Happy Pi Day!

In celebration of Pi Day Miss E made some "Pie" cupcakes for a Pi Day party some friends were throwing.

The French...

We were reading about the French Revolution a bit this past month.  The boys were inspired to build lego Guillotines and try to chop off lego or play dough guy heads.  (sorry no pictures of that)

Miss E was inspired to make up some French food this past week.  For breakfast one morning she made crepes.  YUM!  Then at lunch she made crepes again, only this time they were filled with cheese and ham.  YUM!

Tonight Daddy got home to a wonderful surprise.  Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner.  Eclairs for dessert!  He was so excited and Miss E did not disappoint, it all turned out wonderfully.

Thanks Miss E!

Oh, and here is a quick shot of Miss A all ready to head out to run some errands with Mommy.

Apples!

Apple season is just starting around here, the fresh organic ones are just starting to show up at the farmer's markets in limited varieties.  Last week-end Rob took our flat bed trailer to a "local" farm (just 90 minutes away) to pick up apples for our family, friends, and health food co-op.  I think he loaded over 70 40 lb boxes of organic apples!

Now we are processing our three boxes (Yes, that is 120 pounds of apples).   Before taking this on I checked with the kids.  Did they want apple butter and apple chips this year?  Yes!  Were they willing to do the work, knowing that I was not up to doing much of the work?  Yes!  OK then.  They have been pealing and coring our apples for the past few days.  The little kids love to eat the long strings of apple peel (its our version of "fruit by the foot").

 

Within a few hours of the apples arriving at our home we had a batch in the dehydrator.  The second batch is now drying.

Yesterday I canned our apple butter.  That was my contribution to the apple processing.

Miss E made an apple pie.  It was perfect!

Even the peels and cores do not go to waste.  After the kids got their fill (of the peels) we filled gallon sized jars with the cores and peels to make apple cider vinegar.  The rest are going to our rabbits and chickens (and if they get their fill we will take the remainder to our friends' goats).

You can see bubbles in the jar and foam at the top.  This is the fermenting process happening.  It will not be long before this batch is smelling like apple wine, then it will continue on to vinegar!  This will be used all year for cleaning and in some cooking.

The kids will continue to dehydrate apples for the next week or so.  They also have plans for apple sauce and maybe another pie.  The fruit drawer in the refrigerator is full of the smallest apples (the perfect size for little snackers) that we skimmed off of the boxes as soon as we got them.  We will be enjoying these apples in some form or another for the next year!

Prickly Pear Jelly

Last year we made Prickly Pear Jelly with two other families and had such a great time.  We were excited to get to do it again this year with the same families.

Just as last year, the kids went out and picked the fruit.  We are blessed (?) to have a bunch of prickly pear cactus growing in our yard; way more than we need to make our jelly.  Then the dads went about the job of cleaning (and more importantly) getting all of the spines off of the fruit.

 

Last year the dads did the juicing too.  This year we realized that we really should be making use of our large workforce.  All of the big kids jumped into the juicing, to the point that we had to have them rotating and timing their turns at times!  They started out at the kitchen counter.  Then we moved them to work at the little school table.

Even the little ones wanted to get in on the work.

We took a break for lunch and the kids watched a movie for a while.

Mr. M REALLY got into his work.  Here he is straining seeds from the juice.

Last time we started much earlier in the day and we were working until dinner time.  This time we were done by mid-afternoon!  What a difference all those kids helping made (and the babies being a year older).  What fun to work hard together with our friends and produce the jelly we will be using all year from the fruit in our yard!

Creme Brulee

The other day I noticed Mr. M had added to my shopping list.  What was he wanting to make?  He told me he wanted to make Creme Brulee for me.  Ok then!

He made the whole thing up from start to finish on his own, with very little help.  Daddy did supervise when the torch was needed.  He did a great job.  The whole family enjoyed this fun treat!

Thanks Mr. M!

 

We enjoyed our cool treat in the evening on our cool tile floors.  It is HOT here!

The 85 is at 5:45am, the 117 is from time time in the last week or so.  The 20 is from month ago in the winter.  It seems to stay 82 in the kitchen area, no matter how much the AC is running.

A very productive Saturday

Saturdays are often cleaning or work days around here, and that was the plan for today.  Our day ended up being even more productive than first planned.  My plan for the morning was to make Peach BBQ sauce (peaches were on sale, $.48 a pound!) while the kids cleaned bathrooms and floors.

*Even the little ones get into the cleaning.  Mr. K had so much fun helping Miss E clean the mirrors.  It looks like he did a good job too!

When a friend stopped by with some surplus produce my plans for the rest of the day changed.  I already had plenty of peaches, and she happened to come with just about all of the remaining needed ingredients for peach salsa.  

I love all of the bright colors when I get it all in the pot.  Once it is processed it loses much of the contrast, but it sure is pretty while it cooks!

Meanwhile the little kids took over our bedroom.  I had picked up a kitchen set the other day and we put it in our room to clean up before moving it to the girls room.  We were so busy the last two days we just didn't get to moving it.  The little girls brought their new quilt into the room and put it on our bed and set up house there.  It was so sweet to see them playing.  Mr. K is loving the set too.

I realized I had everything I needed to make a batch of regular salsa as well.  So, while Rob took the big kids to a friend's house to swim and the little ones napped, I made that up.

12 jars of peach BBQ sauce, 7 jars of peach salsa, and 5 jars of salsa

Dinner ended up being extra bright and colorful with roasted peppers and sautéed zucchini (part of the produce from a friend), salad with raspberries, peach salsa (for the chicken), and broiled peaches.

 

After dinner I shredded up most of the zucchini that was brought over.  Now it is in the freezer ready to be made into bread or muffins when Miss E wants to (one of her favorites).

What a day!  I'm thankful for our day of rest on Sunday.  I needed it!

Happy Doughnut Day!

The first Friday in June is officially National Doughnut day.  My kids have been asking me to make doughnuts for a few months now.  I think it's been about 2 years since I've made them.  I figured this was as good an excuse as any to make some up.

The kids were busy with a major clean up project (their rooms) and worked very hard knowing there was a great reward when they were done.  Miss E helped put the finishing touches on the doughnuts for me.  We made chocolate covered, squirrel tails (twists with glaze and covered with cinnamon sugar, glazed, and cinnamon sugar doughnut holes.  YUM!  Everyone got one of each.

 

This little guy fell asleep eating.  He put up a good fight, but in the end he just could not win.  He didn't need those doughnuts anyways.  None of us did.  Ugh!

In the kitchen with Miss E

Miss E has been spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen these days.  I think it is her favorite room in the house.  She just loves to bless her family with all sorts of goodies.  Even better?  She is great at letting the little ones help.

 I just love have a little kitchen ferry!

Being a helper has its perks.  Miss E always finds something to pass on to her helpers.

 

Using the dutch oven

We finally got around to using my new dutch oven (my treat from the gem show) this week end.  Rob made plans for breakfast AND lunch using the dutch oven; everyone was excited to get to try this out.

For breakfast Rob did the cooking in our fireplace.  Kids trickled out to watch him make the casserole.  Miss E made chocolate chip scones that fit our lent diet restrictions.  Mmmm....that was one great meal!

 

For lunch Mr. M set up a fire in the back yard and Rob cooked over it using the tripod we got to go with the dutch oven.  Yum, brats and onions!

Pancakes

On a recent trip to the library Miss C spotted this book of fun shaped pancakes.

Miss E thought it was a great looking book and asked if she could PLEASE make breakfast for us.  That sounded just great to me.  She spent the afternoon figuring out which pancakes to make for each person, figuring out what colors she would need to mix up and mixed all of the dry ingredients.  The next morning this was our breakfast...

A bowl of cereal for Mr. K

 

Duckies for Miss C.

 

Miss J requested a butterfly.

Our bouncy boy requested a frog.

 

A bomb seemed appropriate for Mr. M

Miss E knows that Mr. R always goes for a game of checkers.

 

Miss E is a fan of watermellon (it also happened to require chocolate chips!).

I had a stack of pancakes; complete with syrup and butter.  Miss E even provided a knife and fork!

 

There was plenty more batter to make an apple with a worm in it, eggs and bacon, spaghetti with meatballs, and balloons.

 

 

Thanks Miss E for the fun breakfast!