Lemon balm tea

Nom.
Lemon balm tea is supposed to help releave anxiety and improve your mood. I've got 2 competition pies to make for the State Fair this week. I need all the help I can get.
The tea itself is very good. It has a light citrusy flavor, wonderful aroma and needs no sweeteners to be enjoyable. I'd say it's good for the diet, but the gingersnaps I keep dunking into it are helping to ensure my jeans stay snug.

Iced tea, level up!

Iced tea.
Simple.
Summertime.
Cool.
Quench.
Heat.
Sweat.
Lemons.

Lemons?

Excuse me. I was channeling a little Kerouac there.

Iced tea is a hot weather staple. We love making sun tea on bright hot sunny days. So simple. Just a gallon of water in a glass container and about 10 tea bags. Leave it in bright sunshine for about an hour or two, to desired strength of brew.
This time I punched it up with lemonade ice cubes. I brewed up a simple syrup using a cup of water and about 4 Tbsp of sugar. I love the organic turbinado sugar. Heat that to a simmer and all the sugar is dissolved. Then add some lemon zest. I use a vegetable peeler on a lemon to get the rind without any pith. You want the oils fr4om the rind to add a rich flavor. Once that has all had a chance to blend for about 5 minutes, remove from the heat and take out the rind. Add the lemon juice from the lemon you just skinned and then pour your lemonade into an ice cube tray and freeze. If you have any left over add a little water and enjoy a great tasting glass of lemonade.

To make an excellent glass of iced tea plunk in a few lemonade ice cubes and some sugar to taste. This really cannot be beat on a hot day, and we've had plenty of those this summer.

The munchkins like helping with this project. D likes to unwrap the tea bags and Bean likes to put water in the glass jug with the hose. (With assistance of course) :)

Oh, and speaking of some cool cats:

Hot Dog Art

And so it begins...

Next generation baker!

 

 Today has been rainy and chilly so I told D that during Bean's nap she could bake a cake. I recently found a recipe for a simple pound cake that a toddler could make. The kids are allowed to pick the add-ins. I suggested chocolate chips, blueberries, craisins, bananas or lemons. She chose lemons and honey. She's awesome!

It turned out really really good. Very moist and dense. Next time I'll add less sugar and we'll try substituting applesauce for the vegetable oil. (I didn't have any applesauce on hand.)

While the cake was baking in the oven I was working on the computer and D was playing with some of her play kitchen stuff while sitting in a shoebox and eating an apple. I noticed she was suddenly quiet and turned to see her zonked out on the floor. I guess cake making is strenuous stuff. 

When Bean woke up she insisted on wearing her bike helmet while eating.

Yogurt Cake
(gateau au yaourt, from Bringing Up BeBe)
12 oz. Plain whole-milk yogurt
2 eggs
12 oz. sugar (or less per your preference)
1 tsp vanilla
5 oz. Vegetable oil
24 oz. flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

preheat oven 375.

grease a 9" round cake pan or loaf pan.

Gently combine yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil. Combine to flour and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and gently mix. Add flavorings of your choice. (We added 2 Tbsp honey and 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice and 2 tsp lemon zest.) Bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Easter egg decorations

Spring has sprung early here in Minnesota. Normally we're still under a foot of snow at this time and checking for airfare deals to Florida. 

With the warm weather we decided to do some outside decorations. 

The girls decided the tree was too prickly and tall, so they decorated an old raspberry twig. 

They had a lot of fun helping me make these. I swear I got 10 minutes of undivided attention!

Look at that look of concentration!
We got the eggs at Target in their Easter section. They are the cheap ones with 2 holes in each section for the pipe cleaners to go through. 

Paella you say?

Here's looking at you squid.


For starters, do you have any idea how hard it is to find good seafood in the land of 10,000 lakes?! I think I married one of the few men in this whole state who doesn't fish. I got to know the fish monger at my local grocery store quite well as I was talking with him 3 times in one week about getting some squid. Honestly, at one point I think he was flirting with me. Now that's good salesmanship right there!

I've been wanting to make this dish for years but never found an appropriate time until recently. I had all of D's little friends over and their Moms this last week. I wanted to make something simple yet impressive and I had some saffron to use up which Hubby had given me for Christmas. The finished product was delish! I'll be making this again but next time I'll be making the chicken and chorizo sausage version, lest I wish to endure more advances from a fish monger.

Paella: 

• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 lbs chicken breast tenderloins cut into one inch cubes
• 1 lb calamari (squid) cleaned and sliced into rings
• Medium grain rice
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
• 1 large pinch Saffron
• 1 red pepper seeded and sliced
• 1 10 oz. pkg frozen peas
• Olive Oil, Salt to Taste

I didn't have a paella pan so I improved and used a hotel pan over 2 burners. This would have worked perfectly had I not forgotten about the oil I was heating and smoked the oil and slightly warped the pan. (Darn my tiny attention span)

Chop onion and tomatoes and saute in heated oil. Bloom the crushed saffron in one cup of heated broth. Add peppers to pan and saute. Add chicken and cook through. Add rice, about one pound, give or take, depending on the size of your pan. Stir and heat for a few minutes then add broth and saffron. Add squid, cook until the rice has absorbed the broth and add peas. Turn off heat and cover with foil for 5 minutes. Serve warm. 

Beer and Bacon Meatloaf, and curly hair.

First a run through of the meal. I had some lovely ground beef and a plan. I had about 4oz of bacon leftover in the fridge. I chopped it and slow simmered it to render out much of the fat without burning it. I scooped out all the bacon and drained it on a paper towel and then slowly carmelized some chopped onion in the bacon fat. I Placed the onions and bacon in a bowl and added some bread crumbs, an egg, some Worchestershire sauce, the meat, and some beer. I combined all that by hand, (remind me to clean my rings) and then made a loaf shape on a glass pan, covered the loaf with seasoned breadcrumbs and baked at 375F until an internal temperature of 165-170F was reached. Very, very good. You should try this!

D had been wearing her hair in a top knot for the last 2 days because she had a ballet recital on Thursday. (We were lucky she was feeling well enough to attend. I was afraid her cold would cancel our plans.) When I took her hair down for her bath, I was amazed at the volume of flowing curls. She looked stunning! (Remember now, Mommy has alopecia and anything to do with hair is a new learning experience for me!) I was sad to see her curls dissappear in her bath, so right before bed I put her hair in another top knot with some mousse and I'll leave it like that until we go out in public again.

She had gymnastics class this morning so the hairstyle was perfect. Later, she was practicing her hand stands on the sofa while watching TV with Daddy.
As for the alopecia, there's a movie out called, "HappyThankYouMorePlease" where one of the main characters has alopecia. It was a wonderful movie and hit the nail on the head. Everyone should see it.

Literary Confession

For starters, I need to establish that my favorite books are the classics. I love stories like Silas Marner, Frankenstein, Tom Jones, etc.
That said, I had never read any Jane Austen. Shame on me, right? It gets worse. When I finally did pick up some Austen, it was actually Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. *sigh* I know... I know. I'm so ashamed.
What I'm trying to get at is that a week or so ago I caught a little bit of the movie Persuasion on TV and I was instantly hooked. (It didn't hurt that it featured a young Ciaran Hinds. Can you beat those cheekbones??) I had to know the whole story so I downloaded the novel on my tablet and proceeded to devour it. It was so good; and even though it had a happy ending, I cried when I was finished. Such an emotional experience.

This created a want for more period English dramas and I had heard about this show on PBS called Downton Abbey. I found the full first season on Netflix and the second on PBS.org. Addiction. I lost sleep getting caught up. The girls have been sick with this nasty cold that's been going around, so I've been up with them a lot at night. I would watch episode after episode in between times when the girls would wake up coughing. I've been physically tired and emotionally revved up by this amazing show. (The Bates and Anna story especially strikes a chord, but that another story) Now it's countdown to the season 2 finale and if they use the Bates story as the cliffhanger, I'll be apoplectic.

Tardis Birthday Cake

My Brother-in-Law is a huge Dr. Who fan and he got me back into the series after the big reboot a few years ago. I used to watch reruns of the show on PBS back when they were on the 4th Doctor. Now they're on the 11th. (I suddenly feel quite old)
For his birthday I decided to make a Tardis cake. I'd like to say I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I can see every mistake and imperfection glaring back at me... but I'm glad I tried.
I made my first fondant figurine. Luckily an Adipose is just a little white blob. Maybe I'll make a Dalek cake another year, when the girls are older.

Homemade Larabars

Ever have Larabars? They're kind of like a Powerbar but more health conscious. I'm a fan of everything about them but the price tag. The ingredient list is so simple I had to try some for myself. I found lots of recipes online but none had a technique that worked for me. I'll explain:

The only ingredients in these bars are dates and almonds and some flavorings of your choice. If you have a food processor you can make these in no time at all, but follow these steps or you'll kill your food processor.
First throw in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of whole almonds and pulse until they are chopped coarsely. The object is not to make almond meal, but to get all the whole almonds into pieces. The almonds must go in first or your processor will strain to turn the blades through the dates. It needs the almond powder to loosen up the dates. Then add about 2 or 3 Cups of chopped dates, a little at a time, then your flavoring and pulse until a paste is formed. By chopped dates, I mean whole dates that you have chopped into thirds or quarters. DO NOT buy the pre-chopped dates. They taste awful. You can find large tubs of dates at CostCo or more reasonable sized packages of Sunmaid brand dates at most grocery stores.

I like the gingerbread flavored Larabars best so I replicated that first. I added candied ginger and some ground cinnamon and cloves. I love candied ginger but it's pretty hot stuff. Take a small taste if you've never tried it before. (It's in the ethnic section of most grocery stores and its reasonably priced) I don't know how much I used, maybe 6 or 7 coin sized slices. I made 2 batches, one mild for hubby and the kids and one with more punch for me.

If you have the means you should try this. I found the ginger really helped settle my upset tummy. (I caught the latest bug that has been going around) The girls both like these and the cost difference is considerable.