All posts in Domestic Damsel

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce (Recipe Request)

by admin on March 17, 2012 in Domestic Damsel, Foodie Like Me with No comments

(I ended up altering the original recipe a lot so I tried to just write out what I did here.  If it isn’t working for you feel free to ask me questions.)

2 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 apple chopped
1 cup fresh mushrooms chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup Italian cheese blend (Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano) or just aged cheddar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cilantro or dill
salt and ground black pepper to taste

  1. Fry the onion, garlic and apple in butter till golden. Add mushrooms and warm them up in the onion mix.
  2. Be sure the squash is cooked till very soft, so you can mash it.
  3. While the squash is still hot mix the broth and milk into the squash.
  4. Heat the squash back up then mix in the cheese till melted then puree with a hand held blender.
  5. Add the onion mix and stir till it has reached desired thickness, about 5 to 10 minutes.
  6. Mix in the spices then season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Psst, I doubled the recipe and it didn’t thicken well for me so I added about a table spoon of flour to it before pureeing with the hand held blender..

TTFN

The Avocado

by admin on March 14, 2012 in Bits Of My Personality, Do I Call It Parenting Advice?, Domestic Damsel, Foodie Like Me with 1 Comment

No aversions to avocados in this house.  The kids have had little choice but to figure out how to enjoy it, as I keep introducing it in many different ways… and they have to cope and eat because Mom likes it so much.  We have enjoyed my ‘light quacamoli’ for years but this year I found a FAST fresh little side salad, that is so pretty and appetizing, even the kids enjoy.

AVOCADOS IN OIL

  • Slice up one or two avocados and spread out on a nice big plate.
  • Drizzle extra virgin olive oil gracefully over the fruit.
  • Squeeze some fresh lime juice over your salad.
  • Sprinkle with cilantro (fresh or dried) and sea salt to taste.

I can eat this as a meal unto itself it is so tasty.  It sure went nicely with the ‘Black Bean Salsa’ soup we had for supper tonight (see picture below).

Enjoy and eat!

TTFN

A Week of Meals In February (Recipe Request)

by admin on March 1, 2012 in Domestic Damsel, Foodie Like Me with 1 Comment
Haven’t done a post like this in a while!  Always enjoy a collection of photos of successful meal. So fun to have a camera again that can take such lovely pictures of my suppers.
I was my husbands hero this night! All natural BACON, hard boiled free range eggs and roasted, olive oil, cilantro, paprika, garlic vegetables.
 

Another winner with my man. Aged cheddar cheese toast (on home made bread), a cranberry/orange dressed salad and cilantro garlic wild salmon. I don’t think we can go back to farmed now that we have tasted wild, so tender!!

Needed a low effort supper as I was wiped. Here we have steamed Jamaican black rice mixed with a sprouted brown rice that is dressed with lime juice and sea salt and pepper. Next is some boiled sweet organic veggies and steamed chicken with cilantro and salt and pepper on top. Of course the kids liked it enough to go back for seconds and thirds… good old chicken and rice…  I napped while everything steamed or boiled so it was a winning meal for me too.

Italian Venison Sausage with cilantro and olive oil carrots and buttered cabbage. My man is nuts about cabbage. Finished off with some veggie infused chips.

WOW, this butternut squash pasta sauce was thick and cheese-y. Stuck to the whole wheat pasta beautifully. It had dill, garlic, sweet onions, an apple, mushrooms and aged cheddar chopped up in it.  This meal resulted from being almost totally out of groceries so we had dried seaweed and carrot sticks on the side.  We all enjoyed seconds!

~~~

To top it all off I found a fabulous recipe for a giant chocolate chip cookie!  You eat it like cake.  It makes a large 14″ cookie or two smaller ones made in 8×8 circular pans.  The smaller ones work great to stack and ice together!  So fun to try to decorate them differently each time!


Here is my altered version of the recipe:



THE Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup organic sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup chickpea flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts or shredded coconut (use the coconut when making this for school as our school is a nut free zone)

Directions

  1. Blend butter and sugar together in a big bowl.
  2. Beat in vanilla and eggs till fluffy.
  3. Add flour, salt and baking soda and mix in well.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips and the nuts or coconut.
  5. Spread in greased 14 inch cookie sheet or 2 round 8×8 cake pans.
  6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 -25 minutes.
  7. Cool in pan on rack.
  8. Flip out of pan and decorate.

 TTFN

-45 Confirms Our Weird Fall is Gone

by admin on January 18, 2012 in Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel, Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Life Keeps Changing, The Pet with No comments
 

Well, our prolonged fall is gone.  It was historical in its oddness and I feel also in its end.  One day we are in the plus and the next we are in the -30s, and lower, with a few feet of heavy snow!  I spent three and a half hours clearing our walk ways.  We have a nasty big driveway (note to self, next house must have short driveway).

Yesterday the school bus didn’t make it, -40 will do that to a school bus.  This morning the thermometer read -45 so I hollered at my man to not get the kids up and rolled back under the covers.  SNOW DAY!  No bus, no school, no schedule!

(Introducing ‘Yellow Whisker’ and ‘Nya’)

I mozied out of bed at 10 and had a deliciously slow breakfast.  Made coffee to go with my Greek yogurt and homemade bread with jam.  Poured the remainder of the coffee over a roast, slow cooker supper.  Mixed up my weekly bread batch and finally got dressed around one.  The kids found a variety of games and insanity to entertain themselves as I puttered. Kitchen got clean and toys put away.

Lunch for the fish was followed by lunch for the crew.  Popcorn, hot chocolate, carrots and cake on the menu, a menu that at least contributed to the lack of a single complainer in the bunch (please note, fish DID get fish food)!

Riddick is in full winter rebellion gear again.  He looks at me like I am joking when I encourage him to go out for a run about and a wizz.  “Come on boy, you can’t cross your legs for ever,” I insist as I give him a gentle boot out.  Once back in doors we got the broom out and played broom ball dog style.  I run around with the broom and he tries to catch and destroy it.  After he was warn out the floor got washed and soon doggy gets a bath too.

So what kind of a post is this?  Well this is an itinerary to a mozie day.  I know you regulars are wondering where the long romantic descriptions of tea drinking and snuggle up time with chocolate are… no worries done that a few times today.


Excuse me while I continue to seize the day and take a nap.

TTFN

Wink Wink,Carrot Cake (Recipe Request)

by admin on January 10, 2012 in Domestic Damsel, Foodie Like Me with 1 Comment

For those of you who have smiled nicely but not been willing to try making my ‘healthier’ dishes and dessert, please give this amazingly fluffy, spicy, caramel-y cake a try.  Brave doing it THE SAME way I made it! Change the veggie or the sugar and I can’t guarantee the same results.

CARROT CAKE

1 3/4 cups Organic Palm Sugar
1 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1/2 cup Chick Pea Flour
2 tsps Baking Soda
2 tsps Organic Cinnamon (ground)
A good pinch of salt

Mix these first items in a big bowl and set aside.

2 tsps Vanilla (I don’t use the extract)
1 1/4 cup Grape Seed Oil
4 Eggs
3 cups grated YAM

Cream together the wet items then add to the dry and mix well.
Put in a 9×13 inch greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Eat hot as is or ice once cooled.  We don’t have a solution for icing being low glycemic for my husband so we eat it warm.  Due to the palm sugar it is very low glycemic and the extra protein of the chick pea really helps balance your blood sugars too.  Yam is supposed to be one of the best veggies for vitamins and minerals so I try to sneak it into my kids diets where ever I can.  Surprisingly easy because of its natural sweet taste.

Post any questions you have:)

TTFN

And WE Made Cookies!

by admin on January 6, 2012 in Adventure and Me, Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel, Foodie Like Me, Mama Heart Mushings with No comments

Two things I have said that I retract… as of today…

ONE, I don’t make cookies and TWO, guess you have to be a chef or a baker and I am no baker anymore.  It is amazing what more time can do for a mom’s self esteem!  With HAVING to make our bread every week I couldn’t help but retain that skill, but with Garnet diagnosed with hypoglycemia I let my baking skills mostly slide.  Especially where cookies where concerned as I always found them such a struggle, so time consuming and so often a failure of mine.

With Garnet’s shoulders both damaged due to two different accidents of late I have been home bound while I let him use our only vehicle more often.  Before his shoulder issues he was commuting by bike YEAR ROUND.  This means I am feeling more domestic as I have no choice but to put off all the run around stuff I have been expected to do since moving to the city, and I am lov’n it!

With more time on my hands I decided we needed cookies.  My little man, who is three now, and I have the mornings alone together and we needed the together project as well as the treats that result from cookie making.  It all became necessary after yesterdays trips to two grocery stores.  He loves grocery trips, even asking when we don’t need to if I will take him anyway.  He loves grocery trips because I figured out what other mom’s apparently knew for years… the baker will let you child have a free cookie!  So he got a gigantic ginger snap from Superstore and a fat chocolate chip from Safeway.  I got a happy little man and a kick out of his deep deep pleasure in cookie eating.  I recalled how much I adored them as a child, pretty much all of us did right?!  I remembered how AMAZING my mothers home made chocolate chip cookies where… we needed home made cookies around here again!  And that!  That would be up to ME!!

Once home I also remembered how badly every single batch of my mom’s famous cookies turned out when I made them… doubt set in… uncertainty… apprehension… but my craving and my boys chocolate smeared smile pushed me through the haze of horrible memory flash backs and I GOT OUT MY BOWL TODAY!  Yes the cookie batter mixing bowl, and the spatula, and the ingredients!  I then called my mom for help and let her walk me through my rough spots over the phone

When I poured in the chocolate chips my boy cheered ‘You put in chocolate!  You are so good mommy’!  When I let him mix he exclaimed, ‘We do dis together Mama, US make cookies.  Iz you and me’!  And my heart glowed.

My tummy glowed too, as I munched down my first… well two first cookies.  My three year old got SOOOO quiet when I set two cookies and a glass of milk before him.  Ironically that spoke deeper then all his adorable praises as we prepared the cookies.

Today was a big day… today we made cookies!

P.S. Oops… burnt tongue…I never ever seem to remember to not put the stray chocolate chips straight into my mouth after removing hot cookies from the pan.  HOT CHOCOLATE!

TTFN

Doing More Because I Can Now

by admin on January 5, 2012 in Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel, Feeling It (Thankful), Life Keeps Changing with 2 Comments
(I can nap, or sip tea in silence knowing I have earned it!)

Now that my kids are older I can:
make all our bread,
re-educate myself in the area of dessert baking,
make all our house cleaning products,
make our laundry detergent,
plant and harvest from our mini indoor greens garden (health idea and fresh food all through the winter),
shop for groceries like a deal finding magnet (cosco once a month, super store once a month, safeway weekly, health food stores, farmers markets, bulk barn, organic honey dealer),
multiple bank runs,
skate twice a week with my oldest boy,
toboggan at least once a week (if it ever snows this year)
jog each morning,
get away with insomnia because I no longer have sleep deprivation due to babies or toddlers,
own a dog and not find him to much in the mix,
NOT to mention all the hobbies I will pick up again and all the new ones I will learn…
blog ridiculously silly posts full of seriously long run on sentences!

Of course getting my thyroid meds balanced has a lot to do with my ability to do all this too.

I am thankful:)

TTFN

Find Delight (Even or Especially In Winter!)

by admin on December 31, 2011 in Adventure and Me, Bits Of My Personality, Do I Call It Parenting Advice?, Domestic Damsel, Feeling It (Thankful), Life Keeps Changing with No comments

(Skating CHRISTMAS DAY! 2011)
What can I say?
I really am delighted with winter!
I guess that is why I still live here.

You can’t have those sweet rosy noses and cheeks with out it.
Or wear thick sweaters and knit scarves each day without it.
Mittens and toques with pompoms are a must have and a must enjoy.

(At the neighbourhood rink with my oldest boy!)

Trips to the outdoor rink, to the toboggan hill, snow forts and snow angels and the amazing way the house feels when you freshly return from winter adventures.


(Our home, a couple winters ago.  We don’t have this much snow yet this year.)

Ones house never feels so inviting in the warm months of the year!
How perfect a big hot mug of tea or hot chocolate feel whether going warmly down your throat or just being held in your chilled hands!

Such glorious domesticity blooms in ones heart as you unpack your snow covered children, rediscovering them from underneath loads of winter clothes and you place a warm cup of love in their sweet little hands.  Just standing over the pot of home made hot coco is enough to make me feel like a great mom.

(A day gone by, at the community toboggan hill will the whole crew.)

Yes winter takes a lot of work and requires effort and yet this is why the little moments feel so very good this time of year.

(My eldest son, on the way home from a winter adventure.)



Hurrah for winter!

TTFN

Little Cookie Cutters

by admin on December 30, 2011 in Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel, Little Things, People In My Heart with No comments

This has been a Christmas of sweet reminders that people ‘get me’.  My sister got me these little cookie cutters and they came straight off my amazon wish list (which she took the time to track down).  This is a first!  Someone found and went from an online wish list of mine!

Oh these sweet little cookie cutters reflect a piece of who I am.  I am a tea lady and can hardly wait to cut out cookies for my next tea party with these, not to mention SANDWICHES, thanks to hearing about that clever idea from a childhood pal of mine.

I like little ‘you get me’ gifts!  It reminds me it is OK to let people know who you are, to share who you are and to keep being MYSELF!

TTFN

Christmas Eve Snippets

by admin on December 24, 2011 in Domestic Damsel, Feeling It (Thankful), Foodie Like Me, Holiday Messages, Mama Heart Mushings, People In My Heart with 1 Comment

Has been another day of cooking in the kitchen and yet, unlike so many previous years, I am happy there… prepping the ‘pigs in a blanket’ and the cake of ‘gingerbread’.  We will have a house full of family tonight for our Christmas eve ‘Scottish Tea Party’.  This is something we do every year with the kids and this year it just worked out that more people are coming.

 Has been a day of making sure the house is nicely prepared for guests and so I have less to do tomorrow.  New Christmas decorations (like the mitten garland) are up and the floors are sparkling. Fresh sheets are ready for the guest bed and clean towels.  For the first time ever we are also having a sleep over on Christmas!  My sister and her daughter will be with us since her man is away with work.  The home will be all the cozier with extra loved ones to shower with generosity.

Has been a day of receiving early gifts!  Our neighbors are always so kind, today was no different.  They stopped in with WINE and CHOCOLATE for us!  Later my mother arrived (the folks are staying at my big brothers) with my first lesson on my sowing machine AND a pretty box of sowing tools!  Grand moments of generosity sent our way!

The anticipation is building and the kids are almost bursting with cheer and excitement.  We had cornflakes for supper and it just added to their joy at how special holidays are!

I anticipate a lovely evening over tea and shortbread and then a reasonable early night so I can be ready for gifts, stockings and then a brunch with loved ones!

Thank GOD for holidays!

TTFN

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