My lazy tomato sauce

I am about to admit a disturbing truth about myself.....I hate tomatoes. This statement is terrible for a myriad of reasons the least of which being that I am 1/4 Italian. A sacrilege I know and one I have lived with my whole life. With this truth though is the knowledge that while I hate said fruit I also know they are extremely healthy. So in an effort to be healthy I have to hide tomatoes from myself. Yes, much like you would disguise healthy food for your children I find the need to do it to myself. So I faithfully grow tomato plants every summer and have a huge bounty. My kids eat them, I share with neighbors and friends. When those avenues of distribution have been exhausted then I make my lazy tomato sauce base.
Lazy Tomato Sauce
First get together a few pounds of tomatoes, and if you are fortunate to have some fresh basil and oregano handy then cut off some of that as well.

Wash and chop the above ingredients and add in a diced onion.  Throw them all in your crock pot and cook on low for a few hours

Turn off the crock-pot and let the mixture cool a bit. Then put the mixture through a food mill. Glop (when you are doing this with two kids running around you because they don't want the dragon to get them you are glopping, not gently funnelling, glopping) it all into jars, Tupperware, whatever you have and freeze. Now as the temperatures cool and more one-pot soups, stews, chili's, and casseroles make there way into our evening meals I will mix this little lazy sauce in. That way I can reap the summertime nutrients without having to actually "eat" them. Voila!


~Andrea

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Baked Oatmeal

I know I have already professed my love with Heidi Swanson's recipes but here is another one I wanted to pass along to all of you.  I have company staying with us this week and since weekday mornings tend to be a bit busy, you know with school and work and carpools and everything, I wanted to have something ready made for breakfast and everyone could grab a bite as they got hungry.  I also wanted it to be healthy so the kids could have some before school and if I do nothing else that day at least I know they had a good breakfast :)
First you need some oats....

Then some fruit

Put it all together and add some milk ( I used half almond milk and half regular)

Then bake.  When served I melted some butter in maple syrup and drizzled it over the top.

Here is a link to the recipe  http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2011/04/baked-oatmeal .  And if you click on Heidi's website the oatmeal muffins she just posted about look great too!  I think I might be making some for this weekend to take camping.  I'll let you know how it goes.

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Happy Easter Eve

Well I know I won't be checking in here tomorrow so I wanted to post tonight and wish you all a wonderful happy day tomorrow.  We will be celebrating Easter and today has been a busy one to prep for tomorrow.  I have 60 eggs all hard boiled up and waiting to dye later this evening.  A chicken cooking in the smoker along with a green salad and some french bread are on the menu tonight.  My parents are coming over tonight to dye eggs with the kids so we needed  a quick and healthy dinner, so tomorrow we can gorge enjoy brunch.

The house is clean and decorated and we have had many practice Easter egg hunts with plastic eggs in preparation.  Plates, napkins, and cutlery are all wrapped and ready for morning.

  We are doing a pot-luck brunch with friends and family.  I have pureed strawberries and peaches ready for bellinis.  A hash brown casserole that is always a huge crowd pleaser, especially with the menfolk.  Another contribution of mine are maple oatmeal scones from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook. 

A little tip from the cookbook states that you can make the scones up to a week in advance and keep covered in the fridge until ready to cook.  Now I haven't ever done them a whole week in advance but I usually make them a couple of days in advance, keep in the fridge and then just pop in the oven the morning I need them.  I have two trays for tomorrow and the third tray I am going to pop in the freezer to freeze.  These I will keep until I want to make a spontaneous yummy breakfast (I have cooked straight from freezer and they are still delicious).  There will be lots of good food and hopefully if I finish all my chores I won't have to much work tomorrow :).  Wishing you and yours much happiness!!

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Some wintertime brightness

With all the wips in the last post you would think I would have some finished knitting to show wouldn't you?  Well you would be mistaken.....not a bit has been touched :).  First I wanted to share some lunchtime goodness with you.  I saw this and thought maybe I should make it for myself for lunch. I'm not much of a citrus person  but I know it's full of vitamin goodness.  Since there seems to be a new strain of cold/flu going around my daughter's kindergarten class each week I thought it might be a good idea to do get some more B vitamins pumping through this body 'cause no one wants mommy to be sick.  It is non-fat cottage cheese with a clementine and half a grapefruit sliced up...with just a smidgen of agave nectar to cut the tartness.  Delicious!!

Next up a little baking because we can't have too much health food right?  Be sure to munch on some pecans while you are cooking to keep your energy up :)  Slice and bake shortbread yummy.

Beat 1 cup softened butter in mixer until creamy. Add 3/4 cup powdered sugar and beat till smooth. Add 2 tsp vanilla extract and 1 cup of finely chopped toasted pecans. Gradually add flour mixture (2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/8 tsp salt) beat till blended. Shape dough into 2 7inch logs. Wrap each log in wax paper and chill 4 hours or freeze in ziploc for up to 1 month.  Preheat oven to 350, cut each log into 24 slices and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool completely on wire rack. Enjoy!!



Now how to enjoy just one or two cookies?  Well after I saw these mugmats over at Lisa's blog I really wanted to make some for myself.  I am on the home stretch of finishing my quilt and when I pieced the top together I realized I had four little squares leftover.  So I made them into a double coaster perfect for an afternoon chai tea pick me up and a portion controlled snack of two cookies.

No binding on this little guy just top stitched all around.  But the colors are nice and springy and with the overcast sky outside it does help to brighten my afternoon.  Now I'm off to finish a few more projects for Valentine's Day...have a wonderful week!

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Little acorn hat

My girlfriend just had her second baby.  For her little girl I made this little upside down flower hat and she wore it for almost two years.  So now that she has her little boy and since he was born in November I needed to come up with something for him.  So here is a little acorn hat (hopefully it looks like a little acorn)

I used Bernat bamboo for the light brown portion and some organic cotton I had lying around for the top of the acorn.  I made some quick little mitts for him as well using the bamboo.  They are so soft and cozy and I hope they get a lot of use.

I also made up these little "cookies" the other day.  There isn't that much sugar but my kids LOVED them.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies
Mix:  1 1/2 cups wheat flour::3/4 cup rolled oats::1/2 teaspoon baking powder::1/2 teaspoon baking soda::1/2 teaspoon salt::1/2 teaspoon nutmeg:: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon::1/2 cup raw sugar
In a separate bowl mix:  1 teaspoon canola oil::1/3 cup soy milk::1/2 cup pumpkin puree:: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract::
Mix wet and dry and add 1/3 chocolate chips.  Mound onto baking sheet with small ice cream scoop and bake for 12 minutes, turning once halfway.  Delicious!!  Have a lovely Wednesday.  We are going to go outside and enjoy one last day of decent weather before a snowstorm blows in this weekend.

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Fourth of July

Happy fourth of July to everyone in the U.S.A.

My family escaped to our property up in the mountains for the weekend.  Someday I hope to say we escaped to our 'cabin' up in the mountains but until that day comes it is just a piece of land an hour out of town with a lake close by.

Some friends came up to join us in a few nights of camping.  We did small hikes through the forest and around the lake, played games, ate, laughed, roasted marshmallows, told stories and just enjoyed getting away.

Each time we arrive and set up the kids look to make sure our face in the tree hasn't disappeared.

Now it's always fun for the kids if they get to 'help' make goodies to bring along.  I use the word help loosely because anyone who has done anything with a three year old and a five year old knows that they are anything but helpful :)  But in order to put on the good mommy hat I included them.  First sprinkles,

Then chocolate and pretzels....

a little dipping and voila.  Treats for all to share up in the woods.

 I do realize that red, white, and blue sprinkles would have been more appropriate but all I had were rainbow ones, what's a girl to do?  Now I am off to make snacks for a baseball game tonight and some fireworks to follow.   

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Baseball Season

Well it is that time of year again.  Baseball season.  We have season tickets to the local team and when baseball season starts it feels like summer is here.  Even if the games we attend for the next few weeks will mean a lot of layering and even more hot chocolate to keep us warm, just knowing it is baseball season means camping, the beach, and picnics are right around the corner.  With baseball season though comes a lot of preparation for a family of four (two of which are under six) to attend the games.  The games start at 7 o'clock and parking is at a premium.  So if you want to get one of the few free parking spots a person should at the game somewhere in the vicinity of 6:15.  Since the park is 20-30 minute drive from our house, depending on traffic, this doesn't leave a whole lot of time for dinner.

I try to do quick dinners.  Pasta dishes loaded with veggies, sandwiches and fruit, you know the kind of meals mostly everyone will eat quickly so we can get down to the stadium.  Sometimes though there isn't quite enough time for a full meal so I pack snacks.  Now I'm sure you can imagine how the same old snacks all summer long get old.  Coupled with the fact that I have an unexplainable love for ballpark nachos.  It isn't the chips that I love....it's the cheese sauce.  That obnoxiously orange, reminiscent of the neon from the 80's, crazy nothing good for you, chock full of chemicals, nacho sauce.  As far as I'm concerned the chips are only there as a vehicle to eat the sauce.  What a sad confession I know.  The mom who is always trying to cook fresh, nutritious food for her family is addicted to neon orange cheese.  Now since I would like to keep this addiction down and only have nachos a couple of times this summer I will be making lots of snacks to take with us and curb the junk food.

Enter Fruit and Pecan Granola Bars.  Yummy!  Super easy to make (I bet you have the ingredients in your house right now) and can easily be converted to gluten free, just substitute the 1 tablespoon of flour for a gluten free alternative.  I changed the sugar to 1/2 cup instead of a cup and they are plenty sweet.

The only drawback?  The kids love them.....guess I'll have to double up my batches :)

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This week

This last week I have been working away at my 2010 intention of not wasting...

I have been meticulously composting.  It's amazing how much we have to compost.  All those winter soups and stews have yielded a lot of scrap veggies.  Not to mention breakfast smoothie fruit scraps.  I'm looking forward to all the gorgeous soil the composter will yield so I can smother my garden with it.  I have already pulled out my gardening books and flower books and I am planning for warmer weather.

Loving this cake.  Thanks Larissa for the link.  It tastes good and has fruit and yogurt in the ingredients.  Nothing like feeling virtuous while you are scarfing down bread sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Made a turkey dinner for my husband's birthday.  Thanksgiving is his favorite meal and so the last few years I have cooked up a Turkey dinner on his birthday complete with stuffing, potatoes, gravy and green beans.  With the leftovers I make pasties to freeze and they are the perfect quickie meal.  A Thanksgiving dinner all wrapped up in a crispy pastry crust.  We had friends over to celebrate, a gazillion kids, and a surprise snowstorm to boot.  All in all a good weekend.

And casting on for another sweater for my daughter.  I don't want to waste any of this time while my kids are little and love wearing anything I knit.  I had some bulky wool and this sweater is one I have had my eye on for awhile now.  Hopefully I'll finish it up this week.

How is your week going?

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Things I love right now

Thank you so much for the supportive and encouraging comments. It helps to feel that I'm not alone in my knitting debacle and that there is hope I will turn the page and knit something that fits and looks good on me. That being said I have pulled out my knitting books that have information on design. The tape measure is sitting close by to take some accurate measurements of my body and I have a notebook with some notes on what kind of cardigan I would like. I really appreciate the advice from all of you.

Here is the cookie recipe from my last post. Where was my head? Picture but no recipe :)

1/2 Cup Shortening, 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar, 3/4 t baking soda, 1 t. ground ginger, 1 t . ground allspice, 1/4 t. salt, 1/4 cup molasses, 1 egg, 2 cups flour, 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped (I used dark chocolate chips)

Beat shortening in mixer; add brown sugar, baking soda, ginger, allspice, and salt-combine well; Beat in molasses and egg; beat in flour; stir in chocolate. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes or until bottoms browned; cool on wire rack. Makes 36 cookies.

They can be frozen for up to 3 months so make a double batch and freeze for when someone pops over. Great with coffee!

Now here are a few things I am loving...

Google Reader has become my go to place for blog reading. It is set up through GMail and has saved me tons of time. Whenever a new blog has been posted it shows up in a list right in my reader. I then click and voila I am transported straight to your blog. It ensures I don't miss any of your blog posts.

Fly Lady , what can I say except my house is clean thanks to you. Thank you Erin for posting a link to her site. Part of my struggle with balance in my life has been the overwhelming task of keeping my house picked up and clean. I have to think I'm not alone in this battle. If this is something you struggle with as well go check out her site when you have the time. The Daily, weekly, and zone cleaning routines work like a charm. My stresses about the house being clean have vanished.

I know we are in the midst of winter and the holidays but I have a new love. The Anacapa Summery Aran Wrap from Knitting in the Sun. I found this photo of the wrap on knit picks and I love it. When I saw the photo on Ravelry of this pattern I had no opinion, but this photo.....it did it for me.

I don't currently own any shawls and last summer during my knit-a-long with the Elizabeth Zimmerman Almanac I opted out. But this....I really want it.

I'm also loving, Thea's fireside sweater, Chris' pinky goodness, Erin's birthday shirts, and Philigry's cardigan. Now I'm off to knit some more socks, tend to a sick child, and hopefully watch a snowstorm blow in...what does your day look like?

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Procrastination

So I still have to do the seaming for those bears. Procrastination, anyone guilty out there? I remember in college usually the night before my finals would begin I would have the cleanest closet. Because everyone knows that a lack of dust bunnies and clutter in that tippy top shelf in your closet ensures a good grade right?

In honor of my college days from long ago I am participating in a good old procrastination fest. I made this bread. I love quick breads (who doesn't) and this is good morning or night. Toasted with some fruit in the morning. Or a side for a dinner of soup and salad.

Breakfast roll ups to store in the freezer so that no one will be hungry in the morning. I cooked up a mixture of homemade hash browns, a little cheese, eggs, salsa, and diced up turkey bacon. Wrapped them in whole grain tortillas and stored in the freezer. A quick heat in the microwave and we have breakfast for those on the go mornings.

I made a batch of vegetable stock for my freezer. A slow simmer of vegetables from my garden. Onions, carrots, celery (from the store), bell pepper, and lots of herbs and a couple of hours later I have some homemade stock for the next time soup making strikes my fancy.

This is one of a few baskets we have of apples harvested from the backyard. We have made one batch of applesauce that was promptly eaten and I plan on making another batch tonight or tomorrow. Peeled and cored the apples, simmered in a stock pot with a half a cup of water and a few tablespoons of sugar. Thirty minutes later a tasty afternoon snack for the kiddos.
Now the cooking is done and the kitchen is clean what else can I do? Well my daughter has been begging me to learn how to knit.

Unfortunately she doesn't quite have the dexterity yet to master it. I keep trying to teach her but this time it followed the same pattern and tears of frustration entered the scene. So I taught her finger weaving and it was a hit.

Have any of you done that? My sister and I used to finger weave all the time as kids. You weave the yarn back and forth through your fingers and pull the loops over. You end up with a long tube behind your hand and you can keep going until you have the length you want. We now have many different colored scarves that my daughter hand knit for her various puppies and kitties and other 'babies'.

So now the weekend is here. I still need to get those damn bears finished but I think I might have to make some soup because it is fall after all, and if I make soup then we'll need bread, and I don't know if I have any wine to drink with it so maybe a quick dash to the store and I still haven't finished watching season two of The Tudors and.....

What are your plans this weekend?

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Balance: Homemade Granola

I was recently watching something and food was involved. The discussion was regarding the soul nurturing component of food. If food is made with a loving intention then it did far more for a person than sate their hunger. You can taste the intention of the cook through their food. I liked that idea.
With that in mind I made this granola. Cooking for my family brings me comfort...."making dinner" does not. Know what I mean? I love putting food together to feed people when I have the time, no little people whining at me, and good ingredients. Unfortunately most of my cooking as of late has been the 'quick-get-it-on-the-table-everyone-quit-yelling-at-me-I-know-you're-hungry-I-can-only-do-one-thing-at-a-time' variety.

This time those things actually went a little more smoothly and if you had peeked in my window I would have looked like I had it all together, for that moment anyway :)

The long slow cooking of this granola filled my home with comforting smells and after a summer with minimal oven use it a was a nice reminder that autumn is around the corner, my favorite time of year.


The recipe for this delicious granola can be found here....I highly recommend making it. I think next time I'm going to add some flax to it. Great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The batch I made (which was a half batch of the recipe) is almost gone and even my pickiest eater consumed quite a bit. Hope you had a great day!

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Knitting as a diversionary tactic

One more little piece of Easter and then we will move on. My mother-in-law made these little nests with my daughter for our brunch. How cute are they? 2 cups of butterscotch chips melted with 1 cup of peanut butter. Mix melted mix with 2 cups of crisyp noodles. Scoop onto parchment paper and use the spoon to hollow out your "nest". Fill with malted eggs and voila....cute and delicous! They also made some with chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips. Easy, cute, and fun! Next year make some.

I lied....one more thing. You couldn't have possibly thought that I would let a holiday go by and not make another house. We have them at Christmas, and Halloween so of course we had an easter house.

Now, we all know how knitting can fill so many categories depending on what you need. Creative? Check. Meditative? Check. A great way to watch TV at night and still fill productive? Check. Showing love for the people around you? Check. But have any of you used it as a diversionary tactic? I just came off of a fun holiday weekend but as with most holidays it was full of family. Not just my own family of origin but in-laws as well. Now I'm not here to tell any tales but I have to say I used my knitting. Shamelessly even.

Friday night after the kids were in bed the wine started flowing and sometimes conversations took an uncomfortable turn. No yelling, or raised voices.....just conversations that I didn't' want to participate in. Can I tell you that never in my life has stockinette stitch and weaving in ends required more attention. Thank goodness no one around me knew how to knit so I had no fear of being caught. As conversations took a turn here or there I just buried my head in my knitting and offered noncommittal mmhmm's occasionally and "Oh I didn't hear you I have to really concentrate on this part." This technique has earned me many a free pass out of situations/conversations I have no interest in being a part of it. One more reason to love knitting!

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend and I have some finished pieces to show off this week. The weather is supposed to cooperate today (with snow by Wednesday) so I'm off to bribe my little red-haired girl with jelly beans to do a photoshoot.

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Scones & Egg Cozies

Weekend Knitting was the first grown-up knitting book I purchased. One of the patterns inside is the sweater egg cozies. The pattern has a caption discussing how fun it would be to serve house guests their hard-boiled eggs with these sweater cozies. I have to admit I found the whole idea a bit ridiculous but with Easter here I found myself casting on...


These little sweaters are going to hug a few hard boiled eggs on our table this year. We have a big Easter Brunch every year at my house and it is typically a movable feast. Family and close friends start trickling in mid-morning for good food, coffee, eggs, and way too much chocolate. I had debated about embroidering initials on them and using them as place settings but didn't have the time so they will just be a fun hand knit decoration.


This year we have close to twenty people and while a gathering of this size is fun for everyone it can be a little tricky with the planning of food. Of course everyone brings something but there still seems like a lot of cooking goes on. I try to makes things ahead of time and I thought I'd share something we love to eat for brunch (but only on special occasions because it is definitely not in the healthy category). I like to make scones and the whole family loves these maple scones from the Barefoot Contessa especially. Now I'm not sure if this is going to be new information for anyone or if I'm a little bit late to the party but here it goes :). I make these scones usually on Wednesday or Thursday before Easter (hopefully this afternoon I'll get to them). I don't cook them mind you I just mix and roll and cut and then place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, cover in plastic, and into the fridge they go. I cook them straight from the fridge Easter morning and they are delicious!

I sometimes will also place the cookie sheet in the freezer (uncooked) and when they are mostly frozen I put them in zip lock bags and then put the bags in the freezer. When I want just one or two scones then I pull one out of the freezer and pop straight into the oven (add a little bit longer to cook time). This is a great way to enjoy scones whenever you want or if your family is like mine, and somebody pops in on a Sunday morning and you want to serve them a treat with their coffee.

Do any of you have any helpful recipes or tips for a crowd? Happy Easter!

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Week wrap up

My week may or may not have looked like yours. There was a lot of yard tidying up. We are expanding our vegetable garden and also building a stone retaining wall (so much fun). We tidied up the yard and found some bulbs poking through.

Our fruit trees are finally budding

My strawberries are now the home of a plastic giraffe and some golf balls.....hmmmm
My first "crop" of the season was some fresh chives for our potatoes

I also have a recipe to share, and Claudia since you have been sharing so many healthful recipes and tips this year this dessert is especially for you. These brownies which include two cups (yes that is not a typo) of black beans.

Yummy, delicious, gluten-free (if you need/want that) fantastic brownies. Recipe for Amazing Black Bean Brownies here.

How was your week?

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