The blueberries are neverending...

...but I'm totally okay with that.  Although, this will be the last blueberry recipe I post for a while.  I'm in the Thanksgiving spirit and as much as I hate to admit it, blueberries spell s-u-m-m-e-r.

My dad came up from the city tonight to see Courageous with me.  We had bad carry-out pizza, played with the kids, and had an overall good visit.  In honor of his visit, I made these blueberry cheesecake cookies adapted from this recipe.  My recipe is pretty different from the one at Hot Polka Dot... much less bright and summery, although I'm sure in July or August I'll give the original a whirl.

Ingredients:

1 cup room temperature butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 cup blueberries

Filling:
4 oz room temperature cream cheese
3 Tbs confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a baking sheet.  Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Slowly blend in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Carefully fold in blueberries, trying not to let any of the berries burst as you mix.

In a small bowl, use a fork to mix the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar together til well blended.  Roll 2 inch balls of the dough and use your thumb to create a well in the middle.  Put a dime sized dollop of the cream cheese mixture into the well and carefully seal the cookie together over it, using a little extra dough if necessary.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned.  Let sit 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack.

These were a delicious treat after our cheap pizza dinner, and were shared with laughs while reading Shel Silverstein to Christian. All in all, a successful night.

Mostly homemade.

What better way to enjoy a lazy November Saturday than with homestyle chicken noodle soup?  So that's what we did today.  In fact, I'm still wearing pajamas as I type this and it's 4:15 in the afternoon.  Life should be so easy.

I cheated a little and used prepackaged egg noodles but it was so delicious and on this lazy Saturday, I didn't care.  You can look up an egg noodle recipe if you like but I really liked the dried ones. I don't remember the name but I think they were the only ones in the pasta aisle in a red and clear bag.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sliced carrots
2 stalks sliced celery
1 can drained green beans
2 scrubbed potatoes, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1/2 pound chicken breasts, diced
1 box chicken broth
1 tsp garlic
1 Tbs flour
1/2 white onion, diced
salt to taste
1/2 package dry egg noodles

Melt butter in large pot over medium low heat.  Whisk in flour.  Let simmer 2-3 minutes and slowly stir in chicken broth.

Add salt and garlic, whisking constantly, til simmering.  Add chicken and vegetables.  Cover and let simmer 20 minutes on medium heat. Add noodles.  Simmer additional 20 minutes, then serve with crackers or crusty bread.  Yum!

So easy, but it smells amazing while cooking and tastes even better.  Add whatever veggies you like, and this is also really good with turkey leftover from Thanksgiving.

Blueberries. Enough said.

My mother in law was kind enough to give me some of her extra groceries yesterday.  Included was a giant bag of frozen blueberries.  This means I absolutely must make blueberry muffins.  It's a law, I think...

So this recipe makes really big, delicious muffins if you're okay with only making half a dozen.  If you want a full 12, double it up.  The crumb topping makes the whole thing so definitely don't skimp on it. Yum.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/3 c canola oil
milk
1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Crumb Topping:
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
1/2 c sugar

First, preheat oven to 450. Lightly spray then flour a muffin tin.  Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  In a standard measuring cup, measure 1/3 cup canola oil.  Add in egg, vanilla, & enough milk til you reach the 1 cup line.  Mix oil mixture into the dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in as many blueberries as you like, probably about 1 1/2 cups worth.

Fill the muffin tins all the way to the top with batter, which should be thick.  Mix the sugar and flour for the crumb topping together and cut in the butter.  Sprinkle over the top of the muffins.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until done.

Perfect with a cup of hot coffee on a chill November morning.  I love this muffin recipe and I think I'm going to try replacing the blueberries with some dried cranberries and fresh orange zest sometime this week...  I love cranberries with orange zest.  And this is definitely the time of year to start baking with cranberries.

 


Enjoy!

Little reminders...

... that everything happens for a reason.

It's nice to be reminded that we aren't in control, as scary as that may seem.

Just a small thank you...

Christian has had some issues with school this year, mainly due to the fact that this is the first year he's been diagnosed with ADHD and we've been exploring our options to try and find a comfortable way for him to fit in.

It's been a rocky start, with Christian's principal calling at least once a week with him in the office for something or other, and Friday when my phone rang and I saw the school's caller ID, I was not excited about answering.

Turns out Christian's principal just wanted to let me know that he's been amazing, and because he was so good they gave him a coupon for a free kid's meal from Chipotle. His principal and his teacher both went way out of their way Friday to let Christian know that he was special, and that he deserved positive attention, and for that I wanted to give them a little thank you.

I made the most amazing chocolate cookies, made with olive oil, and decided to package up a couple for school.  I'll start with the recipe for the cookies, then the directions on packaging.  I hope it doesn't seem to over the top.  I was going for classy yet understated... it seemed like a good way to show our gratitude.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Splenda granular
1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar baking blend
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup dark chocolate chunks or semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.  Using mixer on low, blend Splenda and Splenda brown sugar with olive oil.  Slowly add in eggs one at a time.  Mix in extracts and stir in dry ingredients til well blended.  Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.  Spoon by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes.  Let cool five minutes before removing to baking rack to cool completely.

For gifting as a thank you, I cut a sheet of white cardstock lengthwise down the middle and folded it into a little sleeve, hotgluing to seal.  I tucked two cookies inside the sleeve and wrapped it gift-style in tissue paper.  Then using scrapbook scissors, I cut two cards from cardstock, stamped the front, embellished with a silver marker, hot glued on a bow, and glued the whole thing on top of the cookie box tissue.  The effect was really cute, and I just filled out the inside of the card with a simple thank you.  I'm hoping two cookies will be just enough to not look like a suckup, but we'll see.

Why buy laundry soap???

My gorgeous friend Erin taught me to make homemade laundry soap a few months ago, and I haven't looked back since.  I ran out recently and decided to share the wealth of knowledge when I made more. This potent stuff is every bit as good as Tide, but remember it's only laundry soap so you'll still need your fabric softener.

Ingredients:
1 Fels-Naptha bar (97 cents in the laundry aisle at Wal-Mart)
1-2 cups Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (sodium bicorbonate) $2.75 for a big container
1/2-1 cup Borax $3.25 for a big container
1-2 capfuls Oxi-Clean Max Force Liquigel $9.00 for a bottle

All of those ingredients are found at Walmart and cost approximately $16 for all four items.  The only item you buy each time you make 5 gallons of detergent is the Fels Naptha bar.  Once in a while, you'll have to replenish your other supplies, of course, but this is a huge money saver.

First, put on a large pot of water to boil (about a spaghetti boiler's pot full).  While it's boiling, grate the bar with a cheese grater.  I'd recommend getting a grater from Dollar Tree just for this purpose.  Once the water has reached a full rolling boil gradually add the grated soap, stirring constantly, until it's completely melted.

Fill a five gallon container halfway with extremely hot tap water.  Pour the melted cheesewater into the tapwater and stir.  Add in the washing soda and Borax and stir thoroughly until completely dissolved.  Add the Oxi-Clean, mix well, and let sit overnight. 

 

The only other thing I can think of to say about this detergent is that it's a smart idea to stir it occasionally, and make sure you shake well before you add it to your washer.  Other than that, it's the best laundry detergent I've ever used.  Feel free to add essential oils to it to make it your own.

Make time for breakfast.

When our life gets too fast paced, sometimes I just slow us down a bit with a well cooked breakfast.  Life has been a bit overwhelming so the other morning, even though it was a school day, I let Christian sleep in and made a big delicious breakfast and we feasted then he went to school late.  We're rarely tardy the rest of the time, so I didn't feel too bad.  Even kids need a break sometimes.

Anyway, I made these griddle cakes and mixed berry syrup on a sunny morning without too much care in the world.  Scrambled eggs, sausage links, kicked up whipped cream, and hot coffee made this country breakfast one to remember.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs white sugar
1 1/4 c milk
1 egg
3 Tbs melted butter

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour in milk, egg, and melted butter and mix until smooth.  Heat cast iron skillet until water droplets hiss and evaporate and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Ladle 1/4 cup of batter at a time onto the skillet and cook til golden and crisp around edges. You can use a griddle or pan but cast iron really puts a delicious crisp to the cakes.

Before you start the pancakes, put the syrup on.  I went super easy on this syrup so there are no frills.  Just dump a bag of frozen mixed berries, no sugar added, into a saucepan with 3/4 cup white sugar, 4 Tbs water, 1 tsp vanilla, and stir.  Cover and let simmer on medium high heat, stirring occasionally, the whole time the cakes are cooking.  Turn it off before you start plating and let sit about five minutes to thicken slightly.  Mix 1 tsp vanilla lightly into a tub of Cool Whip and you've got a delicious easy breakfast that takes no time at all with optimal results!

And seriously, who doesn't love pancakes??  What a way to bring a family together.