showeredwithgrace

Tonight's Soup ~ Beef Short-Rib Soup .  Smells fantastic!

This weekend we had our back to school clambake ( a little late)!

Today we experienced the apple!

Left to right:  Rome, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Gala ~  Red Delicious and Rome were the two favorite choices of the wee crowd.   Everyone tasted a slice of each apple (commenting accordingly) and then we sorted them into separate bowls.

Afterwards we made a yummy apple pie and took turns smelling and tasting all the ingredients that went into it:  cinnamon, sugar, fresh vanilla bean, dried cherries, flour and butter.  Finally topping it with the pastry dough A's they cut out with a cookie cutter.

Good fun.

My dh was able to fix the grinder and Rose Red has been having a great time grinding up wheat this week.  I was amazed at how well the old coffee grinder worked for this.  We'll have to run it all through again to make it a bit finer though.  It is difficult for Rose Red to grind up by herself.  She only gets a few turns of the crank in at a time before she needs a break but I have to say she loves the challenge and keeps going back at it!

In the spirit of 'The Little Red Hen' and this season of harvest we are grinding wheat to make bread this week.  Our CSA farm actually gave us a bag of wheat berries this last week ~ which worked perfectly into our plans! (funny how that works, isn't it?)

I pulled out this old manual coffee grinder to grind up the wheat.  It was working well as I tested it out but then when Rose Red gave it a go the gears ended up dismantling somehow ??  I'm thinking it is because she is left-handed and kept turning it in the wrong direction. . .  Now we are waiting for my dh to look at it for us.  I'm hoping we won't have to resort to electric grinding.  There is just something earthier about manually grinding it up.

Tonight's dinner ~ Chicken Gumbo.  Rose Red's new discovery ~ okra is STICKY!  Yes, yes it is.

There was a change in the air yesterday.  For the first time I felt Autumn stirring around us - and my heart sang - my very favorite time of year!  Rose Red enjoyed helping prepare the corn on the cob from our most recent CSA basket for some outdoor grilling for our Labor day meal . . . appropriately of  very little labor!

Today's nature walk brought home baskets of pods - Mesquite tree pods !

We've been reading how The Little Red Hen gathered wheat and ground it into flour to make bread . . .

so the kids toasted and ground up Mesquite seeds into a sweet and nutty flour and made cookies!

And they were yummy!

When it came time to clean up our godson Romeo was not so inclined and kept announcing that he was the Dog (from the Little Red Hen) !  All the kids attended the Little Red Hen puppet show together so they had great fun with this.  A good day.

We're making yummy sweet potato fries today from our CSA basket.  We just slice them up, toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and then bake at a high heat until tender (broiling slightly to brown up!).

Rose Red and I picked up our first CSA basket today.  Looks like eggplant parmesan, corn and green chili cornbread (fresh roasted green chiles!), sweet potato fries, fresh green beans and gumbo this week!

I thought I'd try my hand at some of those homemade jams I've been seeing around blogland.  Never having done it before it took me awhile to brave it out.  Finally Jaime Oliver 'at home' (one of my favorite cooking shows!) made it look so simple I broke out the summer berrries.  And it was simple ~ sooooooooooo simple!  I chose to make a strawberry-rhubarb jam simply because I love rhubarb and it's all in season now.  I purchased the smallest glass jars I could find (because not only were they the cutest but we don't go through that much jam over here).  Yummy!  Sweet, tangy and delicious.  Now we have enough jam to last through the year - unless of course I share some of it.  Hhmmm, looks like I might be whipping up another batch .  .  .

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, crushed

1 1/2 cups finely diced fresh rhubarb

1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar

1 - 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 - 3 oz. pckg. strawberry gelatin.

In a large kettle, combine strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and pineapple.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat;  stir in gelatin until dissolved.  Pour into glass jars, leaving 1/2 in. headspace.  Let stand until cooled to room temperature.  Top with lids.  Refrigerate.  Yield:  5 1/2 cups.

Rose Red's favorite simple and frugal bacon and egg breakfast:  Fry up a couple strips of bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon.  Throw in leftover rice and fry up a bit.  Add cooked bacon cut up and other items of choice like frozen or leftover veggies or meat.  Season with a bit of soy sauce to taste and continue cooking until all cooked through.  Add a couple beaten eggs to rice mixture allowing eggs to set a bit before fully incorporating into the rest of the dish so you have large bites of egg.  Voila!  Yummy fried rice for breakfast.  We love it.

You possibly couldn't live in the Southwest and not be partial to refried beans.  They are a staple out here.  Homemade refried beans are not only simple to make but also much better tasting than the canned versions out there.  And guess what ~ they are very easy on the budget as well.  My family loves them.  I make this version which is made in a crockpot (great for hot summer days!).

Crockpot Refried Beans

6 qt. crock pot, 2 lbs. dry pinto beans (rinsed and picked over), 1 large onion (peeled and chopped), 1 large clove garlic (peeled and minced), 1 tsp. pepper, 2 TB lard (or vegetable oil), 10 cups water, 1 TB salt, 1/2 cup lard (or vegetable oil).

1.  Place beans, onions, garlic, black pepper, lard (oil), and water in a 6 qt. slow cooker  ~ don't add salt yet! (no need to soak beans for this recipe).

2.  Cover and cook on High for 7-8 hours until beans are very tender.

3.  Drain beans and reserve cooking liquid ~ I find it easier to scoop out the beans with a slotted scoop.

4.  Stir salt into the beans now.

5.  In a large Dutch oven, heat 1/2 cup lard (or vegetable oil) over medium heat.  Add 3 cups beans and 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid at a time.  Mash to desired consistency.  Repeat - until all beans are mashed.  For a creamier consistency can mash in more cooking liquid at the end.

Before:

After:

   

My glance fell upon this homemade loaf as I was passing through the kitchen to brew myself a cup of decaf this afternoon.  I love this white soft loaf.  In reflection, I'm surprised I never posted the recipe for it on this blog.  After all I make it almost every other day and it is becoming quite a fixture in our home it seems. This of course got me to wondering "why do I blog?" and "what am I blogging for?" ~ not in an exasperated or unhappy way ~ but just "what is the motivation?"

I began blogging when my dh and I started on our adoption journey for Rose Red.  It was primarily a form of communication with our family when we were living overseas for a couple of months for the adoption.  It ended up being a wonderful record of a piece of our history and Rose Red's history.  One that we will have forever ~ a living journal not a 'memory book'.  I love that.  When we came home from overseas I continued it to keep my family abreast of how our new little one was settling in ~ growing and learning.

My dh and I are seriously playing with the idea of homeschooling Rose Red and I stumbled across this wonderful group of homeschooling moms ~ both Catholic and non-Catholic ~ that I never knew was out there.  I am  overwhelmed and delighted all a once with the wonderful, rich and creative ideas at our fingertips through these wonderful women and their blogs.  They are truly an inspiration and a wonderful support system.  Rose Red of course is very young and serious schooling is not in the works for her anytime soon.  I'm not here to offer richness to this wonderful homeschooling community.  We are just living here ~ we are finding our rythmn, living the liturgy, stepping out and exploring our world.  This blog helps me to keep a focus on these things in our busy, busy world.

Recently, we passed our 'one year home' after the adoption and I realized that I had just recorded another living journal for Rose Red of her first year home.  I have toyed with the idea of scrapbooking ~ but this blogging is just so much better (and less costly).  So I'm thinking as I continue on with another year blogging ~ this is Rose Red's and my living journal.  This is why I blog.

And this is where you can find the recipe for this wonderful soft sandwich bread.

Nothing beats a steaming hot bowl of soup.

Today's soup ~ Beef and Vegetable Noodle.  Yummy. 

Well it's all about autumnn over here!

Our afternoon tea-time treat ~ Acorn Bites. 

A is for 'autumn' and 'acorn' ~ how about that!

Tomato soup!  I made some homemade tomato soup which Rose Red had for lunch today.  I think she liked it.

Today's snack:  White potatoes, Red beets, Orange sweet potatoes.

We had Rose Red's two year old birthday party today ~ I even made a homemade gluten free cake for her ~ and it was good!  This is the recipe in case you're looking for gluten free cakes:

YELLOW CAKE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups white rice flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free)
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cup mayonnaise (best foods)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and rice flour two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.
2. Mix the white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and xanthan gum together and set aside.
3. Mix the eggs, sugar, and mayonnaise until fluffy. Add the flour mixture, milk and vanilla and mix well. Spread batter into the prepared pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 minutes. Cakes are done when they spring back when lightly touched or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool completely then frost, if desired.

I would recommend going to a local asian market and purchasing their thai rice flour (much finer than regular rice flour ~ much less gritty) ~ for Rose Red's cake I used one cup of the regular thai rice flour and 1/2 cup of the glutinous thai rice flour (in place of the plain rice flour).  We served it with cool whip and fresh strawberries and bananas ~ a very moist cake ~ yummy! ~ and 100 percent gluten-free !!

Look what I stumbled across at a local chain grocery store!

It was labeled as a 'cactus pear' !  This is the first time I've actually seen the fruit of the prickly pear cactus for sale at the grocer.  Amusing,  when you think of how many of them you find just walking down the street!  Why would anyone buy one from the store?!  I guess ~ to say they did and take pictures of it ~ like I did ~ lol !!

Well, anyway, here is a picture from one of our recent nature walks.

As you can see this prickly pear is heavy with fruit!  And here is just a wee baby sprouting up!

I think this is the recipe I'll try out on the family ~ I'll be sure to post how it was!