chop chop

Rollin is turning out to be my most enthusiastic and skilled kitchen helper. He uses a sharp plastic knife made for chopping salad, and he goes to town. We made Potato Leek & Chicken Noodle Soup this week. Zig was out of town so some serious kid comfort food was on the menu.






Potato Leek Soup


Potato soup is not a real pretty soup, but it sure tastes good! Especially with my new favorite salad of all time, the red cabbage slaw.

sugar beast

This week Lori, Wendy, Lilian and I went to a PCC Cooking class called Taming the Sugar Beast. The teacher, Birgette, would be my personal chef in a perfect world. The class was great and it was geared towards keeping sugar cravings in check. I love anything this woman teaches, and her recipes are just so healthy and simple. I am going to post the recipes I liked the best as soon as I make them. It should be no surprise that the first recipe I tried to make at home was the Coconut Truffles. These things are delicious, insanely simple, and a very healthy treat alternative. Got the thumbs up from Sela and Nina. Not Rollin yet, but he'll come around.



Raw Coconut Truffles
1 cup raw walnuts or other nuts
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, plus 1/2 cup for rolling the truffles
1/4 cup raw agave syrup (she said raw agave is the best kind of agave)
1/4 cup organic virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup hemp protein powder
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt

Place the nuts and coconut in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth. Roll into truffles and roll in coconut. Refrigerate to firm them up.

Of course you can always make substitutions for different nuts, protein powder, agave, etc. This is a good guideline though. During the class she used a lot less sweetener than the recipe called for and they were still quite good.

My little bookends

I never thought I'd say this but...

I LOVE my dog.

Andra, you would be so proud. I have a huge soft place in my heart for him. If we were to lose him, well, I don't even want to go there. I almost get teary-eyed just thinking about how loyal he's been and how much I secretly hated having a dog for awhile. I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty sure I was actually wishing something might happen to him a year or so ago. Like he might run off and find a new home. But, things have certainly changed. Our relationship has evolved. Now I would be devastated if something were to happen to him. And if you know me, that's a big deal. I'm not a big animal lover. I'm an animal liker, but not too much love.

But there's love for this dog.



In the past six months, Kona has become the dog we all hoped he would be. He has mellowed tremendously. He willingly gets on his leash when kids come over to play. He follows our kids around the yard and watches over them. He's gentle with Evan. He doesn't even try to lick or sniff him when he's in the jogging stroller. He scares off animals like racoons that might hurt the chickens. He doesn't jump up on people anymore. He watches us walk to the bus and waits at the corner of our property for our return. He's always there, but not in an overbearing way. In more of a comforting way. I pet him more now, even if I know my hands will smell like dog and I'm in a hurry. He still does his business in the far back corner of our yard where no one ever goes. There is no stepping in poop in our yard, ever. Oh, thank you, Mr. Kona.

Last night as I was doing one final bedtime check on the girls, I looked outside their window and saw Kona laying a few feet from their bedroom window. He knows where the kids sleep and he watches over them during the night. When I saw him out there, as on so many nights before, I actually choked up. Trust me, that was quite a shock, even to myself. So, in short, we've come a LONG way.

Kona, you're a good dog.

sick

Pedialyte and crackers were on the menu for Evan and I this week. Forunately it was a brief stomach bug, but oh my, there is nothing I hate more than puking. And this little fella didn't care for it either!



Rollin had a high fever, but not much can get this boy down. This picture of Rollin and my slip was taken in the middle of the night when Rollin woke up and asked if he could have one of those yummy soda drinks you get to have when you "barf". He had some serious sickness envy when Zig brought me some lemon-lime sparkling drinks earlier this week. He thought it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO unfair.



He was pretty stoked when I told him I had one more drink left.



Everyone is now on the mend and no one was sick more than a day or two, thankfully!

It is done.

The female half of our family now all have pierced ears. The frequency with which the girls ask me to take them to Claire's had increased tremendously over the past few months. I kept saying "Sure, you can get your ears pierced," and then something would come up, Saturdays would get busy, and we would all forget about it. Oh darn. Then the real catalyst. Sela's friend Jasmine invited her for a sleepover and asked the girls to dress-up like a famous person. Sela really wanted to be Taylor Swift, and earrings would be that one little detail to make everything perfect. Andrea, our babysitter, came over in the afternoon to do Sela's hair and make-up, which was so sweet of her and completely her own idea.



























And then it was off to Claire's, finally. They were excited/nervous. Everyone in Redmond was piercing their ears on Saturday, January 17th, so we waited almost 2 hours. A living hell for me might just be hanging out in a Claire's for two hours. It's crowded, tiny, and there are dozens of little pre-teens and teens in there that make me want to swish Sela and Nina right out and force them to stay and dress young forever. The serious amount of tacky stuff in that store had me running next door to Lucy ;), but the fact that my girls LOVED so much of it was even more unsettling. I felt panicky after awhile, like all my efforts at influencing their style were out the door in one afternoon. Nina walked up to some fishnet gloves and with a big smile on her face said, "Mom, this is TOTALLY my style." Oh great. Then Sela put on some gangster looking hat that I could tell she thought was cute, and I just thought to myself, oooooh boy. I bit my tongue, well, sort of.

And the worst part. Right when we walked in a 7 year old was getting her ears pierced. The girls' eyes were glued. Certainly they were hoping to feel more at ease after watching this little girl, but she went from smiles to shrieks in a matter of seconds. Serious crying, and not the happy cry. I thought, oh no, it's definitely not happening today. But Nina was determined, even more so than Sela.

When it was FINALLY our turn, Nina hopped right up in the chair. She was clearly excited. She held my hand, focused like a laser beam on some pink fuzzy, leopard-print, lacy, glittered slippers, and got those little ears pierced! Not a tear. She later told us she was meditating.

There are not enough mirrors in the store for this child. She was so happy and the little birthstone studs looked very sweet. I was relieved and so happy it wasn't painful for her.




















Then it was Sela's turn. I knew she was scared due to the spectacle she had witnessed earlier. I held her hand and in an instant it was done. But the look in her eyes was much different than Nina's. She, too, was relieved that it was over, but I could tell that it really hurt, even though there were no tears. A few 13 or 14 year old girls had gathered around to encourage her when they could tell she was hurting. They commented on how brave she was and how beautiful she looked. It was really so sweet. Fortunately, it doesn't hurt for too long and she was happy and smiling in no time. I tried a couple of times to get a good after-shot of Sela, but the earrings didn't show up too well. They're so tiny. And we were in a mad dash to stop by the chocolate shop for the chocolate they made me promise them if they were brave (do they know how to work it or what?!), and to get Sela to her party! But you can at least see how happy she was on Sunday when she wore a blue dress to match her sapphire colored earrings (please ignore the Christmas decorations in the background, we're still in that taken down, but not put away stage).



























What a day!! I always enjoy special alone-time with my girls, even if this time it happened to be at Claire's.

baby feet

This is one of those images I'm sure will bring me to tears a few years down the road when the kids are growing up and moving out of our home. I don't remember squishing and squeezing the other kids as much as I do Evan. Of course we hugged and cuddled and I kissed them all day long, but I seriously just squish Evan ALL the time. His body is as soft as dough. As jiggly as jello. It's beautiful. I can't resist squeezing these little feet every time I'm feeding him. Oh, it's the best! I love his soft little body so much.

his biggest fan

Nina has some serious motherly instincts when it comes to Evan. She responds immediately to his cries, comes straight to see him if she's been away, smells his sweet little head, carries him all over the place (she's in a bit of denial that he weighs almost as much as she does!), squeezes him, feeds him, tickles him, cheers for his progress, is sad when he's sad. She loves him to death. So much so, she can hardly contain herself at times! She can often be heard saying, "I just can't stand it, he's just the cutest, chubbiest, baby in the world!"

I love you, Nina.

rain, rain, you finally went away!

We had a beautiful MLK day today. So nice the kids were home on such a sunny day in January! It's been raining for a week so this was a much needed break in the weather pattern. The kids were outside all afternoon, all the neighborhood kids were over, the zipline was getting some good use, and boy did I start looking forward to springtime! We've had a good year, weatherwise, but the rain finally came this month. I took the picture above one afternoon after walking down the driveway and noticing how gorgeous these trees looked with hundreds of little droplets all over the branches. The sun is quite beautiful too, especially when you haven't seen it in awhile!

This and That

Since Evan is mobile now, my days feel as though they have become even more unproductive (is that possible?). There just doesn't seem to be time to get it all done. But that's okay. I am finally starting to chill about so much in my life and just enjoy the imperfection and unpredictable pace and flow of things. And we've been having a good time around here, despite exhaustion on my part.

It's been harder to blog, even though it only takes a few minutes. If I miss a few days, then it's even more difficult for me to post because it feels overwhelming. Fortunately, I had some time to look back on older posts recently when I was looking for a recipe and it was so meaningful to me to have a log of some of the everyday moments of our lives. So, I'm going to try to keep it going.

This week was a great week. I didn't have too much on the calendar until after school (I'm finding this is usually the common denominator for good days!) so we stayed home a lot. Rollin and Nina had some very long stretches of happy, creative playtime together. Evan scooted around creating messes all over and attempting to teeth on anything he could get his hands on.

Sela and Nina had their art classes afterschool where they did some really neat scientific drawings. We all had our tennis classes. I'm getting ready to start Rollin as soon as another session begins since he is almost 4 and chomping at the bit. I'm enjoying my class so much. Tennis is such a fabulous sport and I look forward to my Tuesday nights, even though it feels like a mini-marathon just getting everyone situated before I leave. Nina has improved leaps and bounds this year and is very focused. I absolutely love seeing the little fire in her eyes!!

Sela and Nina's Reflections Projects both advanced to District. Sela received an Honorable Mention at the district level. I know she had her sights set on going to State again, but she moved up to the older division this year for 3rd-6th Grade so getting the award she did was still very good. She's already planning for next year!

Here are "Color in Motion" and "Sparkly Flowers."

I had two cooking classes this week. Both Italian. The first one was taught by the Barr ladies and is part of my old ward's amazing monthly cooking classes. They have so many talented gourmet cooks in that ward that there is always something to learn. Carmen and her three daughters taught a homemade pizza class. I make homemade pizza all the time, but I can always use new ideas and boy did I come home with some. They made four very different, but equally yummy, pizzas. There was even a hummus pizza which I knew would be good, but most everyone else loved it as well. There was also potato leek, pesto with chicken, and procuitto and arugula. Super delish!

The second was a PCC Class on Basic Pasta dishes. I rarely cook pasta as a dinner. Zig isn't a fan and it's not the first thing I run to either. However, my interst was piqued when I saw the recipes being taught. The class was entertaining and informative. I learned quite a bit and came home with some new simple recipes to try out on the family. The first one, Penne al Balsamico, which was a simple red sauce with pinenuts, garlic, and basil,I made for dinner tonight and there were literal oohs and ahhs. This lady was like the Ina Garten of Italian. Simple, high quality ingredients. Nothing fussy and no obscure ingredients. I also learned that Italians salt the heck out of the pasta cooking water. I knew that, but watching the amount of kosher salt Iole put in made me realize what I thought was liberally salting the water was in fact, skimpy. Most of it drains out, of course.

Thursday I had bookclub. Zig was running late and I had spent the entire day reading the book. We have an alarm, a gate, and a dog the size of a horse so I thought I could leave a few minutes before Zig arrived and everyone would be safe and secure. I put Evan to sleep, a movie on for the kids. and I peeled out of the driveway :) Zig was a few minutes away when I left and I accidentally set the "away" alarm. This means if the kids move around inside the house, it goes off. So of course they set it off. Recently Zig (mr. paranoia) had this major loud siren installed on the outside of the house so the neighbors quickly called me to tell me the alarm was going off but it looked like the lights were on. So I had the pleasure of responding, "I am not home, but my four children are. Even the baby. But do not worry. My husband is on his way. In fact, he should have already been there." Responsible parenting at its best. Seriously though, can't a mom get a break?!! Fortunately, Zig did show up while we were on the phone so it all worked out. We'll see if they keep asking for playdates in the future!

Anyway, I did have fun meeting up with friends I don't see too often for bookclub once I finally made it there. We read the sequel to Chocolat...The Girl with No Shadow. It's hard to beat good friends, a good book discussion, and lots of chocolate!

And that is all for tonight. Evie and I have several parties throughout the night right now...if dark circles under the eyes ever come into style, I'll be super hip!

One of my New Year's intentions was to keep it short and (mostly) sweet on the blog. Oops.

Bad Muffins & Good Quiche

I bought the most adorable, WORTHLESS cookbook last week.

Isn't it cute?








It's called The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and the pictures are gorgeous, the recipes simple and inspiring, and the results disastrous! I have never encountered such failure in cooking. Who in the world whips muffin batter with an electric whisk and expects anything other than a brick for the finished product? I decided to give the book one more try this morning and again, terrible results. And this isn't difficult stuff here...muffins, scones, etc. The bakery is very popular in both London and New York, but something went wrong with this book. I'm very sad because I was really excited to try the lavender cupcakes and so many others.

I had to make something quick to make up for this disappointing morning in the kitchen and a quiche is always a quick fix. They turn out beautiful without fail...simple and satisfying. This almost made up for the hockey puck muffins.

Here is my favorite quiche recipe. And it always works. You can make your own crust or buy a pre-made one. I use a spelt crust from PCC or Whole Foods.

Spinach, Red Pepper, and Feta Quiche

Crust
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon cold vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tablespoons ice water plus additional if necessary

Filling
1 red onion, chopped and caramelized(I added this and it makes it yummy!)
1/3 cup sliced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups packed fresh spinach leaves, trimmed and washed thoroughly (about 5 ounces)
4 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream or milk
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
Preheat oven to 425°F.

In a bowl with a pastry blender or in a small food processor blend together flour, butter, shortening, and a pinch salt until mixture resembles meal. Add water and toss until incorporated, adding additional water if necessary to form a dough. Pat dough onto bottom and one half inch up sides of a 7 1/2-inch tart pan with removable fluted rim or a 9-inch pie plate and bake shell in bottom third of oven until set and pale golden, about 7 minutes.

While shell is baking, in a large skillet sauté bell pepper in oil over moderately high heat, stirring, 1 minute. Add spinach and sauté, stirring, until wilted and tender, about 1 minute. Remove skillet from heat and season spinach mixture with salt and pepper. In a small bowl whisk together eggs and cream.

Sprinkle feta over bottom of shell and arrange spinach mixture on top. Pour cream mixture over spinach and bake quiche on a baking sheet in middle of oven 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F. and bake until set, about 10 minutes.




This is a funny picture...Zig was about to dig into the quiche and I stopped him saying I need a picture of it for my recipe files. Not me and the quiche. Just the quiche. But he snapped us both. And I look funny. But the quiche looks good. And that's all that matters :)

Art Room

We pretty much worked our tails off over the Christmas Break. Zig and I did some major cleaning out and organizing. We were relentless this time. We hit the little playroom downstairs while the kids were in bed and motivated each other by reminiscing about how few toys we remember having growing up. I remember ONE toy box contained most of the toys for all four of us. And it was just fine. Going to Target wasn't an "activity." We pretty much lived outside and created our own fun. We certainly did not have an entire room dedicated to bins and bins of crap. So I don't remember being asked to tidy up near as much as my kids have to. Zig remembers owning 3 toys his entire childhood(clearly some memory loss going on here). We laughed hard at that one as we filled our plastic bags full of cast-offs!

When there is too much stuff, kids don't play with it. We had a big playroom at the previous house and 90% of the toys just sat. We purged all but a few toys for each child.

Rollin has his various blocks, cars, dinosaurs, and legos.
Nina has her horses, barbies, pet shops, kitchen and dress ups (she plays the most with her friends so we went easy on her)
Sela doesn't play with toys at all so that was easy. We did keep all the board games.

We had bags and bags when we were done. And the hilarious thing is, three weeks later, the kids don't even know we cleaned out their stuff! They just love all the extra space downstairs and have been having pillow fights.

We moved all the kids artwork and supplies to their new art room in the barn. Zig hung all the pictures we had just sitting in storage. Mostly they were things we bought in a hurry when we were staging a house to sell. We didn't want them in the house, but they were still nice and perfect for the art room. So after Sela spent hours cleaning and vaccuming the space, we moved more tables in there and it's ready to go.

On the move

The time has come. I knew the days were numbered before Evan morphed into a pint-sized tornado. Evan has been a chubby, content, tidy, and mostly immobile observer long enough. He is ready to go. To explore. To eat tiny objects off the floor and then gag (making mom's heart stop). To pull books from shelves, objects from drawers, and topple over small furniture. To keep me constantly on my toes, and just a little bit exhausted. Side tables throughout the house have been moved, put away for the next six months and the reminders to the kids about choking hazards have begun. We have a mobile,determined baby on our hands. It's a good thing he's so darling, because I will admit, this isn't my favorite part of babyhood, but it's pretty darn cute to see the sheer pleasure on his face when he topples a big box of playdough!

This was the very first time he opened and emptied a cabinet. There have been many since. But just look how much fun he's having. It's a whole new world behind those cabinet doors!

Holiday Baking

I did all my shopping early for our Christmas baking. We had several recipes planned for neighbor gifts. But as Christmas approached, I didn't feel like giving sweets. At our house we were already at the point of tossing some of the goodies gifted to us because we had reached our sugar limit. I thought others might be in the same boat so I changed the plan and decided on a healthier approach. I thought New Years might be a better time to give a healthy gift, so we also waited a week. I decided to make granola and delivered it with whole pomegranates. We love to eat greek yogurt with granola and pomegranate seeds for breakfast and I'm sure most people would love it too if they tried it. I think I might have myself a new tradition, and a much less stressful one. This way I can enjoy Christmas cookie baking with the kids without worrying about whether the cookies are pretty enough. It's a win-win! Happy New Year!

8 months

This baby is on the move! Over the Christmas break, Evan had all kind of "firsts." He started scooting, pulling up to standing, mimicking sounds, picking up food, drinking from a cup, sitting up by himself, sitting up in his sleep, and another tooth came through. All these big breakthroughs have had him up more at night. He must be dreaming about all the new things his body can do. But that's okay. He's such a wonderful, pleasant little baby. I really don't mind a little less sleep. Just another phase and I'm savoring all of these fleeting baby moments.

Nina is 6

Nina turned 6 on December 28th! How is that possible?! Her birthday "friend party" will be this month. I couldn't pull it off in December. Sela helped me make her actual birthday very special by staying up till the wee hours of the morning with Zig downloading songs to her ipod which she decided to give to Nina. She also helped decorate the kitchen with streamers...her idea. We burst into Nina's room in the morning and sang to her. She didn't even know it was her birthday so she was surprised and excited. She was so thrilled about the ipod and listened to it most of the day.

I called our old neighbors, the Bian's, to see if Sarah and Eliza could come to the movies and dinner with us. I knew that would be a fun surprise for Nina. We saw the chipmunk movie and then went to Coho for dinner. The kids love their Almond Joy Sundaes so they always pick Coho when they have the option. The girls had so much fun Nina just reveled in the special attention.

I've totally enjoyed watching Nina really come into her own this year. She is very conscientious, responsible, and incredibly nurturning and loving. Evan's eyes light up when he sees her. She lugs him all over the house and says she really misses him when she goes for playdates. She is a creature of habit and has developed some good and helpful habits this year. She is pretty reserved and conscientious at school, loves to ride the bus, has made lots of new friends, and has a knack for fashion and accessorizing. She keeps getting better at tennis and definitely has a little fire inside. She adds spunk and sweetness to our lives. We love you, Nina!