the sledding hill is pretty fast once the snow is packed down . . . even if it is almost 40 degrees outside! we'll see if we can make a go of it again a time or two before winter is over. oh, march, will you be kind to us this year?
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February 2012
cooking and baking with maddie
miss maddie has been reading cookbooks and she has been bringing me recipes to try. earlier this week, she brought me the recipe for Creamy Potato Soup from Deceptively Delicious (thank you, stef!) and asked to make it for supper because at the bottom of the page there is a quote from the author's son "this is soup? it tastes like mashed potatoes!" maddie was sold (even though there are other vegetable purees hidden in the soup). of course i can never follow a recipe ingredient for ingredient or to the exact measurement (unless it's something finicky like cheesecake or pie crust), so, below, i'll write out what we did. it turned out very tasty.
in a large skillet, i sauteed a small, chopped onion and a large, roughly chopped clove of garlic in enough olive oil to just cover the bottom of the skillet. i added 4 cups of homemade chicken broth and 2 pounds of washed, chopped potatoes (with the skin on). it boiled and simmered until the potatoes were tender. then i spooned everything into the blender and added 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree (you could use carrot or squash instead) and 1 cup of milk. i did this in two batches to puree the entire soup. we served our soup with croutons and grated cheddar. oh yum.
the soup-making proved a little out of maddie's league - all the chopping and blending. so, she decided to make some bread to go with our supper. since we had a can of pumpkin open, we decided on this recipe:
the only thing i did was grease the bread pan. maddie did the rest! (she left out the dates, which made the bread go even better with our soup. the dates are usually one of my favorite parts of this bread, though.)
{here's the bread on our supper table, all ready to be eaten - it was perfect with our soup.}
if you try either of these recipes, or if you have cooked from Deceptively Delicious, maddie would love to know. :)
back in november, i started this post. then i didn't share it. now, here it is.
some music for friday: connect the dots by Rabbit!
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i will get around this quilt. i will.
what does it feel like to come home to a house with the door standing wide open? cold. very cold. especially when it's not even 20 degrees and the wind is blowing. zoe (our chocolate lab) did not act at all strange when she came in with us (she had been in the garage while we were gone). isaac found the open back door . . . "but don't worry, mom," he said, "i checked under my bed and under maddie's bed and in the bathroom and there's no one here." oh. really. but the door was wide open. nothing missing. nothing disturbed . . . except my mind. the deputy who came out to ask some questions was younger than me. quite a bit. like my little brother. he even had a very short, quite becoming, red beard. just like my little brother. so. zoe and i sit up. and we're going to get much better locks for the doors.
and i'm going to get this quilt finished. for tomorrow. i am.
i have this thing about curtains. i don't really like them. no, i don't particularly want people to see into my house at night, but if i pull the curtains, i can't see out. and then someone could drive up the driveway and i wouldn't see their headlights and know they were coming . . . and i don't like that. so . . . what to do about curtains?
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i did get the quilt finished.
and gave it to my sister-in-law two days later. she and i had purchased the fabric and cut out the squares more than a year ago, but never got to sew it together. so, since she became a mama in october, i finished the quilt and brought it to her baby shower. now my brother, his wife and their sweet daughter can all snuggle under this fleece-backed quilt.
i brought this sweet little blanket, too.
{the fabric came in a box from my sweet friend elissa for my last birthday, and the little square i embroidered Natalie Violet on came in a box of goodness from dear elaine - it is the corner of a handkerchief. it all came together so well.}
{sweet cousins at the baby shower}
back at home, we did buy some big crazy locks for our doors. and installed them. and we also have bells hanging on the back door - remember the swiss family robinson ? - the bells are our pirate alarms.
and i do have curtains that i partially pull in the living room at night and maddie and isaac have curtains on their bedroom windows. we've had no more strange activity around our house (that i know of) for a while now. i think the bionicles are doing their job. we also have some massively big gaurdian angels, i know. and ben used the town gossip chain to our advantage. he got the word out that strange vehicles (in particular the one we'd seen on more than one occasion) are not welcome anywhere near our property. after he talked to some guys who said they knew the owner of the vehicle, we haven't seen it since, and i've felt much easier about being at home. and we continue to be aware and prepared.
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hop back to the top and listen to some of that rabbit music - it's sure to send you jumping with joy into the weekend.
love to you, ~e
freedom . . . not failure
we were doing schoolwork right before supper the other night - not in the morning . . .
it wasn't going so well. it seems we do the best if we can start between 8:30 and 9:00 and just get it all done before lunch. but we had gone to visit a friend in the morning, and we needed to get some school stuff done - to stay on some sort of a track for the week. so, we pushed through.
i was feeling pretty overwhelmed with the craziness, but one of my friends texted me, "doing school-work before supper is a freedom not a failure."
isn't that true? we chose to go visit our friend in the morning - we have the freedom to do that because i make our schedule. i also chose to have us do some book-work before supper, so we could all know that we had accomplished some more learning and practice - we have the freedom to do that, too. i could choose to roll with the craziness because they were still getting their work done. and i could choose to help them and teach them well, even if the situation wasn't my ideal. i chose a good attitude. i helped us choose to not put it off till tomorrow.
i chose freedom, not failure. and then, after supper, i ate cheesecake. :)
i'm not in that picture, am i?
well, yes. yes you are. because i like you. the best of anyone.
sweetheart snack mix
we made this and gave it as valentine's treats. when we sampled it, we liked it so much, that we made some more. i thought you might like to make some, too.
warm your oven to 350 degrees.
mix your favorite nuts together in a cake pan (pecans, pistachios, cashews, pepitas, etc.), about 6 cups total.
put this pan in the warm oven.
melt 1/2 c granulated sugar in a heavy (cast iron) skillet over medium heat.
do not stir the sugar; shake the skillet periodically; the sugar will liquefy.
meanwhile, grease a large cookie sheet.
when the sugar is completely melted, stir 2 Tbs butter into the melted sugar.
stir the warm nuts into the sugar glaze. completely coat the nuts.
spread the glazed nut mixture on the greased cookie sheet to cool.
when cool, break up the glazed nuts.
add dried strawberries, slivered dehydrated apricots, and pretzel pieces to your taste.
this would be an excellent weekend snack. easy, tasty, lots of protein and nutrients. and it's pretty, too. :) eat it next to a bowl of yogurt or on top of a green salad (wouldn't THAT be good?) and you've got breakfast or lunch going on.
happy friday, my friends!
"hi" from saturday morning
{that's me in a little junk shop, after my haircut on thursday, which i thoroughly enjoyed.}
yesterday morning maddie and i made valentines together:
{she wanted to be in the picture with her owls (and amber wanted to see more pics of the this girl)}
go ahead and copy us if you want. :) they say "i'll owl-ways love you" or "you'll owl-ways be my friend" . . . thank you pintrest and salena for the idea
right now i'm sitting on my very clean kitchen counter in a clean house with sun shining in (through some windows that i'm going to wash when i finish this), there is a fire in the fireplace (it's -9 outside), i'm going to pop my bread in the oven just now, there's hot coffee in my cup, my peeps are all here with me - and we'll be together all weekend! (no going off to work for E), there are good friends on the road on the way to our house, i've got the perfect mix of tunes playing, it's a good day.
i hope your saturday is full of goodness, too, my friends.
right now . . .
i am
loving the sparkly, frosty day.
thinking of an old farmer's tale about haor frost and rain.
wondering if it's true that 6 months from today it will rain.
realizing that if it is, we will have at least 6 straight days of rain in august . . .
marking it on my calendar . . .
wanting to test the theory.
right now i am also
making homemade snicker bars (they are putzy, but oh-so-yummy!).
unloading the dishwasher (so i can load it up again).
listening to maddie talk out the difference between the words inspiration and information.
listening to the light clink and clatter of isaac searching through the legos downstairs.
listening to the wind pick up (all that pretty frost is going to blow away throughout the day).
hoping to finish an organizing project tonight with ben's help.
looking forward to visitng ben at his jobsite this afternoon.
wishing you all a lovely monday.
Hello from Southeastern Montana!
I am Elizabeth Patten. I spent the first 34 years of my life in Minnesota. In 2015, I moved with my husband and two children to the western-most part of South Dakota and then into Montana. Now, I live, work, write, play, and breathe under the big, big Montana sky. I began this blog in September of 2008 to make note of the sunshine that can (almost) always be found.