In Our Kitchen

Here's a quick look at a few enjoyable things that have recently graced our table, not organized, but in the order they came off my memory card:

Curry chicken salad sandwiches were just something quick and easy I made for lunch one day. Shredded chicken and diced apples with mayonnaise mixed in until it is as "wet" as you like it.  Then season with salt, pepper, and curry powder to your tastes.  Serve between two slices of bread.

Corn Orzo Zucchini Salad except I left out the onion and jalapeño it called for because my kids and I don't like the bite.  (Jeremy on the other hand puts sriracha sauce on almost everything we eat!)  And even though I halved the recipe there was still enough leftovers to make the frittata noted in the recipe, however I was short on eggs that night so I made it into fritters instead and we enjoyed it a second time.  (Actually the boys probably liked it better as fritters, but Jeremy and I loved it the night it was salad as well--flavored with lemon, basil and goat cheese, it really was tasty. )

This was one of those bummer times when the person in charge of picking up groceries (we won't name names) grabbed one package of Cod, which was only two fillets, not even a pound total!  It was a real shame, because it was very good. We just doubled up on the veggies to fill our tummies with this Roasted Cod with Potatoes and Olives.

This Plum Bluberry Upside-Down Cake was a delicious seasonal treat, and the surprise flavor comes from a teaspoon of poppy seeds!  But watch out on the directions, because only half of the 1 cup of sugar is supposed to go into the bottom of the pan with the fruit--oops!  Our cake had a bit of a sugar crust on top--not that anyone complained. . .

I was hankering for some Molasses Sandwich Cookies to get me in the fall mood down here in 95 degree Texas.  I love the creamy molasses filling, but note that it usually makes more than I need for the number of cookies.

On night when looking through the fridge with no plan I looked up some of the ingredients we had and came across a recipe for these Stuffed Pepper Bites.  Although, I didn't go for the suggested filling but used a recipe for Teriyaki Meatballs instead, because that's what sounded good to me.  I made extra meatballs with the leftover filling, and my kids were loving all of it.

This Three Pepper Slaw looks a little boring but that's because It's only a one-color pepper slaw.  Because when I wrote "colored sweet peppers" on the grocery list, the person shopping (again, no names. . . ) brought home the bag of mini peppers that I ended up using to make those stuffed pepper bites above.  (Seriously, did I mention I'm pregnant? and feeling very lazy?  I'm not up to grocery shopping right now!  And actually totally grateful that Jeremy will go do it.) But the next week he brought home a three-pack of yellow peppers because they were on mark-down, so I made this salad that week with them.  It seems boring but the mustard dressing is what makes this so flavorful and fresh!

I don't have a recipe for this Stromboli.  We used our regular pizza crust recipe, and then rolled up what we wanted inside.  One was more pizza-like with tomato sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, olives and mushrooms.  The other one was pesto, salami and ham, pepperoncinis, olives and mozzarella.  (Also, they were much longer!  We'd already eaten two thirds before I took the picture, but the heels are still there because, they're the heels of course.)

This final one is something I first threw together out of cupboard contents on a night when I was sure we were going to subsist on beans and rice for the rest of our lives!  We have since made it multiple times, because it is actually tasty.  I call it Tropical Rice because giving made-up recipes from the dregs of your pantry a "real" name fools the kids into eating it.

(Side note: When we moved onto the vineyard, we lived in a partially-furnished vacation home of a Chinese couple, and that was our first time ever using a rice cooker.  I always thought it was a "uni-tasker" and therefore had no place in the kitchen, but I came to see the errors of my ways.  So when we moved to Nebraska and I was buying Rory a "new" car seat at a garage sale, I had the woman throw in a small rice cooker to seal our deal.  Now we use it all the time.)

So to make "Tropical Rice" I use coconut milk to replace some or all of the water needed to cook the rice.  I usually throw in a can of white beans if I want it to be the "main" dish. Then I add some shredded coconut, and mix it up and leave it to cook in the rice cooker.  When that is done I add chopped pineapple (I think we've also used mango, and if either are coming from a can use the juice to replace the rest of the water for the rice), and sprinkle on some sunflower seeds for crunch.  This time (if you notice the char on the pineapple) was the night after we grilled on the barbecue, so we had a few leftover bratwurst sausages that I chopped up as well.

Well, those are some things that have been going on in our kitchen lately, we're almost to the change in seasons, which will really start to change things up in the kitchen as well!

Blue

We're visiting my sister in southwest Washington--checking on the job market, among other things--and we are once again enjoying blueberry season with her family.

The season is just ramping up with lot's of unripe berries covering her bushes.

Along with plenty of ripe ones as well.

It's a part of our daily rhythm here to spend a few minutes every day walking down her row of bushes scanning for the pops of blue.

Even Rory.

Yep, he can spot the berries, and if we don't pick them fast enough for him he lunges out of our arms to get them himself!

He wolfs them down so quickly I doubt he's chewing them.  And he makes sounds that make me think of the tremendous mouthful little bear eats in Blueberries for Sal.

I also feel strange security knowing that If I was to loose little Rory in the woods he could feed himself to stay alive until he was rescued!

Just kidding.

But some days we pick colanders full of berries and make all the delicious blueberry things we can think of: blueberry muffins and pancakes, blueberry pie and cobbler, plenty of blueberry jam.  And a new one this year--blueberry cream cheese!

Sometimes I forget that anything I've eaten as a processed food from the grocery store will invariably taste more delicious than imaginable when recreated with fresh ingredients at home.

(Move over little silver plastic tub--here comes the real deal!)

The homemade blueberry cream cheese my brother-in-law made was a delicious hit, and a perfect match for Jeremy's homemade bagels.  (It's true my sister and I both scored in the husband department!)

Blueberries every day.

Can you blame us for wanting to move here?

Pizza Plant

A great laugh-out-loud moment in a favorite movie of ours, WALL-E, is when the captain, who has spent his whole life on a space ship learns about earth.

He exclaims, "AUTO! Earth is amazing! These are called 'farms'. Humans would put seeds in the ground, pour water on them, and they grow food - like, pizza!"

Well apparently he wasn't too far from the truth.  We planted a few "pizza plants" when we got to our summer home.

OK, actually just basil.  But we've called basil "pizza plant" in our little family for quite a few years, and apparently we're not the only ones that consider it such.

The smell of fresh basil just makes us imagine a chewy crust, bright tomato sauce, and gooey mozzarella cheese along with it.

This is where we planted our pizza plants, in an overgrown herb garden on the property.  It has square tiles that make us think that it was originally planted in one of those cute checkerboard plantings, but the perennial herbs have grown unchecked throughout the entire plot.

The tall herbs in the back (and everywhere) is oregano--which is great in our pizza sauce.  The lower herb to the middle right, that looks pretty brown, is thyme--also good in the pizza sauce.  Rosemary would also be good in it, but there was just a bunch of dead rosemary where the bare dirt is.

The grey dead leaves in the middle are sage, but just down from them are a decent patch of still-living sage.  Most of our recipes for sage are to accompany sweet potatoes, but apparently it's a good match with turkey as well.

We've cleaned out quite a bit of this bed already, but we have a bit more work to get it looking really nice.  We're just super excited to have a space to grow some herbs this summer.  And definitely excited to make lot's of homemade pizza.

Healthy!

Recently our family was invited to dinner in someone's home.

While our hostess was finishing her preparations for the dinner, she said something about the cookies her daughter helped frost for dessert--She hoped that they wouldn't "ruin" my children because she'd heard that we are really into healthy eating.

Ha!

Our healthy eating isn't really what most people would consider healthy eating.  It includes dessert, and frankly doesn't follow many of the "rules" in the popular conception of healthy eating.

The other day I was clearing out Owen's backpack of the day's barrage of paper waste. I came across this small scrap:

With no context I had to ask Owen what the writing prompt was.

"We were supposed to say a healthy eating choice," he said. 

His answer:  Ice cream! Becus its mad frum cow's milk.

=sniff= I couldn't be any more proud of him. 

Babies Eating Soup

 It's that time of year--we've started eating a lot of soup. 

 My boys really love soup, and are very good about scooping out all the delicious vegetables. 

 But I want that wholesome goodness of the chicken broth to get into their tummies too and keep them well-nourished through cold season. 

Enter: soup crackers.

After they finish scooping out their veggies we give them a few crackers to soak up the broth yet give them something scoop-able so they can eat it.  And they do.

Even the baby.