Random Photos & This Week's Meal Plan *UPDATED*

*UPDATED to add the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin recipe and a link to my (well, my mom's) lasagna recipe (see the very bottom of the post for the lasagna link.)  :)  It's delicious!

Hm.  Hesitating to post this at all, because these photos appear blurry, yet they weren't so on my phone.  Sorry.  

Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese are the kids' favorite muffins so far this season. This past weekend I tried two varieties, and you can see what their new favorite appears to be:

Regular on the left, and chocolate chips added to the right.  We began with twelve of each.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

Mix:
1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or more if you prefer)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
8 T butter (I actually used 1/2 cup of applesauce and 4 T melted butter)

Then take about 4 oz of cream cheese and in a bit of sugar (maybe up to a Tablespoon?).  Optional: If you want to add chocolate chips, add them to the cream cheese mixture.

Fill the bottom of the (greased or paper) muffin cups with a heaping spoonful of the batter, then add a dollup of cream cheese mixture, then add another spoonful of the batter to sandwich in the cream cheese mixture.  Bake at 350 for 15-18 min. 

~

And this is what our window box looks like this season:

I discovered these small pie pumpkins at the grocery store for a little over a dollar apiece, so I brought five home and set them on the table with sharpie markers and this note: 

Preparing dinner for tonight, which was Pumpkin Chili. I tweaked the original recipe a bit, omitting the green chilies and one can of tomatoes and opting for more pumpkin and some beef broth.  It was very good!

And here's our meal plan for the rest of this week:

*My recipe for lasagna is in an older post called Sauces!

Garden goodness: Preserving it all

My apologies for the delay in getting a new post up, friends.  It has just been busy around here.  Mark and I were able to get away for a few days last week, just the two of us, which I am so thankful for. We stayed at a bed & breakfast, took long walks together, watched the Olymics, watched a movie, read our books, prayed together, ate great food, and rested well.  It was delightful.

Prior to that I did a lot of dehydrating.  Lots of apples.  And then I made some applesauce:

Have I ever shown you one of my favorite things?  THIS is my making-applesauce friend:

You just slice the apples (removing the core, but leaving the peel on), boil the apples in a bit of water for a few minutes until they're soft, and then dump them into this sieve thing, and use that wooden mallet to shove them down and to the sides, add cinnamon and sugar to taste and you get applesauce. 

I also made some jam and did some canning:

 

Our garden is growing lots of green beans right now.  I wasn't up to canning beans, so I used this method again to pickle some vegetables to keep in the fridge. This year I did carrots, green beans, onions, cucumbers and peppers (the carrots and green beans were the only thing from our garden.)  

We're also getting tons of these delicious Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes, which I've dried and frozen whole and eaten fresh.  But my VERY FAVORITE way to eat them this summer is to roast them.  Slice them (or any other tomato from your garden) in half and put them on a cookie sheet (on parchment paper or silpat).  Peel some garlic cloves, slice them, and throw those in there, too.  Then add some fresh herbs.  Basil or thyme is what I have, so that's what I've done.  Then drizzle a bit of olive oil on the top of it all, sprinkle some salt, and roast in the oven for about an hour (at 250 or 300 degrees).  This makes them all mushy and yummy, like a paste.

If you have a baguette or some crusty bread or crackers or anything like that?  Grab that, spread on some goat cheese, and then dollop some of your yummy roasted tomatoes on the top of that and you will be SO HAPPY.  Yum.

Later this week I will get back to my Evaluating our School Year homeschool series.  Which feels weird since I'm actually beyond that, now, and am in full-on planning mode already for next year, but I will press on.  ;)

Oh!  You may notice some changes here on the blog- with design and layout.  I'm working on changing it but it will be wonky until it's all settled.  Bear with me. 

Love to you all,
~Stacy

Breakfast Of Choice

I'm sure I've mentioned that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I almost always eat different things than the kids-- I'll make them muffins or scones or pancakes or coffee cake, but I rarely eat those things for all the calories (except those Raspberry White Chocolate Scones.  I ate TWO).  So if I can squeeze in ten minutes to make myself breakfast and about five minutes to eat it, I am a happy girl. :)  This is much easier when I'm not trying to homeschool, also, so summertime is such a treat for me.

Now you get to hear about my Breakfast Of Choice for the past several days.  I'll keep eating it as long as I have ripe tomatoes in the garden and crusty bread, because YUM.

I take a piece of french bread or sourdough and toast it.  While that's toasting, I head outside to pick some fresh tomatoes (these are Sungold) and some fresh basil leaves.  Then I spread or crumble some chevre cheese on top of the toast (maybe 1-2 tsp), and fry up an egg or two and dump it on top of the toast.  I then slice the tomatoes and snip or tear the basil on top and then top it all off by drizzling some balsamic reduction over it all.  It is so delicious.  And it makes me so happy.

Is your mouth watering?  Do this. Or some variation of it.

My kids had breakfast cookies, which they were quite happy about:

I even added mini M&M's.

Raspberry White Chocolate Scones

Well.  I have officially decided that everyone needs to make these.

There's a coffee shop in town that has similar scones and they're amazing. But not as amazing as these.

In fact, even though we ate them hours ago, Isaac just said to me,  "Mommy, thanks again for breakfast.  I can't get over how good those were."

From batch #2: using frozen raspberries that had been partially thawed.

I've adapted the recipe slightly from the original recipe found on pickycook.com and she has great step-by-step instructions with photos on there if you're interested.

Here is what you'll need:

8 T unsalted butter, frozen and grated*
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 cup buttermilk (original recipe calls for whole milk; I didn't have any so I subbed buttermilk)
1/2 cup sour cream 
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon table salt 
the zest of one lemon 
1/4 cup of white chocolate chips
turbinado sugar (or regular) for sprinkling on top

*I have never in my whole life even heard of freezing and then grating the butter prior to reading this recipe, and it is GENIUS.  When a recipe calls for cutting in butter (for scones, struedel, and pie crusts), from here until my dying day, I will be doing This Brilliant Thing.  (My own stick of butter was refrigerated and after reading the recipe, I threw it in the freezer while I picked berries from our yard, so mine was only in the freezer for maybe 10 minutes, but still.)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and start grating your stick (8 T) of butter.  Then put your grated butter into the freezer.

2. Whisk together buttermilk (1/2 cup) and sour cream (1/2 cup) in a small bowl; refrigerate until needed.

3. Whisk flour (2 cups), sugar (1/2 cup), baking powder (2 tsp), baking soda (1/4 tsp), salt (1/2 tsp) and the zest of one lemon into a medium bowl.

4. Add the frozen, grated butter to the flour mixture and toss with fingers until thoroughly coated.

5. Add buttermilk and sour cream mixture to the flour mixture; folding with a rubber spatula until just combined.

6. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface.  (I used floured parchment paper.)  Sprinkle flour on the dough and knead the dough with your hands a few times, until it just holds together in the general shape of a ball, adding flour as needed if it's too sticky.

7. Roll the dough into an approximate 12-inch square. Then fold the dough into thirds (as you would a business letter) and transfer the dough to a plate lightly dusted with flour and put it back into the freezer for 5 minutes.

8. Take the dough out of the freezer, and transfer it to a piece of floured parchment paper or a silpat and roll out again if needed (12-inch square).  Sprinkle fresh raspberries and white chocolate chips evenly over the surface of the dough, then gently press them a bit into the dough.

9. Roll the dough to form a log, and then lay seam-side down and press down on the top of the log,  slightly flattening it.  Using a sharp, floured knife, cut the log into scone-looking triangles.

10. Brush tops with some melted butter and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until the tops are browning, 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven.

A note on using fresh or frozen raspberries: 

For my first batch, batch #1, I used fresh raspberries.  I had briefly washed them and then scattered them on a paper towel to dry off.

For batch #2, I used raspberries from the freezer, partially thawed, and they were decidedly wetter when pressing them into the dough.  Although the scones from batch #2 were equally delicious, they didn't retain their scone shape as well.  (All that to say that if you use frozen raspberries, don't thaw them at all, sprinkle them right on frozen.  I think that would work better.)

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Rhubarb Muffins

Okay.  I've made these muffins twice, and even changed up the recipe a bit the second time around and they were still good.  They are the best gluten-free item I've baked thus far, (and I've baked quite a bit this past week), so I can confidently share this recipe with you!

~

The How Can it be Gluten Free Cookbook is where I got the recipe for the flour blend I made and used the first time around:

The America's Test Kitchen Gluten-Free Flour Blend (makes 9 1/2 cups)

24 ounces (4 1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup) white rice flour 
7 1/2 ounces (1 2/3 cups) brown rice flour
7 ounces (1 1/3 cups) potato starch
3 ounces (3/4 cup) tapioca flour/starch
3/4 ounce (3 T) nonfat milk powder

Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.  Transfer to airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 months.

I made that and then moved on to their recipe for Blueberry Muffins, but adapted it a bit, so here's my recipe:


Gluten-Free Rhubarb Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

11 ounces (1 3/4 cups plus 2/3 cup) ATK Gluten-Free Flour Blend (see above)
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 1/4 ounces (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
8 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rhubarb*
the zest of a lemon
turbinado sugar (optional, for sprinkling on top of the muffins prior to baking) 

*or any other fruit, really.  (We love rhubarb, and have some in our garden, so I used that.  I washed it and diced it, then put it in a pan on the stove on medium heat with a bit of water- maybe 1-2 T, and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top, then cooked down for a few (4-5?) minutes till the rhubarb was soft (but not mushy), and finally drained it in a colander lined with a paper towel.)

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Stir dry ingredients (flour blend, baking powder, salt, and sugar)
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the melted, cooled butter, the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla
4. Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and then add the drained rhubarb and the zest of a lemon.
5. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.  (This is important, so the muffins will not have a gritty texture.  The resting time allows the brown rice flour to hydrate and expand, apparently.)
6. Fill 12 greased muffin cups, and bake for 13-15 minutes.
7. Let the muffins cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the pan.
Enjoy!
 
The second time I made them I used my friend Jodi's flour blend of:
3 cups brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2 tsp xantham gum

I used applesauce in place of about 1/3 of the butter (see applesauce note in this post), and I increased the rhubarb to probably 3 cups, and they were also delicious.  The consistency was slightly different; the muffins produced more peaked tops, more of a biscuit consistency, not rounded like the photo above. I'm not sure if that is due to the flour blend or me subbing out some of the butter, but we all loved them regardless, so it doesn't matter.  Next time I'm going to try to reduce the sugar and add honey or maple syrup in place of it.  But I'm happy for the time being to have a go-to muffin recipe.

Overall, I think we had a pretty good week of gluten free.  I might have cried but for these:

(Which we used several times.  For breakfast burritos, chicken salad wraps, quesadillas and burritos.)  There were two exceptions:
1) I had already pre-planned our meals for the week (without having decided about the g-f thing) and one of the things we were having was stuffed shells (jumbo pasta shells stuffed with ricotta and spinach with marinara and white sauce over the top.)  And though I tried looking for either gluten-free jumbo shells or gluten-free lasagna noodles (that I could wrap), I couldn't.  So we did eat those on Saturday night.
2) Sunday night our two oldest kids went to a BBQ and had hotdogs and cupcakes or cookies and completely forgot about the no-gluten thing.  (Which is fine, I likely would have told them not to worry about it anyway.)

Today: Meals and School

This morning I was up early-- our days go so much better when I am-- and exercised, had a quiet time, and showered.  The girls were arguing because one daughter (lets call her Daughter 1) wanted the little pink shorts for her doll that were being worn by my other daughter's (Daughter 2) doll.  So of course Daughter 1 just took them off and began putting them on her doll.  I instructed her to give the shorts back-- don't take-- and instructed my other girls to please try to find Daughter 1 something she would be happy having her dolly wear.  Then, after that pronouncement and mid-way through my shower, I re-thought that, remembering the verse "It is more blessed to give than to receive" and wondered if I shouldn't have gone the other way and instructed Daughter 2 to just let her have them.  Aagh.  I don't know.  By the time I was out of the shower, Daughter 2 had shared half her doll clothes with Daughter 1 and they were both happy (and Daughter 1 had apologized for taking them), so I guess they worked it out.  I went and commended Daughter 2 for sharing and told her of the verse I'd thought of in the shower; and how happy I was that she had been generous. 

Then I went to prep dinner.  We're having Peruvian Chicken tonight.  Chicken with paprika, cumin, lemons and garlic cloves, with sweet potatoes.  Sounds good, right? Anyway, I had to cut up a whole chicken, which I'm not sure I've ever done before.  Generally I buy them whole and go this route.  As I was cutting into the chicken with my very dull knife, I was muttering about how it's no wonder people don't usually do this, and it might be the very last time I do.  Sheesh.  Thank you, butchers everywhere.

Photo from the cookbook Meals Made Simple, p 116: Peruvian-Style Chicken

(If we like this recipe-- it's a new one; we'll see-- I already plan to revise it and do the whole thing in the crock pot next time around.  I just like to try to follow instructions the first time.)  Anyhow, all those pieces of chicken are currently marinating in a bag in the fridge and it looks to be delicious.

We gathered at the table for breakfast at around 9:15, and the kids ate leftover Rhubarb Pound Cake (sans some lemon zest, and with yogurt and cream cheese and sour cream (in place of *just* the sour cream)), because that's how I roll.  (In that I use what we have on hand, and we were low on sour cream but had some yogurt, but low on yogurt but have cream cheese.)  It was scrumptious.  And they had leftover egg casserole, too.

my oft-used recipe for Rhubarb Pound Cake

Then we started morning time.  We read from the Bible-- about Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Jeremiah this morning, read Proverb 16, sang four verses of the hymn There is a Fountain, read our poems (Bilbo's Walking Song and The Cow), and prayed together.

This morning's prayer list:
-Abby's theater performance and upcoming surgery
-our friends who are on a road trip
-another friend who is struggling with several auto-immune diseases and who is going on a strict diet beginning today
-for our Compassion child in Ecuador, her and her family's safety because of the recent earthquake,
-for the presidential election-- (my two littlest girls praying fervently for God to soften the hearts of those running; for them to follow Him.)
-for the refugees

We moved into the living room and did picture study-- our second from Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, where Ella described the painting to the others, who listened, then asked questions.  Then they all got to look and comment.  (While Ella was describing, I was in the kitchen making my breakfast, then I ate it while they were all looking at the painting.)

Then I read-aloud from Peter Duck (#3 in the Swallows & Amazons series) while the kids drew or colored or played quietly.

Mark stopped in for coffee as I was reading aloud, and the kids headed outside shortly afterward for outside time.  After seeing Mark out and making myself a latte, I started writing this post.  And smelling these lovely peonies from the garden that adorn our table:

I called the kids in after about half-hour, and Isaac asked if he could stay outside because he was working on something. He's been whittling with his knife.  [Update: Wow!  He just came in and showed me what he made!  I'm impressed.]

Isaac's knife, carved from a stick.  He just needs to sand the blade to smooth it some more.

The rest of the kids are indoors now and working independently from the list on their clipboards-- math and history and cursive and such things.  I'm amazed I haven't been interrupted twelve times, but alas, I haven't.  So I'll get to publish this post and then make the rounds and check in on everyone, then maybe respond to some emails and clean the kitchen and then it will be time for lunch.

I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Five snippets from my ordinary life

1. The other night I was asleep by 9:30 and slept till 5:30.  I was awake briefly and then went back to sleep until 8:15.
(This NEVER happens.)
(It is entirely possible that it's been since ELEMENTARY SCHOOL since I've gotten this much sleep.)
(I am not exaggerating.)
(I am still in shock.)

One of my issues is that if I wake up during the night for any reason (a child with nightmares, a husband who might possibly snore sometimes a very tiny bit, (Doesn't that make it sound so nice?)), my mind flips on and then I cannot go back to sleep.

So, a normal night's sleep for me is that I go to sleep very very late (say, 12:00), and then I wake up in the 3 or 4 o'clock hour and cannot go back to sleep for the life of me.  Sometimes I will doze back off to sleep after tossing and turning and trying for hours, so I may tag on another hour or so, but...  I average about 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  It's crazy, I know.  (Am I the only one with this problem?)  Sometimes I just get up and just embrace the fact that I'm awake. (Mark found me in the kitchen baking bread at 4:30 in the morning a couple of weeks ago.)  Most of the time I'll journal or read until I feel sleepy again.

That was a LOT of sleep, and I consider it a huge gift. 

2.  I am halfway through the book Oliver Twist.  I've always wanted to read it and have owned it for years but have just never delved into it.  (The only other thing I'd ever read by Dickens was A Christmas Carol, which, honestly- I do not love, and which, most likely, is what made me hesitate on reading anything else of his.)  Until now.   And--- I love it.   The language and the characters are so rich, and it makes me love Dickens and want to read more.  Dickens delights me with the longest, most detailed sentences, and I am now ever so fond of him.

3.  Ella and I have been so blessed to go to a couple of concerts together lately.  Recently we saw Sara Groves and also Rend Collective!  Loved them BOTH.

4.  Have I told you about this recipe for French Bread Rolls?  If I haven't, it's only because I've been too busy baking them.  If you want an easy roll recipe, use this one.  They turn out beautifully and your family will thank you.  I promise.  And then beg you to make them again.

5.  Springtime is showing itself all around our house-- our camellia is blooming, our flowering trees are blooming, tulips are coming up in the gardens and some of our other annuals, the grass is growing and green, the birds are happily singing, and I am thoroughly excited about it.  I am longing for warmth and sunshine, and more outside time as a result of those two things.  As much as I love our cozy little home with our crackling fire, I cannot WAIT for warmer weather. 

Rotisserie Chicken and Homemade Bone Broth (in the crock pot)

Yesterday morning I put a whole chicken in the crockpot.  This is my favorite way to cook chicken.  If you've never cooked a whole chicken before, try this!  It's so easy, your house will smell delicious all day long and you will likely have meat for more than one meal.  

Rotisserie Chicken for the Crockpot
Rinse the chicken, remove the innards and pat it dry. 

Combine the following together in a bowl:
2 tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika (or any paprika you might have)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Rub this mixture all over the bird, inside and out.
(At this point I usually quarter an onion and peel some garlic cloves and stick them inside the bird.) Put the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.  Do NOT add any water.
Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. 

After about six hours (on low), I scooped out half of the chicken to use for that night's meal (Chicken-broccoli casserole).  Here it is, cooling:

When it had cooled, I pulled the meat off the bones (Do NOT toss those bones!) and broke it apart with my fingers to make smaller pieces, then added it to our casserole and finished making dinner.  

When the casserole was in the oven, I turned off the crockpot and removed the other half of the chicken and did the same thing (usually I would do this in one fell swoop but I had to get the casserole in the oven).  Put that chicken in the fridge to use for a meal later on in the week.

Now.  For the stock: you can pull out the onions and garlic when you see them, or leave them in, and then dump all the bones back into the crockpot, add water to nearly fill the crockpot, and cook the bones for several hours (I usually cook them on low throughout that entire night and the following full day).  Then you've just made yourself some good bone broth which you can use anytime a recipe calls for chicken stock (or any other stock for that matter.)  I pour it through this fine strainer I have and into containers to stick in the freezer.

Favorite meal of the week (it might surprise you!)

One of my favorite times of the day is when we gather around our table and eat dinner together.  Often we'll all tell our "best" or "favorite" parts of the day.  The kids love this.  The other night Ella asked each of us what made us laugh that day, and so we all shared what had made us laugh, and then Ella finished with what had made her laugh--- something God said to Joshua about getting up off his face.  :)  I treasure these times. 

I love to change things up when it comes to making meals for our family.  I can't handle eating the same thing all the time.  I need some variety.  And I got a new cookbook for Christmas-- I LOVE getting new cookbooks--- so I've been trying some new recipes, which is always fun.  :)  This past week I tried two new meals out on them.  I told the kids they were allowed to rank them, since I'll need to know if I should ever make them again.

So.  One of the recipes I had on our meal plan for the week was Chow Mein, from The Pioneer Woman's Dinnertime cookbook.

I love Chow Mein and wanted to give it a shot even though I was fairly certain that none of my kids would appreciate it.

Of course, when I was at the grocery store shopping for our weekly meals, I realized I hadn't written down the ingredients for this particular meal, so hurriedly found the recipe online and we shopped off the online recipe.  Then we thought we might never get the chance to try it at all since the recipe calls for "thin lo mein noodles."  And Ella and I spent approximately ten full minutes in the appropriate section of the grocery store looking for the words thin and lo and mein all on the same noodle package and trust me, there is no such package.  There are no thin lo mein noodles.  No lo mein noodles, even.  No thin mein noodles.  Whatever, Ree.  We came home with these:

Because we're smart like that.  Basically, the recipe has you saute some onions and cabbage and carrots in soy sauce and peanut oil (which I didn't have so we went with sesame oil) and then you boil these noodles for 3 minutes and stir fry it all together with soy sauce and voila!  Dinner. (See why I chose this recipe?)  Also, rewind to the onions + cabbage + carrots part.  (See why I thought the kids would hate it?)

I have this little fixation with thinking that every meal I serve must contain meat.  (I'm not sure who I should thank for that.  Probably one of my grandmas or my mom.)  But I genuinely feel like it cannot be a complete and proper meal unless there is meat somewhere, so at the last minute I thawed some chicken breasts and sliced those up and stir fried those, too.  (Bonus points for the kids who were going to have the Ew! look on their faces when I served them up their cooked cabbage and carrots. They could enjoy the chicken, then.  And the noodles.  And just tolerate the rest.)

I was personally super excited about the meal, but told Mark before calling the kids to the table, "I'm sure that none of them are going to like this." He shrugged and said something to the effect of, "They don't have to like it, they just have to eat it."  And we called them to the table and served it up and they all loved it.  Loved it.  As in, wanted seconds and would have asked for thirds if it weren't all already gone.  So there.  Thank you Ree and Sun Luck and my kids.

Here's the official recipe from the book, should you want to give it a try:

1 T peanut oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup julienned carrots
4 green onions, sliced
1/2 head napa cabbage, thinly sliced
8 oz thin Chinese noodles, cooked according to the package directions (aka: thin lo mein noodles, as listed here)
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

My paraphrase of what to do:
Saute the onions first, stir-fry for about 2 minutes or until onions start to soften.
Add in carrots, saute for 2 minutes.
Add cabbage and half the green onions.  2 more minutes.
Then add cooked noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil.  (I added my cooked chicken at this point, too).
Finally, add the rest of the green onions, and there you go.  Dinner is ready.

My notes: I already mentioned that we didn't have peanut oil, so I just sauteed everything in sesame oil.  I doubled the recipe but out of compassion for my kids, I used only half an onion total.  I grated my carrots because I don't have any fancy julienne tool, if there is such a tool.  I used maybe 3/4 head of cabbage, but had two 8 oz packages of the noodles.  And 3 chicken breasts.  Probably less soy sauce since I just drizzled it in-- my guess would be that I used about 1/8 of a cup, total. 

She has all sorts of variations listed in the book, such as adding GROSS mushrooms (which will never ever happen in this house ever because they make me gag.  My apologies to Mark, who loves them.  But he also loves me, so he's very understanding that I won't let mushrooms enter my home.  And he orders mushrooms practically every time we go out to eat, so he's just fine.)  But if you'd like to add them to this recipe, be my guest.  ;)

Did any of you receive cookbooks for Christmas?  What's your favorite cookbook? 


*This post contains affiliate links

Pork, two ways, in the crock-pot

When it comes to meat, I know what I like.  I like moist meat.  The kind that breaks open easily with a fork.  Full of flavor.  With sauce or drippings.  Yes. YUM. 

I've established two go-to recipes for pork that we love.  I can't imagine you won't love them, too:

First and favorite way:
Take a thawed pork shoulder (or any other big hunk of pork) and sear it in butter or olive oil in a cast-iron pan (or other frying pan).  Brown it on as many sides as you can get to by flopping it around in the pan, on medium heat.

Drop it into the crock-pot.  

Then, in a bowl, mix together with a fork:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 T chili powder
2 T smoked paprika
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-2 shakes of cayenne pepper

Pour about half of that seasoning mix on top of the roast and rub it in.  Then flip the roast and season the other side with the rest of the mix.  Rub in all over the roast, (top, bottom and sides), stick the lid on your crock-pot, set to low and leave it until dinner.  (Cook for at least 5 hours on low.)  

I usually peek at it about half-hour before dinner and roughly shred the meat with two forks and stir it a bit. You can eat it as is or take the juices from the bottom and make yourself a gravy with them.  (1-2 T of butter, add 1-2 T flour, add juices into a saucepan until it thickens, voila!)  DELISH.  Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.  Mmmm!

 * * *

Second and also scrumptious way:

(But made less often because I have to pre-plan and have these ingredients on hand)

Take a thawed pork shoulder and sear it as described above, put it into the crock-pot and pour these (mixed) ingredients over top of it: 

3/4 cup of beer  (I don't know beer. At ALL. I generally buy a bottle of some sort of ale.  I'm sure anything would work).

1/2 cup dijon mustard

6 T honey

1/4 cup olive oil (less)

1 T dried rosemary

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed 

Set crock-pot to low and leave it until dinner.  (At least 5 hours.)  Check and shred meat about half-hour before you want to eat, and then add 1/2 cup cream.  

This sauce is amazing.  Truly.  It's so good you'll want to drink it.  I always serve this with mashed potatoes so we can just pour this sauce on over the potatoes for gravy. Or with some bread so we can lap up the sauce on our plates with the bread.  Yum.  

Enjoy!  

Weekly Meal Plan and Traditions

It's a beautiful fall day--- blue skies but brisk.  I've been wearing slippers around the house every day.  I can hear the heat kick on occasionally.  I had a conversation with some friends recently about heat-- and one of them said that she (and her now-grown children) try to see how long they can go into the fall without turning on the heat.  It's like a contest for them.  Not so, here.  I like a warm, cozy house and so our heat sits somewhere between 68-70.

Mark got paid yesterday-- hooray and thank you, God!-- so I did some meal planning and grocery shopping last night, and this is what we're eating this week:

Monday | Chicken in a Creamy Parmesan and Sundried Tomato Sauce (or, as the sheet on my fridge says: "Chicken & Yummy Sauce".  Because just click over to that picture and tell me if you can resist adding that to your meal plan sometime in the near future.  YUM.  I've actually never made it before but I'm thinking one cannot go wrong with those ingredients.  I think we'll do spaghetti squash with it, because I have one and need to use it.  Oh, and maybe some crusty bread so that we can sop up all that yummy sauce with it.  Mmm.

Tuesday | Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef (Pioneer Woman) because, slow cooker.  My favorite.  Because it's just there, cooking our food all day and smelling up the house so wonderfully.  With basmati rice.  Maybe salad if I have some greens handy.

Wednesday | Macaroni and Cheese* I use Heather's recipe (thank you, Heather!) because it's so forgiving-- whatever cheese and sour cream/cream cheese mixture we have on hand, toss it in and it always tastes great.  I have no idea what we'll have for sides.  I rarely think of sides (unless it's rice or potatoes) until the day of.  Something green.  Salad, asparagus.
*I just realized that I should note, here, that I triple the sauce from the recipe listed, and boil 7 cups of macaroni noodles for our family.  It makes a big dish.  ;)

This photo has nothing to do with this post, but seemed fitting for the season.  (These apple pies were actually Isaac's  birthday dessert request at the end of October).

 
Thursday | Thanksgiving!  (Hooray!)  For our big Thanksgiving meal hosted by my parents, I am bringing a green salad and making scrumptious sweet potatoes (which I don't personally love) but are oft-requested and generally well-loved by everyone in sight.  ;)  Mark and Ella, especially, oh! -- and my mom- DREAM of these sweet potatoes.  It's just a bunch of sliced sweet potatoes (from the produce department, the white ones) baked in a brown sugar/butter mixture and topped with marshmallows a few minutes before the timer goes off.  Mom will do the turkey, potatoes, gravy and stuffing and many desserts (bless her) and my siblings are bringing other sides.  I'm just now remembering that I may have volunteered to make some sort of apple dessert, too, so I'll have to double-check on that.

We'll have the big meal Thursday afternoon and then Thursday evening we just eat leftovers: turkey sandwiches, usually, on white dinner rolls, and chex mix and desserts.  My sister and her family will be here through the weekend, so the kids are thrilled to see their cousins that they rarely get to see.  My brother, his wife and their two kids will be there, too, and my other brother, and all of us packed into my parents' house.  We play games, sit around and talk and laugh and eat and generally have a wonderful time. I love it and so look forward to it.

Friday | White Chicken Chili and cornbread.  Quick and easy.  I have pre-cooked chicken and chicken broth in the freezer and I'll use cans of white beans instead of cooking up dry beans.  We'll (Mark included!  He has the whole weekend off this year!) all likely be at my moms most of the day but try to exit before dinner so that she doesn't have to feed us all... again.  

Saturday |  THIS IS THE DAY WE GO GET OUR CHRISTMAS TREE AND DECORATE OUR HOME FOR CHRISTMAS and I love everything about this day.  A couple of years ago we started a new tradition with my brother and his family (who live nearby) and my parents (who also live nearby).... we all go out and get our tree together (that's not new, we've been doing that for years, stopping to get peppermint mochas or eggnog lattes on the way out) and then we all go home to decorate our individual houses.  Then later that night, when all is decorated and alight, we do a neighborhood walk and tour everyone's decorated homes, then end up back here at our house for pigs-in-a-blankets, spinach and artichoke dip and bread, cider and eggnog and desserts.  Love it.

Sunday | Nachos. Another super easy recipe.  On purpose.  I think we'll all be exhausted.  Hopefully this will be a restful day after all the hubbub of the weekend.  I envision lots of lovely, cozy nights in front of our cheerily lit tree and a crackling fire. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! 

Fall Deliciousness

One the of the grand things Mark and I decided for this school year is that when he gets a day off, he's going to sub in for me, following our normal school routine, and I get the day off.  As in, off.  While the kids are still getting school done.

I can't even describe to you how delightful this is.

This morning--- wait, let's go ahead and begin with last night, because I think you should all know that I single handedly ate an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.  But that's not all.  I also ate approximately half a bag of Kettle Honey-Dijon chips.  You may think I'm exaggerating but I'm not.  Also a lime+coconut+rum blended drink Mark made me.

It's been that kind of week.  PMS hits hard and fast these days and on Sunday night I was bawling and feeling like this life of mine was impossibly overwhelming, was suddenly exasperated and irritated about all the mess everywhere, all the noise, everything that had to be done, anything on our calendar, any and all questions and all the interruptions.

So last night was absolutely necessary.

Oh.  And yes, I'm still counting calories.  I think I'd saved about 800 calories for last night's snacking, but we all know I went over by about 4000.  I figure that's just fine to do once a month.

Anyway, all that to say that today is a much-needed day off.  I woke up at 7:30 (that's sleeping in for me!).  Mark was already up with Adelia, reading books on the couch.  I went for a jog, came home, showered, got ready-- all while Mark was busy with the kids in their getting-ready-for-the-day, chores, and breakfasting routines, and now I'm at Starbucks with an iced latte and my Bible, journal, colored pencils and the laptop.  George Winston's December CD is playing happily in my ears.  It's my favorite soothing music.  I chose a sunny table by the window where I have a view of the fireplace but also get to sprawl out all my stuff.

This post is titled Fall Deliciousness because this may be my favorite time of year for cooking, baking and perusing cookbooks.  I've tried out some new recipes lately and wanted to share them with you.  Sorry for the long and winding intro.

First up: bread.  Is there anything better than freshly baked bread this time of year?  NO there is not.  So I've been baking bread.  Lots of it.  Our favorites are my grandma's white bread recipe, because it makes four loaves and because it's pure comfort to me to read her instructions in the recipe and to think of her baking it.  And the smell of it and-- it's the perfect bread for sandwiches.

I also have another whole-wheat bread recipe that I alternate with for sandwiches.  And this recipe for Honey-Oat bread that I bake to use for dinnertime.

New to me but equally satisfying is this recipe for crusty bread.  (Thank you, Sarah E!) I have ALWAYS wanted to make this type of bread but don't have a dutch oven so I figured it was out of the question.  But a couple of weeks ago I decided to try to use an old Corningware dish I have that has a glass lid, and I'm so thrilled because it totally worked!  I made two loaves and they were perfect:

Secondly: soup.  Please do yourself a favor and make this recipe for Slow Cooker Butternut Squash soup.  (Another thank you to my friend Sarah).  I've made butternut squash soup before but this recipe is by far the best.  I think it's the coconut milk you add at the end.  Plus, you chop everything up and throw it in the crock pot and then your house smells like pure fall goodness all day long.  I think those are the best kind of meals.  [Just a couple of my notes on this recipe: I used sweet potatoes instead of the carrots and will do it again.  Because we just love sweet potatoes at our house.  Also, I peeled my apples.  I don't own an immersion blender so I just poured it into my food processor and pureed it in small batches.]  We all loved this soup!

A terrible picture, but here it is--ready to cook all day!

Serve the soup with some of that crusty bread and it's a perfect fall meal.  Or make up some quick Yogurt Biscuits but add something savory like parmesan and sage or whatever you have on hand.

Last but not least, please make this recipe for Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies from Ashley Rodriguez.  Just... yum.  It's the variety of sugars and the salt on the top.  I keep making them.  Double the recipe, for sure.  And I know she says to refrigerate the dough but who wants to wait for that?  Plus, then you have hard dough that's tough to work with so just ignore that part.  And use whatever chocolate you have and like.  I use milk and semi-sweet. 

(Recent) favorite cookbooks to pore over: Date Night In (which is where the cookie recipe comes from) and The Forest Feast (which is just pretty and inspiring.  I love her dressings and salads and her photos and illustrations throughout.)




Please share any of your favorite fall recipes in the comments.  We love to try new recipes at our house!


*This post contains affiliate links

Garden notes and drying tomatoes

I knew when we planted our garden this spring that I didn't want to do a lot of canning.  It's just a lot of work, and I was tired and wanted rest. 

Ahem.  I did NO canning.  Oh, wait.  That's not true.  I think I did up two batches of freezer jam: one strawberry and one peach.  But still.  That's not a lot.  I imagine I'll regret that come fall and winter.  But when it's 80-something degrees in the kitchen, I just cannot get motivated to can.  No way.

I froze a lot of berries- strawberries and raspberries from our yard.  We made several batches of fruit leather.  We ate beans fresh and roasted them up for a few dinners.  We made a lot of tomato-and-cucumber-and-garlic-and-basil-and-feta salads.  YUM.  

 

I still have tomatoes and basil coming out my ears.  So this morning I was up early in the garden and picked a huge bowl of Sun Gold tomatoes (my favorite), and decided to try drying them.  I just sliced them in half (quartering the larger ones), and then in a food processor, blended about 10 leaves of basil and a couple of garlic cloves and olive oil, and drizzled it all over the top of them.  Sprinkled salt and pepper over the top and we'll see how it goes.  But I cannot WAIT to try them.  They look and smell delicious.  :) 

I'm contemplating doing this with my rhubarb.  Has anyone ever tried this?  And I'm definitely making some more rhubarb syrup just as soon as I can get ahold of some cheesecloth. 

Yogurt Biscuits

Really, I should do a whole series on the food we eat around here because I feel like that's ALL I DO. My life revolves around these three meals every day for all these people and it's just a lot.  :) Must everyone eat so much?!?!  ;)

This is one of my go-to recipes because they are quick and easy to make and they are versatile.  I'll give you the recipe and then talk more about them.

Yogurt Biscuits ~makes 15 biscuits

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup applesauce* (organic, no sugar added~ this replaces the oil the recipe originally called for)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt*

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients. The dough will be somewhat sticky.  Drop by spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. (I use a Silpat).  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to brown.

* Some notes on versatility:

The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil.  I substitute applesauce nearly every time a recipe calls for oil.  Because you can.  And it's better for you.  This is what I use, because you can purchase it in a 4-pack at Costco:

But if you don't have applesauce go ahead and use oil.  Or melted butter.  Or whatever you have on hand.  :)  The other thing I often switch out is the yogurt.  Sometimes I don't have yogurt.  But I have sour cream!  Or cottage cheese!  As long as you get a cup of something creamy in there, you're good, whether it be a cup of yogurt or a half cup of yogurt and a half cup of sour cream.  Or milk.  Whatever you've got in the fridge.

Our favorite way to eat these is obviously with butter and jam.  Because YUM.  Or butter and honey.  We often have them for breakfast with fruit or eggs.  It's like a healthy scone.  ;)  I've even added lemon or orange zest.  Mmm.

Or we'll have them for dinner as a side with soup or whatever meal we have that I feel needs something extra.

But once I was craving hamburgers and had no hamburger buns and guess what I used in a pinch? This recipe for yogurt biscuits.  I formed smaller hamburger patties and we had mini hamburgers on yogurt biscuits and they were an instant favorite.  Seriously delicious.  I've made them as hamburger buns several times since.  YUM.

And when I decided to make breakfast sandwiches the other morning and didn't have english muffins?  Yogurt biscuits to the rescue.

You see why you need to have this recipe, right?  Yes.

And name me a child who doesn't like bread.  So this is a handy recipe to have.

Two housekeeping tips!

castile soap, fractionated coconut oil and essential oil

I recently discovered two new-to-me housekeeping tips that I thought I'd share with you!

Tip #1: Foaming Hand Soap

I may be the last person to know this, but recently I discovered that I can be making my own foaming hand soap.  (!)  And since we go through about a bottle every week or two, I'm super thrilled about this latest little housekeeping development.  Did you all already know this and not tell me?  A friend of mine passed along this recipe to me recently and I've been itching to make it ever since. Last night I finally did!

Here's the recipe:

Fill a foaming soap dispenser with warm water, leaving 1-2 inches of room at the top.

Add:
2 T Castile soap
1 tsp fractionated coconut oil
essential oil drops (I used about 5 drops)

Shake.

How easy is that?  I found the castile soap at Target (there were several varieties but I was thrilled to spot the citrus-orange because that's the very scent of soap I was hoping for!!!) It was a little pricey.  They just had the big bottles so I think it was about $17, but just think of how much soap I'll be able to make from it!  I'd never in my life heard of fractionated coconut oil, but found it at our local co-op.  And the essential oil- I bought sweet orange- I purchased at the co-op, too, for a few dollars. 

It's the little things that make me happy.  It smells so good.  The kids love it.  (After trying it, my girls declared that I should "go into business".  They're so funny:  when I bake something yummy they tell me I should start a bakery, or if I make something especially good for dinner they tell me I should open a restaurant.  I keep telling them that I already have a restaurant, with six very regular customers.  ;))

Tip #2: Hydrogen Peroxide as stain remover

Little story to go with this one: A couple of weeks ago I bought a cute stripey tunic-y tank at the consignment store.  It was so warm the other day that I wore it under a cardigan.  And then promptly stained it when I made smoothies for the kids for breakfast.  Blueberry stains.  :(.   I was super sad.  I tried right away to put cold water on the spots and one sort of faded to look like a blue pen mark, but it was still visible.  But I kept wearing it because after all, I did have a cardi over it. 

That evening I went to visit my sister-in-law and my cutest new nephew, and she said she liked my tank top, so I had to tell her about how it was new and I'd already stained it.  She told me I should try hydrogen peroxide. 

?!

She said she's seen it work to get blood out of clothes, so I ought to try it.  I asked her how -- soak it?  get a q-tip and dab some on?  She said just to pour it over the spot.  I was skeptical, truly.  And I didn't want to have it bleach my tank top or anything.  But my other option was spray-n-wash and soak it overnight, which doesn't always entirely get berry stains out.  So I was curious enough to try it.  I got a q-tip and put some hydrogen peroxide on it and then dabbed at the spots when I got home, and nothing happened.  Those stains were as plain as day.  So I sort of shrugged it off and thought, "Guess that only works to get blood out." And went to tuck the girls into bed...  Ten minutes later I was telling Ella about how it hadn't worked on my spots, and went to find my spots, and there WERE NO SPOTS. (!!!!)  No more stains.  Super excited about this.  I have tossed shirts before because I couldn't get stains out.  Hydrogen peroxide is my new friend.  I am so pleased to know this.  :) 

Our two-week meal plan

Meal plan (week 1 of 2)

I made a two-week meal plan and did all the grocery shopping a couple of days before we started school.  Do not underestimate the value of simply having a plan.  It's a huge thing for me to know what we're eating each day; to already have those decisions "checked off" in my mind.  I am so lazy with meals during the summer, and have been totally out of the routine of this helpful habit, but we're back at it!  We'll all be happier and healthier for it.  :)

On Monday (Mark's day off) I wasn't sure what we were eating for dinner; I just had a bunch of things I wanted to prep:
-make a huge pot of marinara sauce to use for 3 different meals (as pizza sauce one night, with the ziti recipe a few nights later, and I froze some for sauce to go along with mozzarella meatballs for next week).
-bake some bread (4 loaves)
-prep some ground beef for two meals
-make a breakfast casserole for the first day of school

I didn't prep the ground beef but I did everything else.  I'll list what we're having, here, with links to the recipes if applicable.

{ dinners }

Week 1
Monday | we ended up having Salmon, corn on the cob, and applesauce
Tuesday | French-bread pizzas (The kids thought these individualized pizzas were fun!)
Wednesday | Bacon-wrapped chicken, green beans
Thursday | Taco Salad, with amazing creamy-lime dressing that I love so much I could drink it
Friday | Sausages & vegetables, roasted
Saturday | Tara's Ziti
Sunday | Beef & Bean Burritos

Week 2
Monday | Crockpot Honey-Sesame Chicken, rice
Tuesday | date night!  (WOO HOO)!)
Wednesday | Refried beans & cornbread
Thursday | Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Friday | Mozzarella Meatballs, rice
Saturday | Slow Cooker Mexican Pulled Pork, tortillas, avocados
Sunday | no plan- maybe some leftovers???

Oh!  Also noted on that plan-- in pencil, so you may not see it- is our breakfast rotation: 

Mondays | oatmeal
Tuesdays | eggs & meat
Wednesdays | smoothies & muffins (this week I made these)
Thurdsays | oatmeal
Fridays | pancakes
Saturdays | make-your-own
Sundays | cereal

I have assigned Ella (12) and Isaias (9) to be in charge of lunch.  I.love.this.plan.  Ella is full of ideas and loves being in charge of this, with an assistant.  And I love not being in charge of one more meal. (Though I do make myself available to help, if needed, for now.)  This is just one of the many great things about having older kids.
If you've tried any great recipes lately, DO SHARE in the comments.  I love meal inspiration!

~Stacy

Canning

I've done my first canning of the season:

9 jars of nectarine jam with raspberries and strawberries.  The berries are from our yard, and the nectarines were from the store. 

I canned so much jam last year that I don't think I'll have to do much this year, actually.  I still have several jars in the cupboard and the freezer.

I'm always looking for new recipes for my rhubarb, too.  We have thriving rhubarb plants that keep getting bigger every year, and I try my best to keep up with all of it.  So far this year we've made Rhubarb Crisp, Rhubarb Coffee cake, Rhubarb muffins, and a strawberry-rhubarb sauce to put atop our waffles.

I recently discovered some canning recipes for rhubarb that intrigued me, so last night I canned something called Victorian Barbecue Sauce, with another variation called Spicy Rhubarb Chutney.  It's basically barbecue sauce using rhubarb as the main ingredient, (but if you don't puree it it could be called a chutney.)

Although I relied on the chutney recipe (above), I pureed it because chutney scares me.  I left out the allspice, and wish I'd reduced the cinnamon.  I also added garlic, smoked paprika and slightly more salt than the recipe had called for.  And I wished for some chipotle peppers, but even without them it was actually pretty tasty!  I plan to throw it in the crock pot with some roasts in the fall and winter months.

this years' preserves are going in on the left, last years are on the right.  (and there are still LOTS of jars of applesauce and green beans from last year in other cupboards.)

Odds and ends {meals and school}

{ sorry for all the picture-less posts of late.  our camera is broken! }

Meals
I've been terrible about making meals lately.  Lots of breakfast for dinner or quesadillas with beans.   Or grilled cheese.  Does anyone have any great meals they want to give me a link to?  Or just tell me the last three meals you've made.  It'll give me some inspiration!

Tonight we're trying this one: Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Pork Roast.  Except that I took the roasts out of the freezer halfway through the day, thawed in hot water for about 20 minutes (so, not enough), and then threw it all into the crockpot on high.  I think it should be done in four hours.  It sure smells good.

School
Yesterday for school we only did Bible and narrations.  [Since the rest of the day was taken up in doing Adelia's hair, which everyone loved because they got to watch videos.]  Anyway.  School:  We read in Joshua about the divisions of the land for each tribe, so for narrations I handed out blank maps and re-read where each tribe settled and the kids each completed a map including a compass and a color-coded key for the twelve tribes.  (So that's geography, too, right?)  Right.

A friend of mind told me recently that her impression from reading my blog was that I was so organized and that we have these complete school days.  Or something.  Um.... no no no.  If we have anything on our schedule for the day, school is basically shelved.  We take the day off when Mark has a day off.  The other days we do a few things off of our schedule (which is pictured at the top of this post).

On school days we usually always cover Bible, narrations and chores, most of the time we try to hit Math and piano practice, and reading aloud.  And all the other stuff?  Well, we tuck other things in when our days are running smoothly.

Today we did the following:
-Bible and narrations (15-20 minutes, during breakfast)
-Chores
-Storytime (picture books with the girls) (10 minutes)
-Poetry: I read our two March poems (3-5 minutes)
-Memory work (we reviewed the OT & NT books of the Bible- I quizzed them by calling out a book and they took turns calling out the next one.  We also reviewed our family ways.)  (20 minutes)
-I read Shakespeare's Macbeth- (the Charles & Mary Lamb version), while the kids drew pictures. (30 minutes, but only because I had set up the younger girls with embroidery needles and thread and burlap in hoops and I kept having to tie knots and thread needles during Shakespeare!)
-The older three did Math at the table (20 minutes)
-I then did Dictation with Ella and Isaac (the same passage, and from another Shakespeare play.  Macbeth was so depressing and the kids (well, Ella) disliked it so much that I pulled a passage from their favorite play so far (A Midsummer Night's Dream) to make up for it.  (20ish minutes, maybe 30)

And that was a really full day.  We maybe have one of those each week.  Tomorrow morning we'll go to Bible study at church.  And after that, the kids have piano lessons and so I know we won't do any school tomorrow.  Thursday and Friday we're back on.  And my guess is that NEITHER of those days will be as full as today was. 

Now they're all playing outside until lunch.

***

I'm wrapping up this post after eating.  [The roasts took nearly 5 hours on high, due to the partially-frozenness of them].  Our dinner (link above) was really tasty.  I served it with basmati rice, caesar salad (made by Ella), and homemade sourdough.  ALSO: lemon bars for dessert.  Which are basically the best dessert ever, in my opinion.  I told the kids they could each have one and I was going to help myself to the rest of the pan later.  That's an exaggeration, but I will likely have a couple (few?) more.  YUM.

For the rest of our school day, the kids played outside, except for practicing piano and quiet times.  I played a game of UNO with Adelia, reheated leftoevers for lunch, cleaned the kitchen, had a dentist appointment, worked on Precept (Bible study) homework, and made dinner.

Mark and the kids are cleaning the kitchen, and then Mark and I will likely correct math.  When the kids go to bed, we'll probably watch a little of The Voice while we eat lemon bars.

How was your day?

Relief for colds and sore throats

(L) Honey Lemon Ginger Tea                (R) Homemade Decongestant

Our first colds of the season are upon us.  Recently Ella said her throat was sore and her chest felt tight.  I gave her some hot water with honey and lemon juice- which is sort of our standby around here for sore throats.  Tissue for the runny noses.  And hot baths and extra sleep.  And compassion- hugs and concern.  And lots of prayers throughout our days for God to heal and bring comfort.

I did a little searching last week and found this recipe for homemade decongestant.  It has honey, lemon juice, radishes, onions and garlic.  Radishes help relieve congestion, lemons are rich in Vitamin C, and we all know honey and garlic are good for you.  I'm not sure what red onion is good for but the recipe said to put it in there so I did.  ;)  I also threw in some ginger and fresh-squeezed orange juice for good measure.  The only thing I didn't have on hand were the radishes.  After I bought some I just pureed everything in the food processor and strained it and gave Ella a couple of tablespoons.  She was a little concerned, what with the onions and radishes-- ew-- but she took 2 T of it and then said, "I actually like it!"  Then all the other kids wanted some, too- so I gave them all a taste.

Then I made some of this Honey Lemon Ginger Tea.  It's basically what I do anyway (sans the ginger)-- but I learned that a jar of this will keep for months in the fridge. (!)  I love the fact that I don't have to drizzle the honey and pour the lemon juice for each and every cup, but can just spoon it out of a jar at-the-ready in the fridge!

As we enter our second week of school, Ella is feeling much better, but Audra is now sick with a cold and Isaac is feeling under the weather, too.  I'm planning for lots of cuddle time with Audra today- I think we'll extend story time on the couch and I plan on her being in my arms or on my lap a lot more, and needing extra compassion and grace for the fussiness that accompanies sickness.