The never-ending amazement of ONE year

October 2009:

Cohen, Elise, Abby

October 2010:

Cohen, Abby, Elise

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My name is Erin, and I love cookie dough. Yes, I eat it with raw eggs. No, I've never had salmonella. No, I don't let my 2-year olds eat cookie dough with raw eggs. Yes, when they're older, I'll share this delicacy with them. :) Here's one of my fave cookie recipes, from my Bubbe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 1 C. butter
• 1 C. sugar
• 1 C. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 C. flour (I usually do 1 1/2 C. whole wheat and 1/2 C. white)
• 2 1/2 C. oatmeal (ground up in the blender to a flour-like consistency)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 12-24 ounces of chocolate chips, depending on your preference (I use dark chocolate)
• These are also super tasty with nuts and/or dried fruit (especially cherries)
• Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes (do not over bake)

This makes a big batch of cookies, so the next time I make the full recipe, I think I'll try this little trick How to Freeze Cookie Dough, by Good Life Eats. 

Apple Cinnamon Bread

'Just made this recipe: Apple Cinnamon Bread.  I used 1 C. whole wheat flour and 1/2 C. unbleached white flour (instead of all white) and substituted apple butter for the applesauce. I made mini-loaves instead of 1 big one (and maybe baked a wee bit too long) but based on the stuffed mouths at the snack table right now, I'd give it our seal of approval! 

Pumpkins and cookie painting

This past weekend was the 25th annual pumpkin carving party, hosted by my folks.  My mom has YEARS worth of pumpkin pictures, some with snaggly teeth and crooked eyes, and others with carefully carved details. Regardless of the result, it is a fabulous fall affair. 

In addition to the pumpkin party, we also took a little trip down to the lake to visit Bubbe. Unsure of what the weather would permit, I went prepared with pre-made cookie dough, cookie cutters, and cookie painting supplies. Score for the mom-team! :) My brother and I painted cookies when we were little and it's funny how some of those little experiences stick - I still LOVE to decorate cookies! I think Elise finished one cookie in the time Abby finished four; that sticky, sugary paintbrush just kept landing in her mouth instead of on the cookie!

Sugar cookie recipe (modified version of my Mom's recipe):

• 1/2 C. organic unsalted butter
• 1 C. organic cane sugar
• 1 organic egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 C. unbleached white flour
• 1 C. organic whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
• Chill and bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes, depending on oven
• This recipe is awesome with fresh orange zest added!

Sugar cookie paint recipe:

• 1 C. powdered sugar
• 2 T. water
• 1 T. corn syrup
• food coloring
• Wilton cake-decorating paintbrushes

My current mantra...

According to Wikipedia, a mantra is " is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation". Currently, my "mom mantra" consists of : "head on your pillow, voices quiet, eyes closed... head on your pillow, voices quiet, eyes closed....head on your pillow, voices quiet, eyes closed...".

Anyone who has been closely involved with our journey as a family knows that naptime was a sore spot from day one. Battles over sleep are the number one trigger to push me over the edge- I can admit that and, there are times, when I don't handle it gracefully. The girls need sleep. I need them to sleep.  But Abby and Elise despised napping. The hours upon hours that were spent patting tiny tushies, in hopes that the rhythmic motion would lull them to sleep, continue to haunt me at times. People would say "just put them in their cribs and walk away". So I would try that tactic, to which the girls would reply with jumping, squealing, laughing, bouncing, and pooping. 

People would say "just put them in different rooms". So I would try that tactic, to which the girls would reply with jumping, squealing, crying, bouncing, and pooping. 

It was around 18-months that I finally conquered this nap monster that had been looming in my household. I exerted every last bit of energy and patience in establishing a calming, soothing, successful routine. I stayed calm. I spoke softly. I patted. When they pooped, I swiftly changed them and gently returned them to their crib. I let not a single feather get ruffled. 

The cribs are gone. The "era of containment" (I can't remember where I read this phrase) is over. And I have two very assertive, confident, and BUSY two-year olds. Last night, everyone was sound asleep at 8:00, so we're making progress back to our 7:30pm target. It is time to summon that energy and patience, yet again, so repeat with me: "head on your pillow... voices quiet... eyes closed" again.... and again... and... ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. 

It's too bad...

they're such light sleepers...

Passed out at Bubbe's

Artichokes and apples... (not together, of course!)

I hold a strong personal belief that, in the Fall, one must include two particular ingredients in a portion of their baking: apples and pumpkin. I've got the pumpkin covered for now with the previous pumpkin pancake post. Let's move on to apples. We are dessert eaters. Dessert is a way of life in our family and we eagerly look forward to "lunch dessert" or "dinner dessert". On Monday night, there was not a single sweet morsel in this house. Dinner finished (seriously, this crock pot chicken is the way to go) and from the table, this dainty little voice said "Momma.... zert?" (translation: zert=dessert). Cheerios. Dry and plain. I served cheerios for dessert on Monday night. Epic dessert fail! 

Last night, I proved myself worthy by serving a beautifully delicious apple crisp.

Apple Crisp (recipe originally from my Mom, modified slightly by me)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease baking dish (I buttered an 8x8 pan)
• Peel and slice apples (for the 8x8 pan, I used 3 big apples - an assortment of organic varieties, not all the same)
• Place apple slices in pan and toss with fresh lemon juice
• Combine with pastry cutter:
• heaping 1/2 C. brown sugar
• 1/2 C. oatmeal
• 1/2 C. whole wheat flour
• 3 T. butter
• 1 t. cinnamon
• Crumble mix over apples
• Pour 1/4 C. apple cider over entire dish (we used John's fave: Louisburg, of course!)
• Bake for 40 minutes

Tonight, thanks to the leftovers in the fridge, I spent my dinner-making time playing in the kitchen with a dip recipe I've been wanting to try. I made this White Bean and Artichoke Dip, with a few modifications:

• I cut the recipe in half: 1 can great northern beans, drained/rinsed; 1 can artichoke hearts, drained; 1 garlic clove
• I added extra lemon juice 
• I added olive oil

All in all, it was a really smooth and creamy alternative to hummus. We ate it with these delicious Snyder's pretzel sticks - organic, with whole wheat flour and a very short ingredient list - always a perk! HUGE success with the gals! And when the pretzels ran out, fingers seemed to be a nice substitution. 

Cards, hats, and horses... OH MY!

As you may have noticed, the blogging has slowed lately.  I can promise you that I am still cooking... still baking... still feeding my family. But, as the weather changes, so do my hobbies. I consider blogging a hobby; it's a great thing to do when I have time but is not a "must do" in my day. Added to the already long list of hobbies that I love, sometimes I must take a hiatus. I definitely have the "craft" gene (thanks, Mom!) because I find handmade to be simply wonderful. 

The girls have 2 new (not pink!) stocking hats. I handed over 4 gorgeous (did I mention that I 
take great pride in my creations???) packs of cards to Grammy. And as I sit here and look at these pictures, the less I want to be typing and the more I want to be doing!

**Quick sales pitch... the cards make GREAT gifts (insert testimonial here from repeat buyer... hmmm... I wonder who that could be??? Linda). I make packs of 4, they are lined - which actually makes them reusable as the receiver could take the liner out and tada! - The holidays are rapidly approaching... if interested, email notemailcards@gmail.com **

In addition to the frenzy of paper and yarn, our family of five (don't get carried away... I'm including the dog here) have been visiting the Farmer's Market on these lovely fall Saturday mornings. Fresh, local goodies. For lunch last weekend, the girls had a bit of everything in this bowl:

And we really enjoy this homemade buttermilk ranch dressing recipe. I used lowfat buttermilk and substituted Greek yogurt for the mayonnaise.

To top off fall, we spent Saturday afternoon at the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin, complete with a festival of meats courtesy of one of John's buddies. As we walked up the driveway, Abby saw the smoker and said "Wow! Look momma - choo choo train!". It...was...huge. A steam-engine sized smoker and a merry-go-round made for a splendid Saturday, I must admit.

           

While I'm lacking pictures of my own, here are a couple of recipes that we consumed in the past week - one was breakfast and one was dinner. We LOVE steel cut oats - John discovered these a little over a year ago. Thank you, darling! I sometimes wonder how Abby and Elise manage to eat a bowl as big as ours without exploding. The other recipe involves the crock-pot. Yes, it is crock-pot time. Could fall bring any more enjoyment to our lives???

• Apple cinnamon steel cut oats
• Chicken tacos

Living right...

Pancakes. Pancakes. Pancakes.

John is the pancake master in our house. Cornmeal pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes. Whole wheat pancakes. Heart-shaped pancakes. Turtle-shaped pancakes. But John just doesn't really do pumpkin. Friday mornings are always experimental breakfast days - we bid Daddy a fond farewell as he heads to work and then we take over the kitchen in a flurry of flour. This morning, pumpkin was thrown into the mix. The original recipe can be found here, however my creation is listed below:

• 1 1/2 C. organic whole wheat flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 t. ground ginger
• 1 container organic Oikos blueberry Greek yogurt plus enough milk to equal 1 C.
• 1 C. organic pumpkin
• 2 organic free-range eggs
• 1 T. oil
• 2 T. organic applesauce
• 3 T. apple butter
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 T. brown sugar

Oh my. These were so good. The girls and I ate 6 of them: 2 each. And Elise asked for more! Topped with a little Minnesota pure maple syrup and a smidge more Virginia apple butter (Thank you, Auntie Sar-ie!)... Yes, please! As with all of our pancake/waffle successes, we froze the remaining 6 pancakes. This makes for a quick and easy (and homemade) toaster-oven meal in the morning. Alternate pancakes with wax paper to prevent freezing together, wrap with a bit of saran wrap, and finish with a layer of aluminum foil (I've heard this helps prevent freezer-burn, however typically items like this don't hang around long enough for that to be a concern) and then place the whole bundle in a ziplock freezer bag.

Team Lawrence does dinner!

There is a children's book called I Went Walking.  This afternoon, we lived our very own real life version of this book. And in the words of the girls, here is what we saw:

• "pink pig. no real. pretend."
• "black cat. no, gray. no, white cat."
• "three cats."
• "anderson, momma, baby."
• "man. fix door. tool. driver." 
• "truck. dirty. rust."

We saw a pretend pink pig.  We saw three cats; the friendliest of the bunch was white. We ran into our friend Anderson, his momma, and his baby brother. We saw a man fixing his garage door... with a tool... a screwdriver. We saw an old rusty truck.

As you can see, it's hat-making season in our house.
Lucky for me, I have hat-loving ladies.

After our long and very interesting stroll, we came home to feast upon a pot of potato soup made by our very own Chef Daddy! Soup season is upon us - if you've got a pot, some of this, some of that, a little broth... voila! Soup was the probably the number one vehicle for veggies for the girls last fall/winter. They acquired tastes for broccoli, peas, spinach, corn, cauliflower, green beans, onions, peppers... you name it, their little bodies ingested it with a soup spoon. Here's a quick run-down of ingredients:

• 
  About 8 potatoes - yukon golds, medium size
• 4 pieces of bacon
• 2 leeks of average size
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• 1 quart chicken broth (homemade chicken stock is the ultimate)
  • + 4 or 5 additional cups of water
• 
  5 pieces of roasted garlic
• 2 Bay leaves
• Fresh oregano
• Fresh rosemary
• Salt & pepper to taste

Tools of the trade:

• Large soup pot - Le Creuset is the champion soup-maker!
• 
  Stick blender (or regular blender)

And here are some snippets of info from John's soup-savvy mind:

"Before we start, you could easily “healthy” this recipe up by simply omitting bacon and using extra-virgin olive oil instead. However, this is not the particular route I chose for this particular soup. In my humble opinion, few things go together so well in life as bac’n ‘n’ taters...

As far as soups go, it does not get much easier than potato. Plus it is healthy, inexpensive, and like most soups, gets even tastier after a day or two in the fridge."


-John "Daddy-doo" Lawrence

We love John for a lot of reasons.  But, his overall love of being in the kitchen is definitely at the top of the list! Time after time, I've said to John "Dear, do you get tired of doing dishes every night?", and his consistent response is "Not if it means that I've had a good home-cooked meal". Thanks, dear, for dirtying dishes in order to replenish us from our walk-about with this hearty soup and then doing dishes so that I can sleep peacefully knowing that the kitchen is clean. 

A slice of warm cornbread and fresh dark chocolate and cherry whole wheat cookies for dessert (recipes for both to come) perfectly accompanied our potato-bacon goodness.

Apple cinnamon oatmeal

It's fall! It's fall! It's fall! The long sleeves and long pants jammies are on. The windows are open and it gets chilly at night. As you saw on a previous post, the s'mores are being eaten.  And hot breakfasts really do taste good! Don't get me wrong, we eat porridge (yes, Zach, we call it porridge) all year-round. I love how Elise says "porr-gie". But this time of year, that hot breakfast on a chilly morning really does a body good.  This morning I concocted a pot of Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal:

• 2 organic apples (peeled and chunked)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 2 T. agave nectar

Put above ingredients into blender and puree. Combine pureed apple mixture with 1 C. milk (2 cups liquid total); bring to a boil.  Add 1 C. oatmeal and cook as you would typically cook oatmeal. Serve with blueberries.

The other highlight of this fine fall week was a visit from Uncle Zach. On his cross-country journey from the sunshine state to the deep south, we spent a day playing, laughing, eating, and drinking because... well.... that's what we do. We love you, big Z!