2.for.Tuesday

We have this amazing couple in our ward. She is from the Ukraine and he is from somewhere in South America. We love them. *B* loves to share fresh garden stuff with them. The other day they came by with a box of apricots for us. Someone let them come and pick apricots so they decided to share some with us. I've been wanting apricots and I even volunteered my swollen feet to work in the cannery last week hoping that they would have some overripe ones so I could make jam. No luck. But hey, there are always good neighbors and today my mom brought a 5 gallon bucket full from her good neighbors. Now I'm thinking not just jam, but fruit leather also. one: apricot fruit leather [or any fruit for that matter]. It looks yummy. It sounds easy enough. And I do have a convection oven to speed up the process. two: Molly's summer book. I love the idea. The boys have been doing their index card journaling and I'm trying to take photos. I wanted to make a book anyway. This photo is from a postcard swap that Hula Seventy did. I've had it flagged for quite a while now, but haven't really had a reason to use it. Today I like it as dividers in a summer book. After I saw Molly's book I was thinking, "why not do the colors of summer?" Throw in all of the colors of the rainbow or go and grab paint swatches of summer to me colors + add white [for *I*s baptism and Baby's blessing among possible other things]. Plus all of the great colors of things that come out of the garden. Anyway, I think it's brilliant. Go and check it out. She's got some really great ideas for working it on the go and not making it difficult. I love the fill in the blank journaling pages that she gives. It's downloadable so grab it. Use it. I really think you should. on the same train, but a slightly different track... when I went to grab the link to Hula's blog I noticed that she's participating in a summer color week this week. I thought that was quite appropriate. Maybe I should join in. Maybe you should too!

Everyday Food

magazine [May edition] has been this weeks go-to. We've had fish tacos with cabbage + lime and chicken tostada salad so far. Tonight I've got plans for calzones and we'll do white bean and tuna salad on Sunday [Dad is in charge of Saturday dinner, so I don't plan that one if I can help it]. It must be the time of year, but everything looked so good and light. I've had the subscription for a year now and I think this is the first time I've actually made more than one thing out of any given issue. The fish tacos were a big hit. Really big. And for those of you who may not be big fish eaters. Tilapia is a very mild fish. Not fishy at all. The only thing I did differently wrong was using mayonaise instead of sour cream in the sauce. I don't know how I did that. And honestly, I just now realized that I did it at all as I was looking at the recipe. So... try it right or substitute mayonaise for the sour cream. I can't vouch for the sour cream, but with mayo it's yummy. And now that I've made it, I would make extra sauce. We all really wanted more of the sauce. The chicken tostada salad was yummy too. I am not kidding when I say that my kids must be Mexican. I love Mexican food any day, but I crave it when I'm pregnant. They don't have a link up on the website so I guess I can't share the recipe or a photo here today. Just imagine a toasted corn tortilla topped with melted monterey jack cheese, chicken [I used canned] seasoned with onion, garlic, and taco seasoning [I chose to use taco seasoning instead of chili powder] and after cooking sprinkled with lime juice, chopped romaine again sprinkled with lime juice, chopped tomato, diced avocado, and fresh cilantro leaves. All sprinkled with salt. If you want the actual recipe give me a call or pick up the May issue of Everyday Food. You can thank me later.

I Had a Request

to repost the Blender Whole Wheat Pancake recipe I shared a few years ago. I've learned a few things since then too... my friend told me that the buttermilk is interchangable with milk and while I agree to an extent [it will make pancakes and they do taste pretty good] I now feel very strongly that you should use buttermilk. It activates the baking soda and makes the batter thicker and fluffier and the pancakes are so much better. I can't say enough how much I love these pancakes. Really.

• 1 1/2 c. whole wheat berries
• 2 1/4 c. buttermilk [or 2 c. milk if you must]
• blend on high 2-3 minutes [while it's blending mix dry ingredients together in separate bowl and prepare the rest of your wet ingredients so you can add them all quickly]
• 2 eggs
• 3/8 c. canola oil
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/8 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. sugar

So that's it. The recipe as it was given to me. But you know me. I can't keep a recipe in it's original form. I also add 1/4 tsp. vanilla. Go figure. If you preheat your skillet/griddle before you start the batter it will be perfect when you're ready to start cooking. I add the dry ingredients last and pulse if necessary to get it all mixed in well. I do this because I am not kidding, the buttermilk activates the baking soda. It will bubble and expand. You're going to want to keep those bubble intact as much as possible. I also let it sit for a couple of minutes before starting to cook them so as to maximize the effect.

Enjoy!

Little Green Notebook

So, I've tossed recycled nearly everything in this little green notebook sitting next to me. The last order of business is to let go of the things I don't think I can let go of! Here we go... A few random photoshop tips:

1. Justify journaling in a text box >>> [shift] + [ctrl] + [j]
2. To move a group of items with out flattening the image >>> hold down [shift] and click on other items in layer menu
3. to change a GIF to a JPG >>> in menu bar - image > mode > RGB color

Yummy Chai recipe:

• 1 1/2" slices fresh ginger x 4
• 2" cinnamon stick x 1
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• dash of nutmeg
• 2" strip orange rind
• 1/2 vanilla pod split + seeded
• 2 c. water
• bring to boil
• pour through strainer into another pan
• add 2 c. milk
• heat + repeat [you can reuse the seasonings]

**I love this to make hot chocolate too**

There's a few "to-do" items in my notebook, but I promised to only share what I am doing/have done here so now I'm off to start a private to-do blog!

Enjoy the journey!

I'm Drowning

in papers that I can't bring myself to throw away because... well, what if I need that information again? It's killing me. Really. I've had a copy of Ball's Traditional Salsa recipe on my counter for the last few weeks. I can't seem to throw it away because it has notes from our attempt to find the perfect canned salsa recipe. *B* and I followed this recipe [more or less] to make 18 pints last month. We have 8 left. I guess that should say that the attempt was fairly successful. There are, however, some things that we will definitely do differently next time:

1. We were afraid of the salsa being too hot so we only used half the called for amount of jalapenos. This is apparently not a hot salsa. It wasn't hot at all. When we realized this problem I sent *B* up the street to our good friends garden to get a few more peppers. When he got back we had a good laugh because not a single one of the peppers had even the slightest bit of heat to them. That's what you get for making salsa in the middle of the night. So, BRING ON THE HEAT!
2. Our favorite fresh salsa has a slight smoked flavor to it and in my search for a recipe I ran across a roasted tomato salsa. Hmm... Of course we had to try a small batch. It wasn't good. However, when we mixed a small amount of the real stuff with the roasted stuff it wasn't bad. We dumped the whole batch of roasted into the tradtional. It was okay. The only thing I would do differently there would be LESS OIL! I could totally taste the oil from the roasted vegetables. Surely there is some way to roast vegetables with out having them swimming in olive oil? I will find it next time I want a roasted flavor.
3. We had tons of tomatoes and just started cutting and dumping them into the pot. We had no idea how much was in there. We guesstimated. And we paid the price in a slight lack of flavor. It was still good, but I love flavor. The stronger the better. More cilantro, more onion, more garlic, more, more, more [oh, and of course more salt]! That said, MEASURE THE TOMATOES!
4. Our salsa was very wet. Almost soupy. We squeezed out the middle sogginess and seeds from the tomatoes, but still... wet. I'm thinking DRAIN THE TOMATOES after chopping. I think a cheese cloth over a pan would do the trick fairly nicely. If not, maybe add some type of thickener.
5. Lastly, we were a little wary of the vinegar [at least *B* was... he was truthfully a lot wary] we halved the called for amount. It was probably just right. I do need to find out if the vinegar is necessary for preservation though.

So that's it. One paper down, approximately five million left to go...

Enjoy the Journey!

PS. it's starting to feel like fall! I love crisp, cool mornings. Makes me want to go running...

PSS. If you were wondering, I made the labels for the salsa by tweeking this free download and printing them on regular 2 x 4 sticky address label paper [10 per sheet] using this free template from Avery and then I cut them out. Here's the link to my labels. Enjoy!

Cross One off The List

So, I finally printed off a copy of my list so I would be looking at it regularly (every day) and it's helping. Today I get to cross off the whole wheat pancake recipe... yes, I realize that it also says waffle, but I'm going to cross off the pancake part and feel good about it dang it! I tried the recipe in the waffle maker and it worked okay. I'll still play with that and eventually I'll get to cross off the waffle part to, but for now, wahoo for me! For those who would like to try the recipe, I got it from my friend Melissa and it is easy and yummy and best of all, it really is whole wheat. As in, scoop whole wheat kernels out of your food storage bucket, whole wheat (but don't be scared...you don't have to grind it, this is done in the blender). Finally, a use for all that wheat they tell us to get!

And that's it (please ignore my typos)! I just mixed up the dry "add" ingredients and had the eggs and oil ready then added them to the blender the last 30 sec. or so to mix them in. It worked out really well and the boys are loving them. They had them for breakfast and now are having them again for lunch. It's a large recipe... you shouldn't need to double it unless you're making a whole bunch and even then you'd probably have to do two batches because of the size of most blenders. I love it! Enjoy!

Enjoying the Journey

P.S... does anyone know how to convert a pancake recipe to a waffle recipe?

Day Seventeen... "Gingerbread" Houses

Tonight we got together with some friends and made "gingerbread" houses. We actually used graham crackers, not gingerbread, but the kids all loved it anyway. We hot glued the houses together because if you use frosting to "glue" them you have to start a few days ahead (honestly, who thinks that far in advance?). While I was looking for a recipe for royal icing at allrecipes I came across a comment that said you can melt sugar in a pan and it will act just like hot glue... so if any of you'd like to try it just click on this allrecipes link and it will take you to a recipe and the instructions (it's the first comment) for melting the sugar... or you can just hot glue them. As for the icing, I used a different recipe because our friend is pregnant so I skipped the recipe with raw egg whites and found one with meringue powder. Something important about the icing... I'm not sure if the five minutes of whipping is long enough. It should be until peaks form. Then the icing will be thick enough to hold the candy until it dries. When I made ours it took about 10 mins. of whipping at low speed. Also, I just noticed that the first recipe doesn't say anything about keeping the icing moist. It's important to keep a damp towel over your bowl so it doesn't dry out... especially if you make it ahead of time. Enough of the explainations... here are some pictures. I think it's fun how much the dads enjoyed the project too! Enjoy the Journey!

23 Gold Stars

Yeah for me! The past two weeks have been really hard for me. I've been craving something...not sure what. Thankfully, I've only been craving and not caving. Still loving my baja tuna... I eat it with 2 Wasa crackers...

• 1 chopped tomato
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 or 1/8 tsp minced garlic
• 2 chopped green onions
• Tbsp lime juice
• 1 can tuna
• 1 tsp mayo (or more if you must!)
• 1/2 chopped avocado (optional)

Started making mini pizzas on pita bread. I cut the pita in half so I have 2 pizzas. I tried topping it with a Tbsp of pesto but have found that it isn't necessary. Better, but not necessary. Slice a tomato thinly, lay on top of the bread. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried chives all ground up together. Grate a light mozzerella cheese stick on top then sprinkle with parmesan. Toast in oven until cheese is golden like you like it. Good Stuff! Just like my grilled cheese/tomato sandwiches.

Enjoy the Journey!

Day Two

Hey Ladies...It had to be done. I really am sorry that you have to look at it. Don't forget to keep bugging me about how it's going. Date: 6.25.2007 Ht: 5’9” Wt: 195 lbs Body Fat %: 31.7 BMI: 29.0: Yesterday went really smoothly. I need to get to bed earlier so I have the energy to really push myself at the gym. I ate well and wasn't hungry at all. I also created a new tuna salad that I love and was trying to figure out a name for it...tuna fresca or baja tuna salad. It is with cilantro, green onion, lime juice, tomato, garlic, and avocado. I ate 1/2 can plus the salad stuff on 2 fiber WASA crackers. Isaac had his in a whole wheat tortilla and said, "this is the best lunch ever!" at least three times. It was really good. Today my aerobic 20 mins. were definitely worth a 10 rating. It kicked my rear. Eating has been harder today. I feel munchy...too bad it had to start on day two! I fixed some fresh salsa with tomatoes from K & M's garden. It's pretty good...I should have looked at my recipe though. Something isn't quite right. Maybe it's the lack of jalapeno. I'm going to fix a turkey/veg/quinoa soup tonight. Hopefully it will fill my guys up! Enjoying the Journey!