Lime and Peanut Coleslaw

Here’s a 101coookbook recipe for an awesome side dish:‘Lime and Peanut Coleslaw.

I make it with purple cabbage, no tomatoes, way less peanuts and i added in avocado. It is pretty, easy and absolute yummy!

I'm also having fun with tagging. I've tagged all the recipes and family photos. Check out the sidebar.

New Years Eve Owling

Inspired by a new family favourite, Owl Moon, we went out owling on New Year's Eve day. We found other beautiful things along the way.

We found some lingering snow hiding in the forest.

We had listened to some owl calls that morning. So we found our owl voices too.

To the delight of all of us, especially our owl-loving son, we did see an owl on our way home. This was by sheer luck, and the fact that a group of birds were harassing it. As Miles will tell you with hand gestures, it swooped "right" by his head. I think that we also found a fun new New Years Day tradition.

We've been saving the Halloween M&Ms for such an occcasion. We made Owl Hoot cookies to complete the adventure!

New Years Fondue! YUM!

Happy 2009!

Sourdough Hotcakes

We have a new breakfast favourite to add to the collection. Sourdough hotcakes (sourdough recipe even included) from the Washingon Local and Seasonal Cookbook by Becky Selengut, -a former chef from The Herbfarm.

Recipe from Rich: No-Knead Bread

Rich's friend at work got him to try No-Knead Bread. He's thinking that this will become his mid-week loaf. :) Rich made SIX loaves of bread today including two of these. He's dreaming about going to baking school. Phantom Lake Bakery?

Homemade Marshmallows

Another kindergarten mom made these homemade marshmallows and they were really good. I thought that making them with the candy cane twist (i.e. add peppermint oil and smashed up candy canes) would be a fun winter treat. Our first batch is all mixed and setting - ready anytime after lunch tomorrow.

Mr. Miles the Baker

Yesterday morning, Miles and i did some Halloween baking. He has a serious future in both baking and taste testing. We made bagels for Mina's class party as well as some Halloween-spiced sugar cookies. To decorate the pumpkins, we made Cynthia Lair's Yummy Yam Frosting and used some green sprinkles for the stem. If we eat up all the Halloween cookies and still have room, I was thinking of making some Skeleton Cookies for Day of the Dead.

Visitors to the Emerald City

Last night, we were happy to host traveling family friends Peter and Elizabeth Moffat, who brought with them their sweet friend, Winnie. It was a rather fun visit. Everyone got a full dose of the kids, which, in our house, means a full tour featuring the new bunk beds, 'show and tell' of an assortment of random things and many requests to read books. 'Winnie' told Mina that she was a true 'Tigger', which is rather accurate, especially last night.


To the great delight of the kids, Elizabeth played her "I know a wienie man" ukulele song. Then she and Winnie marched them, with singing and strumming, to their beds for a night of happy sleep.


I was holding on to the weather from the weekend and pulled out two favourite summer recipes,

Vegetarian Muffaletta
from International Vegetarian Union

Prior to having kids, I worked at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and a coworker shared this recipe with me.

Serves 8

1 large round Italian loaf of bread (10")
Filling: Use as many of the ingredients as you a) like and b) can fit into your sandwich!
1 eggplant, about 1 lb. cut into 1/4 inch slices & broiled
Hommus
1 sweet red pepper, roasted, peeled, cut into chunks
1 sweet yellow pepper, roasted, peeled, cut into chunks
1 bunch fresh arugula or bitter greens (cress will do)
thinly sliced onion
Thinly sliced avocado
broiled zucchini slices
chopped black olives (brined)
Thinly sliced roma tomatoes
1/3 cup pesto sauce
Cut top off of bread and scoop out some of the insides (save for croutons or bread crumbs).
Layer ingredients thinly, starting with hommus on the bottom, ending with pesto sauce on the top.
Add top of bread and wrap tightly.
Let sit 2 hours or more.
Cut into wedges & serve.

PCC Emerald City Salad
Emerald City Salad
Serves 6-8

2 cups organic wild rice
1 bunch organic kale
1 bunch organic chard
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 fennel bulb
1 bunch green onion
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper


Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper to make dressing. Cook the rice in ample water. Drain, cool, and toss rice with dressing. Remove tough stems and ribs from greens and chiffonade.

Combine with diced peppers, thinly sliced fennel bulb and chopped green onion. Just before serving, toss veggies with dressed rice.

PCC Natural Markets, 2005

The summer food was rather good, but the company was even better!

Recipe Pairing - Selected by Rich

We are getting WAY too many potatoes in our CSA box lately. As a result, tonight's dinner planning started from brainstorming about making a potato soup. We also had some golf-ball sized beets to enjoy. The beets are the first of the season and extra yummy. So Rich picked out these two recipes - and here you go, just in case you ever have too many potatoes and/or beets.

Creamy Potato Soup with Scallions

Mixed Green with Beets and Garlic Croutons

FYI - i think that this beet salad was taken to a new level by the addition of some sprinkled Oregonzola.

Easter Bunny Bread

As you can see, i found this recipe in Good Housekeeping in 1992. I'm happily still making this bread, and now sharing the fun of it with my children. Sorry about the bad handwriting.

Great Gobs of Goo Recipe

Ingredients:
8 ounces of non-toxic white glue
Non-toxic acrylic paint
Water
Borax laundry detergent
Airtight container

1. Combine the glue, 4-5 tablespoons of acrylic paint, and 3/4 cup of water.
2. In a separate bowl mix together 1 tablespoon borax and 1/4 cup of water.
3. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and stir until a blobforms. Don't worry if the blob looks a little stringy; it will smooth out on its own.
4. Remove the blob from the mixture, press it into a ball, and placeit in the container.
5. Make another batch of the borax and water and pour it into theremaining glue mixture, forming another blob.
6. repeat this process until all of the glue mixture is gone.

This stuff is for playing with, not eating!!!!!!

Here is a similar recipe that uses food colouring,
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/trythis/try1.html

My friend Deb shared this stuff with me. I think it is the best thing ever! Mina has been baking up batches of goo muffins and cookies lately.

New Year's Fondue 2007

Tonight we'll be dipping, twirling and reminiscing around the fondue pot. This is a tradition that we inherited from Rich's family. I am pretty sure that we've had a New Years fondue for the last decade! This morning i asked Mina what she remembered from last year, she replied "lots and lots of broccoli." I remember the lovely cheeses.

A friend asked me for my cheese fondue recipe and so here goes. Laura, this is for you!

Basic Recipe from Fondues from Around the World by Eva and Ulrich Klever.

Neuchâtel Fondue

1/2 clove garlic

1 pound (450g) Gruyѐre cheese

8 ounces (225g) Emmentaler cheese

1 1/2 cups dry white wine

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

4 teaspoons cornstarch (i use kuzu)

1 1/2 tablespoons kirsch (i skip - German brandy)

2 to 3 turns of the pepper mill

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Rub the inside of the fondue pot with cut surface of garlic. Coarsely grate the cheese and mix them in the pot. Add wine, lemon juice, and cornstarch and stir over medium heat until cheese melts (this should be done on the kitchen range). The lemon juice is important, as it gives a flavourful tang and encourages the cheese to melt quickly. Stir with a wooden spoon in a figure 8 motion to keep the cheese from getting stringy.

Stir in the kirsch, pepper and nutmeg, and cook a bit longer until mixture is smooth and creamy. Transfer the pot to the burner on the table,where the fondue can simmer.

Enjoy! and follow up with a chocolate fondue :)

Wishing everyone a fun New Years eve! We'll toast to you all!

These are my favourite pictures from this night. Our chocolate fondue was amazing. Thanks to our new friends at Scharffen Berger. Don't you love how Rich is falling asleep at probably 6:30pm! :)

Candy Cane Cookies

Mina and i have fun making these this afternoon!

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. red food coloring

Cream together butter, shortening, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add extracts. Gradually stir in flour. Divide dough in half. Add food coloring to one half and mix well. Wrap each half in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour (or you can freeze the dough at this point). Preheat oven to 375. Roll cookies to long ropes twisting together one of each color to form the candy cane shape. Bake 9-10 minutes.If desired, brush with egg white and sprinkle with crushed candy cane.