Monkey Lobster

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

 

more pumpkin baked into things

Ben came home from a business trip with a couple packages of granola bars. You know, the sweet crunchy kind that come two to a crinkly package? I struggle with making granola bars, they never come out quite like the ones that have been sitting in a box on a shelf for who knows how long.

Either it just falls apart and turns into granola, or I end up using a lot of sweet stickiness to hold it together and then it's just too sweet. This recipe uses egg and flour to holds it all together but gives it a cake-like quality. That said they are pretty good, they just don't taste like the ones that come out of the crinkly packages. 

• 2 cups rolled oats 
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup dry multi grain hot cereal, with a finer grind (I added the pumpkin and needed to add a dry ingredient to absorb it, I used Bob's Red Mill 10 grain. I imagine cornmeal, wheat germ or any other grain would work) 
•  1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (they are not very sweet so add more if you want)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• I considered traditional pumpkin pie spices......... maybe next time
• I might also increase the pumpkin and decrease the oil

Mix dry together and wet together and then mix the two. Line a 9X10ish pan with parchment and press mixture in. Bake 12-30 minutes, less for cake-like and more for crunchy. I topped half of it with chocolate chips after it came out to entice my chocolate lover. Cyrus insisted on cutting it into pieces and eating it with a fork.

 This pumpkin challah has no recipe except that I added pumpkin and used less water, replaced some of the honey/sugar with molasses and added some pumpkin pie spices.  Challah is always a hit in my house, especially because it gives us an excuse to "holla, and holla back" through the construction site that is our home.

some pushing involved

A few years ago we signed Elsa up for a short season of rec soccer, which involved a 45min practice, right before a 45min game at the local park on Saturday Mornings. She showed her stuff, so we looked for something a little more involved. The other option was a competitive travel team with games on both Saturdays and Sundays and two practices after school. It seemed like a little much but we thought we should give it a try.
She hated it. She was unskilled, had very little understanding of the game, and was easily frustrated by her coaches intensity. It turns out I'm a pusher. When she said she wanted to quit I told her she had to finish the season. I told her we made a commitment, and we had to follow through even though it was hard. And it was a hard, long, and painful season for both of us.

But during the last weekend of games something changed. She was playing her position, passing the ball, and playing with confidence. When I asked her if I should sign her up for indoor soccer, she did not hesitate.

Her awarness of it is what is so valuable. It is something that she really has to work hard at and take very seriously. And she enjoys that about it. I remember feeling frustrated with the coach that first season, thinking to myself that they were just kids and couldn't he just stop expecting so much of them. It just so turns out that they were so very capable and his respect for the kids was just greater than mine.  They could be serious, they could work hard on their skills and endurance, and they could play together as a team and understand the complexities of the game.

Although I pushed her to finish that first season, she does it by choice now. She drags her feet about it on cold rainy days, or when she has had a long day at school, but at the end of practice she always feels good about herself. She knows what it feels like to push through something challenging, to be part of a team, and to have them expect more of you than you do of yourself. I no longer need to say to her "remember when you first started playing soccer?", she just knows.

Playing on a soccer team was one of the best things I ever did. I have fond memories of being so very connected to a group of otherwise random young women, all of us so intensely focused on our task. I remember playing so hard that I would lean over the field, vomit and then run back into the play more than just a handful of times. I remember secretly sawing the cast off my leg with a bread knife because I just had to finish off the season on the field.

I've since joined Elsa's coaching team, and can feel my investment and expectations grow. Lately I've been trying to convince myself to play again, and the excuse list is pretty extensive. At the very top of the list is "I'm afraid", afraid that I just might not be good at it anymore. Wish I had someone to push me.  

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

 

everything pumpkin

      

I had a great winter squash harvest this year, and now I totally get the pumpkins on the front steps thing.  Once I filled up the sunny front porch window with my favored squashes, leaser favored pumpkins got the outside steps. Although they are the pretties of the winter squash, they are the least flavorful, so they need to be a little spiced up. Straight out of the oven with a little pad of butter and a pinch of salt does not work well for the pretty pumpkin like it does for the delicata or the buttercup. So I'm on a mission to eat all of my harvested pumpkins, creatively. Everything pumpkins, and taking suggestions....

         Pumpkin Cookies (more like a little cake or muffin top hearty enough for breakfast)

•   1 stick butter
•   1 large egg
•   1/4 cup of granulated sugar
•   1/2 cup brown sugar
•   2 tablespoon molasses
•   3/4 cup cooked pumpkin
•   1 teaspoon of cinnamon
•   1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
•   1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
•   1/4 teaspoon cloves
•   1/4 teaspoon allspice
•   1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
•   1 teaspoon soda
•   ½ teaspoon of salt
•   2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (whole wheat pastry flour makes a HUGE difference, it has changed how I cook) 

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and mix.  Add pumpkin and molasses, mix.

Toss dry ingredients and then mix gently with wet. Let rest in fridge for 10 minutes to firm up a little so you can scoop them by tablespoon onto a cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.

I can imagine them with a gingery cream cheese frosting and a little piece of candied ginger right on top.

the latest

Yes, I know apple picking is not the most exciting thing to share here, but it's my blog and I think my kids are pretty cute, plus my mother who lives in Turkey wants to see more of my kids and home and less of my produce. So here are some photos of the progress of the house as well. Try not to be too jealous.

Victorious Leeks

I don't know why I say victorious, it's not really such a victory. They are one of the easiest veggies to grow. They just seem so grand, and flavorful and unappreciated.

Every year I seem to over do it with something.  This year it's husk cherries, last year it was tomatillos, some many years ago it was leeks. I grew so many I just replaced them for onions, daily until mid January, at which point I was so sick of them I could not stand the thought of them for years. But I'm over it now and enjoying them very much (as leeks, not onions).

{this moment}

 

Inspired by SouleMama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

 

peck of purple peppers

This is my biggest pepper harvest yet. It's been so fun having so much variety this year. I'll now publicly admit that I don't really care for green bell peppers, I don't like how they smell and their taste is a little too bitter.  But jalapeno peppers, italian frying peppers, poblano peppers, and any pepper allowed to turn red are considered very special in our home. A few year ago I sampled red pepper jelly on a cheese platter and was inspired to buy a jar. Last summer I grew bell peppers that never turned red, so I bought some at the market and made this pepper jelly. This year I really researched red peppers that ripen early and put them in my sunniest spot. Peppers don't take up a lot of room, they like being crowed together, they like to "hold hands" I read somewhere. Well they ripened and we will be eating red pepper jelly all winter long this year.

With a frost warning I scrambled yesterday afternoon, harvesting as much as I could of what was left of summer, and I now have more like a few bushels of peppers. Our favorite pepper dish is grilled jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese. Got any suggestions for my peppers? 

 

little bit of this, and a lot of that

 



We are savoring the last of our summer veggies around here.  Although it has been unseasonably wet and grey lately, the summers growing season has been good to me. A first for a BIG harvests of red peppers, and enough raspberries to to make me start to wondering where I will put all the jars of jam. Hmmmmm maybe in my new kitchen?

We are slowly welcoming some fall menu items like spinach pie and kale seasoned popped corn (I added a large bunch of chives, so that I call it herbed popped corn).  And I am slowly, for the first time discovering a few beers that I enjoy.

We've still got a long way to go, but I am beginning to get a feel for what my dream home will be like.