at a time and pop a bunch in the freezer for later, although I do this anyway).

It's been a while since I've made a pizza though, since before Brayer was born, so tonight was pizza night! I want to share with you the dough recipe I always use and some of the ingredients I love to add on top!

Pizza Dough

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp. sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (preferably 1st cold pressed organic, the flavour is unbeatable)

1 tsp. sea salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp. corn meal (my favorite is Bob's Red Mill, it's much coarser than other brands and 100% natural)

Stir together water, yeast, and sugar until dissolved. Add olive oil and salt. Knead in flour and then add corn meal. I just mix everything in my Kitchen Aid mixer, using the dough hook.

Let rest for 10 minutes, then shape into a ball and roll out!

Pizza Toppings

Organic Tomato Sauce (or flavored pasta sauce)

Pepperoni

Sliced green peppers

Thinly sliced tomatoes

Chopped spinach

Sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Sprinkle of basil

Mozzarella

Parmesan

I layer it all in that order and pop in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes, then put the oven on broil for 2-3 minutes till cheese is lightly browned.

On a sad note, I did attempt a batch of hummus but frankly it doesn't taste all that great. I did some more research on the topic and am happy to have found a new recipe for it to try... I'll keep you updated!

Baked Pasta Casserole

MMMMMMM if you want a super easy, quick, cheesy, goey casserole, check out this recipe:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/baked-pasta-casserole-recipe.html

We had this for dinner tonight, and I managed to get it made with a crying baby in one hand and a toddler hanging onto my legs yelling to be picked up. It turned out great and the only thing I would change next time would be to add some chicken.
Lately we've been having lot's of vegetarian dishes and frankly.... I'm getting sick of it! However, hunting season starts this weekend so hopefully we will have some meat in the freezer again! I know, I know, I could go and just BUY some meat, but honestly when you're used to wild game, beef and pork just don't cut it!!! I'm sad to say I won't be the one bringing home the meat this year, could be a little difficult to hunt down an animal with a newborn screaming his head off, so it's up to Travis to feel the freezer once again!
On a happy note... our car is currently for sale and once it sells it's a new compound bow for me!



And on a humorous note, this evening Kaed decided to steal my container of lip balm and smear it all throughout his hair. He is currently at Home Depot with his dad and Uncle Syd with very greasy hair. Lucky me gets to wash it out when he gets home.



I also wanted to share with you what has given me extra hands when I have a cranky baby. It's a ring sling that I made. There are so many "designer" slings out there right now and they all cost upwards of $40 and this one cost me approximately $7 to make. It was EASY too. Here's a link to the website that has the pattern and directions I used.



http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/wrap.html



And here's a shot or two of Brayer hanging out in it.

Rosemary Bread

Tonight I made Rosemary Bread and it was fantastic. I made two loaves and Travis, Kaed, and I polished off one along with our dinner! It was so easy to make too, no kneading involved, and really quite foolproof. If you're afraid of baking bread this is a good recipe to start with. We ate it warm out of the oven so I just slathered mine with butter, but as I had also made a Broccoli Cheese Dip, Travis opted to dip his into that. Tomorrow I will tackle making Hummus and we'll eat it with the second loaf of Rosemary Bread.

Note: I think this bread would be great without the Rosemary as well if you don't like that sort of thing, or you could substitute it for another kind of herb.

Here's the recipe!

Rosemary Bread Recipe

1 packet dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
2 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 tsp salt
4 c. flour
1-2 tsp. fresh Rosemary plus more for topping
Olive Oil, Melted butter and salt
Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. Add flour, salt, and 1-2 tsp Rosemary and stir until blended, do not Knead!! Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size.
Remove dough. It will be sticky. I like to put olive oil on my hands for taking out the dough and shaping it. I think it works better than flour hands. Place it in 2 rounds on a cookie sheet lightly coated in oil. Then let it rise another hour.

Brush each round with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with more Rosemary and salt, I used this great Sea Salt grinder from Costco. Bake @ 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce temp to 375 for 15 minutes more.

Cool slightly, then cut into nice size bits or rip it apart.

Millet Fried Rice

I tried something new last night and it was not good! Kaed "said" it best when he spit it out and then proceded to scrape his tongue off with his hands. The weird thing is that the recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks and everything I've made out of there has been great! Anyway, the recipe was Millet Fried Rice. It used millet instead of rice and had what sounded like a great sauce. The recipe called for 2 tsp of sea salt in the water that the millet was cooked in and that just ended up being way too much! The whole dish was overpowered by the salt. I may try making it again one day with some major alterations because the original idea behind it was great. Travis and I both love fried rice, and millet is an incredibly healthy alternative to the often rather un-nutricious rice. The recipe also called for chunks of fried tofu which I actually found to add a nice touch to the dish which suprised me as I am not a huge fan of tofu being a big meat lover.

Here, however is a good recipe! At least I think so. This is actually my own recipe. I make many dozens of muffins a year and each time I try something new. These are very healthy and still tasty.




















Oatmeal Fruit Muffins


1 cup whole wheat flour

2tsp. aluminum free baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

3/4 cup of rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar OR organic cane sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter (can use oil or margarine)


Grease 12 cup muffin tins or line with paper and preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit.

Mix together all the dry ingredients until well combined.

In a seperate bowl beat together butter, milk, and egg.

At this point you can add any kind of fruit. If it's a berry (blueberries are amazing with the cinnamon flavor) I like to add them to the dry ingredients first so that they sit nicely in the muffins rather than leaking juice everywhere. If it's bananas, I mash them up first and add them to the wet ingredients.

Mix dry and wet ingredients until just moistened. Don't over mix or the muffins will go flat.

Spoon into prepared muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes. I like to check them after 15 minutes just to make sure.


On a family note...
We went for a walk this morning to the grocery store where we bought the fixin's for a picnic. We ended up sitting under a gazebo thing beside a man made lake near our house and feasting on freshly made french bread and some spicy hummus. I think that's my new favorite food, hummus. I can't seem to get enough of it and I plan on making my own this week.
After eating lunch we started to make our way home; stopping first at the park to let Kaed play, and then at friends of our's place to show off Brayer and to drop off Travis so he could help them build a fence. I was almost home with the boys when I realized that Travis had the house keys. Thankfully my brother lives just down the street from us so I stopped in there to phone Travis and ask him to run the keys to me as I didn't really feel like walking all the way back pushing a very heavy double stroller!!
When we got home both boys went down for a nap so I did too! It was a great day and is shaping up to be a great evening.

Changes!

I've decided it's time to change this thing up a bit in order to make myself update it more! So... in light of my favorite blogs, I'm going to share with you all my favorite recipes. Some are my own, some are new ones I've tried, and some are old favorites.

As a family we've been working on the slow process of becoming more natural. Some of you may call this more "hippy-like" but mostly we are just doing it for the health of ourselves and our kids. I've been trying tons of new recipes using natural ingredients and well, just different ingredients than we're used to! Right now I have Buckwheat and Sunflower Seed bread baking and as I've made this once before I'm looking forward to the nutty smell of the buckwheat to drift through the house. Right now though, all I can smell is my not so natural favorite chocolate chip cookies baking. YUM! (in case you haven't noticed, I really do enjoy baking and cooking, it's just finding the time that is discouraging)

My latest favorite ingredient in cooking is spinach. As we speak I am eating an organic whole wheat pita filled with organic cherry tomatoes, spinach, cheese, and ranch. I figured if I am going to pig out on chocolate chip cookies later I had better have a healthy lunch. I also must mention that I am thoroughly enjoying this time to eat lunch and blog while both boys are napping. It's been a while since I had some time to myself!

Alright, so before one or both of those boys wake up, let me share my recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I call them "Shelly's Chocolate Chip Cookies" after my sister in law, but I believe that she got the recipe from our Aunt Helena.... although I'm not entirely sure about this. Either way, if you like a good chewy chocolate chip cookie, this recipe is for you.

1 cup slightly softened butter
1 cup golden brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 cups white all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
couple pinches of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream together butter and two sugars until a nice fluffy consistency. Then add egg and continue to cream until mixed together.

Mix all dry ingredients together and slowly add to creamed ingredients. (I like to do this all in my kitchen aid mixer, but if you don't have a mixer or you feel ambitious then you can cream it all by hand.) Add chocolate chips to mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 8 minutes or until just starting to brown. The longer you bake them for the less chewy they will be.


ready to be baked cookie dough



ready to be eaten!!

too cute for words

but MOM I want to go out the front door not the back door!!

yup I have the cutest sons ever!

Baby News!

I suppose it's time I updated this thing seeing as we now have a new addition to the family! Brayer Quinn was born at 12:15pm on July 24th. He weighed in at 7lbs 15oz and measured 20.5 inches long. So slightly chubbier than Kaed was but a bit shorter! Labour went a lot faster and better this time around as they only used breaking my water to induce me, rather than pumping me full of labour inducing drugs that make everything more painful and difficult!

Brayer is now 2 weeks old and doing great. He's put on lot's of weight already and is generally a pretty happy baby. He does have a temper though! When he wants something he just SCREAMS. It will be interesting to see how his personality differs from Kaed's.






Just before they broke my water.









Brayer Quinn only minutes old.











A proud papa holding his second son! He sure was glad he got another boy, being the only boy in his family he always wanted his sons to have brothers. I'm glad he got his wish but I hope next time around it's a girl!














Me with my boys a few hours after Brayer was born. One nice thing about having him in the middle of the day was that Kaed got to see him right away.





The details of his birth from his bassinett. I wish I had remembered to take this peice of paper but at least I have a picture of it!




sleeping soundly.



Kaed really likes to be where Brayer is, even if that means climbing into (and sometimes on top of) his bassinett.



Wide awake and very alert!