Or maybe clean bowl club? Either way the baby is now officially moving into solids.  She is also now moving forward when she crawls. Not backward, not side to side, not scooting around but crawling. Full on crawling. Hold me now.

{And yes I just posted an update that is essentially what I ate for breakfast baby style. Why? Because I could.}

Mike wanted to try something new and enter the Tamale Pie.

It is really a Tex-Mex take on a Shepherd’s Pie versus a true tamale if you ask me. But it was pretty darn good not too spicy and not too complicated to throw together. My oldest couldn’t get enough of it. And that is saying something because he can be hard to please. I have no idea where he gets that from! {OK, I kid I know where. It’s from me} Anyway, the Tamale Pie is also a classic recipe as it predates the 21st century and is squarely from the time period of America’s love of all things casserole. Back when every Mom wore an apron while dressed to the nines while keeping her home and every Dad had a rocks glass of hard liquor at the end of the day after working in his executive position, just like June and Ward Cleaver. You know it was before we realized that real life looked nothing like Leave it to Beaver. But still the hearty casserole and the Tamale Pie lives on. Thank Goodness!

What You Need:

3/4 lb Ground Beef
1 Cup Diced Onion
1 Cup Diced Green Pepper
16 oz. Tomato Sauce
12 oz. Corn (about 1 1/2 cup)
1 Minced Clove of Garlic
1/2 Chopped Black Olives (pitted)
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Chili Powder
Dash of Ground Pepper
1 1/2 Cup of Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
3/4 Cup of Cornmeal
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Cups of Water
1 Tablespoon of Butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Makes approximately 6 servings.

How To Put It Together:

Cook onion and green pepper in a little hot fat (here a pat of butter or tablespoonof olive oil would work as your fat) until the onion & green pepper are just tender. Add meat: broan lightly, drain the excess fat.

Add next 7 ingredients. Simmer 20 to 25 minutes, until thick. 

Add cheese; stir until your cheese has melted in the mixture. 

Pour the entire mixture into a greased 10 x x 1 1/2-inch baking dish.

Now…make your corn meal topper: Stir corn meal and salt into 2 cups of cold water. Cook and stir until it becomes nice & thick. Add butter; mix well. Spoon over the meat mixture {which is waiting in its baking dish}. Spread the cornmeal topper all over.

Bake casserole in moderate oven (375 deg) for about 40 minutes. I would suggest putting a baking sheet under it. As ours did leak over the side a little and a baking sheet keeps any possible slip from hitting your oven.

Take it out and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe: Better Homes and Garden’s New Cookbook (a Classic for truly American takes on food).

Serve with a nice good hearty salad and you have yourself a nice festive change up for dinner.

My oldest {yet again} convinced me to make him muffins. Not any old muffins but Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins.

What can I say I am a sucker for his methods of persuasion which include not only begging but also having D-man beg as well.  Together they are a deadly combo of cuteness. A team that cannot be beat. Plus, who doesn’t like a good muffin in the morning with their morning coffee. I know I do. Sometimes I just eat the top & save the rest for later.

What You Need:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

½ Tea­spoon Salt

1 Table­spoon Bak­ing Powder

1/2 to 3/4 Cup Peanut Butter

3/4 Cup  Mini-Choco­late Chips

½ Cup Milk

½ Cup (or 1 Stick) Unsalted Butter

1 Tea­spoon Vanilla

2 Large Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

Makes 12 Muffins

If you use lin­ers you’ll want to but­ter the exposed area of your muf­fin pan. If you do not use muf­fin lin­ers then make sure to but­ter the whole pan & lightly dust with flour, tap­ping out excess.

Bake for 22–28 min­utes (until golden brown) at 375 degrees

How To Put It Together:

In a medium bowl, sift together all your dry ingre­di­ents.  This includes the flour, bak­ing pow­der and salt.  Sift­ing these together will give an light & airy tex­ture to the muffins.  Nothing is worse than dense or rock hard muffins.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a hand-held mixer cream together your stick of butter and 1 cup sugar.  You will use a medium to high speed, it should take about  about 3 minutes or so.  Then add your eggs (one at a time) & mix together.  Now mix in your vanilla, milk and peanut butter.  Once the “wet” ingre­di­ents are creamed together in the larger mixing bowl slowly add in the dry into the larger bowl.  Incorporate everything into one batter, again do not over-mix. Over-mixing makes for dense rocks!  Then gently fold in your mini-chocolate chips.  Scoop into your muffin tin {see above for liner versus straight into the tin instructions}. Do not overfill or under-fill you want them at least 3/4 the way full {I usually go to almost full but not over flowing outside the cups}.

Sprinkle with a little sugar and pop in the oven. Bake for 22–28 min­utes (until golden brown) at 375 degrees.

Then wait for them to cool & enjoy one with a nice cup of tea, coffee or hot cocoa!

At our house almost everyone likes eggnog. It is rich, creamy and a once a year holiday treat. It feels like I should be drinking it by a roaring fire, instrumental Christmas music playing in the background, sitting in a snowflake themed sweater with a good book set down beside me only because the conversation got so good I couldn’t focus on reading and all my children are sitting around me (nary an argument in sight) while stringing popcorn for the tree. All the while we laugh in between sipping our eggnog  and eating a cookie.  Reality might not look this storybook. In fact, reality looks nothing like this. I mean I don’t even own a snowflake sweater. But I do have eggnog.

Have eggnog. Make cookies.

It’s a rule.

That I just made up.

BAM!

Anyway, these cookies are very simple with a subtle sweet eggnog taste. Perfect for the person who likes eggnog but doesn’t envision picturesque moments with mugs of eggnog in hand but does appreciate the subtle hints of eggnog. These cookies do have a stronger nutmeg taste. I prefer this as I enjoy nutmeg. A lot. A whole lot. If you don’t you can always play down the spices.

What You Need:

2 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

2 Teaspoons Nutmeg

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3/4 Cup of Unsalted Butter (soft to room temp)

1 Cup of Granulated White Sugar

2 Egg Yolks

1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 3/4 Cups of Eggnog

Makes about 4 dozen Cookies

Powdered Sugar & Nutmeg for dusting tops

Or you can use colored sugar or sprinkles or an icing glaze

How To Put It Together:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line cookie pans with parchment paper or silpat.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside this bowl. You will use it in just a few minutes.

Cream together the butter (soft at room temp) & sugar in your mixing bowl. You want these to become a light creamy blend. Then add in your vanilla & two egg yolks (save your whites, make an omelet with them!).  Add each ingredient one and a time, mix on a low to medium speed.  Once these are all blended slowly add in your dry ingredients. Again slowly add in or you may have a floor, counter & face full of your dry ingredients when you turn your mixer back on. As I may or may not have done (OK, fine I admit may).

Now you can work with the dough immediately.  But it is easier to chill it because the dough is sticky to work with. Chilling makes it easier to work with overall.  Chill it for about an hour.

Then pull it out, scoop into a small ball shape (I use a spoon, drop them, & then shape on the pan but you could use a small cookie scoop), place on a parchment lined (or silpat lined) cookie pan & cook for about 20–24 minutes on the middle oven rack at 300 degrees. Low & slow.  You don’t want the bottoms to burn before your tops are even cooked.

Once they are done, place them on a cooling rack & dust with powdered sugar & nutmeg.

Serve with eggnog. Or coffee. Or, oh, how about some ultra yummy hot cocoa?

Now that sounds delicious together…

When talking with Mr. G about what kind of birthday party he would like and particularly what kind of cake he said. “Not cake, cupcakes!” Ok, What kind of cupcakes then?  “Oh…Perry the Platypus ones!”

Which meant I had to figure out how to make them. After scouring the internet I found a simple idea on the Disney Family.com site for the Perry the Platypus Cupcakes.  I also found several other good ideas for Phineas & Ferb related items. Because God how we love that show. I mean THE KIDS. The kids love that show (and us, adults, we love it too…shhh don’t tell anyone).

So after an already busy morning rushing around for work, right before the party, I came home frosted cupcakes (old school style) with delicious homemade buttercream frosting & then began to construct the cupcakes. Why? Because I am crazy woman that’s why.

I used:

Blue Raspberry Airheads, 1/2 of one for his body

Vanilla wafers, 1/2 of one for his tail

Candy eyes, attached with frosting

Marzipan, for his mouth (food coloring added for color)

Overall I think it was a good first try. I haven’t really ever tried to work with candy to make characters. In fact, I haven’t really worked with much of anything to make characters out of food. Candy or otherwise.

I will say this I found the airheads bent over when the cupcakes were sitting out before serving and that made some of the cupcakes look wonky. I also did not quite get the coloring on the tail or the mouth to be what I wanted. I do think circus peanuts candy would have been better to achieve the right color but we couldn’t find any in time. The same goes for the eyes, mini chocolate chips I think would have stood out more for the eyes like Perry’s eyes do.  But Mr. G loves these eyes & since it was HIS birthday he got the eyes he loved.  And given our time crunch, which is never ending it seems, we decided (I decided) to go with what was easiest in all categories.

But I don’t think Mr. G minded one bit any of the flaws.  Instead he loved them!  He was so happy watching them be made & even happier to eat them. The only thing he said would have made them even cooler would have been a little hat so Perry could become Agent P.

I bought this Trappist Blackberry Jam from one of the local markets here.  I am in heaven over it right now. I originally bought some for Michaelmas to eat and tell the story of the Devil & the Blackberry bush. And after falling in love with the jam, I had to have a little more. It is perfect with my coffee served up on a toasty piece of Mike’s homemade bread.  It would also make a lovely gift for anytime of the year and perfect for Christmas. Also, can you believe it? The end of  the year will be here before we know it!

I am a fan of tomato soup.  Creamy, basil filled tomato soup.

And with it being back to school time and the business of fall upon us the crock pot has been put back into heavy rotation.  It gets use year round but I have come to notice it gets used a lot come fall and winter. Probably because I toss it on before running the kids to different activities, appointments and events without worrying about it or setting my kitchen a flame with an unattended stove.  I can also have it ready before I leave in the evening for work and we can eat together. I am a firm believer in eating together as a family as often as possible.  The ties that bind us together around the table are so valuable, it is the breaking of bread and sharing our day.  Anything that can help make it easier to do this while providing a good meal while we enjoy that time together I am for, hence, I have fallen for my crock pot time & time again. This time we went with crock pot tomato soup and enjoy our fill with the ability to save leftovers for later in the week. Yum!

What You Need:

2 28 oz Cans of Tomatoes (1 can diced in olive oil & herbs, 1 can crushed)

1 Tablespoon of Dried Basil

1 Teaspoon of Italian Herbs

1 Bay Leaf (remove this before serving)

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

1 Teaspoon Sugar

1 Chicken Bullion Cube

1 Small Yellow Onion Diced

2 Cloves of Garlic Diced

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 Cup of 2% (or whole) Milk

1/3 Cup of Sour Cream

How To Put It Together:

Add olive oil to pan to saute the diced the onion and garlic (garlic should be crushed & diced), cook on low-medium heat until translucent.  Once this is done add all ingredients, except milk & sour cream, into a crock pot.

Cook on high for 3–4 hours or low for 6. You could also simmer this on the stove if you wanted to.

Before serving add milk & sour cream.  Stir well.

Top with croutons.  Another good topping is Parmesan cheese with the croutons or baked cheese circles (shred cheese, bake for a few minutes until melted, then let set until hard).

I like to serve with a variety of sandwiches or a thick, hearty bread.  Bread is either plain or with a melted cheese on top.  Cheeses can vary from various Italian cheeses to a nice sharp cheddar depending on mood & what is in the house.

Other tips: If you decide to use fresh basil you will want to double with amount & taste to see if you find it to be enough.  I like the chunks the one can of diced tomatoes gives.  If you don’t simply puree or use to cans of crushed tomatoes.

I have been dreaming of all things lemon since the beginning of time. During my last pregnancy I was lemon obsessed, which isn’t unusual for me given the fact I have been dreaming about lemons since before Adam was simply mere dirt waiting to be formed. But it got to the point where Mike was all like “REALLY, you need MORE lemon?! You are going to turn into a lemon!” And my response was “Whatever, your just jeelus because you think I love lemons more than you.” And he was all “Why don’t you just marry a lemon then.” And I was all “Maybe I will! BAM!! I win.” Because we are all totally mature like that. In fact, this is how all our conversations go or at least how I choose to remember them.

Anyway as part of my quest for all things lemon I had to make a lemon olive oil cake.  Because both lemons and olive oil are gifts from God and while it sounds like an odd combination for a cake the olive oil takes place of butter creating a velvety texture to the cake and lemon provides a bright, light punch.  I also prefer extra virgin olive oil because it provides a delectable fruitiness (is that a word? well it is now!) to the cake. Although one could use regular olive oil if need be.

Again you may think it sounds crazy but really this cake is amazing. Absolutely Amazing.

It is also the prefect addition to a feast day. We had this lemon olive oil cake last night in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.  It is right dessert to have at the table when you want a bright and fresh end to an Italian dinner or who am I kidding when you want it for any reason!

What You Need:

Cake:

2 Tablespoons of Fresh Lemon Juice

Zest of 1 Medium-Large Lemon (1–2 Teaspoons)

1 Cup of All Purpose Flour

5 Egg yolks

4 Egg Whites

3/4 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3/4 Cup of Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

Lemon Icing Glaze:

3–4 Tablespoons of fresh Lemon Juice

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Olive Oil or Butter to coat pan & light dusting of Flour (makes it not stick)

Cook 350 degrees, in middle of oven, for 40–45 minutes

How To Put It Together:

In a small bowl add the olive oil & 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, mix it together and set aside. You will add it into the cake batter in just a minute.

In a mixing bowl beat the yolks together with 1/2 cup of sugar at high speed.  Beat it for 2–3 minutes until the mix becomes thick and pale.  Reduce the speed to a medium and add the olive oil & lemon juice mix.

On a slow speed add in the flour & lemon zest.  Incorporate only do not over mix. (original recipe calls for folding in with a wooden spoon, I did fine with the mixer but had to do it on a very slow speed & just to incorporate).

Now in a small bowl beat your egg whites (4) with the 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Beat these together until you have a foamy mixture, use a medium to high speed for this.  As you are beating them slowly add in the rest of the sugar (1/4 cup) so you can create soft peaks in the egg white-sugar combination.  If you mess this up don’t worry, you will still have a banging cake but it might be a slightly denser texture.

After this fold in the soft peaky-egg whites mixture to the previous egg yolk-flour batter.  For this don’t use the mixer, I found it was much easier to use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold these in and will keep the cake from getting tool dense.

Pour the completed batter into the lightly oiled/buttered & floured cake pan above.  You can use a bread loaf pan, regular 9 inch round cake pan or a springform pan.  After you have the batter in the pan, tap the bottom of the pan on a counter/table top to remove air bubbled. Then pop in the oven.

Bake on a rack in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for 40–45 minutes.  Use the old toothpick in the center of the cake to see if it is cooked through. If you stick the toothpick in the center of the cake it should come out clean when the cake is fully cooked.

Once done cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from pan, place on serving plate & top with the lemon icing glaze.  You can make the lemon icing glaze while your cake cools by mixing powdered sugar & lemon juice in a small bowl.

Serve to hungry crowd.

A few caveats: You could also put a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan before adding in your cake batter. If you do this make sure the parchment paper is well oiled/buttered & that you remove the parchment paper before adding the glaze.  I haven’t ever bothered with this, it hasn’t caused any problems so far at least in my perspective.  Also, I used all purpose flour because that is what I had on hand, the original recipe calls for cake flour (not self-rising) it worked fine.

You could also go with a non-lemon glaze, a good dose of powdered sugar or homemade whipped cream on top with fresh fruit.

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine April 2006

Today it was leftover angel hair pasta lightly tossed in a my homemade marinara sauce and parmesan cheese from our Michaelmas feast last night.

I wondered, as I was making this or remaking this depending on how one looks at this situation, why people feel drawn to comfort foods (pasta is one of mine)?

Maybe it is…

Because some nights you have been up and unable to sleep, even when everyone one is asleep, even though you desperately want to sleep. Because some mornings start off with chaos and random bouts of tears.  Because it has already been a very long day no matter how early the clock says it is.  Because you realize you haven’t even sat down. Because when you reach for it warms you.  Because it reminds you of curling up as a kid hearing stories of the day.  Because it reminds you of the laughter the night before. Because it reminds you of family long gone.  Because it makes you feel connected.

I love Autumn apples.  Then again I love Autumn period.  As you may have noticed I tend to wax and wane in poetic excess at the change of any season particularly when Fall rolls around. And as it turns out I love apples. I could wax and wane in poetic excess about apples too.  But I will spare you, for now. Sort of.

Part of our traditions around welcoming this time of year have come to include apple picking.  I love freshly picked apples and the kids feel so proud of their harvest.  Last week Mr. J went with his Scout pack (& I hope we all make it as a family once this season too!) and he did not fail us on bringing home a great bounty of apples.  As a result of this bounty of apples we had to get to apple recipe makin’ time.  The kids got to washing and helping Momma core, peel and cut time.  We set up an assembly line it was so much fun.  I loved being able to sit with the kids while we were peeling and have Mr. J tell us all about his apple adventures.  We also talked about Pinocchio, which is in our book rotation, and the lessons we are learning from his journey.

While we were getting our apples ready we decided on a few recipes to use our bounty on.  We were ready to rediscover the joys of fresh apple spice bread!  Along with homemade applesauce.  Making applesauce is so simple that I don’t know why it took me years of buying it before I tried to make it.  It has now become a staple of the Autumn season here at our house.

It is easy to double, triple, or quadruple the recipe below.  For example I had twice this made because  I made a bigger batch to cook with, eat plain and add into oatmeal.

What You Need:

*6 Small Apples

1/2  Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Nutmeg (optional)

3/4 Cup of Water

**1/4 Cup of Sugar (you can use either granulated sugar or light brown)

Makes about 3–4 Cups of Applesauce

How To Put It All Together:

Peel, core and 1/4 your apples.  Toss them in a pot with all of the ingredients.  Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 20 minutes or until apples are soft. If need be cook a little longer.

Once your apples are soft enough to mash & mash them.  Mash ‘em real good.  I use a potato masher.  You could use a food processor or blender too.  But a masher is easy and you get a little arm exercise in.

Then eat up!

And a few caveats may also apply to the above recipe.

*Kinds of apples may vary, good choices include (but are not limited too): Red Delicious, McIntosh, Ida Red, Gala, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy. I like to toss a mix when making a large batch up.  **If you are using sweeter apples you can leave out the sugar entirely if you want.

Good spices to add in addition to really have a taste of Fall are cloves and ginger (1/8 teaspoon each).  It really has a warm Autumnal vibe to it when you do this.  And a tablespoon of lemon juice adds another depth of flavor if you have it on hand.