March Break Recap

From the Country...

So, I am currently having technical difficulties. My computer is on the outs, I am currently typing on a computer with minimal keys (thanks to the kids) and Mark's new one is a little to high tech (why is Windows 8 so complicated?). So to say the least I am frustrated and a new computer is not in the budget (Gal just bought a manure spreader don't cha know?). Anyway here is a rundown of March break and some new things around here:

-here is a great little post and sweet photo collage by Dan Gordon from Whisky and Spice from his farm visit early last spring. 

-have you ever seen one of these? A must have for the gal that likes to carry her cupcakes to go- I borrowed it from my Aunt and am sad that I have to give it back.

-made giant chocolate cookies with homemade vanilla ice cream and then the following day these whoopie pies with peanut butter icing. The kids LOVED it- my butt not so much...

-went swimming, played hearts and the tournament of champions (which included Mario cart, drawing contest, crazy eights, running around the farm...).

-ate braised lamb, homemade chicken wings and great pizza.

-Nate was honoured as Kid of the Week for his fundraising efforts.

-I am currently in love with the Buckeye chicken and the Samon Faverolle and want to get me some. They seem more winter hearty then some of my current breeds and are oh so pretty.

-am currently hooked on this show - (weirdly addictive) and also this one (who doesn't love Laura Dern?).

-currently redoing my kitchen cabinets in Duck Egg blue/green - I know I am obsessed with all things poultry- need I say more?
-finished the farm hiring process for the season- HOORAH! This was a tough one for me considering I am a firm fence sitter. We now have a full time employee, a part timer and some peeps interested in volunteering!
-the spring list of chores is quickly creeping up on me I need to clean the chicken/turkey pens, seed more and more, make sweet tater slips, order chicks and get hatching amongst many other things.
-finished the great onion seeding of 2013 need to get them out in the greenhouse- just waiting for some spring weather. So many great and wonderful varieties this year - I am very excited!
-planning a big bash for my lil April fool, Lucas for his 6th birthday and he is super excited about it. He keeps asking me how many days until the big shin dig.

Anyway that is it in a nut shell... now I am going to throw this here computer against the barn wall...

Tried, Tested and True

From the City...

So I've finally done it.  It has taken years of hardwork and determination, sleepless nights and my partners growing waistline, but I have perfected my banana bread recipe.  

So go ahead, give it a try.  You can thank me later.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease up your pan.

Whisk together:

1 1/4 cups white flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Beat in a seperete bowl: 

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup coconut oil + 1 tbsp butter

Beat in: 

1 large egg

3 good and ripe bananas

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 parts.  

If desired, fold in:

1/2 cup chopped nuts ( I shudder at the thought)

1/4 cup dried apricots (see previous comment)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  

Enjoy!

-ab

Chocolate Beet Root Cake

From the country...

I don't dislike beets. I tolerate beets when need be. There are very few vegetables that I dislike. Beets are just on the bottom of the list.

When I bake a chocolate cake it has to have all the good old fattening stuff like butter, buttermilk, eggs...but when Mark's birthday rolled around he requested a chocolate beet cake.

Beets in a cake? I tried to talk him out of it. He insisted that this baked delight was all the rage, so the cake was made.

It wasn't bad. It was really moist (having 6 beets in it), the cream cheese icing was amazing and simple to make. It had a beety earthiness but it wasn't over powering. Would I trade in my go-to chocolate cake recipe?

Uh, no.

But we did have an extra serving of vegetables with our meal.

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

From the country...

This is a Martha Stewart recipe for pumpkin cookies with a browned butter icing. The thing about Martha's recipes is:

#1- You need copious amounts of butter laying around
#2- you need to give your baking lots of undivided attention.

I did have the butter, but my attention is always divided, so I was literally icing these cookies with a crying baby girl at my feet. When my children have grown, I figure I may just be a pretty good baker. Until then it is half ass all the way. These cookies by the way are fluffy like muffin tops and the icing is a sin. Try them when you have hours to spare (all by your lonesome).

Long Weekend Bake-Fest

from the city...

I seem to be baking a lot lately.  I don't know if it's because I realized I could get away with eating it because I'm constantly feeding babe or if it's because there seems to be no shortage of people that want something sweet to eat, nevertheless, I am completely loving it.   

 This is my mother in law's pantry drawer.  I happen to believe that good things always come from the pantry, especially someone else's.  

 Before 

 After

World's Best Oatmeal Cookies 

(don't mess 'em up with chocolate chips or raisins because they are perfect, just the way they are)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

• 
  
• 1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
• 
  
• 2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.
• 
  
• 3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

After that I was off to the farm for some hangouts with the boys.  I got to spend the whole day with Luc while Nate was off fishing with his bubba (grandpa in our family).  Luc had a cold so we made it a pretty low key day.  A walk down to Auntie Ann's, a game of Snakes Climbing Ladders (as Luc calls it) and some baking.  There are no shortage of giant zucchini at the farm so it was an easy decision to make a zucchini bread.  

 Never too young to start 'em on dishes.

 Wet Ingredients

 Dry Ingredients 

 Mixing

 The goods.

 Not fast enough.

Here's the recipe; it makes two loaves but it freezes well...but really, when are two loaves of anything a bad thing?

Zucchini Bread 
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until done.

Hope everyone had something sweet to eat for the last weekend of summer 2011.  I know I sure did.  

ab

Saying Thank You and Goodbye

From the City...

Goodbye's suck. I'm really no good at them. I try to avoid them as much as possible. But sadly, sometimes you gotta suck it up and do it. Last week was my six week discharge from my midwives and I'm not gonna lie, I've been dreading it since the day T was born.

I have loved being in the care of the kensington midwives here in Toronto. They were patient and caring. They listened to all of my fears, they educated Simon about the misconceptions regarding home births and they reassured us as new first time parents that we were doing a good job, which as I'm quickly learning, being a mom, carries with it more guilt than I could have ever imagined. As I struggled with breastfeeding for three weeks and called them choking back tears, they supported me and gave me the constant reassurance that I needed to persevere (happily we're breastfeeding pros around here these days).

So how do you say thank you and goodbye to some incredibly important women??? Cookies, that's how.

Here are two great cookie recipes that I made for all of the midwives and staff at Kensington Midwives. You should make them next time you're forced to say good-bye or thank you to some incredibly important people.

Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

(famous recipe that I had no part in creating but thought everyone should have)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg
• 1 (12 ounce) package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts

1. PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F.
2. COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

40 weeks + 4 days but who's counting?

From the City...

Well baby's due date has come and passed and we're all still waiting (Simon, Ruby and I). Simon's on march break this week so together we've been doing lots of walking, movie watching and reading. Luckily the weather has been quite nice in Toronto so we're taking the opportunity to enjoy the sun. Tonight at the Art Gallery of Ontario it's free from 6:30-8:00 so we're also thinking about swinging by for a little tour around.

Anyway, here's a really good recipe for banana bread that I made yesterday in anticipation that midwives would be coming over to birth baby but instead it's just me eating it.

It's from the Joy of Cooking, so you know it's good.

*Note: it will not induce labor, doesn't matter how much of it you eat, trust me.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Beat in a large bowl at medium speed until creamy:

1/3 cup sugar

6 tbsp. (3/4 stick) butter

Beat in:

1 to 2 large eggs, beaten

4 ripe bananas

Add the dry ingredients in about 3 parts, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in, if desired:

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/4 dried apricots

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Scrape the batter into a greased pan. Bake the bread about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly then unmold. Cool completely before slicing.