What's on the Menu? Salsa Verde

This is my first year to grow tomatillos and already I'm a fan!  Both plants are HUGE and covered with little yellow flowers.

And since I've never grown tomatillos, I was surprised to find the fruit growing in little casings that remind me of paper lanterns!  So cool!

I never in a million years thought that these things would produce at the level they do.  I have tomatillos coming out of my ears!  Now I have to admit, I don't know much about using tomatillos.  I have one sauce that I make for fish tacos that calls for a few tomatillos, but that's it.  So here I was, faced with a HUGE bowl of them wondering what the hell to do.  Then it hit me, Salsa Verde!  Duh.

First I had to remove the husks.

Then I washed them and put them on a cookie sheet (about a pound or so of them) with some olive oil, 1 onion, about 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, and a couple of de-seeded jalapeños (I wanted it mild enough for the kids) and popped them in the oven on about 400* to roast for 15 minutes, stirring them on occasion to make sure they didn't burn.

Afterwards, I dumped them into the food processor, oil, juices and all, added a couple of teaspoons of cumin and about a teaspoon or so of salt, a good handful of washed cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime.

After a good whir, I ended up with a wonderful, flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping chips!  I also took about half of it to add to my sour cream chicken enchilada recipe, YUM!

So hooray for tomatillos!  You can bet I'm going to be enjoying A LOT of salsa verde this summer!  :)

Plum Tasty!

A friend of mine sent me home with a TON of tiny, little plums on Sunday.  By Tuesday I was well aware that these tiny, little plums were going to start rotting.  Fast.  So I frantically got online to see what some options were.  I found a plum upside cake, which looked MARVELOUS, but I didn't have buttermilk in the house.  I eventually came across a recipe for plum sorbet at Simply Recipes and I immediately heard a little chorus of "Hallelujah" in my head!

First I started peeling and pitting these.

Yes.  I actually hand-peeled and hand-pitted these little plums because the recipe called for a fine mesh sieve to filter out the large pieces of skin and I didn't have one.  Anyway, after peeling and pitting I ran the plums, sugar, lemon juice and pinch of salt through the food processor until the mixture was smooth.  (Sorry about the sucky pic.)

I poured it all into my handy dandy ice cream maker and spun it for about 25 minutes.  At first it was more like a really thick smoothie, but after about 3 hours in the freezer it looked like this...

Sheer perfection!  And can I just say, YUM!  It was just sweet enough with a hint of tartness and the perfect dessert for a warm summer night!  So when life hands you plums, make sorbet!

Adventures in Gardening-Spring 2012

Hi All!!!  I know!  You totally thought I bailed, right?  Well, I didn't.  As usual, my life has been crazy-busy with these kids.  Between homeschooling, field trips, extra-curricular classes, travel, a husband who has been working 60+ hours a week and trying to get a new business off the ground, blogging has had to be on the back-burner.  There have been so many times that I just wanted to sit down and write, but dishes called or dance class was looming and I knew I wouldn't be able to commit a reasonable amount of time to write something intelligible.  So I just left it.  I am hoping to start budgeting my time a little better so I can check in a little more frequently.  I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best.

So amongst all this craziness, I actually did manage to plant a garden this spring!  I didn't plant one in the fall and it killed me.  Every time I looked out into the backyard, empty beds stared back at me and it pissed me off!  I just didn't have time.  I was lucky enough to get several heads of volunteer lettuce sprout up, so that made me a little happier!

I was really hoping to tear out the beds in late winter, rearrange some things and have this wonderful new garden set up by March, but yeah right!  Between basketball practices and games, science fair prep and everything else, I didn't even manage to weed the damn beds!  Hello!

So when the time came I had just a smidge of work to do!  I finally cleaned everything out and was ready to plant.  

I was lucky enough to have the BEST helper in the whole world!  The Monkey Man could care less about gardening these days.  If Mario and Luigi aren't involved it's futile!  :(  But the Piglet (aka Tie-dye Fairy Princess) is still interested and above all, she just likes hanging out with Mama.  She also had some help (such a good little mama already)!

Roddy didn't help at all, but he's just damn cute so he deserved a shout out!

This year we planted 2 types of okra (Clemson and emerald green), Japanese eggplant, 5 varieties of tomato, tomatillos (our first year with these), black-eyed peas, Chinese yard longs and squash.  Might I just say that zucchini and pumpkins were a total experiment.  For the last 3 years I have NEVER been able to grow a Curcubit of any kind, no squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon or cantaloupe.  Stinkin' squash borers have taken them all out within a month of planting.  I just happened to read an article about this problem in the "Carrots Love Tomatoes" book and they suggested planting 1 squash seed with 3 icicle radish seeds and planting nasturtiums between the rows.  I figured what the hell, a $5 experiment and if they tanked, I'd just plant with a late crop of black-eyed peas.

Within about a month, we had progress!  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

First bed has the pumpkins, squash and yard longs and the back bed has eggplant and okra.

The kids and I went out of town for a 2 week trip to NM (blog post to follow soon, I promise) and I had to leave the garden in the hands of an over-worked spouse.  I was fully expecting the garden to be a bit, taxed, shall we say, when I came back.  But thankfully, central Texas is actually experiencing quite a lovely spring and the temps have been mild and we have actually had RAIN!  Yes, I said it.  R-A-I-N, rain!  Much to my great joy and complete surprise this is what I came home to...

Bed 1:  Clemson okra and Japanese eggplant

Bed 2:  Zucchini, pumpkins, yard longs.

Baby pumpkin!

And I just have to note, the pumpkins?  Well, those crazy things are from the seeds that I harvested from the teeny, tiny pumpkin my daughter fell in love with last fall and cried when it started to mold.  I promised her I would harvest the seeds and try to grow a pumpkin vine with those seeds.  Those pumpkins have grown with a vengeance.  I am sure these pumpkins are likely to take over my entire yard by the fall!

Bed 3:  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

Oh the salsa and green sauces I have in my future!

My first tomatillos!

And last but not least, Bed 4:  Emerald green okra and black-eyed peas!

I am feeling quite optimistic about my summer garden and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for mild weather and lots of rain!  It is so good to be gardening again and even better to be sharing my experiences with you!  Thanks for sticking around and I'll do my best to keep plugging along and trying to get some decent posts up!  Until next time, enjoy life!  It's awesome!

Homemade Ice Cream--Take 1

Big Daddy is AWESOME!  I have been begging and pestering and whining for an ice cream maker for months.  So guess what I got for Christmas!  Well, technically I got it a week before Christmas, but you know, he's a punctual guy!  I keep up with this other blog, "Gina's Skinny Recipes" and she got a new ice cream maker awhile back and the sorbets and ice creams and frozen yogurts she has been posting have been making me crazy!  I researched the model she's using and it looked like a nice machine so.... BAM!

The Cuisinart Pure Indulgence Frozen Yogurt/Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker!  How's that for a mouthful!?!

Well, needless to say, we had treats galore over the Christmas holiday (pies, gingerbread, chocolate cookies, sugar cookies, rice krispie treats, etc...) so I opted to hold off on the ice cream making until after we had eaten all of that other fattening stuff!  But last night I couldn't stand it anymore, so I fired it up!  I remembered to put the bowl in the freezer the day before, so it was ready to go.  For our first shot, I decided to go for a simple, no-frills vanilla.  I figured that was the best way to gauge the texture and flavor.  We mixed the ingredients, poured them in and 35 minutes later, we were rewarded with this....

Smooth, luscious, creamy, vanilla ice cream!  The Monkey Man and I had ours with pumpkin pie, Big Daddy had his with pecan pie and the Piglet, well, she prefers her vanilla with Midnight Moo chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles!  I am very pleased with our initial attempt and now I am brainstorming for new flavors.  I think coffee or green tea gelato sounds awesome!  Or Irish Cream!  I did notice HEB had blackberries on sale last week, that would make a killer sorbet!  Ahhhhh, so many desserts, so little time!

Did I make the cutest little clothespin dollies?

Why yes.  Yes, I did!!!  I was wanting to make something sweet for the Piggy for Christmas.  I had originally intended to make the little wooden peg gnomes, because she LOVES "Gnomeo and Juliet", but as fate would have it, I couldn't find the little peg dolls anywhere in town!  I have seriously been in every Jo-Ann Fabric, Hobby Lobby and Michael's in a 20-freakin'-mile radius of my house!  (Apparently I should have ordered them online!)  But I did find the little clothespins, so I started brainstorming a bit and here is what I came up with...

First of all, supplies.  I used wooden clothespins, soy-based paint (that was a neat find!), self-adhesive craft foam, poms-poms, cross-stitch thread, ruffled ribbon, and a hot glue gun.

 I attempted mermaids first, so I turned the clothespins to where the slit was at the sides and painted the lower portion for the tail.  (Sorry for the crappy pic, lighting wasn't the best.)

Then I added a little bikini top, the face and embellished the tail.

 

And yes, I even added little belly-buttons!  Next step was to add hair and construct tail fins.  I had my mom-in-law cut the fins out of sparkly, self-adhesive craft foam.  You need two for each tail, so you can stick them together.  Once they are stuck together and your dolls are dry enough, slide that foam into the slits at the bottom of the clothespin.  We cut the hair out of cross-stitch thread and used a dot of hot glue and pressed the hair into it.  Then embellished as desired.  This is final product!

They're SWEET!  Right?  I felt so inspired and confident after I finished these little cuties that I decided to whip out some ballerinas too!  Pretty much the same deal, except the slits faced forward.  I painted little toe shoes and used ruffles and pom-poms for the tutus.  I also painted the hair and added some pom-poms for buns and/or little hats! 

OK, the one with the orange poms makes me giggle!  I LOVE them!  I do think for the next batch, I will paint the bodice in a way that leaves an unpainted area for little arms.  But hey, for a first try, these turned out pretty damn good!  I can't wait to see my little Piggy's face on Christmas morning!  I am also looking forward to making the next batch with her.  She would have SO much fun with this.  And once we figure out the gnomes, I'll be sure to post about them as well!  

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful holiday season!   Keep warm and safe and love one another!!

Cranberry Lovin' from the Oven

It's the time of year when I start hoarding cranberries.  Ocean Spray, Dole, whatever, I buy at least one bag every time I go into HEB or Costco.  I have to get enough to last me the whole year!  Now I'm not that into cranberry sauce or cranberry Jell-O or anything like that.  I just happen to have an unnatural love of cranberry bread!  Cranberry coffee cake rules too, but that's another post!  Anyway, we just baked a fresh loaf today and I thought I'd share.  The recipe I use is from the Ocean Spray site.  There are a couple of things I omit from this recipe, because nuts and orange peel do NOT float my boat, but you can choose for yourself!

Cranberry Bread

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c. orange juice
1 tbsp. orange peel (I leave this out, not a fan of the zest!)
2 tbsp shortening
1 egg, well beaten
1-1/2 c. cranberries (fresh or frozen), chopped
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Oven on 350*F.  Have a greased loaf pan ready.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, & baking soda.  Add OJ, peel (if you're using it), shortening and egg.  Mix until you're sure the shortening has been well distributed.  Stir in the cranberries and nuts.  Pour into the greased loaf pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes.  Check it at 55, do the toothpick tests.  Cool on a wire rack.

This is what ya get...

Now if that ain't some serious love in a loaf, I don't what is!!  ENJOY!

What's on the Menu: Cauliflower Soup

Soup seems to be the menu item of choice these days!  What can I say, we got rain today and the cooler temps just made me crave soup!  And hey, lucky me, I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge!  Anyway, talk about a quick easy dinner, this soup can be made in about a 1/2 hour tops!  It's full of flavor, so much so even my kids like it!!

I found the recipe on the "Taste of Home" website.  I pretty much follow the recipe except I add turkey bacon!!!  It kind of defeats my dreams of going veggie 2 nights a week, but it's SO good with the bacon!

What you need:
1 med. head of cauliflower, broken into florets
1 good-sized carrot, shredded
1 stalk of celery, chopped
2-1/2 c. water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
3/4 tsp. salt (I use a little less since the bouillon is so salty)
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese

In a large pot, combine cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon cubes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 min. or until cauliflower is tender.

In another pan, fry the turkey bacon!  I chop mine up into small pieces.

Set aside the bacon until the end.

In the bacon pan, melt 3 tbsp. of butter.  Then stir in the flour, salt and pepper.  Whisk until smooth.  Add the milk a little bit at a time.  Boil over medium heat, cooking and stirring until it thickens slightly.  We're not shooting for gravy here!  ;)  Turn off heat, add the cheese and melt.  Stir in the bacon bits and SERVE!  I like mine with a nice dash of Tabasco!

Enjoy!

Attack of the Dreaded Mom-Mom Birds

You ever see the movie "Finding Nemo"?  Do you remember the scenes with the seagulls?  "Mine.  Mine.  Mine.  Mine. MINE, MINE, MINE!!!!"  I have a similar pair of birds in my house.  I call them Mom-Mom Birds.

Mom, where's my Nerf gun?
Mom, I pooped!
Mom, can you fit Lego Darth Vader into your nostril?
MOM, where are you?
Mom, are you in the bathroom?
Mom, the dog's licking my shoes!
Mom, what's your favorite type of meatball?
Mom, the Mega Nerf 3000 with pump-action, air-pressure bullets is the one I want, but not the one with the blond kid on front.
Mom, do you remember 3 years ago when we went to that one place that had the pumpkins and you wouldn't buy me ice cream?
Mom, why do you have to go color your hair?
Mom, can I go to work with you?
Mom, I sneezed 19 times in a row!
Mom, can you sneeze 19 times in a row.
Mom, can I have some milk.
MOM, I spilled my milk!
Mom, would you ever kiss Daddy on the mouth like that?
Mom, can we go see the Taj Mahal?
Mom, can we go outside to play?
Mom, we don't want to play outside anymore!
Mom, did you know that the Lego Millenium Falcon is like 500 bucks?
Mom, where are my sweat pants?
Mom, do I really have to clean my room?
Mom, what do you call a fish with 10 eyes?
(Mind you this is all before 9 am!)
Mom.
Mom.
Mom.
MOOOOOOMMM!!!
MOM!  MOM!  MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM!!!!
Mom do birds pee or poop or both at the same time?
Mom, why don't you have freckles?
Mom, the dog ate my horse.
Mom, come here!  You've gotta see this!
Mom, that anole had two tails!!!
Mom did you know that caterpillar poop is called frass?
Mom did you know that frass rhymes with ass?!  But you can't get mad at me because ass is another word for donkey?
Mom, what's for lunch?
Mom.
Mom.
Mom.
MOM!!!
MOOOOOOMMM!
MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM, MOM!!!!!!

Mom what's for dinner?
Mom do I have to eat it ALL?
Mom, can we have candy for dessert?
Mom do you like Lemonheads?
MOOOOOOMMM!  I don't want to brush my teeth!
Mom, why do we have to go to bed now?
Mom, can we please stay up a little longer?
FINE MOM!
Goodnight Mom!
Mom, I love you.
Mom, can I have a drink?
Mom, I forgot I need to go potty.
Mom, I'll see you in the morning.
Mom, do we really have to go to bed now?
Mom, what's for breakfast in the morning?
Mom, are you still there?
Mom, I can't find Bear Bear is he with you?
Mom, you're not gonna leave until I'm asleep, right?

Eventually, the crazy Mom-Mom Birds drift off to sleep and the Mommy bird listens to the bliss of silence.

At least until 5 am when the little Mom-Mom Bird wakes up.  Mom, can I get in bed with you?  Mommy bird lifts her wing and lets the little bird into the bed where she goes back to sleep and all is quiet and peaceful again until the Mommy bird hears the patter of feet and opens one eye to find Big Mom-Mom Bird peering over her, looking quizzical.  Whispering it says, "Mom, can I go downstairs and watch Suite Life?"  Then Little Mom-Mom bird rubs her eyes and it all begins again....

Mom, can I watch kid shows?
Mom, I want chocolate muffins for breakfast.
Mom, is Daddy already at work?
Mom, what is your favorite Harry Potter movie?
Mom, I got markers on my PJ's.

I think I may have to pass a new rule in the land of the Mom-Mom Birds.  For 30 days everyone must address me as Queen Hesperia Listerwalken Picklepantalones.  No abbreviations, no exceptions.  And if you can't call me by my full moniker, then you are not allowed to address me at all!  And I shall revel in the silence!

Oh shut up, I can dream, can't I?

What's on the Menu: Tomato Basil Soup

One of my favorite meals is grilled cheese sandwiches paired with tomato soup.  I was raised eating Campbell's Tomato Soup, and never really thought to change it up, but then I had REAL tomato soup at a restaurant not too long ago and was like, HOLY CRAP.  I have been eating canned swill for years, I NEED to find a decent tomato soup recipe in all haste.  So I started pawing through all of my recipe books and index cards and found exactly diddly squat on the tomato soup front.  Found a great recipe for Mulligatawny soup, but that's another entry.  Finally, I happened across an old "Mothering" magazine article from 2007 that had several different soup recipes and lo and behold... Tomato Basil Soup. 

What you need:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chicken or veggie stock
1  14-1/2 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 sour cream (although I almost think it should have been more)
1/4 c. fresh chopped basil
ground pepper

Heat oil and butter in a pot over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and salt.  Saute until translucent.  Add stock, tomatoes, and honey.  Simmer for 15 min.  Let cool a bit.  Put half of the soup into a blender with sour cream and blend until smooth.  Transfer to another pot.  Blend the rest of the soup and add to the first half.  Warm the blended soup.  Serve with fresh basil and ground pepper.  This recipe makes about 4 servings.  Serve with hot bread or a nice grilled cheese sandwich!

Kid Shit

Fact:  Kids accumulate shit.  LOTS AND LOTS of shit.  This shit, at one point or another, seeps out of the designated "kid shit" areas and receptacles and somehow completely and utterly takes over your entire house.  Those of you that have kids know all too well what I'm talking about.  For those that don't have kids or those that soon will, here is a little rhyme just for you!

Kid shit on the desk.

 Kid shit on the chair.

Kid shit on the sofa.

And kid shit on the stair!

 

Kid shit in the downstairs bath.

Kid shit in the hall.

 

  Kid shit in the master bath, the most sacred room of all.

Kid shit in MY CLOSET.

Kid shit on the lawn.

Kid shit in the dining room.

All day long!

There is no room for our stuff.
Ain't no way that it can fit.
I'll need a bigger house
To store all this freakin' shit!

-Little Mama

What's on the Menu? Broccoli Cheese Soup

It's the time of year that soup becomes a major staple in our home.  1)  It's economical.  2)  It's pretty quick and easy.  3)  Soup effin' RULES!  I pity the fool that doesn't dig on soup!  Today's offering is Broccoli Cheese Soup from my super, totally awesome "Treasury of Christmas" cookbook.  It is a thick, creamy, and luscious soup that is always a big hit in our house!

What you will need:
1 small onion, diced
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/4 c. flour
3 cups water
**This recipe calls for 2-10 oz. packages of frozen chopped broccoli, but about 6 cups of fresh can be substituted.

4 chicken bouillon cubes
Worcestershire sauce (pronounced Were-shur-shur-shire in our house)
About 3 c. of shredded cheddar
2 c. half and half

In a large pan, cook the onion in the butter until tender.  Add the flour and stir until it becomes smooth.  Add the water slowly, then dump in the broccoli, chicken bouillon and Worcestershire sauce.  Cook over medium heat until soup has thickened and broccoli is tender.  Usually about 10 min. or so.  Add cheese and half and half.  Do NOT boil.  Stir until cheese melts and serve.  See?  Easy-breezy!  Leftovers can be refrigerated, but I don't know about freezing.  Obviously, I eat mine with plenty of Tabasco Sauce!  Yummy!

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!

Truthfully, I was never really gone, just extremely busy!  Turns out homeschooling two kids is a crap-ton harder than homeschooling one, especially when the 2nd child has a COMPLETELY different style of learning.  I am confident that we will at some point hit a bit of a groove, but at this moment, it just ain't there.  Add in all of the extra-curricular activities like sports, dance, science classes, bowling, park days, Ukulele Society meetings, etc...  Did I mention travel?  Yeah, we still do a bit of that, in fact October was crazy.  Oh and Halloween?!?!  Yeah, Halloween is the one holiday of the year that I embrace fully, so preparation for that was insane.  I also have that little photography business and a husband that recently gained a large new client (HOORAY) but has become MIA because of it (boo).  Throw all of this madness together into 24 hour daily increments and you can see how blogging has not been on the top of my list as of late!

I know... Excuses, excuses, excuses.  So I will try to be much more diligent in my posting.  I have had several requests for some food entries as it is now fall (well, for most of the US it is now fall, for Texas it is some sort of weird alternate universe) and I have been posting a lot of pics of soup and such on my Facebook page and inquiring minds want to know how they too can have yummy Green Chile Corn Chowder simmering on their stoves.  So I shall do my best to keep up a little better.  I can't promise daily posts and hell, it maybe two weeks between posts at times, but I promise to make the effort!  I do love blogging and sharing stories and pictures and I hope you all enjoy reading along!

PSA: The Great Slime Fiasco of 2011

For those of you that don't know, my daughter is THAT kid.  

I decided after this particular incident that I should post about it, because after all, one of you might have one of these kids as well!

OK, first off, what do you get when you mix this...

with this?

ONE BIG FREAKIN' NIGHTMARE!

"Look Mommy!  I have a hat made of slime!"  Oh joy!  In case you're wondering what slime is, it is a mixture made of water, borax and GLUE.  And does it easily come out of soft, fine, little girl hair?  NO.  No it does not.  I have to say, I felt so sorry for her.  My first reaction was, of course, to be angry, then all of a sudden this rush of giggling came over me and I howled like a damn hyena with tears streaming down my face.

This was not helpful.

It was also not helpful that her big brother was laughing himself into tears as well.  So I had to chase the child around the house (with slime drooping from her head) to try and explain that it wasn't HER I was laughing at but the SITUATION.  Needless to say, she did NOT think this shit was funny in the least.

First instinct, call mother-in-law.  She used to be a hairdresser, she HAD to know how to remove slime.  She suggested putting on tons of thick conditioner to hopefully help the goop slide out.  Made perfect sense so we tried it.

I was able to start slowing scratching some of the top layer off, but the stuff underneath was so stuck in the hair it was unbelievable and the conditioner wasn't even touching that.  At this point I was almost certain that a shaver and a buzz cut were in the child's future.  I called Big Daddy to get him surfing the web to see if he could find a solution.  He is the King of Google.  Seriously, that man can find anything, anytime on Google!  I hopped back in the shower with the girl to try to work some more of this stuff out.  Shortly, the Monkey Man came upstairs with news.  So what did Big Daddy discover on the internet?

That's right, Baby!  MAYONNAISE!  Turns out vinegar can break up some the bonds of the glue, but I was too scared I'd get it in her eyes.  Mayo has vinegar and oil, double whammy!  And although it's gross, it's manageable.  So I slopped it on and started working it in.  I was able to start pulling big chunks out after a few minutes, then I started in with the fine tooth comb.  Slowly but surely, the slime started loosening up and I was able to comb the majority of it out.  Then I shampooed a couple of times and conditioned really well and this was the end result...

Slime FREE!!!!  I don't think I've ever loved a condiment so much in my entire life!  GO MAYO!  So remember, if you have one of THOSE kids and they get slime in their hair, it's all about the mayonnaise!