Winter Pot Roast

Just because I think they are cute...

I've spent the last few days working on my "Winter Menu". I go through my cookbooks and compile my old favorites, and pick out a couple new recipes that look promising for the winter months. I am especially drawn to easy recipes, and I find that simple recipes are often the healthier ones. Another great thing about compiling a winter menu is that I compile an ingredients list along with it. When I do my once-a-month shopping at Costco, I stock up on the meats I need, so I'll always have what I need in the freezer. I make a list of the produce I'll need for every recipe, often realizing that half of my recipes call for bell peppers, making that a winter staple item, as well as onions and garlic.

A couple nights ago, we had our stand-by Pot Roast with Sweet Potatoes and Quinoa Pudding. The quinoa (keen-wa) pudding was a recent find on a blog that Kelly had linked to hers, cannelle et vanille. It's a wonderful find, Kelly, thanks for sharing! Cannelle et vanille recipes and pictures are incredible and she has a bunch of gluten-free recipes on there, too. I adapted her recipe, of course, since I can't seem to ever follow a recipe exactly.

The adaptations I did were to leave out the cream (I didn't have any), throw in some extra butter (since I only had 1% milk, not whole) and add cinnamon and craisins. It was good! I cooked it too long, and it became more like hot cereal, instead of runny, but we'll try again soon. We all liked our first introduction to quinoa, and were pleased to find it is the most nutritious grain of all and has all of the amino acids. Cool!

My pot roast recipe is the bomb, if I do say so myself.

Spicy Creole Roast, from the River Road Recipe's II Cookbook

2 lbs + round tip roast, trimmed

1 Tbsp creole seasoning (Tony's)

2 tsp salt-free lemon pepper

1 onion, chopped

1/4 C Worcestershire

1 Tbsp steak sauce

2 Tbsp parsley

2 C water

Rub roast with seasonings and brown in a large, lidded pot. Add onions and brown a few minutes. Pour the rest of the ingredients around the roast. Boil on the stove for 30 minutes, then turn down the heat and simmer for 1.5 hours. To make a thicker gravy, blend 3 Tbsp of flour to a little water and add to the gravy, stirring well.

Notes: This works just fine in the crock-pot, too This can be done with ANY cut of meat, I've done it. Last night, I used sirloin steak, as you may notice. I've used chuck as well. It's all delish. Just remember, this is a healthy, salt-free recipe so please serve this with the salt and pepper shaker! I love that you can throw in a frozen roast, and I don't measure the ingredients anymore, I just sprinkle the seasonings straight on the meat and brown as I sprinkle both sides.

Sweet Potatoes are superb, sublime and incredibly good for you. They are a carb, yes. But one of the very best you could want. Even pro body builders like this kind of carb! Happily, children love sweet potatoes, too.

I wash them very well, may I say VERY well. I cut the tips off, and arrange in the pan. Bake at 375 for a little over an hour. They are SLOW! And the microwave will work much more quickly(add a little water) but in winter, it's okay to use the nice, warm oven, plus I like the results better. Poke with a fork to test for doneness. There is nothing worse than a crispy sweet potato. This is not one dish that is nice "crisp-tender". You want these bad boys soft! And then serve with your choice of poison, we prefer butter and brown sugar. And here is why I wash them very well: my children eat the skin. I will eat the skin on occasion, especially where the sugary stuff comes through. But the skin is a bonanza of nutrition, I've even heard it compared favorably to breast-milk. ?? =) Put a little skin in the baby food grinder along with the orange part, so I've read and done. Start 'em early AND often, and the rest will take care of itself.

Thought I'd share my "snack plan". It's what I do to keep kids off my back when they are whining about being hungry. I provide good snacks and plenty of veggies, the reason for extra veggies is two fold: good for 'em and it doesn't ruin the next meal. Sometimes I include nuts, as I remember or have them on hand. =) I try to steer clear of carbs, since I'll want them to eat the carbs at mealtimes. But I have been known to add crackers to the dish on occasion!

So there's my first winter recipe!

Ode to Marian

Thumbs

Oh the thumb-sucker's thumb

May look wrinkled and wet

And withered, and white as the snow,

But the taste of a thumb

Is the sweetest taste yet

(As only we thumb-suckers know).

Shel Silverstein

Ah, Marian, how we miss thee!

And the nails you let the kids paint:

And the back of your car that you let the kids ride in:

The cooking, baking and ramen-making that little helpers shadowed you for:

And the fuzzy caterpillars you helped the kids find:

We are glad Kyle and Kane get to have a turn enjoying their Auntie and we are glad you got to live with us for a while. Come back to visit!

Donuts for Dinner

After having donuts on the mind for a week or so, we decided to just jump in and make a batch. No matter that the kitchen was a mess(still is) because donuts are a messy project anyway. So we made a batch of cake donuts because they are quick and don't require resting the dough or rising the donuts before frying. They aren't as good, light and fluffy as the yeast dough (usually with a cup of mashed potatoes), but they were good enough! And I won't post a recipe because anything off the net will do. When we make the yeast recipe, I'll post that one. =)

I must confess, donuts were our dinner. I wasn't allowed any more calories after helping myself, and the kids could barely finish their two donuts that they decorated. Except for Lucas. He had some leftover tamale pie and then another donut hole. =) Hollow leg!

Aidan and Julia helped me with the ingredients, Lucas showed up later on...

Mixing the wet ingredients...

This part went REALLY quick! I had to be fast to get a picture. These donuts spent about 20-30 seconds in boiling oil, then they were done. I got a splash of oil on Lucas, oops, poor guy!

This is why Lucas got splashed, though. He had to be front and center with his nose in the pot!

Shane tossed most of the donuts with cinnamon and sugar, showing me the way they did it as kids: put them in a container with the lid on and shake! =) But I saved six for the kids to decorate with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Their art work:

Aidan chose blue sprinkles with touches of green...

Lucas chose red, white and blue with touches of Aidan's blue and green...

Julia, smart child, chose a six-pack of sprinkles to give herself the widest variety... =)

Shane healthily chose an apple, having been starved without them for a week. He used to eat apples when we'd talk on the phone back in the dating day. And the crunch of an apple bite is still exciting to this day. ;)

Time to take a bite!!!

Mmmmm, yummy! They were pretty good, and are going to contribute to the donut around my middle. But I don't care. What is life without a little yummy fun?

Have a fun fall weekend!

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to McCall's Pumpkin Patch with Julia's Montessori School. The kids got to select their own pumpkin, for the first time at a real pumpkin patch. However, they have big plans to grow their own pumpkin patch next year. =)

They actually picked out their pumpkins in two or three minutes! We were the first back on the hay ride. The rule: pick any pumpkin you want, but YOU have to carry it!

This is a picture of Ms. Beth, Julia's teacher and most of the kids in her class. Lucas is not her student and she is missing two of her own. As you can see, Aidan is a leetle bit nervous!

There are more things to do there on the weekends, but today we fed the goats, played in a Wee Western town complete with bar and jail, played in a corn box (not sandbox), took a hayride, climbed a very tall hay mountain, went on a tunnel slide and did a kids maze. A few other things, too, but you get the drift. We had some lunch and met a couple ladies and their kids who were using American Sign Language and made friends with them. They told us about a play group at a deaf school in Albuquerque that is free to the public, and we will be going! If we are going to learn to sign, we need to make friends with people that sign, too.

I'm glad we got to go, we were going to hit the apple orchard but it sold out in three weeks and closed. Ooops! So much for bushels of apples and cider! Gotta find a new source so I can do all my apple baking.

A chicken update: I finished some nesting boxes over the weekend, which was very amazing of me, since I was sick. But those girls are over 20 weeks now, and could lay anytime. Then again, they might wait til spring. No telling. But I promise, the first egg will be a huge deal, and you will see many pictures of it! =)

These nesting boxes are stained and ready to go, but I have to do some renovations in the coop before I can screw it into the wall. For now, it just sits there. Who knows how long til I get the next phase done? Maybe next time I get sick. =) And here's a pix of my girls with chin and cheek whiskers. Cute, eh?

I have big plans for this weekend, I want to post some of my favorite fall and winter recipes. I also plan to try my hand at apple strudel. Time to turn to hearth and stove and crank up the baking, stewing and souping. Especially the baking! My wall sign that appears this time of year?

"Gobble til you Wobble!"

A-men.

A Little of Everything

Well, it's a Thursday night and the weekend is in sight! I feel a little beat and ready to just relax a bit. I like that about our Friday's: no plans! Everyone is home, and it's our one normal school day when Julia can be home for school in the morning.

Today was our morning at Wildlife West, and this time I left Aidan at the Montessori School with Julia. No issues there, he would like to live there if he could! Miss Beth seemed to adore him from the day we met her, and had many positive things to say about him today. =) And the fact that he wasn't potty trained yet didn't deter her at all, and happily Aidan did not reward her with wetting his pants, either.

We had some excitement at WLW today, however. Myself and a senior feeder were just going in to Spirit's cage (a young, female bobcat) and it has two gates for extra security(they all do). I met the feeder in the "air lock" and passed her the food. She went into the cage to clean it, and I went back out. We both left our gates ajar... Spirit came stealthily padding out and down the path, straight at Lucas! He yelled for me, but Christie, an even more senior feeder told him to be perfectly still. He did as he was told, and I went to him and locked him in a different bobcat cage (but no worries, this bobcat was secure in a different enclosure) and Lucas was out of harm's way. I grabbed the food, lured Spirit closer to her cage and when she saw her own open gate, she ran back inside. WHEW!!! Lucas explained to all how he was so scared he was shivering! Luckily, Spirit was hand-raised from infancy and is still very young, so she probably isn't too much of a danger. But we don't like to find out!

I thought I'd post some picture of Lucas and Aidan's room, and the space decals I've used in there. I also have a shot of Lucas's private desk space, he loves to "save" everything!

And here is Lucas's little school corner. He likes the idea of having a place to invent and experiment with his scientific endeavors.

Earlier this week, I saw this sherpa blanket thingy at Costco and could not withhold it from myself. It is so cosy and everyone thinks it belongs to them. I have to remind everyone that it's MINE and I'm nice enough to share. Mom rarely gets blankets of her own! And this is my first, although I admit it does look good on Aidan.

Julia got some new PJ's too, some cute, ruffly stuff that mommy could have made, but with all the things I need to do, I just decided to take on thing off my list for now.

Things hanging over my head:

Nesting boxes to build

Several school organization projects for teaching stuff, reading, school room and the activity closet.

Water collection from the chicken house roof (already bought the materials so I can't scratch it from the list)

Painting ~ I still have Julia's room, hallways and my room. THEN I can do things like bathrooms and laundry rooms =D woohoo!

I have baby blankets to finish before the babies graduate from college

Patchwork denim comforters for the boys bunkbeds

aaaaaaand I WANT to sew for Julia! Hanna Andersson is my new inspiration! Lots of A-line and trim, I like the simple, elegant look.

Chicken update: as noted above, they need nesting boxes because they will begin laying any day, now. They are big and lovely girls, they don't look so scrawny anymore. They have some attitude, but will do anything for fresh corn, heh heh. I have a cardboard box in the coop for them until I can design a nesting box that will be attached to the inside of the coop permanently. Garden: I have green tomatoes on the vine. Oh, and lots of basil. And that's all!

So, how do you fit it all in? Caffeine? No sleep? Super organized? "Just that type"? I dunno how I can make it all work, but I'll let you know how it goes!

~ttfn

Incompetence Revealed!

Hello there, Kelly, Calysta and June! =)

I have a picture for you... I heard a clarion call for evidence of my crimes. I suppose I must satisfy my public! For your viewing pleasure, a smeared, chocolaty "A".

Camping!

Yep, we had fun! We sat around, mostly, roasting anything we could get our hands on. We mostly roasted these GIANT marshmallows. They did not fit on a S'more! Sticky and gooey and lots of fun. We camped this time with Linda, Laurel and Courtney. Courtney brought a hammock, a lovely thing to relax in while in the forest. We took a little hike, less than a mile and cooked food. All things considered (and I'll get to what those things are in a minute), we had a nice, relaxing time. The workers and Courtney assure me they enjoyed themselves too, and I suppose I'll just take their word for it. ;) They had fun laughing at us, for sure!

Laurel, Julia and Courtney

Aidan saw that Lady, the dog Courtney was dogsitting, would sniff everything, so he decided to sniff my arm just like Lady! It was kinda funny. =)

On to the mishaps and stressors...

On Thursday, before we went camping, I whisked my family off to the pizza place so I wouldn't have to worry about dinner. And Shane and I stopped by the ATM for our monthly allowance. I left my card in the machine. It even beeped at me, but I checked to make sure I had my cash and then drove off without my card. Didn't realize this until I had a cart full of groceries the next morning and couldn't find my card. 7-10 business days til I get a new one!

Then I went home and prepared four meals for camping, pre-cutting veggies, slicing meat, mixing marinades, preparing pancakes and biscuit mixes from scratch, etc. Well, we got to the campground and realized that I'd left a few things at home.

1. cast-iron skillet and griddle (that's a big mistake!)

2. the wet ingredients for the pancakes and biscuits

3. the maple syrup

4. the sliced bell peppers for the fajitas

5. the green chillies, sliced tomatoes and fresh lettuce for sandwiches

6. Pillows for everyone

Well, we had enough things that we could make it through, so we managed. But Shane and I decided to come home Saturday night since Shane thought maybe it would rain. He isn't fond of packing up a wet tent. So we packed up after supper and off we went. There was the most lovely lightning show, too. All around us, front, back and sides there was sheet lightning that just wouldn't quit! It was really cool. Then we hit hail. Or rather, hail hit us! It started piling up on the road and made it hard to drive. We found a tree and parked our windshield under it and once it tapered off, we stared driving again. THEN we hit more hail! This time it was pretty big, moth-ball sized were the biggest we saw. The kids were all scared and I was trying to figure out where Shane and I would go if the windshield broke. But we made it fine although we do have a few dents in the top of the car. The workers were about ten minutes ahead of us, and they saw golf-ball sized pieces and their windshield did get a crack in it.

So that's the camping trip and I'm glad to be home.

Last night there was a goodbye potluck for Laurel. She will be missed, but we know we have to share. We got a picture of her with the family! Shane and I are slightly squatting, hence the goofy expressions:

What is a "regular" week like? I'm not really sure. I do know that we don't seem to have those. But perhaps irregularity is our norm, and that does add spice and variety to life. Apple and pumpkin season is upon us, I LOVE this time of year! I think it is my favorite. Happy Fall!