January 28, 2016
by Ashley
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Snowman Day Number Two

In my previous post, I came up with activities for three preschools to do. Today, I had only two preschoolers and a list full of fun for them to do. They only thing we didn’t make it to was yoga. And we do that often enough that we can do that next week. I kept with the same Snowman theme we did on Tuesday, and just did different activities.

My idea board. Actually, Isla’s board with my ideas written on it. She loved how she could turn it on to see what was next and checking them off as we did them. We started later this morning after my sister-in-law headed out for work. The kids played for a while and then we read three books. After lunch, I sent Isla and Brixton out to play in the snow. They had a pretty good time and the snow was really packable. When they were finished, I helped them get their snow gear off and collected some snow on cookie sheets.

I helped to make balls of snow, and they tried to decorate the real snowmen.

We decorated with leftover snacks from the other day, but I didn’t let them eat these when they were done.

Once I pulled out the watercolors, Brixton announced he didn’t want to paint. Isla loves painting, so happily spent 20 minutes decorating her snowman.

Brixton busied himself with the next project while Isla spent time painting. I drew the lines, and put a large dollop of glitter glue in the middle of the snowflake, and he was to drag the glitter glue from the center along the lines.

After he had his hands good and sticky…we transfered the fun to the kitchen sink. I filled it up with warm water and bubbles…and I added glitter today for fun.

Another successful day and plenty of freetime to play as well.

January 27, 2016
by Ashley
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Snowman Day

I have always loved children. I babysat all through middle and high school, even some in college. I knew I wanted to be a mother some day and when I became one, I was in my own personal heaven. Such a sweet, adorable, squishy baby…such huge cheeks. I dragged my little guy everywhere, even to work. We would work at my uncle’s cheese store 2 to 3 times a week. It was great. I was the first out of my siblings to have children. My oldest brother was next, within 4 months of Finnegan, arrived Brynn. I would watch her randomly between my job at the cheese store, and being home. Then I had my second child, Isla, and decided to stop working. Finnegan was getting too old to entertain at the cheese store and it wouldn’t be fair to my mom to take two babies with me, since she was now running the store.

Fast forward 5 years since quitting the cheese store, and I now spend my days at home with kids, making lunches, baking and knitting. Occasionally I get to read, but mostly I am entertaining my children and my “extras”. Extras is what I like to call it, because they feel like my own. My two younger brothers both have two kids, and we all live near each other. So two days a week I may have three, four or five kids. I don’t count Finnegan since he is gone all day at school.

Isla, Ellis and Brixton are all preschoolers. They need to be guided in play a little, so I decided to start trying to actually run this place like a preschool. Granted we are still free playing majority of the time, and I am still their aunt/mom, but I am going to try.

Today was Snowman day! We spelled, read, drew, ate, played, watched and glued snowmen. I don’t know if I will keep it up, but it definitely was entertaining to the munchkins! Isla was especially excited for her cousins to arrive so we could start our fun activities she helped to plan.

Our reading material.

Playing in snow, on our own personal “snow mountain”.

Coming in from the cold, I served these cute pastas. Do you see the three shapes? Mittens, Snowmen, and snowflakes.

After lunch, we started doing our projects. The one above was adorable, using different materials. Felt, paper, beads, jewels and cloth. The second I just drew the circles and let them color them.

Finished projects and spelling word.

At this point it was naptime in the house. So whoever didn’t have to take a nap, got to watch Frosty the Snowman. Ellis really didn’t think it was fair that she should have to take a nap, so after returning her to her napping area 6 times, she was allowed to finish what was left of the movie.

After Finnegan got home from school, and everyone was awake…it was creative snack time.

Snowman snack. Finnegan was the one who completed the snack without much trouble. Pretzels held the marshmallows together with skittle eyes, chocolate chip buttons and a candy corn nose.

Trouble and frustration getting the snowman to come together.

Lennon got to eat the sample, so he was happy.

Ellis and Brixton had a little trouble with it as well. Ellis’s snowman ended up with no hat, because she had to eat it immediately, and Brixton’s didn’t get a face because he didn’t frustrated and really just wanted to eat it. It was still cute though.

So all in all, we had a very fun day. They were still running like the preschoolers they are, with more energy than they know what to do with. But they were pretty happy with their creations and I was happy we could do something a little more productive.

Now to plan tomorrow…

January 24, 2016
by Ashley
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Grana Padano Gougeres

Sunday adventures in baking. I served these with an arugala salad and mushroom carpaccio. They are very light and airy, and could work with many different types of cheeses. The typical cheese used in this recipe is Gruyere. But since I didn’t have any and I did have Grana Padano, I used that instead. These could be really good with Carr Valley Cheese Casa Bolo Mellage, which is also a delicious cheese on its own.

Gougeres

3 tbsp butter
125 ml water
pinch salt
pinch white pepper
100 g all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 cup shredded Grana Padano cheese (any strong flavored cheese would work)

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a small sauce pan, bring water, butter and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in pepper and flour with a wooden spoon. Place sauce pan back on stove on medium heat and stir vigorously until mixture becomes thick and begins to film on the bottom of the pan (1 minute). Remove from heat. Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time. Stir vigorously while adding eggs until the dough becomes a thick mayo consistency. Stir in 3/4 cup cheese.

Place large spoonfuls of dough on a silpat covered baking pan. Should make 6 puffs. Sprinkle each puff with remaining 1/4 cup of cheese. Bake for 25 minutes in preheated oven. They will swell to almost triple the size and become golden brown. Serve warm.

January 10, 2016
by Ashley
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Naan

We make Chicken Tikka Masala quite often. We also have tried Balti, trying to recreate a dish we had while on a trip and other different types of Indian food. But we have never tried Naan before. It always is pretty pricy when we go out, so when Paul found a recipe he thought sounded interesting, I decided to give it a try. It turned out pretty well! We froze the left overs and are looking forward to having it again soon.

Naan

1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm milk
1 cup greek yogurt
4 cups all-purpose flour or 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

melted butter for brushing
spices if using, cumin or garlic
fresh cilantro

In a medium size bowl dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Add yeast and stir until it is dissolved. Let it sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture begins to froth and rise. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder to a mixer bowl. After yeast has proofed, add the warm milk and yogurt. Mix in mixer or use wooden spoon. When the dough is about to come together, use your hands to finish mixing. As soon as it comes together, stop kneading. It should be sticky, but should form a ball and be soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place 1 hour or if not using right away overnight in the fridge. When ready to cook, divide the dough into 8 equal balls and using a rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into an oval shape. It should be about 6-8 inches long. I had to roll my dough out pretty flat in order to get bubbles to form. Repeat this method with the rest of the dough.Warm a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat (you want a hot pan). Brush both sides of the naan with melted butter and if desired sprinkle on any spices you like such as cumin and garlic. Place the naan on the hot skillet, cover with a lid and bake for 1 minute, until you see bubbles starting to form. Flip and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, until large toasted spots appear on the underside. Brush with a bit more butter if desired, then sprinkle with a little kosher salt, fresh cilantro (I used cilantro) or other herbs. Place the naan in a tea towel-lined dish. Repeat with the rest of the naans and serve.

January 7, 2016
by Ashley
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English Muffins

I have been home for the holidays…not that I am not at home every other day, but we have ALL been home. We didn’t have any other plans to leave, other than the day after Christmas. So here we are, playing with all of our Christmas presents to the max. Finnegan can’t get enough of his old school Wii…good thing we have a limit otherwise the kid would never eat or go to the bathroom. I hope the limiting also helps him realize it isn’t good just to sit and do that all day. Isla has been mostly cuddling Paul, but also jumping on her trampoline and doing many, many art projects.

Paul has entertained himself with creating a new work bench in the basement. So that leaves me…to basically bake. I have attempted a new recipe…English muffins. These have turned out really well, so I will probably be making these a lot.

This recipe is from the Kitchn website. I have simplified the directions for myself, but if you want the complete step by step…look on that website.

English Muffins

For the dough starter:
3/4 cup (3 1/3 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp active dry (or 2 tbsp active sourdough starter)

For the English muffin dough:
1 cup 2% milk
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp salt
3 to 3 1/4 cups (13 1/2 to 14 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
Cornmeal for dusting

Make the dough starter by mixing the first three ingredients together and beating until smooth and glossy. I placed small bowl in the yogurt maker to proof for about 4 hours. They say to let the starter sit for 1 – 12 hours. The starter will become increasingly bubbly the longer it sits and will double in bulk.

When ready to create the dough, whisk together warmed milk, yeast, and starter in the bowl to the stand mixer. Make sure the starter is dissolved and it should be quite frothy. Add the sugar, butter, and salt to the bowl and whisk to combine. Put the bowl in the mixer and start the kneading. Add 3 cups of the flour and knead for 5 – 8 minutes. Transfer dough to a oiled bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.

When you are ready to make the muffins. Prepare 2 baking sheets with silpats and sprinkle with cornmeal. Pull the dough out of the fridge and split ball up into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece gently into smooth, round balls. Transfer the muffins to a prepared baking sheet. Spinkle a little cornmeal on the top of the muffins as well and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warmed oven to rise for 1 hour or until puffy and doubled in size.

I used an electric skillet preheated to 325°F. I did not coat the skillet but left it dry. If cooking on the stove top, you may want to use a pat of butter to just coat the bottom of the pan.

Cook the muffins 5 to 6 minutes on one side. Watch so they don’t burn. Flip and cook another 5 – 6 minutes. You can press lightly on the top of the muffins to make them not as puffy, which I did.
Flip and cook 5 to 6 minutes on the other side: Flip the muffins and cook the other side until golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. If you prefer thinner, less puffy English muffins, you can gently press the tops with the spatula to prevent them from rising too much.

I let the muffins sit for about 10 minutes before we split them and toasted them. We tried them with just butter and jam and they were wonderful. I always freeze muffins, so I did the same with these. I am so excited to able to make my own and get away from the store bought ones.

January 6, 2016
by Ashley
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Doughnuts

We don’t make doughnuts but once a year. This year, we decided to try out a yeast dough. So the night before, I threw the dough together quickly and let it sit in the fridge to wait until morning. These turned out to be wonderful. Just make sure to keep the oil at the right temp to prevent burning.

I got these from the Pioneer Woman’s website, but wanted to write about them so that I can remember next year how I did it. If you want the play by play of how to do these, look them up on her website.

Doughnuts

1-1/8 cup whole milk, warm
1/4 cup sugar
2-1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
2 whole eggs, beaten
1-1/4 stick butter, melted
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

The night before-
Warm up the milk in the microwave to about 110°F in a microwave safe bowl or pyrex. Add sugar to milk and stir to dissolve. Put yeast mixing bowl and pour the warm milk mixture over. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Melt butter in pyrex. Don’t over heat. Add beaten eggs to cooled melted butter carefully and whisk until mixed well. Pour egg mixture into yeast and mix on low for a couple of minutes to thoroughly combine. Add small amounts of flour the flour into the bowl at a time. Stop mixer and scrap down and then let the mixer knead for another 5 minutes. Scrap down again and mix another 30 seconds or so. Turn off mixer and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Transfer dough after the 10 minutes to a lightly oiled bowl. Lightly turn dough to coat, then cover the bowl and place in refridgerator for at least 8 hours to over night.

Day of-
When ready to make doughnuts, remove bowl from the fridge and turn dough out onto a floured surface or silpat. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Use a 3 inch cutter, and cut as many rounds as you can. Then roll out the remaining dough and cut again. Cut holes in each round with smaller cutter. Place doughnuts on a very floury baking sheet. Put enough flour otherwise they will stick when transfering to the oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (I used a warm oven as my proofing box). Doughnuts should be puffier and appear airy. The picture below are the doughnuts right after I cut them. In the future, I will need more flour underneath them.

Heat vegetable oil until 375°F. Don’t let it get too hot or doughnuts will burn. Do one or two doughnuts at a time and allow them to cook 1 minute each side. Remove doughnuts from oil with a slotted spoon. If you are glazing the doughnuts, place on papertowels to drain off oil. I rolled my doughnuts immediately in a sugar cinnamon mixture and them set them on paper towels to dry. A glaze would be great too.

I served these with a little sipping chocolate as a treat on Christmas morning. Similar to what one would do with a churro.

January 2, 2016
by Ashley
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Aebleskivers

Years ago, we took our first trip to the wonderful Door County, Wisconsin. We planned a trip with friends to rent a house for a week and cook breakfasts and dinners together. We all took our seperate adventures during the day, venturing out to see what different places we could find, but would find ourselves back at our rental house for cocktails and dinner together. It was a great vacation, one we have tried to keep going through the years.

That first trip brought new discoverys. One particular morning, our friends brought out this crazy little pan, and made little stuffed pancakes for everyone. We thought they were so delicious and talked all through breakfast about the different things we could stuff in them. Many of us started to look for our own aebleskiver pans. We found a pan (and even had to get a second one since our first started peel) and have made them several times since. These little pancakes, or doughnuts, take quite a while to bake, but are worth it. We have stuffed them with many different things, but the classic filling is apple pieces or apple sauce. We have stuffed ours with nutella, jams, apple butter and cream cheese & white fish.

Such a treat and great memories of fun with dear friends. I have tried many different recipes, but this one seems to be one of the best, so far.

Aebleskivers

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cup milk, 2 tsp white vinegar added (or buttermilk)
4 tbsp butter, melted

Seperate eggs, whip egg whites until stiff peaks. Mix together flour, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. In a seperate bowl add milk, vinegar, egg yolks together. Melt butter.

Mix the flour mixture and the milk mixture together with a whisk. Add melted butter and stir well. Carefully fold in whipped egg whites. Heat pan, make sure to use cooking spray or butter per batch. Add about a tablespoon of batter per hole in pan. If filling the aebleskivers, add filling now to the top and carefully cover filling with a little extra batter. Let cook for about 3 minutes, and turn each in their holes. I use chop sticks, but I have heard toothpicks work, bamboo skewers, knitting needles…anything pointy. Let finish cooking, another 2 – 3 minutes and they are done. To get through the whole batch will take about one hour or so.

December 3, 2015
by Ashley
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Lemon Scones

These are a nice change from the regular scones…nice a lemony but still great with jams and jellys.

Lemon Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large lemon, zest and juiced (will need about 1/2 cup juice)
6 tbsp cold butter
3 tbsp agave syrup

Preheat oven to 400°F . Place flour through salt into a mixing bowl. Zest lemon into mixture and cut the butter slowly in. You can use a pastry cutter to cut in butter or a mixer works fine as well. Mix together the lemon juice and agave syrup and slowly add wet mixture to dry mixture. If your lemon isn’t juicy enough, fill in with water or another type of citrus juice. Mix until the batter comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface and use a biscuit cutter to cut the scones into small rounds. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes or until golden.

November 23, 2015
by Ashley
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Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

Paul brews a lot of beer, which means we end up with a lot of spent grain. Usually it gets added to our compost heap, feeding the starving bunnies in our backyard. Every once in a while, we will reserve some of the grain for me to play with. So far this time, I have made breakfast cookies and dried out a large gallon sized bag of grains for later. The breakfast cookies are great, filling and very fiberous (if that is a word). But I have no clue how I made them. I think I added half of the kitchen into them, so I will never be able to recreate them. I tend to do this quick often. But this time, I actually used a recipe. The kids liked the cookies and they can be made vegan very easily.

Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cups spent grains (wet)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup m&ms (optional instead of chocolate chips)

Combine the peanut butter, oil, sugar, milk and vanilla. Add the flour(s), baking soda and salt. Mix in the spent grain and chocolate chips or m&ms.

Use a cookie scoop and put about 12 on silpat covered cookie sheet. These really don’t spreadout so don’t worry about crowding too much. Bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes until the tops begin to brown and look dry. Cookies should feel firm-ish to the touch—slightly soft in the center.

These were surprisingly soft and fluffy. Not the normal grainy and crumbly that spent grain usually adds to my previous attempts.

November 22, 2015
by Ashley
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Orange Chocolate & Carrot Scones

The kids love scones for breakfast. These have been requested for a while now, so I thought I would make them for the kids. We use the leftovers for breakfasts all week.

Orange, Chocolate & Carrot Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large carrot shredded
6 tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400°F . Place flour through salt into a mixing bowl. Shredd carrot into the mixture and cut the butter slowly in. You can use a pastry cutter to cut in butter or a mixer works fine as well. Mix together the orange juice and maple syrup and slowly add wet mixture to dry mixture. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the scones into small rounds. Bake at 400°F for 16 minutes or until dry on the top.

Serve warm with jelly or plain.