Busy

Dear blog,

Please dont be mad at me if I fail to post much in September. I am sure I will be baking and cooking, however life is chaos this month.

I have jury duty.

Starting a counseling class

Samuel comes to live with us.

Kyla goes to DC

We go to Cannon Beach

Homeschooling

BoyScouts

life.....

Baked Oatmeal

So I have this amazing recipe for Baked Oatmeal! It really does taste good. Late last night I realized as I was heading to bed that I forgot to make the oatmeal so it could sit all night. I ran upstairs and made it but it was so late and I was fuzzy from lack of sleep that I forgot the SUGAR! HOW in the world a sugar addict like me could forget is beyond me, but I did. Amazingly enough it still turned out we just had to sprinkle it on top!

Mostly I bake....

BUT tonight, I couldn't resist the beef carne at the store tonight instead of hamburger for Taco Salad! I marinaded it in spice and lemon then cooked it on the stove and WHA~LAA! It was amazing! http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/taqueria-style-tacos---carne-asada/Detail.aspx

Dice, Slice, Thrice FINALE

Last night I hosted the best of the trilogy at my house! YUP I am even gonna brag about it cuz it was Mediterranean night! IT ROCKED! We had hummus, tzatiki, med dip, med chicken stew with couscous, bulgar salad, rosemary skewers and LAST but not LEAST, lemon phylo pastry cups! TO DIE FOR!

Tonight we had leftovers and my mouth is a blaze of garlic fire! Then I spent tonight in the kitchen prepping scones for my scone sale tomorrow! I made lemon and chocolate chocolate chip!

I think I will do this once a month! September will be Peach and Apple Cinnamon. October will be Orange Chocolate Chip, and Pumpkin. December will have Cranberry White Chocolate and Chocolate Peppermint!

BUZY!

Today I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I made artisan bread for bruschetta, cookies, granola, bruschetta, chicken for dinner and a salad.

NOW mind you it was a busy day cleaning too, because I am teaching a cooking class tomorrow. So as I was cleaning out my pantry I found tapioca and decided to make some of that too as I have an abundance of fresh milk this week. I am a distracted person so naturally as I am in the kitchen I can become quite distracted and would you believe I had forgotten that I had been baking all day?!? SO as I was prepping to make the tapioca pudding I was cleaning up a space and then looked around and said "WHAT am I doing?!?" SO I chose not to make the tapioca today, though I will probably do so tomorrow or Wednesday!

Here is some of what kept me busy today!

I know I know....

I have posted about biscotti before. HOWEVER I must post again. I mean really, this is a wonderful treat that I think I shall make at LEAST once a month. The most wonderful thing about THIS particular recipe is that it has no butter. Therefor you can feel good about eating it right?? I made the horrid mistake of mentioning that this was a fat free version of biscotti and was immediately corrected~chocolate has fat in it as well as nuts. Alas I didn't think you could count the chocolate fat as fat because well chocolate is CHOCOLATE. I should tell you that although this recipe is easy and mostly fat free, it is harder to work with because of that. You will want to grease the pan before unless you like a bottomless biscotti. DONT ask me how I know that :)

There is something so delightful about this cookie that is so hard you must dunk it in order to bite it. I am quite certain that I shall find another biscotti recipe to try but so far I only have tried this one because I love it so much!

Lets talk bread....

WHY?!? Because it is the most basic of foods and the most diverse of foods! Bread can be anything from a sandwich loaf you buy and the store and put peanut butter and jelly on OR it can be a wonderfully hand crafted art some people pay hundreds of dollars for! Bread is not basic when it comes to making or baking. There are quick breads and sweet and savory breads, there are yeast breads and those come in every form as well.


Today I am going to talk about making Artisan Bread. Its simple easy and ANYONE can do it. Me, I make bread all the time so for me it seems easy and natural and well why wouldn't you make it? I have discovered that making bread can be intimidating! I have a dear neighbor who lent me her book on how to make artisan bread. So I tried it out and sho' nuff it was SO easy! You make up the dough, which is really more like a batter then you let it raise and put it in the oven to rise. Then you take it out and punch it down and put it in the refrigerator! You can keep the dough for up to 2 weeks and word on the street is that the longer you leave it the more tangy tasting it is. I wouldn't know because I end up making the bread almost immediately! WHO can resist a warm loaf of bread fresh from the oven.

Speaking of ovens....I would love to have a brick oven  for bread....someday perhaps!

Tomorrow's agenda....

BREAD!

Chocolate Covered Hi Hats

Making cupcakes for a certain birthday girl. My baby turned 10 this week and it has made me a blubbery mess! Alas I am going to make it! Now off I go to bake up some cupcakes in honor of this monumental birthday!!

To bake or NOT to bake.....

I was baking today, but in a different sense. I deviate a bit from our normal topic of me in the kitchen to me...in the OUTDOORS!

We spent the day in Wallace Id. Now you may ask, WHY would someone want to go to Wallace? LET me tell you! OH PLEASE, let me tell you. 2 months ago I was reading my friends' blog and saw the most beautiful pictures from a hike they had gone on. I was captivated. I immediately scoured her site and discovered that it was the Pulaski trail they were on. Next I searched the I-net and discovered the official tourism site for Id. where I decided that maybe Id. should be toured a bit more than I think. Elated I then told my family we would be going to Id. on the Pulaski trail soon. I waited patiently as I could for Chris to have a day off of work and school. 

TODAY was the day! I woke up early and got to see my friends precious 8 lb. 12oz. baby boy. Then I drove to Taste Cafe and met my other friend for a quick goodbye coffee. THEN I drove home picked up Chris and the kids and we took off for alluring ID!!!

When we arrived in Wallace I found the quaintest town and decided IF we don't happen to find the trail head I would be JUST as happy to spend the day at the town. Alas, after a bit, we did find the trail head!
We headed off down the trail, or should I say UP! What a wonderful BEAUTIFUL hike. If you think you have nothing to do for a day I encourage you, I implore you GO to Wallace and take this wonderful hike. Our 3 kids did a wonderful job! They walked the way up and RAN the whole way back! I believe we made it back in 35-40 min.

All the way to the cave there are mile markers and plaques telling the story of Ed Pulaski. What a wonderful story and great hike. Not going to tell you the story here, you must go read for yourself!

After the hike~2 miles in and 2 miles out~ we were all starving. We chose to go to dinner here:

The food at this restaurant is WELL worth the drive alone! Some of the best BBQ I have ever eaten in my life. Then we walked down to the Antique Mall and spent an hour or so there looking at all the fun wears! So many things to look at. There is even a Tea Shoppe in the store! Will go back for Tea there for SURE!

Next we splurged and ate Icecream at:

All in all it was one of the best days ever! Each of our kids had a wonderful day and so did we! I highly recommend you go!

Canning

Tis the season and today I am canning beans! God saw fit to make my Yarden very fruitful this year so I am canning~next up will be tomatoes, well actually will be PIZZA SAUCE!!!!

Last week I canned raspberry jam, which takes an incredible amount of fruit to make. I took the slaves, eh ahem, I mean kids to Greenbluff and we picked TONS of berries. We managed to pick enough for 6 pints of jam!!!

Looking forward to more canning later this summer and fall!