Just Another Winter Weekend

This weekend was certainly a busy one. Actually, I didn't even leave the house except to go to the grocery store for our week's food and to take the 3 boys on a 2-hour neighborhood walk, where Jaguar started his nature collecion with some itty bitty pinecones and some various acorns. Bobcat walked pretty well, but I carried him in my sling most of the time, and Lynx was quite conversational and satisfied with the wet washed look of all the plants and trees.

Bobcat discovered a fascination with moths. He was quite scared of them...well, he is still very frightened when they randomly take flight near him, but he loves to look at them and talk about them as he points. We went around last night and counted all the moths up in the corners of the walls and on the ceiling, and I noticed they look like little hearts upside down ~ how perfect with the upcoming Valentine's Day.

Today was our baking day, as it usually is on Sundays, so Jared was in charge of making Apple Poppy Seed Bread in the bread maker. It called for apple sauce, of which we had none, so he is seen here cutting up apples for our homemade apple sauce. We have honestly not yet tried it, which is silly because fresh bread that is warm out of the oven or bread maker is the best. Once we try it, if it is good, I will create a posting with the recipe.

Lynx is seen hand-creaming the butter and sugar for our Dark Chocolate Heart Cake made from scratch (usually we are guilty of using cake mix). He was quite "buff" this time because he did it completely by himself and without complaint. Our electric mixer is from like the 1950s passed down from my grandmother, and it isn't performing too well. We can't afford a new one, so we make due. His cake was very yummy, soft and moist and very tasty! A recipe worth sharing! The recipe of course didn't call for making a heart, but we decided to anyway because I found a heart-shaped cake pan at the thrift store and it again was inspired by Valentine's Day, though it is a little early. It is actually called  Dark Chocolate Cake I, and we modified it to half measurements.

They were determined to build a house. They took the cardboard box cutout house from the back deck, some mats, chairs, a couch cushion, and blankets to create the structure and bedroom of their house. Lynx created a laundry room with a washer, a kitchen with a sink, cupboards, and a full pantry. They even had a mailbox out front. Lynx plays wonderfully with his brothers...when he wants to ;). They took a trip to the store (their bedroom), where Lynx was inspired to make tons of money and setup an elaborate display of merchandise to purchase and price tags. This literally took up hours of their time. Yay!

The look of satisfaction as he savors our newly founded houshold snack, Nori. Nothing like a nice helping of tasty and mildly salty seaweed. Yum!

We decided to attract our local birds by creating some delicious treats. Jaguar helped me to prepare our Suet, a mixture of cornmeal, oats, peanut butter, lard, flour, and so on. It is fairly dry, but it globs together pretty well. When we were done, we put some in the hanging net seen below for the birds to feed from. We also strung peanuts on some yarn and tied each end to nails at both ends of the somewhat weathered birdfeeder. The rest of the huge batch of Suet was placed in old jars and stuck in the freezer. Unfortunately, we did this late in the day, so we can only expect the birds tomorrow morning. In addition, Daddy pulled himself away from his continuous studying and played some basketball outside with the boys.

They read, I ironed and did some more loads, Lynx rode his skate board, Jaguar his scooter, Bobcat practiced his talking and skills of imitation, we all did a lot of cleaning, hanging out, and so much more.... Good night (or day) to you and I hope you enjoyed our weekend full of simplicity.

Chewy Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

       Tonight, Jaguar convinced me to make some cookies, even though baking is our Sunday thing. We were planning on making a "Screamer" (one of our traditional yummy shakes with peanut butter, ice cream, bananas, and milk), but I realized we hadn't any more milk. So, I thought, What the Heck! I looked up a recipe that included honey and we made it. Jaguar handled the eggs, some of the stirring, the adding of ingredients, and so on. We then popped them into the oven and Vuala! This particular recipe yeilded plump, ooey gooey, soft and moist cookies with fabulous flavor. I encourage all to try them! I will definitely bake this recipe again.

Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

• Cream butter and sugar, then add honey.
• Add egg and vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients and mix well.
• Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 375F 10 minutes.

Easy as Pie...well, actually easier than pie, and quick!

Apple Sunday

Though we live in Apple Hill, 'tisn't the season for apples. That was a few months ago, but we were still inspired to have warm, fresh-cooked sweet apple tastiness. Since Sunday is our baking day, we decided to celebrate the wonderful essence of organic apples. Actually, it was quite funny because as we were driving toward our house on Friday I looked over at our 92-year-old neighbor's house thinking to myself that I needed to make him a pie, when about 1 second later Jaguar randomly bursted out with, "I want pie, Mom." Who says there isn't telekinesis?

This was the Organic Honey Apple Pie we made (we should have made hearts, but the fall leaf was the only cookie cutter I could find) just before we stuck it into the oven.

And here is the golden, flaky crust (though the pretty edges didn't remain so pretty) and sweet, warm, juicy filling of our final product fresh out of the oven. It was delicious! I recommend using honey instead of sugar because it is better for you, and also you should use less than the recipe calls for because apples have their own natural sugars that are superb when baked.

These are our apple fritters. It gives me an excuse to buy beer. Beer batter is so perfect for these greasy delights. I just thinly slice 2-3 organic apple. For the batter I mix 1 cup each of beer and flour, 3 Tbs of sugar, and 1 tsp of salt. Heat up at least half an inch of oil, dip apples and turn momentary, then place finished fritters onto a paper towel-lined plate and Vuala!!!

Feel free to send your comments about yummy apple recipes you have tried, or that you want to make. Or if you make these fritters, let me know what you think!

Nutrition Lessons - Part II

The kids were getting bored of the original setup of the living room shelf, which is to be expected. So, I decided to change it to the parallel of our theme (or one of them): Nutrition. We have tons of wooden and felted food, so I decided to decorate the shelves with yummy and nutritious food. In addition, Lynx's human body puzzle is placed in the mix, just in case Jaguar gets interested in our parts and bodily functions (he was today at Bobcat's doctor appointment). There is a healthy veggies and fruits ABC book atop the shelf. There is also a wooden vegetable puzzle down below.

As I mentioned previously, I was going to be taking the food advertisement cut-outs to utilize them for a food pyramid. Jaguar took each of the cut-outs and decided what food group they each fell into, and then he pasted them in place.


Jaguar took his Melissa & Doug pizza making set and sorted the toppings. There are 3: mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni. He organized them into 3 bowls. Bobcat did this earlier in the day, but nto quite as thoroughly.

This activity required Jaguar to sort felt food into the 5 main groups: Fruits, Veggies, Grains, Proteins, and Dairy. He enjoyed figuring it out.


The last nutrition-related activity with Jaguar today was the traditional baking of bread. We made a banana walnut bread in the bread maker. It was really tasty, but not as tasty as it could be....I have yet to find a bread maker recipe that I personally recommend. Regardless of the outcome, the process was fun and enriching for Jaguar. :)

Halloween and Autumn Creations With the Kids

This last holiday weekend brought lots of fun and business for the kids. Halloween and Autumn are always a fun focus to initiate the colder season to come.

Lynx particularly enjoyed the sewing projects he did, which is wonderful because it helps to center him. He designed and sewed a felt monster and sewed the face on a felt skeleton. This was his first experience with sewing ever. Lynx also is in the middle of putting together another monster with precut pieces.

Jaguar was busy making pipe cleaner finger puppets, matching ghosts and their different facial expressions, counting pumpkin seeds, sorting colored spiders, free painting with fall colors, making leaf pattern decorations, and more.

The boys also painted fall tree silhouettes on a sunset background with watered down paint and straws for the trees. I did one, too, because it looked fun.

Lynx helped me make homemade pumpkin pie…it is the best! Once you have pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin, you never want to go back to the can (although that can be pretty good too). We also made cranberry sauce and apple cinnamon peanut butter "sushi". They were simple, but very tasty.

Bobcat played with his treasure tray full of autumn themed sensory stuff and walked through a pile of fall leaves.

Before we went trick-or-treating, I sewed some bags for all the boys to decorate with fabric paint and potato stamps cut in the shapes of pumpkins.

Of course, I had the boys carve a pumpkin. We had one pumpkin and I went back to the store Halloween morning only to find all the rest of the pumpkins were completely wiped out. So, Jaguar carved one side, and Lynx designed and carved the other side.

Children Create Soul Food

When I say Soul Food, I mean that when children are involved in preparing food (and cleaning up) it nourishes their very being. There are so many ways to allow children of all ages to participate in the kitchen. My 19-month-old can help by giving me needed items, putting cut food into a nearby bowl or pot, loading the dirty silverware in the dishwasher, handing me clean silverware, wiping the floor after I wash it….. My 4-year-old can cut things with a butter knife, pour, mix, crack eggs, whisk, grate, arrange, make a sandwich, decorates baked goods, wash produce, load the dishwasher, wash dishes, unload the silverware, rearrange his kitchen/dining shelf, start the oven with guidance, set the table before meals, wash the table after meals…… And my 10-year-old can do all of that, plus make eggs, make butter, slice and dice with a real cutting knife, peel and core, wash and dry dishes, clean the counter tops, stir food as it is cooking, pull things in and out of the oven, measure, and even look up recipes that he wants to make and enjoy. (Sigh…that was a long sentence). It is more time consuming to involve your children, but well-worth it in the long run. Hey, you never know, you could wake up on Mother’s Day or Father's Day one year and have a gourmet breakfast in bed made by your kids ;) . Either way, if you don’t know how or even why to get started, there are a ton of great resources for you and your children.

Some resources are:

6 Ways to Thrive in The Kitchen With the Kids - http://simplemom.net/6-ways-to-thrive-in-the-kitchen-with-the-kids/
Teaching Your Kids to Cook - http://www.squidoo.com/kids_can_cook
Twelve Reasons to Bake with your Children - http://www.homebaking.org/familyfun/reasons.html
Kids Healthy Recipes Guide - http://kidshealthyrecipesguide.blogspot.com/2009/10/bake-christmas-treats-with-your-kids.html
Tips for Baking with Toddlers - http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/category/baking-with-toddlers

Here are a handful of books:

Baking Bread With Children (Crafts Series) by Warren Lee Cohen
Williams Sonoma Kids Baking by Abigail J. Dodge
Mom and Me Cookbook by Annabel Karmel
You're the Cook! A Guide to Mixing It Up In the Kitchen. For Children 9 and up! (Paperback) by You're the Cook!
Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Learn to Cook by Marion Cunningham
The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan
Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up by Mollie Katzen
Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up by Mollie Katzen and Ann L. HendersonCooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun