Thursday, February 18, 2010

Enchilada chicken over rice

Today is one of my cheat days. I am using up some items I have in the fridge and pantry

1 can green enchilada sauce (or if you have preferred recipe, use that...I need to find one)
2 large chicken breasts
1 large onion, sliced
3 Tablespoons butter
1 cup Jalapeno and artichoke dip from Costco (alternately add 1 Cup sour cream, plus diced artichoke hearts, and chopped japalenos)
salt to taste

Cooked rice

Put chicken and onions in slow cooker with the enchilada sauce. Cook until done (6 hours on low). Shred chicken in slow cooker then mix in butter, and dip. Salt to taste and serve over cooked rice.

Somehow I forgot to take a picture...must have been all that taste-testing.

Baked beans


My mum always made these beans. I tweaked the recipe a little because her's are sweeter than I like:

- Soak 1 lb beans overnight. Next morning, boil for 1 hr.
- in bean pot, put 1/4 cup molasses, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 Tablespoon mustard.
- Quarter 1 onion, and put in pot along with the beans.
- Cover beans with water, and put block of salt pork on top. Cover
-bake for 7hrs at 300 degrees, then test for doneness. Keep cooking without lid for 1 more hour.

Chicken Nuggets




Cut chicken breast into "nugget" pieces.

Dredge them in flour, then in an egg wash (a few eggs and a drop of milk), and finally seasoned breadcrumbs - I like to save old bread and make my own seasoned breadcrumbs. This time I put in garlic and jerk seasoning. Fry in your preferred oil and you come out with yummy, not processed disgusting, nuggets.

Garlic Butter

...just because it involves two of my most favourite things - garlic and butter.

Whipped up a batch to melt over noodles

1 stick (1/2 Cup) butter - softened
Crushed Garlic to taste
salt to taste

Stir all ingredients together and allow to sit at room temp to blend flavours. Use on bread or over noodles, or just about anywhere.

Ginger Carrot Soup

Wednesday Soup this week was Ginger Carrot soup. It is spicy and sweet at the same time, and so sunny and bright it just make you happy.


1lb of carrots, washed (peel if you like) and rough chopped
1 large onion
1 Tablespoon curry powder
Grated fresh ginger to taste
Two cans or 3 Cups veggie broth

Sautee the onion in your oil/fat of choice - mine was butter and olive oil. After a few minutes add the carrots and keep sauteeing for about 5 mins. Add in the curry powder and grated ginger, and stir. Allow the spices to mix with the veggies by sauteeing for a minute or so. Add the broth. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30mins or until carrots are tender. Then blend into a puree and enjoy.

Hot (carob) Fudge Sauce



I bought the kids (and us) a treat - ice cream. So, I decided to make sundaes, and cooked up a batch of hot carob fudge to go on top. Obviously the low-carb/good-carb thing is not going well here and we are suffering the consequences, so be prepped to see less sweets and more, well, not sweets.

1 and 1 half cans sweet and condensed milk
2 cups of carob chips (or chocolate)
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

Melt carob in the sweet and condensed milk in a double boiler (my doubler boiler is a glass bowl on top of a big pot). Stir frequently until melted, but do not allow to boil. Once melted, stir in butter and vanilla. You could also stir in some other flavours like coffee, mint, orange, liquers, etc.

Let cool a little and use as topping for ice cream. This would also be good on waffles, or, if you add more butter (about a full stick) and allow to cool, would make good filling for the inside of a cake.

Homemade pancakes and strawberry sauce

Owl Momma and the owlettes were over at the house. I had just prepared some batter for pancakes when they arrived. I mentioned to Owl Momma that pancakes are my nemesis - they never turn out. They are either burnt on the outside and mushy on the inside, or just never cook. So, she gave me a lesson in pancake making (although would not vouch for the taste as I did not use her "perfect pancake" recipe - which she needs to give me if she expects me to use it...hint, hint).

Then, I realized I had nothing to put on the pancakes so I grabbed:

1 bag of frozen strawberries
1/4 cup sugar (or more to taste)
1/4 cup water

Put it all in a pot and boiled it down until the berries were mushy. Then, I used the immersion blender and blended it up. Let it reduce down some more and then put it on the pancakes.

Yum.

Alright, I admit defeat....

even if I do make something homemade every day (which I do), it is often the same thing I have already posted about, or I don't have time to put it online every time. So, I am no longer labeling the days with numbers, but rather, will just post the thing itself.

Monday, February 8, 2010

I do have some things to post....

but I have been crazy busy organizing a bi-weekly organic, farm-fresh and local egg co-op here in San Antonio. I have several things to write about so hopefully things will slow down and I can take a minute.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Day 35 - Körözött


My Dad is Hungarian, so I think alot of my culinary foibles are shaped by that. We always had a soft cheese spread, called Körözött to eat on wonderful rustic bread. I was craving a little bit of "home" so I whipped up a batch today to eat on some Jewish Rye bread. It is a very forgiving recipe and you can tweak it to your family's taste. As with most traditional recipes imparted to you by a grandmother/mother/aunt, etc. this one involves a lot of "just put some of xyz in" or "you know just make it look like mine". Here is my version

1 block of cream cheese or equivalent soft cheese like cottage or goat
2 to 3 T soft butter
1 to 2 sour cream or creme fraiche
minced garlic to taste (I use 2 big cloves)
grated onion to taste (I use the juice and about 1/4 of a large yellow onion)
coarse mustard to taste
paprika to taste
salt
caraway seeds and/or chives

mix all this together. It should be a very light orange colour with little specs of black and/or green. It is wonderful spread on bread, with cold cuts, hard boiled eggs...the possibilities are endless.

Growing up in Montreal, which has a sizable Hungarian population, I was spoiled by ready access to the wonderful products that make up the Hungarian diet. I have missed it sorely since moving to first Kansas, and now Texas. There is one store in California called Otto's Hungarian Import Store and Deli that I have ordered from before. Damn, now I want some Kolbasz, and Hideg Meggy Leves.


Edit - I was nursing the baby a little bit after I wrote this, and decided to watch Guy's Big Bite on Food Network. He was talking about making Spaetzle and that a friend of his makes it by pushing it through a sieve which reminded me of Nokedli which are little Hungarian dumplings you serve with Goulash or Paprikash. My mom had a special Nokedli maker (I think my brother might have it now, but I know she doesn't), but you can just use a colander or two spoons. Hmmm, honey, I see a Goulash and Nokedli in our near future.

Day 29 - Dishwashing Soap

Our dishwasher sucks. It doesn't clean up to the top rack, and frequently stops draining, so I hate buying dishwasher soap. I found a recipe for homemade dish powder and gave it a try. It did leave a white film on our dishes, but we have really hard water and it was no worse than the regular soap does.

1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup coarse salt like pickling salt
1 to 2 T lemonade Kool Aid or store brand (this is for the acid to help with hard water - I end up using 1/4 cup which is about 10 little packets)

Day 30 - Dishwasher Rinse

If you saw the last post, you know I have issues with hard water and film on my dishes. So, I decided to try this homemade fix - vinegar. It worked like a charm.

Day 34 - Milk Kefir

Well, I just realized I haven't posted about milk kefir yet. I made a batch today, which reminded me to post about it. If you want to do some research on kefir, I think the best resource is Dom's Kefir Page or various recipes from Cheeseslave.

One of the other lovely things about Kefir is the sense of community you get - if you meet another kefir maker you have an instant bond. You can also bring people into your "community" by sharing your grains with them (hey, I'm Canadian so I am a socialist at heart.)

Step 1 - put grains in clean mason jar
Step 2 - fill jar up with organic whole or raw milk
Step 3 - cover with muslin, cheescloth or coffee filter
Step 4 - let ferment in warm place for 12-48 hours
Step 5 - remove the grains and put the kefir in the fridge
Step 6 - do it all again

Friday, January 29, 2010

Day 28 - Math

We are working on math with the boys, kind of in a loosey goosey way until my Singapore Math workbooks and textbook get here (and I need to order the home instructors guide). I was really surprised that my boys did not immediately take to math manipulatives (i.e. counting with beans, rods, etc.), in fact they seemed annoyed by them. I was at a lose about what to do, so I have just been writing out the 1+ tables, and the 2+ tables, and so on and having them work on problems (really boring). Then, I came upon this really cool website called the Khan Academy. It is a series of videos on YouTube that teach math from basic addition on up. The boys watched it and were fascinated by the "yard stick" method in which you have a series of numbers written along a horizontal line. You mark the first number in the equation and then make little jumps equivalent to the second number in the equation to get the answer. Example: 2 + 5 = you would mark the #2 and then with your pencil jump 5 spots to land on the 7. I thought I would switch it up and make a game-type board. I want to get some little pieces (like from Monopoly but bigger so L won't eat them and choke)...maybe have one piece as the primary spot marker and then have a car or something that "drives" the number of spaces needed.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Singapore books came last night, but I am still going to use this when we do problems.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Day 27 - Corn Chowder

Wednesday is soup day. Today was simple corn chowder:

Saute one onion in oil or butter. Add about 1/4 small can of chopped japalenos or equivalent fresh. Also, add 1/2 package of frozen peppers or equivalent fresh peppers. Cook for a few minutes until just tender. Add one bag of frozen sweet corn. Add 1.5 cans of veggie or chicken broth (about 3 cups homemade broth). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30mins.


Blend with an immersion blender or in a blender.

Day 26 - homemade fun

Okay, so you may have noticed that I am sucking really badly at this challenge - I refuse to cheat and so am posting only on the days that I make stuff. I will go back and fill in, but I have lost some followers and think I need to keep things fresh. I do make alot of stuff but it tends to be the same stuff or variations thereof. So, today I am cheating. C, L and R-dog made their own fairy playland, using the comforter as a cloud, and played ponies.


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Day 24 - Pork Roast Marinade

Sunday is meat day. We generally rotate between chicken and pork/ham with the very occasional beef meal. Tonight we had pork roast. I like to slather the roast with a yummy rub and then slow roast it.

Pork Roast Wet Rub:

grind together -

1 small package of pecans
1/4 C deli mustard
2 T brown sugar
2 T balsamic vinegar
as much garlic as you like
salt and pepper to taste
enough olive oil to make a paste


Then cover the whole roast with the rub

Roast it and then eat up!!!

I served this with cremini mushrooms, broccoli, roast potatoes, stuffing and gravy


BONUS - scrape the rub off the roast and add it with the pan juices to package or plain homemade gravy. Extra tasty!!!!

Day 18 - Tutus

I love making tutus. Luckily, the girls love wearing them, so I get to indulge my creative desires frequently. C had an unfinished tutu waiting, so today I finished it much to her delight. I am actually in the planning stages of creating my own little craft company to sell tutus and related items at craft fairs and online. Here are some pics of the ladies in their tutus (the one of L is actually of her in a tutu a friend made, she's just the model, and it was taken about 6 months ago so she is only about 5 months old).



Thursday, January 21, 2010

Day 17 - Black Bean Soup


I love soup...cold soup, warm soup, hot soup, love them all. One of the family favourites (by that I mean it is requested often) is Miami Black Bean Soup. I did get this out of a cookbook originally, but I make it by heart now, and completely forget which book I got it from (sorry). Here is the recipe with my tweaks:

Chop one large onion, and several cloves of garlic. Saute this is a couple tablespoons of butter and/or olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add half a bag of frozen mixed peppers or about 2 cups chopped fresh peppers and also about 1/2 little can of chopped jalapenos or equivalent of fresh chopped japalenos. Cook for a few more minutes. Add two cans of black beans or about 2.5 cups of cooked black beans. Toss in a bay leaf, Tobasco and some ground cumin if you want to jazz it up. Then add about 3 cups of veggie or chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and then simmer for about 30 mins. Blend in the blender or with an immersion blender. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, some crusty bread or crackers.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Day 16 - Stirfry Sauce

Tonight I wanted a quick and hearty dish, so I made stirfry. Actually, it is not as spontaneous as it sounds because I always plan my complete menu a week (sometimes two) before I go to the store, so I knew we were having stirfry.

I know a lot of people like to buy store-bought Teriyaki sauce or other sauces to add to their stirfry, but I like a simple basic sauce:

1 cup soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
grated fresh ginger and chopped garlic to taste, and a squeeze of lemon

I like to follow the theory that a good sauce (and a good marinade) should have a salty element, a spicy element, a sweet element, an acid element, and a sour element.

The stiry fry itself was just brown rice, onions, broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts and scrambled egg. It was yummy.

Day 15 - Homemade Cookies

The kids have been complaining that I no longer make cookies, so I decided to treat them and make some carob chip cookies with crunchy toffee bits. They were very happy.

My little assistant

The few cookies I could get a picture of before they were devoured.

**Just so you know, all the kids and I are allergic to cocoa so you will never see a recipe with chocolate in this blog. I replace all chocolate chips with carob chips, and all cocoa powder with carob powder.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Day 14 - Homemade Playdough

I admit it, I don't like the smell of PlayDoh...I do like the feel, however. So, I was browsing through recipes for homemade playdough and came across one that is made with Kool-Aid instead of dye so I thought, "hmmm, that would probably smell great". So, when a friend and her daughters were over at the end of December, I gave it a try. It felt and smelled heavenly, so I decided to give it a go again recently.

Homemade Playdough:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups water
Kool-Aid packets (I used our store brand)

Mix Kool-Aid, flour, salt in bowl. Add oil, then boiling water. Stir well. Knead on counter until mixed and smooth. I then put it in a frying pan for about 30 seconds on each side. That seemed to really make it pliable.

Just a note

Wow, I am finding it hard to take the time to post. I realize I am almost 6 days behind. I will try to catch up, but L is teething and that requires alot of my energy.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Day 13 - Homemade bird food

So, the kids and I were racking our brains trying to come up with a non food related post - I promised P that this wouldn't just turn into a recipe blog. However, I had on hand:

the leftover oatmeal from the day before,

some pork fat from Sunday's dinner (the only night we eat meat)

and copious amounts of crunch peanut butter which the kids have decided they no longer like (the crunchy part, that is, not peanut butter which is still a beloved food). I remembered seeing a recipe for bird food using some of these ingredients, so I decided to wing it (no pun intended) and ground up the fat, oatmeal, peanut butter, some walnuts and raisins.


I then cut down an old milk jug and made it into a feeder. I also filled a muffin tin with the leftover food so I can just add more as needed.

Do not know if the birds like it yet, because it has been raining for days, and I haven't put it out yet.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Day 11 - Hollandaise

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am an addict. There, I said it. I am addicted to Hollandaise sauce. I am so addicted that my poor children have become little mini addicts. I have yet to find anything that does not taste wonderful with Hollandaise drizzled on it, or dunked into it, and don't even get me started on Eggs Benedict because that conversation will go on for hours. Yes, I am aware that it is not very good for me, but oh so delicious. I limit myself to about twice a month, and usually it is, like today, for snack time with toast dipped into it, or for breakfast with a poached egg. The kids just adore it and will happily sit at the table dunking little pieces of toast into it. I use a very simply recipe originally form the Joy of Cooking that only requires a blender. I have tweaked it a little:

4 eggs yolks - the fresher the better
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) - I cannot wait to try this with homemade butter
splash of lemon juice
splash of Tabasco Sauce
salt to taste

- melt the butter until it is bubbling and frothy, but not browned (this usually takes about 3 minutes in the microwave if I start with a frozen stick of butter)
- meanwhile, put egg yolks in blender, and turn on low speed. Gradually add the lemon juice, Tabasco and salt.
- once the butter is ready, slowly (very slowly) add the butter in a light stream to the eggs while the blender is running on low. After about 30 seconds, you can pour the rest in quickly.

You are left with creamy, rich, thick manna from egg heaven.

Confession time - there are no pictures of the glorious Hollandaise. We ate it before I could take pictures. Oh, well, guess I will have to make another batch soon. (can you hear the maniacal laughing in the background?)

UPDATE: So, I sacrificed and made another batch just so I could get some pictures ;)

It is hard to get a good picture of the egg yolks whizzing around in the blender, but here it is.

Breakfast of champions...or at least champions of Hollandaise Love! BTW those are Oroweat's new sandwich thins. They are great because they are lower carb as is, but I can divide one in half between me and X and neither one of us feels deprived like we would with half a piece of bread. We get the multi grain variety at Costco.

Day 12 - Soaked Porridge

I love porridge, always have, always will. However, when I was little my mum used to like to make it swimming in hot milk which always made me want to vomit...I love dairy products but cannot stand milk as, well, milk. Since then, I have always made it with water. Since putting X and myself on a low carb / good carb diet, I have very stingy with the oatmeal.
However, I decided to soak the oatmeal in milk kefir overnight (sort of fermenting it). The next morning, I dump the whole goopy mass in a pot, put in water, some cinnamon and voila, creamy porridge deliciousness. Bonus: the kids each ate two bowls.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Day 10 - Vermiculture

Last summer my husband began a square foot garden as a hobby. Many of my local friends have the most wonderful gardens (and chickens - I am very jealous of this). Several of them also do worm composting. So, in my effort to support P's new hobby, I took up one of my won - vermiculture. A dear friend gave me some worms, and I constructed our homemade worm paradise. Sadly, it is hotter than hell in south Texas in the summer, and my little worms all either died or ran away. So, got another batch from my friend, and tried round two but this time in the garage. Still too hot, and I thought all the little wormies died again. Too sad to try again, I put the worm box outside when the weather cooled and decided to use it as a regular composter. Surprisingly, the worms were not dead, and in fact, have proliforated in the cool weather. So, although I cannot take all the credit for this, todays subject is 1) homemade worm composters and 2) homemade compost.


Our worm box is made out of two plastic bins. They both have air holes so that air can circulate. The main one is in the bottom and when that fills up, the worms will travel to the top bucket, and I will will use the compost from below. I cover the top box with a plastic cover with lots of air holes in it.

We compost all veggie and fruit matter, all egg shells, and all coffe grounds. We do not put anything with meat or dairy in it in the compost, and I do not put citrus peels or lots of onions in there. Actually, the compost is so rich I have lots of seeds sprouting in it - may have alot of spaghetti and acron sqaush this summer because that is what is sprouting.

Hopefully you can see one of my little wormies - they are not earth worms, but red worms. I think they adorable and love them to bits!!!!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Day 9 - Orange Kefir Soda

I have recently begun making Kefir Soda. The kids adore the lemon version, but were not impressed with the cherry or blueberry. Opinions were mixed on the orange - C loved it, I thought it was good, P hated it and X made a face. S wouldn't even try. They are all mad because I refuse to make lemon again until I at least try lime.

I follow the direction on Cheeseslaves blog. I was gifted the grains (both water and milk) by my friend OwlMomma.

I am in a bit of a rush today, but will post pictures soon....not that watching things ferment is exciting to most people, but I think it is nifty.

Okay, I am back with a picture and some comments:

These are the water kefir grains
I let the sugar water ferment for two days and then added the juice from half an orange. Then I let it ferment for two to three more days. I didn't find the orange flvour pronounced enough and thought it was still too sweet. I think I need to let it initially ferment for longer. My friend OwlMomma brought some raspberry kefir soda to the park yesterday and hers was delicious - so much so that L stole my cup, chugged it down and then tried to mooch the rest off of everyone else. I am making some lime kefir soda now, so we will see if that is more to our taste. I think I will also save up and buy some proper soda bottles like OwlMomma has because they do make the soda much fizzier than my mason jar version.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Day 8 - Calendar

I have tried several different calendar systems, but found them either too restrictive or didn't have enough options, so I buckled down and created my own.

I have a monthly page with lines for me and P, home things like bills or monthly chores, and lines for each of the kids. I don't put much detail on these, just enough to know I am supposed to do something.

I also created daily pages. These have pre-defined spaces for things I do every day, things I do specific to that day, space for things I need to prepare for homeschool, and things I need to do to prepare for this blog. My hour by hour spaces have room for school things and non-school things. I type in recurring events, but the rest I just write in.

I put these on thickish paper, three whole punch them and put them in a pretty binder- well, okay I still need to find a pretty binder...maybe I should just make one...oooooh, maybe a future post.

I have tried to use Motivated Moms, and also purchased products from MomAgenda, as well Day Timer, but find my system works better for me. I do like Motivated Moms system, but didn't like that the chores were already prescheduled, but could see it as being handy for someone who needed help getting organized. I like MomAgendas stuff but wanted the flexibility of a three ring binder rather than the unmoveable page protectors in the system I purchased. I still use their kitchen folio, though, because I don't need to move things around so much.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Day 7 - Anti-rash bath soak

Little L developed some weird rah all over her core today. We have several friends whose children have developed Roseola and I think this may be what she has - she had a fever on Monday, and developed the rash today (Day 4). So, I am making one of my patented (not really) bath soaks. I usually like to put lavender and tea tree oil in the soaks but have run out of my essential oils and refuse to pay grocery store prices for them; the hunt is on for a decently priced, bulk provider of essential oils.

For a rash, I like to grind up oatmeal, baking soda and milk (or powdered milk if you are keeping it or not using it all at once). If you want to add essential oils, go ahead and do that as well. Grind this all up fine in a blender or food processor - leave the liquid milk out if you are using it and add after sieving the rest. I then like to sieve it to get only the fine powder, take it from me, it is a clumpy, gooey mess otherwise.

EDIT: add this fine powder to a warm bath. (sorry I forgot to add this originally)

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Day 6 - Laundry Powder

We have been using the all natural liquid laundry soap from Costco and have been happy with it. However, I decided to try making my own laundry powder (it is really cost effective). I found a recipe that lists out:

1 bar of Fels-Naptha or Ivory soap
1/2 Cup washing soda (not baking soda)
1/2 Borax.

I couldn't find Fels-Naptha at my grocery store, but will be ordering it online, or searching for it locally because I hear it is an excellent stain fighter. However, I also hear it can be caustic, so I've seen the recommendation to use 1/2 Fels-Naptha and 1/2 some other natural soap. I think I will try this with my natural soap being Dr. Bonners.

I also thought the soap to other stuff ratio seemed high, so my recipe is (or will be when I get the Fels-Naptha):

1/2 bar Castille soap
1/2 bar Fels-Naptha
2 Cups washing soda
2 Cups Borax



You shred the soap and mix it with the powder ingredients.







Then, place it is a jar and use about 1 to 2 Tablespoons per load.



I decided to test it out on the hardest washing load I have - dirty cloth diapers. Wow, the diapers came out smelling clean and looking bright. I am a convert. I then did a load of light coloured clothes, and same thing - smelled good and clean.

Can't wait to try it out with my homemade fabric softener (but that is a post for another day).

I love fresh, clean natural diapers!!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The cast of characters

Just realized that I have never introduced the crazy cast of characters who make up the central core of my life.

There is me (Jennifer). I am married to P (Daddy). We have 2 boys and 2 girls (in that order). S is our eldest and he was born in 2003. X came next in 2004, with C following in 2006. L is our youngest and she was born in 2009. Joining this human crew are R-dog our male Great Dane who was born in 2005. B-dog is a female Great Pyrenees who was born in 2007. R-cat is our eldest male cat (2005), while we picked up O-cat (another male) from the same farm we got B-dog from in 2007. Finally is P-kitten. We found her huddling freezing and scared outside when she was about 6 weeks old in October of 2009. Obviously, we took her in.

Day 5 - Lentil Stew

Today (Tuesday) is the day we are out of the house from morning until evening...usually a crock pot kind of day. X has capoeira in the morning, then we join friends for Homeschool Park Day (a.k.a Mummy gets to speak to other adults day).

There will be no pictures. I was rushing to make homemade popcorn to hold the ravening hordes off while the stew cooked, so forgot to document the process.

Basically the meal is easy-peasy: put one can of Italian chopped tomatoes, one small can of tomato paste, one cup of water, one chopped onion, two peeled and diced potatoes and about 1/2 cup of lentils in a pot. Bring to a boil, and then simmer until the lentils are tender.

It was a hit with P-Daddy, L and me. S, X, and C were so stuffed with popcorn that they only took a few bites (note to self: make sure to not give the kids too much popcorn right before dinner.)

Day 4 - Asian Salad Dressing

Okay, shoot me. It is day 4 and I am alread coping out and making salad dressing. Honestly, it was our first day of full-time homeschool and I really need to get better at our schedule. Also, I am taking care of a friend's dog whilst they are away being festive ('tis the season and all) with her family. She graciously allowed me to take her unfinished organic spring mix salad so it didn't go to waste; hence the salad dressing. (However, please note the filling for the omelette was a super fantastic homemade cheddar ale fondue from New Year's Eve, so it was, in fact a triple homemade meal - fondue, omelette and dressing.

FYI - I generally cook "off the cuff" so measuring is a hit or miss thing for me, and I often describe things in "parts". It is frustrating, I know.

Take two parts soy sauce or tamari, put it in a mixing jar.

Add two parts sesame oil.

Add one part rice wine vinegar, and then add garlic if you like (or if you don't forget like I did). Cap the jar and shake vigorously.

Cheddar Ale cheese omelette with organic greens and Asian salad dressing.