Grilled Cheese

I love to make bread, but I rarely make plain sandwich bread.  I just don't usually think to do it.  But John and I are trying to stick to our budget a little better this year, so I've been paying more attention to my grocery spending.  I realized by the end of the first week of April, I'd spent two weeks worth on groceries, although really I had more than two weeks worth of food.  So, I'm trying to go until the end of two weeks before I go back to the store.  And then, oops, I realized we have no bread - so homemade bread was made in just a few hours without spending any more money. 

Grilled cheese may be my favorite sandwich.  I mean, I love a big fancy sandwich with sprouts and avacado and all that stuff, but grilled cheese is comfort.  And with homemade bread - mmm.  Sandwich success.

My mom reminded me a couple of years ago about when I was a kid, and I refused to eat grilled cheese unless it was made the way my best friend's mom made it.  I still make it that way:

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Butter one side of two pieces of bread.  Lay one piece of bread, butter side down, on your skillet.  Next add two slices of cheese of your choice, then the other slice of bread butter side up.  cook over medium heat for two to four minutes depending on how dark you like it.  Carefully flip, and cook the other side.  I like mine a little burnt. :)

How do you fix your grilled cheese?

Christ is Risen!

I got this puzzle for the girls for Easter from a great Etsy seller, Arts of the Heart, who does beautiful work. It is a byzantine image of Christ conquering Hades. L is really into puzzle right now, so I thought it would be a fun way to talk to her about the meaning of Easter. The puzzle pieces are really chunky, so when you take it apart they feel like blocks in your hand. The shop sells painted or unpainted versions of her puzzles, so you can paint your own if you want.

Be sure to check out Arts of the Heart, and especially this sweet Noah's Ark puzzle with interlocking animal shapes!

Colored Eggs

Easter is almost here, and we're getting ready by dyeing eggs.

A few people asked questions about our eggs so here's a quick summary:
We have six hens and one rooster. Two hens are bantams and give small eggs, while the rest lay extra large ones. It makes measuring interesting. We get almost 3 dozen eggs per week, which is a little too much for us, but not quite enough to bother trying to sell at the farmer's market. We've been sharing with friends, but we're also going to start making more egg dishes. When we move to our own land, we'd like them to be free range, but right now they have a pretty good size run in the woods. All the grass is gone, but we give the grass clippings from the mower when we can and cracked corn every day.

So here they are before. I wasn't sure how the colors would work with some of the dark brown eggs. It just happens that all the bantam eggs are lighter rose and green colors, so most of what I dyed are the small lighter eggs.

And here's a few shots of the after. Mom, L and I made them using yellow onion skins and turmeric, and one bowl where we mixed the two dyes together. Find instructions on Martha and here. It didn't make a true red, but a nice burnt sienna kind of color, and the turmeric a rich gold, and mixed together marigold - my favorite. Notice the un-dyed eggs in the back, one brown and one green bantam.

Signs of Spring

We Wilsons have become avid bird watchers from our kitchen window. Our list is getting longer and longer. Some of our favorites this year: Juncos, Cardinals, Purple Finches, and Nuthatches.

Tomatoes and marigolds started indoors will soon be ready to go out!

Our chickens are laying almost 3 dozen eggs a week! Whew! Egg recipes sure to follow.

Play Food

I meant to make a bunch of food to go with L's kitchen this past Christmas, but it just didn't happen. Sometimes, especially when things are busy, the idea of learning another new thing is just one thing too many. Plus, I know there are a lot of talented people already devoting all their creativity to play food. So if you can't make it yourself, letting someone else do it is the next best thing.

I got this play food from OneNOnly on etsy, and really it's absolutely beautiful. I bought it for L's birthday, which is still a couple months away. Mine is still packed away, so these photos are from her product listings. In person, they are even more lovely - just smaller than life size and carefully hand stitched.

There are lots of things to choose from on Etsy, but I wanted to get items that I thought L would be able to combine together in several different ways. The bow tie pasta will be perfect for her soup pot, the sandwich stuff can be combined to make a dozen different kinds of sandwiches, plus some fun stuff on it's own. I'll be setting aside a couple of bananas from the pancake set for J's birthday with lofty dreams of sharing in our future

L's Kitchen

I labeled this under "stuff I made" only because I don't have a category for stuff John made. Perhaps I should.


We talked this out together, but John built it for L for Christmas with very little help from me. My contribution was the little curtain, potholders and apron.


He used an old picture frame for the oven window, and made little shelves to hide all the kitchen toys.


The oven rack slides in and out. He made it from dowel rods.


I forget where we got the idea of using a mixing bowl for the sink, but I think we saw it done several places. We have a bunch of milk glass knobs we're saving for our house that worked nicely here.


John, with his affinity for gadget making, made little fire bits that come up on the stove when you turn the knobs - using dowel rods, paint sticks and hinges. L was very impressed - and so was I.


I found an old set of kids tupperware at a rummage sale and was giddy with excitement. I like to arrange the dishes and food neatly on the shelf, but L likes to throw it all in the sink. I get to play with it my way during nap time.

We have some plastic dollar store food, but really L likes to make rock and money soup. I've ordered some lovely play food for her that I'll share soon...

Springing Forward

I just realized I've hardly posted about anything but food for months. I guess I've been on an extra long break. Last year, I completed several exciting goals, and I think I just wanted to step back and enjoy that for awhile without a lot of new pressures.



With Spring approaching, we've been enjoying playing outdoors, we celebrated our 5th anniversary, and I've begun a new fun project. So, I wanted to assure you I have a new pattern coming soon. Here's a little sneak peak. I'm taking my time, so no promises on when it will be ready.


Happy {almost} Spring!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Another attempt at meals all three of us can eat during the day. I got this one from Wholesome Baby Food. There website is a great resource for baby food recipes, as well as good information about when to introduce what foods. Most of the information is available free on their website, but you can also buy a downloadable cookbook, which I think is a much easier way to browse and save the information.

This one was exciting for us, because J has just started eating wheat, which is making our lives much easier. L and I had ours with cinnamon and sugar on top, and we just ate them with our fingers. Awesome. The recipe is meant for baby, so if you wanted to make it a family meal, you'd need to double or triple it. As is, it made about 10 cookie sized pancakes.

You'll find the recipe on this page if you scroll down a bit. We haven't introduced eggs or dairy yet, so I used substitutions for those. Their book also has lots of information on varying recipes based on your child's needs, with a long list of egg substitutes for different needs, as well as chapters on other common food intolerances.

Garlic Bread

John likes this Garlic Bread Sprinkle he buys at the store, but I like to make my own. So, okay, I cheated a bit, and read the ingredients of his little bottle before I mixed up mine. His had corn syrup and vegetable oil solids that I was happy to exclude.

Here's my version:
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp turmeric
Add ingredients to small bowl and stir.

Don't you just love learning new ways to use seasonings? I usually only use turmeric when I make fried rice or Indian food. But this was really great. And it made it a pretty yellow, too, which doesn't hurt.

I fix my garlic bread like my mom taught me:
Place french bread on foil and slice. Brush each slice and the top of the loaf with a little olive oil (or butter), then sprinkle the garlic seasoning on each slice. Wrap it up in the foil and place in oven around 200. Leave it until your dinner is ready and then it's hot and ready to serve.

Soup!

A couple of recent watercolors of girls in the kitchen: