The Snow Cave

We have had quite a few snow storms this winter and it has really accumulated in our yard.  What do you do with all that snow besides shovel or snow blow it?  You build a snow cave!  The boys love to play inside, outside and on the cave every chance they get.  I snapped a few pictures of Ehric playing in the cave before his bus came this morning.  He is going to miss that cave when the snow melts!

A view from outside the cave.

 Ehric sitting inside the cave.

Standing outside the cave.

French Toast with Love

Earlier tonight the boys and I were looking at fun food ideas online and ran across a picture of french toast with a cut-out heart filled with strawberries.  Aiden decided that he wanted to eat that immediately and set to work gathering up the ingredients.  He apparently forgot that we ate tacos only 20 minutes earlier!  Momma indulged him and he got Ehic on board as well.  So for dessert the boys had French Toast with Love!

French Toast with Love
1/4 cup Milk*
1 Egg
dash of Vanilla Extract
dash of Cinnamon
few slices of Bread
Sliced Strawberries
Maple Syrup
Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter

Preheat Griddle.  In a bowl combine milk, egg, vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk the mixture together.   Dip each side of bread in the mixture let excess drip back into the bowl.  Cook both sides of the french toast over medium heat.  Cut out a small heart from each cooked slice.  Fill the cut-out space with sliced strawberries.  Serve with Maple Syrup.

Note: *I don't usually measure my ingredients when I make french toast so I am estimating on the milk.  Be conservative with the milk.  In my opinion it is better to have to make more of the mixture than to soak your bread.

Printable Recipe 

100th Day of School

Aiden just recently started going to Preschool at the beginning of February.  He is loving his time there. Today his class celebrated their 100th Day of School.  He was so proud of his 100th Day crown.  He is so cute!

My oldest son, Ehric, is in 1st grade and his class also recently had a 100th Day Celebration.  Each student brought in 100 things.  Ehric brought in 100 Calorie Snacks (his idea) and even shared them with kids in the class who forgot snacks (he has such a generous heart)!   All the Kindergarten-3rd graders had a 100th today parade through the school as well.  He had a lot of fun that day!

Apple Dumplings

Yesterday when Ehric got home from school I asked him if he wanted me to make anything special to eat. He usually comes up with some pretty good ideas and yesterday was no exception. He said that in school they read a book that mentioned apple dumplings. So he said he was thinking all day that we should make some. So make some I did!

I had never made or had apple dumplings before last night. These reminded me of the baked apples my Memere would make for my sister and I when we were kids, but wrapped up in a pie crust. It took me a few hours to make this delicious dessert but it was definitely worth the effort!

Apple Dumplings

(Source: Classroom Cooking: Recipes for Teachers and Children by Jamien Morehouse (C)1978)

"a fairly time-consuming recipe...The pastry dough can be made a day in advance or packaged dough substituted."

Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chilled margarine or butter

4 Tblsp lard or shortening

1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add butter and lard. Cut into flour with knives (or pastry cutter) until mixture is "sandy". Sprinkle 1/3 cup water over the flour and mix with a fork. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate.

Dumplings:

6 Red Delicious apples, peeled and cored

lemon juice

1/2 cup raisins soaked in water for 30 minutes or so

butter

brown sugar

Syrup:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3/4 Cups water

2 Tblsp butter

Roll the pastry to 1/4" and cut into six squares. Place an apple on each square, sprinkle with lemon juice and fill the hollowed out apple with raisins. Top with 1/4 tsp butter and 1/2 tsp brown sugar. Brush the edge of the crust with water, pull up the sides of the pastry, and pinch closed so the apple is completely covered. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate half an hour.

Meanwhile make the syrup: combine the syrup ingredients in a heavy saucepan, bring to a boil over moderate heat, and boil gently for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F. Brush the dumplings with some of the syrup and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 30 minutes longer, brushing dumplings with the syrup every 10 minutes or so. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla icecream.

Note: I ended up having a lot of syrup left over. I saved it in a jar to use with oatmeal or pancakes.

Printable Recipe.

Celebrating Valentine's Day

Yesterday we started to prepare for Valentine's Day by making homemade cards for each other and for my son's classmates. Ehric made us each a mailbox to put our Valentine's cards into, which you can see above. We had fun stuffing them full of our homemade cards and a few candies, which were eaten on the spot!

Last night I baked these Chewy Ginger Snap Cookies for Ehric's Valentine's Day class party. Even though they were not heart shaped they were well received. My son's teacher emailed me this afternoon asking for the recipe for "the-most-delicious-ever ginger cookies." I would have to agree. These are some of the best ginger cookies I have ever had. I wish I could claim the recipe!

I was inspired by this recipe for Snicker Bears and decided to make some for the boys as a special Valentine treat. I made a few substitutions (all-purpose flour instead of gluten free flour and white sugar instead of cane sugar) so my bears didn't come out exactly like the original recipe, but they still tasted yummy and were still cute in their own way. If I made these again I would either follow the original recipe or find a good Snickerdoodle recipe.

For breakfast this morning I decided to make a heart shaped pancake. I mixed up my regular pancake batter then poured it into the pan which I greased with Wilton Cake Release. I sprinkled on some Rainbow Sprinkles on top and then baked it at around 400 degrees for maybe 20-25 minutes or so. I played around with the temps and time so don't quote me on this. We split this four ways and ate it with maple syrup. It was delicious!

While we were waiting for breakfast to cook Ehric and Aiden checked out their Valentine's mailboxes. They discovered that they also each had a little gift waiting for them as well. Here they are checking out their presents. Love must have been in the air today...the boys each decided that they liked each other's present better than their own and swapped gifts with one another with no bickering involved!

For lunch Aiden had a heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich. This made him very happy!

All-in-all our Valentine's was low-cost and low-key, but still special! I hope everyone had a great day with their families as well and didn't spend a fortune to show your love. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Bento Box Snacks

Since I have been researching healthier eating for myself I have been getting inspired to feed my family healthier too. I've decided that instead of sending my oldest son to school with granola bars and Gogurts that I will put his new Froggy Bento box to good use and send him to school with some healthier and more creative snack options. So far the change has been happily accepted! See what I've packed for the last two days below:
Yesterday's snack was cheese peeled from a Cheese Head Cheese Stick, Pepperonis and Kashi TLC Honey Sesame Crackers. Delish!

This morning I filled the Froggy Bento box with green grapes, a few strawberries, star shaped bread pieces, a wedge of Laughing Cow and a packet of Grape Jelly. I am particularly proud of this one!

GF Waffles

Aiden said he wanted Maple Syrup for dinner. I said, "Would you like to dip something into the Maple Syrup?" We worked out a compromise...Waffles! Then I looked in the fridge and realized we didn't have any eggs! I decided to look online for some ideas and also looked over my usual recipe. I decide to take a stab at making up my own gluten free waffles (without eggs) with what I had one hand. I am happy to report that they came out great!

Gluten Free Waffles

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1.5 tsp Sucanat w/some Cinnamon mixed in

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup applesauce

1 cup Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Milk

1 tblsp Canola Oil

Preheat waffle maker. Combine dry ingredients. Then add wet ingredients. Whisk or stir to form a batter. Spray waffle maker with cooking spray. Add batter and cook until no longer steaming.

Note: Be diligent about spraying between batches. I found that these stuck easily when I forgot to spray.

GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

The boys asked if I could make Chocolate Chip cookies today. I decided to try this Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe but I made a few changes:

In place of the Gluten Flour mix I used 2 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour; and for the chocolate I used 2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. I added to the recipe 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp Almond Extract and 1 tsp cider vinegar.

Since the boys were impatient for cookies I made a small batch up first without refrigerating the dough first. The cookies took a little longer to cook than the original recipe said, but they still came out great. I have the rest of the dough setting up in the fridge for later.

The boys and I really liked these cookies. If you like your Chocolate Chip Cookies hard vs soft you will really like these! I can't tell that these are Gluten Free. I love that!

Ehric asked, "Can you make these again sometime?" Both boys enjoyed their cookies with some farm fresh milk (pictured above is Aiden). I guess these passed muster!

GF Crepes

This morning I was in the mood for crepes. I decided to forgo my usual recipe and make some gluten free ones; since I am experimenting with Gluten Free recipes lately. I found a recipe from Gluten Free Mom and let me just say these were really good! I have been eating crepes since I was a little girl and I thought these tasted and looked just like my regular crepes. Ehric had at least 3 or 4 of them, and when I asked how they were he said, "Amazing as always!" That just melted my heart! I will definitely make these again!

Notes: For the milk I used Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Milk and for the flour I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour. I cooked my crepes in my cast iron crepe pan. This batch made 12 crepes.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Since both boys are home today due to the snow I decided to bake a special treat this afternoon. I made Black Bottom Cupcakes*. Wow, I think I died and went to chocolate heaven! These are so rich and delicious; and I love that they have a cream cheese topping. The boys and I enjoyed these with a glass of milk.

*Note: In place of the sorghum, tapioca and rice flour I used 1 1/2 cups of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour. I also ran out of Baking cocoa so I used an 1/8 cup of hot cocoa mix. LOL! I cooked my cupcakes a little longer than I should have because I couldn't tell if they were cooked through since they are super chocolately. But they tasted awesome in my opinion! Once they cool I plan on putting a few in the freezer for another day.

Happy Groundhog Day!

I don't know what it is about Tuesdays and Wednesdays being the "official" snow days but that is the reality the past few storms. Since we didn't have to worry about our school routine this morning we all slept in a little later than usual. Well I at least layed down in bed later than usual. I am hopeful that we won't have too many more storms in our future since Punxsatawney Phil didn't see his shadow today. Supposedly we will have an early spring!

Lately, I have been running across a lot of Raw recipes and Gluten Free recipes. I've bookmarked a few that I want to try and have purchased a few pantry items so I can try my hand at them. This morning was the perfect opportunity to try Gluten Free Pancakes. I found a recipe and then tweaked it a bit to use what I had on hand. They tasted just like regular buttermilk pancakes to me, and the boys were oblivious to the fact they were not our usual mix and ate up a bunch. Here is the recipe I made:

Gluten Free Pancakes

Makes 20 4" Pancakes

1 1/3 + 3 tblsp Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Powder

4 tblsp Dry Buttermilk Powder

1 tblsp Organic Sucanat and Cinnamon Mixed

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum

2 eggs

3 tblsp Canola Oil

2 Cups of Water

Combine Dry Ingredients, then add Wet Ingredients. Stir to get rid of lumps. Cook on a hot griddle on medium heat. Flip when the first side bubbles.

Note: This recipe makes a lot of batter. It is also a thick batter. Next time I am going to halve the recipe.

Ehric and Aiden happily enjoying Gluten Free Pancakes!

French Toast

On Friday it snowed yet again. Since school was cancelled I decided to make a special breakfast, Raisin French Toast with sausages and orange juice. It was so good!

Raisin French Toast
6 slices Pepperidge Swirl Raisin Cinnamon Bread
1 oz milk
1 egg
Pinch of Cinnamon

Tiny bit of Vanilla Extract

Preheat griddle or pan (lightly butter or oil first). In a shallow dish scramble together the milk, egg, cinnamon and vanilla. Dip both sides of the the bread slices into the mixture and then cook both sides on the griddle.

Aiden ate half of his French Toast and then decided that he wanted to eat Pancakes. Since I had a hot griddle and a Pancake mix handy I humored him.

They both left the table happy with full tummies. "Snow day, yummy snow day!"

Snow Blowing & Hot Cocoa

It has been snowing for most of the day today and our driveway really needed to be plowed by the time Ehric got home from school. So after Ehric got off the bus and made snow angels he and Daddy got to work plowing the driveway. Daddy taught Ehric how to use our Case tractor and for a six year old he did awesome!! Maybe in a few years he will be plowing the driveway by himself.

Since it was snowing and it was cold out I figured everyone would want some hot cocoa. I decided that instead of using the Swiss Miss I would make some from scratch. So I dug out my Hershey's cookbook and made some Hot Cocoa. It was so good with the gingerbread we have leftover from our gingerbread house from Christmas. Everyone had a mug and warmed up!

Hot Cocoa

(from Hershey's 1934 Cookbook (C) 1992)

3 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp Hershey's Cocoa (or any baking cocoa)
Dash salt
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups milk
Marshmallows or marshmallow creme

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa and salt; stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add milk. Heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Beat with rotary beater or wire whisk until foamy. Serve hot, topped with marshmallows.

Optional: before whisking add in a little bit of cinnamon.

Christmas Cake?

Last Monday while volunteering in Ehric's class his teacher made the following comment to the class..."All during Christmas break I kept wondering about Ehric's Christmas cake." I thought to myself, "Christmas cake?" A few minutes later I remembered that Ehric wrote a Christmas poem about Christmas being about Jesus' birthday and cake. I went over to his seat and asked him, "Is Christmas cake when we bake a cake for Jesus' birthday?" He said, "Yes!" Then it all made sense to me...for the past several years we have baked a simple cake on Christmas morning and have sung "Happy Birthday to Jesus" before eating the cake. In that moment I felt bad that I hadn't baked a cake this past Christmas. I told Ehric we would bake a Christmas Cake ASAP and sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus"!

Before Ehric got home from school I baked a spice cake. While it was starting to cool the cake split on the top. At first I was disappointed that the cake split, but when I looked closer I started to laugh when I saw that the split was in the shape of a 'J.' Apparently Jesus approves our our Christmas Cake!

Strawberry Shortcake!!

Yesterday on a whim, I picked up a few pints of strawberries from a local farm stand. It was the perfect opportunity to make Strawberry Shortcakes!

For the shortcake I made All-American Baking Powder Biscuits (A King Arthur Flour recipe):

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tblsp baking powder

1-4 tblsp sugar

4-6 tblsp butter or shortening (I used Butter flavored Crisco)

1 cup milk or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 F

Mix together the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender cut the butter or shortening into the flour mixture.

Add the milk, all at once, mixing quickly and gently for about 20 seconds until you have a soft dough.

Drop the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8-10 times. Roll out or pat out the dough to about 3/4" thickness and cut the biscuits with a round cookie cutter.

Place on tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Prep Work:

While the biscuits cooked I cut up the strawberries and mixed them in a bowl with a little sugar.

When the biscuits where done I let them cool a few minutes. Then cut them open and spread a little butter on them. I put two halves in each bowl, spread strawberries on top, and sprayed whipped cream over the entire top.

Let's just say that they were so good!! We all devoured our Strawberry Shortcakes in no time at all!

Raspberries!!

Aiden has really enjoyed picking raspberries in the play yard over the last few days. Daddy even setup a ladder for him to reach the high berries! Here he is picking, eating and delighting in his harvest!

Chicks and Food

When we got home last night I heard some peeping coming from under our front stoop. I tiptoed over and saw two little black chicks. Mama hen saw me and was not too pleased. She jumped at me twice and I shrieked! I really understood the term, "Mother hen!" Then I did the same with my brood, I protected them from the hen and quickly got us inside. Despite almost getting pecked to death I am so excited that our hens are hatching out their own chicks!

When I looked in the fridge I discovered a bowl of strawberries. Hubby had helped a coworker move a washer and he gave him a bunch of strawberries. They were so good! Aiden ate most of them! That kid loves his fruit!





Today must have been the day for attracting locally grown food. At Maine 4-H Days we spent some time helping out in the kitchen and the lady in charge gave us several bags of spinach, pea tendrils and turnips! I made Ehric and I bacon wrapped scallops and wraps made with apple slices, cheddar cheese and some pea tendrils. It was all really good! Aiden stuck to his favorite PB &J!



Today at Maine 4-H days we got to try a sample of Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp made with local maple syrup and oats. It was really good! When I got home I decided to try to make my own rhubarb crisp using maple syrup (I usually use sugar). I threw some frozen rhubarb into a glass pyrex, then added some maple syrup and a little bit of flour (figured the frozen rhubarb would get watery) to the mix. In a seperate bowl I mixed old-fashioned rolled oats, maple syrup and butter. I used a pastry blender to combine. Then I poured the oat mix on the top. I baked at 375 F for maybe 30 minutes or so. Next time I will probably look up a recipe and use fresh rhubarb because some of my pieces were not mushed up enough and were a little tart. It was pretty good though, but different!

Honey, Raspberries & Baby Birds

Hubby recently befriended a fellow beekeeper that lives up the road. All week they have been chasing swarms together, and as a thank you he gave us 5 jars of honey and 2 packages of honeycomb from his bees. We tried the honeycomb after lunch and had fun sucking the honey out. It was so floral tasting and sweet. Can't wait to try the honey out soon!

After lunch the boys went to play outside and discovered raspberries in their play yard. They were so excited and spent most of the afternoon picking berries. Hubby weeded out some butterfly bush from the raspberry patch and discovered a bird's nest that had two baby birds inside. He showed it to the boys. They were so excited to tell me about it, and Ehric said it had two little red colored birds in the nest. I will have to go inspect it tomorrow. Not a bad Thursday!

Father's Day Memories

ABC of Bees

Last Thursday Ehric and I went to a workshop sponsored by 4-H called, ABC's of Bees. We learned about top-bar beekeeping. Instead of traditional hive boxes the bees are kept in a more triangular long shaped box. It was pretty interesting, but according to my hubby also a controversial style of keeping bees. Either way it was interesting and we got to eat honey candy, which was yummy!