Cherry Pie with leaves crust

Henry and I had a blast making this real sour cherry pie.  I just realized that I only have two frozen packs of cherries left to make pies out of:(  Good thing cherry season is right around the corner!  This cherry pie is my usual recipe from Bon Appetit with a full Meyer lemon zest in it along with Meyer lemon juice.  The flavor was incredible and this pie turned out better than usual with no super runny middle.  My crust did get a little drowned in overflow from the sides but the good thing about a pie is that it never has to look good to taste good! I used some stamps that Justin got for me at William's Sonoma to make all the leaves.  I just love the effect.  I think I'll make one for this weekend for my friend Christi when she comes up to visit. 

Georgie's Day

Today is three years from the day my baby boy, Georgie, died and in honor of him I planted my tomato seeds for this year's vegetable garden.  Spring gardening always reminds me of him and everything in my garden keeps his memory alive in my heart.  I am still amazed that the tiniest tomato seed can make such a giant plant but at the same time I see the seeds that come up with no leaves at all and soon wither and die and I am reminded of the fragility of life and that it is such a miracle that I even have two healthy children and another one wiggling around inside me.  There were no tears today, no calls, no hugs, no cards but I really don't feel like I need them anymore. I wore his birthstone baby ring on my heart locket necklace so it would be close to my heart and I am happy and find joy in my life every day.   He is such an important part of my faith and hope in the plan of salvation and I receive strength from his perfect example.  I will always strive to do what is right so that I may someday be reunited with him because I know he walks with Christ and is working to bring us all home.  I love you angel boy. 

Culinary Adventures of the Holidays

I spent so much time cooking over the holidays I hardly had time for anything else (like blog about it!).  Here is a glimpse of what I was up to...

I wish I made this gingerbread house

 

 This was the one we made.  This one alone cost me about $20 of candy which we never end up eating.  It's a total waste of money but it's tradition, right? The best thing about this one is that the candy was so stuck on it that Henry wasn't able to pry of many pieces so that means less candy consumption!

 

 These are some of the quick and easy cookies I made.  These took almost no time compared to...

 

 These ones.  These are my ornaments covered in royal icing.  I just love how they turned out

 

 Bea kept pulling the letters off but they were so hard that she couldn't even break off even one single piece! lol! A few sprinkles would make their way into her mouth but no bites of cookies

 

 And here I am...the Stepford wife.  Well, not really.  Next year I will make one who hasn't showered in a few days, has hairy legs and pigtails.  That's more like me. lol!

 

 This candycane is spearmint

 

 This one was peppermint

 

 Mmmmm, butterscotch. 

 

 Can you see the candycane in her hair? That one was rootbeer.  I actually really liked her hairstyle in this photo.  It's so modern.  That's my fashionable baby!

 

 This is my chocolate nativity I make every year. I had to wait until I got more chocolate to make the manger though and when I finished it I found it like this...

 

 (See the missing heads?)  I ended up only eating the manger since it seemed wrong to eat anyone else, especially the baby Jesus(even though there was already a bubble hole where his face should have been.  I'll be more careful next time.)

 

This is what Bea looked like after giving her just a couple pieces of chocolate.  How does she make such a mess? Only Henry knows.

It's still refreshing to know that my kids would rather eat fresh raspberries from the garden...

 

And here's Bea eating raw Brussels sprouts which package she ravagingly ripped open to get a bite.  That's my girl. 

Christmas Craziness

So if you've wondered if I'd fallen off the face of the earth, you're wrong.  I have been devoting all my evenings to Christmas crafts, which I should actually be doing right now, and I've been cooking up a storm.  So far Henry and I have made a huge gingerbread house, which I let him eat pretty much all day long.  Funny thing is that the candies are so stuck on it that he can hardly chip anything off and it takes him FOREVER to get his favorite candies off.  We then made gingerbread ornaments and cookies for eating which we pretty much gave all away.  Yesterday I got together with some friends and made candy canes and chocolate dipped pretzels rolled in toasted coconut and other goodies, which we already gave away, and in-between that I've been making ABC quiet books for both Henry and Bea.   We've accomplished all this in just about one week.  

Can I just tell you about my day yesterday? Well I got up, got ready, did laundry, cleaned the house and made bread by about 10am, then my friend Trixie came over to make candy canes.  We both burned our hands and bodies while working with the hot sugar but it was worth it.  They are so beautiful and really tasty. Then we had a couple other friends come over and made chocolate covered pretzels and another couple batches of candy canes.  During this whole fiasco we had three boys running around screaming and Bea basically just wandered around the house looking for food all day.  I don't think Henry had anything but candy canes to eat all day long.  So bad.  At 5:30 I hopped in the car, picked up one of my Young Women for our activity and we made Christmas baskets for non-members and went around singing Christmas carols, delivering them to neighbors and friends.  Each girl made something to put in the basket along with Books of Mormon with testimonies in them and the Joy to the World DVD.  They were really beautiful and we had a blast delivering them.  After the activity I went to a friend's house to pick up some more canning jars she was getting rid of along with some camping equipment and then I finally arrived home, spend a little time with Justin, cleaned my kitchen, worked on my ABC books until I heard Bea crying around midnight(I think she was starving) so I fed her something and put her to bed.  I finally crawled into bed around 1am.

Basically I'm starting to get exhausted....but there's still so much to do! Is it totally wacko that I really love living like this? I felt so fulfilled when I went to bed. 

Winter Squash Wonderland

Here's what I've been up to.  As you see we have a lot of eating to do.  Hurray for Beta Carotene and tons of vitamins and minerals! Actually what I really want is the Vitamixer,  I saw the demonstration again this week at Costco and the guy even remembered me from last May! Am I that easy to spot?(Crazy screaming children, pigtails, high heels) Yup.

Anyone have any favorite recipes you'd like to share that have winter squash in them? Can't wait to use my new cookbook Justin got me for my Birthday(can't find it on goodreads).  These squash were also totally dirty when we got them so Justin painstakingly washed them one by one.  We must have hundreds because we ended up with 300 lbs of them. We have Butternut, Buttercup and Acorn which is a pretty great variety and have very different flavors and textures.  They can be kept for up to 6 months in a cool, dark, dry place so it looks like squash for dinner every night until about March.  Easy, yummy, and healthy. 

Pesto Chango

So many of you have asked about my pesto.  Just for background, pesto is the Italian name for herb paste and as we all know, there are a limitless number of herbs so pesto isn't just the basil and oilve oil based paste you are used to seeing.  I actually have a book of really tasty pestos of all kinds in case you have an excess amount of herbs and want to do something with them.  Pestos are easily frozen and thawed for later use and that's exactly what I do with my classic basil pesto.

There's this farm market I go to to get bushels of basil.  It's $20 per bushel to be exact which is a steal since the one oz of basil you get at the grocery store costs at least two dollars and then you say to yourself, "I can just buy this basil plant here for four dollars, maybe I should just do that and grow some more", but that plant never has enough for your recipe, so you end up buying two packs of cut basil and it still doesn't even equal the cup you need.  If any herb companies are out there reading this, you ALWAYS need more basil in recipes than, say, fresh thyme or rosemary.  You can use cups of basil but one tablespoon of rosemary so why are the packages the exact same size? Can those people be more uneducated about the amounts of basil used in recipes? 

Table of Basil

Anyway, so my suggestion to you is to find a farmers market that sells basil by the bushel and turn it into a basil and oilve oil puree to freeze for the whole year so you never have to buy that tiny package again.  This is the recipe

2 cups packed basil
1/2 cup oilve oil.

Put all ingredients in blender and pulse, push down, and blend until it's as puree'd as your blender can do.  Pour into a plastic bag and place in the freezer.  I made around 50 bags of pesto base this year.  I had about 30 last year and I ran out two months before the basil harvest.

IF you want to make the pesto with the cheese and nuts you may add them in when you serve your dish.  I read that you shouldn't really freeze the cheese and nuts for long periods of time so you should add those ingredients in when you're serving the dish.  So to your basil paste you add...

1 garlic clove
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs freshy grated Pecorino Romano (optional)
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the blender once more and blend until creamy.

Tip: If you make your own pesto, make sure you wash the leaves well and let them dry before blending them.  Also make sure you pick the leaves off the thick stems.  The small ones are fine, but large stems don't puree.  If your basil is wilted, just soak the leaves in water and put in the fridge in a closed bag overnight and they will crisp back up.  This works with any herb.

I also have a small glass jar in the fridge filled with my basil paste that I use on sandwiches instead of mayo and mustard.  I throw it in omlets, top sunny side up eggs with it, spoon it on top of soft or hard boiled eggs (delicious!) dip cold veggies in it, throw it on top of home-made pizzas, and put it on grilled cheese sandwiches.  The options are limitless so go find your bushel of basil and make your pesto for the year!

Colored Vegetables are the Best

When we went with our friends up to Lake Chautauqua I spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen preparing delicious meals.  Justin, as usual, hid the camera so we have almost no photos of any of the kids, but I managed to get a few shots of my bowl of tomatoes and wildflowers I picked before he hid it again.

Here are also some shots of my colored beets and carrots to go along with my multi-colored tomatoes.  Nothing excites Henry like pulling carrots and not knowing exactly what color will come up.  You should try it at home:). And yes I know that tomatoes are a fruit...just in case you were wondering:)