As I write my cookbook and share more and more about my food, I've been more frequently concerned about how much of my content I own on my blog. That said, I started a new website this week. I'll be blogging less (although still a little) about crafts, teaching, and everyday life. It will just be over there instead of over here. ;)
What does this mean for you? Well this is a paid blog. Since I'm going to stop paying soon (probably in two months) the site will likely be closed down and content unavailable. So if there are some crafts you still need to pin, etc... get at it!
Anything related to menu planning, recipes, etc... will be put on the new site. I probably won't keep up with whatever day to day stuff I posted before. Gardening will also be on the new site, as it is food related.
Head on over to check it out. I'm just beginning to learn the new systems from a different company but I am dedicating time to that to try to get it figured out fast.
I LOVE ice cream sandwiches, but I'm trying to control myself more lately. Hence the invention of these lovelies.
This is a recipe for 1! I find that helps me not over eat them...because I could eat a whole box of ice cream sammies from the store and not bat an eye.
For the mocha cookies: (these cookies were inspired by WickedSpatula.com)
1/2 C almond flour
2 Tablespoons tapioca starch
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 Tablespoons chocolate chips (minis work well) or chopped dark chocolate
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix all the ingredients. I find it easier to just get in there with my hands. ;) Then divide the mixture into two equal balls. Pat balls down gently on a silicone baking mat on a cookie sheet. These should be about 4 inches across. They're slightly thicker than I normally make cookies because they need to hold up in ice cream sandwich territory.
Bake for 13-15 minutes. You're looking for golden edges and solid but not hard cookies.
Meanwhile, make the filling:
1 frozen banana
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/2 Tablespoon raw honey
I like to sit the frozen bananas out for about 10-15 minutes to slightly thaw. I find they blend easier that way. Slice bananas and place in food processor. Add in the other ingredients. blitz until smooth and creamy like ice cream. If it seems too soft at this point, put it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up. Don't leave it too long though. This stuff gets really hard.
Once your cookies are cooled and your ice cream is ready, slather a generous amount of the ice cream onto one cookie and top with the other cookie.
You can either enjoy right away or wrap with plastic wrap and place in freezer until ready to consume.
I forgot to get a shot of this on the community buffet table where it was much cuter. :( Forgive the stand in shot from two days later in a non-photogenic spot.
My family goes to a friend's house every 4th of July. It's a large gathering with usually about 100 people. But it's a fun time on a cul-de-sac where my kids can be safe; and, it's at the base of a mountain that fireworks get shot off of so we get a good free seat to the show. At every 4th of July BBQ here the host family takes care of the hot dogs and hamburgers and everyone else brings sides and desserts to share pot luck style.
This year, I just couldn't decide what to bring. Over the years I've made the red white and blue strawberries. I've made a loaded baked potato salad. I've made fun drinks and various things. This year, I just couldn't decide. I couldn't even narrow down my list to either dessert or side dish. It was killing me! So what did I do? Something I'm realizing I frequently do when I'm stressed about choices. I went in an entirely different direction. I made a fancy condiment bar.
Remember, this looked better on a checkered tablecloth, before the tags had drips, surrounded by other barbecue related items.
I will say, I passed by the table several times and overhead people saying things like, "these condiments are da' bomb" and "Have you tried that one yet?" and "I have to get another hot dog just to try the ____". It was affirming. ;) The hosts supplied all the regular condiments, these were just a side dress up for those foodies in attendance.
Here's what I had on the tray:
-Spicy Ketchup (ketchup with Tapatio sauce) - this jar was almost empty at the end of the night
It's been in the triple digits here for several days. It's supposed to cool down to a mere 93 degrees today, but that's still hot enough to crave some iced tea. I've been drinking a lot of it lately and decided it was time to change it up a bit.
These are not original recipes. These are all recipes I pinned, and links will be provided.
First off, let me say that they were all drinkable. There isn't a single one of these six that I wouldn't drink again. Some of them might need a bit of honey, but they'd all be good once personalized.
This was, amazingly, the only one that used fruity herbal tea bags for the fruit flavor. It was also one of the easier ones to make of the 6 here. It was refreshing but tart so definitely plan on using some simple syrup or honey if you make this one.
This one used pureed fruit for the actual fruity part of the tea. It was a bit of work to make but not hard. If I made it again I'd double the tea bags used. It was good, but a little watery. I personally prefer a stronger tea flavor. But that's personal preference and you might like it as is.
This one was the most intensive to make. You had to make the jasmine tea and the strawberry simple syrup and strain them both and cool and combine in your own level of desired concoction. Going into the challenge this was the one I thought would win. I love jasmine tea and strawberry simple syrup sounded so worth the effort. In the end it was cool and refreshing, quite drinkable, but not a stand out winner.
While beautiful and bright, make sure you follow the directions on the recipe to "sweeten to your liking." I like when a recipe artist lets me determine my own level of sweetness, as I usually need less than the mainstream world, but I had to use a lot. It was quite tart. Next time I make it I will likely use a little less lime just so I don't have to use as much sweetener. I don't want to compromise the lime, but I don't want to use a ton of sweetener either.
I have to admit, I was quite surprised by these results; but, it was unanimous in my family. They all loved these two. I was really surprised my kids liked tea with basil over fruity strawberry jasmine and the like. And while I've seen the Thai Iced Tea around and everyone raving, I was skeptical as to whether or not iced tea with milk was actually delicious. These two also had the added benefit of being two of the three easiest to make from this showdown.
The peach basil iced tea was just the right amount of sweet for my personal preference, and the basil added so much flavor that complemented it well. It wasn't like drinking an herb and it paired perfectly with the peach. I have since made the peach basil three times. The Thai iced tea was sweet, cold, creamy, and felt like a dessert treat.
So there you have it, the winners of the iced tea showdown, peach basil and Thai iced!
I finally convinced my family to do a Whole 30 with me, or should I say I convinced my hubby he didn't have a choice. ;) They kids are pretty on board. As I sat down to figure out the plan I realized something. I always thought it'd be easier for me to eat Whole 30 if the Whole family was doing it, and that might be true, but it is far harder to plan. I'm way more flexible than the rest of the family, especially the hubster. This week's meal was further complicated by the fact that my two girls are doing their very first figure skating lessons this week in the form of a one week camp...they need to bring lunch. Also, an unforeseen championship baseball game will be played tonight which means I need a portable dinner. This week was probably the longest I've ever taken to do a meal plan.
One good thing was I noticed a lot of the dinners have enough veggies in the main dish that I'm not too worried about having a lot of side dishes. That makes the work easier during this busy week.
Without further ado, here is this week's meal plan:
If you've done a Whole 30 with your family and have any go-to recipes you used or things everyone liked, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!
Or, to be more exact, Braised Brisket on a Savory Green Onion Biscuit with Spicy Quick Pickled Radishes. So yesterday, May 28th, was National Brisket Day. Today, May 29th, is National Biscuit Day. You know I'm going somewhere with this. They make a natural combination!
Let me first say that finding brisket was a saga. I grew up eating it every month or more so I couldn't believe it was so hard to find. Apparently, most stores only have it around Easter time (at least here in Southern California). The only one I could find was ginormous. I mean it. 13 pounds! I had to cut the thing into 3 chunks and freeze two of them for later. And it took me laying my two largest cutting boards side by side to even do that. It was more than two feet long!
Anyway, back to the sandwich here. When I saw brisket day and biscuit day on the calendar, I just couldn't separate the two. The sandwich popped into my head and I had to make it happen. As it rolled around in my brain, I slowly started adding in more details. Why not a more savory biscuit? I added in green onion and black pepper. I contemplated cheddar too, but decided against it. Feel free to add some on your own though.
Then I thought it might need a little something extra, and that's where I came up with spicy quick pickled radish chips.
So here's how you make the brisket:
Start that brisket going first because it takes a long time. We're talking low and slow here.
Put a little olive oil in an oven safe heavy bottom dish or dutch oven over medium high heat. Rub the brisket (mine was 2.2 pounds) generously with Pappy's. That's just what I have always used. That link is NOT an affiliate link. I just wanted you to know what it is. I grew up using this on tri-tip, london broil, and brisket. Be generous rubbing down your brisket on all sides. Then brown it on both sides in the pot you're using. Add about half an inch of water and cover with foil. Braise this for about 3 hours at 300 degrees. Check it every now and then after an hour and half to make sure it isn't going dry (add water if necessary). It is ready when you can twist a fork in it and fairy easily shred. Let it rest for 15 minutes before shredding.
Meanwhile, start the radish quick pickles.
For the radishes: (adapted from cookieandkate.com)
1 bunch of radishes
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cup cold water
3 Tablespoons honey
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Clean the radishes and slice them thin. Put them in a jar. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as it begins to boil and the honey is dissolved, pour it over the radishes. Let cool enough to put a lid on and refrigerate. These are best cold on the sandwich. What you don't use on these sandwiches can be kept in the fridge for a week or two, but they are crispest within a few days.
For the biscuits:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons cold butter
1 cup cold milk
1/3 cup green onions, sliced thin (green parts only)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Bump the oven up to 450.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper. Cut in the butter until it resembles course crumbs. The less mixing you have to do with these the softer they will be. Mix in the milk with the minimum mixing needed to get it incorporated. Gently fold in the green onions.
Gently pat out the biscuit dough onto a floured surface until about and inch to an inch and a half thick. Use a round cutter to cut biscuits straight up and down, don't twist the cutter. I used a 3" cutter on these so they would be bigger for a sandwich.
Lay, barely touching each other, on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-18 minutes, until golden on top.
Ready to assemble this delight?
Open up a hot biscuit and slather on some butter.
Shred the brisket and add enough juice from the pan to keep it juicy, but not enough to get the biscuit soggy. Lay some on the hot biscuit.
Then lay on cold radish pickles. Put the top on and...Enjoy!
Every year my regional PTA does a basket auction to raise money for scholarships. Each school PTA donates a basket, and for the last two years my school has done a gift card basket. I use the term basket loosely because gift cards are much more creatively displayed not in a basket. Last year I put them in a flower pot; this year I strung them across a frame. It didn't come out quite as I expected since we had so many cards. I felt like it was kind of crowded; however, it was still nice and was one of the top money generators at this year's auction.
My original idea was to make a bunting type banner, but there was no way to display that at the event. So then I thought I could drape cards on a string in a frame and layer the strings that way. Right before I was heading to a thrift store to look for a frame to turn into such a masterpiece, I popped into Marshall's (for kitchen stuff of course) and found this frame. For $12 I got a cute frame that was already filled with a pinnable surface and muslin. Sweet!
I used hat pins I had on hand, plus linen thread to make the swag lines. Then I used a small scallop envelope die to cut envelopes for the gift cards. I sealed them and cut off one end to make a pocket. I then used various embellishments that were on hand, such as pearls and ribbons, to jazz up the envelopes.
After clipping the gift cards on with mini clothes pins, I punched paper scalloped circles in paper I had on hand (to make the flowers) and a few butterflies too.
I ended up using some pop dots on the back of the envelopes to keep them from sliding around. They'll be removable enough to still use the frame afterward.
I also make a card (forgot a picture) that matched in style to let the bidders know what cards were included and the amounts of each.
I'm pretty sure all of the materials I used were Stampin' Up! except for the papers. Those were from a stack I got at Hobby Lobby from Paper Studio. The stack design was called Olivia.
All in all, I think it came out pretty good for 1 hour of work!
Sounds yummy, right? However, while I love cherry cobbler, I am a little more of a cherry crisp kind of girl. I am also trying to be good...so today I'm sharing with you a Paleo Cherry Crisp I made! Actually, it's several mini cherry crisps. Aren't these mini cast iron skillets adorable?! You could also use small ramekins if you don't have or want mini cast iron skillets.
It starts with a pound of cherries, pitted and halved.
*Quick hint- if you're craving this but cherries aren't in season, use frozen cherries! Just make sure you rinse them after thawing and pat them dry.
To the cherries you will add a pinch of salt, a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix well and put into the skillets or ramekins.
Next mix the topping ingredients: almond flour, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and honey. Once that is all combined you can add it to the top of each skillet or ramekin.
I know what you're thinking here, it doesn't look crazy appetizing. But wait until it bakes up all golden and dark red. Trust me on this one.
Into the oven it all goes for 15-18 minutes at 375. You're looking for browning on that topping and bubbles in those cherries.
I've said before that I wear many hats, as lots of us do. I am a mother of 3 and a wife. I left my job teaching to stay home with my kids when I had my first. I now work at home. I write curriculum, help at my kids schools (a lot more than I should), keep our home on the path of more and more natural, dream of homesteading (and therefore have crazy goals about money that take up some time), I'm a writing a cookbook, and do the millions of things that happen when you're stay at home mom who wants to eat from the garden.
While I love my life, there are times I feel pulled in many different directions and what I should prioritize becomes confusing. I find that if I try to lay things out in order of priority, I end up never getting to the stuff in some areas and that stuff needs to get done too. If I prioritize the house and kids above writing curriculum and the cookbook, I never get the writing done. I've just figured out that I shouldn't necessarily be prioritizing one area over another, but instead addressing the highest priorities in each part on its own. So I'm currently trying a new way of organizing myself. I'm focusing more what needs to get done in a month in each area, and then trying to chunk that up into weeks. Sometimes a week will be a half and half split, but mostly each week has a theme.
The main home stuff stays the same. Laundry, food, a weekly 1 - hour cleaning routine...that stuff still happens. But in between those things are chunks of time I dedicate to whatever is on my list for the theme that week.
Here's an example in the form of my May goals and how it works out in my blocks:
On the homestead:
-Get the rest of the garden planted
-deep clean the kitchen
-make our week by week summer plans (I do these every year)
-Quarterly $ report (I should have done that in April)
I have this margin thing that I just write in after I've made my list. I break stuff up into the weeks. This looks different each month. I don't always spend 1 week in each area. Right now I'm focusing more on my curriculum (TPT) because school will be out soon and I won't have much time to work on it. It's the type of stuff that needs to be done without kids around. However, I can get cooking done with the kids around so the summer months will have more of a cookbook and homestead focus. The purple in the margin on the calendar below is how I've broken down my focus each week in May.
How I chunk out the work:
This is adapted from the book The 12 Week Year, a book I highly recommend. I'll likely blog about it in some future post. It was valuable to me mostly in the motivational aspect. But this is how it looks after I've tinkered with it. I'm in week 2 of May, so my focus this week is getting projects done around the house and garden. These aren't the basic maintenance things that happen every day and every week, like laundry, etc...these are projects or yearly maintenance things.
I start by taking a blank one of these schedules. I then put in all the "hard" items for the week. By hard, I mean things that will happen at a certain time. I can't change when baseball practice is so that is a hard item. I can be flexible about when I water the garden so that is not a hard item. For simplicity's sake, I usually put all the hard items in one color. I don't color code these, I just choose one color for the week. This week purple was closest to me so all the hard items are in purple. Next week it might be a different color. Choosing a color is not a stress point here. Just seeing the division between the 'must be at' items and the rest is what I'm going for.
Once I have all the hard items, I put in my morning and evening routine times (pencil) and then start to find chunks of time I can work on my list of projects for the week. I try to look for chunks of about 3 hours. So in this example, all green items are the major to-dos for the week, coming straight from my list of 'on the homestead' items above. In an effort to be realistic about the fact that things come up last minute, I get tired, etc...I try to plan in a large rest block and a catch up block later in the week or on the weekend. That allows me to read or watch YouTube without feeling guilty, and give me a time to finish up something that didn't get all the way finished during its scheduled time earlier in the week.
I'm attaching a PDF with a blank version of this if you'd like it:
I've been doing this for about 6 weeks now. I have to say, it has given me more balance. I don't get everything done, and I let go of that expectation a few years ago, but I do feel like I'm moving forward for once in all my goal areas rather than just maintaining. Does that make sense? I'm going to try it for at least another 6 weeks before I decide for sure to keep or toss this system, but right now, I don't see it going anywhere. Moving forward actually keeps me more motivated so I waste less time and enjoy productivity more.
I managed to get back into my craft room for about 2 hours the other day. I spent some of that time cleaning and some of it finishing some pages I had already started.
Sorry the video quality is not fabulous. I used my old iPhone and I might have needed to focus too.
