Happy Birthday Isaac!

Wearing Dada's shoes around one day.

Here is a belated birthday post for this little man!  We started his birthday with a mickey mouse pancake - most excited breakfast boy ever.  Since then, every time we have pancakes he points at the plain round circle and says "Mickey? Mickey?"  For dinner we had homemade pizza and chocolate cake.  It was a good food day, if I do say so myself.  Here's a bit about 2 year old Isaac:

Favorite Book: Little Golden Book's version of Pixar's Cars - so much so that the other day after reading it to him for the 10th time that day, mom took her chance and hid the book behind the cushions of the couch.  She needed a break.
Favorite Movie: Cars
Favorite Show: "Cats!" The first time he watched this he laughed uncontrollably for the first 2 minutes and spent the last 2 minutes catching his breath.  Now everyday he walks over to the computer and asks for "cats? cats?"

Latest Obsession: Mickey Mouse.  In addition to loving Mickey pancakes, he is thrilled if mom draws a picture of Mickey for him when we're coloring and he is convinced that one of the cacti in the Little Golden Book Cars is shaped like Mickey.  He points at it and yells "Mickey!" every time we read that page.
Favorite Food: Cubed ham, cheese, or Mac & Cheese
Favorite Toy: Any car.  He is an equal opportunity car lover, which is fortunate as I'm positive cars are disappearing and it would be problematic if he had a favorite that he couldn't live without and it went missing.

Favorite Shirt: A red shirt with a motorcycle (pictured above).  The other day I wanted to dress him in this shirt.  I knew it was clean and that I had put it away just a few days ago when doing laundry but I couldn't find it in his drawer.  So I asked Isaac "Where's your motorcycle shirt?" To which he responded "Bike! Bike!" and ran into his closet where he had stashed the motorcycle shirt in the corner, along with a collection of toy cars and a dump truck.  Usually I know if he's been emptying his dresser as clothing is strewn all over the floor, but only the motorcycle shirt was taken.  Silly kid.
Cutest Thing:  When dad is about to leave in the mornings, Isaac runs to him and yells "Hug!"  Geoff obliges and give him a hug and boy does that kid death clench to his neck for a good minute or two before he will let him go.

Boy is this kid a cute little thing, even if he does run mom a little crazy (and a little tired - we had to leave the park the other day after the chase after Isaac had caused 7 contractions in too little time.  We'll have to avoid parks with lakes in the future if mom doesn't want to have to take her prescription of Terbutaline.)  He loves hugs right now and tries to bestow them on a less than excited Tina.  Poor thing tolerates the abuse but has been known to try and hide between the piano and the piano bench.  It's fun to watch the two of them play outside, though.  He'll get her riled up so she goes sprinting in circles around the yard and that makes him giggle so hard he falls over into the grass.  She'll come over to him and play-bow excitedly, waiting for him to get back up.  Then he'll try to get back up, still giggling, and she'll jump up in the air, causing him to erupt in giggles again and fall back down in the grass.  This can go on for quite awhile, much to mom's amusement.

Well, enough about the crazy little goose.  Time for a recipe:

Carmel Apple Pie

Yes Please!

Cider caramel:
4 cups apple cider
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Apple Pie Filling:
5-6 cups sliced apple, thinly sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup cider caramel, warmed









Double Pie Crust (My favorite recipe is here).


To make the caramel:


I have to confess, my mom made most of the caramel while I made the crust and chopped apples.  The process took a little longer than we anticipated, so make sure you get that cider good and bubbling so it can reduce faster.

Boil cider until reduced to 2 cups, about 20 minutes. Add butter & sugar, cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly and is reduced to 1 1/4 cups. Can be made 2 days ahead, (store in the refrigerator.  Stir before using).

To make the pie:

In a large bowl, combine apples, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, vanilla, and caramel. Mix well. Spoon apples into pie plate (I read that you want apples to be very thin and then spoon them into the crust so they are all laying more or less flat - this will help avoid air bubbles in the crust). Cover with remaining crust. Cut steam vents into the top crust. Brush with  a little milk, and sprinkle with sugar & cinnamon.

Bake until crust is brown and juices are bubbling, about 1 hour. Let cool before serving.

Sweet Potato Soup

  

Sweet Potato Soup?  Yes please.  The fresh parmesan and bacon garnish really made this dish so don't leave them out.

 2 lb sweet potatoes, halved lengthwise

1/4 C water

olive oil

1 C onion, diced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

4 C chicken stock

1 slice bacon/person

Parmesan cheese for ganish

Place potatoes cut side down in a microwave-safe baking dish.  Add 1/4 C water.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave 10-15 minutes (depending on size of potato) until tender.  Cool slightly and discard skins.  I couldn't fit all my potatoes in the dish at once so had to split them into two cooking shifts.

Heat saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add oil.  Saute onion for 1 minute or so, stir in cumin and red pepper.  Add stock to pan, bring to a boil.  Place sweet potato and stock mixture in blender.  Blend till smooth (make sure you allow steam to escape through an opening in the top of the blender.  Mine has a tiny hole at top which is adequate but I've also opened the whole top and covered with a paper towel to allow steam to escape as it blends).  Return to pan and repeat with any remaining broth/potatoes until the soup is pureed.  I made my soup an hour before Geoff got home so it sat on low for an hour with a lid, but the directions say you can serve immediately.

Garnish with 1 slice bacon, crumbled, and some shaved parmesan cheese.

 And now a few pictures from Halloween night.  It was pretty cute following this little guy around as he went trick-or-treating.  He got side-tracked at one house where they had a TV outside and were sitting in chairs watching a football game.  He crawled right up into an empty chair, ignoring the offered candy, and said "ball, ball", happy to watch the game rather than get more candy.  Goofy kid, we had to forcibly pull him away from that house.  Oh, and yes he's shirtless but it was plenty warm Halloween night in Houston - comfortable in sorts and a T-shirt and no bugs to speak of.

 

Enjoying the spoils of his work.

Happy Halloween and Dinner in a Pumpkin!

We took Goose to a pumpkin patch last week and much to my delight they had sugar pumpkins for baking - those are hard to come by out here where all we ever see are jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  So, logically, when we got home I promptly starting looking up recipes for Dinner in a Pumpkin and here's what we came up with:

1 lb ground beef (or turkey, which is healthier and ALWAYS cheaper out here)
4 oz sliced mushrooms
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
2 C cooked rice, give or take (we just used leftover rice.  I don't know how much it was)
1/4 C soy sauce
3 Tbsp brown sugar

Cut 3 inch circle top off pumpkin and remove seeds and strings.  Replace pumpkin top.  Place pumpkin on a cookie sheet covered with foil.  If desired, draw a face on the pumpkin.  Brush the exterior of the pumpkin with oil and the interior with melted butter.  Bake the empty pumpkin for 45-60 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef with the veggies until the meat is cooked and the veggies are tender. Drain any fat, if necessary.  Stir in the soup, rice, soy sauce, and brown sugar.  Fill pumpkin with meat mixture.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 1-2 hours, until pumpkin is tender when poked with a fork.

To serve, remove some of the meat mixture so you have room inside the pumpkin to scrape pumpkin flesh off the walls.  Mix pumpkin flesh into the meat mixture.

This was quite yummy.  We didn't pre-bake the pumpkin, but after 2 hours of baking the filled pumpkin it still wasn't done.  So when I make this again, I will for sure pre-bake the pumpkin as I directed here.

And finally, happy Halloween from Wilma, Fred, Bam-Bam, and Pebbles (coming Feb 2014!)

Pineapple Chicken Burgers

1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded thin and cut into two pieces
1 small can of pineapple slices (4 slices)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar + some brown sugar for pineapple
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 buns
Provolone cheese

Combine the juice from the pineapple can, soy sauce, brown sugar, and mustard.  Marinate the chicken overnight in juice mixture.

Rub some brown sugar onto the pineapple slices.

Send the husband out to grill the chicken (about 7 minutes on one side and 6 on the other, he said).  Add the cheese near the end so it can melt.  Right after you flip the chicken, throw the pineapple rings onto the grill, turning once.  Serve on buns with two pineapple slices per sandwich and any other fixings that sound delicious to you.

Here are some pictures from out trip out to Utah in September.  Since we spent most of our time chasing Isaac, most of the pictures we got were of his back as he swiftly ran off to explore something else.  

We spent most of our time at temple square trying to keep him out of the fountains.  We ran into my uncle and a few cousins and stopped to chat for a brief moment.  When we looked down at Isaac he had a foot in the fountain (not the fountain in this picture) and was seconds away from getting the other leg in, too.  My cousins two year old obediently stayed with his parents, watching our son spew craziness in every direction.

Mom's Strawberry Shortcake

Delicious!  If you are picturing fluffy angel food cake, this isn't the recipe for you.  This is dense and delicious, almost biscuit-like shortcake.

1 qt fresh strawberries
3/4 C-1 C sugar

Slice strawberries.  Sprinkle with sugar to taste.  Let stand 1 hour.

2 C flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 C shortening
1 C milk
Whipping cream, whipped with a touch of sugar and vanilla

Combine flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in shortening until mixture looks like coarse meal.  Stir in milk just until blended.  Pat into pan.  Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes in a greased 8in round pan.  Shortcake should be golden brown.  Enjoy while still warm.

Creamy Veggie Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup was fabulous!  But who can turn down a good tortilla soup.  And then, added bonus, it used all sorts of things sitting in our fridge that were begging to be used and even used a few carrots from the garden.

Another food that doesn't picture well - or at least doesn't picture well by me.  But trust me, it's delicious.

And, I know this looks like a lot of ingredients upon a quick glance, but they are mostly spices.  You probably have most things on hand to make this easy and delicious recipe.


Olive oil
1 small onion (or 1/2 of the huge mega onion that I had)
1 C diced carrots
1 C diced celery
1 bell pepper, diced
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 C chicken stock
1 C water
2-3 tomatoes, diced and then "crushed" in a mini food processor (it calls for canned crushed tomatoes but I needed to use up fresh)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-5 (6-inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 C cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 C half and half (or just use milk)

Optional Garnishes:
Tortilla chips
Shredded Cheese
Diced Tomatoes
Cream Cheese
Green Onions
Diced Avocado

Heat oil in a large soup pan.  Add the onion, carrot, celery, and bell pepper.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until veggies have softened (6 min).  Add the garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, oregano, paprika, and cayenne pepper.  Stir until fragrant (2 min).  Add the broth, water, tomatoes, and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Add tortilla strips.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the tortillas have disintegrated (45 min)

Add chicken and half and half.  Simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Serve with any desired garnishes (we garnished with cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream).

Thanks My Favorite Things for the recipe.

 

 

Our budding pianist.  This was not posed.  He crawled up there one day and sat down to play.