Mom's homemade food

My parents had a chili contest today as part of an event at their church. We attended with them. They had small bowls to write the number of each of 9 pots of chili, get a sample in each of your small bowls, and after trying then you voted for your favorite.

After getting my samples I sat down and tried them. After one bite of the first one I tried I said, "This tastes like my mom's chili! Did she bring a pot?" My dad answered yes, but he didn't know which pot was hers. I arrived after they set up and I did not know if my mom had entered the contest or just brought dessert. It turned out it was her chili! Unless she served chili when we visited on vacation, I don't think I had her chili in at least 13, probably closer to 15 years!

I think I know why I could recognize my mom's chili. My mom was frugal in her cooking during my childhood. Chili was served often. Her recipe had lots of beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and less hamburger. When I was teaching I asked her to make chili for a potato topping for a potato bar when the teachers served at a church supper. Her chili as a topping was so popular that we ran out. The recipe is not spicy, but I like it.

The next one I tried, I thought it tasted a lot like the chili that Ram's mom makes. She often served chili when we visited so I have had hers more recently. It turned out to be one of the pastors made it and I think it was Paleo or at least close to Paleo which made me think that it was like Ram's mom's chili. It was more spicy than my mom's chili, but also very good and won the contest today.

Lamb 2 ended up voting for the first sample he tried. It didn't seem special to me, was just a regular recipe for chili. I think he liked it because it was familiar. Lamb 3 is not a big chili eater and had said he was glad there was salad and dessert because he did not plan on trying all the chili. But when he saw the pot that looked like Cincinnati chili with spaghetti noodles, he wanted that and ate 2 helpings and voted for it!

Unfortunately Lamb 1 was not feeling well during church so we thought it was best if Ram took Lamb 1 home. We have a busy week planned and we hoped that if he rested he would be ready to participate in the rest of our plans this week. He was bummed to miss all this, but happy to stay home and "rest" by watching football. He seemed better tonight so I hope we can go to piano lessons as planned tomorrow.

Happy Joy Cookies

Ram and I were able to get away to a Doxology conference for a couple of days last week. The theme of the conference was "JOY" and it was a wonderful theme for Ram and I to be reminded to thank God for our blessings during our time of transition. I hope to blog about this more, but my post today is a recipe.

On the way home from St. Louis we made a fast stop into the Hodgson Mill store in IL. I have bought their gluten free products the past few years. I did not know that their products were milled in IL and they had a store there right off the interstate. We are starting over on stocking our pantry and thankfully I have found lots of gluten free and Paleo ingredients at Aldi, but I had still not found coconut flour or almond flour at an affordable price. It was such a treat to go into this store and see all their products and receive the discount such as 99 cent pasta. It was close to their closing time and I didn't have a shopping list, but if we travel that way again, I will be prepared to shop there again.

As we were paying they had a few cookies for sale so I bought a few Happy Joy Cookies for a treat for our family. They had a copy of the recipe there. It is gluten free, but not Paleo, but it is acceptable to me as a treat for our family. It was so neat to me that on the way home from a conference on Joy I received a recipe for Happy Joy cookies. Whenever I make these cookies I will have memories of our St. Louis trip.

Happy Joy Cookies

From the Hodgson Mill Kitchen

1 1/2 c Almond Flour

2 1/2 c Coconut Flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch sea salt

1/4 c butter softened

1/4 c brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c sliced almonds

1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 c sweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to blend together butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly stir in dry ingredients until evenly blended. Fold in sliced almonds, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes. Roll into one inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly press down balls into a disc shape. Bake for 12 minutes.

Note: Their cookies were very small, the size of a quarter. They were packaged in groups of 6 for $1.50. I think this recipe would be a great one for bake sales to offer something gluten free. I have not made these yet, but I would sift the coconut flour. I would also experiment to make them a little larger. I will definitely try to make this recipe because what we bought in the store was happy joy!

Christmas 2015 Dinner

These are notes for myself so next time I host Christmas dinner, I know what I served this year.

Christmas Day:

• Ham
• Mashed Yams (Everyday Paleo) with apples with no nuts for Lamb 3-very good and a nice change from the sweet potato recipe we usually have
• We were going to have Pear Salad (Everyday Paleo) but the pears weren't ripe in time and then when they were the lettuce was bad. Next time buy the pears earlier and let them get ripe!
• Creamed Spinach (Paleo Comfort Foods)
• Ram's Mom's Pies: Pumpkin (Everyday Paleo) with Crust from (Against All Grain)
• and Pecan (Gather)
• Coconut Milk Whipped Cream and Vanilla Coconut Bliss (Ice cream)

Desserts and Snacks we ate over the holidays:

1. Guacamole
2. Deviled Eggs
3. Coconut Fudge (Make it Paleo) Ok but not favorite
4. Gingerbread (Paleo Indulgences) Made as mini muffin size with frosting
5. Paleo Pecan Squares- Very good but a lot of work
6. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars- Everyone requested I make this again and often. It does take coconut butter. Be careful to not overbake.

Next year Make #1, #5 (Plan enough time to make this recipe), and #6

Celebrating Valentine's Day

Last year the night before Valentine's Day I got caught up on dishes, changed the tablecloth, and set out several treats for the Lambs. I was determined to make the day special since we homeschool and our Lambs won't have memories of classroom parties. I wanted them to wake up to surprises at their places at the table. I blogged about what we did last year here.

This year I did grocery shopping the day before Valentine's Day. I decided to not buy any candy and instead I splurged on beef. Last night we took the Lambs plus one of their friends to a hockey game. On the way back to the friend's house, Lamb 3 had to go to the bathroom. There was no place to stop so when we got to the friend's house I told him we would hurry and go to the bathroom there. He told me he wasn't able to wait and he didn't have to go any more.

We got home after 11pm and discovered then that Lamb 3 was a mess and needed a shower immediately. I helped him shower and put his clothes in the washer. Then I took a shower after helping Lamb 3. Lamb 2 was jealous that Lamb 3 got a shower and decided he also needed a shower. Finally everyone was in bed at midnight.

This morning I had a meeting at church so I got up quietly hoping everyone else would sleep in after the late night before. Right before I left, Lamb 1 came downstairs excited about his surprises that he was sure I would have left out for Valentine's Day. Oops, I started the tradition so I better continue it.

I dug out the candy hearts I bought on clearance last year and put one at each of their places. I dug out lollipops that Grandma brought them after her trip to Maine last fall that I had never shared with them. I opened the envelope from my mom and put each card at their places at the table. Everything saved the day and it didn't look like I had ditched forgotten this tradition. I did not clean up the kitchen last night nor change the tablecloth so these treats were set at their places and some of those places were messier than others.

Then I opened e-mail and looked at a few blogs. I tried to not be disgusted that one blog I read posted pictures of what all they had done for Valentine's Day even though she was posting pictures of what all they had done before I even got out of bed. Oh yeah, there is a time difference, so it's not as early there as it is here. But a big sign, treats for all the kids, and heart shaped pancakes? And posted pictures at 7:30am on a Saturday? Big sigh here from Ewe! That sigh is because that is what I would have done a few years ago, but didn't happen today. Plus I'm not sure my BOYS want me to do too much for Valentine's Day. Plus we never would have done all that and also posted pictures of it before noon!

When I got home from my meeting I made the raspberry ganache pie that was requested by the Lambs for Valentine's Day dinner. It had plenty of time to chill. I also began supper right away so I wouldn't be rushed at supper time. I made Erin's beef rendang.

The Lambs spent the afternoon playing outside in the beautiful weather and I talked to my neighbor for a little while. Then we ate supper early (delicious!) and the Lambs played outside some more. When they came inside I trimmed everyone's hair and they watched Nascar. We ate pie before bedtime.

It was a wonderful, relaxing Valentine's Day! Sometimes celebrations work out even without tons of planning by Ewe ahead of time. Since we only have male Lambs everyone was happy with how we celebrated Valentine's Day, even me with my big dreams of how I want our celebrations to turn out.

Gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie

I have only made a dairy free pumpkin pie recipe since Lamb 1 was diagnosed with MSPI in 2004. We liked it so well that I continued to make it even after he outgrew MSPI. The recipe used orange juice instead of milk. I recently loaned my dairy free cookbooks to the Lambs' piano teacher as she is cooking dairy free for her second son.
Then I found out that Ram's parents are coming to our house for Thanksgiving this year. So I plan to do my best to have a complete Thanksgiving meal that is Paleo. So I decided to look for a new recipe.
I made this recipe last night. The Lambs were shocked I was making dessert and not taking it to church or some place-it was just for our family!
I used the alternative crust recipe and I think this crust would work well for a lot of pies. The Lambs did not like the crust, but I think it is as close to a gluten crust as I would ever get. They ate it even though they complained about it. Next time I will press the crust a little thinner for the Lambs. I think next time I will add a few more spices-we are used to lots of pumpkin pie spices in our favorite recipe.
Lamb 3's favorite pie is pumpkin pie. I will probably make this new recipe several times this fall.

Rhubarb

I recently had some Blogger problems, especially commenting on other blogs, so I decided to just not blog for a few days. It seems to be better now. Hopefully I can remember where I wanted to comment and go back and do that soon!
Our parsonage has a big rhubarb patch which I think was planted by the last pastor's wife. When we first moved in I made several strawberry rhubarb pies which we enjoyed. Then when Lamb 1 had to give up dairy, I quit making rhubarb pie because it just seemed wrong to eat that without ice cream on top. When he was allowed to have ice cream again, we had quit eating recipes with massive amounts of sugar. So the last few years we have cut the rhubarb and put it in the compost pile, not to eat. I couldn't find any recipes for rhubarb that didn't have a ton of sugar in them. I felt bad wasting the rhubarb that I'm sure others would love to have.
Ram's mom got us a copy of this magazine, the June issue. I couldn't find this recipe online there, maybe they don't put the recipes online for the current issue. But I was thrilled to find a recipe to use rhubarb without any sugar in it. We made this tonight and all 3 Lambs liked it and ate it, even my very picky eater, Lamb 3. It is a little like dal, but it is sweet from the raisins and sour from the rhubarb too. Lamb 3 said, "Yum!". Believe it or not, everything in this recipe is usually in our pantry except for the golden raisins and the fresh spinach. We served it over brown rice, but you could also serve it over quinoa or eat it plain.

Indian-Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb

2 Tbs. olive oil divided
2 Tbs. yellow mustard seeds
2 1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds (we just used ground cumin and added it later in the recipe)
3 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic minced
1 medium red onion, chopped (we used yellow onion)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup brown lentils rinsed and drained
3 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 lb fresh rhubarb cut into 1/4 inch slices or 1/2 lb frozen sliced rhubarb thawed (we used 1 cup because first time making this not sure if Lambs would like it, next time we will use 2 cups)
6 cups baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1. Heat 1 Tbs. oil in nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Add mustard and cumin seeds. Cover skillet and cook 2 minutes or until seeds begin to pop. Cook 1-2 minutes more or until popping stops shaking skillet often. Remove from heat, stir in ginger and garlic and season with salt and pepper if desired. Cover and set aside.
2. Heat remaining oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and raisins, saute 10 minutes, or until onions begin to brown. Stir in lentils and 3 cups broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 25 minutes. Stir in rhubarb and remaining 1/2 cup broth, cook 6 minutes. Add spinach, cover and cook mixture 6 minutes more. Stir mixture to incorporate rhubarb and spinach leaves, then stir in spice mixture. Serve garnished with cilantro.

We liked this recipe so I cut some more rhubarb today and plan to freeze it to make this recipe again after rhubarb season is over. Since some rhubarb is cut, I think I'll have to make a strawberry rhubarb pie too for a once a year treat!

Recipe from Vegetarian Times June 2011

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I'm sorry I didn't post this until now. We had church on Wednesday night and the Lambs had an activity in the evening on Saint Patrick's Day, so we celebrated early on Tuesday.

The Lambs made these at ECFE last year. I put them up right away. When I was taking down Christmas decorations I thought about taking these down. Then I decided it was too soon until Saint Patrick's Day. Perhaps I should take them down now? They are by our back door, where visitors usually enter our house. Last March (and this March) the house was decorated well!

Ram's mom gave us this dish with this Irish Soda Bread recipe on it. I had to try it for Saint Patrick's Day!

The bread was delicious, but after some searching on the internet, I found out this isn't Irish or Soda Bread! It is more like Native American bread with raisins in it. Irish never would have used raisins and especially not during Lent.



DakotaPam's Irish Stew recipe, with all beef because Lamb is impossible to get locally unless you have a friend that raises Lamb or if you would plan WAY ahead of time.

On Saint Patrick's Day we read some books about Saint Patrick and I learned a few facts too.

We had a great celebration on Tuesday!



Happy Birthday, Lamb 1!-UPDATED

Lamb 1's birthday began last night when Aunt Hannah called from South Korea. It was his birthday there so she let him open her presents. He received  an "I Spy" type of Korean book and a yellow alarm clock. In this pile of presents from Grandma, there was one present for the other 4 of us so we didn't feel left out.

Lamb 1 asked for this Lego airport for Christmas, but we asked a little too late and it was a pretty big present to receive for Christmas. Grandpa and Grandma totally spoiled him with this gift that he was to open last. He said, "This is the best present I ever received!" He opened presents a little before 9 am and he has been busy building the airport all day. Ram is helping him, but he is doing very well on his own when Ram has to help the other Lambs play with the other new toys that Lamb 1 received.

When we got up this morning, Lamb 1 and 2 made monkey bread. Lamb 1 learned about this at his cooking class last week and requested it for breakfast. Totally sticky, gooey, sugar, yummy treat that was gone in about 5 minutes. Now Ram has requested this for his birthday breakfast too.

Ram helped Lamb 1 and I was surprised that he had everything for the airport together in a couple of hours. I thought he would do a few parts today and finish tomorrow or Monday. Silly Ewe-this was the best present he's ever received, he HAD to put it all together today! From the time he opened this until he went to bed with the exception of eating meals, he was either putting it together or playing with it. The set was 703 pieces!

We made the cupcakes yesterday. I tried a new recipe and I'll probably never make those cupcakes again, but the frosting was so good they were edible. Lamb 1 requested white cupcakes with green frosting. I came up with the idea for the #7 flags. I think I started something and I'll have to make #3 and #5 and perhaps even #36 flags for the next couple of months.

Homemade pizza for supper

Lamb 1 wanted to play his homemade guitar while we sang "Happy Birthday".  I guess it makes sense because the birthday boy can't really sing for himself. We had cupcakes and homemade vanilla ice cream. Ram's parents called to wish Lamb 1 Happy Birthday as we were finishing. Then it was baths and stories and get ready for bed.

This photo is supposed to be after the monkey bread photo, but when I updated this post, Blogger decided to put the photo here. Yesterday all 3 Lambs helped me make Texas Caviar. We were out of black eyed peas and a few other things so I planned to send all three Lambs to the store today with Ram and get a few minutes alone. Lamb 1 didn't want to leave his Legos so he stayed home while the other two Lambs went. I think the days where the Lambs fight over whose turn it is to go with Ram or Ewe to the town 7 miles away are gone! Lamb 1 did very well building the airplane by himself while they were gone. We also had our oranges and grapefruit sold by 4-H delivered. Lunch was delicious-TX Caviar and oranges.

I think Lamb 1 was pleased with today. He is usually quiet and serious even on days like today. So it was pretty impressive that he said that the airport was his favorite present ever. He said that several times today, not just after he opened it. Now we have about a month before Lamb 3's birthday.

I finally updated the photos of the Lambs on the side of my blog too. Those photos were not updated for about 2 years!

Being a rural pastor's wife post #24

I have a few more comments/topics to address about being a rural pastor's wife, but I thought I would take a break today and answer some comments that have been made about my rural pastor's wife series. I chose to not comment back on most of the posts that comments were made on-I just waited to address them here.
1. Thank you to those of you who left comments on this series. It's helpful to me to know that I'm not alone in some of this. Actually the most helpful comments were from those of you that don't live in rural areas but still do some of the same things-like stocking your pantry. It's not too late to add more comments on any of the posts in this series if you want to!
2. Helpful Teacher asked about my salad dressing recipes. I just picked some out of the cookbook-nothing fancy. The Lambs particularly like homemade poppy seed dressing with oranges and walnuts on spinach or lettuce. I only use walnuts because that is what I usually have, I think it would be good with almonds too.
3. Agnusdei1996 talked about the difference between our situations and how she doesn't miss/think about many things that I talk about in my posts. I don't know if I've stressed this in my posts, but the difficulty I have with being here is that I came from the second largest town in IN to a town of 113. There is no grocery store, place to buy gas, or bank in our town. I lived in Fort Wayne from 1989-2003 with the exception of 4 years at college but coming home on breaks. I learned how to drive in a big city and quickly got used to borrowing the family car to make a quick run to Target or the bank. I didn't have a car my first two years of college so I did shopping when I came home on breaks. When I was teaching I would run all over town to multiple stores to get supplies for my classroom. My other difficulty is that living in a small town would be easier for me if it was within 1 hour of a big city. I have a friend that was in that situation and she constantly complained about being one whole hour away from the city. She has now moved and would probably like to be back in that situation of only one hour away. But living 3 hours away from a big city, 4 hours from a really big city, and driving 1 1/2 hours to just get to a big town is difficult for me. I am thankful for the Internet and being able to buy things online or it would be even more difficult for me to live here. I'm don't mean this to sound like I'm complaining, because I am happy that Ram currently has a Call and the people are so nice to us here and I could go on and on about our blessings of living here (see some of the previous posts in this series). I also know that there is more to life than shopping. But that doesn't change that it was really difficult for me to adapt to living here when we first moved here as it was so different from where I came from. It really has become better since we moved here almost 8 years ago and I got used to it.
4. Esther commented that she wouldn't be able to survive without play dates and that she needed time to get together with her friends. I have a college friend that told me that once too. I think it is a blessing that we moved here before we had children, so I have no idea what I am missing with play dates because I've never had them. My comment to my college friend was that if she was in a similar situation as myself, she really could survive without play dates, even if she didn't like it. I learned things to do without having play dates.
Esther's other comment was that kids have to come in contact with germs some times. I agree and I'm sorry if the post sounded like I was truly afraid of germs and trying to keep my kids in a bubble so they didn't get sick. That was not the way it was intended. What I meant was this-when we used to have a babysitter come once a week, every week during the winter on the morning of babysitting day-we would have to call each other and make sure that we were all healthy enough for her to come over. Neither one of our families just wanted to pass germs back and forth and be sick all winter. Every week the day before babysitting day, I would think about if the runny noses were too bad to have her come etc. Her mom did the same thing with her before she came to our house. About once a month during the winter one of us would be too sick to get together and then I missed out on a babysitter. I'm thinking that the same thing would happen with play group. We did not go to ECFE last fall and it has not begun yet this spring. We were not sick with any major sickness so far this season. Our friends with kids in the area have been sick a lot this season. We still go to Sunday School and out to community events, so they had chances to get sick. But it wasn't the one hour every week in a room full of kids chance to get sick that they had at ECFE. The part of play group that I wouldn't want is the DECISION about healthy kids. I hope this explained this better.
Come back tomorrow as I continue this series on being a rural pastor's wife.

Being a rural pastor's wife post #12

I posted about how I do meal planning here. I think it would be very difficult to plan a daily or weekly meal plan when I live rural. As I said a few days ago I do try to keep my pantry stocked so we could make most of what is on our meal plan list. Sometimes before we do major shopping I write on the list ingredients to make a few new recipes. Sometimes we like those recipes and they end up on our meal plan. Sometimes we just enjoy having a different meal once and don't put them on the meal plan.
I want to encourage you if you live rural to buy/put on your wish list for birthdays/Christmas nice equipment for your kitchen. I cook much more often living rural than I would if I lived in a bigger city. I can't order take out and have it delivered. I'm not going to make an extra trip into town to go pick up a pizza. Ram's mom has been generous with stocking our kitchen for our birthdays and Christmas gifts each year since we were married. We have purchased some items ourselves. They almost became necessities because we cook so often. Some of the necessities to me: A few nice pots and pans in different sizes, we started out with an electric griddle which we just replaced with a cast iron griddle that goes on top of the stove, breadmaker, yogurt maker (yogurt could also be made in the crockpot), crockpot, mixer, blender, food processor, nice knives, popcorn popper, Pyrex in several sizes for serving and storing, and wafflemaker. We were given an ice cream maker and although it is not a necessity, we really like homemade ice cream!
Something else that I have recently started is trying to make some things homemade instead of buying so many premade items. At New Year's we were out of cocktail sauce for our shrimp so I made my own. It only took a few ingredients and it tasted better and wasn't full of salt like a bottle from the store. I've also started making salad dressing homemade. This accomplishes a few things-I don't have to keep so many bottles of different items in my pantry and worry that they may expire before I use them. I don't have to worry about HFCS or salt in my homemade items. I can make a small amount fresh for each time we have salad. Most recipes only take a few items and don't take long to whip up. And they taste really good! I wanted to make homemade ketchup last summer but we didn't have enough tomatoes. I do make jam a few times each summer. It isn't as complicated as it sounds. I try to make granola instead of buying packaged cereal. We still buy some items premade (mustard, mayo, etc.) as I just can't make everything homemade. But the things we do make homemade have helped us to eat healthier, helped with the grocery budget, and made it easier to stock the pantry out here.
We make our own bread in the breadmaker, I try to always have eggs in the fridge, because Lamb 1 had to eat dairy free we started stocking rice milk, and we try to have a full pantry. Because of this, when there is a storm predicted, we rarely run to town to get supplies. Sometimes we can't make what we would prefer to have because we're out of an ingredient, but there are plenty of other choices.
Each week we try to make bread, yogurt, granola, and ice cream. We often make homemade dips like black bean dip and hummus and spinach dip. I don't know if it is better to make everything in one or two days a week (have a big cooking day) or to make one or two each day. We have done it both ways. I'm blessed because Ram often makes our bread and always makes our yogurt. Sometimes we don't get everything made homemade that we would like. We either do without or (gasp!) buy it from the store.
On the rare occasions that I do get to a restaurant, I study the menu pretty closely. I look at it for ideas of recipes we could make at home. I especially like to pay attention to what ingredients they put in salads. A salad tastes completely different with a few different ingredients. I also try to order something that would be pretty difficult to make at home (or takes expensive ingredients) because this is my chance to have something that I can't have at home.
I would encourage you if you live rural to start making more things homemade and to start building up your kitchen to be stocked with nice equipment. We have lived here almost 8 years and it is a gradual process. I gradually tried new recipes and added in more homemade items to make. We gradually got as gifts or bought our kitchen equipment.
Do you have anything to add about cooking when you live in a rural place?
Check back tomorrow for another practical tip for living in a rural place.

Chamomile Lemonade

Long story how I got this recipe, but it is from vegetariantimes.com. On Saturday I bought 2 boxes of chamomile tea (98 cents each at Walmart) and 1 bag organic lemons ($4 at Walmart) and I already had some pure cane raw sugar in the cupboard (a recipe I was always going to try, but never did). I made a double batch on Saturday night and Ram and I drank it all before Sunday afternoon. I felt like I was getting a cold on Saturday afternoon and after drinking this I felt great by Sunday morning.
The recipe says that regular chamomile tea drinkers have elevated levels of hippurate, an antibacterial compound that can help fight infections brought on by colds. This recipe also delivers a healthful dose of vitamin C.

1/2 cup cane sugar
2 Tbs. grated lemon zest
6 chamomile tea bags
3/4 cup lemon juice
lemon slices for garnish

Combine sugar, lemon zest, and 2 cups water in saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat, add chamomile. Cool.
Strain chamomile mixture into a 2 qt. pitcher. Stir in lemon juice and 3 cups water. Serve over ice with lemon slices, or store covered in refrigerator up to 5 days. (I bet you can't keep it in the house for 5 days-we couldn't even keep a double batch in the house for 24 hours!)

I made a double batch on Saturday night and everyone was sad until I made a quadruple batch on Monday night. The Lambs begged to try it. I'll definitely have to ration it until we get into town to a store on Friday to get stocked up on sugar, chamomile tea, and lemons again. I also gave one batch to a friend who has been sick the last few weeks.

This is tart and refreshing at the same time. This will definitely be on the list to make several times a week during cold and sickness season in the winter and perhaps make once a week during the summer as a treat at our house.

More Christmas Parties

The 2nd Christmas party at our churches went much better than the first one. I brought a dip and cookies this time. The dip is very simple layer cream cheese, black beans, mild rotel, and shredded cheese. Serve with tortilla chips. I only brought home a few teaspoons. The ladies loved my Target blue corn tortilla chips. I made cookies that I remember my mom making-ginger creams. Several were eaten and there were also plenty left to give to the staff at the nursing home.
This week a member asked me for my recipe for cocktail wieners. She was thinking of making that for the 3rd Christmas party. I was laughing to myself as I answered her-I went from no one eating my hummus to being asked for a recipe. This recipe was my grandma's recipe. It's cheap and the kids love it and not healthy food like hummus. I warm in a crockpot cocktail wieners, equal parts grape jelly (store bought and full of HFCS!) and yellow mustard. I gave her my recipe and I'm also going to make that for the 3rd Christmas party as mine always go fast at that potluck.
This week I'm on the committee to serve at the Advent service but other than that I get a week break from Christmas parties. Then we have potlucks all day long on the 19th at two of our churches. All this is assuming that weather doesn't change our plans. After the 19th then it will just be planning what we are going to eat with our family for Christmas. Ram's family tradition is crepes with lingonberries so we'll have that.

That strange pastor's wife

On Thursday, one of our Ladies Aids had a Christmas party. They used to have 3 ladies be in charge of the Christmas party, but it got to be too much work for just 3 ladies to plan a "program", decorations, games, prizes for the games, and food for all the ladies of the congregation. So they delegated parts of the party and made the food be potluck. I knew it was potluck now and I was thinking all week about what to bring. It is unlike the other churches where someone has commented that they liked it when I brought something to a potluck before and I try to always take that same dish to that church. Usually these potlucks have more sugar than "real food" so I try to bring "real food" for the Lambs. When I asked a couple of ladies what they were bringing, one was bringing a casserole and the other still hadn't decided what she was bringing. One suggested that I bring a salad. I didn't want to make an extra trip to the store so I needed to make something that I had all the ingredients. I decided to take white chocolate covered pretzels (mainly for the Lambs) and I didn't bring any of those home-they went over well for both the ladies and the Lambs.

But I wanted to take "real food" too. We still had lots of fresh veggies in the fridge from Thanksgiving so I decided to take a veggie tray. Lamb 3 is a very picky eater, but he eats anything that is a dip. So I asked Ram to make hummus while I got ready for the party. I didn't think hummus and veggies was that strange to take to a Christmas party. The ladies had to ask me what was in my dip. They were sure it was full of horseradish and when I said, no, it had garlic, I don't think they believed me. Ram even went easy on the garlic and it was really mild compared to when we usually make it. I think most of the ladies had a little hummus just to see what Ewe brought, but I brought most of the bowl home even after Lamb 3 had a big helping.

What did the other ladies bring? One casserole, ham sandwiches, cheese and olive sandwiches, one veggies with ranch dressing dip, one broccoli salad, 4 or 5 of those "salads" that are full of Cool Whip and I don't know what else because I never make them, one mini pecan pies, one cake, and a few other desserts. I was surprised that no one brought homemade Christmas cookies.

Big sigh from Ewe after the party. I will never cook like these MN ladies have cooked for 50+ years. My food was too healthy for them. I'll have to think to be prepared for next year's Christmas party with food that is more normal for them. At least I know what to make for the next Ladies Aid Christmas party next week. I'm thankful that each church has their party a different week too.

I Spy!

Lamb 1 and Ewe's mom decorated a birthday cake. Look closely at the chocolate chips. How old is Ewe today? Lamb 1 enjoyed decorating the cake.

Thanks to Wendy and her Lost Boys for the recipe for chocolate carrot cake! I made the cake and my mom made the frosting and helped the Lambs decorate it. I've made this cake once before and it is delicious!



My new favorite kitchen servant

A few years ago, Ram's parents brought us an ice cream maker. They brought us a lot of other stuff during that trip and I assumed that they had this ice cream maker and never used it so they brought it to us. It was put in the basement and we never used it until this week. With all Lamb 1's dairy problems, I thought it was one more thing to store that we didn't really need.

Lamb 1 has been able to tolerate dairy for awhile, but I forgot about the ice cream maker until we were cleaning out the basement recently. I dreaded getting it out, reading the directions, making sure we had enough milk and cream, etc. I also assumed it was like my parents' old electric ice cream maker where you have to put ice around the outside= lots of work.

I finally opened it up so Lamb 1 would stop begging. I was so surprised-you put the bowl in the freezer for a day and you're ready to make ice cream. You plug it in, pour the ingredients in the top, and turn it on for 25 minutes. Then you freeze the ice cream for about 2 hours.

First we made orange sherbet which was like frozen orange julius. Then we made simple vanilla ice cream where you didn't have to cook it or add eggs. They were both delicious. Orange took OJ concentrate, milk, and sugar. It was so simple. We're looking at some more recipes like pistachio ice cream.

I think we need to order more milk from the man that delivers it to us. We may be buying less Schwans ice cream now too. This is worth room on my counter. I think we also need to put making ice cream on our list of weekly chores like baking bread and making yogurt.

Bountiful Blueberries

23 lbs of blueberries=
*12 jars jam
*24 cups in the freezer
*eating lots and lots fresh
*1 salad (blueberries, strawberries, balsamic vinegar, little sugar)
*1 blueberry crisp
*1 banana blueberry cake
*27 blueberry muffins
*triple batch of blueberry pancakes

I'm not going to post photos because it would make your mouth water and since blueberry picking season is over, you can't get your blueberry fix right now. I'm going to make sure to go pick blueberries again next year and you can join me then!

Blueberries

Ram and I went blueberry picking while we had a babysitter this afternoon. The deal was one pail at regular price and any other pails 1/2 price. If I can find some time to go again, any future pails will also be half price. Ram and I picked about 23lbs-4 pails-in about 2 hours. I'm not sure if I'm really saving very much money by the time I paid the babysitter, but our friend that owns the garden thought it was very wise that we didn't bring the kids. He said families think it will be fun and kids only last a few minutes before they are hot, hungry, thirsty, and the bugs are getting them. They are usually only open in the morning, but he was kind enough to open it for us this afternoon. We had a beautiful afternoon and it was hot, but not that hot for July-upper 70s/low 80s. There was a slight breeze and it was a little cloudy. I looked at our calendar and this was the best day to go pick based on our schedule, needing time to take care of the berries we picked, and the chance of rain later this week. Plus Ram was free this afternoon and we had a babysitter so we picked twice as much. My grandma had raspberries and I had gone strawberry picking several times, but I had never picked blueberries before. The bushes were overflowing with berries!

Tonight I made one batch of jam and I plan to use some fresh in the next few days and I plan to freeze a bunch. Please leave a comment if you have any other good blueberry recipes.

Our family meal plan

When we ate dairy free for Lamb 1's sake, I made up a menu plan for our family. We had visited some friends that had many allergies in their family and she gave me the idea to try to vary the proteins in our meals. Eating dairy free didn't seem so difficult when we had a whole list of possible meals!
Because we often eat leftovers for lunch the next day and sometimes for supper the next day too, I don't plan a new meal for each day. We just eat leftovers until they are gone and then we make something new. Living in a rural area, we have most of the ingredients on hand most of the time. So the way this works is we make something from the BEEF category and when that is gone then we make something from the CHICKEN category and when that is gone we make something from the PORK/MEATLESS until we cycle through all the categories and then we begin again.
Our list started dairy free but recently many recipes from my blogging friends have been added to the list and they are not always dairy free. You will notice that there aren't many really heavy dairy recipes here. I rarely make casseroles/hotdishes because they are usually so heavy on dairy. It's easy for our family to choose something from one category instead of saying, "What should we have tonight?" thinking of all the recipes that we regularly cook. Obviously when we have much produce from the garden or something is on sale then we cook that even if it is out of rotation for our meal plan.



BEEF/GROUND TURKEY
meatloaf
tacos
steak (a treat once or twice a year!)
roast with veggies
hamburgers
sloppy joes
spaghetti
cottage pie (shepherd's pie)



CHICKEN/TURKEY
fajitas
baked chicken with quinoa
barbecue chicken
stir fry
turkey with stuffing
groundnut stew
chicken a la king

PORK/MEATLESS
applesauce pork
baked beans
pork chops
ribs
brats with sauerkraut
ham
pizza
dal
bean burritos
falafal
bubble and squeak
egg roll guts



FISH
tuna noodle casserole
baked fish with french fries
fish with coleslaw
spaghetti with clam sauce
pasta with salmon


SOUP in winter/SALAD in summer
chicken noodle soup
chili with cornbread
vegetable soup
lentil or bean soup



egg salad
chicken salad
tuna salad (both tuna melts and MckMama's tuna salad with pasta)
garden salad
taco salad
Texas caviar


BREAKFAST (usually made on weekends for brunch)
pancakes
french toast
omelets
fried eggs
Huevos Rancheros
egg sandwiches
sausage gravy and biscuits
baked oatmeal (crockpot night before)
oatmeal
possible sides: fruit salad, hashbrowns, muffins

Wednesday lunch

Ewe: "We're having leftovers for lunch. Which would you like clam sauce spaghetti or tacos?"
Lamb 1: "Both."
Ewe: "You may only have one."
Lamb 1: "How do you expect me to choose when they are both so yummy?"

Biaggis salads

On Monday we splurged and ate lunch at Biaggis. A Biaggis opened when we lived in Indiana. While Ram was at the Seminary we tried to split a meal to save money. The portions are huge and it was plenty for me-but not for Ram. On Monday we discovered that at lunch we could get 1/2 portion of salad and 1/2 portion of pasta or other combinations of 1/2 portions including sandwiches and soup too. Lamb 1 and 2 split a kids meal and it was pretty large for a kids meal. Lamb 3 was content with bread and water from a straw. Ram and I each had 1/2 portion of pasta and salad. I was stuffed and didn't each much supper, especially after Costco samples. Ram was starving by the time supper came. Perhaps next time I will again get the 1/2 portions but I think Ram will get the whole portions! I love their iced tea and their bread.
Since I first started going to Biaggis, I have always liked their spinach salad. Last time we went we discovered their beet salad was very good too. This time I decided to write down what was in these salads. Since we only get to a town with a Biaggis a few times a year and we decide to splurge at Biaggis even less than that, I thought it might be good to make similar salads at home. I know that at home they won't be exactly like Biaggis, especially because there are a few expensive ingredients, but I'll try next summer when we have fresh greens from our garden. I'll still make sure to order one of these when I go to Biaggis!

Beet Salad
Beets, honey balsamic marinade, arugula, avocado, sun dried cherries, and spicy walnut crusted Montchevre goat cheese.

Spinach Salad
Spinach, sun dried tomato bacon dressing, Gorgonzola cheese, red onion, and hard boiled egg.

*The menu is posted on their website if you want more details than my notes from Monday! It also explains the 1/2 portions if you want more details on that.