::right now::

::smiling over the pink sugar cookies made with my favorite cookie cutter::

::baking some love cookies::

::experimenting with beet pancakes::

::bringing out the festive Valentine's banner::

::preparing for an upcoming snowstorm::

::making Love words to hang over our kitchen table::

::right now::

::playing Bremen Town Musicians in front of the early morning fire::

::savoring the autumnal flavors::

::weaving with Grammy::

::collecting the last of the autumn acorns::

::creating a centerpiece::

::mixing an experiment with Grandad::

::obsessing over volcanoes::

first meal of autumn

In addition to our little hike to celebrate the first day of autumn, we also enjoyed a special meal, full of local harvest goodness. The butternut squash came from our garden, and the pumpkins, apples, and corn were thanks to local farmers. The return of autumnal tastes and smells were welcome in our home, in addition to the gratitude for the bounty and the labor of our nearby farms.

I'm not sure a particular meal would signal the transition to other seasons, but autumn just seems to require specific tastes: pumpkins, apples, hard squashes. And we enjoyed them all.

Our menu:

Butternut Squash Risotto
Pumpkin Custard (I double the eggs and pumpkin and sub half and half for the evaporated milk.)
Chunky Applesauce (just apples simmered with cinnamon, then stirred well and chilled)
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Corn on the cob

For dessert, we had an Apple Galette with homemade whipped cream. The kids asked if we are going to have apples with every meal until we burn through that nearly 3 bushels we brought home from the apple orchard. I think the answer is "likely". It will certainly get us in an autumnal mood, right?

Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

My kids have an odd problem. Not a single one of them likes brownies. I'm not sure how a chocolate-loving mama managed to raise 4 children with brownie disdain, but somehow, despite my best efforts, it happened. A particular recipe I've tried a few times and liked, but with brownie-hating children had to eat on my own, is the zucchini brownies. If you google "zucchini brownies", you'll get 7.2 million hits. (See kids! Your mom is not crazy trying to hide a veggie in the brownies!) 

A good chocolate chip cookie, however, and you won't bat an eyelash before half a plate of them are missing. So I wondered and googled to see if zucchini chocolate chip cookies might exist. Lo, and behold, they do! I adapted the recipe I found, because that's what I do.

One of my kids can be picky if she happens to find shreds of zucchini in her cookies, breads, or cakes. This recipe called for Greek yogurt, and since I always have too much homemade kefir lying around, I used it instead. Blending the zucchini and kefir in the food processor first seems to make the zucchini much smoother and lessens the chance of rejection by the non-shred-loving child.

I also happened to be without butter the day I made these cookies.  I found that coconut oil is a great substitute, but you end up with a grainy batter when the coconut oil hardens as it comes in contact with the cold ingredients. It didn't affect the end result though.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies (adapted from Chocolate Fudge Zucchini Cookies)

1 medium (6-7 inch) zucchini
1/3 cup kefir or yogurt
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1 egg (the original recipe did not call for this, but I didn't want crumbly cookies)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated or turbinado sugar
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Blend the first 2 ingredients in food processor until smooth. Pour into bowl and blend with coconut oil, then egg and vanilla. Add cocoa powder and dissolve into mixture. Add remaining ingredients and stir just until blended. Drop by tablespoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. If batter seems too runny, add another few tablespoons of flour until dough is wet but not runny. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set.

These cookies really do taste very brownie-ish (shh! don't tell my kids!), and they freeze well. Now you have a treat that you can feel good about sending in lunch boxes!

back to school lunches

One aspect of back-to-school preparations that I look forward to (at least for the first week or two of school) is rethinking my approach to the kids' school lunches. My kids take a lunch every day and it remains challenging to come up with lunch ideas that don't grow tiresome. I've also been moving toward as few processed foods in their lunch boxes as possible. (Those packaged snacks are just SO easy to pack!)

Each of my kids has their own lunch system that works for them.  The boys prefer multiple dishes, but Elizabeth, who does NOT want to be in charge of keeping up with all of those individual dishes, uses a one-piece lunchbox. The older boys also prefer hot lunches to sandwiches, etc. They have a thermos with a hot meal at least twice each week. (I only pack their lunches 2-3x per week.)

In order to stay on top of the snack or carb items in the kids' lunches, I've started making a double amount of 2 different items then freezing half so there are at least 4-6 options for each week. This week, in addition to homemade bread, made with a soaked sprouted wheat version of this recipe, and homemade granola bars (with almond butter instead of peanut butter) from last week, I made pumpkin soft pretzels, toaster pastries, and flatbread crackers.

The pumpkin soft pretzels were made based on the recipe in Baking Bread with Children. I subbed pumpkin for part of the water, added cinnamon and nutmeg, then sprinkled the pretzels with cinnamon sugar instead of salt.

The toaster pastries were from a recipe I saw on 100 Days of Real Food. I used all sprouted wheat flour and homemade strawberry vanilla jam. These might have been the favorite lunchbox treat so far.

We've been making these crackers quite often. They are made with the Smitten Kitchen Rosemary Flatbread recipe. I usually make a double recipe to give us plenty of crackers. I generally leave out the rosemary when I'm making crackers to make it easier to use the pizza wheel. I also usually sub about 1/2-3/4 cup of almond meal in place of the flour and use half all purpose and half sprouted wheat flour. A flaky gray salt or fleur de sel makes these irresistible!

100 Days of Real Food often has lunch box roundups that include many more fabulous lunch box ideas!

back to school

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been in this space. We fully immersed ourselves in the lazy days of summer, and suddenly, it was almost time for school to start.  We've squeezed every last ounce of fun out of our summer days, and now we're back to the land of predictable routines. Finn and Elizabeth started first and seventh grades today, respectively. 

They were both immediately absorbed into the task at hand so I didn't linger. Well, not too long anyway. They truly love their school which makes the separation much more palatable.

Without the noise, commotion, and busyness of children in the house, I began working on a little gift for the kids' teachers and school staff for this afternoon.  I canned more jars full of food this summer than I could possibly hope to store on my canning shelf or in my pantry, and there were still tomatoes sitting in my kitchen begging for a turn in the canner.

I decided those tomatoes might make nice beginning-of-the-school-year gifts in the form of bruschetta. This morning after drop off, I swung by Whole Foods for a dozen demi-baguettes to pair with the the half-pints of bruschetta.

When Elizabeth heard my plan, she said, "Are you bribing our teachers?!" I replied, "I prefer to call it a 'thank you in advance'." She wrinkled her nose, "sounds like bribery to me!" (A little bribery never hurt, anyway, right?)

::making::

This past week has been so full of making that I didn't really have time to even blog about it. The making continues but hopefully I'll pause a bit more in between for a few updates here.

::blanching tomatoes for 10 more quarts of spaghetti sauce::

::enjoying beet-carrot-apple juice as often as possible::

::piecing a new quilt, Winter's Lane by Moda::

::finishing a shrug for a friend's daughter::

::roasting tomatoes, onions, and herbs for pizza sauce::

::stitching a Christmas project::

::starting the morning right with peach pancakes::

blackberry season

I have a love/hate relationship with blackberry season.  The appearance of blackberry blossoms is one of the true first indications of spring, unlike the daffodils which can be deceiving. The blackberries usually start ripening, in this area, right around the summer equinox which means they are in full swing right around my birthday and the Fourth of July. 

And year and year, I seem to forget how, although I adore these plump bright fruits growing wild in my backyard, picking them while sweltering in the early July heat and amidst the brambles makes me glad when the jam is done and the freezer has several quarts of whole berries the season is finished for the year.

Despite my lack of love for the heat and the inevitable scratches that cover my arms, there is little I enjoy as much as a bowl full of these black beauties waiting to be made into jam. (I also find it a bit humorous how difficult it is to photograph a bowl full of blackberries. They seem to blend together with what looks like eyes staring back at me.)

And the jam, oh that jam, we will be enjoying right through the winter and early spring when the heat of early July is a faded memory.

weekending

After a week full of rain and busy end-of-the-school-year activities, this weekend was full of sunshine, slow days, crafting, loveliness in the mail, gardening, and Finn's first time pedaling a bike!

{Snuggly Bricks ready to quilt in Cherry Christmas}

{The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton}

{sauteed green beans with caramelized garlic}

{completed January Girl socks}