Days of Food :: 17

Ummm....these blueberry muffins are very, very good. The recipe claims it to be the best, and they come fairly close in my book. The children and I had them for dinner tonight.

Yes, you read that correctly. Dinner. With milk.

And yes, hubby is out of town. Old habits die hard.

Substitute the brown sugar if wanted.

Days of Food :: 17

Whoa!

That wasn't hard at all! If you look closely, you'll find it. See it as you scroll down.

I've combined our blogs! Our schooling & life with the children blog began a year ago with really no intention of doing anything beyond that. Then the idea of a personal blog had me starting 'Domestic Serenity' back in January.

I love both blogs and keeping up with them has been really enjoyable, a creative outlet. But really, isn't it all one life? All of it my life here on the home front :: the domestic pursuits, the homeschooling, the children's funny antics or updates, our family life in general? After a bit of thinking of how to simplify time spent online each day, it was like a 'duh' moment. Yes, yes, it's all a part of this one-pieced life I'm trying to live, so let me put it all in one place!

Like I said...'duh'.

Plans are to clean it up some and merge the side bar information as well into a more pleasing format. But first, some cooking coming up soon!

Whoa!

Days of Food :: 16

Oh, wow. I think this may be the best caesar salad dressing we've tried so far {um, we do not use anchovies!}.

soak up the last few days of summer & relax this weekend.

Days of Food :: 16

Days of Food :: 15

Herbal Iced Tea

4 Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger tea bags
4 Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea bags
4 cups pure apple juice

Steep the 8 tea bags in 4 cups of boiling water for about 10 minutes. Discard the tea bags; I used tongs to pick them up & to squeeze a bit more flavor into the tea.

Combine the tea with the apple juice and refrigerate until cold. Serve over ice. No caffeine, no added sugar and no complaints from this household. I doubled the recipe so we'd have plenty. Recipe from a cookbook I bought earlier this year.

Days of Food :: 15

Friendships

123. time around a campfire, sharing, talking, being with friends

124. for an exchange not only of words, but of soul-cries and heart whispers

125. for humor, a good medicine

126. no need for wearing a mask & pretending, true selves and lives laying bare

127. for His Spirit always with us, knowing, hearing and ever-present

"A faithful friend is a strong defense:

and he that hath found such a one

hath found a treasure."

Ecclesiastes

Friendships

Couplet Poetry

After reading a fun & whimsical book on homes, Janelle wrote a couplet style poem with a similar theme:

My garage is a house to my bike,

a trail is a house to a hike.

A stage is a house to a play,

while a barn is home to some hay.

A teacup is a house to a spoon,

and the sky is a house to the moon.

A hive is home to a bee,

and I'm glad there's a house for me!

The book is a great read-aloud to any elementary-age child, even pre-school. See if your library has this one!

Couplet Poetry

Consider Quietly

This one is for the homeschooling and any other Mamas reading...from one of my favorite blogs:

"Whenever parents create ceremonies, or a rhythmic routine, around any daily activity, we impose order on the environment, instead of on our children".

Think on this one for a bit. Routine allows the environment to speak to the child, telling them that it's time...for this or for that, but it's time to move on to the next activity or quiet down from the previous one. So we don't nag. We establish routines that speak to our children.

Consider Quietly

Days of Food :: 14

I finally went grocery shopping :: even I will confess that it was a bit overdue. A collective sigh could probably be heard from my dear family as they opened pantry & refrigerator doors yesterday. It's been a desperate situation, well, at least according to a few members in our home.
But before an excursion to the produce market and grocery store, and when things have gotten a little scarce...I play this game in my head.

"We have plenty of food in this house!"

"Why, I probably don't need to shop for another few days, maybe even a few weeks!!"

Um yeah, it's pretty silly. But it's just something I do; got it from my mother I think.

So imagine my family's delight when I pulled off this meal. Something from nothing {again, according to them}! Tostadas topped with refried beans, shredded chicken, onions, cheese, lettuce & sour cream. There was just a little bit of each item to make this work; then I added a side of the last two boxes of Spanish rice found deep in the pantry.

For those who may not know, tostadas are basically flat tacos. Take a tortilla (corn works best) & spray with oil and bake until crispy or simply fry them in an inch or two of oil. Since I was talking to my sister while trying to cook ours, mine came out a wee bit darker than the norm. So much for multi-tasking. Oh well, they were delicious. And my mother would be proud!

This week I hope to try out new recipes & review some of our favorites. One claims to be the best blueberry muffins ever, there's the black bean salsa that I swoon over, and an herbal iced tea that uses no sugar and calls for only 3 ingredients. It's gonna be a yummy few days!

Days of Food :: 14

Days of Food :: 13

Some favorite cookbooks today!

I really like books...all kinds, especially those with pictures of the finished product of a great recipe. I've been known to whittle away time at Barnes n Nobles or Borders just browsing and reading through cookbooks while sipping a spiced tazo chai latte!

Even though I enjoy them, there are not many cookbooks on my shelf {sigh}. A few of my favorites through the years and that don't get tossed into a give-away box:

Simply in Season is part of a World Community Cookbook series. I also own a few others in the series.

More with Less

Extending the Table--I love this one! Recipes from Botswana, Poland, Mexico, the Phillipines and many other countries. The intriguing part are also the stories & quotes from around the world. I simply like reading this cookbook {and guess what, it has very few pictures & none of the actual recipes--and I still think it's great.}

For children:

We found this book at a yard sale and what fun it is! Pretend Soup is a great early cookbook for preschoolers and is tailor-made for this age group. Easy to follow pictures (illustrated, not photos) of each step.

Now it's counterpart Honest Pretzels, for ages 8 & up, is on our wish list.

And, if you need a reference on when to feed what foods to an infant/toddler and making baby food, let me recommend the Super Baby Food book. I still use info out of this one.

And there are the faithfuls like Betty Crocker, Southern Living annuals, Martha Stewarts, etc. I just keep checking those out of the library. I'd love to hear any cookbook favorites of yours!

Days of Food :: 13

Link of the Week

FreeReading

There are some great phonics and reading activites...and a FREE week-by-week reading program for K and 1st! Includes resources to download such as picture cards and sight words; and several 'how-to' videos. Click on 'Teach the Program' to get started.

Link of the Week