Seven Months

Well, I never meant to go that long without blogging.  Life is just so full right now.  And I'm really not that good at taking pictures of it.

Olive Oil Lime cake with Crystallized Ginger Glaze, for our housemate's birthday in January

It was Lent, and then I had a baby, and then I had four kids and was homeschooling, and now it's Summer and I was homeschooling but I think we're on vacation until September now.  Gotta have some semblance of Summer Break, right?

Had my first water birth! Definitely soothing "down there" after all the pushing.  Not sure if it was worth the extra money, though.  I didn't even have time to labor in it!

This morning, some sweet friends drove the older three to Vacation Church School, so Isaac and I are chilling at home.  It's so quiet!

Newborn Isaac

And I have so much to do!  This week was supposed to be The Great School Room Clean Out.  But as it takes too long to get downtown for VCS and come back here and then go back there, I haven't done anything yet.  And what better way to procrastinate than by writing a blog post?

We actually put one of our kids in a crib.  He's doing well with it!  Sometimes he reads in bed.

You know what having four kids has finally done for me?

This is about what I see when I'm nursing.  I had a cozy little spot set up next to our bed upstairs with my rocking chair, tables for beverages, trays for breakfast my Mom so sweetly brought up to me during the time I was supposed to limit my trips up and down the stairs.

It's made me realize just how much there is to do in a week to just live day to day.  Laundry, cooking, cleaning (even the very little I can manage), homeschooling, getting outside (once in awhile!!).  I think it's taken me this long to figure out that just because I'm home doesn't mean I kind of have a free day.  Not that I wouldn't have done things in the past or thought I could sit aroundwatch movies all day or anything like that.  I made meals, did laundry, attempted to clean, played with the kids, took them on outings.  But I didn't do it with any sense of urgency.  As in, I have to do the laundry right now, today, because if I don't, I won't be able to do all the other things I have to do this week.

Maggie's still baby-crazy.  John is following in her footsteps.

This one is rather head-over-heels herself.  Thing Two, here, puts up with it.

I literally sit down and plan out my hours lately.  Or half hours—but that usually makes me rush around too much from one thing to another and I am a little too slow for that!  Now, I don't always sit down and do this until around 10AM or around noon, after John's down for his midday nap.  And I don't usually even follow it very well.  I just need to know there is some kind of expectation for my time.  Seriously, it's taken me having four kids to get even the slightest bit organized.  Because if I can't be a little organized now, I wouldn't survive!

Pascha Baskets for four!

Pascha dresses and our family basket behind the girls.  They were off to the midnight service, once again without Mama.  I think I go about every other year these days!

So, if I'm not posting very often these days, that's why.  I have very little time I consider "free" any more, and frankly, blogging is not high on the list of things I want to do with that time.  Hanging out with my wonderful husband watching some Alfred Hitchcock or Deep Space Nine after the kids are (finally) in bed?  Yes.  Going out for coffee with him with probably just Isaac (and maybe not even him) while someone watches the rest?  Yes.  Sitting outside with the kids while they play in the kiddie pool in our backyard?  Yep.  It's Summer!  I'll have plenty of time to sit around in the house in a few months!

"Sling view" on one of our first outings to a launch party for Josiah and Julia Go to Church, written by a friend.

Looking more himself.

Well, that's a quick overview of 2012 so far.  There are tons of photos in my album that would lend themselves to posts, and if I get a chance, maybe I'll try to catch up a little.  With all that free time I have when I start homeschooling again this Fall.  Ha!

Helpful Lenten Staple Recipes

During Lent, whether you use "substitutes" (you know, soy/rice/almond/etc. milk, margarine, soy meats, and the like?) is your business.  However, I would guess that some days, the simplest thing to do is to have cereal with a milk product for breakfast, to get those veggies into their diet raw with some kind of dip, and that bread and butter/margarine (my Dad calls it "lubricant") will have to do for the lion's share of their dinner because there's no way they are eating more than "five bites 'cause you're five" of that lovely veggie soup you made. 

Apples are good for you.  Unless they happened to be poisoned á la Snow White!! (Happens a lot in our house.)

It's not my job to tell anyone else how to fast.  The church gives guidelines, and our parish priests interpret them for us in our particular situations.  Thank God that this burden does not rest on our shoulders!

As Fr. Schmemann is often quoted, "The purpose of fasting is to be hungry."  Along those lines, we are also called on to think less about food and to use less time and money to prepare it.  We are to replace those thoughts with more prayer, use our extra time to attend more services, and give our excess food funds to the poor.

While I don't often do much in the way of actually following the food guidelines (since I am a nursing Mom of young kids with a dispensation not to fast) I still think of this as a fasting time.  I make a Lenten dinner for our family, and some years, the kids and I try to give up meat.  The other parts of the fast—thinking less about food and using less time to prepare it—are things I can attempt. 

That being said, we still have to eat often—usually about every two hours!  Being somewhat frugally inclined, I (try to) homemake much of what we consume, and well, reducing the thought, time, and money required to prepare that much food every day is tricky.  If I am to think less about food in spite of the frequency we need it every day, then sometimes the way to do that is to make something easy, something I know, which often requires something in the dairy department. (I can't make something my kids hate every night for dinner.)

Unlike St. Nicholas, this baby does not refuse the breast twice a week.  His chubby knees make that obvious.

I have never met anyone who goes through fasting periods without some kind of non-dairy milk in the fridge, so I am going to share a recipe for making this at home.  Personally, I try to avoid soy because I've read that too much of it can play with hormones in bad ways.  I'm not a fanatic, but since I don't want my (or really, my husband's) entire lenten diet to be something like soymilk for breakfast, tofu dogs for lunch, and soy chik'n strips for dinner (with soy shreds on top), I try to get other things where I can.

Milk-wise, though, there are not a lot of options that also provide any protein.  Rice and almond milks taste better and don't contain soy, but at about 1 gram protein per cup, there's just not much there.

Since we have some dairy allergies in the family, I've had a lot of practice substituting in various recipes.  As a prelude to the non-dairy milk recipe, here is a recipe for Cashew Sour Cream that we use in things like stroganoff or Ranch Dip.  I list this first (even though it's less of a "staple") because I find the technique helpful for the non-dairy milk recipe.  Both of these were shared in my Mom's parish's collection of Lenten recipes.

Cashew Sour Cream
by Ruth Baum (my Mom)

1 cup RAW cashew pieces (Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc...)
1 cup cold water
3/4 tsp. salt + 1/4 tsp. onion powder (OR 1 tsp. onion salt)
----------------------------
1 cup vegetable oil
----------------------------
1/3 cup lemon juice

Combine in a blender: cashews, water, salt, and onion powder.  Blend until VERY smooth.  Then, while blender is running on HIGH, slowly drizzle in the oil (this technique creates an emulsion—which is a big word for the texture of something like mayonnaise—and helps it not to separate later).  Empty the contents of blender into a storage container and stir in lemon juice.  Refrigerate several hours before serving.  Makes 2 3/4 cups.  

For soup or sauce recipes calling for heavy cream or half and half, leave out the lemon juice.  Can also be used in place of ricotta to make a vegan lasagna.

For a good Ranch Dip recipe, visit the Hillbilly Housewife and scroll down.  I use the half mayo/half sour cream variation, combined with the seasonings from the Yogurt Ranch Dressing recipe.

Now, I've been using this recipe for a while.  I got to thinking that if I changed the recipe somewhat, I could probably come up with a non-dairy milk recipe.  Then I remembered that my Mom had come up with one of those too.  And that I'd used it before, long ago.  At the time, I made it with cooked white rice, which doesn't have the nice flavor or creaminess of raw cashews, lacks the higher protein content, and has to be cooked first.  Blah.

More babies.  Top: me (red shirt) with a friend.  Bottom: My grandmother (and namesake) with my father.

Cashew Milk
by Ruth Baum (with my variations)

1 cup raw cashews (may substitute other raw nuts or seeds or cooked grains—some substitutions may need to soak over night to get a smooth texture)
1 cup cold water
1 T honey (or 2 T if you like a sweeter non-dairy beverage)
1/2 tsp. vanilla (or more to taste if you want "vanilla milk")
1/4 tsp. salt
--------------------
2 T oil
--------------------
2 1/4 c. additional cold water

My Mom's recipe simply says, "Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth."  Try that if you like. I feel more assured of smoothness by following the same technique as for Cashew Sour Cream.  So, add the cashews through the salt and blend that until smooth.  Then, with the blender running, drizzle in the oil.  Once you are satisfied with the texture and smoothness, add in the rest of the water and blend again to fully incorporate it.  This should produce a quart of Cashew Milk.  Refrigerate and serve chilled.  Although, you can use it in coffee too—or mix half and half with the above (un-soured) Cashew Cream recipe... but is that starting to get too complicated?

*****Additional Note on the Cashew Milk: it will separate in the fridge.  Just give it a stir and everything will be fine.*****

If you follow these proportions, you end up with about 5 grams of protein per cup (a little less that the 8 grams in real milk, but better than the 1 gram in rice or almond!).  You can leave out the oil if you prefer less fat or are fasting from oil, although the cashews themselves do contain fat.  Actually, with their 12 grams of fat, maybe the oil isn't necessary?  Maybe the whole "drizzle while running" step could be skipped?  I'd still start with the one cup of water to get the mixture as smooth as possible and then add the rest of the water.

I would say that the above qualifies as a substitute. "...at which, being a man of little imagination, he failed" (Dickens).

Finally, yesterday afternoon, at about 4PM, I had (amazingly) already finished making our Mexican Corn Chowder for dinner.  I wanted some kind of bread to go with it.  But I didn't want to do a true cornbread because that seemed redundant.  I didn't have any QuickRise Yeast to make a quick breadmachine recipe.  I didn't want biscuits, and I was trying to save our sliced bread for sandwiches or morning toast.  I finally tried this recipe from Mark Bittman's tome How to Cook Everything, which I highly recommend.  Great recipes for simple food.  Actually, on the cover it says "Simple recipes for great food."  You will find both in this book.

Not a baby.  One of my paternal great-grandmothers.

This recipe has it all: whole wheat flour, no yeast (so it's quick), and then I noticed it doesn't call for any eggs or oil, just milk.  I used Cashew Milk.

Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread
by Mark Bittman (with a few notes by me)

butter or oil (margarine) for greasing the pan
1 2/3 c. buttermilk or plain yogurt, or 1 1/2 c. milk + 2 T. white vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat from Trader Joe's)
1/2 c. cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. molasses

Preheat oven to 325ºF.  Grease and 8X4-inch or 9X5-inch loaf pan.

Add the vinegar to the milk and let rest (Bittman advises to warm the milk gently, but I didn't, although it wasn't fridge temp either).

Mix the dry ingredients.  Stir molasses into the milk mixture.  Whisk the liquid into the dry ingredients, then pour into the loaf pan.  Bake until firm and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour (mine was done in 45 minutes).  Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.  (Ooops… I removed from the pan and then cooled… make sure to cool it somehow before slicing though, or it will probably fall apart).

Very molasses-y, but if your kids like brown sugar and are somewhat accustomed to whole wheat bread and corn bread, they should like this.  My five-year-old did.  Bittman says you can even use this for sandwhich bread, although as a quick bread, it would be a bit crumbly.  It was great leftover for breakfast this morning with margarine and jam! (And actually, for protein, with some mild cheddar cheese sliced on top of the jam... sounds weird, but it was good!)

There you go!  If I have another burst of free time (read: time in my PJs while one or more kids are sick), I'll try to post my lenten menu for this year.

Two of my sickies.  Although, this was taken when they were well.  My kids are not that happy when they are sick.

Eggs and Pure Prayer

On the Wednesday following the Sunday of the Pharisee and Publican, your breakfast might look something like this:

Have I ever told you how much I love my cast iron griddle?  It has a "grill line" side too.

And your spiritual reflections might be fed by something like this:

Three Characteristics of Christian Prayer
(a meditation on the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, by Fr. Patrick Reardon)

L'Oven

I love finding me a new, good blog.  It's almost like finding a new friend.  Or maybe like stalking a new friend, but whatever.  Something clicks.

Allow me to introduce to any of you who are unfamiliar, Oven Love!

I have to admit that I stumbled upon this particular blog when I searched for a recipe for Homemade Spaghetti O's.  I don't even remember having this much as a child, really.  And I didn't like tomato sauce that much, so why would I have had it?

Regardless, recently, my brother recently moved in with us and brought a few bags of dry goods with him.  One little box contained Creamette "rings."  I actually sort of laughed.  Who buys rings?  What do you do with them?  But then I thought of Spaghetti O's.  So I added them to Beef and Slaw Soup.  And then I needed more.

I'm working on my Lenten Menu (can it be so close?), and one of the lunches I had down from last year was Quick Mac and Cheese (which is a genius recipe of my own creation), but unfortunately, my middle child has decided since then that she doesn't like cheese.  Well, she didn't really like cheese then either, but I don't think she realized that "Macaroniandcheese" had cheese in it.  Too bad.

Answer, Spaghetti O's!  (I hope.)

Here is the recipe that looks so simple and promising:


Oven Love's Homemade Spaghetti O's
(Caveat: above recipe has dairy, so may not fit your Lenten needs.)

That is one in a series of homemade convience foods:
Oven Love's Pre-Made Our Way Series

Here's a list of her upcoming posts for the year:
Oven Love's The Great Food Adventure 2011

And finally, some truly hunger-inducing photos and recipes:
Oven Love's Superbowl Friendly Recipes

Prepare to be hungry!  And inspired!

Baked Oatmeal

I first discovered this dish at Covenant Point Bible Camp.  I still remember one of the counselors declaring that it would sit in your stomach for hours.  (I think in a good way!)  I can't remember if it was at a summer camp or one of their winter weekends, but it seems made for Winter.   I seem to recall a generous layer of some kind of brown sugar topping on their version.  Maybe I'll try to recreate that some day.  That would probably involve using a little less sweetener in the Baked Oatmeal itself.

This recipe serves about four hungry adults and at least two kids five or under.  :)

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease an 8x8 pyrex dish.

Mix dry ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 to 1 c. brown sugar (I use 1/2c.)*
2tsp. baking powder
1tsp. cinnamon
1tsp. salt

Mix wet ingredients:
1c. applesauce
1tsp. vanilla
2 eggs (or 2 eggs worth egg replacer)
1/2c. rice milk (or milk)
*We were out of brown sug today, so I subbed 1/2c. honey + 1/4c. maple syrup, mixed with the wet ingredients. It was a little too sweet, but the flavor was great!

Combine thoroughly and pour into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 30 minutes. A tester poked in the middle will not come out completely clean, but cook it until it is as solid (or as browned) as you like.  (Probably any more than 30 minutes is too much, though.)

Optional: You can also stir into the batter 1/2 to 1c. blueberries/cranberries/nuts/raisins/etc., but my kids like everything plain these days. Sigh.

Eat warm with milk poured over it and with other toppings of choice. :)
 
(With various substitutions, this can be Lenten!  I originally googled this hoping for a vegan version.  This was my favorite because it used a lot of oats and has a good flavor.  It doesn't rise as high with the egg replacer, but it is quite good that way.)

(This is my reworking of a this recipe.)

Sink Wall Love

Like Mother Like Daughter is having a linky party today.  We are beautifying the wall or windowsill or whatever it is that you have behind your kitchen sink.  I love it!

Mine used to look like this:

Boring, right?  I've wanted something up there for a while now—a specific something.  But I put it off because notice I use that space for drying large flat things like cutting boards and cookie sheets.  That pretty much covers up that little wall.

I haven't been using a dish drainer lately because I find that I empty it and put away the stuff even less frequently than I get rid of this pile.  At least when I get rid of this pile, I have the option of an extra square foot of counter space, which adds up in a Chicago apartment kitchen!

Notice the towel my stuff is drying on?  Go to this post on Kitchen Flow and scroll down a ways.  Leila does the same thing!   (I'm so validated!)

Mercifully, my iPhone camera is not high-enough quality to show how dirty the wall back there actually is.  And I'm not showing you the rest of the kitchen either.  I took some photos of it though... maybe I will show them to you when I have something clean to put with them!  Let's just say that since we added child three and homeschooling a kindergartener to the mix, I've been a little out of sync with my kitchen cleanliness.

I didn't have a chance to examine the "flow" in my kitchen.  It's a little odd since our dishes are stored in the dining room in the china cabinet to leave space in the kitchen cabinets for food since our pantry is our utility laundry closet.  (Whew!  That was a long sentence.)  And there's only one way the dishes can be stacked and flow which is not very efficient because of the placement of the stove and dishwasher.  But it's fine.  This is the most counter space I've ever had!  (Not showing you the rest of it, though, remember?)

I didn't even have a chance to clean the wall.  Shame on me, I suppose.

Instead, I made one change.  Just one!

 

 

OK.  Maybe that counts as two.  Although, I'm not sure that anyone else will put my cutting boards up there.  In fact, I think my husband actually moved one down from up there thinking it was probably an accident that someone balanced it up there and that it would fall if not moved.

The important change is that little framed Bible verse.  For a long time now, I've wanted to have various verses posted around my home that apply to the task at hand.  It's similar to what I've seen when our Orthodox priests vest.  For each piece they put on, a Bible verse (usually a Psalm verse) is prayed.  Naturally, the psalm that comes to mind when I am at the sink is this:

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

~KJV, Psalm 51/50

I spent a little time reformatting a file I'd already made for another framed verse on the opposite wall.  I think I posted it here somewhere, but I can't find it, so I can't link to it (I think it's still in draft).

This is what I came up with:

(To save, click on the image to enlarge it, then either click and drag it into a document and print, or right-click and save the image and then insert into a document.)

I printed it, trimmed it, and framed it with an inexpensive black IKEA frame.  If you like it, feel free to follow the instructions above and use it!  I'd like to come up with a few more of these for other places in the house.  It's one way I can remind myself to pray throughout the day, especially during the less-than-exciting household tasks.

Thanks to Leila for the nudge to get this up there!  Go visit her post and see some more Sink Wall Love or join in yourself!

Sit! Stay!

They look so sweet.  Or are they planning something?

I've always envied those Moms who have managed to teach their kids to say, "May I be excused?" before wandering away from a meal.  Heck, I envy Moms who have gotten their kids to stay seated while chewing.  "Sit like you're going to stay there" is something that I say to my five-year-old at least twice a meal (both legs on the chair is a good start).  My three-year-old simply refuses to say anything on command.  And since we've tried on occasion to insist she say "May I be excused?" she now refuses to say any phrase that includes the word excuse.  Bye-bye spoken manners for a few more months. 

My imp

I see the Family Meal as a special time.  It is a bastion of culture in our easy-going society.  There are generally expected rules of decorum, which, even if you violate them from time to time, you probably wouldn't if "company" were there, or at least if you were having a "special meal" of some kind.  At the very least, you probably have a vague idea of what I write.

Sorry this is so blurry—hand-me-down iPhone and all.  It's the outdoor chapel area at my in-laws' church in Ohio.

It is also one area of life that I feel like I have mastered.  I can cook.  I can set a table properly. (And I usually make an effort to—more often than I think sometimes, because my three-year-old surprised me this morning by getting her own silverware and putting them in the proper places!  Score one for Mom.)  And honestly, I don't have to think about it the way I do cleaning up the kitchen or doing the laundry.  My Mom is a great cook and always puts dinner on the table, and I can't imagine life any other way.  (Thanks, Mom!)

Just what is so funny to this child?  She usually has this expression on her face.

Don't misunderstand: (1) I do put a lot of thought into it and (2) I am certainly not perfect, nor do we have six-course meals every night (some days, more than one dish at the meal is just too much).  But I plan menus, pour over cookbooks, and have many opinions on the Weekly Menu idea.  I also, start cooking too late, neglect my crying baby who wants to nurse now in order to finish cooking a dish (he can eat when the rest of us do, right?  Well, sometimes....), etc.  I don't have some streamlined, very clean, elegantly running kitchen.  But dinner always manages to happen.  (Can't say the same for cleaning up the kitchen or laundry, although, now that I think about it, those things happen often enough that I need to stop beating myself up over it.)

Don't blink. Don't even blink.

Back to my kids sitting at the table.  Up until the very recent past, it was enough effort for me to get them to try something on their plates that I wasn't about to worry too much about how long they sat at the table.  They are five, three, and six months, after all.  However, if I want to get them to sit there sometime in the future, it follows that I do have to start sometime in the present.

My husband had a thought (he's clever about things like this).  What if we had them stay until most of us are done eating (let's be honest here: I'm the one who takes the longest—and of course we're not going to expect them to stay as long as us boring adults keep talking) and then we sing a hymn or prayer and let them go?  Andrew had gotten in the habit of doing this in the St. Tikhon's Seminary dining hall.  Once most people are finished, they stand and sing a hymn of thanksgiving.  We could do the same thing, and we had just the hymn to use.

Sometime back, Andrew's father composed a table grace to use at family meals.  Our brother-in-law set it to a familiar western hymn and typed it up.  Conveniently, we have a framed copy hanging in our dining room.  Once in a great while, it has gotten used as our family's prayer before the meal. 

We prepared the kids during some meal (might have been something as boring as a weekday lunch), telling them we wanted to sing a song when we were finished, so they needed to stay at the table until then.  There was very little resistance.  They like to sing, so they were intrigued.  Once the meal was finished, we stood, faced the framed sheet music, and sang.  We repeated the performance at dinner.

The simply worded hymn was a hit!  The kids even began singing it to themselves during the day.  For some reason, they think they need to stand on their chairs to sing it. (It is probably because Maggie wants to see the music, but Susannah just does it—and it makes me giggle to think of some stranger looking in at our post-dinner ritual of standing on our chairs and singing.  Maybe I'm imagining the adults doing it too.)  Now they have even started reminding us that we need to sing!

We don't always remember to do it, but any time the kids are wandering off well before the rest of us are finished eating, we casually remind them that they need to stay until we sing, and they come right back.  There might have been the occasional "I-don't-wanna" but it has been minimal and relatively subdued.  And they are getting the idea that we stay at the table together for a meal.  We don't stuff our faces and run off with a mouthful of food.  (Although, at one time, I considered sitting at the table just long enough to stuff their faces an accomplishment.  Progress, not perfection.)

I'm finding with this and some other behavioral things, that it's easier to wait a little longer than I'd like for my eldest to get these concepts.  If I wait just long enough for her little sister to catch up, I'm not singling out Maggie.  Instead, I am just showing the kids what their responsibility is.  Of course their standards won't be adult standards; they will be tailored to fit children.  But they will be on the spectrum of forming them into adults.  And it won't be a huge surprise later.

Kishler Family Table Prayer

(to the tune of Immortal, Invisible)

We thank thee, Dear Father, from heaven above

For Thy goodness, Thy mercy, Thy kindness, and love.

We thank Thee for family and friends so dear,

And all of the blessings that we enjoy here.

Amen.

© Robert Kishler, 2000

The Author, Grandpa Kishler, with the latest grandkids (not both mine—could you imagine??)

Please see Leila's post The Reasonably Clean Kitchen starts with rules for the kids for more great ideas on this general theme!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Matushka Anna inspired and reminded me that I had wanted to create some kind of centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house.

She used things she had around the house, so I figured I could do something similar.  My parents have baskets and bowls of pine cones in every room.  It's their thing.

Are these called hurricanes?  Notice they don't match at the bottom.

 After locating two hurricanes, I found two raspberry-colored candles in a drawer.

A freezing brisk walk around the house produced some rose hips (the berries, I think) and some interesting purple green leaves.  My Mom had a stash of the smaller pine cones.

A few minutes and some twine produced this!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Orange Icing

I still have a Pumpkin Chiffon Pie to bake, bags to pack, a house to tidy, laundry to fold, and clothes to put on (maybe I should do that one first), but what the heck, I'll share this recipe now instead of later.  Maybe it would work for your Thanksgiving breakfast tomorrow morning?

Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Orange Icing

Scones
2 cups white flour (or you could throw in a little whole wheat if you're compulsive about that like I am sometimes, but I actually prefer all white here)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon*
1/2 tsp ground ginger*
1/8 tsp nutmeg*
1/8 tsp cloves*
(*Or substitute equivalent amount of pumpkin pie spice or whatever spice combination you like for pumpkin things.... Side note, I'm realizing as I type this that I completely forgot to include these in my double batch of scones yesterday.  Sigh.  Maybe I can garnish the frosted scones with a sprinkle of cinnamon?)

7 TBSP cold butter or margarine, in pieces if using stick butter/margarine

3/4 cup pecans, chopped (but not minced, we want chunks here)

1 TBSP lemon juice or white vinegar
1/4 cup rice milk (or whatever non-milk you use)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Orange Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP pumpkin
1 1/2 tsp milk substitute
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp orange extract


Method
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Grease a baking sheet with margarine.

Mix the dry ingredient (flour through spices) in a large bowl.  Mix completely.  Add margarine, wash your hands, then mix the margarine into the flour mixture by picking up flour and margarine together and rubbing between your fingers until it all resembles "course crumbs."  Stir in pecans.

In another bowl (or a pyrex measuring cup), mix thoroughly lemon juice, milk, pumpkin, and vanilla.  Add this to flour and margarine mixture.  Mix completely until flour mixture is completely moistened.  

This recipe always ends up looking like batter until I add a lot more flour.  Start with 1/4 cup or so (I want to say I may add up to as much as an entire cup more, but don't start with that) and keep adding until the batter is more of a dough and is something you can kneed a few times (less than 10).

Once the dough is dry enough (but not too dry), dump it out on the counter, kneed a few times, adding flour as necessary to keep it handle-able.  Pat and press the dough into a 7- to 8-inch circle.  Use a long, sharp knife to cut into 8 wedges.  Use a thin spatula to transfer wedges to rows on a baking sheet.  Keep an inch or two apart.  (Mainly, don't put it back on the sheet in a circle or they will all bake together and won't look as pretty.)


Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes.  Remove when edges are golden brown and tops look done.  (You can stick a knife or a toothpick in and see if it comes out "clean"—as in not covered in wet batter—if you are unsure.)  Let cool on a wire rack.


To prepare the icing, measure sugar into a bowl (or pyrex measuring cup).  Add pumpkin, milk, vanilla, and orange extract.  It won't seem like enough liquid, but if you add more, the icing will run off and be more of a glaze.  Mix thoroughly.  Wait to frost the scones until they are pretty cool.  Otherwise, icing will melt.  Don't worry about getting the icing perfect—it will smooth out as it drys.


Note
I know this recipe looks ridiculously complicated and long, but it really comes together fast.  If you've made biscuits from scratch, you can do this.  ;)


Credit
I began with this recipe for Mocha Chip Scones and completely adulterated changed it.

Grumpies

I don't know what it is.  A week of being home recovering from being sick last weekend?  Feeling behind on holiday (both) planning?  A gray sky that has looked like twilight all day?  (I do enjoy the occasional thunder and lightening.  But the blah-gray in between?) 

Whatever.

So, I'm dressed now.  I'm cleaning up my kitchen to the tune of my Pandora radio station for days like this.  I'm about to make two batches of Blueberry Scones and two batches of Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Orange Icing for Thanksgiving morning breakfast at my parents' house.  (Amazingly, both are fasting recipes!)

Please, Baby Boy, stay asleep long enough for me to finish this!

Peperonata Hummus Panini

Is there any English in that title?

In honor of the beginning of the Advent Fast, a yummy fasting sandwich recipe.  This is an oil recipe, in case you avoid that type of thing at some point during fasts.

You'll need...

• margarine
• good, possibly savory, bread
• hummus
• Peperonata Sauce (I imagine you can buy something like this somewhere? And I left out the pine nuts... my brother had a bad one and now I'm scared of them.)

Here's what to do:  heat a grill pan (lovely grill lines),  griddle, or skillet to medium-high heat.  Margarine (is that a verb?) the outsides of two slices of good bread as for grilled cheese.  Put both slices on the pan to heat.  Press down with a spatula (or if you have one of those panini contraptions, use that) to flatten the bread slightly and get the grill lines into the bread.  Slather on some hummus on both pieces of bread as they are grilling.  Warm the peperonata sauce and top the bread with two to four tablespoons of sauce depending on the size of your bread.  Carefully place the piece sans sauce on top of the sauce piece.  Remove to plate and enjoy!

I used roasted garlic bread (with whole garlic cloves actually in the bread), greek olive hummus, and a homemade peperonata sauce that I had leftovers of.  I assume one can find something like it in stores.  If not, roasted red or yellow peppers, sprinkled with (chopped?) capers and kalamata olives, and drizzled with olive oil and red wine vinegar (leave out any of those ingredients that you don't like or sound like too much work) would arrive at something fairly similar.

This is for people who like a lot of flavor, especially the way I originally made it.  For those of you dealing with or recovering from the stomach flu, steer clear.  (That would include me for the moment!)

I would have lovely pictures to accompany this post, but "life" ate my camera.  Any forthcoming photos on this blog for some time will be from my hand-me-down iPhone/Pod.

Nothing to Report, Except Some Recipes

Other than increasingly uncomfortable nights, there is little change here.  A couple of things going on with my body might mean that labor is in sight, but I won't get too graphic here.  Of course, my doctor says they really don't indicate a time frame, but it keeps me going.  Trying to will myself into labor this morning (I might have had a light contraction or two) did not work.

So instead of baby updates, I'll add some links to some of my favorite recipes from our Summer Fasting Menu.
 

• Fish (or Shrimp) Tacos ~ I'm replacing the shrimp with some kind of white fish, since I already have a couple of shrimp dishes on the menu.
• Dumplings with Soy Slaw ~ This one is a serious favorite of mine.  And so summery.

To finish sharing the dinners on our menu, here are the final three:

The Shrimp Stir Fry night is just combining a bag of precooked shrimp with a bag or two of stir fry veggies, and either throwing together a sauce yourself (I like to mix rice or cider vinegar, honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil to taste) or using some kind of prepared sauce (either a bottle or something that came with the veggies).  This is my Errand Day easy meal.

The next recipe comes from a cookbook my Mom gave me in college, The Kitchenless Cookbook, by Suanne Beverly.  I've changed it a bit, so I think I can offer it here in my own format.  I love this stuff.  I eat it right out of the bowl.

Finally, I created this recipe from the contents of the pantry in the home of one of the families we house-sat for last summer as we were moving back to Chicago.  It turned out amazing—probably due to the amount of olive oil I used.  It might be improved with fresh parsley.  I used tubetti in my initial creation, but I recently bought shells, because those will catch the peas and walnut pieces well.  I'm making myself hungry....

Now, to see if I get through a week of using this menu before Baby arrives and my Mom takes over my kitchen!  (Thank you, Mom!)

Apostle's Fast Menu

In about a week and a half, we will be entering the Apostle's Fast.  As per the last post, I have created a set weekly menu for our meals during this time.  I'd like to share our menu and possibly some recipes as I am able.  Mary is my inspiration in this.

I don't know how far I'll get with this project during the Apostle's Fast, or even if I'll do much cooking from this menu--I'm about two weeks away from delivering a baby and my mother will be in town to take care of household tasks for a while.  :)  But I'll be recycling this menu for the Dormition Fast in August and can pick it up again then.

My menu may look much different from another family's fasting menu.  I won't go into all the details--many will be obvious from looking at our menu.  What one actually eats during a fast should be decided in consultation with one's spiritual father.  I'm happy to answer any questions, though.

 With that said, here is our proposed (and un-tested!) Apostle's Fast Menu:

One of the recipes on our menu is Moroccan Couscous Salad.  I developed it from a favorite crock pot recipe from a Saving Dinner Menu Mailer.

A huge thank you to Mary for the inspiration to work on this; for layout, font, and illustration ideas (being an incredibly generous person, I know she won't mind how similar my pages look to hers); for tips on getting my Mac to create these images; and for all the amazing resources she provides.  It has been a pleasure getting to know her a little through her blog.