Plath’s Adventures

Winter “Garden” Harvest

January 27, 2012

The seed catalogs are pouring in and it’s time to start planning our garden for next year. I’m getting the itch to start a few lettuce seeds already, although it’s probably too early. However, we are growing onions in the kitchen!
Pinterest clued me in on this little tip… Did you know you can grow green onions from the grocery store after you use them up? Just throw your root ends in some water until they get going and then transplant them to soil.

Here they are the morning after I used them in our egg rolls:

Two days later, look how much they’ve grown!

Adelaide is not impressed… she just wants her milk.

Remember the cool dragon craft I mentioned on Monday?
We made him yesterday and think he turned out ferocious!

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Bowling and Thrifting

January 26, 2012

We took a bowling trip with our local homeschool preschool group this week and had a great time. It’s our first time bowling, but definitely won’t be our last. Eleanore had a great time.

And it looks like I’ll be channeling my inner Julia Child, as I picked up this nice enameled cast iron dutch oven, made by Descoware at the thrift store.

Apparently, Descoware was Julia Child’s cast iron pan of choice. I have been thinking of picking up a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking… Beef bourguignon anyone? Think I may have found a recipe for next week’s menu. Of course, I didn’t find what I was LOOKING for at the thrift store (tap shoes or wooden folding chairs), but such is thrifting.

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Read Food Wednesday: Leftover Oatmeal

January 25, 2012

With our effort to try and get most processed food out of our diet, I make oatmeal at least once a week. However, I never know how much to make and almost always have leftovers. Since Eleanore refuses to eat oatmeal more than once a week (even with wonderful mix-ins like homemade jam), these two recipes are perfect to use up all the leftovers we invariably have! I found this bread “recipe” and knew I could tweak it for our own use.

Leftover Oatmeal Bread
makes one loaf

1 1/2 c. cooked oatmeal (I used steel cut oats soaked overnight and then cooked in water kefir)
1 c. water
2 1/2-3 c. freshly ground flour
1/4 c. raw honey or maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order recommended and let it do the work for you. Check as it’s mixing for the right texture. If it looks too “batter-like” add more flour until the dough is pulling pretty cleanly from the side of the pan as it mixes. You can also mix this in a stand mixer, or by hand. If you’re working by hand or in the mixer, let it rise in a covered, greased bowl for 30 minutes. When the dough cycle is finished, gently form it into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan to let rise again for 30 minutes, or until doubled. Bake at 375* for 40-45 minutes.
It makes amazing toast and is great for sandwiches, too!

Eleanore may not enjoy oatmeal as a “porridge” too often, but she definitely loves pancakes. This was my little recipe to “market” oatmeal in a different way for her. Adelaide really enjoyed them, too.

Leftover Oatmeal Cakes

2 c. leftover cooked oatmeal
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c. melted coconut oil or butter
maple syrup

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add oatmeal, coconut oil or butter and eggs and mix well.
Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium heat, adding a bit of coconut oil or butter to grease pan. Pour batter into pan (I do about 1/4c size). Cook cakes for 2-3 minutes on each side or until nicely browned. Regrease your skillet and repeat with rest of batter. Serve with maple syrup.

Check out the other recipes and ideas in the blog carnival by clicking the picture below!

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Keeping Busy

January 20, 2012

Enjoying lots of books this winter, even though it hasn’t felt very wintery. We finally got a bit of snow over the weekend, although this has still been a very mild winter snow-wise for us. We’ve been working our way homeschool-wise through Jan Brett’s The Hat and The Mitten, Snowy Day, Snow Music, penguins (including nap-time readings of Mr. Popper’s Penguins), and this week is dragons in honor of Chinese New Year today.
We made red lanterns:

and cool dragon masks

Source: alphamom.com via Lisa on Pinterest

as well as a dragon puppet:

Source: krokotak.com via Lisa on Pinterest

This art project is definitely on the agenda:

Source: notimeforflashcards.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Check out my winter pinboard for more ideas and to see what else we have up our homeschooling sleeves.

We’ve also spent a lot of time baking in the kitchen. Everything from cookies to bread, pizza, bagels, pretzels. Eleanore is getting great at mixing dough.

and Adelaide is gobbling it all up

A lot of pretend baking and cooking has been happening, as well. We moved the girls’ play kitchen out into our dining room this past week and they’ve both had great fun baking cookies and rattling the pots and pans.

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Menu January 22-28, 2012

January 20, 2012

Sunday: clam chowder (can’t share the recipe, as I’m testing recipes for someone’s cookbook!)
Monday: sesame noodles, baked egg rolls in honor of Chinese New Year (soak grits for polenta tomorrow)
Tuesday: Jason’s pulled pork recipe in crockpot, soft polenta, peas (make ricotta for tomorrow’s dinner)
Wednesday: stuffed shells with homemade ricotta and spinach ~ make easy spaghetti sauce, salad with tomatoes
Thursday: fried cabbage, quinoa, salmon cakes
Friday: deep dish pizza with homemade sauce, chopped salad
Saturday: pan fried pheasant, lima beans, orzo

Snacks/Breakfasts:
Steel cut oats with homemade jam to flavor
Cheesy Quinoa bites
Leftover oatmeal bread

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Organization and Vintage Sheet Sewing

January 20, 2012

I’m not very organized. I have good intentions, and will spend entire afternoons organizing an area in my home, only to have it demolished a week later and in complete disarray.
See this pocket chart?

I bought it to keep our homeschool week supplies organized. Not very organized anymore. See the pocket chart on the other wall for our daily schedule? I had hoped to keep us on track using it, but it’s not very beneficial since Eleanore can’t read. It’s beautiful with the watercolor cards, but pictures would better serve our home.

See this shelf? It’s supposed to be a self-serve shelf for Eleanore for art supplies, puzzles and manipulatives. Now it’s just a catch-all.

I could seriously go through my home and show example after example. What’s my point here? My extreme disorganization is one of the reasons I LOVE pinterest and ravelry. They’re both places to keep my projects, ideas, inspiration and recipes organized without adding more clutter to my home. I used to have piles of paper patterns, homeschool art and lesson project ideas and recipes printed out cluttering up my kitchen and bookcase, but now I don’t need to. If I didn’t have ravelry, I know I wouldn’t have been organized enough to complete my 52 projects in 52 weeks. Yes, you read that correctly. I successfully completed 52 knitting projects in 2011!
A few of my last projects of the year:

a simple wooden ring toy for Adelaide for Christmas

a fae folk hat for Eleanore that she won’t wear

a celtic neckwarmer for me out of madtosh yarn
Still need to grab a picture of this… (see above for comment on organization lol)

and a scrappy soaker for Adelaide

I will not be attempting 52 projects in 2012. I have knit almost nothing so far in 2012, except for half the waistband of a pair of longies for Adelaide. I just do not have knitting mojo right now. We did get out the sewing machine today though and whipped up a few things. I needed to patch the patch on a pair of my favorite jeans. I’m just not ready to throw them out yet, and the vintage sheets I’ve been thrifting make the perfect patching fabric.

I also used a vintage sheet to sew up a quick camera strap cover. Super simple and I love that I can change the look whenever I want to.

I have plenty left of this sheet to hopefully sew up a summer dress for Adelaide.

Eleanore even got to help with her first sewing project! We used yet another vintage sheet scrap to sew a quick drawstring bag. She loved sitting on my lap, feeding the fabric through and doing the back stitch button.

She immediately declared it her lego horses’ new home.

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Yogurt Starter Coupon Code from Cultures for Health!

January 18, 2012

My yogurt starter is still culturing on the counter, but I was just emailed this coupon code if anyone is in need of a culture to get started (and had failures trying to do it the “old school” way with store bought yogurt like I did). Use coupon code YOGURT through January 30 to get 20% off all yogurt starters at Cultures for Health! They have lots of different kinds ~ from thick yogurt, to thin and drinkable consistency, and many of them are serial-cultured, which means you won’t ever have to buy a starter again ~ you can use a little from your previous batch to start your next. They even have a vegan yogurt starter to use with non-dairy milks.

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Menu January 15-21, 2012

January 17, 2012

Sunday: Mexican stuffed shells (I do not top with crushed chips, it’s just as yummy without), dirty rice
Monday: Italian beef sandwiches in crockpot (cook chip beef in crockpot with a chopped onion, green pepper and italian seasoning ~ eat on sandwich buns with banana peppers and provolone), broccoli
Tuesday: Spicy Beef Stew from Nourishing Traditions cookbook, quinoa, pan fried, buttery carrots
Wednesday: pesto crusted salmon, green beans
Thursday: Alton’s meatloaf (I sub whole wheat breadcrumbs for the croutons), mashed potatoes (leftover from Thanksgiving and frozen), peas
Friday: roast chicken, cranberry sauce, veg
Saturday: sausage, maybe homemade noodles with butter, veg?

Other:
Yogurt with the yogurt starter I bought a while ago. Every batch of yogurt I’ve tried to make the “traditional” way (using store bought yogurt) has not set
cook garbanzo beans in crockpot for future hummus batches
start a batch of home-cured corned beef using recipe in Nourishing Traditions
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
homemade whole wheat crackers
lots of green smoothies in the vitamix for lunches
healthy mint chocolate chip ice cream (made with bananas and spinach!)