Valentine Cuties

Happy Valentine's Day blogland beauties! Just a quick idea today for a sweet and healthy Valentine's treat:

Use a Sharpie to draw messages like "Hey Cutie", "Be Mine Cutie", or "Kiss Me Cutie" on a whole

box full of cuties, then share the sweetness and the love!

Happy Hearts Day!

xo

In the Morning, I'm Making Waffles!

     In the pantheon of breakfast foods, waffles have always ranked near the top for me. Last week, as I was dealing with change by making stuff, I came up with this high-protein recipe for waffle-tasticness that has now become my one and only waffle option. So I thought I'd share!

      The quantities listed here made four go-rounds for us in a family-size waffle maker, so 16 good size waffles. In the 20 minutes of scrumptiousness that followed the waffle making I realized that I really ought to have doubled, if not tripled the batch. I think I'm going to try making a whole slew of waffles and putting them two at a time in freezer baggies for quick breakfasts on school mornings. Like my own Eggos but made with love and thoughtfulness instead of sodium aluminum phosphate.

Ingredients:

1 cup cottage cheese

4 eggs

1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

1 1/2 c milk

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 1/4 c unbleached all purpose flour

4 tsps baking powder

     Now, I'm about to impart ageless wisdom, so pay attention. Here are the two things I've learned about making up recipes and baking:

1.) You can make up recipes so much more easily if you understand the chemistry of how each ingredient works. What is its purpose? Can you leave it out and achieve healthier but still tasty results? For example, I almost always leave out the salt in baking recipes, but leaving out the moist-makers (eggs/oil/applesauce/yogurt) or the fluffiness facilitators (baking powder/soda/cream-of-tartar) would be a bad plan. Substituting whole wheat flour for white is usually okay, but will make your batters heavy and your doughs tough. I like a mix. Half whole wheat, half all-purpose. Sugar can almost always be reduced (it's pretty minimal in the recipe above but you could leave it out all together if that's the way you roll), and I personally like to use milk as a liquid substitute whenever water is called for; not only for the extra protein but the creamier texture and richer flavor it gives.

And 2.) Always mix your wet ingredients in one bowl and your dry ingredients in another, then mix them together, gradually adding the dry to the wet (for the intents and purposes of most recipes, sugar is a 'wet' ingredient). No fancy instructions necessary.

     So...utilizing those new-found nuggets of knowledge, mix up the ingredients and make waffles. In a waffle maker. And then eat them and be happy.
     I should probably never write a cookbook.

xo

Childhood Fair

     As an adult (okay, a sort-of adult), August has always been my least favorite month of the year; the heat, the smoky forest fires, the longing for fall...but growing up, late August and early September meant one thing only. It was time for the pinnacle social event of the year in our rural farming community: The omnipresent Eastern Idaho State Fair.

 courtesy my hubs: ayresphotography.com

   
     Some of my most sensory-rich childhood memories come from this time of year. Eating a hot, flaky Tiger's Ear scone drenched in honey butter, sitting in the shade of the spruced-up shabby grandstands, smelling the Best in Show animals (who couldn't care less if their ribbon-bearing stalls were soiled) and the bone-dry, end-of-summer dust. Feet sweating in my sneakers, licking butter, licking dirt, licking I-don't-want-to-know-what from fingers trembling in excitement. Fingers itching to spend the few, scraped-up dollars in my pocket. Fingers that, on one lucky year, were attached to a stamped hand that hung from a wrist strapped with the neon orange ultimate symbol of cool: The All-Day Unlimited Rides Wristband. It was an expensive, unreasonable indulgence. A want, not a need. But I still remember the glow on my mother's face when she gave one to me, one to my older sister, and announced, mischievously, that, just this once, we would be allowed to cut school. I still don't know what she did, which bills she juggled, whose shifts she volunteered to take to get them for us, but I know she knew how much it meant in our tiny preteen world.
   
     I'm not a Mamma in small-town Eastern Idaho like my mom was. Here, in bigger Missoula, the much smaller Western Montana Fair seems a passing note in the lives of most of the residents; more important to those who live on the outskirts or in the surrounding ranch and farm towns. Those are the kids who wear their best boots, their new hats, their ironed jeans. I love to watch them and remember the place where I lived and the MOMENT the fair used to be. But more than that, I love to go to the fair with my husband and watch our own kids trudge through the dust, and up-and-down the barns, touching every single sheep and lamb; honking to the geese and snorting to the pigs. I love seeing them count their carefully saved coins and their wrinkled dollar bills onto a sticky counter for a cotton candy or caramel apple. I loved the moment that came for the first time this year, standing outside the Fun House, hand-in-hand with Brian, waiting for kids who are finally tall enough to go on their own to make their way out and tell us all about it, shouting with unconstrained glee.

          The Missoula fair came last week, in the summer, the mark of an urbanized community where there is no need to wait for the harvest to come in, so I will probably not ever have the opportunity to give my kids permission to cut school and go ride the rides. But I hope I will always have the memories of my most exciting early September days (oh! to be on the fairway after dark!) and I hope I will add to those memories, over the next few years, watching my own little ones experience their own childhood fair.

    

Now go have a cherry lime-aid and a corndog or two :-)

Backyard Camp-Out

Sunday night was perfect for it.

Perfect for building a blanket tent under cloudless sky. It wasn't too hot out, so perfect for snuggling. This Mamma had a fresh LaLa Beeka* story growing in my mind, and...there was plenty of time to make the absolutely necessary Backyard Camp-out Cookies.

Yep, Sunday night was pretty perfect.

*LaLa Beeka is a dragon my kids made up. We tell stories about us visiting him in Dragonland, and the funny things that happen when he visits the human realms. Last night, we met his two friends: Foo Foo Siss and Bert. (Hey, I don't make up the names, just the stories.)

Here's our recipe for Backyard Camp-out Cookies. Turns out, these are pretty good for breakfast too.

Backyard Camp-Out Cookies

(a one-bowl, one-pan, anything goes recipe)

Heat oven to 375 

Throw into a large mixing bowl:

1 cup raw granulated sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 16-ish oz  jar extra crunchy peanut butter (we like Adam's)

1 stick o' butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup unbleached all- purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

then...

this is the 'anything goes' part.

We threw in  half a bag of coconut flakes, a couple handfuls of rolled oats, and a cup or two of Rice Krispies cereal. These would also be great with chocolate chips (obviously), raisins, or nuts.

Spread the entire mixture on a greased baking sheet, bar cookie style, and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Then build a blanket tent over your clothesline and enjoy. :)

I Want a Strawberry Sandwich

This was my little boy's  declaration at lunchtime today.

"A strawberry sandwich?"

"Yup. With butter. On banana bread."

 Sounds interesting, I thought. "Okay."

And we came up with something new. I have to say, I was skeptical, but not only was this sandwich pretty, it was pretty good! Like fresh-baked, homemade summer.

Anyone want to try it? Okay!

But you can't make it without our yummy-scrummy whole wheat banana -oat bread, so, if you're inclined to do some baking in the heat of July (maybe late at night like I do), here's the recipe. Good for strawberry-butter sandwiches, but it also stands alone.

Heat oven to 350°

Coat bottom and sides of 13x9 pan with cooking spray (it's a bread that eats like a cake)

In large mixing bowl whisk together:

1 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

In separate bowl combine wet ingredients:

4-5 medium ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup salted butter

1/2 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1 tsp almond extract

Blend together wet and dry ingredients and pour mixture into pan. Top with:

1 heaping handful rolled oats

1 generous sprinkling cinnamon

Bake 40-45 min.

♥Yum♥

If you try it, let me know if you like it. You won't find a whole lot of 'cooking' per se, on this little blog, but baking? Oh, honey. Mamma can bake.