Snow in the Desert!

I remember being shocked to see snow in Phoenix when I first moved here in 1998.  For my international readers who don't know our climate here, it's usually hot and dry.  On Christmas, it was 75 degrees and beautiful.  It rarely rains here and the weather is even more rarely below 32 degrees, so both of those conditions occurring simultaneously...well...it's really, really rare.

But today, my kids saw snow in our backyard.  Most would call it "flurries" but we call it "snow."  You can't even see it in all of the pictures!  Yet, we celebrated.

We ended the excitement with cookies and cocoa.  The perfect end to any snow day!

Almond Flax Granola

Today was cold and rainy, so I decided to try my hand at making granola in the oven instead of my standard crock pot recipe.  I adjusted this recipe just a bit to suit our family preferences and it is delicious! I had to smack Mike and the kids' hands away while the stuff was it was cooling.  I have a feeling it won't last long in our house.

1/3 cup + 1 Tbs. oil, vegetable or canola
2 Tbs. water
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
(Or you can just use 1/2 cup of either maple syrup, agave or honey)
--------------------------
4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 cup pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds (or a combination of the two)
1 cup almonds, chopped or whole (optional)
1 cup coconut (optional)
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)


Adjust oven racks to middle positions. Preheat to 275 degrees. Line two metal cookie sheets with parchment paper or coat with cooking spray. Set aside.

Bring oil, syrup, agave, cinnamon and water to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. (I waited to add the raisins until after it was out of the oven, so they would stay plump and unburned) Pour oil/maple syrup mixture over oat mixture and stir to combine.

Pour mixture onto two prepared cookie sheets. If desired, squeeze granola to form small clumps, working a handful at a time.

Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate baking sheets in the oven, baking for another 15 minutes. Stir and continue to bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. (cook time is 45 minutes total)

Let cool. Granola can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 8 cups.

Meal Plan 12/27/10

Monday - Christmas dinner leftovers
Tuesday - Healthy Turkey Pot Pie*
Wednesday - Chili
Thursday - Meatloaf Roll Up with provolone, prosciutto and spinach, Whole Wheat Bread
Friday - New Years Eve - out to dinner!
Saturday - Turkey Tetrazzini*
Sunday - Baked Potato Bar (with broccoli and leftover chili)

Other stuff:
{Whole Wheat} Crepes
Homemade Crock Pot Granola
Banana Bread
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Monkey Munch/Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow

* I'm making 2 pot pies and 2 tetrazzinis with leftover Christmas turkey and homemade turkey stock.  There's a lot of sauteing and simmering involved with both recipes, so they're easy to make simultaneously. 
Eating one, putting the other in the freezer for later.

The Secret to Joy is Perspective

Just a little reminder that the next couple of days might be a little stressful/overwhelming/exhausting, depending on where you're dragging your family or who is coming to your home.  The kids will have too much sugar, get too little sleep...they might be ungrateful for a hand-knit sweater from Great Aunt Edna...or have a meltdown in the middle of the Christmas Eve service at church...relatives will undermine your authority...expect it all.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  Prepare to have some (or all) of your expectations for "the perfect Christmas" to be unmet.

Then decide to choose JOY.

You can absolutely choose to be filled with joy instead of any other negative emotion that creeps in.  Set the tone for your home as one that is relaxed and peaceful.

And let the fun begin.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Q&A Wednesday - Pureeing Vegetables and Sneaking Them into Recipes

Based on the following picture of the day posted on my other blog, Rachael asked, "Can you do a post about the puree process and what recipes/meals you can add them to? That is a fantastic idea!"

A couple years ago, I bought Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious."  (she since has a new book and there are similar recipes in The Sneaky Chef's books here and here and here.)

The beginning of Deceptively Delicious talks about cooking, pureeing and freezing vegetables to "sneak" into recipes.  When I do this, I crank out a bunch of purees to make the process worth the effort.

I do this with vegetables we get in our produce co-op, or whatever is a loss leader (super low priced items on the front page of the ads) at the grocery store.  If I get too much of something and don't want to let it go bad and waste it, I'll cook it, puree it, bag 1/2 cup portions and freeze them flat.

For instance, last weekend in the co-op, I got 4 butternut squash.  Healthy and delicious, yet my family doesn't eat them.  I baked them for 45 minutes, let them cool, cut off the skin and blended them in my food processor (adding a little water, as needed) until the mixture was smooth and lump-free.

A full food processor is about 3-4 cups of puree, so I know to start by labeling 6 bags.  With a Sharpie, I include the amount (1/2 cup), the item (butternut squash) and the date.  This helps me use the oldest purees first.

I'm in the habit of wrecking my kitchen and going through this ordeal about every other week for an hour or so.  This past weekend, I cooked the butternut squash, an acorn squash and a gazillion sweet potatoes, which took me just under an hour total.  While the squash was in the oven, the sweet potatoes cooked on the stove and I diced celery and onions and put in bags to freeze for soups later.  (all while being interrupted a dozen times by the kids)

The process seemed overwhelming to me at first, but once I got used to rolling up my sleeves and just doing it, it's really not that big of a deal anymore.

The 8-10 bags of each puree that I got out of Saturday's cooking session will last me for months.

To keep everything organized, I repurposed some bins I wasn't using.  This bin is a wire under-the-cabinet bathroom organizer...

...and this was a random tray that came with our cooler.

But if you don't have any bins to spare, sticking the baggies in the door shelves works just fine, too!

In my freezer, I try to keep vegetables that we don't tend to eat raw. I generally have spinach, cauliflower, squashes and sweet potatoes ready to add to meals that don't contain many vegetables.

That leads me to the second part of her question: What recipes/meals you can add them to?

Purees can be added to most sauces, casseroles, chili, meatloaf/meatballs, pasta dishes, pot pies...the ideas are endless.  There are even recipes for squash mixed with shredded cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches, cauliflower in scrambled eggs and banana bread, spinach in blueberry oat bars, avocado in chocolate pudding and black beans in brownies.

Once I had followed a few of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes, I started throwing a puree in just about everything.  I wouldn't recommend spinach in macaroni and cheese (I won't make that St. Patrick's Day mistake again) but as a general rule, I add dark mix-ins with dark sauces, light with light.  You can't taste kale in spaghetti sauce or chili and squash is easy to hide in cream-based recipes.

Last year, when I guest posted on The Happy Housewife's blog about "How to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthier Foods," my suggestion to sneak vegetables into dinner recipes caused an uproar with a few of the readers.  In fact, she tweeted about the topic and wrote a follow up post further discussing the debate. I'm bracing myself for some potential controversy on the subject, so if you leave a comment, please remember to be respectful.  I hope this helps, Rachael!

Martha Stewart's Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

I tried this new recipe for a cookie exchange tomorrow and they turned out great!  I ended up making the dough one day, baking the next day and dipping and decorating the final day; I wanted to prepare them in two stages, but I didn't read that the dough needed to chill, so it ended up being three, which worked out fine for me.

If you've never made a Martha Stewart cookie, you should know that you must follow her instructions precisely.  If she says, "Beat for 3 minutes," you don't beat for 2 minutes or 4 minutes...just do it for 3 minutes if you want it to turn out right.  Trust me on this!  I've messed up a recipe or two of hers in my day...

(The original recipe calls for the entire cookie to be dunked in white chocolate, but doing 1/2 was much faster, less messy and gives you someplace to hold the cookie without chocolate melting on your fingers.  Plus, I thought the fully-coated cookies were a bit too much, personally.)

1 cup flour, plus a little more for the work surface
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp pure peppermint extract *
8 large candy canes or 30 peppermint candies, crushed **
16 oz. white chocolate chips

1. Whisk together first 5 ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Reduce speed to medium-low, and add egg, then yolk, beating well after each addition.  Beat in peppermint extract.  Slowly add flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.  Shape dough into 2 round, flat disks, wrap each in plastic and chill 1 hour or up to 2 days.

2. On a piece of lightly floured parchment paper (or a Silpat), roll out 1 disk of the dough, lightly dusting top with flour, to 1/8 inch thickness.  Place dough, still on parchment, on a baking sheet and chill 15 minutes.  Brush excess flour from dough.  Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Reroll the scraps and cut more rounds.  Chill rounds 15 minutes.  Repeat with remaining disk of dough.

3. Bake at 325 degrees until cookies are dry to the touch, 12 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool completely. (Undecorated cookies can be stored in an airtight container at rom temperature up to 3 days.)

4. Pulse peppermint candies in a food processor until finely crushed, or put them in a resealable plastic bag and pund with a kitchen mallet.  Melt white chocolate in the microwave 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.  Dunk 1/2 of each cookie in white chocolate, allowing the excess to drip off. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and sprinkle with peppermint candy pieces.  Allow to set completely.

* This flavor is very subtle in the cookie.  If you don't want to buy peppermint extract, use vanilla and it will turn out fine!

** I bought some peppermint pieces, already crushed, after a failed attempt to make my own last year (using a Ziplock bag and a rolling pin)  The Ziplock bag was pierced with the sharp peppermint slivers repeatedly, causing a huge mess and tons of frustration.  I bought the product (below) before hearing the brilliant idea of breaking them up in the food processor. 

Creating a "Kids Closet"

For months, I've been wanting to give the kids an organized place for their schoolwork, craft supplies and outdoor gear.  What I really wanted was a drop zone for coats, shoes and backpacks, but my house doesn't really have a good place for that, unless I buy a giant entryway system from Pottery Barn.  As much as I would love to spend that kind of money freely, it just isn't in the budget!

I tried using the shelves in our coat closet for the kids, but as they get bigger and have different needs, they've started to outgrow the space.

The kids' crafts, etc "before"

There's a weird little closet in the back hall by our garage door that I've always used for extra kitchen storage.  That's where I've stored my china, wine glasses and large serving pieces for parties.

Until now.

What I didn't realize is that I have a lot more space in my kitchen cabinets since decluttering and donating so much last year. Last week, I was motivated to weed through even more to sell/donate and make my storage spaces more useful.

I began by moving the china and some larger serving pieces to the china cabinet that I bought from my mom.

This is version 1 (of probably 8 or 10) of how this cabinet will look before I'm happy with it!

Then I relocated rarely used wine glasses to the kitchen, where they should have been all along.

This top shelf was actually empty, since Jason stopped drinking bottles.  The perfect spare-glass spot!

While I was at it, I decided to just empty both closets and start with a clean slate.

(This is the same closet pictured above.)

The random kitchen-overflow closet

That was a messy decision...

(no turning back now...)

The whole transformation only took a couple of hours and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Top of the new "kids closet"

Bottom of the "kids closet"

The old hall coat closet BEFORE (it was fairly organized, when it was straightened up)

AFTER - the shelves in the updated coat closet (the coats are on the left side, behind the sliding door)

I wanted to have the kids' shoes and socks in their new closet, but couldn't fit the shoe shelves on the floor.  While I was at the Dollar Store with them (choosing their toy for our 25 Days of Christmas) I found some coordinating bins that were perfect.  The sock bins needed to squeeze in at an angle, but the shoe bins (behind) are fit great.  And each child has their own color bins, so no one gets confused.  Often, identical colors look best, but with hurried kids searching for shoes and socks, I thought personalized colors were more appropriate this time.

I've also wanted a new "drop zone" for my purse, coupons, unopened mail, etc.  A few weeks ago, I moved everything to the laundry room, but decided to clear a shelf in the coat closet so I could have my folding counter back. 

Before - in the laundry room

After - in the coat closet

The last thing I did was make sure the labels were up to date.  I used to have swimsuits and sunglasses in the baskets for the kids, but those are pretty useless to them in December, so I rotated in hats and gloves, flipped over the tag and relabeled the bins.  Cute, huh?

One side of the tag

The opposite side of the tag!

The craft bins have always been labeled, which helps things get put back in the right spot. (ish)

I like how the kids closet turned out!  Everyone's getting used to the new system and I love the clean look.

 

No powdered sugar? No problem!

DID YOU KNOW...powdered sugar is just regular, granulated, white sugar that's been pulverized in the blender? 

I'm sure the people at C&H use a huge, mega-machine blender, but still.  Why can't we do this at home?

Last night, I came to the disappointing realization that:
1. the icing needed to set for a minimum of 24 hours and my kids weren't going to get to decorate their gingerbread house, as promised in their Advent calendar activity,
2. my gingerbread kit did not come with all of the icing ingredients, and
3. I was completely out of powdered sugar and I needed 2 lbs of it. 

Lovely.

Then I remembered seeing a tip on one of the all-natural blogs that I read.  She made powdered sugar out of Sucanat (a coarse, all natural sugar cane).  That was a light-bulb moment for me; I didn't realize powdered/confectioners sugar is just finely ground white sugar.  DUH!

So I tried it.


...and it WORKED!!!

You have to blend it on high for a pretty long time and I had to tap my blender a few times to get the sides to move down to the blade, but seriously...I was shocked that I made my own powdered sugar.  You'd have thought I'd ground my own wheat or something!  I was so proud...

Too bad my gingerbread house didn't cooperate.  The sides fell repeatedly until I screamed so loud in frustration that I'm certain you might have heard it faintly from your own home...where ever you live.

I actually suggested to my kids (before my final attempt) that if the walls fell again, they might want to run and hide because I would probably end up throwing gingerbread pieces all over the house.

With a little propping and finagling, it stayed.

I vented my frustrations on Facebook and got THE BEST tip: use a hot glue gun.  Who really eats the hardened gingerbread house pieces after all that hard work!?!?  Next time, forget the royal icing.  I'm using hot glue, baby!!!

Friday Favorites - My Favorite Gifts to Receive

Do you have trouble coming up with gift ideas when people ask, "What do you want for Christmas?"

I tend to ask for things that let me "escape" the mundane day-to-day:

- pedicure gift cards
- massage gift certificates
- coupons for free babysitting, house cleaning or other dreaded chores
- the promise of a "Mom's Day Off" to get caught up on my scrapbooking
- movie tickets
- restaurant gift cards (our dining and entertainment budgets are TINY)
- useful kitchen gadgets (things that clutter up my cabinets, not so much, but if I'll use it - great!)
- my favorite scrapbook or scrapbooking supplies
- practical things that I'll use often
- organizational tools

I'm all about functionality and usefulness.  I'm not a true minimalist, but it pains me to go through a decluttering kick and donate past gifts that I know people spent their hard, earned money on.

Plus, being that "receiving gifts" is at the bottom of my love language list, the things that mean the most to me usually come home in the backpacks from school.  The other day, Ryan had to draw a picture of something he does each season and for Spring, he drew a picture of himself picking me a flower.  I mean really...it melted my heart.

What are some of your favorite gifts?

The Halls are Decked

...the stockings were hung by the chimney gas fireplace with care...

Recently, I mentioned a decorating tip I heard: pick a color theme for your Christmas decor, pick a texture and pick a metallic.  After going through my Christmas boxes Thanksgiving weekend, I realized that most of my decorations fall into the dark red group with velvet as my main texture and gold as my primary metallic.  Apparently, I naturally gravitate to purchasing items that fall into those categories! 

I put aside some ornaments that had lots of blue and many others that were purple or pink and kept my tree  with the theme of red and gold.  Mike and the kids didn't quite understand when I told them to only put red and gold ornaments on the tree, but they complied and it turned out beautifully! 



Also, I normally do a mini Christmas tree, Santa and gifts above my fireplace, but  this year, I borrowed these containers from my mom and filled them with glass balls that I bought at Target in January for 90% off. I also bought the berry garland for 50 cents. (Target has the best clearance prices!!!)


I also found these huge berries and holly at Target this weekend and filled this glass jar in my kitchen. The filler didn't "fill" the jar, so I used some pinecones to utilize the space. (seeing the picture makes me realize that I need to add one more pinecone at the bottom...)

I took all of the regular pictures and decor off this shelf and stored it in my Christmas storage boxes until January.  The purple K-State Santa and the multi-colored Advent boxes don't go with my red and gold theme, but I love them both, so they made the cut. 

And I just love this picture of Ryan from his pre-school "snow day" a couple years ago.  I found some jingle bell place card holders after Christmas last year and use them to display winter-y pictures throughout the house.