12 days of Christmas: baking

I've been enjoying looking through all my cookbooks finding new recipes to try this holiday season. I'm challenging myself to post 12 of those recipes here on the blog. First up is White Chocolate-Cranberry Biscotti. I love biscotti. When Ryan and I were hanging out in Salida on Friday we went to a bakery in town and they had a basket full of huge biscotti. I have about a dozen biscotti recipes earmarked, but I'm sort of on a cranberry kick these days so I decided to try these first.
White Chocolate-Cranberry Biscotti
from Taste of Home: Cookies & Bars

1/2 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar (the recipe calls for 1 cup, but it was plenty sweet with 3/4 c.)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 c. dried cranberries
3/4 c. white chocolate chips
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in cranberries and white chips. Divide dough into 3 portions.
On ungreased baking sheets, shape each portion into a 10 by 2 inch rectangle. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes.
Transfer to a cutting board; cut diagonally with a serrated knife into 1 inch slices. Place cut side down on baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 2 1/2 dozen.


Mason wanted to help me stack the biscotti. When I got the camera and told him to smile he said, "they can't smile mom, they don't have teeth!" I said, "yeah, you're right." He then said, "mommy didn't know?" Ha!

handmade

Every year my bf, Mindy, and I challenge each other to make as many homemade Christmas gifts as we can. I love to give and recieve handmade gifts. We update each other throughout the year on our progress and occasionally try to get together to work a little bit. Even with all that planning, I still find myself in the middle of a thousand projects come December. But, most of my presents are about done. I had to finish my gifts for my cousins early because we celebrated Christmas with extended family at Thanksgiving. Here are a couple of the scarves I made:

For little cousin, Olivia...still in progress when the picture was snapped.
The teal one for Marylin and the green striped one for Karly. The kiddos are having an extended sleepover at Grammie and Grandpa's house. Mason's a pro at the sleepover thing, but this is Emma's first time. I miss them. But, Ryan and I are getting some sleeeeeeeep!! And my house is full of fabric, yarn, my sewing machine and Christmas music. I'm determined to finish as much as I can. Ryan and I are off today to do some antique shopping and hit up the hotsprings pools. What a treat!

8 months: yesterday

Yesterday marked Emma's 8 month birthday.

Yesterday also marked two years since the last time I got to tell my dad that I loved him.

I didn't get the chance to blog about any of it because I stayed up too late making crepes with my cousins. It was a nice distraction. Laughing, eating too much (nutella filled crepes...yum!), and being with family.


Dear Emma, it's hard to believe that you are already 8 months old. I'm not quite sure how that happened. You are changing so much every day. We have loved watching you take it all in this month.

I don't think it will be long before you will be completely mobile. If you are on the floor, you are up on all fours, lunging around. You just haven't quite figured out how to coordinate the legs and arms at the same time.

You have the sweetest smile. It's a joy to watch you laugh and babble. You finally have a little tooth poking through on the bottom. Your toothless grin will soon be a thing of the past.

This month, you:
~eat just about anything (new foods: egg yolks, chicken, turkey, cheese)
~love to feed yourself
~have pushed yourself up from laying down to sitting a couple times
~have pulled yourself up
~only slept through the night twice
~are very entertained by Mason
~take two naps a day
~love to play in the bathtub
~play with toys
~sing out during church and giggle at your brother

I think we fall more in love with you every day. You are pure joy, Emma girl.

xoxo,
mommy

thanksgiving

I really enjoyed an extra day home with my kids this week. We spent yesterday playing and preparing for today. My house is the cleanest it's been in months. Lots of good pumpkins smells are coming from the kitchen. We are busy with last minute preparations while we wait for family to come over.

Emma is busy smearing her breakfast all over her face. Mason is busy decorating our table for Thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

weekend notes

Ryan and Grandpa spent most of the weeknd working on this:With lots of help from their number one fan:Emma spent most of the weekend rolling around on the floor, pulling herself up (twice!) and popping up on all fours. She hasn't moved forward yet, but she sure is getting ready. I think she enjoyed playing by herself while Mason was outside helping the guys. No one was in her face, stealing her toys, or copying her every move. I spent most of the weekend cleaning and baking. And staying up way too late making cards with friends. I think I may have found a new favorite dinner roll recipe and it involves pumpkin and cloves. Mason and I made a huge batch of hot cocoa mix and Emma has mastered the finger foods....pieces of bread, rice, cheese, banana and avacodo. She chomps down pretty good for still being toothless.

Church was great today. I enjoyed both the message and the Thanksgiving meal we shared afterwards. Mason couldn't get enough turkey dipped in cranberry sauce and I think he talked four different people into sharing their dessert with him. I am so thankful for the friends we have to gather with each week.

I'm looking forward to a short week of school and finishing up some Christmas projects (we're celebrating with some extended family during Thanksgiving, so the clock is ticking!). We have two meals to look forward to at the end of the week, first with Ryan's family and then with mine. I can't stop looking through my cookbooks and making final decisions about what to prepare. I really enjoy our weekends of working on projects together, eating meals together, and playing with our sweet kids. I feel so blessed.

projects

It's always something around here. We have plenty to accomplish on our to-do list. Ryan spent the weekend putting up a pole barn with the help of Tim, Grandpa and Grammie. It was plenty cold and windy for sure. They still have a little ways to go before it's finished (siding and roof) but they got a great start. I stayed inside with the kids making cookies and hot chocolate. Mason spent the morning sorting his blocks (numbers on the right and letters on the left).And stealing cuddles with Grandpa during a break from the cold.We have plenty of projects going on inside too. I spent Mondy night painting in the kitchen. We now have cabinets on a wall that has been waiting for them for far too long. We are still waiting for our countertop. It turns out they don't make the same countertop that we have in the rest of our kitchen anymore, but Ryan finally found a place where he could special order it.

We spent last night hanging wood...the beginning of our beams that will cover the pipes going through our kitchen from the addition. Mason was a huge help taking measurements and hammering. Also, everytime he got his drill he would go over to Emma (who was just taking it all in) and say "Emma...it might be loud". Then he would fire up his little drill with the biggest grin on his face.

It's so fun to watch him help daddy!

another week

Another week has flown by. This week has pretty much been categorized by sleepless nights, report cards, Emma squeals, hundreds of questions from Mason, homemade bread baked in our woodcook stove, snow, salads from our greenhouse, bible study, and dinner with my cousins.

Last weekend me and the kiddos headed north for a weekend with my sister's family and Nana. My mom watched the kids while Kati and I scrapbooked the weekend away. I think I set a record for the most number of pages I've ever scrapbooked in a 24 hour period. I may have also set a record for the amount of chai I consumed.

I am so thankful that my sister lives close enough for weekend visits. We had such a good time chatting, scrapbooking, and laughing at the kids. It has been so fun to journey through motherhood together! I just can't get enough of my sweet little nephew...his chubby cheeks, tiny teeth peeking through when he smiles and his dinosaur growls. And he totally busted out the crawling moves while we were there. The real thing--on all fours. It was great to watch my sister and brother-in-law take it all in. I think Emma was taking notes too.

Mason was almost overwhelmed by the toys at Nana's house. Since she does home day-care she had so many different learning stations and Mason played from morning to night. I know my mom had a blast with the kids.

On the way home we stopped at my best friend's house to meet a new little baby girl. Mindy and Raul welcomed precious Natalie into their family last week. At just a couple days old, she already has more hair than Emma. It was wonderful to visit with them.

Ryan and I were able to sneak away for a little date night tonight...dinner out (Mason informed us that he ate dinner in). Mason also informed me this morning that my hair looked like a rooster and I needed to comb it. The rest of the weekend will be filled with friends, projects, homemade granola, and hopefully some rest.

happy halloween

We had a fun weekend full of friends, football, Halloween parties and plumbing projects! I can't believe November is right around the corner. Now it's Monday and I'm off to enjoy a crazy-fun day with my second graders!

7 months

Happy 7 months sweet Emma girl. You continue to fill our days with your giggles, grins, and squeaks. You have so much to say these days. You especially let me know how you feel if I leave your line of sight. You love to sit up and play. You're getting really good at reaching for and playing with your toys.

I am so in love with your chubby cheeks, soft eyelashes, and pudgy legs. I'm glad you love to cuddle because I know it won't last forever.

You have tried so many new foods this month. You gobble everything down that we have given you, except for a couple days where you weren't so happy about the peas. You've mastered the finger foods too, which has been the only way I can get dinner made these days. You're pretty content to sit in the highchair, eating your snacks, watching me and Mason make dinner.

It has been amazing to watch you grow and change. Here's a few things about you at 7 months:

~you don't really like to play on your tummy, you prefer to sit
~you like pureed spaghetti, along with lots of fruits and veggies
~you slept through the night a couple times this month

~you don't have any little pearly whites yet

~you're starting to scoot around

~you like baths much better, sitting in the bumbo in the tub watching Mason splash around

~you like to look at books

~you constantly grab my earrings and necklaces

~you can feed yourself finger foods

~you take two naps a day

~you are ready for bed by 7:00 and go right to sleep

~you have the best little belly laugh and toothless grin

You're such a sweetie. We love you more and more each day.
xoxo,
mommy

right now

Just a few things I'm loving right now:

~chai
~knitting and sewing
~making plans for scrapbooking
~trying new recipes
~cleaning out the ol' google reader
~mini book club with my bff, Mindy (can't believe I've never read Wind in the Willows)
~visiting the library
~skirts and scarves
~planting lots of greens in the greenhouse...looking forward to more salad
~researching how to make our own yogurt
~Mason making me pumpkins out of paper with Marylin
~laughing with cousins over dinner
~Emma sleeping through the night this weekend, finally!
~Mason bringing cow everywhere, putting him down for naps, and feeding him with a spoon
~being almost done with 1/4 of my portfolio for National Boards
~reading until I fall asleep
~fires in the woodstove
~overalls!

Not so much:
~all the Halloween hoopla
~checking to see if a certain poor little hen is egg bound
~hearing that friends are moving
~snow in the forecast
~wearing skirts on windy recess duty days

green tomato pie

After we pulled all the tomato plants out of the greenhouse we had an abundance of green tomatoes. Not really knowing what to do with them I started looking through my cookbooks. I found a recipe for green tomato pie. It had ingredients like brown sugar, melted butter, cloves, and cinnamon so I figured it couldn't be that bad. We were pleasantly surprised. It was really good. The tomatoes didn't really have a flavor, they just provided a texture and filling for the yummy fall spices. It almost tasted like apple pie. Mason helped me separate all the green tomatoes from the rest of the produce. Then he pulled them all off their vines while I chopped. He's such a good helper. Here is the pie before I added the top crust. I forgot to take pictures after I baked it. Give it a try.

Green Tomato Pie
From the Encyclopedia of Country Living

Cover 2 c. chopped green tomatoes (I used 3 1/2 becasue I wanted a really full pie) with water and bring to a boil. Drain. Add 1/2 c. brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. vinegar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 c. chopped raisins, 3 Tbsp. melted butter, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. cloves. Line a pie plate with a pie crust. Add filling. Put on a top crust and cut holes in the center. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.


It's shaping up to be a pretty nice weekend. Ryan and I, along with the kiddos, spent the morning stacking firewood and coating beams for a shed that Ryan and his dad are building tomorrow. It was beautiful outside. Mason kept running back and forth between helping me with the wood and watching Ryan paint. The roosters crowed at us the entire time. Then I met a friend at the park and we went out to lunch. It was nice to get out while Ryan headed to the big city to get supplies for tomorrow. Then we topped it off with homemade pizza for dinner and chai vanilla pudding for dessert. I love the weekends!

wordless wednesday

breakfast + family

So, these photos are a little old. It's not so green around here anymore. But, I finally found my other camera and these are some of my favorites from when my mom and sister came to visit.
We love cousin Karly!

Nana with the kiddos at the football game.

Bobcat fans!

And this is my new favorite recipe to serve up for breakfast when we have company. It's a cream cheese fruit braid. I made it for brunch with a friend a couple months back. Then I made it again for my family. Both times I used some of our peach jam and it was delicious.

But now I can't stop thinking about making it with some of our blueberry jam. Anybody want to come over for breakfast?

happenings

Life is in full swing around here and it doesn't look like things will be slowing down anytime soon.


A few of our hens have started laying eggs. They haven't figured out the nesting boxes yet, so my current favorite morning chore is searching for eggs. It's actually more like an afternoon chore since they don't lay until about 10:00 or later. We find them all afternoon long. Here's Marsh. He's one of the two roosters that are left. A few days ago after we fed some scraps to the chickens Mason said, "bye Marsh, have a nice weekend." I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

Speaking of the big boy....he officially gave his crib to Emma and now sleeps on his big boy bed. We just put the mattress on the floor for now, which is a good thing because we find him sound asleep in the middle of his room quite often. He's a roller. The first night he wasn't so sure about it once we said our prayers and turned off the light. I rubbed his back for a few minutes, but left before he was asleep. The next night I laid down next to him and after about 30 seconds he said, "you can go into the living room now, mama." Geez...thanks. I am thrilled about the easy transition though.

We got about 8 inches of snow this weekend. The snow-covered peaks are just beautiful. Mason bundled up and played outside for quite a while on Saturday. He loves the outdoors.

Emma had her 6 month check-up on Friday. I got to meet my cousin Lacy for breakfast. We had some of the best chai ever and chatted the morning away while Emma made squaking noises at everyone coming in for their morning coffee. She's weighing in at 16 pounds.

I snuck in a couple hours of working on my portfolio this weekend. I made up for it by sewing with a friend and starting a good book.

Ryan and I are making our way through three boxes of apples, tons of green tomatoes and piles of acorn squash. We pulled everything out of the greenhouse since it got to 34 degrees the other night and pulled all of what was left in the garden. We're trying lots of new recipes, so as not to waste any of the produce. We have lots of seedlings for our fall greens ready to transplant into the greenhouse. As soon as we quit building towers that is.