March is Lame and Food is Good

March is the worst month of the year.

It's so long.

It plays with your emotions.

The warmish thaws, the jubilation of going on a long leisure walk outside without a winter coat, all that squashed, the next day, with a big dump of snow.

Depression and hibernation, welcome back.

Usually Peter starts to beg about moving somewhere warmer in January, I can hold out until March and then I'm the one checking the forecast in, say, Mexico. But really, I would be happy if I could just spend Jan-March there.

That's all.

Then we can move back to good ol' Lake Wobegon.

This was just on Saturday!!!

I refused to leave the house today, so Fredrik and I cooked and baked and painted and colored and puzzled and read and on and on, so many things. It may seem obvious and cliche, but I've recently discovered the creative satisfaction I get from cooking. As days go by and I don't have time or energy to work in my studio I start to feel a little dreary. I then find myself spending more time in the kitchen, and even feel a little upbeat. Even with this weather a pleasant mood came about.

Today we made a yellow cake. Now, I know it's going to sound really pathetic having just talked about how creative I am in the kitchen, but I've had this gluten free Betty Crocker cake mix in my cupboard for over a year and I wasn't about to head out to the grocery store to get any ingredients - and I'm already thinking about depleting our food reserves since we'll be moving in less than 2 months- so that's what we made. Plus, I AM baking with a 3 year old.

The cake turned out fine. A little sawdusty, but still reminiscent of "real" box cake mixes (if I can remember correctly back to the last funeral I attended when I was still eating gluten). I think it was all the vanilla. But, despite the lack of great flavor, it had a good texture, and that's a feat with GF.

I knew the boxed yellow cake would have to be saved by frosting, and we only have this supposedly healthy sugar in the house (turbinado I think) which seemed not very likely to work. Doesn't one usually use powdered sugar for frosting? I thought about pulverizing the sugar in the cusinart, but didn't want to go to such a length for frosting. Also, we were almost out of butter thanks to the full stick in the cake.

So, I heated a double boiler, added about 3/4 cup chocolate chips, a few scoops of peanut butter, and a little whole milk. It was good, actually. And quick. Fredrik helped spread (eat) it and it tasted like melted peanut butter cups. We ate the cake later with banana slices which was really really tasty.

For lunch we had another "creative" adventure. Chicken and Rice. Seriously, I'm so darned creative. My little sister was telling me how she makes chicken and rice regularly and I thought, hmmm, I've never made that. I don't know how you are supposed to make it, but I just did it, and it was good and FGH ate it like it was the finest meal ever served in this house (besides raw cake batter).

I did it all on the stove top in my beautiful Cazuela pot from the Clay Coyote, which, may I say was a huge splurge that I do not regret at all. It's pottery for the stove top, hello! It just makes food taste better. Especially things like chicken and rice. I mean, really, cooking in metal or glass? Try artisnal flameware pottery.

I'm guessing most chicken and rice recipes ask for some sort of canned soup. I used vegetable boullion instead. And brown rice. I'm not a stickler for brown rice, but it was good here. I threw in some chopped onions and celery and dried herbs, than 4 chicken breasts and later, with about 15 minutes to go, I topped it all with broccoli. Last time I made it I covered it with carrot sticks. I think we will get four meals out of this and it was one pot, pretty much no mess at all.

Toddler Muffins

Freddy and I made muffins the other day and much was learned about baking with people of the toddler variety.

1. Have things ready as though we are on a cooking show. A quick trip to the cupboard to get vanilla may result in eggs in the honey jar.

2. Use the biggest bowl possible if you are to let the little one stir.

3. Flour is slippery (more so with gluten-free flour?)

4. Do not expect the product to "turn out"

5. The toddler will fill with pride and adore the baked creation, even if it crumbles to a pile of dust when touched.

Next time we may try instant pudding.

Happy First Birthday Freddy My Boy!

We had a splendid birthday party at our house today for the one and only FGH. He was stylin' in his "Children's Place" linen shirt/ striped tie/orange vest/plaid visor hat. He wore pants, too. He was really cute-as-can-be and he didn't even mind the tie. The entire party lasted only 3 hours and that was just about right for a one year old. As guests arrived around 11:00 we poured up mugs of coffee. I was nervous about not having enough food, I have a record of serving a meal for not making enough...it's hard to judge when you don't entertain often and you don't really use recipes. A quick run to the co-op yesterday and Super Target this morning were necessary. Just so you now, a sausage (the whole foods italian, yum) and spinach and jarlsburg egg casserole needs 30 eggs to serve 14 people. That's a lot of eggs. I also made that broccoli and grape salad that is so delicious. I used organic turkey bacon, tons of broccoli ( nine heads (smallish ones), an onion (leftover from the farm so it was pretty small after I got the questionable outer layers off), slivered almonds (I slivered them as I only had whole ones), a small bag of frozen peas and a dressing made of mayo, sugar and apple cider vinegar. I've never made this salad but I always love it when I'm somewhere else. It was a good way to add veggies to a brunch. I made a quick fruit salad of blueberries, thinly sliced pears and kiwi as well. My mom-in-law brought scrumptious raspberry muffins (frozen from her own plants(not muffin plants)) and my grandma made some cute cupcakes and 6" cake for Freddy to dive into. My mom brought some adorable farm animal shaped sugar cookies to add to the "farm animal" theme. Wow. I just went on and on about the food. 
FGH had a great time and got so many cool toys, great clothes and exciting books. Thanks everyone! I made him an accordian-style board book with a picture of each month of his life thus far. It turned out very much to my liking. I'll include more photos of it at some point on this blog. He had fun playing with cousin Madeline, of course.
We attempted the whole "messy cake" thing, but he didn't get too messy. It took him awhile to realize that this huge thing on his high chair tray with orange and blue stuff on it was to be eaten. Then, he just ate it. He threw some on the floor, but mostly he just ate tons of sugar. He didn't get crazy because of it, but did fall asleep despite the loud party going on outside his bedroom door when the sugar wore off. (well, louder than the usual silence of me home alone with him during naps). Here are some pics of the Busca at his party...he's having some serious fun. Stunned is the look I see on his face on almost every one.

Caramelized Onions and Apples

 I felt like experimenting a bit in the kitchen for dinner so I looked through the cupboards to see what I could find to work with.  We still have about 70 pounds of onions left from the farm, so I wanted to use some of them, and we also have quite a few apples from the co-op that are starting to soften.  I caramelized the three onions for about 35 minutes in olive oil and butter, then added the apples (sliced, cored, and peeled) for about 1 minute more, added some white wine (about 1 cup), and let things simmer for about 5 minutes. The apples were soft, but not mushy, and the onions were sweet as can be. I served them alongside a potato sausage and side of quinoa. I helped make the potato sausage last Saturday at my Grandma's house, but that's for another entry. I was planning on taking a picture of the finished plated meal, but things got crazy with Fredrik needing to get to bed and Peter and I scarfed down our food before I could take a picture. The last picture is what remained in the pot.