Max's First Birthday

For Max's first birthday (April 10th) we celebrated with a simple family brunch. On the menu: Breakfast casserole (my first time to ever buy bacon), Ginger cream scones with dried cherries (these are amazing), fruit, and of course, homemade banana-cake cupcakes with whipped cream/cream cheese icing.

Here are some pictures of our sweet boy and some yummy recipes:







Ginger Cream Scones

Deborah Madison says: When I was pastry chef at Cafe Escalera in Santa Fe, I used to make these for early morning customers who wanted just a little something with their coffee. It's the cream that makes them melt in your mouth like nothing else does. Ginger scones make an exceptional base for strawberry, peach, or dried winter fruit compote shortcake.

Ingredients:
1/2 to 1 cup candied ginger, chopped to the size of a raisin
2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 TBSP sugar, plus extra for the top
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP cold butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cream or a mixture of milk and cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 425. If you have a baking stone, heat it for an extra 10 minutes. Or lightly butter a sheet pan.

Toss the ginger with a tablespoon of the flour. Mix the remaining flour with the baking powder, sugar, and salt, then cut in the butter with your fingers or two knives until the mixture resemble meal. Combine the eggs, cream, and vanilla, then stir into the flour mixture along with the ginger. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and lightly knead 8 to 10 times. Pat or roll the dough into a circle about 3/4 inch thick, then brush the top with the remaining cream and sprinkle with sugar. Cut into 12 wedges or into small circles and bake directly on the stone or on the sheet pan until glazed with gold, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

1 pound bacon
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 (16 ounce) package frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 7x11 inch casserole dish.
Fry the bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Crumble.
In a large bowl beat together eggs and milk. Mix in cheese, bacon, onion and green pepper. Stir in the thawed hash browns. Pour mixture into prepared casserole.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes until eggs have set.

Banana Cake

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and place on a damp tea towel to cool.

Whipped Cream cheese frosting

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
Directions

In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.

As you probably noticed, we deviated from our healthy ways somewhat...but that's what birthdays are for :)

Love,
Kate

A Simple Valentine's Day

So, a couple of people have recently asked me if I am doing anything for my kids for Valentine's day, and I guess I was just planning on being a total Valentine's Day slacker :) I hadn't given it a thought, really. We aren't girls (except for me and the hens) and we don't eat candy at our house, so what does the holiday really mean for us, anyway?

A lot more than you might think, actually. Like 10 years ago, Zach and I met on Valentine's Day. Who does that? I had never even had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day, so that was kind-of cool. And after 7 years of being together, our first child ended up with a due date of November 10. You do the math...TMI, I know, I know...But, anyway, if the day should mean anything to any family, it should be ours, right?

So, we need to celebrate. Now, what should we do? Well, we're somewhere between medical school and getting back into the workforce at the moment, so we need to be frugal (yes, it is an ugly word!) My first thought, however, was to log on to Amazon and shop for some little Plan City vehicles (which are about $7-$12 each.) I quickly logged off and thought, "not right now." So, I started to think about other ideas that would cost little to nothing. Heart-shaped pancakes are a given. We'll use our recipe that is kind-of naughty (and way yummy!) and full of dairy (and protein.) It came from my friend, Kelly (who happens to be my Valentine this year, since both of our husbands are in Haiti.)

Here's the recipe:

1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour, but regular flour is fine)
6 TBSP melted butter

Instructions:

Whip or blend the cottage cheese until smooth. Stir in the eggs and melted butter, then add the flour.

Cook pancakes until golden, then flip and cook for an additional minute. Do not overcook, These pancakes are moist and should spring back to the touch.

And for the topping:

Small bag of frozen raspberries
1/2 cup of agave nectar or maple syrup

heat on stove top until warm. Enjoy!

So, back to our Valentine's creativity....Tonight my kids and I were over at my parents' house watching Hollywood week on American Idol and I noticed how much fun the boys were having, playing with the vintage collection of fisher price little people my mom has at her house. (You know, the ones that don't have arms or legs and that were later modified so that they wouldn't be choking hazards...) I asked if I could wrap a couple of them up for Valentine's, noting that we would be (more than) happy to bring them back as soon as the kids start losing interest. She was delighted with the idea and even hooked me up with cute little Valentine's gift bags. So, there you go.

People sometimes ask how I became somewhat passionate about simple living (and i say somewhat, because I am somewhat passionate about shopping at Target as well)...and it was the combination of several things: living with and becoming close with our simple guru friends Chris and Kaye, living near Boulder, being motivated to live on one income, reading Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution, and viewing this clever little video called "The story of stuff" with Annie Leonard. I am sure that there were about a hundred other contributing factors, but those are the ones that popped into my head. Additionally, I had this realization when Levi was born that I could not stand the idea of any of our kids' toys or clothing being made by children. Here is a link to the Story of Stuff. It's really cool, so if you haven't seen it already, please check it out.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Jesse Tree

This is our first year to make a Jesse Tree part of our family's advent season. It has been a really fun way to be constantly reminded of what Christmas is all about. A Jesse Tree traces various prophesies and stories from the old-testament and then ties them to the birth of Jesus. I love how it makes each day special and how it helps to make Christmas a month-long celebration. We light candles at dinnertime and read a small passage from the Bible, and let Levi hang an ornament on the tree. (He gets so excited about hanging the ornament!) I had never heard of doing this before, but got inspired one evening by a book on Amazon, and got to crafting with my friend Sarah the next day. We spent several afternoons hand-sewing felt while our kids were napping. And now we have a great new tradition to show for it. Will post pics soon.

Making Cookies with the Birthday Boy!

Levi turns 2!

Who says birthday parties need to cost a lot of money and produce a couple garbage bags worth of trash to be worth-while? Last year we had an eco-friendly 1st birthday party, where guests were invited to give a used toy or book wrapped in newspaper or paper sacks. It was fun. For party favors we got little reusable bags from whole foods and filled them with Annie's bunny treats and homemade play-doh.

This year, we had 10 little friends around our big kitchen table, making and decorating cookies. I think it was a hit. Even though Levi was very focused and serious, I could tell that he was enjoying himself. He is a funny kid. I used a recipe from a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious and included 2 cups of garbanzo beans in the chocolate chip cookie dough. Not bad at all! Then, we had cookie-shaped sandwiches and fruit, opened some presents, and played with balloons.

After all of our friends left, we played outside for a while and enjoyed the beautiful fall afternoon. Levi liked swinging the bamboo poles from our backyard at his birthday balloons. I took some pictures outside, needing to meet my quota for the month. Actually, on the 3rd of each month (for Levi) and the 10th of each month (for Max) I make sure to get some good pics. Just a little something I've done since the very beginning. It is fun to see them morph from baby to big boy in a matter of months. To think that Max will be dancing and saying all kinds of things in a year, just blows my mind.

A couple special moments from Levi's big day...when he woke up, Zach, Max, and I went to Levi's crib and sang "Happy Birthday," and Levi said, "I grow, I grow, I grow. I BIG!" Oh my heart. He gets it. Thanks Little Gorilla! Such a great little book our friends Jill and Zeph Carter gave to Levi for his 1st birthday. Levi played so hard that he took a 4 hour nap on the afternoon of his birthday. At 6pm he woke up and we went over to Grammy and Papa's to have the traditional cake and ice cream deal. Not to mention the big reveal. Levi's face when he saw his shiny blue schwinn roadster trike was priceless. He put Elmo and a toy airplane on the seat and pushed them around the house. He has not stopped playing with it since! He was on the trike and my parents were asking him if he was ready for cake. He said "no." Then when we sang happy birthday to him, he swayed back and forth and kept singing the song after we had stopped. All and all, it was a good day. A sweet day for my sweet boy.

And the good news. Today, during his nap, I went in to peek on him and he was prone with his little booty up in the air...and I thought to myself, "He is still kind-of a baby." And with that, I was happy. Our little miracle baby turned 2.