Pretending it's Fall

I have to say that I am missing Fall right now.  It may be late September, but monsoon season has ended here in southeastern Arizona and it is just hot and dry again.

It's so dry that we get cracked lips and I have nosebleeds.  It's so hot that my sweet children are tired of playing outside.  (How can kids get tired of playing outside?!)  It feels like we should be firing up the grill and making lemonade, but I refuse.

I'm pretending it's Fall.

I have been baking pumpkin scones and drinking pumpkin spice lattes (decaf, don't worry.)  Sadly, my coffeemaker chose this time of year to bite the dust.  This means that I beg Jason to go to Starbucks at least once a week.  We don't have a stand-alone Starbucks here so there's no drive-thru or I'd be a little more self-sufficient with my coffee cravings.

Before the coffeemaker died (RIP, dear machine) I was starting school each morning while sipping my coffee and nibbling on a scone.  I like to pretend that the slight breeze from the ceiling fan is really a crisp, autumn breeze blowing my way.  Today I chose to ignore that it was 92 degrees outside as I baked in my tiny, hot kitchen.  (Scones were totally worth it though!)

I found an awesome recipe for pumpkin scones at Take the Side Street.  (Her photos look way more appetizing than mine!)  I substituted almond milk for the half & half and they came out great.  We made our third batch today.  They're super easy to make and even my kids can help.

I finally set up a Pinterest page so you can find this recipe there too.

The pumpkin scone recipe calls for vanilla extract, as do many holiday baking recipes.  I made my own vanilla extract several months ago and have been meaning to share.  Has anyone else tried this?

I bought a half pound of organic vanilla pods here and two big bottles of vodka.  Following the instructions here, I sliced open the vanilla pods and scraped out the tiny beans.  I split the pods up so that I had enough to fill 4 mason jars.  Then I put the beans and the pods in the jars and filled them with vodka.

For the first week or two, I shook the jars each day.  Since then they have just been sitting in my pantry.  They start out looking like this...

...and end up looking like this.

I made these jars in February and this is the best vanilla extract I've used.  It smells heavenly!  It takes about 6 months to really be finished but I started using my extract after about 6 weeks.

What are you doing to celebrate Fall?  Any recipes you'd like to share?

Tortillas! Bread! Pie! Oh My!

My family loves to eat Mexican food. At least once a week, you'll find us enjoying homemade salsa in some form of meal at our dinner table. I love making salsa in the summertime, when the tomatoes are fresh and ripe. (I actually don't like tomatoes, but I'll eat them if they're chopped up small enough or cooked in a sauce.) The tomato plants in our backyard are not producing yet so I wait for our CSA box to arrive each week with a generous helping of tomatoes.

Up until recently, I usually bought tortillas at a local market. I'd thought about making them myself but all of the recipes called for lard or just seemed complicated. But then, a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a flour tortilla recipe that sounded too good to be true.

This tortilla recipe only uses four, baking powder, salt, oil, and milk. The recipe is incredibly easy to follow. After making the dough, I used my iron skillet to cook the tortillas for just a minute. In the end, I had a plate full of light, fluffy tortillas that we devoured in just minutes.

You can find the recipe here. It's become one of my new favorites!

As for my salsa, there is no recipe. I just chop up whatever we have on hand and go with it. Last week it was black bean and corn salsa with fresh cilantro. I wish I was a better photographer because it looked much yummier than my photo shows.


I have had a few people ask about the recipe I use for our sandwich bread. First, let me say that buying the book, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day" is well worth it. There are so many amazing recipes in the book and they are all so easy to make! The breads can be made without kneading the dough and you can literally have the dough made in 5 minutes. It's the simplest collection of bread recipes that I've ever seen.

That said, here is the basic recipe that I use for sandwich bread. I buy organic flour and yeast in bulk at a local market.

Light Wheat Sandwich Bread
-1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast
-1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
-3 cups warm water
-1 cup whole wheat flour
-5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix yeast, salt, and water in bowl of stand mixer. Add flour and mix until a big, moist ball of dough is formed. Cover the bowl (I use a plate) and let it sit for 2 hours.

When the dough is done sitting, you can either refrigerate it or bake it at 450 degrees for about 24 minutes. I bake it right away by just putting the dough into loaf pans coated with a light spray of olive oil. I bake 3 loaves out of one batch of dough all at the same time. I make small loaves because my pans are small. (If anyone knows of a place to get larger glass loaf pans, please let me know!)

That's it! Sandwich bread from scratch in just 5 minutes. It's so easy that my kids usually help me make it every week.

Because the bread recipes have been so easy, I've pretty much been baking everything we eat from scratch since last year. A few weeks ago we received a big box of cherries in our CSA box and I was inspired. I made a quick pastry dough and the kids helped me pit the cherries. And then we made a cherry pie!

I used this recipe for the pie and it turned out really well. It was delicious! I usually don't care for cherries, but I'll eat just about anything that comes in pie form. Except meat. Cuz that's weird.


Who would have ever thought that I'd fall in love with baking and cooking?
If you have any great recipes, please feel free to share!

No Garbage Today

We had the most delicious meal today and I had to share this new recipe. Every week we get a box of fresh, organic, local produce delivered to our front door. I love it because I never know what will show up and sometimes there are things we've never tried before-like parsnips. Included in each box is a page of recipes using the various items from the box. Everything is fresh and in season and grown right down the road. It makes some really delicious eating!


Sauteed Chicken with Parsnip, Apple, and Sherry Pan Sauce

4 Tb olive oil
1 1/2 C parsnip, peeled, trimmed & cut into 1/2-in pieces
1 3/4 C peeled, chopped apple
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme plus sprigs for garnish
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (approx. 6-8 oz each)
1 C dry Sherry (I used vanilla as a substitute)
2 Tb butter


Heat 2 Tb oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add parsnip: saute until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add apple and chopped thyme; cook until parsnip and apple are tender, about 6 minutes. Transfer parsnip mixture to plate. Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper. Heat remaining 2 Tb oil in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts; saute until cooked through and golden, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add Sherry (or vanilla) to same skillet. Stir over medium-high heat, scraping up browned bits. Add parsnip mixture and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Spoon over chicken; garnish with thyme sprigs.
(Original recipe from Bon Appetit, March 2006.)


This was a quick and easy dish and I discovered that parsnips are easy to use. They cooked up very soft and tender and were the perfect balance to the tartness of the apple.

No garbage today!

I May Not Speak Farsi, But I Can Make A Mean Khoresh

No, not really. I mean yes, really, I don't speak Farsi. But no, I really don't make a great Khoresh. In fact, Jason has informed me that I don't even pronounce Khoresh properly. If I can't say it, I sure shouldn't try to cook it.
Our local homeschool group has an International Dinner every year. Each family that participates selects a country and creates a display about the country. Then they cook a dinner dish and dessert that is typical of their country.

Our family picked Iran. Really we only picked it because Jason speaks Farsi and he knows a great deal about Iran and their customs. He even has an autographed Persian cookbook. That meant I could hit him up for information and he could be involved in the project even if he's more than 10,000 miles away.

The kids chatted with Daddy weeks ago and he helped them answer questions about Iran for a lapbook they were creating. They had a lot of fun! And then I asked Jason if I could borrow some of his Persian items for our display.

But first, we had to cook our meal. And I don't really like to cook at all. I love to eat, but don't love to cook. I probably should have married a chef. Anyway, here's the meal we created...

From "New Food of Life" by Najmieh Batmanglij
Orange Khoresh

I started by mixing this special Persian spice mix called advieh. Basically you just measure and stir these spices together but the challenge is locating some of the obscure ingredients.

Advieh:
2 tbsp ground dried rose petals
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp ground angelica
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp dried Persian lime powder
Next comes the fun part...

I chopped up 2 tsp of pistachios and set them aside. And I made quite a mess doing this too.
Here are the ingredients for the Khoresh:

2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 lbs chicken legs (cut)
1/3 cup oil
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp slivered orange peel
1 tsp advieh (see above)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
2 large carrots
4 oranges
2 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground saffron dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

Garnish:
2 tsp slivered pistachios
2 tsp slivered almonds


In a Dutch oven, brown the onions and chicken in 3 tbsp of oil.
Sprinkle in 1 tbsp flour and mix well. Add orange peel, advieh, salt, and pepper. Pour in the OJ. Cover and simmer for 35 minutes.
Slice the carrots into thin slivers. Saute in 2 tbsp oil for a few minutes and then add carrots to the chicken. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Peel the oranges and segment them.

In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, lime juice, sugar and saffron water. (This will smell awful.) Mix well and simmer for 10 minutes over low heat.
Remove from heat and add the oranges. Set aside for 10 minutes. Then transfer the stew to a casserole dish and arrange oranges on top.
Just before serving, sprinkle the stew with slivered pistachios and almonds. Serve hot with rice.
It doesn't look too bad and the chicken was actually pretty darn tasty. The oranges were really bitter though. I couldn't get past the pungent odor from the oranges but once they were added to the stew it wasn't as smelly. Obviously I'm not Persian and have zero experience cooking with these spices. Overall, this is a really nice meal to try if you want to impress someone with your awesome Persian cooking skills. Too bad Jason missed out. He's probably the only one that would have appreciated this meal!
For dessert, I already knew that most of the traditional Persian desserts are a bit... odd. They include ingredients such as mint and yogurt. In the same dish. Jason warned me to stay away from dishes such as these. I happily obliged. I've eaten traditional Persian food before because I used to have some dear friends who brought me meals when we used to work together. I know to be wary of certain foods.

We picked the Coconut Cookies as our Iranian dessert. They looked simple and I didn't think we could go wrong with coconut.

Coconut Cookies

4 eggs
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup melted butter or oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sifted flour
2 cups dried grated coconut
2 tbsp ground pistachios for decoration
In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Gradually add in flour while mixing. Batter should be smooth. Fold in coconut. (Kids love to help with this part!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. (I used a silicon baking mat instead.) Drop batter by the teaspoonful on the sheet. Decorate with ground pistachios. (Kids loved dumping the pistachios on top of the cookies!)Bake 15-20 minutes. (We baked for 12 minutes.) Remove from oven and let cookies cool.Enjoy!

These were really good. They aren't too sweet and they were easy to make. The kids devoured them.
Once we had our meal ready we headed to the church to set up our display. Matthew and Joshua worked with David (my nephew) to create the display board and contributed their lapbooks to the project. We brought several items to display, including a bootleg Shrek movie in Farsi, a hookah, and some Iranian jewelry. Jason has some weird things, I know. The hookah has never been used but in Iran they smoke flavored tobacco from it. I have no idea where the bootleg Shrek movie was found, but Jason has several movies dubbed in Farsi and once I caught him listening to some crazy Farsi techno in his truck. He's immersed himself in Persian culture I guess. He cracks me up! (Geez, I miss him!)
The kids all went around the room to see each display and answer questions about the other countries. Of course we all enjoyed the interesting foods too! It was so much fun and a great learning experience for my kids.I was proud of how the boys worked together on this project. Matthew is not the easiest kid to work with but fortunately Joshua is the most patient and forgiving child I've ever seen. God spaced my children perfectly.
Not everyone was excited about the dinner. Leila and Nathan both took a nice nap instead.

Matthew and Joshua really loved going from table to table collecting charms to hang on their little "wand." They had one from each country and were challenging each other to collect them all. It was a pretty fun night!

This is a perfect example of why I love homeschooling. I do love it and I will not give it up.

For the record, I was never actually considering putting the boys in public school. My mother pressures me to do it but I've gotten pretty good at ignoring her advice. Last week she told me to put the boys in school and wean the babies. I just let it go in one ear and out the other. She means well but she has no idea what she's talking about sometimes.

We will continue to homeschool through this transition because it is what is best for my children. And I do feel that God has called me to do it. (Although some people do not think that's a good enough reason!) Whatever happens, we will learn and grow from it. We learn lessons in the strangest places! I wouldn't have it any other way.


P.S.- Check out my interview here!