In The Kitchen

Fancy grilled cheese with broccoli greens...

Fried chicken...

Self portrait with the timer...

Switchel...

Dilly beans...

Fried potatoes...

Dutch baby with strawberries...

Lime Ice Cream

Been making this a lot lately.  It doesn't last long. Lime Ice Cream: (You're going to want to double this because you're about to make lime ice cream) 1 pint cream
Juice and zest of 8 limes
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup sugar, more or less to taste

Mix it all together. You might be wondering, "Am I going to get that thing where the fat from the cream gets on the roof of my mouth?"
You betcha you will.  You're welcome.

James Turns One

A honey cake for our Honeycake...

The bees were made out of beeswax by Joe.
Recipe here (comes recommended, it was delish.)

Yum.

Dear Boys,

A recipe you should know... 

Marie's Gingersnaps:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp of:  ginger, cinnamon, cloves

cream butter and sugar.  add molasses.  add egg.  add combined dry ingredients.  chill dough for an hour.  bake at 325 (NOT 350) for 9-11 min.

They go down easy.  Probably too easy.

And because I couldn't post on the blog without at least a few pics of James...

He had his two week check up and has grown an inch and gained a pound!  Big guy...

Ketchup Weekend

We tackled ketchup this weekend.  We used some tomatoes from our garden...

and some from the farmer's market....

This is the recipe I came up with from a combination of lots of recipes I found online, it turned out pretty tasty,  but next time I'll cut the vinegar in half.
14 big tomatoes
3-4 quarts of grape tomatoes
1 1/2 onions
1 can tomato paste
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups of apple cider vinegar


I cut the big tomatoes in half and put all of the tomatoes in together in the pot and cooked them until they were soft enough to go through the food mill.  I cooked the onions in olive oil and then returned the tomatoes to the pot after they had been through the mill.  Then I added the tomato paste and the brown sugar and the vinegar.
It was WAY too vinegary so then I added another half cup of sugar, then it was way too sweet so I ended up adding two cans of crushed tomatoes.  Then I let it simmer, keeping an eye on it so the bottom wouldn't burn.  It probably reduced for six hours.  At the very end I added a hearty splash of Worcestershire sauce.  While it was reducing, there was plenty of time for this...

And making this...

At the very least, I'd say we ended up with 3 and a half pints of strong tasting, very pretty ketchup.  I do think we'll actually use it, but the recipe will need some tweaking for next time.

Dear Joe,

The party was a success and it didn't rain (even though it was supposed to)  That means it hasn't rained on your birthday for five years.  Most of the friends you invited came and it was a large crowd.  Jenni was here (she blew up all the balloons for the balloon table and also shucked all the corn, XOX Jenni!)  We served hotdogs from the grill, corn on the cob, coleslaw (used Ina Garten's recipe), fruit kebabs and hummus and veggies.  A friend brought some fresh peach salsa.  It was a very cheery spread...

These are the gifts you received from us...

Matthew managed to keep his present a secret for two months...

You put it right on your new desk (we found this on craigslist the day before your birthday!)

We also gave you these books but I can't get blogger to upload the pictures correctly...

Stupid blogger.

Mattie and I made you this cake but with a thin buttercream frosting and flowers (inspired by The Family Dinner) instead of what the recipe called for...

Of course, your real gift was the party with the obstacle course...

Happy Birthday to you!  XOX.

Recipes The Boys Should Know...

Dear Boys,
I'll be passing on some recipes to you here every once in a while.  And I will try to figure out "Labels" so you can find them easily.


You must learn how to make this cake... (From Bon Appetite)


LEMON CUSTARD CAKE
Preheat oven to 350.

Combine in a mixer:
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup lemon juice (supposed to be meyer lemons, but whatever)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, very soft
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp lemon extract 

In a separate bowl, whip 3 egg whites until soft peaks form
then slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar to the egg whites and whip until stiff (but not dry) peaks form.

Fold the first mixture into the egg whites gently in three parts. 
Batter will be very runny.

Butter a small lasagna pan and pour in batter.

Put the pan with the cake, inside a bigger lasagna pan with hot water.  The water should come half-way up the height of the batter on the side of the dish.  
It says bake for 45 minutes, but we did more like 55 min.  The top should be golden brown and the center will jiggle, but if you touch the top, it should gently spring back.

It doesn't look like much...  (which is why I threw the pot-holder in the picture)...

But it is so good.  SO GOOD.  There's the light and fluffy layer on the top and then there's the lemon custard layer underneath.  So good.  S. G.  So good in fact, that once, when Joe pulled it off the counter and it landed face down, we just ate it off the floor.

Cozy Week

Dear Boys,

This week:  You played outside for an hour after it snowed, only coming in once to ask for hot chocolate in a thermos so you could drink it in your snow fort (which had built in cup-holders.)

We had apple pancakes with Pat's no-sugar recipe...

I apple, peeled, cored and diced

2 eggs
2 T. veg. oil
1 T. molasses (unsulphured)
1 c. milk
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 t. salt

We learned that if you leave the milk outside, the bottle breaks and you have a huge milk popcicle...

I pulled you in the sled that Charlie made...

And I took this picture of Danny's footprint versus my footprint in the hopes that I will be able to remember how little you all were.  Speaking of growing up, we got out the 2T clothes for Danny babe.  YIKES!  Time to have another baby, quick!  Just kidding.